GA The Marietta, Georgia Confederate Cemetery

James N.

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Just in time for Memorial Day, here are photos of one of the earliest cemeteries set aside expressly for Confederate dead. The above overview shows the Tennessee section with the several narkers and monuments in the background. According to the cemetery map and brochure,

More than 3,000 soldiers, from every Confederate state and Kentucky, now lie in the Marietta Confederate Cemetery. The cemetery was established in September, 1863, when Mrs. Jane Porter Glover donated the quiet corner of her Bushy Park Plantation to accomodate the burial of approximately 20 Confederate soldiers who perished in a train wreck just north of Marietta. A few new graves were added to the cemetery during the next several months, but major expansions did not occur until the war reached nearby Kennesaw Mountain on july 27, 1864.

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The greatest expansion of the cemetery took place when the guns at last fell silent. In 1866, the Georgia Legislature appropriated $3,500 to collect the remains of Confederate soldiers who fell elsewhere in Georgia and return them to Marietta for reburial. The recovery effort was spearheaded by Catherine Winn of the Ladies' Aid Society and Mary Green of the Georgia Memorial Association, who organized groups of women to search for soldiers who were killed on the battlefields at Ringgold, Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Kolb Farm, and the points north of the Chattahoochie River. These dedicated women helped bring the remains of hundreds of Confederate soldiers to rest with their comrades in Marietta...

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In 1907, Mrs. Glover deeded the cemetery to the Ladies' Memorial Association. The Association then turned the property over to the state in 1908, the same year the Kennesaw Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated the tall marble monument in the center of the cemetery to "Our Confederate Dead."

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After the Spanish-American War, this cemetery became the first place in the South where the Confederate flag was allowed to fly.

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The hillside became the focal point of the city's Confederate Memorial Day observance in April.

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As the years passed and the original wooden markers weathered away, the names of soldiers killed in action and buried here were lost. In 1902, caretakers replaced the deteriorated original wooden markers with the plain marble markers of the type you see today.

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TO BE CONTINUED...
 
Awesome!

"I salute the Confederate Flag with affection, reverence
and undying devotion to the Cause for which it stands."

The Sons of Confederate Veterans Salute
to the Confederate Flag
 
I was born in Marietta, but we moved when I was just a few days old, and I haven't been back - except for once when returning home from vacation my parents stopped to try to find the house they rented at the time, but it was taken out be the freeway construction.

Nice to know that parts of Marietta still exist as a southern town, and that it hasn't all been consumed by Lockheed and it's assorted support industries.
 
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The Confederate mass grave in Zollicoffer Park at Mill Springs Battlefield,in Nancy,Ky.,where about 150 soldiers & officers are buried. There is no soldiers buried where the headstones are in the background. These headstones were placed here in the 90's to finally honor & recognize the soldiers & officers resting in the mass grave.
 
PART II
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Other monuments were also added to the hillside. In 1910, 15 identical marble markers were placed among the headstones - one monument for each Confederate state, a single marker for Maryland and Missouri, and a marker for the Soldiers' Home Section. A white marble arch was erected in 1911 near the northeast corner of the cemetery, facing Marietta Square. The arch pays homage to the fallen and bears the title "Confederate Cemetery."

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Burials continued in the cemetery well into the 20th century, as age gradually claimed the remaining survivors of the war. Unlike their predecessors, most of these later arrivals have their names inscribed on their markers... Interestingly, the last resident of the Confederate Soldiers Home who was buried here is a man of African-American descent. Born a slave, William H. "Bill" Yopp followed his then-master Captain Thomas M. Yopp, to war with the 14th Georgia Infantry Regiment. Bill's wartime devotion to Captain Yopp continued in peacetime as well, leading eventually to the Soldiers' Home, where both men lived out their days. Bill Yopp died on June 3, 1936.

