Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-10-18
MiseelIameous Reaaing.
CONFEDERATE CEMETERIES
There are Fifty Of Them Well Taken
Care of, CONSIDERING.

Care of, Considering.
Despite the crippled condition II
which the south found itself at tn,
close Of the Civil war, one Of the frs
matters to receive attention was tn,
provision for a suitable resting plac,
for the soldiers who had yielded thei
lives in the fight for the lost cause
The state legislatures without excep
ton made provisions for establishing
special cemeteries in which the bodie.
of Confederate soldiers could be plac.
ed where they would receive propel
care and attention.
Much Of the credit for this work 1.
due to the women of the Confederacy
who gave their heartiest effort to this
work. Wherever a battle was fought
or a hospital was located within the
limits Of the Confederacy, provision
was made for suitable care for the
dead While the chief thought was
naturally for the soldiers of their own
army, even in that early day there was
many a Union soldiers grave which
was also the recipient Of tender atten-
tion from. the hands Of the people
against whom he fought.
There are more than fifty Of these
Confederate cemeteries scattered over
the southern states and on Memorial
day each still receives some tribute of
remembrance. Each grave in these
cemeteries has been marked in some
way, either from the appropriations
made for the purpose by the state or
by the subscriptions and donations
made by the people Of the vicinity in
which 1t is located. Special monu-
ments Of appropriate design are still
being erected in honor of Confederate
soldiers in each Of the states repre-
sented in the Confederacy, and the
state appropriations for this purpose
have been most liberal. Some Of the
cemeteries have a number Of monu-
ments representing different appropri-
ations. In the Confederate cemetery
at Charleston, S. c., there are six me-
of memorial tablets.
Richmond has eleven monuments
and a number of memorial tablets, and
Winchester, in the same state, has
nearly as many. In New Orleans the
beautiful monuments erected to the
memory of Confederate soldiers are
especially noteworthy. The south has
also honored the women whose loyalty
and unselfish devotion inspired the
valor Of the men, and in the cemetery
at Fort Mill, s. c., there has recently
been erected a monument to the women
Of the south, and another one to the
the temptation Of proffered liberty,
were as yet loyal to their masters and
to the charges committed to their care.
A number of new monuments are
Some of them are being placed in ma
tional cemeteries as, for example, each
Confederate state which had troops in
the battle of Chickamauga will have
it's participation marked by shaft in
the Chickamauga national park. SINH
lar action is to be taken in the near fu-
ture for the battlefields of Antietam,
Shiloh and Gettysburg.
The united action Of the soldiers Of
the north and the south in connection
with the Spanish war was the death
blow to whatever amount Of factional
feeling still existed between the two
sections of the country and shortly af-
ter its close popular opinion began to
favor the United States government
making some provision for the mark
ing Of the graves of the Confederate
soldiers with stones similar to those
provided for the Union soldiers. Pres
ident Mckinley advocated 1t in a pub
lie address in Atlanta shortly after the
close of the Spanish war;
At a reunion Of the United Confed-
crate Veterans held few months Ia
ter, however, the matter was discussed
and resolutions of appreciation adopt
ed. It was voted, however, that any
Federal action taken for this purpose
should refer only to the Confederate
states as the care Of such graves in the
southern states is regarded as a sacred
trust.
The first movement made towards a
provision for marking the graves Of the
soldiers of the Confederate army and
navy upon the part Of the Federal gov
ernment was the appropriation by con-
gress Of $4,000 for the purposes Of
gathering the remains of Confederate
soldiers buried in Arlington and in va
rious places in the District Of Column
bia and collecting them at one place in
the national cemetery at Arlington.
1t is claimed that George L. Rhine
hart, a soldier of the Twenty third Cor
Twenty sixth) North Carolina infan-
try was the first Confederate inter-
ment made in Arlington. Many inter-
ments were made afterwards Of per-
sons held to be citizens in rebellion"
until as late as the latter part Of 1867.
They were not all Confederate soldiers,
few being state prisoners Of war who
had been held in the Old Capitol prison
in Washington. In all there were $40
persons classed as Confederates buried
there. When, after the marking Of the
graves Of Union soldiers. there was a
surplus left from the appropriation,
part of it was used to mark these other
graves, CHASING them as rebels, citi-
zens, contrabands, prisoners Of war,
ETC., and over their graves were erect
ed plain marble headstones Of similar
description for all as civilians, having
upon each only the number of the
grave and the name of the occupant,
so that there was nothing to distin-
guish the graves of the Confederate
soldiers from the other classes.
That was the condition until in the
7O's, when 241 were removed by the
states of Virginia, North and South
Carolina, leaving 1876. These were
scattered about the cemetery in irregu-
lar groups intermingled with the graves
of Union soldiers and others. This was
discovered about 1898, and it was also
Il e. n