Visiting Florence National Cemetery & The Grave Of Florena Budwin

After attending the Confederate Memorial Day service at Mount Hope Cemetery in downtown Florence, South Carolina (mentioned in my previous blog post) I drove about a half-mile down the road to visit the Florence National Cemetery -- as well as visit a specific grave on the site.

Florence National Cemetery is a 25 acre U.S. National Cemetery that contains the graves of over 12,000 U.S. military soldiers and veterans from various American wars. The National Cemetery is administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Florence National Cemetery began its history as a burial site for Union prisoners of war interred at the nearby Florence Stockade during the War Between The States (1861-1865).

Florence Stockade was built in late September of 1864 by the Confederate military. Most of these were Union prisoners transferred to the site by rail from the infamous Camp Sumter (better known to history as Andersonville after the nearby town in Georgia) ahead of Union General William T. Sherman's March To The Sea. The rest were either Union soldiers, or sailors, captured in actions at Charleston and the North Carolina coastal regions.

Of the estimated 12,000 to 18,000 Union prisoners of war held at Florence Stockade around 2,300 died of various camp diseases and harsh camp conditions during the five month period the stockade was in service. These prisoners were buried in 16 trenches half-a-mile from the stockade's boundaries on what would become the site of the National Cemetery. The Florence Stockade was abandoned by the end of February 1865, with most of the remaining prisoners being transferred north to the POW camp in Salisbury, North Carolina until the end of the War two months later.

The site of the burial trenches became a National Cemetery in 1865 with the remains of other Union soldiers from nearby American Civil War battlefield cemeteries were transferred and reburied there, bringing the number of Union war dead buried on site to around 3,000 men -- and one woman.

The woman buried among the Union dead is known to history as Florena Budwin.

According to the accounts of her story, Florena was a young woman possibly born about 1844 from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who dressed up as a Union soldier so she could find and serve with her husband, a Union army officer. The couple supposedly served briefly together before he was either killed in battle, or dying in prison at Camp Sumter in mid-1864.

Budwin was then shipped by train with other Union POWs to Florence Stockade where she became ill with pneumonia and the camp physician, Doctor Josephus Hall, discovered her gender. She was provided with separate quarters and women in town provided her with women's clothing. Florena recovered and chose to remain near the stockade to help the local women nurse the sick prisoners and prison guards at the adjacent Wayside Hospital.

Sadly, Florena Budwin again fell ill and died at the Wayside Hospital on Wednesday, January 25, 1865. She is buried at the site of the Union trenches (Section D, Site 2480 of the National Cemetery), with her lone gravestone in the middle of one of the two large bare patches of land marking the site of the trenches. Her grave is a simple Union soldier's grave marker that bears her name and the date of her death.

Florena Budwin is believed to be the first woman to be buried in a U.S. National Cemetery.

The following are the photos I took of my visit to Florence National Cemetery. 

The grave of Private Florena Budwin listing the date of her death.
Note the copper pennies on top of her marker -- a show of respect
for her service.

I would like to add one more interesting story and connection between the Florence National Cemetery and your favorite blogger personally.

On the Roll of the Known Confederate Dead of Chester County, South Carolina which I reposted for this year's Confederate Memorial Day (May 10th) in memory of the 375 men and boys from my home county who did not survive the War Between The States, at number 362 you will find the name Private Theodore D. Wise. He was from Chester and served as in Company E, 3rd Battalion SC Reserves -- which served as camp guards at Florence Stockade during its existence. Many of the guards were members of the reserve units who were aged 15 to 17 years old.

Sadly, Private Wise would contract measles during an outbreak at the Stockade and pass away at the Wayside Hospital on Monday, December 26, 1864 at the age of 15 -- the youngest Confederate soldier from Chester County to die in the War. Theodore Wise place of burial is unknown -- although he's possibly buried in the mound at nearby Mount Hope Cemetery with the other Unknown Confederate Dead.

Theodore Wise died at the same hospital where Florena Budwin served as a nurse ministering to the sick before her own tragic death from disease a month later. It makes me wonder: did they know each other in that time? Did she offer him comfort as a nurse as he passed away? We can never truly know. Still, its interesting the way threads of history seem to intertwine along with the lives of those who lived it.

I went to Florence to honor and remember the sacrifices and services of both the Confederate dead honored on Confederate Memorial Day (May 10th) and the Union dead who will be honored later this month on U.S. Memorial Day (May 26th this year) -- all of them our American dead.

None of them are forgotten.

