Confederate Solider gets final resting place in Aiken County (SC)
The Post & Courier Couldn't Bring Themselves to Call Him Confederate in Their Headline. I Can...
Around 160 years after a Confederate soldier from Tennessee was killed during the Battle of Aiken, he is no longer unknown thanks to a Veterans Administration historical grave marker.
“For some 160 years and certainly my life, I have been told and it’s been written that there was a buried soldier here from the Battle of Aiken," said Scott Townes, curator of the marker and a direct descendant of Dr. W.W. Williams of the Williams Family Cemetery.
Many members of the community gathered to honor a grave of an unknown Civil War soldier 1st Lt. John T. McMahan (1839-1865) with a formal ceremony that recognized not only his life, but the legacy he left behind after he was killed in the battle.
"What this is, is a dedication of a veteran's gravestone put out for a formally unknown Confederate for 160 years," local historian Pete Peters said.
McMahan was also honored with a Confederate Cross of Honor.
"We got him a veteran's stone, so now he is not unknown to everybody, but is known to everybody," he said.
The event also included…