Last Confederate Soldier
Springfield Leader & Press, June 13, 1939
"The smooth, green turf reserved for Confederate soldiers in the Nations cemetery was broken yesterday so that a soldier clad in gray could join his comrades but it will never be broken again.
"For Thomas H. Hadden, last of the Campbell Camp of Confederate soldiers and the final link between Greene County and the Civil War or, as he would have called it, the War Between the States, was buried by the massive statue of the southern soldier yesterday afternoon.
"The Rev. B. Locke Davis praised the Confederate soldier for fighting as he thought was right, six National Guardsmen stood at attention as a trim Boy Scout softly played taps, and the soldier's wife, a tiny figure in black with a white handkerchief pressed to her face, and her friends, descendants of Confederate veterans, bade goodbye to the last soldier.
"Buried by the side of captains and colonels, Thomas Hadden was himself only a private who had felt it his duty to volunteer when he was 15 years old and replace his dead brother who had been killed in action.
"He was 90 when he died last Friday -- and he was buried as he would have liked, dressed in his uniform of gray, holding a small Confederate flag in his hand, and surrounded by those who loved and remembered him and the cause for which he had offered his life.
"And so, its page of history written, the Confederate cemetery rests quietly, guarding the last assembly of its heroes.
If you are looking for other soldiers buried at the cemetery see Springfield National Cemetery: grave locator. The above image accompanied the newspaper article and will be easier to see it you click on the image to enlarge it.
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