The Execution Of Lieutenant William Farrow U.S.A. -- Doolittle Raider From South Carolina (1918 - 1942)

Crew #16 of the Doolittle Raiders B-17 "Bat Out Of Hell"
(From left to right) Navigator Lt. George Barr, Pilot Lt. William G. Farrow,
Engineer Gunner Sgt. Harold A. Spatz, Co-Pilot Lt. Robert L. Hite,
and Bombardier Cpl. Jacob D. DeShazer.
Photograph courtesy of the National Archives.

On Saturday, April 18, 1942 -- 80 years ago this month -- 80 men in 16 B-25B Mitchell two-engine bombers, led by famed aviator U.S. Lieutenant Colonel James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, launched from the pitching deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) and bombed the city of Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The Doolittle Raid was America’s initial payback for the Japanese naval sneak attack on Pearl Harbor four months earlier.

This daring raid was the first time that medium-sized Air Force bombers took off from a Navy aircraft carrier. The planes had been stripped down to pack in just enough bombs for the raid and fuel to reach China where the bomber crews would land, or bail out and meet up with Chinese partisans who would get them to American, or British-held parts of Asia.

The final B-25B Mitchell bomber to take off from the aircraft carrier's flight deck was number 40-2268 nicknamed the "Bat Out Of Hell" commanded by a 24 year old U.S. Army Air Corps lieutenant named William Farrow.


1st Lieutenant Bill Farrow

William Glover "Bill" Farrow was born to Isaac and Jessie Farrow in his grandmother's hometown in Darlington, South Carolina on Tuesday, September 24, 1918 -- less than two months before the end of the First World War.

At age 16, Farrow became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from St. John's High School in May of 1935, and later attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina for two years. During the fall of 1939, he received his pilot training at the Hawthorne School of Aeronautics in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

After college, Farrow enlisted in the United States Army on Saturday, November 23, 1940 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina joining the United States Army Air Corps' Aviation Cadet Program. He obtained his aviator badge and a commission as a second lieutenant at Kelly Field, Texas on Friday, July 11, 1941. Following his completion of the B-25 Mitchell bomber training program, he was sent to Pendleton Field in Oregon as a member of the 34th Bomb Squadron.

Farrow was stationed there when naval military forces of the Japanese Empire attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Sunday, December 7, 1941 and the United States formally entered World War II the next day.

In January of 1942, the 34th Bomb Squadron was transfered to Columbia Army Air Base in West Columbia, South Carolina. The next month in February, members of the squadron were approached by Lt. Colonel James Doolittle and asked to volunteer for a highly top secret mission, for which none of them were given details at the time. Farrow and many others jumped at the opportunity. In all, 80 men (five men per the 16 bombers) volunteered.

Codenamed the B-25B Special Project, the volunteer Air Corps flyers reported to Eglin Field in the Florida panhandle on Sunday, March 1, 1942. The crews received concentrated training for three weeks in simulated carrier deck takeoffs, low-level and night flying, low-altitude bombing, and over-water navigation.

On Wednesday, April 1, 1942, the crews and their respective specially modified aircraft departed from San Francisco harbor at Naval Air Station Alameda in California aboard the U.S. Navy's newest carrier, USS Hornet. The aircraft were strapped to the deck of the Hornet. Each aircraft aboard carried four specially constructed 500-pound bombs.

Two days later on April 13th they made rendezvous with the convoy Task Force 16 that would escort them to the point of launch. This task force was led by Vice Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey Jr. from his flagship, the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6). It was only then that the volunteers were told their mission objectives and their destination: Japan. 

The B-25B Mitchell Bombers used in Doolittle's Raid on the flight deck of the USS Hornet (CV-8)
on their way to the Japanese Islands in April 1942.
Lieutenant Farrow's B-25 "Bat Out Of Hell" is located in the back to the left of the photo.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the Air Force.

Doolittle's Raid

At 07:38 A.M. on the morning of Saturday, April 18th, while the task force was still about 650 nautical miles (750 miles) from the Japanese coast it was sighted by a Japanese picket boat which radioed an attack warning to Japan.

Admiral Halsey ordered the bombers to launch at once.

Doolittle's plane took off at 8:20 A.M. with the others all following rapidly, the last of which was number 16, Lieutenant Farrow's B-25 "Bat Out Of Hell" which was airborne by 9:20 A.M.

Doolittle reached Tokyo and dropped his bombs at 12:25 P.M. Close on his tail came the other raiders, who struck military targets at Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka.

The Japanese made no use of the patrol boat warning, mistakenly assuming the carriers to have had only short-range U.S. Navy aircraft, and were therefore no danger to the Japanese mainland. They also later falsely claimed to have shot down nine of the Raiders, when in fact all 16 bombers got through to land or crash in China or, in one case, divert to the Soviet Union, where the airplane was impounded.

