Civil War veterans found their final resting place in Big Horn County

During the week when Americans celebrate Veterans Day, it is fitting to remember even those who served long before the Big Horn Basin’s towns existed. At least 25 Civil War veterans are buried in Big Horn County cemeteries, their lives having carried them from across the United States, Canada, England and Germany to this corner of Wyoming. Their graves are reminders that the war’s reach extended far beyond its battlefields. 

So many of the surnames on this list remain familiar in Big Horn County. They belong to neighbors, former classmates and families whose descendants may pass these cemeteries every day. Some families may already know of this Civil War connection; others may be discovering it for the first time.

What follows is a brief summary of the lives and military service of these Civil War veterans. This remains an ongoing research project, and families with additional information, photographs, military records or corrections are encouraged to contact John Bernhisel at jbernhisel@gmail.com. 

John Arden Adshead

Born in Hazel Grove, Cheshire, England | 1841–1908 | Union Army, Pvt., Co. A, 4th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry | Cowley Cemetery

Adshead served in the early months of the war and was discharged for disability after suffering dysentery and a serious hernia near Richmond in 1862. His injury followed him for life, and Congress increased his pension shortly before his death in Cowley.

James Daniel Allen

Born in Germantown, Wisconsin | 1844–1910 | Union Army, Co. D, 4th Missouri State Militia Cavalry | Mount View Cemetery, Basin

Allen enlisted from St. Joseph, Missouri, then became a Colorado rancher before bringing his family to the Big Horn Basin in 1887. He ranched along Medicine Lodge Creek, raised 10 children and served as vice president of the Big Horn County Bank.

Joseph Riley Barnett

Born in Kentucky | 1828–1907 | Confederate Missouri unit; later Union Army, Missouri militia | Crystal Creek Cemetery

Barnett’s service reflects Missouri’s divided Civil War experience. He served about 13 months with a Confederate unit, then joined a Union Missouri militia in September 1864. His brother Ewing followed a similar path from Confederate to Union service. He is the only one on the list that served briefly in the Confederate Army.

Harlow G. Bassett

Born in Wyoming County, New York | 1838–1911 | Union Army, Co. F, 9th Illinois Infantry | Iona Kane Cemetery

Bassett enlisted in the first wave of volunteers after Lincoln’s 1861 call for troops. He re-enlisted after his initial three-month term, and the 9th Illinois went on to serve through the war.

Charles C. Bennett

Born in Savanna, Carroll County, Illinois | 1844–1924 | Union Army, Co. C, 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry | Greybull Cemetery

Bennett served with a mounted-infantry regiment. These soldiers traveled by horse but usually dismounted to fight, giving them mobility without making them traditional cavalrymen. He moved to Greybull in 1909.

John Gottlieb Borner

Born in Saxony, Germany | 1831–1919 | Union Army, 12th Wisconsin Infantry | Greybull Cemetery

Borner served four years in the war, then became one of the earliest settlers of the Greybull area. He homesteaded land on the future site of Greybull in 1884 and lived long enough to watch sagebrush country become a town. He was also an active Mason and served as master of Basin’s Temple Lodge.

Willard S. Closson

Born in Pennsylvania | 1843–1923 | Union Army, Co. M, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry | Greybull Cemetery

Closson served along the contested Missouri-Kansas border, where his company performed patrol, guard and escort duty. He later received a federal disability pension, worked as a laborer in Greybull and died there just two days before his 80th birthday.

Silas Marcellus Coburn

Born in Brookfield, Vermont | 1826–1911 | Union Army, Pvt., Co. G, 7th Iowa Cavalry | Shell Cemetery

Coburn enlisted in 1863 and remained in service until March 1866, nearly a year after the war ended. He later lived in the Wyoming Territory and at one point served as Big Horn County coroner.

Daniel Webster Cook

Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin | 1847–1930 | Union Army, Co. B, 3rd Wisconsin Infantry | Hyattville Cemetery

Cook enlisted at about 17 years old in 1864. He joined late in the war but served during Sherman’s final campaigns and was with his regiment for the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C.

Joseph L. “Joe” Denny

Birthplace unknown | 1845–1930 | Union Army, Co. H, 25th Missouri Infantry | Mount View Cemetery, Basin

After the war, Denny became a familiar Basin resident. In 1911 he won a blue ribbon for a squash measuring 48 inches around, a small but memorable glimpse of his life as a local gardener or farmer.

W. J. Durfey

Born in Bristow, Canada | 1838–1922 | Union Army | Hyattville Cemetery

Durfey’s obituary said he served as a federal soldier throughout the Civil War and received two honorable discharges. He came to the Hyattville country in 1900 and raised a large family, with children from two marriages.

