Grave of Captain S. Lunsford - Columbia, South Carolina
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 33° 59.983 W 081° 02.064
17S E 496823 N 3762125
Grave of Revolutionary War veteran Captain Swanson Lunsford on the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina.
Waymark Code: WMGN9N
Location: South Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 03/23/2013
Views: 4
On the southwest corner of the grounds, enclosed by an iron fence, is the GRAVE OF CAPTAIN S. LUNSFORD, a Virginian who served in the Revolution under 'Lighthorse Harry' Lee and died in Columbia in 1799. Until the burial of Huey Long in Louisiana's capitol park in 1936, this was the only grave in the United States on State House property. - South Carolina: A Guide to the Palmetto State, Columbia section , pg. 224.
The guide is discussing various items found on the Statehouse grounds in Columbia. Following the Revolutionary War Captain Lunsford was a merchant and community leader in Columbia and died in 1799 after contracting yellow fever following a trip Charleston where an epidemic was taking place. He was buried on property near his home in Columbia. This property was later acquired by the State of South Carolina to be the site of the Statehouse. The original stone is the small rectangular stone embedded in base of the present stone. It was placed by Swanson Lunsford's daughter Mary and her husband John Douglass. The original stone is inscribed:
Capt. Swanson Lunsford
a native of Virginia
And for many years a
resident of Columbia
died Aug. 7, 1799
Aged four and forty years.
He was a member of Lee's Legion
in the eventful period of '76.
This humble tribute to his memory
has been erected by his only child
Mrs. M.L. & her husband,
Dr. Jno. Douglas of Chester, S.C.
In April 1953 a stone surround of the original gravestone was installed by Captain Lunsford's great, great grand daughter, Mary Craig Lorick Baker. It is inscribed the same as the original except for age being changed to "about forty years" instead of the original's "four and forty years."
The Guide's claim that this was the only grave on Statehouse grounds in the U.S. until Governor Huey Long is not accurate. President Polk along with his wife Sarah, are buried on the grounds of the Tennessee state house where their grave was moved to in 1893. Also the architect and construction superintendent are both entombed in chambers in the north and south porticoes of the Tennessee Statehouse.