Cemetery Making Sure Civil War Vets Get Proper Memorials

CHICAGO (CBS) -- For more than a decade, a cemetery on the Far South Side has been working to make sure buried Civil War veterans do not go forgotten.

Mount Greenwood Cemetery was established in 1879. About 12 years ago, cemetery president Paula Everett realized some Civil War veterans buried there did not have gravestones, so she set about getting the federal government to supply them.

"I just felt the men needed to be shown for their service … rather than have an unmarked grave out there; just a piece of grass," she said.

Since then, Everett has gone through lots of burial records.

"They were cards marked GAR cards. It's Grand Army of the Republic, which was a Civil War vet group," she said.

Everett said there are about 350 Civil War veterans buried at the cemetery, and so far she has found more than 100 who needed grave markers.

"A cemetery is like a living museum, an outdoor museum, so as people walk in the cemetery they can see these markers and say 'Hey, I didn't realize they were out here,'" she said.

In:
• Mount Greenwood
• Bernie Tafoya
• Civil War