Sun Nov 10 21:26:22 UTC 2024: ## Lost Civil War Veteran Receives Full Military Honors After 135 Years
**Memphis, TN** – A forgotten hero of the Civil War, Private Sandy Wills, was finally laid to rest with full military honors at a veterans’ cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee, over 135 years after his death. The discovery of his unmarked grave and subsequent reburial is a testament to the dedication of his great-great-great-granddaughter, Cheryl Wills, who spent years meticulously researching her family’s history.
Wills, an author and journalist, was inspired to explore her ancestry after her father, a New York City firefighter and Vietnam-era veteran, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Her family’s migration from Tennessee to New York City during the Great Migration had led to a disconnect from their past, and generations had chosen not to speak about their enslaved ancestors.
Wills’ search led her to the records of Private Sandy Wills, who had volunteered for the colored troops in 1863. She discovered he had worked as a sharecropper after the war and had been buried in an unmarked grave on the Moore plantation in Haywood County, Tennessee.
With the help of her distant cousin, Ethan West, Wills found the Mooreland property, a 900-acre farm where they believed Sandy was buried. The Moore family confirmed the existence of an unmarked African American burial ground on their property.
An archeological team, experienced in finding missing-in-action soldiers from more recent wars, was hired to locate Sandy’s remains. They identified his grave among 38 others, and on Sunday morning, Private Sandy Wills was finally given the dignified burial he deserved.
Edie Moore, the matriarch of the Moore family, explained that for generations they had kept the African American cemetery untouched, respecting it as hallowed ground. Now, a headstone marks Sandy Wills’ grave at the West Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery, ensuring that his legacy, lost for over a century, is restored.
First Piper 