John Jay Bernard and Henry McCorkle, Knoxville residents and alumni of the University of Tennessee, both died in Cuba, during a Spanish-American War battle on July 1, 1898. University of Tennessee President, Charles Dabney, presided over a ceremony at their burial in the Knoxville National Cemetery. What was unusual about this was that Bernard was a Union soldier in the Civil War and McCorkle was a Confederate soldier, so this ceremony happened in the context of efforts to reconcile soldiers who had fought for opposing armies and their families. This book explores the lives of these two men and the way that their deaths in Cuba on the same day contributed to reconciliation efforts.
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2022. 229 pages with an Index, Bibliography, Notes, Foreword by Jack Neely, and photos. Trade paperback.