PORT ORCHARD — Thanks to the Missing in America Project, Civil War veteran Private Zachariah M. Stucker was returned home to Kitsap Sept. 28 to be laid to rest in the Veterans Home Cemetery.

Stucker was born in 1845, grew up in Illinois, and joined the Union Army as a musician in 1861 when he was 16. In 1864, he re-enlisted and mustered out as a private after the war ended.

After the war, he worked as a laborer in the west, including in Bremerton, until 1910 when he was physically unable to work, and entered the Washington Veterans Home. He died June 28, 1914 at the age of 69. His body was sent to Seattle for cremation, but his remains were never returned.

Until Sept. 28, thanks to Missing in America Project volunteer P.J. Braun, who discovered Stucker in a list of names of unclaimed remains in temporary storage at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle.

A full story of the ceremony honoring Stucker’s homecoming will be published in the Oct. 6 Port Orchard Independent.

All photos by Michelle Beahm