Spencer Henry Forshee

Born in Chatham County, North Carolina | 1834–1891 | Union Army, Pvt., 3rd Iowa Light Artillery, Independent Battery, “Dubuque Battery” | Mount View Cemetery, Basin

Forshee was a North Carolina-born man who fought for the Union with an Iowa artillery battery. The Dubuque Battery saw hard service in Missouri and Arkansas, including Pea Ridge, one of the war’s important early Union victories west of the Mississippi.

Moral Edwin Garland

Born in Montreal, Canada | 1837–1907 | Union Army, Corporal, Civil War service | Burlington Cemetery

Garland’s government-style veteran marker confirms both his Civil War service and his rank of corporal. His Canadian birth adds to the international background of men who later made homes in the Big Horn Basin.

Henry Gifford

Born in Canada | 1847–1934 | Union Army, Pvt., Co. G, 144th Illinois Infantry | Mount View Cemetery, Basin

Gifford was likely only 16 or 17 when he enlisted from Brighton, Illinois, in 1864. His late-war regiment served mainly around St. Louis, guarding key transportation and military locations.

Abe Gotwals

Born in Pennsylvania | 1841–1917 | Union Army | Hyattville Cemetery

Gotwals came west in 1869 and settled near Hyattville in 1882. At his funeral, fellow Civil War veterans Joe Denny, Dan Cook and W. J. Durfey served as pallbearers, a reminder of the close veteran community in the Basin.

John Green Hensley

Born in northeastern Kansas | 1838–1926 | Union Army, Co. A, 6th Kansas Infantry | Otto Cemetery

Hensley served about a year in the Union Army, then became a farmer, Baptist, Mason and member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He came to the Big Horn Basin in 1895 and was returned to Otto for burial after his death near Billings.

Seth W. Jones

Born in Watseka, Illinois | 1845–1939 | Union Army, Co. A, 6th Kansas Infantry | Byron Cemetery

Jones lived to age 93, making him one of the longest-lived veterans in the group. He was an active member of the LDS Church, and his body was returned to Byron for burial after his death in Utah.

Samuel Walker Judkins Jr.

Born in Logan County, Kentucky | 1834–1903 | Union Army, Co. G, 1st Enrolled Missouri Militia | Basin Pioneer Cemetery

Judkins served in a Missouri militia organized to defend communities against guerrilla attacks and Confederate incursions. After the war, he and his wife, Julia Ann Hess, raised their family in Missouri before becoming early Basin residents.

George W. Mattox

Born in Springfield, Illinois | 1836–1932 | Union Army, Lincoln’s final call | Otto Cemetery

Mattox’s 1932 obituary described an extraordinary frontier life. It said he had known Abraham Lincoln as a child, prospected during gold rushes, scouted for the government and helped locate Fort Meade. He was buried at Otto with the American Legion in charge of the service.

William R. Richards

Born in New Hampshire | 1846–1933 | Union Army | Deaver Cemetery

Richards reportedly enlisted with his father, who was captured and died at Andersonville Prison. Richards later became a shoemaker, raised a large family and was remembered as a Methodist and a man who had seen and voted for Abraham Lincoln.

Harry G. Sessions

Born in Brandon, Vermont | 1844–1924 | Union Army, Vermont Infantry | Greybull Cemetery

Sessions enlisted in 1862 and fought at Gettysburg. He and his wife moved to Wyoming in 1895, first living in the Sunshine Basin near Meeteetse before settling in Greybull.

William Shaddock

Birthplace and death date unknown | 1846–unknown | Union Army, Private and later Corporal, Company I, 9th New York Cavalry | Shell Cemetery 

Shaddock enlisted at Harmony, New York, in January 1864 at age 18. He was promoted to corporal that December and remained with his company until being mustered out in Virginia in July 1865.

Smith Moore Stout
Birthplace unknown |1846–1939 | Union Army, Cpl., Co. D, 13th Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry | Mount View Cemetery, Basin

Stout served in an East Tennessee Union cavalry regiment during the difficult final years of the war. He later lived in Holt County, Missouri, raised a family and eventually came west to Basin.

Marion G. Traugh

Born in Pennsylvania | 1845–1918 | Union Army, Co. C, 4th Illinois Cavalry; Co. I, 141st Illinois Infantry | Mount View Cemetery, Basin

Traugh had service in both cavalry and infantry units. In later life he became a dentist, a Big Horn County commissioner and an advocate for better roads. His 1918 death was described as a major loss to the county.

Archibald Winne

Born in Albany, New York | 1846–1912 | Union Army, Pvt., Co. A, 177th New York Infantry; later 2nd Lt., Co. H, 8th New York Heavy Artillery | Mount View Cemetery, Basin

Winne had two periods of Union service and rose from private to lieutenant. He was wounded at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June 1864, one of the war’s bloodiest battles.