There is a Confederate cemetery in
the town of Grenada. It is under the devoted care of the Dixie Chapter
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. This spot of earth enwraps
the dead bodies of one hundred and seventy soldiers, whose names are unknown,
except that of one soldier whose name is pathetically given as” Jacoby.”
Most of these died in the hospital, of sickness, and came from the armies
of Price, Pemberton and Van Dorn. A few wounded came from Shiloh and Corinth.
The following extracts are made from a letter of Mrs. P. S. Dudley, president
of the Dixie Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy:
“During my first term of office * * * the W. R Barksdale
Camp of United Confederate Veterans requested the Dixie Chapter of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy to take charge of the Confederate graves.
It was a pleasure to do this as best we could. Each year we have observed
‘Decoration Day’ with memorial services, covering the graves with flowers
and flags. We have desired to enclose the cemetery, and have a fund started
for that purpose; but all our recent efforts have been called for to aid
in fitting the Beauvoir Home for our needy, living veterans.”
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HINDS COUNTY.
At Jackson there is in the old cemetery a plot
of ground, separated from the other part of that cemetery by a chain; this
is called the Confederate cemetery. Numbers of soldiers died of disease
and wounds while the Confederate army was in Jackson and were buried there.
The number is not known, and the names are not preserved. In the battle
of Baker’s Creek, or Champion Hill, our dead were buried by the Federals
in trenches, no separate graves being made. This spot has been so long
neglected that there is nothing now discernible by which the burial trenches
can be identified.
At Raymond an old graveyard holds the bodies
of some Confederate soldiers who died of wounds received in the battle
at that place. Those who fell in battle were buried by the Federals on
the ground where they were killed and there is now not the slightest trace
to indicate their resting place. At Big Black Bridge a number of Confederates
were killed and buried nearby; but the same sad thing is true of this place
as of Baker’s Creek and Raymond. No mark indicates the place of interment.”
At Clinton there is a Confederate cemetery,
adjacent to the town cemetery, which is in a neglected condition. My inquiries
as to the number of graves, etc., remain unanswered. I learned of the existence
of said cemetery and its condition from Dr. Franklin L. Riley.
In the old Capitol Square is an imposing Confederate
monument, thus described in Goodspeed’s Memoirs of Mississippi:
“‘To the Confederate Dead of Mississippi,’ unveiled with
splendid ceremonies, June 3d, 1891, as a result of five long years of earnest
effort by the ladies of Mississippi, organized June 15, 1886, as the ‘Confederate
Monument Association of Mississippi.’ The piece is 64 ft. high from the
ground line and is composed of four main parts: the die, a castled chamber,
13 ft. high by 14 ft. wide, fitted to contain a life size statue of Jefferson
Davis, which is now in preparation; the plinth of four Egyptian columns,
supporting an entablature and (7) seven feet square by nine feet high;
the spire shaft, 3 feet square at base, tapering 30 feet to a top two feet
square and surmounted by a statue in Italian marble of a Confederate soldier
and gun in parade rest, six feet in height. The first public suggestion
for such a monument was made by Mrs. Luther Manship, of Jackson, Miss.”
Since that time the statue of Jefferson Davis
has been placed in the chamber prepared for it.
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HOLMES COUNTY.
There are two places in this county at which
Confederate soldiers were buried, viz.: Goodman and Durance. At Goodman
twenty-five or thirty soldiers were buried; they were mostly from Missouri
and Tennessee and were members of General Prices command.
The following touching letter is from the pen
of the honored R. C. Lisped, treasurer of Holes county and formerly a member
of the University Grays, Eleventh Mississippi Regiment of Lees brigade
at First Manses:
“By request I have filled out answers to questions sent by
you. Some years ago I was one of a committee of our U. C. V. Camp to look
after the soldiers’ graves in Goodman. The ladies of ‘that place deserve
credit for enclosing and keeping the cemetery and for placing in it a Confederate
monument; all this they have done at their own expense by their own efforts.
“A number of Confederate were buried near Durance; their graves are
neglected. The old church which stood there has been moved. * * * would
like to see some interest taken in these old comrades graves. * * I was
a follower of the ‘Lost Cause’ from the first until I lost a leg at Sharps
burg. I believe as strongly now as I did in the sixties that ‘Our Cause’
was right.
“I would like to see a reunion of the University Grays at the University.
I know there are but few of them left. Then we were all boys; Capt. W.
B. Lower was only 19 years old. Perhaps the State would take some interest
in it. The boys composing the company were from all the Southern States,
except perhaps three.”
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JEFFERSON COUNTY
Captain John W. Brought, of Rodney, wrote,
in 1892, that there was no Confederate cemetery and no monument in his
county, but that he and his friends were making an earnest effort to raise
funds for the erection of a handsome monument. He said if they could do
no more, they would have inscribed the names of. Confederate soldiers on
mural tablets in the handsome new Court House.
The following clipping from the Memphis
Commercial Appeal tells the gratifying story of their success:
Fayette, Miss., Jan. 14th.
“The movement to erect a Confederate monument to the memory of the
Jefferson County Confederate soldiers was started in 1901 by Capt. John
W. Brought, of Rodent, this county (himself an ex-soldier of the Confederacy),
and P. K. Whitney, then editor of the Faith Chronicle, now living at Raymond,
Miss.
"The process of collecting funds for this monument has been slow,
owing to the fact that the contributions, except in a few instances, have
been small. At the last meeting of the State Legislature a bill was introduced
by Representative J. S. Hicks, of this county, and passed, empowering the
Board of Supervisors to make a donation to the monument fund. The board,
composed of Hon. J. J. Embryo, President, and W. B. Scott, B. H. Wade,
W. M. Geohegan and R. O. Hornsby, promptly did the generous thing and appropriated
the sum of $1,000 to the cause. This sum has been added to until the amount
of $2,027 was raised, and the contract let to George Panke, of Vicksburg,
for the erection of both the monument and a neat iron fence, which will
enclose the public square on which the monument was set up. This square
will be converted into a park by the planting of numerous shade trees,
flowers, etc., and the erection of a fountain.
"The monument is twenty-two feet high, and is surmounted by the life-size
statue of a private soldier of the Confederacy, which was made in Italy
this purpose.
"Members of J. J. Whitney Camp No. 22, U. C. V., who took an active
interest in the work of securing funds for the erection of the monument
are Capt. D. S. Farrar, Capt. R. V. McDonald, Adjt. T. B. Hammett, Col.
Z R. Jones, Capt. W. H. Spencer and several others.
“The date for the unveiling ceremonies has not yet been decided upon
but will probably be in the early spring.”
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