DECATUR, Ala. — On Wednesday, Calhoun Community College, along with local leaders and historians, unveiled a new headstone for Private Hiram Matthews, a U.S. Colored Troop soldier buried on Calhoun's campus in Decatur. The discovery was led by Calhoun history instructor John Gaines and colleagues, who regularly clean the campus cemetery.
Born circa 1846 in Limestone County, Alabama, Matthews was enslaved by the Matthews family. He enlisted in the Union Army on November 3, 1863, in Nashville, Tennessee, serving in Company H, 13th United States Colored Infantry (USCI), and fought in the Battle of Nashville. After discharge, he became a Methodist Episcopal Church minister, preaching in Decatur until his death on January 12, 1895.
"His gravesite has been on this site since 1895. So people have walked by, driven by, but never took notice until John Gaines in the field trip took notice and mentioned it. So it was like hiding in plain sight,” said Wylheme H. Ragland, Retired Clergy of North AL United Methodists.
The gravesite, now enhanced with a fence and river rock, was funded by private donations to the Calhoun Foundation. Alabama Senator Arthur Orr financed the granite block beneath the marker, and the Veterans Administration supplied the bronze marker. Reverend Wylheme Ragland and his sons contributed a bronze medallion in honor of Matthews' service as a Methodist minister.
Matthews' gravesite is open to the public at Calhoun's Decatur campus, south of the larger cemetery.