See The Sites
Cemeteries / Monuments
Antietam National Cemetery
Shepherdstown Pike (MD 34) Sharpsburg, MD 21782The cemetery holds the remains of over 4,700 Union soldiers killed at Antietam and other nearby battlefields.
Legislation to establish a cemetery at Antietam was introduced in 1864 by Maryland State Senator Lewis P. Firey. Though it was originally intended to receive both Union and Confederate dead, anti-Southern feeling among the Northern states prompted a Union-only policy. (Southern dead were sent to other cemeteries in the area, including Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown, and Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.) Prominent local doctor Augustin A. Biggs was chosen as the designer and first superintendent of the cemetery, and work began in 1866, with former Union soldiers as most of the laborers. Six thousand coffins were provided by the U.S. government for the dead, who were interred by state (when known). The dedication ceremony took place on September 17th, 1867, and was attended by President Andrew Johnson, who gave a speech for the occasion. Altogether, the cemetery holds 4,776 Union remains from Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and other Maryland battles. Over two hundred other soldiers from later wars (Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korean War) are buried there as well. The cemetery was closed to future burials in 1953, though an exception was made in 2000 for a Keedysville soldier killed in the USS Cole explosion.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://home.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/antietam-national-cemetery.htm
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) documentation: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1078; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1079;http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1080
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-II-0356 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Charles S. Adams, The Civil War in Washington County, Maryland – A Guide to 66 points of Interest(Shepherdstown, WV: Charles S. Adams, 1996), 9-10.
Elmwood Cemetery
4849 Kearneysville Pike Shepherdstown,WV25443 (304)876-6440 http://elmwoodcemeteryshepwv.org/Elmwood Cemeteryis the final resting place of over 200 Confederate veterans, including 114 who were killed, or who later died from wounds, at the Battle of Antietam.
In 1780 Abraham Shepherd donated one acre of land to the Presbyterian Church in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), which was the beginning of what would become Elmwood Cemetery. In 1833 the localMethodistChurchpurchased a half-acre lot for a burial ground that adjoined the Presbyterian property. After the Civil War, in 1868 the Southern Soldiers’ Memorial Association purchased an adjacent lot that would become the final resting place for Confederate soldiers killed at the Battle of Antietam or of those who later died from wounds. In 1869 theElmwoodCemeterywas officially chartered. Ten additional acres were later purchased for use as a public cemetery.
A total of 114 Confederate dead from the Battle of Antietam were interred in the Confederate section ofElmwoodCemetery, many unidentified. The cemetery was officially dedicated on Confederate Memorial Day,June 5, 1869. A year later the Southern Soldiers’ Memorial Association dedicated a granite monument to the Confederate dead buried there. In the years that followed, the Henry Kyd Douglas Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans assumed responsibility for the cemetery. In 1935 the Douglas Camp and the state of West Virginia placed a monument to Confederate Soldiers in the cemetery, which included a roster of 535 Jefferson County citizens who served in the Confederate army. Approximately 125 additional Confederate veterans are buried in other sections of Elmwood Cemetery, including Henry Kyd Douglas, who grew up on the Ferry Hill Plantation outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland, and who served as a staff officer to a number of Confederate generals, including Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://elmwoodcemeteryshepwv.org/
http://www.shepherdstownvisitorscenter.com/newPage.asp?section_name=Lodging&entity_id=34§ion_id=16
http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc8/elmwood1.htm
Clint Johnson, Touring Virginia’s and West Virginia’s Civil War Sites, 2011.
Civil War Trails marker:
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=41694
Other markers:
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=12067
Gettysburg National Military Park
1195 Baltimore Pike Gettysburg, PA 17325 Contact: (717) 334-1124 ext. 8023 http://www.nps.gov/gettThe park, created in 1894, preserves and commemorates the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863.
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863, was a turning point in the Civil War. The battle is often referred to as the “high-water mark of the Confederacy,” since this was the final large-scale push into Northern territory during the war. Although more men died during the three days of the battle than in any battle fought before or since on North American soil, the Union victory did much to boost the morale of northern soldiers and civilians alike.
Efforts at commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg began almost immediately, as the citizens of Gettysburg were forced to cope with the slaughter that had taken place on their farms and in their streets. Burial ceremonies led to the creation of a cemetery there, the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, which became part of the larger national cemetery system in 1872. As early as 1863, the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association was established and began attempting to purchase land and preserve the battlefield. The Association’s original aim was to preserve only the Union battle lines, with very little effort at commemorating the Confederate positions until 1892. These efforts eventually led to the creation of a National Military Park in 1894; it, like the cemetery, was administered by the War Department from the time of its creation until 1933, when the National Park Service took over.
