# American War Dead in Canada **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2000, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-war-dead-in-canada/21478 "2000-06-05T19:04:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-war-dead-in-canada/21478/1 "2000-06-05T19:04:12Z")
Yesterday, 21 soldiers–most of them probably American–who died during the War of 1812 were re-buried with full military honours under a new marker at the site of the Battle of Stoney Creek, near the Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario. The re-interment followed a $470,000 restoration of the Battlefield Cemetery, which has just been designated a National Historic Site. Canadian, British and American military representatives (and some 500 living history re-enactors) paid their respects, as the **Hamilton Spectator** reported: > [@](#): > > Canadian soldiers of today stood with veterans of wars gone by and re-enactors of the famed battle to pay their last respects yesterday to the men who were killed at this spot on June 6, 1813. As Canadian and American buglers played the Last Post and Taps, men and women in military regalia spanning 200 years saluted the unknown soldiers. Many had tears in their eyes. > “It was very touching,” said Lieutenant Colonel Bob Barnes of the First Battalion of the King’s Regiment in England. The regiment fought in the battle and some of the soldiers being buried at 11 a.m. yesterday could have been regimental members. > Like hundreds of others from England, the United States and Canada, he came to see the soldiers’ remains reburied with full military honours. > “These are military honours that you earn the right to by your service to your country,” said Colonel Karen McClellan, American military attache. “We always pay honour to our dead wherever they fall” Here’s a link to a website that gives a description of the battle: [http://alpha.binatech.on.ca/~bhmchin/battle.html](http://alpha.binatech.on.ca/~bhmchin/battle.html) It seems that the remains (the website gives the figure as 23) were first discovered in 1889, by a farmer ploughing the field. Scraps of uniform and buttons indicated both British and US army soldiers were among the remains. Now, my questions: why were these US Army battle casualties not repatriated to Arlington National Cemetery? (Possibly it because it impossible to identify which remains were British, and which US?) What are the criteria for repatriating US war dead, as opposed to burial in cemeteries overseas? The official Arlington website gives quite detailed info on who may be buried there [http://www.mdw.army.mil/fs-a03.htm](http://www.mdw.army.mil/fs-a03.htm), but doesn’t address why some US war dead are buried overseas, and some repatriated (I recall watching TV news stories as a kid, circa 1967-71 about US dead from Vietnam being returned to the US). This website [http://www.globalassignment.com/sept1998/cemetery.htm](http://www.globalassignment.com/sept1998/cemetery.htm) gives an excellent account of the US overseas war graves (also mentions those Americans buried in British or Canadian war graves), but again, does not address why some are repatriated and some are not. Can fellow dopers enlighten me? ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-war-dead-in-canada/21478/2 "2000-06-07T20:56:42Z")
Anyone…Beuller…Beuller…? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2000, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-war-dead-in-canada/21478/3 "2000-06-08T03:50:11Z")
So far, you’ve only got my WAGs: (1) We won in WWI and WWII, but didn’t obtain clear victories in either Korea or Vietnam, so leaving soldiers’ remains behind would have been exacerbating the unsatisfactory conclusions of these wars (though this doesn’t have bearing on the War of 1812); (2) Cultural bias; the soil of Indochina or the Korean peninsula seems that much more alien, and therefore distressing to leave servicemens’ remains behind there; (3) The state of the remains–was the soldier KIA and then immediately brought back to base, or was he buried where he was? (4) A combination of the above factors. DHR ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2000, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-war-dead-in-canada/21478/4 "2000-06-12T06:52:54Z")
It’s late and I want to go to sleep, so I don’t have time to check the links to see if “my two cents” are already there. My apologies if they are. I know that at least one American war cemetery – perhaps more, perhaps all – is technically AMERICAN soil (a gift from France). It’s the site of the WWI battle of Belleau Wood, renamed Bois de la Brigade Marine. If that’s the standard practice, maybe it’s why some US war dead don’t get repatriated.