Nearly hidden along Chapel Road in Havre de Grace, a lone marble headstone leans beneath a tree, surrounded by leaves, clipped branches and deer bones.
The headstone belongs to Cpl. Louis H. Hill, a soldier in the U.S. Colored Troops who fought for the Union during the Civil War.
In 1997, Maryland created the Office of Cemetery Oversight to protect burial grounds, but abandoned and religious cemeteries fall outside the agency’s jurisdiction, leaving graves like Hill’s with no one legally responsible for their upkeep. The state cannot say how many abandoned cemeteries exist because they are outside the office’s authority…