Kentucky Civil War Soldier in Oz

That's Oz as in Australia, of course, not the place with the Wizard.

In my rambling rounds around the world weird web, I happened upon some archivist's collection of data regarding American Civil War soldiers buried in Australia and New Zealand. Three cheers for the ant-like stuff-organizers, researchers for research's sake, and obsessive-compulsive list-makers of the world!

I was surprised to see what a lengthy list it is, and I wondered how and why so many Civil War soldiers ended up down under. And of course, the reason I mention all this here is that there's one from Kentucky. In the New South Wales town of Eden, we find this listing for a Confederate soldier:

John Keon, Co D, 3rd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, CSA; Co un, 7th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, CSA.

There's also a list of Civil War soldiers born in Australia and New Zealand - and again, I didn't realize such a sizable group of such existed - but Keon's not on the list.


You can read more about Australia's connection to the American Civil War here and here, and how the CSS Shenandoah (pictured above) figures into it. I still don't see how the 3rd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment or the 7th Kentucky Cavalry Regiment figures into it, though, so Keon's presence in Australia may or may not be related to those events.