Union Cemetery, Blanchard Michigan. It’s our second visit to view the gravesite of my great grandfather Ambrose Harris, a Civil War veteran buried here in 1932. It was only two years ago I became aware of his burial site through my wife’s genealogy research of the Mesler ancestry. (Years ago, I had shown her the newspaper article published at the time of his death at age 91.) I traveled this area for over fifty years passing this cemetery many times without knowing a family Civil War veteran was laid to rest here. Born in Naples, New York, on October 15, 1841, he enlisted in May 1861, at age 19 as a private in the 67th Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to corporal in December 1862. Ambrose fought in many of the famous battles of the Civil War: Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Mavern Hill, Chantilly, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Mine Run, and the Wilderness. He was captured in May 1864 while hospitalized in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and interned for ten months in the notorious Andersonville Georgia Confederate military prison. Ambrose was discharged in March 1865 at New York City. One of Ambrose’s granddaughters was an aunt of mine and when I visited her as a youngster, she would recite the many Ambrose folklores. One memorable trip with my aunt was to the Michigan Capitol building, where, under the capitol rotunda, was a display of Civil War battle flags and glass cases filled with Civil War veterans’ medals. Today the battle flags are still on display, but the glass cases and veterans’ metals have disappeared. I’ve been unable to locate these historic artifacts.
