Graveyard Guru 4/21/2011

Two Cemeteries: One Confederate, One Union

By Stephanie Lincecum

Given the timing of this column with the sesquicentennial anniversary of the American Civil War, I hope you will permit me a slight departure from the usual Graveyard Guru article.  While vacationing in the north Georgia mountains recently, I had the distinct honor of visiting the final resting place of more than 13,000 soldiers of the Civil War.  Marietta, Georgia is noted for having two prominent cemeteries dating back to that time:  one is simply called the Confederate Cemetery; the other is the Marietta National Cemetery.

The Confederate Cemetery came about in 1863.  A railroad collision north of Marietta cost 20 soldiers of the 50^th Tennessee Infantry Regiment their lives.  Mrs. Jane Glover allowed a quiet corner of her 3,000 acre plantation to be the soldiers’ burial site.  By 1866, this “little” corner had grown to be the final resting place of 3,000 Confederate soldiers, many brought from nearby battlefields such as Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Ringgold, and Kolb Farm for reburial.  This was done by organized groups of women led by Catherine Winn of the Ladies’ Aid Society and Mary Green of the Georgia Memorial Association.  Every Confederate state is represented.

 

Wooden markers were initially used, but they soon weathered away and names of many of the soldiers were lost.  Plain marble markers replaced the wooden ones in 1902.  Today, at a glance, it seems more markers are bare or marked as unknown versus those with names.  Several stones were obviously added much later by relatives.  Such is the case with Private Middleton Miles of Company B of the 54^th Georgia Infantry who died in June 1864.  His still stark white Veterans Administration issued stone was placed at the end of a line of other Georgia soldiers.  The back side of his monument reads buried in this area. 

Not far away is the Marietta National Cemetery.  According to the inscription on the huge arch gateway to the grounds, “Here rest the remains of 10,132 officers and soldiers who died in defence of the union, 1861 to 1865.”

This cemetery is on land once owned by Henry Green Cole (1815-1875).  In fact, the Cole family cemetery is in a central location with thousands of military stones memorializing thousands of soldiers surrounding it.  There is a plaque on the opposite side of the cemetery entryway that thanks Mr. Cole for the land.  Whether or not he gave it willingly, I do not know.

 (Cole Family Cemetery)

While the National Cemetery seems even more uniform than the Confederate Cemetery, you might assume the record keeping was superior.  However, it doesn’t take long to see stone after stone marked as unknown.  All of the union soldiers are represented with a marble marker containing a recessed shield.  As time went on, this national cemetery grew to include the remains of  United States soldiers from every branch of the military representing every conflict in which our country has been involved.

 While there are differences in the look and feel of these two cemeteries, they both began out of a desire to commemorate the sacrifice freely given by all the honorable soldiers on either side of the Union and Confederacy.  Over the last 150 years, they have been tended with love and respect.  I pray we can still say the same in 150 more.