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Not really sure if this should go here but found this while surfing the local news... Here is the link...
Tooth helps identify Confederate soldier
By ANGIE MASON
For The Evening Sun
Article Launched: 03/05/2007 10:11:31 AM EST
Click photo to enlargeThis tooth, taken from the head of a dead... (Photo by Bil Bowden )«1»Karin Bohleke often spends her time at the Adams County Historical Society sorting through 19th-century garb, her current subject of research.
Her work as a volunteer frequently puts her in contact with interesting artifacts, but one discovery was more unusual than most.
A few months ago, she was in the document room of the society's Schmucker Hall home going through boxes donated from a local family.
In box No. 6 of that collection, she came across a punched-paper watch pocket, a small pouch with red embroidery hand-stitched on the front. Inside, she found something in yellowing paper.
"I thought maybe there'd be a pretty piece of jewelry," she said. "Instead É I found a tooth."
She found an upper right lateral incisor, to be exact, No. 7 on the dental chart. It was wrapped in a note explaining its presence.
"This tooth was taken out of a head lying in Roses Woods (Gettysburg battlefield) one year after the battle, at the head of a grave marked Lt. W.L. Daniel, Co. I, 2nd S.C.V.," read the note, signed by 1st Lt. W.T. King, Company G, 209th Pennsylvania.
With just a tooth and a name, Wayne Motts, the historical society's executive director, launched a search that led to plans to give a soldier the proper memorial he never had.
Starting with soldier death rosters and enlisting the help of a friend studying Confederate officers, Motts began gathering whatever information he could find on the soldier.
His research led him to William L. Daniel, born Jan. 30, 1833, in the Edgefield district of South Carolina. One of six children of Maj. William T. Daniel, he attended the University of South Carolina, then called South Carolina College, and earned a medical degree.
He enlisted May 9, 1861, as an infantry officer with Company I of the South Carolina Volunteer Infantry. One of his brothers, James Daniel, served with the Confederate troops as well.
Both men fought in the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. William was wounded and died July 2. James was shot the same day and died July 3. They fell within about 100 yards of one another, Motts said.
Though his brother was buried in an unmarked grave in a Richmond, Va., cemetery, William Daniel's body was never found.
When William T. King, a Gettysburg tailor and soldier, took the tooth from Daniel's skull, the body was likely lying in a temporary, shallow grave, Motts said.
"They were buried where they fell," he said. Daniel's was marked because he was an officer, Motts said. The bodies of Confederate dead were not taken for proper burial until 1872, he said.
"The actual location of the body is unknown," Motts said. "That, unfortunately, for Confederate soldiers is common."
But he didn't want to see Daniel go without the memorial ceremony he should have had nearly 144 years ago.
So he began tracking Daniel's descendants. He called the historical society in Saluda County, S.C., for help. The director there knew exactly who he should contact.
Motts called John Owen Clark, a Johnston, S.C., resident and told him he had his great-great-uncle's tooth. Clark's great-great-grandmother was Daniel's sister.
"I'm one of few people who even know William Daniel existed," Clark said.
"I was just blown away. I just wouldn't have thought anybody was the least bit interested in William Daniel."
The retiree has done some research on his family and was particularly interested in the brothers who died so near each other on the Gettysburg battlefield, he said.
He and Motts began working with the Saluda County Historical Society on plans for what to do with the tooth, Clark said.
In July, Motts plans to hand-deliver the tooth to South Carolina, where it will be buried in a box made of wood from the part of the battlefield where Daniel died.
Motts is filing paperwork with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to have a government memorial stone made to be placed in the Red Bank Baptist Church in Saluda, where some members of Daniel's family are buried.
Clark said he and Motts will speak, and the church preacher will give an invocation. The Sons of Confederate Veterans will perform a funeral drill, Clark said.
"We want to make sure this part of his mortal remains receives a proper burial," Motts said.
So that neither historical society will be without evidence of the story, Motts asked his friend and dentist Denny Forwood to make a copy of the tooth.
Forwood, also a licensed battlefield guide, made a mold of the tooth using standard dental materials and produced several copies.
"It's pretty delicate," Forwood said of the original tooth. The model, shaded to look like the real thing, is "a pretty close replica."
Motts hopes to eventually display a model of the tooth along with information about Daniel. For him, the story signifies the tragedy of the battle, he said.
"For some folks, the Civil War is such an abstract thing," he said. Having the tooth "makes the story personal. If you want to get people interested in history, you have to make it personal."
THE NOTE:
This is the text of the note found with the tooth:
"This tooth was taken out of a head lying on the ground in Roses Woods (Gettysburg battlefield) one year after the battle, at the head of a grave marked Lt. W. L. Daniel, Co. I, 2nd S.C.V.
"Poor fellow, though a rebel, he has only sympathy from the union soldier who picked up and keeps his tooth, namely W. T. King, First Lt. Co. G. 209th P.V."
