Adventures in Waymarking – Civil War Headstones

Along the left side of this blog you may notice a section called Waymarking with some statistics.  Waymarking is going out with your GPS and finding interesting things (that fit into a category), getting the coordinates, taking a few pictures of it, and then posting it at www.waymarking.com.  You can visit the website and check out the categories.

I’ve always liked looking in cemeteries and exploring them.  You can tell a lot about an area just from headstones.  Two categories I’ve found interesting are Woodmen of the World Grave Markers and Homemade Tombstones.  But that is not about those, but it has led me to find many cemeteries around the area.

In looking for headstones that fit into those two categories I’ve also ran into several headstones from the Civil War or The War Between the States or Mr. Lincoln’s War or The War for Southern Independence, ect..   It was that war fought between 1861 and 1865 between the United States and the Confederate States.

Here are a few of the different ones that I have found.

 

 

This is actually a memorial placed to honor 17 unknown Confederate dead buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Brunswick, Tn. 

The text of this memorial reads:

“This Plot Contains the Remains of 17 Confederate Soldiers of Prices Army Names Unknown. Removed from Hospital in Memphis in 1862 and Died
in a Church that was converted to a hospital near this spot.
Erected by Russell Jones 1905.”

Russell Jones is also buried here.

There is a Tennessee Historical Marker at this cemetery that states:

“This cemetery, founded in 1853, grew up around the Brunswick Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which has since moved. During the Confederate War, the church building was used as a hospital, and 17 unknown Confederate soldiers who died there are buried in a nearby plot. Also buried there are many of the region’s pioneers."

This can be seen at Morning Sun Cemetery on Morning Sun Road in Cordova, Tn.  There are 12 unknown Union dead killed in the Battle of Morning Sun.  There is a possible discrepancy as far as the date on the markers goes.  The headstones give a date of June 6, 1862, but all research puts the date of the Battle of Morning Sun as July 1, 1862.  I don’t know.

 

 

 

The final resting place of Peter H. Cole, Jr. can be found at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hickory Withe, Tn.  Mount Pleasant Cemetery can be found at the junctions of Ivy Road and Norse Road in Fayette County.  It says on the head stone that he was born on March 15, 1837 and killed at the Battle of Murfreesboro on December 31, 1862.

 

 

 

 

 

I ran across this one at the Tabernacle Cemetery in Piperton, Tn.  It is located on Hwy 57 just west of where Hwy 385 starts in southern Fayette County.

John F. Reed was born July 17, 1832 and killed at the Battle of Perryville, Ky.  That battle was fought October 8, 1862 and was the largest battle of the war in Kentucky.

 

 

 

Here we have the grave marker of a fellow who actually survived the war and by a good number of years.

1st Sgt J.W. Mewborn was born on October 25, 1843 and died February 24, 1930 at the age of 86.

He was a member of Company B of the 13th Tennessee Infantry.

Sgt Mewborn is buried in the Macon Cemetery in Macon, Tn.  It is .3 miles north of Hwy 193 on Macon Cemetery Road.

 

 

 

Last but not least is the grave of Pvt R. Alexander Carroll.  It gives the year of birth at 1843 and year of death of 1862. 

It states his unit as Eldridge’s Tennessee Light Artillery.  A little research shows it was part of Captain J. W. Phillips' Light Artillery Company.  In 1862 this unit was in Corinth, Chattanooga, and Tullahoma.

Without more details on the gravestone it would be hard to know how he died – was it in battle or was it by disease?

 

 

If you would like to find any of these grave markers and you have a GPS, I may not have the exact coordinates of the grave stone, but I can get you to the cemetery.  Just leave a comment asking for the coordinates.