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Don Estes, our recently retired cemetery director, submitted the following story from an upcoming book he has written about the Natchez City Cemetery.
Robert Paxton Trabue
Jan. 2, 1824 – Feb. 12, 1863
Born in Columbia, Kentucky, Robert Paxton Trabue joined relatives in a fabled line of American military personnel. He abandoned a law practice in Columbia, Kentucky, to serve with Kentucky volunteers in the Mexican War. He then resumed practicing law, this time in Natchez, where he married Hibernia Inge [November 16, 1860]. The couple had one child, Laura, who was born November 27, 1861.
During the War Between the States, Trabue was a Colonel in the famed “Orphan Brigade,” helping raise the 4th Kentucky Regiment [Sept. 13, 1861], of which he became the Commander. He subsequently commanded the 2nd Kentucky Brigade in the fierce Battle of Shiloh [Apr. 6-7, 1862] before, once again, commanding the 4th Kentucky Regiment in the Battle of Murphreesboro, Tennessee [Dec. 31 – Jan. 3 1863].
After the death of Brigadier General Roger W. Hanson in the Battle of Murphreesboro, Trabue traveled to Richmond, Virginia, to be promoted to General. He became ill and died in Richmond on Feb. 12, 1863, and his body was believed to have been placed in a holding vault at St. Paul’s Church there.
No marked grave can be found for General Trabue in Richmond. A number of researchers feel that his remains were removed to Natchez. This theory is plausible for three reasons. FIRST, William C. Davis, in his book The Orphan Brigade, the Kentucky Confederates who Couldn’t Go Home, writes that the Kentucky delegation to Richmond took up a collection to return “Old Trib’s” body to Natchez for burial. SECOND, Natchez City Cemetery burial records contain the following entry:
"From Date Nothing Reliable. No Report. Federals Had Charge of Cemetery. All Deaths Had To Be Reported To Them And They Carried The Records Away With Them. R. H. S. Robert Steward, City Sexton. March 23, 1864 to Sept. 1865. No Records.”
And, THIRD, a dowsing of the graves in the Trabue Family Lot gets consistent readings for three bodies: For Laura, who died in 1878 and whose body is in a marked grave, for a male, and for a female. Since there were only three family members, one can logically deduce that the male and the female buried in the family lot are Hibernia, who died in 1918, and “Old Trib,” whose grave probably lies between that of Laura’s and his wife’s.
In any case, the Natchez City Cemetery now has a red Southern Cross of Honor temporarily marking the grave of General Robert P. Trabue until his remains can be positively identified. |
