Southern Graves

Along the outer wall that parallels Memorial Drive SE in Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery is a historical marker that tells the story of the final result of the acts of seven of Andrews Raiders, as well as James J. Andrews himself: Photo by S. Lincecum "280 feet south of this location on June 18, 1862, seven of the Union Army's brave Andrews Raiders were hanged and buried. On April 12, 1862, 22 Andrews Raiders seized The General, a tender and three boxcars at Big Shanty (now Kennesaw) and raced toward Chattanooga on the Western & Atlantic Railroad in an effort to burn bridges and otherwise dismember a supply artery vital to the Confederacy. They had covered 87 miles when The General was overtaken by valiant pursuers led by Conductor Fuller. Of the Raiders, only these seven plus James J. Andrews, their leader, were executed by the Confederate Army. In 1866, remains of the seven were exhumed from this location and reinterred at the National Cemetery at Chattanooga. A...

If you've been following Southern Graves for any amount of time, you probably have figured out I like to video cemeteries. While names and dates are what most people are after when searching in a cemetery, I've always been one who wanted to see a photo. What kind of marker did a particular individual have? Big? Small? Is it well kept, or barely hanging together? Was the inscription easily read, or will it be unreadable this time next year? You know, that sort of thing. When my latest digital camera gave me the ability to take video clips, I was thrilled. Now I could show people what the cemetery as a whole looked like. Beautifully maintained, or in horrible shape. The stones are often visited, or no one has been there in years. Is the cemetery buried in the woods, is it beside a run-down church, or is it next to a shopping mall? This and more can be seen in a video. Not to mention, just getting the feel of an area is another way to add substance to an individual's o...