A Civil War soldier didn’t have a tombstone. Two teens just got him one.

American Civil War soldier Daniel Walterhouse was wounded in 1862 when he was stabbed with a sword in a battle. He then spent the last decade of his life penniless and living in a home for the destitute in western New York. He was buried in an unmarked grave.

Now, 114 years after his death, two middle-schoolers have gotten the Union Army soldier a gravestone.

“It was sad to think of all he’d been through in his life, and he didn’t even have a headstone,” said Kendall Peruzzini, 13, an eighth-grader at Albion Middle School in Albion, New York.

“We thought it would be an honor to help him get the respect and recognition he deserved,” added Mary McCormick, also 13. “Like a lot of Civil War veterans, he had a hard life.”

The old saying goes that we die twice. Once when we take our last breath, and again when our name is spoken for the last time. This, in part, is what led the teens to help the forgotten soldier.

They first learned of Walterhouse from a former schoolteacher who had taught them in a service-learning class - a class where students do hands-on projects related to social issues and topics such as history and the environment.

Even though Tim Archer was no longer their teacher, he reached out to them over the summer and asked if they’d be interested in taking on this project in their spare time. They consulted with their parents, then jumped in.

Archer, who is retired, was approached over the summer by a Civil War researcher from Michigan, George Wilkinson, who documents on his website the lives of soldiers from the 4th Michigan Infantry. Wilkinson had come across a news clipping that mentioned Walterhouse, and he was trying to figure out whether the soldier was buried in New York.

In the news clip, Wilkinson learned that Walterhouse had lived in western New York following 1½ years of service during the Civil War. He’d enlisted in 1861 while living in Michigan.

He was injured in the war and then destitute.

“He was stabbed with a sword and wounded in battle,” Archer said. “For whatever reason, he ended up living for a decade at the Orleans County Alms House - a place where people went when they had no money and nobody to care for them.”

“These poorhouses were common at the time for people with no place else to go,” he said.

The almshouse fell into disrepair through the decades and was torn down in 1960, Archer said. The half-acre cemetery on the property was fenced off and forgotten, with corn from an adjoining field growing around it.

Archer was knowledgeable about the cemetery because, in 2011, he rallied his middle school students, along with the county, to clean it up.

“There were broken markers everywhere, and most of the 200 people buried there had no headstones,” he said. “The headstones that did exist had no names, only a number.”

Archer, 63, said he immediately thought of asking Mary and Kendall to find out whether Walterhouse was buried in Albion.

“They’re good students, with a love for history,” he said. “I knew they’d do an excellent job.”

When he turned over Wilkinson’s search request to the students, they headed over to the Albion town clerk’s office and the Orleans County historian’s office to look through old ledgers in search of the veteran’s name.

After several weeks of research, they found a death record and a 1902 record book from the Orleans County Alms House. They were able to prove that he’d lived there for a decade and was buried there, Kendall said.

He died in 1910 at the age of 87. Kendall and Mary then received permission from the Orleans County Legislature to install a headstone at the cemetery for Walterhouse.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to create the headstone, Archer said. The 230-pound granite marker will be shipped soon to Albion, where it will be installed and dedicated at the poorhouse cemetery next spring.

“It’s our honor to provide this long overdue headstone for Mr. Walterhouse, a Union veteran who served our country honorably,” said VA spokesperson Adam Farina, noting that the girls sent in paperwork to prove where Walterhouse was buried.

The “VA is extremely grateful for the work of Kendall and Mary, who did tireless research to help make this happen,” he said.

Mary said she was happy to team up with Kendall and tackle the request. Orleans Hub was among the first local media outlets to cover their project.

“It was like solving a mystery - we were really shocked and excited when we were able to track down the guy’s information and get him what he deserves,” Mary said.

Sometime in the spring, the teens said they’ll hold a dedication ceremony in Walterhouse’s memory, with help from their teacher. Because they don’t know exactly where Walterhouse is buried, they’ll select a place for the tombstone near other markers on the half-acre spot.

“It makes us happy to know this war veteran will no longer be forgotten,” Kendall said.

Wilkinson, 66, said he was stunned and delighted by the teens’ efforts.

“They went to the county, got into the books and just ran with it,” he said. “It seems hard today to interest younger people in the history that made up this country. To find two girls willing to pick up the torch, do research and get a headstone was really refreshing and inspiring.”

“There was no personal glory in doing this,” Wilkinson added. “It was just the right thing to do.”