Delta Kappa Epsilon - University of Alabama

FROM THE HISTORIAN 10 Delta Kappa Epsilon 9th Corps' lines on June 5-12, 1864. This is the only real evidence of the site of Edwin's initial burial. The nearest we came to locating Edwin's 1864 burial site was when we located a sign read- ing "Woody's Hundred" at the entrance to a residential real estate development. Mr. Krick subsequently advised us "the house that may or may not be the wartime Woody House is imme- diately south of that entrance, on the same side of the road. It has a bright red roof. That surely is the site of the Woody House during the war; the unsolved question is whether or not any part of the present building is original. I do not know the literal perimeter of the Woody farm in 1864, but still presume that the burial record referred to that farm/family, and that narrows down the original burial location somewhat." We missed the house with the "bright red roof" on our visit. However, the fact that this house was located behind Federal lines during the fighting on June 7, 1864, led us to conclude in our prior article that Edwin's body had somehow fallen into Federal hands after his death and prior to his ini- tial burial. However, Luther Rogers' War Record seems to make clear that Edwin was indeed buried by the Southern Deke surgeon, certainly behind Confederate, not Union lines. Thus, our current thinking is that Edwin's 1866 reinterment record indicating that he was initially buried "near Woody's" is a reference to the Woody farm, and not necessarily the Woody house. We do not presently know the exact location of the Confederate field hospital where Edwin died, but presumably he was buried near there. Note that the area where Edwin was wounded and captured near Crossing Oaks Trail is only a mile or so, "as the crow flies" from Woody's Hundred and the Woody house. So, it's reasonable to assume that the subject Confederate field hospi- tal was in the general area as well, and "Woody's" may have been the nearest place with a geographical place name at the time; thus the reinterment record specifying "near Woody's." We returned to Edwin's gravesite on June 7 th in order to honor Edwin on the 150 th anniversary of his wounding, capture and death. 10 To Edwin's Hometown of Patten, Maine Our quest to find all we could about our story would of course not have been complete without a trek to Edwin Rogers' hometown of Patten, Maine. His purported grave in the town cem- etery, his childhood home, and other important information potentially awaited us. Patten is located in northern Maine, near Maine's high- est mountain, Mount Katahdin, and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. It is in the heart of what was once Maine's booming lumber industry. During much of the nineteenth century, Maine was one of the leading lumber producing areas in the world. It was famous for producing tall, straight timber that made excellent masts for sailing ships. It was into this newly opened part of the northern Maine wilderness that Dr. Luther Rogers moved his family in the early 1840's, and where Edwin was born in on January 31, 1843. 11 Through the kindness and generosity of sev- eral members of the Rogers family, we had been advised that Patten's annual "Pioneer Days" festival was scheduled for the week-end of August 8-10, 2014, and that this would thus be a good time to visit the land of Edwin's birth. For many years, the Rogers family has owned property on Shin Pond, a waterfront retreat about fifteen miles from Patten. Some of the Pioneer Days festivities would be centered around the Lumbermen's Museum, located just off of Main Street in Patten. The Lumbermen's Museum was co-founded in 1963 by Lore Rogers, son of Luther Bailey Rogers and nephew of our martyred Deke hero, Edwin. Frank Rogers, grandson of Lore Rogers, and thus a great-great-nephew of Edwin, serves as the current President of the museum. So, Pioneer Days seemed like a great opportunity to meet members of the Rogers family in person and visit sites associated with Edwin. I also had another good rea- son to believe that the trip would be worthwhile. "A battered diamond pin" We arrived in Patten on the afternoon of August 8, 2014. We found a bucolic small town of 1000 people, with its many historic buildings giving it the look of a classic American small town. Edwin S. Rogers, The Battle of Cold Harbor And The True Story Behind "Brothers in DKE" PART II (Continued from page 9) 10 Some records indicate that Edwin Rogers died on June 8th, rather than June 7th, but it appears that both given dates for his death are based on the understanding that he was mortally wounded on June 7th, and died with a matter of hours thereafter. Whether he actually died on the 7th or the 8th is uncertain, but his family appears to have accepted June 7th as the correct date, as that is the 11 See Family Centennial, by Johnny Moore, 1999. Edwin S. Rogers' original DKE pin from circa 1862.

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