John Feagin
Tooth helps identify Confederate soldier
By ANGIE MASON
For The Evening Sun
Article Launched: 03/05/2007 10:11:31 AM EST
Click photo to enlargeThis tooth, taken from the head of a dead... (Photo by Bil Bowden )«1»Karin Bohleke often spends her time at the Adams County Historical Society sorting through 19th-century garb, her current subject of research.
Her work as a volunteer frequently puts her in contact with interesting artifacts, but one discovery was more unusual than most.
A few months ago, she was in the document room of the society's Schmucker Hall home going through boxes donated from a local family.
In box No. 6 of that collection, she came across a punched-paper watch pocket, a small pouch with red embroidery hand-stitched on the front. Inside, she found something in yellowing paper.
"I thought maybe there'd be a pretty piece of jewelry," she said. "Instead É I found a tooth."
She found an upper right lateral incisor, to be exact, No. 7 on the dental chart. It was wrapped in a note explaining its presence.
"This tooth was taken out of a head lying in Roses Woods (Gettysburg battlefield) one year after the battle, at the head of a grave marked Lt. W.L. Daniel, Co. I, 2nd S.C.V.," read the note, signed by 1st Lt. W.T. King, Company G, 209th Pennsylvania.
With just a tooth and a name, Wayne Motts, the historical society's executive director, launched a search that led to plans to give a soldier the proper memorial he never had.
Starting with soldier death rosters and enlisting the help of a friend studying Confederate officers, Motts began gathering whatever information he could find on the soldier.
His research led him to William L. Daniel, born Jan. 30, 1833, in the Edgefield district of South Carolina. One of six children of Maj. William T. Daniel, he attended the University of South Carolina, then called South Carolina College, and earned a medical degree.
He enlisted May 9, 1861, as an infantry officer with Company I of the South Carolina Volunteer Infantry. One of his brothers, James Daniel, served with the Confederate troops as well.
Both men fought in the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. William was wounded and died July 2. James was shot the same day and died July 3. They fell within about 100 yards of one another, Motts said.
Though his brother was buried in an unmarked grave in a Richmond, Va., cemetery, William Daniel's body was never found.
When William T. King, a Gettysburg tailor and soldier, took the tooth from Daniel's skull, the body was likely lying in a temporary, shallow grave, Motts said.
"They were buried where they fell," he said. Daniel's was marked because he was an officer, Motts said. The bodies of Confederate dead were not taken for proper burial until 1872, he said.
"The actual location of the body is unknown," Motts said. "That, unfortunately, for Confederate soldiers is common."
But he didn't want to see Daniel go without the memorial ceremony he should have had nearly 144 years ago.
So he began tracking Daniel's descendants. He called the historical society in Saluda County, S.C., for help. The director there knew exactly who he should contact.
Motts called John Owen Clark, a Johnston, S.C., resident and told him he had his great-great-uncle's tooth. Clark's great-great-grandmother was Daniel's sister.
"I'm one of few people who even know William Daniel existed," Clark said.
"I was just blown away. I just wouldn't have thought anybody was the least bit interested in William Daniel."
The retiree has done some research on his family and was particularly interested in the brothers who died so near each other on the Gettysburg battlefield, he said.
He and Motts began working with the Saluda County Historical Society on plans for what to do with the tooth, Clark said.
In July, Motts plans to hand-deliver the tooth to South Carolina, where it will be buried in a box made of wood from the part of the battlefield where Daniel died.
Motts is filing paperwork with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to have a government memorial stone made to be placed in the Red Bank Baptist Church in Saluda, where some members of Daniel's family are buried.
Clark said he and Motts will speak, and the church preacher will give an invocation. The Sons of Confederate Veterans will perform a funeral drill, Clark said.
"We want to make sure this part of his mortal remains receives a proper burial," Motts said.
So that neither historical society will be without evidence of the story, Motts asked his friend and dentist Denny Forwood to make a copy of the tooth.
Forwood, also a licensed battlefield guide, made a mold of the tooth using standard dental materials and produced several copies.
"It's pretty delicate," Forwood said of the original tooth. The model, shaded to look like the real thing, is "a pretty close replica."
Motts hopes to eventually display a model of the tooth along with information about Daniel. For him, the story signifies the tragedy of the battle, he said.
"For some folks, the Civil War is such an abstract thing," he said. Having the tooth "makes the story personal. If you want to get people interested in history, you have to make it personal."
THE NOTE:
This is the text of the note found with the tooth:
"This tooth was taken out of a head lying on the ground in Roses Woods (Gettysburg battlefield) one year after the battle, at the head of a grave marked Lt. W. L. Daniel, Co. I, 2nd S.C.V.
"Poor fellow, though a rebel, he has only sympathy from the union soldier who picked up and keeps his tooth, namely W. T. King, First Lt. Co. G. 209th P.V."
John Feagin