Dear Mr. King: 

Writing this letter to you anonymously may cause delays and obstacles in resolving the problem I am about to describe.  However, my safety and the safety of my family are at risk if I sign this letter – assuming that anything comes of this correspondence.  I can, however, be contacted at soldier@soldiersforgotten.com.  

At this point, I am including three newspaper articles which describe the problem and, after you read the articles, you will have a greater understanding into the problems that we face.  I am begging you to please read the articles.  Following the articles is additional information regarding the obstacles that are faced.  

ARTICLE #1

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Family lot may be graveyard for 27 Confederate soldiers

Charles D. Brunt The Albuquerque Journal 

SOCORRO — Mary Silva's vacant lot — a rocky patch of land as nondescript as any in this hardscrabble neighborhood of modest houses, ramshackle mobile homes and abandoned trailers — is among the few valuable possessions she hopes to leave to her nine children.

But Ken Garrison, a Civil War buff and officer with the New Mexico Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said Silva's lot, which likely holds hundreds of human remains in a long-abandoned cemetery, should instead be restored in honor of 27 Confederate soldiers believed to be among the unmarked graves.

In keeping with the organization's mission of preserving the history and legacy of the Confederate soldiers, Garrison said if the abandoned cemetery can't be preserved, the soldiers' remains should be exhumed and reburied "in a respectable location."

State law makes it nearly impossible for Silva or her eventual heirs to do anything with the land, officially designated as an "unmarked burial ground," or for Garrison to realize his dream of relocating the Confederate graves.

For such a small lot on Socorro's west side, Mary Silva's legacy is kicking up a lot of dust.

Civil War Cemetery

State officials have known about the abandoned cemetery since at least 1995, said Glenna Dean, a former state archaeologist who is now associate director of the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area.  

Dean said the cemetery, whose exact boundaries are unknown, was likely in use from 1853 to 1875, and was probably a former Presbyterian cemetery. It likely covers at least half of the two acres the Silva’s bought from another family around 1966. Silva's home — and those of two of her daughters and a granddaughter — cover most of one acre. The other acre is bare except for weeds and litter.  

Although a quitclaim deed on file with Socorro County verifies the sale to the Silva’s, there are no records prior to the quitclaim, Dean said.  

"I want to pass it on to my family, and whatever they want to do later on, that's up to them," Silva said as she and three of her children sat at a whitewashed picnic table in her yard last month.  

"It would have been good if somebody would have got those bodies out a long time ago," she said wistfully.  

Those bodies, according to Garrison, include 27 Confederate soldiers who died of wounds suffered in the Battle of Valverde, a Civil War skirmish that took place on the nearby banks of the Rio Grande on Feb. 21, 1862.  

After routing Union forces at a river ford 6 miles north of Fort Craig, Confederate cavalrymen from Texas marched 25 miles north to Socorro, where they ousted Union troops and took over the local hospital to treat their wounded. Over the next two months, 27 were buried on a hill west of town, Garrison said, including his great-great-grand-uncle, Cpl. Thomas Garrason, who died on March 3, 1862, nine days after the Battle at Valverde.

"I have made it my mission to get them recovered and reburied somewhere suitable," Garrison, a retired golf pro from Albuquerque, said last month.

Silva said she can't understand why the 27 Confederate soldiers, if they're actually buried on her land, are so important to Garrison and his colleagues.

"I understand grieving for a relative you knew," said Silva, who has been a widow since 1984. "But they don't even know who those soldiers were."

Competing Interests

Interim state Archaeologist Jan Biella said state law requires that anyone who discovers suspected human bones stop whatever activity that led to the discovery and notify law enforcement officials, who are then required to notify both the state medical investigator and the state historic preservation officer.  

"In this case, we know there are human remains there, so the jurisdiction is with our office," Biella said. That means any excavation on Silva's property requires a permit from the state's Cultural Properties Review Committee and must be performed by a qualified archaeologist who has obtained a permit to conduct the excavation.

Any subsequent owner of the property would be bound by the same laws, Biella said, which also covers any artifacts associated with the graves.  

Civil War buffs have kept an eye on the lot for years, Garrison said, and have notified state officials anytime a suspected grave is disturbed — such as in the 1970s when headstones and statuary disappeared from the cemetery, and in the summer of 1995 when rock-pile grave markers and the remains of a wrought-iron fence were bulldozed. Garrison declined to say who he thought was responsible for the damage.  

In 2004, when the city graded Peralta Drive — the street fronting the Silva property — at least four suspected grave sites were unearthed. Despite the discovery, the graves were paved over.

No Simple Solutions

Two months ago, Garrison found another suspected grave on the western edge of Silva's property and notified state officials.  

