PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Civil War veteran whose ashes sat for decades forgotten in storage could someday be recalled as the final soldier buried from that war.
Peter Jones Knapp, who fought for the Union in many famous battles and survived the dreaded Andersonville prison camp in Georgia, is to be laid to rest Friday afternoon in Willamette National Cemetery. He’s the first Civil War veteran to be buried in Oregon’s largest military graveyard.
Knapp will receive full military honors from the Oregon National Guard on the anniversary of his 1924 death. The funeral also falls on the 151st anniversary of the Confederate victory at Fort Sumpter, S.C, which ignited the Civil War.
Alice Knapp, the wife of a relative of the Civil War veteran, discovered the ashes after tracing her husband’s family tree.
