It was long overdue but full military honors have finally been given to three African-American Civil War Soldiers
Over 150 years ago, Cpl. William Anderson of the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) Infantry, and Privates Greenberry Stanton and John Nelson of the 5th Massachusetts (Colored) Cavalry fell in service to the Union. Their bodies were buried over that century and a half in a small, obscure graveyard in rural Pennsylvania. Over that time their headstones were lost or removed and they became unmarked graves.
Lowell Hassinger’s family purchased the land that included the almost forgotten graveyard in 1940. The graveyard was in the backyard of their family home. Hassinger remembers planting flags on the several graves, including the unmarked ones, on various holidays with his father and brother.
The bodies of Anderson, Stanton, and Nelson were recently identified and reburied in the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pennsyvania, with full military honors, including the traditional rifle salute and taps.
In attendance at the on November 16, 2016 ceremony were several dozen members of the Harrisburg chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club, and Buffalo Soldier Scouts. They provided an Honor Guard to transfer the remains. Some also acted as pallbearers for the three, American flag draped coffins.
Hassinger and his family were at the funeral. He said he stood there and cried like a baby.