"We couldn’t find the gravestone that was described in the book," says Rolston. Even the cemetery owner and his wife could find no record of the grave that day. But unable to forget the mystery of this Confederate soldier’s obscure burial in the Northern state, Rolston returned to the cemetery until he succeeded in locating the grave of William Rogers Greene. But to its right, only grass occupied the space where Samuel Postlethwaite was supposedly buried. There was no evidence of the unmarked stone. Now, with no direct ties to the soldier, Rolston began his quest to solve the mystery–who was Samuel Postlethwaite, and why was he, a Confederate soldier, buried in Rhode Island without a marker? "It was almost like I was being drawn into something—and then I started investing a little bit of time into it. Once you start investing time into something, you want to see it through."

With his wife’s help, Rolston compiled a list of every media outlet in Rhode Island, Louisiana, and Mississippi. He sent little blurbs about "Sam," as he is affectionately called. "I asked if anyone knew anything about him or the 21st Mississippi Infantry." (The Infantry unit was the only information he had.) Rolston even contacted the author of the guidebook that had provoked the endeavor, but she had lost all of her original information about the soldier and had nothing more to offer.

Surprisingly enough, Sam’s story aroused television and newspaper coverage and a tremendous response from around the country. "I didn’t think I’d get anything," Rolston recalls, but the mail flooded in. "We started calling it ‘Sam mail.’ Sometimes as many as six to twelve pieces of mail came a day."

One summer afternoon Sam’s obituary arrived in the mail with a description of what had happened to him at the last battle of the Seven Days’ Battles at Malvern Hill. "We sat on the couch and I read it to Jane. It was a moment we will never forget. Suddenly there was a bond between us and this poor guy who had been completely forgotten. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment," recalls Rolston.

The research continued. Everywhere he went people asked, "Hey, what’s going on with your research?" or "How’s the Sam thing going?" One evening, following a casual dinner party, Rolston’s friend said unexpectedly, "You’re going to have to write a book about this."

"I laughed," says Rolston, who had no plan to write a book about Sam’s story. His only intention was to put a marker on Sam’s grave and return honor to the forgotten soldier. "[My friend] is a teacher; he has a stern manner when he wants to, and he lowered his eyes and glared at me and said, ‘You have to write a book about this.’"

Authoring a book, however, was an entirely new venture. Unsure if he was up for the challenge, Rolston initially pursued professional writers who would put his findings on paper. Then he realized, "This is my story." And it truly is. Each chapter of Lost Soul begins with Rolston’s personal discoveries of Sam’s life in a way that only he could convey. It is what makes the story unique. In retrospect, Rolston is grateful he didn’t throw the opportunity away, "I would have regretted that very much," he says.

His lifelong interest in history and English provided an appropriate foundation, but writing the book wasn’t easy. "There were times when I spent three weekends out of four every month in the summer–every spare moment I had–working on the project. If I wasn’t licking envelopes, I was crashing away on my word processor trying to put some kind of story line together," says Rolston. He recalls in the early days he cringed and thought, "I mailed that to somebody?" Even his wife was banned from reading any of his work that wasn’t published. "If she read anything I had written and criticized it, I would crumble."

"And the research," Rolston says sincerely, "was all difficult." His advice to researchers: "Marry a librarian." Rolston was fortunate enough to do just that. His wife shared her expertise and assisted Rolston in using the National Union Manuscript Collection, which was critical to his success. Hiring researchers proved productive as well. Rolston admires the "incredible researchers who, for little money, would travel from their home to their local library and look for anything I asked them to look for."

The resources gathered over years of research were invaluable to Rolston’s project, but traveling the battlefields on which Sam fought awarded him even greater insight into Sam’s life and a stronger connection to him. One of the sites was Malvern Hill. "Walking down those fields was so eerie, especially when I saw the trenches that were exactly like they had been described in the documents I researched," recalls Rolston.

While roaming one of the first places Sam was sent, now called Brunswick, Rolston recalls, "Jane and I looked at each other because it was one of the few times in this project that we could both really feel something–in a spiritual sense. It was a very moving experience. I’ve always thought of the moment when Sam and his fellow soldiers were huddled in those woods, knowing that they were about to march eight hundred yards uphill into one hundred and fifty cannons and sharpshooters, knowing that most of them wouldn’t return. When I think of Sam, this is what comes to mind: ‘Gee Sam, what were you thinking of then?’"

Regardless of the thoroughness of his own research, Rolston’s most effective tool was to "be really gracious and really appreciative" of others’ help. Early in the research people sent information that didn’t relate at all to his project. "I would send a nice ‘thank you’ note anyway. And then two years later the same person, because I had sent them a ‘thank you’ note, would send me something I had been frustrated looking for."

Rolston discovered that research is not linear. "You don’t start at point A and then proceed to point Z. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. You’re going to get pieces of this jigsaw puzzle that much later will become important."

It took Rolston more than five years to fit the pieces of his jigsaw puzzle together. During that time, many people became interested in Sam’s plight and sent Rolston family photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, and other fragments of the soldier’s history. It was only after spending hundreds of hours speaking with and exploring sources throughout the country that the vague events of Sam’s life came into focus, and the book, Lost Soul, came to life. Using fragments he had collected over the years, Rolston produced an incredible account of Civil War battles, strategies, and hardships, and combined it with his own story of bringing recognition to a Confederate soldier who had been tragically forgotten.

