Frederick14Va
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2013
- Location
- Virginia
Digging through some old photos and found piles of various ones related to various soldiers gravestones Ive come across over the decades. Thought the topic might be of interest to some. A thread to post soldiers gravestones, interesting old markers or related grave memorials and monuments of the era.....
I'll start off with this one...
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond Va.... Resting place of over 18,000 confederate dead... Also Jeff Davis, JEB Stuart... Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler..... There is the confederate soldiers section where majority of the confederates are buried. I also have a few ancestors buried in there, so always had a sense f honor and devotion to the place. Back in the mid 1980's noted a host of various broken and damaged stones. The cemetery is privately owned and at that time didn't have much funds to devote to repairing much in that section. Took the task upon myself (with permission) and set out repairing and resetting the damaged ones. Ive been doing historical restoration work for a good while already, but not that much in regards to granite and marble. Sought out assistance of a local monument company whom was gracious enough to provide the expertise and overview of my project. Wanted to make sure that good intentions didn't cause any further damage by accident.... Wanted to learn to do it correctly.... Since all the work and materials for same came out of my own pocket... since no funds available otherwise... I was not in competition with him for any possible contract work etc...
In one section.. its devoted to the re-interred Confederate Dead recovered from Gettysburg.... An empty space where mass graves were placed.... In its forefront was a simple small granite maker inscribed simply "Gettysburg Dead"... Beside that is a huge granite slab... with a massive bronze obelisk mounted on one side... with the inscription "Fate Denied Them Victory... But Gave Them A Glorious Immortality"....
Here is a photo of it taken by me in the late 1970's....
View attachment 34062
One day in the late 80's .... on a visit to my "Stone Garden" as I called it to check on things... Immediately noticed that the bronze obelisk was missing from its granite base. Was informed that the disk was found by grounds keepers laying on the ground... its mountings apparently with age and nearly 100 years of corrosion just broke. Put away in a storage shed till something could be done with it. Also stated they had no funds or means to that type of repair so unknown when or if it could be remounted again... Needless to say it became my new mission to get it repaired and back up in its place of honor.... Had to play some politics and a few covert maneuverings to gain possession of it. (no I didn't steal it).... but that's another story.... lol...
Got possession of it.... took it to my shop... it had lots of damage, dings and was in rough shape... the iron mountings on its backside were all but rusted away. Found a way to fabricate new mountings for it... Repaired all the surface damage and complete restoration of its face. The darn thing weighed about 350 pounds so was no easy endeavor...
View attachment 34063
Making final finishing touches and protective coating...
View attachment 34064
Being near finished.... Apparently a few folks got wind that I possibly had it... called me to inquire if it would be back up by that given weekend.... It was planned a Confederate Memorial Day parade down Richmond's Monument Avenue.... ending at Hollywood Cemetery.... This item sat near the center of the events scheduled and begged me to try to have it back up by then..... Id do my best... The Friday eve just before the weekend event we had her loaded up and ready to go...
Contacted the chief grounds keeper there so he would know we were in there and what we were doing.... Mustered up a few friends to go along to help lift it... Problem-1.... The new mounts didn't exactly line up with the exiting holes in the granite slab from the old ones... since the old ones were broken off, we didn't exactly have an accurate template to replicate...we were really close... but not quite close enough. hmmm... Had to resort to hand chiseling the existing holes a bit so the new bigger mountings would fit..... it worked... at least for a few minutes anyway... Problem-2..... wresting the beast into position resulting it slightly bending one of the mounts.... only way to fix that was take it back to the shop..... reloaded and back we went.... Got the bend mount corrected... headed back to the cemetery... by this time it was almost dark... Called the chief groundskeeper.. he provided me the "code" to get back in since the gates were now closed and locked.... In a cemetery late at night in the dark was a bit un-nerving to some of my friends helping... with flashlights and lots of muscle we finally got the thing remounted.... yeaaaaaa.....
Problem-3.... now to get back out of the place.... If anyone has been there knows that it is a labyrinth of twisty single lane roads winding through the massive cemetery..... many people get lost in there during daylight.... much more difficult late at night when you now cant see notable landmarks and features to know which way to go.... ended up just going to the very back around by the river to get to the direct lane that exits..... Unknown to us... we were not alone in the cemetery that night.... Driving along.... Suddenly saw
about a dozen flashlights then equal number of pistols aimed at us surrounded....."FREEZE".... Then heard one voice call out "oh its Frederick its ok , its ok"....."I forgot you were in here" Apparently we startled a number of the local police in there doing a stake out... there had been an issue of some local college kids sneaking in there to party at night... they were in position watching the fence line they had been climbing in at.... then we came driving up behind them...lol... As if the place wasn't spooky enough late at night... then have that happen....
The disk was restored... and back upon its place of honor...
Pic taken with me beside it the next morning after the event there....
