Camp Darby service members clean American graves in Livorno’s old English cemetery

LIVORNO, Italy - A steady rain fell Wednesday as volunteers including U.S. service members, from the Darby Military Community moved through the Old English Cemetery, clearing brush and scrubbing centuries-old headstones belonging to Americans who died more than 200 years ago.

The cemetery, tucked along Via Verdi near a parking garage and the former Odeon theater, is one of the oldest Protestant burial grounds in Italy. Among many former English residents of Livorno, the burial ground also contains the graves of early U.S. Navy and Marine Corps personnel who died while serving in the Mediterranean.

Among the volunteers was Airman James George, 33, of South Carolina, who serves with the 731st Munitions Squadron at Camp Darby.

"These are service members that have been here for a long time," George said. "Most likely, most of them are forgotten about or their names haven't been mentioned very much."

George said he was searching for one grave when he heard another volunteer mention the name "Cotter."

"I saw it on a grave and said, 'Excuse me, I think I may have found someone,'" he said. "We confirmed that it was the right name."

Midshipman John Cotter died at sea in 1817. He's buried near Green Lynch, another sailor who died at sea that same year.

Lt. Col. Ross Hertlein, commander of the U.S. Army Field Support Battalion-Africa, a logistics unit at Leghorn Army Depot, spent four months working with local historian and Livorno officials to coordinate the effort.

Hertlein's connection to Livorno runs deep. His grandfather served with the U.S. Army in the city shortly after its liberation at the end of World War II.

"This is the first cemetery where American servicemen were buried overseas," said Hertlein, referring the time of the Barbary Wars, from 1801 to 1805 - America's first major foreign conflict. "So, to rediscover that history was really special."

One of the most prominent graves the Soldiers cleaned belongs to Capt. James McKnight, a U.S. Marine Corps officer killed in a duel in Livorno in October 1802. McKnight and U.S. Navy Lt. Richard Lawson, both assigned to the USS Constellation, agreed to fire at six paces after Lawson initially demanded three. Lawson shot McKnight through the heart.

Other Americans buried in the cemetery include Henry De Butts, a U.S. Navy officer born in 1769 and a citizen of Baltimore who died in Sarzana on Dec. 4, 1801, at age 32; and Capt. Thomas Gamble, a U.S. Navy officer born in New Jersey in 1783 who died in Pisa in 1818 while commanding the USS Erie.

The cemetery also holds William Seton, husband of Elizabeth Seton - who converted to Catholicism in Livorno and later became the first American Catholic saint.

For Hertlein's wife, Jayme, the day's work carried special meaning. She discovered the grave of a woman, a military officer's spouse who died in 1828. Her name was Anna Colhoun Colquitt, widow of Lt. Col. Coodwing Colquitt.

"Spouses really do a lot that is sometimes unseen," she said. "I feel very honored that I got to be a part of this."

The cemetery's origins date to 1594, when Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand I granted land outside Livorno's walls to the English community for non-Catholic burials, according to Giovanni Bitossi, a Livorno resident who has studied the site for 50 years. Some tombstones date to the 1640s, and one grave from 1595 belongs to a relative of William Shakespeare, he said.

The Anglican Church of San Giorgio was built near the cemetery gate in 1840, followed by a Scottish Presbyterian church in 1849. The graves, scattered among trees, palms and thick vegetation, show centuries of weathering and war.

Later, George and other U.S. service members from Camp Darby presented flowers and small American flags beside the American graves. They played Taps, similar to the Italian hymn, ""Il Silenzio."

"It was awesome to come out, be a part of something that's not a typical day," George said.