Headstones of the fallen

[jenna]

As of late my parents have been spending time in our local cemeteries looking at and photographing the headstones of Civil War vets and casualties but also of others from that same general time period.

At Camp Randal, in Madison,WI, we held 140 Confederates as prisoners. They were all mostly injured, sick or dieing, and all 140 ended up burried in one of the cemetaries. Also burried among them is a woman, originally from the south, who married a man from the north. She, after finding out that these Confederates were burried in her town, cared for their graves until she died.

There is also a Union section at this cemetary, but what is weird is that the headstones for these men do not say what company they are with and what day they died. It just has a name on it. Why?

And in the Dells, where Belle Boyd is burried, are several men who died during the war, with their rank and unit listed, but again, no date of death recorded on the head stone, nor a birth date. Why? Anyone know?


I also know, from research, that the cemeteries that we have today and the way they look, can be credited to the Civil War and the Victorian era. People got past the paganistic sence of using a headstone to hold the deceased down in the ground, but turned cemeteries into parks with a very uplifting feeling to them. The Victorians were also very emotional, and used different means to express their love and emotions of the deceased by having interesting headstones made for them. THis link has just a few of the Victorian based designs: http://www.tales.ndirect.co.uk/A_ZINDEX.HTML

But if anyone knows why the millitary headstones have so little information on them and why that would be great.

Also, we have seen several headstones of the mid 1860's that have a curtain drawn back at the top of the stone and then a cupped hand under it. It's not a praying pair of hands, just a cupped hand. Any ideas?

Jenna

[RebAl]

Forest Hill Cemetery.

Confederate Rest
A large number of Confederate soldiers captured in 1862 at Island Number 10 on the Mississippi River were sent to prison at Camp Randall. Many sickened and died due to exposure and disease. They were buried in Confederate Rest.
By 1868 these graves were being neglected when a Louisiana-born widow name Alice Waterman came to Madison to manage the Vilas House Hotel. At her own expense she maintained the plot until her death in 1897. She is buried among "her boys"

The large stone is Alice Waterman's

[larry_cockerham]

Simplicity on grave markers stemmed from a lack of information, lack of money, lack of effort or all three. Jefferson Davis' tomb is far better marked than my Confederate private Parker buried next to his second wife with no marker at all. (We're working on it).

[larry_cockerham]

In Rebal's beautiful photo of the cemetery, the pointed tops of the markers are plainly visible. I've been told that was to keep the yankees from sitting on them. Any truth to that? I suspect shedding rain water may have been a factor as well.

[jenna]

Larry, I don't know if there is any truth to that statement but it is darn funny!

Jenna

[memphis]

Originally Posted by larry_cockerham

In Rebal's beautiful photo of the cemetery, the pointed tops of the markers are plainly visible. I've been told that was to keep the yankees from sitting on them. Any truth to that? I suspect shedding rain water may have been a factor as well.

More than likely they were constructed that way to keep pigeons from hanging out on the stones.I have a good friend who cut a groove in a pipe and placed several nails in predrilled holes on the opposite side. He then placed the groove over the ridge on the stone with the nails in the air. No pigeons ever bothered his ancestors again.

Bill

[jenna]

Now that's funny! I have never heard that theroy before, but the pipe and nails is absolutely hysterical!! Thanks for the great visual!

Jenna