Former slave and Union soldier honored at last arisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer Su

[joe]

Link with images here.

by Marisa Lagos, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, July 25, 2010

Eighty-seven years after his death, at a cemetery overlooking the rolling, golden hills of Vallejo - and with dozens of his descendents looking on - Union Army Private Samuel Brown finally got a proper memorial.

Brown, an emancipated slave who enlisted in the Union Army in 1865, had lain for nearly nine decades under an erroneous grave marker. The headstone, which family members had visited for years, identified Brown as a Confederate Army soldier - until Sunrise Memorial Cemetery worker Brian Pinarretta was clearing pine needles out of the way one day and noticed the problem.

The self-described history buff contacted Joe Marti of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, a national organization dedicated to keeping Civil War history alive. They teamed up with local historians, who tracked down more information on Brown, as well as his living descendents in Vallejo, including granddaughter Mary Johnson and her brother, James Brown. The Brown family has served in nearly every armed conflict since the Civil War, said Johnson's niece, Rachel Brown Johnson.

"To leave slavery and then go right into the Army - what can you say?" she said. "He passed the legacy down. I feel honored and elated today."

Johnson was joined by family members of all ages Saturday when the Sons of Union Veterans and the American Civil War Association staged a 19th century soldier's memorial service. The hourlong event, which attracted more than 100 people, was complete with taps, color guard and gun salute.

"We are here to render long overdue honors to a man who pledged to defend his country in trying times," Brad [Schall], a national officer with the Sons of Union Veterans, told the crowd.

"Too long, he has been denied what is rightfully his. We are here today to give some small measure of the devotion he willed to us when he joined the Union Army. No matter how great or small their contribution may have been, all veterans deserve a proper homecoming and recognition for being willing to sacrifice everything so we might live in this great nation."

Officials from the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum were able to locate a deposition Brown gave in 1918 as he fought to secure pension benefits (they were never awarded to the former soldier). According to that document, Brown was born in 1833 and joined the 137th U.S. Colored Infantry in Georgia in April 1865. He was discharged the following year. He lived his final years in Vallejo with one of his daughters and died in 1923 at the age of 90.

No one is sure how or why the headstone error was made. Some family members had noticed the words, "Confederate States Army," but none knew enough about Brown's service to know what it should have said.

Marti, the Sons of Union Veterans member who first came out to Brown's grave, said the Saturday event was incredible. It's often difficult to track down even one family member of a Civil War veteran, he said.

The family was also moved.

"This is beautiful," said Mary Johnson, Brown's 77-year-old granddaughter, after the service. "It's beyond words."