A Confederate soldier finally comes home

A Confederate soldier finally comes home

By Drew Brooks
 Staff writer

STEDMAN -- Nearly 150 years after Pvt. Edward Cashwell left his wife and five young children to go to war, he was memorialized Saturday at a small service near the graves of his family.

Cashwell, a soldier in the Confederate Army, died May 13, 1863, at a hospital on Fort Fisher.

But Cashwell's remains were never reunited with his family in Cumberland and Bladen counties. Instead, he was buried in a mass grave near the hospital grounds.

Saturday, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans held a memorial to honor Cashwell. They buried a small casket full of dirt from the mass grave next to his wife at a small cemetery east of Stedman on N.C. 24.

Cashwell's great-great-grandson, James Cashwell, attended the service. He said he knew nothing about his ancestor before the Sons of Confederate Veterans assisted him in researching his family.

James Cashwell said his ancestor died of typhoid fever 15 months after enlisting at the age of 29.

"He left his family, his wife and five children. He dropped his plow, picked up a gun and went to do what he thought was right," James Cashwell said. "Thank God he's back home where he belongs."

A new headstone now marks the place where the dirt was interred. It lists the year Cashwell was born, his date of death and his unit with the Confederate Army.

Cashwell's wife, Elizabeth Riley Cashwell, died in 1914. Her grave is surrounded by those of her family. Her tombstone identifies her as Edward Cashwell's wife, but, until recently, family members did not know where the family's patriarch was buried.

"I often wondered 'Where is Edward,' " said Dorothy "Ruby" Capen, a genealogist who had been researching those buried at the cemetery.

Capen's questions were answered after she posted pictures of the family graves online and received a response from Tommy Taylor, the Southern Brigade Commander of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and chairman of the group's reinternment committee.

"He knew where Edward was and he had been looking for Elizabeth," Capen said.

6 more in mass grave

Taylor said six other Confederate soldiers from the region are buried in the mass grave on Fort Fisher.

He said he hopes similar ceremonies will take place after family members are located.

The Rev. Herman White, who eulogized Cashwell, said the ceremony honored not only him, but all Confederate veterans.

"He may not have died from an enemy's bullet, but he is just as much a hero as if he had," White said.

The afternoon ceremony, held in the shade of an oak tree before about 50 people, included a color guard in full Confederate outfit, a seven-gun salute and the firing of a cannon.

A Confederate flag that was draped over the small casket was presented to James Cashwell during the ceremony, which also including songs and comments from the leadership of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, including the commander of the Fayetteville Arsenal Camp 168, which hosted the event.

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