Authorities are searching for the ghoul, or ghouls, who recently dug up the grave of a Confederate soldier. The objects of the digging: buttons, buckles or other Civil War artifacts.
Deputies in Crawford County got a call in mid-December that a grave at Old Bethel Methodist Church Cemetery had been dug up. They discovered the desecrated grave site of 2nd Lt. James A. Nichols, late of the 57th Regiment of the Georgia Infantry. His remains had lain undisturbed since 1866.
Investigators noted the sifted soil, as if a screen had been used to search for what lay underneath the old tombstone. Local legend said Nichols had been buried in his uniform. Deputies deduced that whoever defiled the grave was looking for the metal remains of that uniform — buttons, buckles, maybe a sword.
“It’s very disrespectful,” said Lewis Walker, the sheriff of Crawford County, west of Macon. “That grave has been out there for 148 years.”
The Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has offered $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever disturbed the site. "You've got to be really desperate to do something like that," said SCV member Tim Pilgrim.
Pretty stupid, too. Disturbing a grave is a felony. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is helping local authorities.
Investigators need the help, said Walker. “It’s been tough, I’ll tell you that,” the sheriff said. “We’ve had some calls, but nothing that has led us to make an arrest.”
The grave desecration hits home with the SCV, which honors the memory of those who fought in the War Between the States. Nichols, according to organization records, was in the thick of it.
At the war’s outbreak, in 1861, he enlisted in Company F, 2nd Regiment, 1st Brigade of the Georgia State Troops — at the time, part of the Georgia Militia. In 1862, when his company became part of the 57th Regiment, fellow soldiers elected him 2nd lieutenant. He fought in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, where he participated in the defense of Vicksburg.
In Mississippi, Union soldiers captured Nichols, who eventually rejoined the 57th in a prisoner exchange. In 1864, Nichols fought his former captors between Chattanooga and Atlanta as Union Gen. William T. Sherman pushed deeper into the Confederacy.
Nichols lived a year after the war’s end in 1865, succumbing to chronic diarrhea contracted during the fighting. He was buried in a wooded graveyard — and, said some, he was laid to rest in his uniform.
The buttons and buckles that adorned Civil War uniforms fetch big prices, especially the harder-to-find items worn by Southern soldiers. A brass button in good shape can fetch more than $300; a buckle in similar condition commands thousands. Artifacts, even those dug up, are collectible.
Authorities, meanwhile, are searching for Nichols’ descendants. They’re also hoping someone will let them know if tarnished buttons or buckles from a Civil War uniform come up for sale. Tom Stevens, the SCV commander for the region that includes Crawford County, shares that hope. The organization plans to hold a memorial service at Nichols’ grave later this year.
“If they (grave robbers) did find something, and they do sell it,” he said, “they can spend the money in hell.”
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