Some of the men who gave all fighting for Southern independence were either Ohioans or ended up in Ohio, as reported in this article by Aaron Keirns:
In a small cemetery in Utica, a thin white headstone marks the grave of Cpl. John J. Wilson, a veteran of the Civil War [sic]. Wilson is not the only Civil War [sic] veteran buried here. There are several others.
But a closer look at the inscription on his stone reveals something unusual. Wilson is a long way from home — a Confederate soldier buried in Union soil.
Local lore says Wilson was a prisoner of war on a train headed for Johnson’s Island Prison Camp at Lake Erie. He died while the train was passing through Utica and was buried in the cemetery near the railroad tracks. Like many stories passed down through a community, this one seems a little unlikely, but it is hard to prove or disprove.
It’s probably more likely Wilson was an Ohioan who served in the Confederate Army. After the war, he might have come back to Ohio, lived out the rest of his life and was interred here. If this is the case, Wilson might not be such a long way from home after all.
There are many such isolated Confederate graves in cemeteries scattered across Ohio. Some are the graves of men who were born in Ohio but fought for the Confederacy. Others might have been native Southerners who, for one reason or another, settled in Ohio after the war. A few of the graves contain the remains of soldiers actually killed in battle in Ohio.
The largest concentrations of Confederate graves in Ohio are at the sites of Camp Chase in Columbus and Johnson’s Island Prisoner of War Depot in Lake Erie. When prisoners died, they were buried in the prison cemetery. These two cemeteries have more than 2,400 Confederate graves.
But there might be as many as several hundred individual Confederate burials in other cemeteries around the state. Some of these graves have been documented and marked, while others remain forgotten.
“There are around 140 some graves that we know of,” said Mark Wells, adjutant of the Ohio Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.
It distresses me to think that so many of our men lie buried in mass graves, prison cemeteries, and northern cemeteries. Just think about how many thousands of mothers and fathers wondered until their dying day what ever happened to their sons. Mr Lincoln got what he deserved…