Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1912-09-20
NATION GENE 'RY
LAST RESTING PLACE OF MANY
VETERANS
OVER $4,000 ''B0YS IN BLUE'
superintendent Ferguson a Brother
Of a Ladysmith Woman

uC lOllOWluS dIClclc lS Clipping
from the Memphis Daily Commercial
Appeal and was sent by Superintend
ent Ferguson, to his sister, Mrs. AL
len Pippin, Of this city, who hoping
that it might help to teach our
younger generation more respect
full reverence for both the living and
the dead heroes of civil war days,
gave it to the News Budget to pub
lish.
One of the most beautiful spots in
West Tennessee is the National Gem
etery, located six or seven miles
northeastward from Memphis.
The grounds contain 45 acres. They
are inclosed by neat brick wall,
pierced by an arching, iron gateway.
Giant oaks, elms, sweet gums and
naples form a whispering canopy of
green above the shrubbery which, in
turn hovers above the rows%of white
headstones indicating the resting
places of the dead--the vast major
ity of them unknown.
1t is spot where songbirds de-
light to linger and where wild flow
ers spring spontaneously from the
rich loam The landscape gardener
has done his utmost to beautify it.
Every curve and slope has been utfl-
lied to it's fullest extent. Labor and
expense have not been stinted. Walks
and drives wind through the inclos-
ure. Monuments rise here and there
among the trees Cannon that have
been silent since the close of the Civ
il War add their grim suggestiveness
to the bivouac of dead warriors.
There are 14,196 Of them buried
IT, ere Of this number 9,017 are un-
identified. All that can be certainly
told of them is that they wore the
blue and were found dead on the
field of honor" They were gathered
from battlefields about Columbus,
Miss. They were brought from the
trenches of Fort Pillow and Island
No. 10. They came from along the
lines of the old Memphis and
Charleston railroad. They came from
about Hickman, KY. They came from
the section of country between Mem
phis and Helena, Ark. They were car
ried out from the wards of the
Federal hospital in Memphis. Recent
ly, as the years have begun to exact
their toll of the ranks, something
like 100 old veterans have been
brought here and laid to rest beside
their comrades who fell during the
great strife.
Of the total number buried here
4,164 were negroes. Most of these
were soldiers. Many were camp
followers. All were in the Federal
service in some capacity. There are
also 27 civilians buried here, who
were officially connected with the
war department and accorded mill
tary graves on that account.
The soldiers who lie buried here
fought under Grant, Sherman and
other commanders whose operations
took them into Maine Vermont, New
New Jersey, Pennsylvania. West Vir-
ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri,
Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebras-
ka The largest numbers from indi-
vidual states came from Missouri, Illi-
nois and Iowa in the order named.
The most remarkable thing about
the Memphis cemetery, perhaps, is
the vast number of unidentified dead
that SlumberS there. The proportion
of the unknown is said to be larger
than that in any other national cem-
etery in the South. The reason for
it, no doubt, exists in the fact that
a large proportion of those buried
here were brought from distance
and inferred some time after death.
Certainly no other national cemetery
drew it's tenants from so large a ter
ritory.
1t is for this reason that national
interest in this particular cemetery
is not more strongly manifest. In time
past the memphis National Cemetery
was the Mecca of large, bue steady
lily diminishing, dpilgrimage of anxious
seekers for the graves of lost rela-
tives. Today it is rare that one
comes on such a quest. 1t has been
OF Won I'm aa hnnalaSS-aS 1t WAS in