This triple marker display is located in the Confederate Cemetery - located on a hill overlooking the main Maple Hill Cemetery.
Side one:
Remembering the Fallen
"It is hoped that the younger generations,
which have witnessed their unselfish
devotion will emulate their virtues."
Memorializing the Confederate Dead
Immediately after the Civil War, Southern women began to care for and to memorialize the Confederate dead. Women in Winchester, Virginia, formed an association in 1865 to move the dead buried at scattered battlefields to a single cemetery. Their success inspired women across the South. Independent groups, known simply as Ladies' Memorial Associations, flourished.
(picture of woman and child at gravesite; picture of Memorial Ribbon)
"The Flower Strewn Grave" published by Currier and Ives
Phillips County Memorial Association
In May 1869, a group of women formed the Phillips County Memorial Association. They wanted a beautiful cemetery with a marble stone, where the remains of Confederate soldiers would be cared for forever.
The group elected Mrs. John T. Jones of Lexa and Mary Lambert of Helena as President and Vice-President respectively. The women began soliciting support for their mission.
(picture of woman)
Mrs. John T. Jones. The drawing appeared in the Helena World in 1892.
Helena's Confederate Cemetery
Support for the Memorial Association's plans came almost immediately from Helena businessman Henry P. Coolidge, Henry C. Rightor and Albertus Wilkins. The trio donated this plot of land, which the women named Confederate Hill. By April 1870, the Association had moved remains of twenty-three soldiers to the new cemetery. Many had died in the July 1863 Battle of Helena.
Each year, the Association decorated the graves, reminding people of the sacrifice these men had made. Confederate veterans applauded the women and requested to be buried in the cemetery when they died. Today, over one hundred men rest in Confederate Cemetery.
(picture of Cemetery)
The Ladies' Memorial Association movement was not confined to the South. Here, women decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who died in Elmira, New York.
Side Two:
"Let him sleep with his brave companions"
The Death of General Patrick Cleburne
"If we are to die Govan, let us die like men," Cleburne said to his friend, Daniel Govan, as he rode to his death.
Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, Helena's best-known Confederate soldier, came to Arkansas looking for a better life. He adopted Helena and Arkansas as his home. Cleburne died leading his division into the murderous fire at Franklin, Tennessee. He was laid to rest just outside of Columbia, Tennessee, many miles from his home and friends.
(picture of General Cleburne)
Bringing Cleburne Home
On April 27, 1870, Leonard Mangum and Dr. Hector Grant journeyed from Arkansas to Tennessee to bring Cleburne home. In Memphis, black-plumed horses pulled the hearse, draped in black crepe and decorated with green ribbons, from the railroad station to the wharf. Jefferson Davis and a host of other former Confederates marched in the procession. People lined the streets to say farewell to the fallen hero. "Never did Memphis exhibit such a solumn, impressive and soul moving scene" reported one newspaper.
In Helena, the body lay in state at St. John's Church. The city, awash in black crepe, closed for the day. A quarter-mile long procession snaked from the church to Confederate Hill. Cleburne was home at last.
(two pictures of horse-drawn hearses and a picture of the Cleburne funeral program)
No image of Cleburne's funeral procession are known to exist but it may have looked like the Currier and Ives drawing above or the photograph below.
The
Cleburne Memorial
For twenty-one years, the small headstone
brought from Tennessee marked Cleburne's
grave. The Ladies' Memorial Association led the
effort to erect the memorial dedicated May 10,
1891. The ceremony began at Helena's Grand
Opera House. General James C. Tappan acted as
master of ceremonies for the speeches, poems and
songs. Scores of Confederate veterans, residents,
and visitors marched to the cemetery. After
speeches and prayers, five young women dressed
in white, the daughters of the Confederate Generals,
unveiled the memorial.
Side three:
A Grand Memorial
The Confederate Memorial
In 1889, the Phillips County Memorial Association began raising funds to erect a grand memorial to honor all of the Confederate dead.
The Association sent an appeal throughout the South and donations poured in. Not all, however, were in cash. "This shaft was built from very diversified material," the
Helena World reported. Donations included a bale of cotton, an oil painting of Patrick Cleburne, sheep, pigs, quilts and other items that the Association sold or raffled to raise money.
The President of the Association appointed a committee to design the monument. Funds were insufficient to proceed until several committee members, Confederate veterans, and men of means, stepped forward. In may 1891, two years after making the first appeal, the committee awarded the contract for the monument to Muldoon & Co. of Louisville, Kentucky.
(drawing of several ladies)
This illustration and an article praising the Phillips County Memorial Association appeared in the Helena World on May 25, 1892.
A Lavish Two-Day Dedication Ceremony
The thirty-seven-foot high memorial was topped by a Confederate soldier wearing a great coat draped over his shoulders. The shaft bore the names of battles in which the regiments of the soldiers interred in the cemetery had participated.
The memorial was dedicated in a lavish two-day ceremony. It began on May 24, 1892, with an address by Senator James Berry, poems, and music at the Grand Opera House. It continued the next day with the unveiling of the monument. The Eagle Light Battery fired a salute after the last speech. Flowers decorated each grave. The Phillips County Memorial Association had realized its dream of creating a fitting cemetery for the Confederate dead; a place where they would be cared for and honored for all time.
(picture of a program, picture of building, picture of person)
Clockwise from center, the program for the dedication of the Confederate Memorial. James Henderson Berry, Helena's Grand Opera House
In October 1862, Berry, 2nd Lieutenant of Company E, 16th Arkansas Infantry, lost a leg in the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi. After the war, he became a very successful politician, serving as Arkansas governor (1883-1885) and a U.S. Senator (1885-1887). From 1910 to 1912, he headed the Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead, a Federal program.
"The aisles and corridors were filled with a surging mass of humanity, most of whom were old veterans who had come to hear the speech of Senator Jas. H. Berry...at the close of the speech the cheering was deafening."
Helena World May 25, 1892