College student dedicated to America's Civil War veterans in California 'honors their legacies'

A student at a Pennsylvania college has made it her mission to ensure that her hometown's war veterans will not be forgotten – even if it's been centuries since their deaths.

Danielle Russell, who is originally from Gilroy, California, is a senior at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 

Russell told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview that she first began this project when she was still in high school. (See the video at the top of this article.) 

"I really wanted to get involved. We had a volunteer requirement at my high school. But for me, it really wasn't about meeting that requirement," she said.

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"I wanted to do something to make a positive impact on my community." 

A history buff with a special interest in the Civil War, Russell hoped to do something that would combine her desire to volunteer with her interests – but she soon ran into issues. 

Danielle Russell began volunteering at Gavilan Hills Memorial Park, her hometown cemetery in Gilroy, California, while still in high school. She quickly found that many veterans' graves had been omitted from official records. (Danielle Russell)

"I originally wanted to volunteer at the local historical society. I went in and I offered them my volunteer services," she said. 

"But being that I was a high school student, given that I was only 16 years old, they said that I was too young, and I probably wouldn't be reliable."

Undeterred, she then went to her local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) hall to see if they were interested in her services. She said they agreed to give her a shot and assigned her a "little project" about a local veteran to see how she fared.

Gavilan Hills Memorial Park is a cemetery in Gilroy, California, that was established in the years following the Civil War. 

After successfully completing that project, Russell shifted her focus to any connections her hometown of Gilroy had to the Civil War. 

Her supervisor at the VFW told her that there were original maps from the 19th century that were made of the Gavilan Hills Memorial Park, a cemetery in Gilroy that was established in the years following the Civil War. 

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So Russell "began walking the cemetery" during her free time between school and sports to see if she could spot anyone who might have served in the military during the Civil War. 

"Sometimes I could drag my friends along," she said — noting that while her friends were not as interested in history as she was, "they were more than happy to go along and help me with the project." 

Russell had the assistance of family, friends and college professors as she worked on a project to identify the graves of veterans. On the left, Russell holds a picture of her late mentor, Dr. Peter Carmichael.  (Danielle Russell)

Russell began to update those original maps, correcting misspellings and omissions. 

Initially, there were believed to be 20 Civil War veterans out of about 300 total buried at the cemetery, she said. 

That number quickly grew.

"Any time I would come upon a grave where it looked like that individual could have been in the military, at some point I would write down their name, birth and death information, anything I thought might be useful, really," she said. 

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From there, she researched the person on websites such as Ancestry or Find A Grave to see if she could locate any proof of military service. 

"I got the number up from around 300 veterans to well over 500," she said. 

The number of Civil War veterans – including people who served on both sides of the war – buried at the Gavilan Hills Memorial Park now stands at 64. 

With a new and updated list of those who had served, Russell then got to work honoring these men and women for their service. 

Russell poses with the grave of Marshall Emory Hunter, one of the Civil War veterans buried in Gilroy, California. Hunter is among the 64 veterans added to Russell's list. (Danielle Russell)

"These men were either buried using family headstones that didn't identify them as veterans, or they didn't have headstones at all," she said. 

"So, I raised roughly $11,000, and using that money, we purchased 11 headstones and 70 service medallions."

"I am the last person to remember their names, to remember their lives."

Russell said she placed them at the graves of veterans ranging from the Mexican-American War through World War I. She said she did not add medals or headstones to the graves of veterans of more recent wars, as many still had family in the area and she did not want to change graves without family permission.

But "a lot of these men and women, they don't have family left [in the area]," Russell added. "So for me, I am the last person to remember their names, to remember their lives." 

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Recalling and honoring the service of these veterans through updated headstones and medallions "is very important to me," she said. 

"It is giving them the honor and the recognition that they deserve, and it's ensuring that their lives will live on over time." 

Creating a searchable database

After high school, Russell went off to the other side of the country to study at Gettysburg College — and her hometown project went on a bit of a hiatus, until recently. 

With the help of two classmates and under the supervision of a professor, Russell began expanding her list of hometown veterans into a database that contains information about their lives and service. 

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"We started researching these men and women, filling out those spreadsheets. We're almost done with the spreadsheets," she said. 

Once those are finished, they will be added to a larger database of veterans. 

"Each of the veterans [is] going to get their own individual profile," she said. "There will be different tabs and different tags so that the database is fully searchable."

One of the uses of Russell's database is to ensure the veterans are properly honored by programs such as Wreaths Across America. (Danielle Russell)

When that is complete, Russsell plans on mapping the locations where these veterans are buried to ensure they'll continue to be honored. 

"That way there can be a little bit more accuracy and recognition for ceremonies such as Wreaths Across America, Veterans Day and Memorial Day," she said. 

The Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College heaped praise on Russell's work, calling it a "true labor of love." 

Russell is a student fellow at the Civil War Institute.

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"Danielle's work exemplifies the core mission of the Institute," the Civil War Institute told Fox News Digital in a statement, "which, through both its annual summer conference and Fortenbaugh Lecture, as well as the academic minors it facilitates, brings scholarly academic research into conversation with the public and helps foster informed civic dialogue through a greater awareness and appreciation of the past."

"We could not be prouder of Danielle for her enormous accomplishments with this project."

"We could not be prouder of Danielle for her enormous accomplishments with this project," the statement continued.  

Working on the project for the last six years has been an "incredible honor," Russell said, and one she carries with her. 

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"Those individual stories that are there, they really do stick with you – or at least they stuck with me," she said. She added that she's even "kind of adopted" some of the people she's researched. 

"I think that I have that duty and that responsibility to remember them, to honor their legacies, because there was no one else left to do that," Russell said.

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"So until this project is completed and their stories are visible to members of the public, I really don't think that I will have fully discharged that responsibility to honor them — and I am so incredibly excited to share some of these stories."