Posted at: 07/23/2009 10:26 PM
Updated at: 07/24/2009 7:36 AM
By: Eric Kahnert, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

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Civil War soldiers to be honored

Ft. Craig remains

In 2004, archaeologists found out the cemetery had been looted, so three years later, they exhumed 64 bodies including soldiers, women and children.

One unearthed skull belongs to Private Thomas Smith, a Buffalo Soldier and one of three soldiers that archaeologists have been able to identify.

Mark Hungerford helped dig up the remains.

He says at least one looter dug up some of the bodies, looking for valuables and taking some of the remains.

"There was a man who had a skull and for the past 25 years or so had this skull in his possession and had displayed it in his house along with a few other human bones he had dug up," Hungerford said.

Investigators say that man was Dee Brecheisen, who has since died.

A friend of Brecheisen from the 1970s told investigators he was shown mummified remains of a Black soldier, which were anonymously returned to investigators a few years ago.

"Anytime you have human bodies involved in archaeology, it's always a little more emotional, this one's way up there," Hungerford said.

Ft. Craig's preservation may have been flattened as a result of the looting, but the bodies exhumed there are not being forgotten.

Hungerford said Thursday, "To acknowledge their sacrifice out here in the west, and put them in a place where they can be at peace and no one can disturb them is the most satisfying thing I've ever done as an archaeologist."

Besides Smith, archaeologists also identified two other Buffalo Soldiers buried at Ft. Craig.

Privates David Ford and Levi Morris will also be honored at a ceremony next week.

The ceremony will be held on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Santa Fe National Cemetery to honor the three identified soldiers, as well as the 61 others who were buried there last month.