RECENT COMMENTS
Sons of Confederate Veterans provide new fence for Soldiers’ Monument
The Sons of Confederate Veterans yesterday installed an iron fence at Oakwood Cemetery:
A $35,000 iron fence was installed yesterday around the Soldiers’ Monument by Colonial Iron Works of Petersburg, with meticulous oversight by F. Lee Hart III of Suffolk, chairman of the SCV Oakwood Restoration Committee. The fence reproduces a feature that disappeared about 1916.
The reproduction fence stands on top of 5,200 pounds of granite block. Its design is based on a photo that shows what the monument looked like in the early 1900s.
From the Sons of Confederate Veterans history of Oakwood:
Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia is estimated to contain the remains of as many as 17,000 Confederate soldiers making it the second largest Confederate cemetery in America. During the early months of the war, it was determined that a cemetery needed to be established for the burial of the large numbers of military casualties inflicted by the battles around the Confederate capital. On August 12, 1861 the City of Richmond purchased land which would be made available for this solemn purpose. The military cemetery contains approximately 7.5 acres and is commonly referred to as the “Oakwood Confederate Cemetery.”
The Confederates buried in Oakwood were largely the casualties of the major battles fought to defend Richmond from northern invasion beginning in the summer of 1862. These battles included the Seven Days Campaign, Gaines Mill, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Mechanicsville, Savage’s Station, Beaver Dam Creek, and many others. Many were patients that failed to recover in the military hospitals in the Richmond area such as Chimbarazo, Howard’s Grove, and Winder. Although the cemetery lies in Virginia, Virginians do not comprise a majority of the dead. In fact, it is believed that the dead represent every state of the Confederacy.
Many Union soldiers where also originally buried near the Confederates in Oakwood. In 1866 the federal government relocated the bodies of most Union soldiers from Oakwood and buried them in the beautifully maintained Richmond National Cemetery which stands in sharp contrast to the condition of the Confederate section of Oakwood. The graves in Oakwood are marked with a small stone for every three graves with a numerical inscription for each grave plot. Some graves have been marked with individual markers, but by the vast majority of plots have no marker designating the name, unit, or home state of the soldiers.
at least these guys have a cemetery and a memorial. the burial ground for negroes is under a parking lot.
Why hasn’t someone created a committee or 501c3 organization to raise money to purchase or otherwise obtain rights to maintain/preserve/memorialize the negro burial ground on Broad? These SCV folks at Oakwood are all volunteers and donors. I bet there is a huge pool of people and corporations that would give to preserve the negro burial ground.
If someone correct me… the property is own by MCV/VCU.
that is the negro burial ground is own by MCV/VCU
why cant we talk about the confederate veterans!
@neighbor, there is such a group, but unfortunately it is headed up by the same people who ran the 7th district like their own banana republic for the past 40 years. Their general incompetence and malfeasance will further delay the honor those folks buried under a parking lot were denied nearly two centuries ago. Ironic, huh? I actually have some hope that Cynthia Newbill could get the job done, if they’ll step aside.
@ Eds, no this is not the Cemetery owned by VCU
@Steven:
EDS asked “that is the negro burial ground is own by MCV/VCU”?
The answer is yes. The Negro Burial Ground is thought to be partly underneath a VCU/MVC-owned parking lot just north of Broad Street.
The question you asked does not have anything to do with this article. Your question should be brought up with the city government in a proper forum.
The 17+ thousand Confederate soldiers in Oakwood have a cemetery because of members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The SCV honors their fallen, regardless of race, that fought for the Southern Cause. In Fredericksburg, there are Confederate soldiers buried under a parking lot on Barton Street. In order to preserve their honor, we, the members of Camp 1722, Sons of Confederate Veterans, dedicated a statue with the 51 names of those that fell and placed it across the street from where they are buried. And now…Fredericksburg wants it moved, even though they approved its placement.
