Nearly hidden along Chapel Road in Havre de Grace, a lone marble headstone leans beneath a tree, surrounded by leaves, clipped branches and deer bones.
The headstone belongs to Cpl. Louis H. Hill, a soldier in the U.S. Colored Troops who fought for the Union during the Civil War.
In 1997, Maryland created the Office of Cemetery Oversight to protect burial grounds, but abandoned and religious cemeteries fall outside the agency’s jurisdiction, leaving graves like Hill’s with no one legally responsible for their upkeep. The state cannot say how many abandoned cemeteries exist because they are outside the office’s authority.
“It really is heartbreaking. Their history is going to be lost. We’ve already lost so much. It just breaks my heart [that] we’re going to lose some more,” said Susan Nappi, a volunteer with the Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton Foundation in Harford County, which has been working to identify and honor soldiers with Harford ties who fought with the U.S. Colored Troops and are buried throughout the state.
By the numbers
The Office of Cemetery Oversight’s main objective is to register and monitor “individuals, partnerships, corporations and limited liability companies operating cemeteries or providing burial goods and services to consumers,” according to state law.
However, the system does not regulate cemeteries owned by government or religious entities, nor does it monitor abandoned ones — because there is no owner left to hold accountable.
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