GRAY, Maine — Editor's Note: This is a Bill Green story from May 2016.
The story of the Stranger has now been set to music. The Stranger is an unknown Confederate soldier, probably killed at Cedar Mountain, who was shipped to Maine.
Lt. Charles Colley of the 10th Maine Regiment was also killed. His family paid to have his body shipped home. When they opened the coffin to pay their last respects, they discovered the unknown Rebel.
The soldier was buried in the town cemetery. The ladies of the community erected a headstone in his honor. History judges this to be a compassionate act, especially when one considers that Gray sent more sons to the Civil War than any other Maine town.
Colley is buried about 100 feet away.
Now, Dave Rowe of the Squid Jiggers has put the story to music.
"I think of what they (the Colley family) went through. They paid money to have their son brought home and he didn't come," Rowe said. "They were presented with a Confederate soldier and they had a choice to make. You know, what we do? And they did what I think reasonable people would do, which is to buy a plot and bury him like their own because they knew he was somebody's son."
The tombstone bears the name "Stranger" and has attracted quite a bit of interest over 150 years. From time to time, historians make serious efforts to figure out who the stranger was. The latest attempt occurred just a couple of years ago.
"A lady called me two years ago saying that she believed that she was next of kin and she wanted to dig him up and do DNA testing and then move him to South Carolina with his family," Chris Stilke, who does maintenance on the cemetery, said.
A follow-up never came but stories and rumors abound. One is that Lt. Colley isn't even really buried in the cemetery.
"I heard the same thing but as soon as I heard it I came up and I probed that lot," Stilke said. "There is a box under that monument. I can't prove he's in it, but somebody went a long ways to fake it if he's not."
So, a story that began before there even was a Memorial Day continues to capture the curiosity of contemporary citizens. Now, thanks to Dave Rowe, the story will endure in song.