TRR photo by David Hulse Once opposing flags were reunited in commemoration as Confederate re-enactors approached the old Congregational Church in Barryville on Memorial Day. (Click for larger image)

Remembering American veterans of two wars, two sides, two centuries

By DAVID HULSE

BARRYVILLE — Remnants of a diverse past again came together Monday in a unified commemoration of America’s war dead.

The Shohola Railroad and Historical Society sponsored its second Memorial Day ceremonies at the cemetery of the former Barryville Congregational Church, which is now a private residence. Society coordinator Elliott Zucker said the program carries on a private tradition, which was begun decades ago by former Town of Highland Historian Austin D. Smith.

Smith, for many years, came to the then abandoned cemetery to annually mark Memorial Day by placing a Civil War, Confederate flag on the graves of two North Carolina men, who died in an 1864 train collision in Shohola.

The soldiers, brothers John D. and Michael Johnson were cared for in local homes following the collision of a prisoner of war train and coal train. Some 60 prisoners, guards and train crew members died in the July 15, 1864 accident, which was at the time the worst rail accident in the nation’s history.

Members of a mid-Hudson area Confederate re-enactors group, the 3rd Alabama Infantry, joined in the ceremonies again this year. Costumed in authentic uniforms and carrying period weapons, the re-enactors added to the ceremony by dispensing soil from the soldier’s native state atop the Johnson graves.

John Gleason of Monroe, a Union Army re-enactor, also was on hand. Re-enactors of both sides took part in military-style honors  for the Johnsons and Union veterans interred at the cemetery.

Immediately after honors for the North Carolinians, the re-enactors marched and stood at attention at the grave of Theodore Cotton, whose marker identified him as a veteran of the 26th U.S. Colored Troops.

“They were all patriots,” one re-enactor said.

Recalling another era, former Town of Lumberland Supervisor Paul Brennan was on hand, mounted on his horse, in the costume of a Revolutionary War, Continental Dragoon.

A state historic marker informed visitors that the cemetery was also a burial site for the remains of the dead from the 1779 Battle of Minisink, most of whom were later re-interred in Goshen in Orange County.

Owners of the former church, Roswell Hamrick and Trey Speegle, furnished refreshments for about 60 persons who participated.

Hamrick, a native South Carolinian, said they now look forward to the annual event. During his first year here, he recalled his amazement when a Confederate soldier appeared at the front door. “I didn’t know all this came with the property,” he said.