That led to a mid-September meeting with Police Chief Lawrence Romero, Dean, Biella, Garrison, state Deputy Medical Investigator Amy Wyman and several colleagues. Because of friction between Garrison's group and the Silva’s, the property owner was not asked to attend, Romero said later.  

What followed was a discussion most of the attendees had heard before.

"There are probably a couple of ways that this could be solved," said Dean, who dealt with the cemetery for more than a decade while employed by the state.

"The potentially less expensive way would be to trade Mrs. Silva for another piece of land and return that property to sacred ground," Dean said. Although that doesn't immediately address Garrison's concerns, it "removes the immediate threat of damage to all of the burials," Dean said.

"The only other way I can think of is to remove all of the remains so that it is no longer a cemetery, and Mrs. Silva can go ahead with whatever she wants to do with that land," Dean said.  

But that would be a lengthy — and costly — approach, she said.

State law requires each of the graves — not just those of the soldiers — be treated as an archaeological site, Dean said. And no one knows for certain where the Confederates' bodies lie.  

"So you have to get a professional archaeologist with a state permit, and a work plan that satisfies the requirements of the law that is then approved by the Cultural Properties Review Committee," she said.  

"No archaeologist is going to undertake a project of that size without funding," Dean said. "This is going to take months, if not years, to excavate, analyze and report on all of the remains in the cemetery."  

But Silva, who said trespassers have been a problem for years, is against having the cemetery excavated.  

"I wouldn't like that, for them to come over here like that," she said. "I think I'd rather leave everything the way it is."  

"If they (the city) would give me land with a home on it and enough space to put (her family's) trailers on it, I might do that," Silva said.  

Socorro Weighs In

Although the city is willing to consider a land swap, Socorro Mayor Ravi Bhasker said the first step is to find out exactly what lies beneath the Silva property.  

At an Oct. 6 City Council meeting, Councilors Peter Romero and Chuck Zimmerly were asked to work with Biella's office to determine what is in the suspected grave Garrison found in August.  

Bhasker said the city wants to "try to outline a plan which, I would hope, begins with identifying at least one set of remains."  

"We're just in the stage of trying to document if the bones and remains are of Confederate soldiers to begin with," the mayor said.  

Although the latest grave appears to lie partly in the Peralta Drive right-of-way and partly on Silva's property, "We would certainly have to get Mrs. Silva's permission to excavate," Bhasker said.  

"The other point that was made (at the council meeting) was that there are graves all around there, and that other people living there have graves on their land," Bhasker said. "I made it very clear that I want to protect their property rights." 



Believed Socorro burial site of Confederate soldiers who died from wounds in Battle of Valverde   2/21/1862 -- photo taken 2/10/02

 

This image shows another view of burial site and was taken 12/19/02. The white mobile structurein the middle of image was installed since the 2/10/2002 image was taken.

 

This image shows another view of burial site and was taken 6/21/03. The current property occupants continue to despoil the burial site -- indifferent to the fact that its (was) a cemetery.

 

This is another article which describes legal access to the cemetery. One of the problems with the information contained in the following article is that it states that the general public can visit the property.  However, doing so will put you at risk for being shot at.  This has happened in the past and I believe that the main reason that local law enforcement has not gotten involved is that the family who “owns” the property is a very violent family and is very familiar to Socorro law enforcement.  There is probably an element of intimidation or I would obviously be able to use my name on this correspondence.

In addition, the article states that the City of Socorro will be responsible for the upkeep of the property.  However, the City of Socorro has not attempted to maintain the cemetery.  In fact, they have recently paved over several graves.  There is also a new pile of rubble on the site which contains artifacts and pieces of wood coffins.  

 

ARTICLE #2

City Council Talks About Cemetery Matters

By John Larson

for Mountain Mail 

Mountain Mail/STPNS 

November 20, 2008 

Original Mountain Mail/STPNS article: City Council Talks About Cemetery Matters  

SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- The Socorro City Council discussed two separate cemetery issues at its meeting Monday night. 

Councilor Peter Romero said he had the first dialogue with state preservation people concerning the neglected Civil War-era cemetery on Peralta Drive. 

"(Today's) meeting showed the need to determine who owns the property and the need for a title search," Romero said. "It was only the initial meeting and there's still a lot to be decided."

Mayor Ravi Bhasker said the city should not be responsible for determining the cemetery's property boundaries.

"Clearly, a survey of the property needs to be done." Bhasker said. "But it should be an action of the interested parties."

City Clerk Pat Salome said if the lot was proven to be a former gravesite, it could be improved unless the graves were relocated.

