SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The body of a young Union soldier has returned home -- 147 years after he died at Antietam battlefield in the bloodiest day of the Civil War, the Army said.
The Army doesn't have an identification of the soldier, but believes he was between 17 and 19 years old. Insignia on cuff buttons found near his remains indicates he was from a New York State militia.
A hiker from Oklahoma found the remains on Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Md., after noticing some earth that appeared to have been turned over by a groundhog.
The Antietam National Cemetery Lodge turned the remains over to the Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville, N.Y., where the soldier was laid to rest Thursday.
The Maryland National Guard conducted an honors ceremony before turning the remains over to the New York National Guard.
"It is right and fitting that today's citizen-soldiers from New York state bring home this unknown New York volunteer of the Civil War," said Army Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Taluto, the New York adjutant general. "The Soldier's Creed reminds all American soldiers that we never leave a fallen comrade behind. This is a way for soldiers of today to care for a fallen comrade from our past."
The battle at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862 left more than 23,000 soldiers dead, wounded or missing.