An estimated 9,600 acres comprise the Battle of Gettysburg’s primary area of action. Monuments and markers are scattered across the battlefield, and the park includes a Museum and Visitors Center.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission’s Battle Summary: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/pa002.htm
Civil War Trust: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg.html
Lee Headquarters Marker
Shepherdstown Pike (MD 34) Sharpsburg MD 21782 http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/mnt-lee-hq.htmThe Lee Headquarters Marker indicates the location of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s headquarters during the Battle of Antietam.
On September 17, 1936, the West Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy placed a monument on this site to mark the location of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s headquarters from September 15 to September 18, 1862. It is from this location that Lee directed the actions of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the September 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam. The monument is located in a grove of oak trees just outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland.
The land and monument were donated to the Federal government on July 4th, 1942, and the site is presently administered by Antietam National Battlefield.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/mnt-lee-hq.htm
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-II-0503 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Other markers:
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=5640
Memorial Fountain and Statue
Memorial Square (Intersection Rte. 11 & 30) Chambersburg, PA 17201 (717) 264-7101 http://www.borough.chambersburg.pa.us/index.phpIn 1878 Franklin County, Pennsylvania citizens erected the Memorial Fountain and Statue to honor the more than 5,000 county citizens who served in the Civil War.
In 1876 Franklin County, Pennsylvania residents proposed commemorating local soldiers who had served in the Civil War. Disagreements about the type of structure that would be erected delayed the project. A women’s committee in the Ladies and Soldiers Monumental Association favored a fountain, whereas a committee of veterans favored statuary. In 1878 a compromise was reached in which both a six-tiered memorial fountain and a life-sized soldiers’ statue would be built. The Memorial Fountain and Statue was dedicated on July 17, 1878 in the “Diamond Square” of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Financed by donations from citizens of the county, 15,000 people attended the ceremony. The statue of a Union soldier faces south, symbolizing the vigilant sentinel defending the town from the return of Confederate troops. Chambersburg was occupied by southern forces in 1862, 1863, and 1864, and in the latter year Confederate cavalry burned the town when it was unable to supply a ransom. Ironically, in spite of what the soldiers’ statue implies, on each occasion the Confederates occupied the town with little or no opposition.
A series of markers around the fountain honors local residents who served in the other wars as well. Another commemorates the meeting of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and A. P. Hill at this location prior to the Battle of Gettysburg. The fountain and statue were restored and rededicated on October 5, 1979.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.borough.chambersburg.pa.us/index.php
http://vshadow.vcdh.virginia.edu/memory/franklinmemory_p3b.html
http://www.chambersburg.biz/page.asp?id=4
http://www.visitpa.com/memorial-fountain-and-statue
Franklin County Heritage, Beyond the Years: The Fountain in the Square, 1878–1978, 1978.
Other markers:
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8095
Monocacy National Battlefield
5201 Urbana Pike Frederick, MD 21704 (301) 662-3515 http://www.nps.gov/monoUnion and Confederate forces clashed here on July 9, 1864, in the “Battle that Saved Washington.”
In the summer of 1864, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was pinned down in Petersburg, VA by Union forces. In hopes of relieving pressure by diverting part of the Union army, General Robert E. Lee sent General Jubal Early up the Shenandoah Valley and into Maryland. Early entered Maryland through Washington County and continued east towards Washington, DC. After demanding ransom from the towns of Hagerstown and Middletown, Early’s forces reached Frederick on July 8. On July 9, the city of Frederick was also ransomed, and Early moved westward towards the Monocacy River. He was met there by a force of Union soldiers, led by General Lew Wallace, perhaps half the size of the Confederate army. Wallace, not sure whether Early was aiming for Baltimore or Washington, was forced to guard three miles of the Monocacy River against either outcome. The ensuing battle ended in a Union retreat, but it delayed Early long enough to allow for additional Union forces to arrive to protect Washington.
The park includes several historic residences and other structures, and there are five historic monuments on the battlefield.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Monocacy National Battlefield website: http://www.nps.gov/mono
Monocacy National Battlefield Staff, The Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1964 [Handbook] 2010.
