O'FALLON, Ill. — A Metro East woman says a new addition to her home led her to a haunting discovery after workers found the headstones of several Civil War veterans buried in her backyard.
When Andrea Clark started replacing her 20-year-old deck, it didn’t take long before construction quickly stopped.
“The guys digging ... they were hitting something hard,” Clark said. “They kind of used their hands and a shovel, digging it away because they couldn’t get through it with the Ditch Witch.”
What they discovered left everyone speechless.
“They took the top part up and noticed it was a headstone,” Clark said. “They were thinner and long. Something like I’ve never seen.”
The headstones, which date back to the Civil War era, were extremely worn.
“There were no dates on it,” Clark said. “I noticed the big shield.”
That got Clark to do a little digging into their history to make sure no one was buried in her backyard.
“A replica was made and is in Jefferson Barracks [National Cemetery],” Clark said. “I’ve been told that this very well could be the original.”
The assistant director at the cemetery verified that all four soldiers were buried at the cemetery and were properly marked with a headstone.
Cemetery staff are in the process of retrieving the buried headstones, which will be destroyed in accordance with the law.
“I think they should donate them to a Civil War Museum so they can display,” Clark said. “These are headstones from somebody’s loved ones.”
A spokesman with the cemetery said it is routine for damaged, worn and misspelled headstones to be replaced and destroyed.
The headstones buried in Clark’s yard were likely replaced decades or even more than a century ago.