A Final Tribute

John Bush was honored with the placing of the Iron Cross on his grave on June 19, 2010.  It was placed there by the Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter of the UDC and the Boone County Genealogical Society.

James A. Anderson

The saddest of all stories of Confederates buried in Montgomery County is the story of James A. Anderson.  Anderson was one of about 14,000 POWs from the surrender of Fort Donelson in Tennessee.  These soldiers were shipped north, probably headed for Camp Douglas in Chicago.  Keith Houk, a local historian, picked up the story in his article in the Montgomery County Family History book published in 1988.  Houk writes, “He was taken north as a prisoner of war in early March of 1862.  While being taken to the prison camp at Camp Tippecanoe in Lafayette, IN, he became sick and died on March 21, 1862.  He died on the POW train near Crawfordsville.  His body was left at Camp Lane in Crawfordsville and his remains were taken to Old Town Cemetery for burial.  His gravesite is unmarked.  James A. Anderson and John Bush, another Confederate POW who is buried in the Old Thortown Cemetery in Thortown, IN, were among many southern soldiers who died while prisoners of war on Hoosier soil.”  There were 38 Confederate POWs who died in Lafayette, but that story has already been written by Mary Immel in a book entitled,  “Beneath These Stones.”