This compact veterans cemetery featuring flags of the states who seceded from the union and joined the Confederacy stands at the back of Bethany cemetery near the Brice's Crossroads National Battlefield Park.
Bethany cemetery was established in 1853, destroyed during the battle of Bryce's crossroads between Union and Confederate forces, then restored and rededicated as a place of repose for the dead and honor for Confederate veterans.
From Find-A-Grave: (
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"Cemetery notes and/or description:
Old Bethany Cemetery is located about four and one half miles west of Baldwyn on Hwy #370. It is across the highway from the newer Bethany Cemetery and A. R. Presbyterian Church.
Confederate dead from the June 10, 1864 Battle of Brice's Crossroads are interred together in a part of the cemetery, which has given rise to the erroneous notion that the plot is itself a separate, distinct cemetery part of the nearby National Park.
The Confederate Graves are physically located in the Old Bethany Cemetery mostly in one select area at the back or north side of the cemetery."
An interpretive sign nearby reads as follows:
"BETHANY HISTORIC CEMETERY
Since 1853
Reverend Samuel A. Agnew (1833-1902), second pastor of Bethany church, was a consistent diarist. His daily entries warm the basis for the church and cemetery history.
The Bethany Historic Cemetery, referred to as the burial ground by Reverend Samuel A. Agnew, second pastor of the Bethany associate reformed Presbyterian Church, was laid out in 1853. Major John T. Humphreys donated 3.75 acres to the Bethany church for the cemetery and a site for the Bethany church, open for worship on July 31, 1853.
Also according to Reverend Agnew, the first burial in the cemetery with Mr. Jon Howard Nelson, who died March 27, 1853. He also states that 53 members of Bethany community were buried here before 1870.
17 members of the Bethany church and others in the community are buried in the cemetery during a flux epidemic (a form of dysentery) that swept through the community in the summer of 1857.
On June 10, 1864, a major part of the battle of Bryce’s crossroads was fought through the cemetery destroying much of it, as well as the church and the William Bryce house, which flanked it. In the latter part of July, the congregation and people of the community came together to repair the cemetery and church. This became a tradition for many years as an annual time for cleaning the cemetery.
For many years after the war, the members of the church and community met the latter part of July to clean the cemetery."