Brett W. Spaulding, Last Chance for Victory: Jubal Early’s 1864 Maryland Invasion, 2010.
National Historic Landmarks summary: http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=687&ResourceType
National Register of Historic Places summary: http://mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=208&FROM=NRMapFR.html
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter F-3-42 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission’s Battle Summary for Monocacy: http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/md007.htm
Civil War Trust: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/monocacy.html
Mt. Olivet Cemetery
515 South Market Street Frederick, MD 21701Many Union and Confederate soldiers are buried in this cemetery, as well as Barbara Fritchie and other Civil War notables.
Mt. Olivet Cemetery was created in 1854, seven years before the beginning of the Civil War. Many soldiers killed in nearby battles and those who died in the military hospital in Frederick were originally buried in Mt. Olivet. Most of the Union soldiers were moved to Antietam National Cemetery after the war, and many of the Confederate soldiers were retrieved by relatives or reinterred in Confederate cemeteries, such as Rose Hill in Hagerstown. But a few Union soldiers killed in the war and many veterans from the Frederick region are buried in Mt. Olivet, and many Confederate soldiers killed in area battles were reinterred here in 1880 by the Frederick Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Many of these soldiers were unknown and were buried in a mass grave, but the gravestones of other Confederate soldiers form a long line on one side of the cemetery. A Confederate monument was erected near these graves in 1881. Barbara Fritchie, immortalized in John Greenleaf Whittier’s famous poem, is also buried in Mt. Olivet.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church and Cemetery
116 East 2nd Street Frederick, MD 21701 (301) 662-8288The church building was used as a hospital during the war, and the cemetery holds the remains of Roger Brooke Taney and several Civil War soldiers.
St. John’s Catholic Church, dating to 1837, was used as a hospital during the Civil War. The church was used specifically for the care of Confederate wounded, and an unsubstantiated story attributes that to the church’s high windows hindering any escape attempts.
St. John’s Cemetery is one of the rare examples in which the graves of Confederate soldiers, Union white soldiers, and Union African American soldiers co-exist. [There is one grave of an African American soldier, George Washington, who served with the 23rd U.S. Colored Infantry. Before the war, he worked at the nearby Jesuit Novitiate.] Also buried in the cemetery is Roger Brooke Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.stjohn-frederick.org/aboutus.asp
http://www.stjohn-frederick.org/stjohncemetery.asp
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) documentation: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md0335
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter FHD-0744 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Soldiers’ National Cemetery
Gettysburg National Military Park 1195 Baltimore Pike Gettysburg, PA 17325 Contact: (717) 334-1124 ext. 8023 http://www.nps.gov/gettThis cemetery in Gettysburg National Military Park holds the remains of 3,555 Union soldiers.
After the Battle of Gettysburg, burials began immediately in what would become the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. The cemetery was dedicated in November of 1863, the occasion of President Abraham Lincoln’s famous “Gettysburg Address.” The cemetery contains 3,555 Union graves (as well as graves of U.S. soldiers from other wars), arranged in a circle to face a central monument. That monument was erected in 1869, and features marble representations of war, peace, liberty, history, and plenty. The Soldiers’ National Cemetery became part of the larger national cemetery system in 1872.
William Saunders’ original plan for the cemetery separated it from the battlefield, to be a place of contemplation in which to tell the story of the soldiers’ sacrifice. However, as roads were established through the grounds leading to the battlefield, the effect shifted from one of “destination” to one of “transition.” The cemetery was closed to burials in 1971, and closed to traffic in 1989.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/nationalcemeteries/Pennsylvania/GettysburgNationalCemetery.html
War Correspondents Memorial Arch
Gathland State Park 900 Arnoldstown Road Burkittsville MD 21718 Phone: 301-791-4767This elaborate arch was designed to commemorate the journalists and artists of the Civil War.
George Alfred Townsend, the youngest war correspondent of the Civil War, became a novelist after the war. While researching one of his books, he discovered the Burkittsville area in Frederick County and constructed a house, “Gapland Hall,” in Crampton’s Gap overlooking the town. Crampton’s Gap was where part of the Battle of South Mountain was fought. While living at Gapland, he designed this memorial to his fellow war correspondents and artists who had depicted the Civil War. The arch was dedicated on October 16th, 1896. The memorial is now part of Gathland State Park, but is maintained by the National Park Service.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) documentation: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1322
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-III-117 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/gathland.asp
http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/mnt-arch.htm
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=13977
Tolson’s Chapel
111 East High Street Sharpsburg, MD 21782 http://www.tolsonschapel.org E-mail: tolsonschapel@gmail.comTolson’s Chapel was an African American church and Freedmen’s Bureau school in the years after the Civil War.
