the grave of a soldier who fought in the war that ended slavery, vernon johnstone, as you see here on the left, lies next to the remains of a soldier, william blakely, who died in mexico in a war to expand the territory of slavery. yet their headstones give no indication of this. a half dozen confederates who died in pittsburgh as prisoners of war were buried within the lot next to union soldiers. in the shadow of a union war memorial. not until 1907 did they get a headstone marked with the initials c.s.a., and this one for alfred alcorn. his story is particularly amazing because he was a prisoner of war who was en route from one prison in ohio to another one in maryland and he jumped the train in pittsburgh and died of head injuries. that's why he ended up here. in the soldier lot, causes do not register. neither the moral cause for which the men died, nor their physical causes of death. here they are all unified in one organization and one cause. the cause of the nation. only in the 20th century when the lot was reaching capacity did the metadata begin to expand as death dates and n