PA Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

James N.

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Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Antietam 2021
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East Texas
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The large and gloomy city cemetery in the capital city of Pennsylvania Harrisburg dates from the 1840's. It was situated on a bluff overlooking the city and is a representative City of the Dead typical of many dating from the middle of the Nineteenth Century in America. Unfortunately it is now located in a somewhat "bad" neighborhood but there is little evidence of that within its chain-link walls.

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As denoted on the Civil War Trails marker at the entrance, among the notables buried here are one-time Governor of the then-brand-new State of California, noted Abolitionist, and Union Major General John W. Geary and Pennsylvania politician, Lincoln's first Secretary of War and subsequent Ambassador to Tsarist Russia Simon Cameron. Unfortunately we failed to find the section containing Cameron's grave due to trees down on the pathways.

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Governor Maj. Gen. John W. Geary's grave marked by his statue was easier to locate near the bluff. Among other accomplishments Geary commanded a division of the Union Twelfth Corps at Gettysburg and in Grant's Chattanooga Campaign.

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An interesting section was that of graves that had been located from a ca. 1791 Presbyterian "Burying Ground" to the newer cemetery which eventually engulfed it.

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Note the long rows of Presbyterian graves, several of which were much more legible than other newer stones now unreadable from the effects of acid rain.

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A section of Civil War-era graves included among the expected Federals those of several Confederates who had died in local hospitals of wounds following the nearby Battle of Gettysburg.

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This glaringly white one near the cemetery entrance and the still-occupied caretaker's cottage below had only very recently been cleaned!

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The large and gloomy city cemetery in the capital city of Pennsylvania Harrisburg dates from the 1840's. It was situated on a bluff overlooking the city and is a representative City of the Dead typical of many dating from the middle of the Nineteenth Century in America.
Well done James. Enjoyed your pictures and commentary very much.
 
Great photos, Thanks for taking us along. I can't find Boker Jackson in the 3rd Ala but Sims & Page record match up.
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The large and gloomy city cemetery in the capital city of Pennsylvania Harrisburg dates from the 1840's. It was situated on a bluff overlooking the city and is a representative City of the Dead typical of many dating from the middle of the Nineteenth Century in America. Unfortunately it is now located in a somewhat "bad" neighborhood but there is little evidence of that within its chain-link walls.

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As denoted on the Civil War Trails marker at the entrance, among the notables buried here are one-time Governor of the then-brand-new State of California, noted Abolitionist, and Union Major General John W. Geary and Pennsylvania politician, Lincoln's first Secretary of War and subsequent Ambassador to Tsarist Russia Simon Cameron. Unfortunately we failed to find the section containing Cameron's grave due to trees down on the pathways.

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Governor Maj. Gen. John W. Geary's grave marked by his statue was easier to locate near the bluff. Among other accomplishments Geary commanded a division of the Union Twelfth Corps at Gettysburg and in Grant's Chattanooga Campaign.

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An interesting section was that of graves that had been located from a ca. 1791 Presbyterian "Burying Ground" to the newer cemetery which eventually engulfed it.

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Note the long rows of Presbyterian graves, several of which were much more legible than other newer stones now unreadable from the effects of acid rain.

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A section of Civil War-era graves included among the expected Federals those of several Confederates who had died in local hospitals of wounds following the nearby Battle of Gettysburg.

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This glaringly white one near the cemetery entrance and the still-occupied caretaker's cottage below had only very recently been cleaned!

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Regarding Simon Cameron, he might have stolen his own body and holding it hostage!
 
It doesn't seem that gloomy to me!
Admittedly it doesn't look that way in my photos, but it was really quite dark and shady in places due to the dense canopy of trees, several of which had been broken and lay about. The chain-link fence was overgrown generally obscuring any view from the outside in or inside out, not necessarily a bad thing considering the neighborhood! Possibly worst was the map we were given by the groundskeeper who asked us if we were looking for anything specific. He marked it for us showing the location of the things mentioned above with the warning that the "avenues" or streets shown on the plat didn't really exist - they turned out to be little other than paths between sections and though named on the map were unmarked on the ground. One important "intersection" of otherwise drivable paths was completely blocked by a downed tree mentioned above, not only discouraging us from looking for Cameron's grave but also those of Federal recruits who had died at Camp Curtin early in the war.
 
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Here's a closer look at some of the headstones pictured above: maybe more of the seven Confederate headstones we found (of eleven or twelve Confederate graves supposedly there) can be deciphered.

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Despite the abundant evidence of previous acid rain on many of the stones, that of twenty-eight year-old Michael Daugherty was delightfully legible, reading in the style of many Victorian graves:

O reader stay and cast an eye
Upon the Grave wherein I lie.
For cruel death has challenged me
And in short time will call on thee.
Repent in time make no delay;
For Christ will call us all away.
My time was wasted like the morn
Beyond all caus my glass is run.


Below, another look at the headstone of early-war casualty J. Henry Chayn of the 1st Indiana Mounted Volunteers who Died of wounds received at Cheat Mountain Western Virginia December 3, 1861.

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O reader stay and cast an eye
Upon the Grave wherein I lie.
For cruel death has challenged me
And in short time will call on thee.
Repent in time make no delay;
For Christ will call us all away.
My time was wasted like the morn
Beyond all caus my glass is run.
Thanks for transcribing that epitaph James. Its beautiful!
 
Thanks for transcribing that epitaph James. Its beautiful!
It reminded me of another turn-of-the-Twentieth Century one Mike @mkyzzzrdet and I found in a local cemetery when we were going to college in Denton, Texas, though I have since found out that it or its several variations are really much older than that:

Remember Stranger
As you pass by
As you are now
So once was I.

As I am now
You too will be
So prepare in life
To follow me.
 
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