Interestingly, of all the pieces of history Rolston collected, he was unable to locate a photograph of Sam. In fact, only scant details of Sam’s life surfaced during his research. His efforts proved fruitful, however, in turning up a myriad of documents that illustrate the lives of several others during the Civil War era who affected Sam’s life both directly and indirectly.

"One of the reasons I wrote this book is because I despise war and want people to see what a horrible thing it is, but it’s also about people. Families can basically overcome anything. My favorite part of the book has to be when William and Mollie meet," says Rolston. William Greene is a Rhode Islander and Mollie is Sam’s sister. Mollie was staying at a rooming house in Vicksburg, Mississippi not long after the war when she heard that a Yankee was staying there as well. Sam’s health had been ruined by the war and his little brother had been imprisoned, but it was Mollie who refused to come to dinner when she heard there was a Yankee in the house. In a 1958 letter, Lenore Greene tells the family story:

One day, while eating her solitary meal up in her bedroom, my mother [Mollie] looked out of her window and saw my father [William] coming down the street with Aunt Jenny’s small son and daughter perched on either shoulder clutching his thick hair and shouting with laughter as he ‘galloped like a horse.’ She thought he might not be such a bad fellow, after all, and that night she came down to dinner.

It was a genuine case of love at first sight, and William wasted no time in asking for Mollie’s hand in marriage. Mollie accepted, becoming engaged to a Yankee.

"It is this part of the story that symbolizes the whole book," says Rolston. "William and Mollie symbolize overcoming ignorance. They chose forgiveness and understanding over bitterness and hatred. And you can apply that to anything. That’s not easy to do, but they did it. They were the real heroes."

It was the relationship between William and Mollie that ultimately brought Sam to Rhode Island, resulting in his burial so far from his Southern home.

After writing countless letters to various veteran groups, the Department of Veterans Affairs offered to issue a bronze grave marker for Sam, which Rolston gratefully accepted. "I’ll never forget driving home one afternoon when Murph, our mailman, flagged me down a few houses from my home," says Rolston. "‘Looks like UPS dropped this package for you at the wrong house," he said. "It’s real heavy. What is it?’ Laughing, I could only tell him, ‘You’ll never believe it!’"

Finally, Sam would get the recognition he deserved.

On the morning of 11 November 1994, Veteran’s Day, the headline of Rhode Island’s Providence Journal read "Honoring a Forgotten Soldier." The article uncovered details about Sam, and described Rolston’s efforts to preserve his gravesite.

That morning Rolston arrived at Greenwood Cemetery and was surprised by the number of people in attendance. A brief ceremony had been planned for the day. A column of gray-clad soldiers, a living history group that portrayed the 21st Mississippi Infantry, offered a brief ceremony and gun salute for Sam. A member of the 21st Mississippi reenactors placed a wreath over Sam’s grave and offered a prayer for all fallen soldiers. The marker provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs was placed over the unmarked grave.

Rolston was honored to read a letter from the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 590 in Natchez, Mississippi:

Sam Postlethwaite, like hundreds of thousands of Southerners, fought for their concept of America. Every man who fought and died in this greatest American tragedy, whether Johnny Reb or Billy Yank, considered themselves to be Americans first. When we honor Sam Postlethwaite, we honor every American fighting man.

Although retired United States Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island could not attend, he sent a letter to be read at the service recognizing the tremendous undertaking:

How the dead are remembered and honored distinguishes a civilization. Thus [Rolston’s] work touches us all. Private Postlethwaite’s final resting place is commemorated. A Civil War soldier dies after reversals of fortune and illness in a place far distant from his home; more than a century later his service and the location of his grave stimulate research by an unrelated man; and by this extraordinary connection between two men, the vitality of history is made manifest.

But the honors did not stop with the Veteran’s Day memorial. Another service for Rhode Island’s Confederate soldier was held the following Memorial Day in 1995, when nearly a hundred of Sam’s "friends and family" gathered at the mansion of Rhode Island’s Civil War governor. Among them were Catherine Brandon Morgan, the great-great-granddaughter of Sam’s first captain, and members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy who presented Rolston with the Jefferson Davis Medal, the organization’s highest literary award.

"Eyeing the room that night, I was struck by the varied nature of the audience. People from all walks of life, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, Southerner and Northerner, had come to remember a forgotten private from a long-ago war," says Rolston.

Rolston now recognizes that his efforts profited more than simply placing a bronze marker on the soldier’s grave. Convinced that every soldier in any war deserves honor, Rolston has evolved from a carpenter to an activist, a lecturer, and a leader, confidently and articulately bringing Sam the attention he deserves. He now spends his free time involving others in historic preservation and organizing projects to clean cemeteries.

"As a result of Sam, I’ve gained compassion for others, a better understanding about people who are different from me, and a deep sense of how important a legacy is and how you want people to remember you."

Postlethwaite Family Papers. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson.

Rolston, Les. Lost Soul: A Yankee’s Fight for a Rebel’s Dignity. Orem, Utah: Ancestry, 1999.

Rebekah Thorstenson, writer and former editor for Ancestry, worked closely with Les Rolston in the final details of Lost Soul.