In September of 1862, residents of Sharpsburg witnessed the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, the Battle of Antietam. The Union Army could claim only a partial victory that day, but it was enough to give President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he had awaited to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. For many Americans thereafter, especially for the almost four million held in bondage, the war was about freedom.
After the war, and practically on the battlefield that spurred Lincoln’s call for emancipation, the small African American community of Sharpsburg began work on a church. Many in this community had been enslaved until 1864, when a new Maryland state constitution abolished slavery. Two years later, in October 1866, the cornerstone of Tolson’s Chapel was laid. This tiny church on a back street in Sharpsburg became the spiritual and educational center of a vibrant community of African American families, and a symbol of their struggles and triumph.
Tolson’s Chapel was built on land donated by Samuel Craig and his wife, both of whom had been free African Americans before the war. The church was built of logs, one story in height, and had an adjoining cemetery. The structure was dedicated in October 1867 as a Methodist church, and named for John Tolson, the first minister.
By 1868, Tolson’s Chapel also served as a schoolhouse for local African American children. Responding to the lack of educational facilities for African American children after the war, the federal Freedmen’s Bureau helped local communities throughout the South and in the former border states hire teachers and build schools. The Freedmen’s Bureau helped start at least nineteen schools in Washington and Frederick Counties between 1866 and 1870. In April of 1868, teacher Ezra Johnson opened the “American Union” school in Tolson’s Chapel with eighteen children. In addition to the day school for children, Johnson also began a night school for adults, a Sabbath school, and a temperance organization.
The “American Union” school continued until 1870, when Congress began dismantling the Freedmen’s Bureau. By 1871, the state of Maryland began oversight of African American education, and Tolson’s Chapel continued to serve double duty as a school until 1899, when Sharpsburg’s first African American schoolhouse was built nearby at the end of High Street. The last member of Tolson’s Chapel passed away in the 1990s, and the building and cemetery are now under the care of Friends of Tolson’s Chapel. The chapel is open by appointment.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Friends of Tolson’s Chapel website: www.tolsonschapel.org
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) documentation: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md1676
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-II-0702 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Washington Confederate Cemetery (within Rose Hill Cemetery)
600 South Potomac Street Hagerstown, MD 21740 http://www.rosehillcemeteryofhagerstown.org/ (301) 739-3630Washington Confederate Cemetery, a section within Hagerstown’s Rose Hill Cemetery, holds the remains of 2,468 Confederate soldiers, mostly unknown, killed in the Antietam, South Mountain, and other battles.
When work began on Antietam National Cemetery in 1866, trustees of the cemetery refused to permit Confederate reburials. In 1870, after several years of negotiation and fundraising, the Maryland General Assembly established the Washington Confederate Cemetery, a “cemetery within a cemetery” on the western perimeter of Hagerstown’s Rose Hill Cemetery. After several more years of work, it was dedicated on June 12th, 1877. Nearly 2500 Confederate soldiers killed in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam were exhumed and re-buried here, arranged in a half-circle radiating out from the “Hope” statue in the center. Less than 400 of the remains were able to be identified.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
http://www.rosehillcemeteryofhagerstown.org/index_files/Page616.htm
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter WA-HAG-183 in search box to right of “Site No.”)
Civil War Trails Historical Marker: http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=44898
Ascension Episcopal Church
23 N. Court Street Westminster, MD, 21157 410-876-0736Two Confederate soldiers killed during “Corbit’s Charge” are buried in the cemetery of this church.
“Corbit’s Charge,” a clash between Union forces stationed in Westminster and Confederate forces advancing north from Montgomery County, left two Confederate soldiers dead, as well as eleven wounded. The dead of both sides were initially buried in the Westminster Cemetery on July 1st, 1863. Pierre Gibson and John W. Murray, both lieutenants of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, were later reinterred in the graveyard of the Ascension Episcopal Church (though Gibson’s remains were then moved to Virginia in 1867).
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-571 in search box to right of “Site No.”