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In 1910, an Act of Congress returned a long-held trophy of war, where it now stands guard over the cemetery. The "Little Cannon" was originally presented to the Georgia Military Institute by the state of Georgia. Union forces captured the 6-pound field piece near Savannah in 1864.

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The Marietta Confederate Cemetery is adjacent to the City Cemetery which is interesting in its own right. Unlike most Southern cemeteries of the period, it was not segregated, as evidenced by this Slave Lot. nearby is the grave of one of the last Daughters who developed the Confederate Cemetery, Mattie Harris Lyon, marked with a unique tributary statue.

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Scattered throughout there similar benches featuring open books with small items of sculpture such as a forage cap, canteen, women's gloves, etc. One of them tells the story of how Mattie recieved permission to fly her Confederate flag here:

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I have marched in Confederate parades to both Marietta and Stone Mountain. Ended up on the front page of the AJC one time. i will look for that picture. Mary Phagan is buried there.
 
I have marched in Confederate parades to both Marietta and Stone Mountain. Ended up on the front page of the AJC one time. i will look for that picture. Mary Phagan is buried there.

Perhaps you can tell about another "mystery marker" I omitted because I could find nothing about the individual resting beneath it. There is nothing about him in the cemetery brochure, and he's in the City, not the Confederate Cemetery proper. A quick look in Warner's Generals in Gray shows NO such general, but decorated as it is with Confederate flags, one would assume it to be "legitimate". Was William Phillips a UCV "general", or maybe a general of Joe Brown's Georgia Militia?

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General/Colonel William Phillips
General of 4th Georgia State Brigade, 1861
Confederate Colonel of Phillips Legion, 1861/1862
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http://www.angelfire.com/ga2/PhillipsLegion/wmphillips.html
William Phillips passed away in his Marietta home on September 24th, 1908 at 84 years of age and was buried in the Marietta City Cemetery.


Ah-HAH! I don't know why I didn't think of this before - I really don't know anything about him, but had at least heard of his "Legion". I MAY have read an article about it years ago in Civil War Times, but don't remember. At least it explains the rank issue - Thanks for the work!
 
No Problem. Seems like I read about his passing in a Rome News Paper. Marietta news is not on line. I wish Digital Library of Georgia would scan all papers in. It is a terrific resource.
 
Thanks for this post. As usual, your photos are fantastic.

I hope to visit one day as I have a G G Uncle buried there, Private Tirey Jennings Magee.
He had been wounded severely at Murfreesboro, and never recovered -eventually dyeing of
Pneumonia the following October.

I thought I would share one his final records from Marietta.



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From the best transcription I can provide the above letter reads:

Academy Hospital
Marietta, GA
Oct 20, 1863

Second Auditor of the [?]

Sir,
Private Terry J.Magee of the 7th Miss , Co. F died at this Hospital Oct 19th, 1863 of Pneumonia. Leaving twenty dollars and no description list.
Very respectfully,

Your Obd. Srvt.
Frank Hawthorn [?]
Surgeon in charge
 
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Just reminds me, according to Confederate officials, the war wasn't suppose to get so far south.
 
GENERAL PHILLIPS DIES IN MARIETTA.

MARIETTA, Ga., Sept. 26.-Brigadier General William Phillips, commander of Phillips' Legion, in the valley of Virginia during the war between the states, and for a quarter of a century a factor in Georgia politics, died at his home here at 11:30 last night. General Phillips was 85 years of age and is survived by his wife and five children, four sons, George, William, Marion and Henry Phillips, and one daughter, Miss Mary Phillips, all of Marietta. ....

Source: The Atlanta Georgian and News, Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, September 26, 1908; Pg. 3
http://genforum.genealogy.com/phillips/messages/18306.html
 
The thing that initially interested me most about the Marietta Confederate Cemetery was that despite the distance involved, it's the burial site of most of those killed at Chickamauga. One would expect to find the graves of those killed at nearby Kennesaw Mountain and the other battles of the Atlanta Campaign, though Resaca has its own:

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