Remember that a government that is willing to give you everything will eventually take it all away. – Deo Vindice
It looks great. Hope this cemetery is restored to the honor it deserves.
I appreciate the sacrifice of Confederate veterans this is a fitting tribute to their noble cause. May each of these dear men rest in peace. God bless. The post about a negro cemetery under VCU is a lie.
Abe S.
@Abe – There is compelling evidence that there is at least part of the Negro Burial Ground under a parking lot operated by VCU.
re# 11, What makes you think it’s a lie?
The report on this investigation opens with this.
Later in the report there is this.
VCU makes a very public and political target. Whether this strip of ground was a part of the Burial Ground or not may never be known, even with an extensive excavation. What isn’t in doubt is that there was a Burial Ground in the near vicinity. If a memorial is built, it should be something more fitting than a strip on a parking lot next to the freeway. We already have one of those over on Main Street by the old Club Velvet, the Reconciliaion Statue.
I appreciate the sacrifice of the slaves that built this town (this country). Being interred under a parking lot/highway is not a fitting tribute to their noble cause. May each of these dear people rest in peace. God bless. The post about the confederates having a noble cause is a lie.
Time for a museum and memorial in the bottom http://www2.timesdispatch.com/2009/oct/21/coun21_20091020-222010-ar-20775/
#15, while I have no opinion on the burial ground at VCU, I disagree that Confederate soldiers didn’t have a noble cause. I know that political correctness and poor historical education has clouded the facts time and time again, but many confederate soldiers were not pro-slavery. Slavery may have been the topic to set things off, but the general reason for the succession of the southern states from the union was due to government control. The southern states did not want the northern states to tell them how to live. Confederate soldiers just wanted to live their lives freely. At the time, their cause was noble. I was born in the north and lived there most of my life. I will admit that I was taught that the confederacy was a bunch of slave owning, negro hating, bad guys who fought because they liked slaves. Now that I am older and have researched historical battles and documents, I can see that this is just not true. I am glad they lost the civil war (though no one really won) and the slaves were eventually freed, but I don’t hate them for fighting. They fought for their idea of freedom.
The freedom to own other people, yes.
John, if that is what you think it was all about, I suggest you do some research. It was about the Northern States controlling the Southern States. The slavery topic was just the final aggravation.
I love when people make the civil was into just a slavery issue. They fail to see the big picture. I think they also forget that most of the founding fathers of this country were slave owners. It was a sad time for equality.
john_m, I’ve followed your blog for the last 3 years. Never posted until now, but enjoy it very much. Your personel insights have been well thought out and at times you’ve shown great restraint at certain posters & posts when I’m sure you could have done otherwise.However your last post on the SCV topic seemed short, ugly and trite. in other words not the you that I’ve formed an opinion of. I’m no SCV member, fan or otherwise but I am by birth a southerner, Virginian, and Richmonder and yeah had family in the civil war. So I do take umbrage to your post on this subject. Respectfully, Brad Williams
I’ll concede that. It was knee-jerk response to what in itself read as a revisionist white-washing of a key moment in out history.
Without going into it, I’m fairly well versed in U.S. history. I recently saw Dr.Ayers speak, a man who certainly knows his topic, and he essentially said that to credit the Civil War to anything other than slavery is to willfully ignore slavery as the essential difference, socially and economically, between the North and the South.
john_m I agree with Dr. Ayers and understand your response in that context. Keep up the good work. Brad Williams
John, I was not ignoring slavery. However, you cannot claim that confederate soldiers did not have a noble cause for the time. I also don’t agree with Dr. Ayers. Slavery was the shell of the issue as a whole. That issue was Northern States forcing control on Southern States. The men on the battle field were not fighting for their love of slavery. They were fighting for their view of freedom. In the same respect, Union soldiers were not fighting for slave freedom and rights.
Worth watching. The evidence may not be so compelling.
Mark-On-VCU-Parking-Lot-Controversy
Thanks Paul! Good info!