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=13848
Union Cemetery and Confederate War Memorial
323 N King St Leesburg, VA 20175 703 777-3186Union Cemetery contains a Confederate War Memorial.
Established in 1855 on the outskirts of Leesburg, Union Cemetery was created as a public cemetery open to people of all faiths. It predated three other Union cemeteries in Loudoun County established at Hillsboro, Waterford, and Lovettsville. The cemetery contains the 1908 Union Chapel and several notable monuments, including a Confederate War Memorial at the north end of the site. [Text from http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org]
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association “Civil War 150th” website: http://civilwar.visitloudoun.org
Monocacy Chapel site and Confederate Cemetery
19801 West Hunter Road Beallsville, MD 20839Confederate veterans are buried in the cemetery adjoining Monocacy Chapel.
During the Civil War, Beallsville was known as Monocacy Chapel because of an Anglican “Chapel of Ease” that dated to the eighteenth century. Federal troops camped in the vicinity in 1861 and practically destroyed the building by stabling horses inside and using the pews for firewood. A local United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter erected a tablet in 1911 in the adjoining cemetery to honor Confederate veterans buried there. A new tablet replaced the original in 1975. The Daughters reconstructed the chapel in 1915.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Susan Cooke Soderberg, A Guide to Civil War Sites in Maryland – Blue and Gray in a Border State (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 1998), 71.
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1681
Ellsworth Cemetery
Leidy Road Westminster, MD 21157The Ellsworth Cemetery was one of the main burial sites for African-Americans in Carroll County.
The Ellsworth Cemetery Company was incorporated in 1876 in order to “purchase and hold a Lot of Land in the vicinity of Westminster for a Cemetery for Burying therein of the Dead of the Colored People.” Several of the founders were Civil War veterans, and several veterans are buried there, including Daniel P. Warfield of the 29th Regiment United States Colored Troops (USCT), and Stephen H. Lytle of the 4th Regiment USCT. The one-acre site was not officially purchased by the Company until 1894, when it was sold for one dollar by the last will and testament of Elias Yingling, though it was used as an African-American cemetery before the official incorporation. The last burial in the cemetery was made in the early 1980s.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-767 in search box to right of “Site No.”) (Note: entry may not yet be up on Maryland Inventory website)
Westminster Cemetery
Cemetery Lane Westminster, MD 21158The old Union Meeting House that stood in the center of the cemetery served as a hospital for the wounded from Gettysburg.
The Union Meeting House served as a hospital for the Gettysburg wounded, and the cemetery is an interment site for some soldiers. Five Union veterans are buried in a lot that was owned by Mary Shellman. The meeting house was demolished in 1892; the site is marked at the center of the cemetery. Memories of the meeting house continued to live on, however, after its demolition. Shellman remembered:
“The old ‘Meeting House’ which was used as a hospital, and was built before the Revolutionary War, was torn down a few years ago, but until that time bore on its time stained walls and the wood work of the high pulpit, many autographs and pathetic messages of the soldiers who spent that memorable week under its friendly roof.”
See these sources and websites for additional information:
An article on the soldiers buried at Westminster Cemetery: http://hscc.carr.org/research/yesteryears/cct2007/070520.htm
Mimi Ashcraft and Ned Landis, “Mary Shellman’s Veterans: Finding the Forgotten” Catoctin History (Spring/Summer 2008, Issue #10): 32-41.
Fairview Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery
3325 Old Liberty Road New Windsor, MD 21776The Fairview Methodist Episcopal Church is an African-American church with several United States Colored Troops veterans buried in its cemetery.
The Fairview Church was established in 1851. The cemetery holds several United States Colored Troops (USCT) veterans, as well as noted African-American stone carver Sebastian “Boss” Hammond and his wife.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties: http://www.mdihp.net/ (Select “Search by Property” tab, and enter CARR-57 in search box to right of “Site No.”) (Note: entry may not yet be up on Maryland Inventory website)
Women’s Memorial – Evergreen Cemetery
(Monument located 50 feet southwest of the cemetery gatehouse) 799 Baltimore Street Gettysburg, PA 17325The Gettysburg Women’s Memorial is a tribute to the women of Gettysburg who served and suffered because of the battle.