View attachment 34065
Now over 25 years later its still holding up pretty good... hopefully the effort will give it another 100 years of life at least
I'll start off with this one...
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond Va.... Resting place of over 18,000 confederate dead... Also Jeff Davis, JEB Stuart... Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler..... There is the confederate soldiers section where majority of the confederates are buried. I also have a few ancestors buried in there, so always had a sense f honor and devotion to the place. Back in the mid 1980's noted a host of various broken and damaged stones. The cemetery is privately owned and at that time didn't have much funds to devote to repairing much in that section. Took the task upon myself (with permission) and set out repairing and resetting the damaged ones. Ive been doing historical restoration work for a good while already, but not that much in regards to granite and marble. Sought out assistance of a local monument company whom was gracious enough to provide the expertise and overview of my project. Wanted to make sure that good intentions didn't cause any further damage by accident.... Wanted to learn to do it correctly.... Since all the work and materials for same came out of my own pocket... since no funds available otherwise... I was not in competition with him for any possible contract work etc...
In one section.. its devoted to the re-interred Confederate Dead recovered from Gettysburg.... An empty space where mass graves were placed.... In its forefront was a simple small granite maker inscribed simply "Gettysburg Dead"... Beside that is a huge granite slab... with a massive bronze obelisk mounted on one side... with the inscription "Fate Denied Them Victory... But Gave Them A Glorious Immortality"....
Here is a photo of it taken by me in the late 1970's....
View attachment 34062
One day in the late 80's .... on a visit to my "Stone Garden" as I called it to check on things... Immediately noticed that the bronze obelisk was missing from its granite base. Was informed that the disk was found by grounds keepers laying on the ground... its mountings apparently with age and nearly 100 years of corrosion just broke. Put away in a storage shed till something could be done with it. Also stated they had no funds or means to that type of repair so unknown when or if it could be remounted again... Needless to say it became my new mission to get it repaired and back up in its place of honor.... Had to play some politics and a few covert maneuverings to gain possession of it. (no I didn't steal it).... but that's another story.... lol...
Got possession of it.... took it to my shop... it had lots of damage, dings and was in rough shape... the iron mountings on its backside were all but rusted away. Found a way to fabricate new mountings for it... Repaired all the surface damage and complete restoration of its face. The darn thing weighed about 350 pounds so was no easy endeavor...
View attachment 34063
Making final finishing touches and protective coating...
View attachment 34064
Being near finished.... Apparently a few folks got wind that I possibly had it... called me to inquire if it would be back up by that given weekend.... It was planned a Confederate Memorial Day parade down Richmond's Monument Avenue.... ending at Hollywood Cemetery.... This item sat near the center of the events scheduled and begged me to try to have it back up by then..... Id do my best... The Friday eve just before the weekend event we had her loaded up and ready to go...
Contacted the chief grounds keeper there so he would know we were in there and what we were doing.... Mustered up a few friends to go along to help lift it... Problem-1.... The new mounts didn't exactly line up with the exiting holes in the granite slab from the old ones... since the old ones were broken off, we didn't exactly have an accurate template to replicate...we were really close... but not quite close enough. hmmm... Had to resort to hand chiseling the existing holes a bit so the new bigger mountings would fit..... it worked... at least for a few minutes anyway... Problem-2..... wresting the beast into position resulting it slightly bending one of the mounts.... only way to fix that was take it back to the shop..... reloaded and back we went.... Got the bend mount corrected... headed back to the cemetery... by this time it was almost dark... Called the chief groundskeeper.. he provided me the "code" to get back in since the gates were now closed and locked.... In a cemetery late at night in the dark was a bit un-nerving to some of my friends helping... with flashlights and lots of muscle we finally got the thing remounted.... yeaaaaaa.....
Problem-3.... now to get back out of the place.... If anyone has been there knows that it is a labyrinth of twisty single lane roads winding through the massive cemetery..... many people get lost in there during daylight.... much more difficult late at night when you now cant see notable landmarks and features to know which way to go.... ended up just going to the very back around by the river to get to the direct lane that exits..... Unknown to us... we were not alone in the cemetery that night.... Driving along.... Suddenly saw
about a dozen flashlights then equal number of pistols aimed at us surrounded....."FREEZE".... Then heard one voice call out "oh its Frederick its ok , its ok"....."I forgot you were in here" Apparently we startled a number of the local police in there doing a stake out... there had been an issue of some local college kids sneaking in there to party at night... they were in position watching the fence line they had been climbing in at.... then we came driving up behind them...lol... As if the place wasn't spooky enough late at night... then have that happen....
The disk was restored... and back upon its place of honor...
Pic taken with me beside it the next morning after the event there....
View attachment 34065
Now over 25 years later its still holding up pretty good... hopefully the effort will give it another 100 years of life at least
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