Final photo of old Civil War gravestone by the Susquehanna?
Cannonball reader Eileen Musser lives along River Road in Hellam Township near the recently rededicated monument to a Confederate soldier once buried there after washing up on the riverbank back in late June 1863 during the Gettysburg Campaign.
She took the above photograph back in September 2011 on the very day that this monument was destroyed by a rushing torrent of rocks and water from Dugan’s Run coming down a steep hillside behind the photographer’s position.
Here is what the site looked like just hours later…
The water washed away the riverbank and carried away the old monument. Two years later, a new monument was dedicated on April 6, 2013.
Eileen writes, “At the edge of the picture are the surging waters of Dugans Run on the afternoon that the stone washed away. (I believe it was Sept. 7, 2011) The second picture shows the height of the flood’s fury. (I have video tape as well) It took several days for the waters to subside. We had hopes of finding the stone within the rubble, but so much rock and earth had been moved that we never found a trace of the lost monument.”
The replacement marker (photo by Scott Mingus) on the day of its dedication.
