
Confederate Colonel buried in Salem, Oregon
Posted by:
ddtfamily
N 44° 55.168 W 123° 03.006
10T E 496045 N 4974005
Grave of Confederate Colonel in Oregon, a Union state and more than 2,000 miles from his Alabama birthplace
Waymark Code: WMJZYQ
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 01/23/2014
Views: 11
This is the grave of Leonidas Willis, who served as a Colonel in the Army of the Confederate States of America under General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Willis was born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1831 and lived in New Orleans and Gonzales, Texas until war broke out in 1861. Willis joined a cavalry battalion and served primarily in Arkansas and Mississippi. He migrated to Salem, Oregon in 1871, opening a dry goods business. Willis passed away in 1899. The grave is in Salem's Pioneer Cemetery; there are only a handful of Confederate soldiers buried in Salem as it is more than 2,000 miles from the Confederacy.
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