On the Saturday before Memorial Day, research historian Brad Quinlin will reveal the names of two unknown Union soldiers buried among endless rows of polished marble tombstones that mark the graves of 10,312 of their comrades on the gentle slopes of the Marietta National Cemetery.
One of the unknowns was white, the other black, one of 258 United States Colored Troops buried in the cemetery.
A bugler will blow taps in a simple ceremony put on mostly by members of a group little known in the South — the Sons of Union Veterans — of which Quinlin is a member.
“There’ll be only 2,999 left to identify who’re now under stones marked ‘unknown,’ ” says Quinlin, 56, of Suwanee whose full-time unpaid mission in life is “to give these guys a name.”
Quinlin, who is retired, figures he has spent 30 hours a week for 10 years studying the cemetery and battlefields around Atlanta that sent so many young men to early graves, first in shallow ditches, then in Marietta National. He also gives tours of battlefields and cemeteries and talks to school and historical groups.
He has put names to 45 of the unknowns, including Robert Martindale, great-great grandfather of movie star Matthew Broderick, star of the epic film “Glory” about a USCT regiment.
Employees of the TV show “Who Do You Think You Are” discovered by chance that Broderick’s ancestor had been killed July 23, 1864, a day after the Battle of Atlanta. They contacted Gordon Jones, senior military historian at the Atlanta History Center, hoping to find a grave.
Jones determined that Broderick’s ancestor was killed on what is now the Georgia Tech campus, between the baseball field and the physics building. An official record says Martindale was killed by a “musket ball through his head.”
The TV crew wanted to know where he was buried, but no one knew. Jones recommended Quinlin, who has become an expert at identifying unknowns.
In the Martindale case, he found that 22 bodies had been dug up from shallow graves in what is now a gritty area near downtown, and taken to Marietta for reburial Oct. 23, 1867. One couldn’t be identified because the only words readable on his wooden marker were “20th Connecticut.”
Quinlin checked the 20th’s records and found that Martindale was the only soldier in that unit to die on July 23, 1864. He also located the graves of all other 20th Connecticut men killed in the entire Atlanta campaign, “so it had to be him.”
Jones says the identification “was nothing short of miraculous.”
Broderick “was really moved,” Quinlin says. “Tears rolled down his cheeks.”
After the first four unknowns were identified in the 1990s by historian David Evans, two markers were replaced with named tombstones. For the other two, it couldn’t be determined which man went with which grave.
Further changes of unknown markers are very unlikely, says Sara Amy Leach, senior historian of the VA’s National Cemetery Administration, which is intent on maintaining the integrity of historic landmarks.
So why does Quinlin spend so much time and money to identify the unknowns?
“I want to earn their sacrifice,” says, Quinlin, author of “Rest Brave Comrades, Your Work is Done.” “I feel like I’m earning the freedom these men fought for.”
Evans, author of the acclaimed “Sherman’s Horsemen,” says the sacrifices of the Union dead “ultimately made America a much better place.”
The 23-acre cemetery was donated by local Union sympathizer Henry Cole for the dead of both sides, but no one wanted them mixed. Marietta’s Confederate Cemetery, with 3,000 rebel graves, is two miles away.
Suggest a Hometown Hero
Every other Wednesday, Bill Hendrick shines a spotlight on extraordinary and selfless acts by our friends and neighbors. To suggest someone for this feature, email writer@billhendrick.com.
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