A memorial service will be held for fallen Union soldier 155 years after his death.

Benjamin Shorter, a native of Grainger County, Tennessee, moved his family to Barbourville in the fall of 1860 to escape mandatory enlistment into the Confederate Army in the upcoming War Between the States. A year later, Benjamin enlisted in the Union Army and he left Barbourville at that time never to return. Private Shorter mustered into the Union Army, 8th Kentucky Infantry, Company A at Camp Dick Robinson in Garrard County and did preliminary training at Estill Springs near Irvine, Kentucky. The troops saw limited action over the course of the next several months eventually marching to Nashville, Tennessee. Private Shorter suffered from disease of fever contracted by the exposures and fatigue and hardships incident to his line of duty as a soldier and died in a Nashville field hospital on December 20, 1862. Private Shorter was buried in the Nashville City Cemetery. In 1869, the city government of Nashville,sympathizing with the Confederate cause, asked that all Union soldiers be removed from the City Cemetery and reinterred to the newly opened Nashville National Cemetery. With 7 years having passed, the soldiers' wooden grave markers had deteriorated to the point that they were unrecognizable. The Union soldiers' remains were placed in graves marked simply by a row number and column number.

Jakalyn Jackson, Private Shorter's great, great granddaughter, requisitioned his military service records and has spent the last 30 trying to determine the final resting place of Private Shorter's remains. A trip to Nashville and the state archives in 2012, finally solved the mystery. Since that time, our family has been requisitioning The Department of Veteran Affairs for a tombstone to be placed in the Nashville National Cemetery. Because the cemetery has now been closed to additional interments, our family received a memorial stone to be place in the cemetery of our choice.

A memorial service will be held for Private Shorter at the Barbourville Cemetery on Wednesday, April 26th at 5:00 p.m. The Oxendine family, descendants of Private Shorter would like to invite everyone, especially his descendants to the memorial service for our great, great grandfather, a fallen American hero.

Private Shorter left behind a wife, Lucinda, children, Daniel, also a Union soldier, John, Mary Jane, George, Joseph, Scena and Kitty. He was 35 when he enlisted.

Written by Sharron Oxendine

Hopper Funeral Home is honored to take part in this service for Private Shorter.