I found out about a Civil War soldier who died at Andersonville and buried at East Cleveland Township Cemetery. I already wrote about Andersonville here as part of my description of the death of Albert Hotchkiss, whose lies in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. I have starting attending meetings of the Collinwood-Nottingham Historical Society when life doesn’t otherwise get in the way, and the president of that group has done research on Civil War soldiers from the Cleveland area. She let me know about Charles C. Dille. Dille’s and Hotchkiss’ stories are similar – each ended up imprisoned in the hell that was called Andersonville and died there, far from the home and family they knew. Both were later moved and reinterred in the family plot in a Northern cemetery. Dille’s father Asa and uncle David were both prominent early settlers in east Cleveland and Euclid, and a local road still bears their surname. Charles Dille has three grave markers – his name is on the family monument, a reddish stone column with multiple generations recorded. He has an old headstone, worn with time, and a newer, government-issue military headstone. And the death dates don’t match. According to the family monument and old headstone, Dille died in August of 1863. The government headstone proclaims his death date was a whole year later, in August 1864. According to the research presented by Nancy Fogel West in her history of East Cleveland Township Cemetery To Dwell with Fellow Clay, the military monument is correct – Dille wasn’t even captured until May 9, 1864, in West Virginia.
A Grave Concern 