136th NYSV Infantry soldier featured in the Civil War News
- broadcast on WHAM.com, Channel 13, Rochester, NY on May 10, 2006
As a teenager, Dennis Buckley moved to Livingston County, NY, from Canada to fight for the Union in the Civil War. He died a hero on a battlefield in Georgia.
Then he was forgotten, the victim of a government typographical error.
He was buried under the name "Dennis Burkley", an "r" mistakenly inserted into his last name. Caledonia resident and Civil War historian John DuBois was convinced the man buried in Georgia was Dennis Buckley, the man memorialized along with other local Civil War dead with a monument in Avon, NY.
Buckley, who was a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, fought alongside DuBois' grandfather in New York's 136th Infantry Regiment. "I didn't know an awful lot of anything, but I knew how to do research," said DuBois.
After months of investigation, he mailed his findings to the federal government.
"They sent me back and said, we think you may be right," he said.
After months more lobbying, the government agreed to make Buckley a new headstone.
In March, DuBois drove 15 hours to Marietta National Cemetery near Atlanta for a ceremony marking the new headstone.
"It's a gorgeous stone! Oh, it's a gorgeous stone! he said. "The ceremony was just unreal, and it darn near bring a tear to your eye for something like that, especially when the man's been buried under the wrong name for 142 years!"
Civil War re-enactors and even a Canadian diplomat came to give Buckley his long overdue honor.
"At a time when this country needed somebody, this man stepped forward from another country to join our army to keep us going," DuBois said.
The flag normally folded and given to the next of kin was given to DuBois. He's satisfied that the men of the 136th, including his grandfather, now know a wrong has been made right.
"I didn't do it for anything for myself, I did it for them," DuBois said. "And they know I straightened that out for them and that's all, that's all I cared about."
The federal government proudly announced the corrected headstone in a news release crediting DuBois' hard work. There was a typo in DuBois' name.