"It could be that the exposed sites are not in the area defined by the quitclaim deed," Salome said. "In that case, the owner could do something with the property. This is why it needs to be surveyed."

Bhasker said the question remained on who would make the first move.

"I suggest people from the (Sons of Confederate Veterans) look at it as a civil action," Bhasker said. "I'm afraid to set a precedent where the city will to pay to deem what someone's property is."

"We first have to determine if there's a cemetery there," Bhasker said. "I feel the confederate group should be the ones involved with that process."

Just down the street from Peralta, maintenance and upkeep for Socorro's public cemetery off Blue Canyon Road will be the responsibility of the city, at least for now.

According to a resolution passed by the council, the city turned over ownership of 35.12 acres to the Socorro Cemetery Association in 1903 for the purpose of providing a public cemetery.

After the Cemetery Association ceased to be a viable organization, the Oddfellows and Knights of Pythias took over the upkeep and maintenance, provided a part of the cemetery was reserved specifically for members of those groups.

Those groups can no longer provide needed upkeep.

"The city has been trying to work on some sort of cemetery resolution ever since I've been here," Bhasker said. "This is not something we really wanted to get involved with, but we have to make sure we have some sort of cemetery for non-fraternal persons."

He said the city has been maintaining cemetery the best they can in the last year.

"It needs to remain a non-denominational cemetery," Bhasker said. "This will start the process to start the legality of taking over the cemetery."

 

I will include one last article which describes the recent paving over of grave sites. 

ARTICLE #3

Socorro Cemetery Evidence

By John Larson -- email: johnl@socorroisp.com

Mountain Mail Newspaper

SOCORRO, NM – Graves of 27 Confederate soldiers who died as a result of the Battle of Valverde in February of 1862 may be in the way of a road improvement project in Socorro.

According to Civil War historian Charles Mandeville, the alleged graves are in the vicinity of Blue Canyon Road and Peralta, and he has documented 27 names of Confederate dead.

Mandeville, in addressing the Socorro City Council Monday, said the graves are part of a cemetery which was in operation from 1853 to 1875. “There is evidence that a John Milton Shaw, a Methodist missionary from New York, apparently obtained the land in 1853 for a Protestant cemetery on that hill,” he said. “The Confederates established a hospital in Socorro at the site of Cooney's Liquors following the Battle of Valverde in 1862. In a two month period 27 soldiers died there. Based on writings from that period Mr. Shaw was a great help in ministering to the men, and was sympathetic to the Confederate wounded following the battle. It stands to reason that Mr. Shaw would offer burial space in the cemetery for those soldiers who died.” Furthermore, he said at least one grave has been discovered when the city installed water lines and a fire hydrant on Peralta St. “The medical investigator at the time, Floyd Turpin, said the remains and a portion of the wooden coffin was sent to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator in Santa Fe,” Mandeville said.

Road work on Blue Canyon and Peralta is in progress, but if Mandeville can show evidence of human remains, the site should be protected and state archaeologists would be in control.

“Based on depressions in the graded dirt road, it appears that there are five graves in the roadway,” Mandeville said.

Utilities Director Jay Santillanes said he has no knowledge of graves. “That roadway has been excavated several times and we would've found something,” he said.

Mayor Ravi Bhasker said he had talked with Mandeville two years prior about the site, and that he had been waiting for Mandeville to move forward on the project before he took formal action on behalf of the city. The next step is to try to take aerial photos of the site with infra-red film. “That would tell us conclusively if there are existing graves up there,” he said. “We have a couple of weeks to try to get that arranged before the city starts paving. After its paved infra-red photography wouldn't be possible.”

Mandeville said he met with Santillanes and City Clerk Pat Salome to discuss the issue Tuesday, and came to a compromise. “They offered to first work on curbs and gutters, and just a lay a base coat down on the roadway which wouldn't interfere with the aerial images.” Tuesday afternoon state Archaeologist Dr. Glenna Dean from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs and representatives from the Office of the Medical Investigator arrived in Socorro to examine the site. “When we went back Tuesday, the depressions in the roadway we thought might be grave sites had been filled in,” Mandeville said. “With those indicators covered up, Dr. Dean agreed to the compromise offered by Santillanes and that the next step would have to be aerial photography.”

The lot adjacent to Peralta on the east side is suspected to be the location of the cemetery established by Shaw in 1853, which is thought to be the burial location of the bulk of the Confederate dead. Mandeville, a member of the New Mexico Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, believes that if can be proved that Confederate soldiers are buried there, “it would be the only Confederate Cemetery in the state of New Mexico. That would be something for the City of Socorro could be proud of.”