By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

RESERVE – It has been nearly 150 years since Jean Clairville Jacob was killed on a Civil War battlefield in Virginia, but on Saturday morning in St. Peter’s Cemetery, the Bonnet Carrè/Reserve resident was finally given a proper funeral service.

Jacob’s descendants, many of whom still live in the River Parishes, gathered with friends and others for a unique military-style ceremony in which a Confederate grave marker was placed at the Jacob family burial plot. The soldier enlisted at the age of 19 and was a member of the Louisiana 10th Infantry under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

During the ceremony, descendants discussed Jacob’s family and his life before the war. He was a barrel maker, or cooper, by trade and was raised in an area of St. John Parish once known as “Jacob Town.”

“We wanted to give people a sense of who this man was and where he came from,” said Andre Jacob, a distant cousin of the soldier. “I spent 15 to 20 years researching records trying to find anything on him. It’s nice to know he has a true place to rest.”

Andre Jacob said his research found that Clairville Jacob fought in 11 major Civil War battles for the Confederate Army before dying at Chancellorsville, Va., during a battle in 1863.

He said the soldier was likely buried in a mass grave at the battlefield, which was common during the war.

The ceremony included Civil War poems, along with renditions of “Amazing Grace” and “Dixie.” The service concluded with a pair of 21-gun salutes, one from a Civil War re-enactment group and another from a local VFW lodge. Fr. Martin Smullen of St. Peter Catholic Church performed a short religious ceremony.

“I can say that I’ve never been asked to do anything quite like this,” Smullen said. “It was rather unique.”

Smullen made note of the severity of war and how it has unfortunately become a part of society.

“As we honor our fallen brother, we honor his suffering,” he said during the ceremony. “We must remember the futility of war. We must strive to find other ways to reconcile our differences peacefully.”