| This story has been corrected. |
U.S. Army veteran Pvt. J.R. Kealoha is finally getting a gravestone recognizing his service to the nation — 150 years after he fought in the Siege of Petersburg during the Civil War.
Kealoha, a Native Hawaiian who died in 1877, is buried in an unmarked grave at historic Oahu Cemetery near the walled, gated and raised-ground burial plot of industrialist James Campbell and his family.
At 10 a.m. Oct. 25, the Hawaii Sons of the Civil War Memorial Committee will hold a ceremony that’s open to the public to dedicate a gray granite marker being placed on Kealoha’s grassy grave.
Reaching this moment hasn’t been without its challenges.
Nanette Napoleon, a well-known cemetery historian who is part of the committee, said the hui wanted the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a marker.
Although the VA says it "furnishes upon request, at no charge to the applicant, a government headstone or marker" for the unmarked grave of a veteran in any cemetery around the world, regardless of date of death, a policy change in 2009 that was fully implemented in 2012 means that only next of kin now can authorize such a marker.
Before that a third party with appropriate documentation could do so.
In 1879, Congress approved the furnishing of gravestones for unmarked veterans graves in private cemeteries.
The state Office of Veterans’ Services got involved after Napoleon’s group was rebuffed, essentially claiming guardianship of Kealoha to secure a government marker when no next of kin could be located 137 years after he died.
The VA still said no.
With the impasse, Honor Life Memorials in Kahaluu stepped forward to donate a marker and inscription and deliver it to Oahu Cemetery, Napoleon said.
Oahu Cemetery, meanwhile, is donating chairs and a shelter for the ceremony and is installing the marker.
The new headstone is inscribed:
J.R Kealoha
PVT 41st Infantry Regiment
U.S. Colored Troops
Civil War
Died March 5, 1877
He Koa Hanohano
A brave and honorable soldier
"All of us are very emotional about this because we have felt so strongly that he deserves a marker for his service as a veteran, and that’s what we were trying to do: get acknowledgement that he was a veteran," Napoleon said. "We couldn’t get a veteran’s official VA marker, but it’s still important for us that we mark this grave."
A total of 119 Civil War veterans were either born or raised in the islands, she said.
Forty-nine of those were Native Hawaiians serving for both the Union and Confederacy.
Of those, Kealoha’s grave is the only one known in the state as a Hawaiian Civil War veteran, Napoleon said.
"So it’s important for me, personally, as a Native Hawaiian, to do this for Kealoha," she said.
Kealoha participated in the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and fought from June 1864 to April 1865.
"From October 1864 to April 1865, Kealoha and the 41st were in or around the trench warfare taking place outside of Petersburg and Richmond," Justin Vance and Anita Manning, two other members of the group seeking a headstone for the soldier, said in a report.
That trench warfare would become a precursor to a similar tactic in World War I.
The Petersburg battles involved more than 180,000 soldiers and resulted in 60,000 casualties.
A letter, dated Jan. 22, 1865, and penned by Col. Samuel Chapman Armstrong, who was born on Maui, notes a conversation with Kealoha, whom he describes as his "orderly," holding his horse, outside Richmond, Va.
"I asked him where he was from," Armstrong wrote. "He said he was from Hawaii! He proved to be a full-blooded kanaka, by the name of Kealoha, who came from the Islands last year."
He also noted meeting another man named Kaiwi from Hawaii.
"I enjoyed seeing them very much, and we had a good jabber in kanaka," the colonel said.
Nothing is known of Kealoha before or after the fighting.
"We have in Honolulu a U.S. veteran and Hawaiian warrior that survived nearly nine months of trench warfare and then witnessed the end of the war in Virginia," Eric Mueller, another member of the Oahu group, said previously. "We may never know what compelled him to travel to the U.S. and then into the U.S. Army, but we cannot dispute his bravery."
The discovery of grave registration information for Kealoha led to the effort to secure a marker.
Why he is buried in an unmarked plot is another mystery.
In fact, 18 other individuals, all believed to be Hawaiian, are buried in unmarked graves near Kealoha, Napoleon said.
In the late 1800s not everyone could afford a marble or granite marker, she said. Some graves were marked by wooden crosses, which eventually rotted away.
Hawaiians sometimes planted a tree or a bush as a marker, Napoleon said. The section where Kealoha is buried might have been for the indigent, but Napoleon, who is on the Oahu Cemetery board of directors, isn’t sure.
Some Hawaii residents found their way into the American Civil War by volunteering or, in the case of sailors, through the fate of their whaling ships, which were in some cases drafted into service.
Hawaii’s missionary ties to the mainland also drove some to enter the war.
Napoleon previously said the U.S. government, by law, owed Kealoha an official VA upright marble marker for his service to the country.
When the VA rejected the Hawaii Sons of the Civil War request based on the next-of-kin requirement, the state Office of Veterans’ Services tried.
John Condello, the veterans services coordinator, said in a June 6 correspondence to the VA that he was told he would receive a letter from the agency explaining why the state’s request to step in was being rejected.
No response ever came, Condello said.
Christopher Erbe, a spokesman for the VA’s National Cemetery Administration, said the acting undersecretary for memorial affairs is preparing a response to Condello.
"The response is delayed due to internal processing and review procedures designed to ensure that VA gives every consideration to issues raised by Mr. Condello," Erbe said in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
"VA understands the nature of the (state’s) request, but is, by current federal rules, unable to grant it," Erbe said, citing the VA policy change enacted in 2009 and enforced in 2012. "Mr. Condello, although representing the state of Hawaii, bears no relation to the deceased veteran and does not qualify as an authorized applicant."
Erbe said the VA realizes, though, that the requirement "may be too limiting and is reviewing the current regulation." The VA has been weighing a possible change since 2013.
Historians and veterans groups around the country are having the same problem securing VA gravestones for old, unmarked graves.
A bill known as the Honor Those Who Served Act, introduced in Congress in July, would allow state veterans service agencies and other groups to prove the identity of a veteran.
It is disappointing and frustrating "that it’s taken so long to get the kind of response that we got from (the VA)," Napoleon said. "But it is what it is. It’s more important for us to mark the grave in some manner."
CORRECTION: The Hawaii Sons of the Civil War Memorial Committee will hold a ceremony to dedicate a marker being placed on J.R. Kealoha’s grave on Oct. 25. An earlier version of this story and the story in the print edition said the ceremony will be held Thursday.
