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Alice Knapp was tracing her husband's family tree when she happened across a newspaper article from 1921 in which a Confederate veteran, Willis Meadows who had been shot in the eye during the civil war and literally coughed up the bullet during a violent coughing spasm 60 years after he had been shot. Peter Knapp, who was the ancestor Alice Knapp had been researching, read the article and concluded he had been the soldier who had shot Meadows at Vicksburg, Mississippi and sent the man a letter. This led to a correspondence and exchange of photos that lasted the remainder of their lives.
After reading article, Alice Knapp wanted to know where Peter Knapp, who died on April 13, 1924, was buried and discovered that although his remains had been cremated and a memorial service had been held, his ashes and those of his wife, Georgianna who died in 1930, were still sitting on a shelf at a Portland crematorium.
An urn holding the remains of Civil War veteran Peter Knapp sit with an American flag during his military funeral at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Ore., April 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
Peter Jones Knapp, who fought for the Union in many famous battles and survived the dreaded Andersonville prison camp in Georgia, was laid to rest Friday, April 13th in Willamette National Cemetery, the first Civil War veteran to be buried in Oregon's largest military graveyard. Knapp received full military honors from the Oregon National Guard on the anniversary of his 1924 death. The funeral also fell on the 151st anniversary of the Confederate victory at Fort Sumter, S.C., which ignited the Civil War.
The burial attracted a mixture of veterans, historians, Civil War re-enactors and the curious. It must have been odd to see the 19th and 21st centuries juxtaposed with cell phones and video recorders next to men and women dressed as Union soldiers and civilians.
Brigadier General Eric C. Bush of the Oregon National Guard was among the speakers who addressed the audience and the Patriot Guard Riders were in attendance as Knapp was finally awarded "the Grand Army of the Republic 1873 Burial of the Dead" Ceremony befitting his service period. The funeral also included a bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace," a bugler performing "Taps," and the laying of wreaths. Following a musket salute, a folded U.S. flag was presented to Alice Knapp.
D.H. Shearer, an Oregon pastor who was for this day a Union chaplain said:
May we all be inspired by his example of loyalty and fidelity.
Making sense of the American Civil War and the history of Civil War veteran Peter J. Knapp by K.C. Piccard for
OregonLive has provided an excellent recap of a five part series being led by History Professor Emeritus Richard Etulain at Multnomah County Library and as a result has located documents and e-books referencing different periods and aspects of Knapp’s Civil War and post-bellum activities. It is a short and concise piece, well worth the read.