If you are a cemetery hound like me I am sure you have discovered many interesting finds on your walks. Several years ago I came across this row of Government Civil War Era gravestones . The grave markers are located in Sunset Cemetery in Shelby, North Carolina.

What is interesting is that this row contains nine markers, four Confederate and five Union, all are Unknown. Those of us in the South know that you can walk into any cemetery that dates the war and find two or three Unknown Confederate markers and in some cemeteries like Evergreen in Chester, South Carolina you can find 10x that amount. But its not everyday that you see five Unknown Union Soldier markers especially in an area that was void of any battles or other hostilities.

I will have to say that after my first visit to this site I walked away puzzled and some what haunted as to why there was five Unknown Union Soldiers buried in Shelby, NC ? During the war years (1861-1865) Shelby was not much more than a sleepy little town in the Piedmont region of Western North Carolina. The town had no railroad the track had been laid 3 miles west of Lincolnton, NC and the rail bed had been graded to Shelby but it would not be until 1874 that the first train would actually arrive.

Shelby is the county seat of Cleveland County, NC a  county whose economy in the 1860's was farming based. There was very little in Shelby and Cleveland County that would make it a target for Union troops so why and how did these Union Soldiers get here? I have spent the last twenty years off an on trying to answer this questions over the next days I will be sharing my finding with my followers.

Bob Norris