Woodbine Cemetery
Posted by: 79scouts
N 38° 26.884 W 078° 51.753
17S E 686524 N 4257694
This section of the cemetery is known as tne soldier cemetery.
Waymark Code: WMC5M8
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 07/28/2011
Views: 10
The Marker Text Reads:
Woodbine Cemetery
The Soldiers’ Section
During the Civil War, Woodbine Cemetery was Harrisonburg’s principal burial ground. Chartered in March 1850, it opened later that year after the city’s first mayor, Isaac Hardesty, sold 2.5 acres of his property to the cemetery company. The need for additional grave sites for fallen soldiers became clear early in the conflict. Nearby engagements, such as the action in which Confederate Gen. Turner Ashby was killed on June 6, 1862, as well as the Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic, created fatalities that began to fill the available space. The deaths of wounded soldiers treated at Harrisonburg’s general military hospital after it was established in October 1862 prompted city merchant Samuel Shacklett to donate an adjoining acre for a soldiers’ cemetery.
After the war, Mrs. Juliet Lyle Strayer formed the Ladies’ Memorial Association in June 1868 to tend the graves. Remains buried in Woodbine Cemetery were removed to the Soldiers’ Section, as were those interred elsewhere in Rockingham County. Eventually, about 250 Confederate soldiers, including men from Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Missouri were buried here. Most are unknown. At first wooden headboards marked the raves, but in 1899, the Ladies’ Memorial
Association and the Turner Ashby Chapter of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy replaced them with marble markers.
In 1876, as the United States celebrated the nation’s Centennial, the Ladies’ Memorial Association erected a 23-foot-high monument here. Praise of the men’s service and a list of battles in the Shenandoah Valley are inscribed on the marble base.
Type of site: Cemetery
Address: East Market Street, between Ott and Reservoir SteetsVA USA 22801
Admission Charged: No Charge
Website: [Web Link]
Phone Number: Not listed
Driving Directions: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Post a picture of site showing the signage or other notable feature. Please tell what you saw or learned.