Farrow's plane over the Japanese city of Nagoya, where the "Bat Out Of Hell" released its bombs from 500 feet destroying an oil storage tank and inflicting damage on the Mitsubishi Aircraft Factory and taking off for the Chinese coast. Sixteen hours after leaving the USS Hornet, the B-25s engines sputtered out of gas, and Lieutenant Farrow instructed his crew to bail out even though he knew they were close to enemy-held Nanchang city.

Before noon the next day, all five of the unlucky U.S. crewmen were captured by Japanese patrols and became prisoners of war.


Imprisonment & Execution

William Farrow and the rest of his crew were five of the eight members of Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders captured by the Japanese.

Farrow and his crew were tortured for six months by the Japanese military who tried to force them to sign confessions of guilt for "war crimes" in bombing civilians -- this in spite of the fact the Japanese military had done the same throughout the Pacific and Asia.

The captured members of Doolittle's Raiders were all tried by a Japanese military tribunal had sentenced to death for allegedly bombing civilian targets and "strafing non-combatants" with machine gun fire. Five of the Raiders had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment by the Emperor of Japan.

Of the remaining members of the crew of the "Bat Out Of Hell" Lieutenant Robert Hite, Navigator Lieutenant George Barr, and Bombardier Corporal George DeShazer remained prisoners of war for 40 months until they were liberated on Monday, August 20, 1945.

Lieutenant Farrow, his gunner Sergeant Harold Spatz, and 2nd Lieutenant Dean Hallmark of the 6th Bomber crew, were executed by firing squad at Kiangwan Cemetery, Shanghai, China on Thursday, October 15, 1942. The three men were forced to kneel and were tied to three small crosses, blindfolded, and then shot in the head.

Their bodies were cremated and their ashes were taken to the International Funeral Home in Shanghai, China, where they remained until 1946 when they were recovered along with their final letters written the night before their executions (which the Japanese never sent) and returned to the United States by American investigators.

Lieutenant William Farrow was awarded decorations posthumously, including: the Order of the Sacred Tripod of the Republic of China, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Purple Heart. He was also awarded the Prisoner of War Medal by order of Congress in 1985.

On Monday, January 17, 1949, the ashes of Lieutenants William Farrow and Dean Hallmark were interred in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C. A simple marble base and urn bear Farrow's name in the family plot at Grove Hill Cemetery in Darlington, South Carolina.

Never Forget!

The grave of 1st Lieutenant William G. Farrow at Arlington
National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia near Washington D.C.
Section 12 Grave 157.
His ashes were interred on January 17, 1949 -- almost seven years
following his execution.

1st Lieutenant William "Billy" Farrow's memorial in his
family's plot at Grove Hill Cemetery in Darlington, SC.
The marker bears words from his last letter:
"I have built my house upon a rock, my faith in God is complete.
So I am unafraid."

What Does It Mean When You Put A Coin On A Veteran's Grave?

Have any of y'all ever visited the grave of an armed forces veteran and found coins on the headstone, or marker? If so, then please leave them be.

Unlike the loose change one might find laying around on the ground in a store, or parking lot, the coins placed on the graves of U.S. Veterans holds much more personal meaning as a way of honoring the dead.

In the United States, the tradition of leaving coins on the graves of veterans is rumored to have started during the Vietnam War (1964 - 1975) as a silent way for a veteran to communicate respect to the family of a deceased comrade during a time when the country was deeply divided.

The tradition of leaving coins is not actually sanctioned by any branch of the U.S. military, but rather serves as an unofficial token of respect by individual U.S. veterans themselves.

Each coin left actually holds a very specific and special meaning for the person who left it:

A penny means that someone stopped to visit the grave and paid their respects to the veteran.

A nickel means that someone stopped to visit the grave who went to basic training with the veteran.

A dime means that someone stopped who served together in the armed forces with the veteran.

And a quarter means that some was with the veteran in the grave when he/she was killed in battle, or passed away in the line of duty.

Coins left at National Cemeteries are usually collected and go towards keeping the grounds clean and maintaining the headstones, or to the care of living U.S. Veterans. 

At the rising of the sun and at its going down
We remember them.

At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
We remember them.

At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring
We remember them.

At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
We remember them.

At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn
We remember them.

At the beginning of the year and when it ends
We remember them.

As long as we live, they too will live;
for they are now a part of us

as we remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength

We remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart

We remember them.
When we have joy we crave to share

We remember them.
When we have decisions that are difficult to make

We remember them.
When we have achievements that are based on theirs

We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live;

for they are now a part of us
as we remember them.

~We Remember Them by Rabbis Sylvan Kamens & Jack Riemer