behind AotW

I’ve spent hours today trying to untangle the military, family, and burial records that have been attached to William Fitzgerald Dean, late Corporal, 13th Alabama Infantry. I think I have the gist of it now, but what a mess. There is at least one other soldier with similar history and name, he of the 14th Alabama, which confuses the work.

I think this clue helps narrow my William’s identity – it’s an application for a government headstone filed by the Marion County, GA chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in October 1932.

Here’s that stone, delivered and placed in Liberty Cemetery near Buena Vista, GA in February 1833:

But I’m not sure he’s actually buried there. It seems likely he’s here, under a stone placed by his widow about 10 miles away in the Shiloh-Marion Baptist Church Cemetery, presumably soon after his death in 1908:

And to add to the confusion, there’s this one, in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

And no, our William didn’t die there in 1863. I’ve not found who it might be, instead, though.

The grave marker application is from United States, Headstone Applications for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1949, US National Archives, online from the FamilySearch database.

Each of those gravestone photos is thanks to contributors to the Findagrave database; from Liberty, Shiloh-Marion Baptist, and Hollywood Cemeteries, respectively.

His Hollywood marker is also among my growing collection of modern stones that got it wrong.