Author Discovers Local Burial Site of Soldier from Elite Sharpshooter Unit
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Civil War veterans are buried or memorialized in "Soldier's Rest" at Pine Ridge Cemetery.
Small spire and military headstone mark burial place of Andrew J. Walton.
Author Raymond Herek of Harrisville, Michigan, has identified a grave in Pine Ridge Cemetery, at Columbus and Tuscola, Bay City, as that of a member of the elite Berdan's First Regiment, United States Sharpshooters.
Herek, is author of "These Men Have Seen Hard Service," a regimental history of the First Michigan Sharpshooters in the Civil War, published by Wayne State University Press.
"This is a very significant burial site because Berdan's Sharpshooters was one ofthe elite units of the Civil War," Herek told this writer on his visit to the historic cemetery. Herek has studied the cemetery since he was a boy, he said. He is a graduate of St. James High School, Bay City, and has been teaching history at Alcona High School and Alpena Community College for many years.
The soldier buried in Pine Ridge has been further identified as Andrew J. Walton,listed on the original roster of Company C of Berdan's First Regiment, United States Sharpshooters.
Walton is shown on regimental records as having been 33 years old when he enlisted from Lenawee County, Michigan. Company C was headed by Capt. Benjamin Duesler, a 39 year old from Hillsdale, Michigan. There were no soldiers from the Bay City area in the unit.
Gay McGeeand Allen Flood, researchers at the Bay County Historical Society, aided in finding records showing that Walton came to Bay City after the Civil War and worked as a lumber inspector. His place of employment was listed as 106 Center Ave., a location near the Saginaw River, and he resided at 1209 Washington Ave., no doubt some sort of hostelry or boarding house. There is no
Walton died May 1, 1886 and was buried in the center section of Pine Ridge, near the adjoining Seaman Cemetery. A small upright monument is flanked by the traditional military stone, much timeworn, listing his membership in the Berdan's unit.
The identification of Walton's grave adds to the historic importance of Pine Ridge Cemetery. Other notable burials include Judge James Birney, lieutenant governor of Michigan in 1860 and later minister to the Hague in Holland, George Wellman, U.S. Marshal killed in the Johnson County range war, and James McCormick, John McEwan and Cromwell Barney, early Bay City lumbering pioneers.
Walton is among about 200 burials or memorials to Civil War veterans, most located in a circular area around a spire erected by the Grand Army of the Republic in 1885.
A Civil War Festival and dedication of a monument to Capt. James G. Birney IV, son of Judge Birney, will be held at the cemetery Monday, May 26, Memorial Day, beginning at 3 p.m. The public is invited to attend and the ticket price of $12.50 per person includes a narrated tour of the cemetery, a picnic and musical "hoedown" at First American Title Co., Jefferson and Sixth streets. For further information please call 686-5544.
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