Because of Kate Fort's post at Turtle Talk about discussions underway regarding repatriation of Native Americans who fought for the United States and died at Petersburg, I decided to stop at Poplar Grove National Cemetery just south of Petersburg over winter break. I've been there before a few times, though always in better weather than we had in late December. It isn't the easiest place in the world to find and it was, unfortunately, closed on the 23rd when I was there. But I've posted a picture of the cemetery's gates. I also came away with a nice title for a piece on Poplar Grove -- magnolia and cedar -- because (though it's hard to see here) there are magnolia and cedar trees in abundance there. The cedar I get -- they're common trees for cemeteries. The magnolia are everywhere in the South, of course.
Maybe next time I'm passing through Richmond I'll get some photographs of the Cold Harbor National Cemetery. (Here's a link to a picture of the Fredericksburg National Cemetery I posted a while back.) Interested in legal stuff related to Civil War monuments? Check out Peter Byrne's Hallowed Ground: Gettysburg in Historic Preservation Law.
This turned out to be not the best trip for cemeteries, though. I'd hoped to get over to Laurel Hill in Philadelphia -- alas, the snow kept me away. And even the short trip I made a couple miles from home to Oaklands Cemetery in West Chester, Pennsylvania, was a little disappointing. The cemetery is lovely -- nice rolling hills with a stream running through it (a tributary to the Brandywine, which I've written about in another context and here), and its summit is high enough to give a commanding and beautiful view of West Chester. Yet, snow made it hard to get around and it was too cold to stay out long. I'll have to go back to both places in the spring. I do have a picture of Oaklands, which was founded in 1853, at right. It plays a bit part in my paper on public constitutionalism in cemetery dedication addresses. There are some pretty interesting people buried there -- including William Whyte (author of Organization Man) and Samuel Barber and, of course, a number of Civil War veterans.
Comments