The unknown Civil War soldier buried with full military honors in the Confederate Cemetery on Third Street on April 21, 2001, might have been Benjamin Jackson Howard.
No one will ever know, but it's possible.
Today at 10 a.m., at the same cemetery, a stone will be placed adjacent to the unknown soldier's grave marking the life of Howard, a Sand Mountain, Ala., native who was one of three sons to fight for the Confederacy.
Howard's great nephew, Dr. J.N. Howard, pastor of Signal Mountain United Methodist Church, said he learned several years ago that some of his great uncles fought in the Civil War, and, with help from the National Archives, determined one of those uncles was killed in the Battle of Missionary Ridge on Nov. 25, 1863.
"[Him] being my grandfather's brother, I had a particular interest," he said. "I wanted to know more about him, where he was buried. But I couldn't find him. My family didn't really have any record, except to say he was killed at Chattanooga."
On his own, Howard searched area Confederate cemeteries looking for a marker with his ancestor's name but came up empty. His uncle, he was told by local cemetery tender Herb DeLoach, might have been buried near the Tennessee River -- as some Confederate soldiers killed at Missionary Ridge were -- with a wooden marker noting his identity. With subsequent flooding of the river, though, some of the bodies were moved up to the Third Street cemetery. But the identifying markers were long gone.
However, he said, Benjamin Jackson Howard might have been the soldier whose bones were found on July 8, 1999, during excavation at the home of Dr. Vic Thomas on North Crest Road.
Those fragmentary remains were examined by a Hamilton County forensic anthropologist, a state of Tennessee archaeologist, and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park historian Jim Ogden. They determined it couldn't be a prehistoric Indian or the remains from a private family burial, but they could not determine a cause of death.
Ten small tapered hobnails, probably from the heel of a boot, and a rivet with a little eyelet leather, probably from a map case pouch or ammunition pouch, also were found, lending credence to the bones being those of a soldier.
That unknown soldier was given a funeral at Christ Episcopal Church, had an all-night honor guard and was borne to the cemetery from the McCallie Avenue church on a horse-drawn caisson.
After talking to DeLoach, Howard learned the Sons of Confederate Veterans will occasionally provide gravestones for soldiers with a clear record, as his great uncle had. Terry Siler, the commander of the local veterans organization, then approached the state organization, which agreed to furnish the stone.
Today's ceremony, which Howard, family and friends will attend, will mark the placement of the stone. The public is welcome to join them.
"It's appropriate," he said, "to honor this man who was killed here."
Howard said his great-grandfather, Joshua Ephraim Howard, and his sons were farmers on Sand Mountain.
"They were opposed to secession," he said, "but when the North invaded the South, he felt it was their responsibility to help defend the land."
The family, Howard added, never owned slaves.
"That was not the reason they fought," he said.
All three sons joined Alabama regiments, Benjamin Jackson the 19th Alabama, James Marion the 12th Alabama and a third brother the 3rd Alabama Cavalry.
Benjamin Jackson's regiment fought at the Battle of Chicka-
mauga under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and took part in the charge through the middle of Union lines that turned the tide of the skirmish and ultimately sent the Union back into Chattanooga, according to Howard.
James Marion fought in the Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee and became one of the Confederate commander's sharpshooters, he said. He was wounded in the face by shrapnel during the Battle of Gettysburg, left the Army for a time and returned. In time, he was captured in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia and taken to a Union prisoner of war camp in Elmira, N.Y., where he stayed until the end of the war.
He also kept a diary during his time in the prison camp and used it in a booklet for his family. A 2002 book, "Elmira: Death Camp of the North" by Michael Horigan, quotes from Howard's booklet.
Howard said it took about five years from learning more about his great uncle to the ceremony.
So, today, even 151 years after the battles for Chattanooga, the Civil War still resonates with area residents.