The Gettysburg Women’s Memorial is a tribute to the women of Gettysburg who served and suffered because of the battle. The woman depicted is Elizabeth Thorn, the wife of the caretaker of Evergreen Cemetery, who was away serving with the 138th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Battle of Gettysburg. At the time, Thorn was six months pregnant and was caring for her three sons and elderly parents. She and her family were forced to flee their home in the gatehouse during the battle, and when they returned they found their food and possessions either strewn everywhere or stolen, and dead bodies lying unburied. As caretaker of the cemetery, Thorn was ordered to begin burying the bodies along with a detail of men. The men slipped away from their duty and only Thorn was left having to finish burying the 91 bodies herself. She gave birth to a daughter soon after, but the girl was never healthy and died at the age of 14. Thorn was convinced that the stress of the battle and of burying its victims affected her unborn daughter. Thorn’s husband returned safely after Appomattox, and the couple stayed at the cemetery until 1874.
The monument was created by Ron Tunison and was dedicated in 2002. Tunison created several other monuments at Gettsyburg and also the bas reliefs on the Irish Brigade monument at Antietam
See these sources and sites for additional information
Stone Sentinels website: http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Other/Women.php
Evergreen Cemetery website: http://www.evergreencemetery.org/womens.htm
Laboring Sons Cemetery and Memorial Grounds
Chapel Alley and 5th Street Frederick, MD 21701The Laboring Sons Cemetery and Memorial Grounds in Frederick is the final resting place for six Civil War veterans who served in the United States Colored Troops.
Established in 1851 by the Beneficial Society of the Laboring Sons of Frederick City, the cemetery was created to provide a final resting place for African Americans. Six Civil War veterans of United State Colored Troops regiments are interred in the cemetery. The city of Frederick acquired the property in 1950 and established a playground on the site. Beginning in 1999, protests about the use of the property resulted in the removal of the playground, and in 2003 the site was dedicated as a cemetery and memorial ground.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
African American Heritage Sites of Frederick County: http://www.frederickhsc.org/pdf/hsc_aahsbro.pdf
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=14024
“Our Lady of Victory” Statue
16825 S. Seton Avenue Emmitsburg, MD 21727Our Lady of Victory statue was erected by the Sisters of Charity soon after the war in thanks to God for sparing St. Joseph’s College from the destruction of the Civil War.
Soon after the Civil War, the nuns of the Sisters of Charity erected a statue called Our Lady of Victory on the Emmitsburg campus of St. Joseph’s College. The sisters had promised to do so if God spared the college from the destruction of the Civil War. The Catholic Feast of Our Lady of Victory dates to 1571 and is held in thanksgiving for the victory of a Christian fleet over a Turkish armada in the Battle of Lepanto.
See these sources and websites for additional information:
Heart of the Civil War: http://www.heartofthecivilwar.org/pdf/section-2.pdf
Daughters of Charity website: http://www.thedaughtersofcharity.org/userfiles/File/Daughters_Civil_War_rev7232009.pdf
Zion Union Cemetery
Zion Union Lane Mercersburg, PA 17236The Zion Union Cemetery is an African-American cemetery holding at least thirty-eight veterans of the United States Colored Troops (USCT).
Mercersburg had the largest population of free African-Americans in central Pennsylvania before the outbreak of the Civil War, a remarkable percentage of whom volunteered for the Union Army when it began accepting African-American troops in 1863. Of these men, forty-four enlisted in either the 54thor 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and another forty-four enlisted in a variety of regiments within the USCT. Mercersburg was second only to Philadelphia in supplying troops for these regiments. At least thirty-eight veterans are buried in the Zion Union Cemetery, including thirteen members of the 54th Massachusetts, which constitutes the largest known burial site of 54th troops in a private cemetery. The 54th Massachusetts became famous for its valor and helped spur African-American recruiting by the Union Army in the remaining years of the war.
See these sites and sources for additional information:
Dickinson College Civil War research engine: http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/33004
Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: http://www.pacivilwartrails.com/stories/tales/zion-union-cemetery
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=44650&Result=1
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=44651
Lincoln Cemetery
Long Lane and Lincoln Lane Gettysburg, PA 717-334-5533
At least 30 veterans of the USCT are buried in this cemetery for African Americans in Gettysburg.
Following the Civil War, African American veterans were denied the right to be buried in the U.S. national cemeteries for Civil War soldiers. Gettysburg’s African American veterans were buried in Lincoln Cemetery, the African American cemetery in town. At least 30 members of the USCT are buried here.
See these sites and sources for additional information:
Deborah A. Lee, Honoring Their Paths: African Americans Contributions Along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, 2009, 34-36.
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=31242
