Gateway to Chattanooga's Confederate Cemetery
circa 1912
text from
Chattanooga and Her Battlefields
Charles D. McGuffey, ed., Chattanooga, Tennessee; 1912
This view shows the memorial arch and gateway of the Confederate Cemetery at Chattanooga, with a portion of the interior and the Confederate Monument. This cemetery, embracing about three acres, lies just east of the City Cemetery, and the gateway faces west of south across East Fifth Street. The number of graves is estimated at about 1,100, including reinterments since the war, and graves of persons dying since peace came. Of course the soldiers there buried are but a small portion of the Confederates killed at Chickamauga and elsewhere near Chattanooga.
The ground is kept in excellent order -- trees, shrubbery, flowers and grass helping to make it attractive.
The early care of the cemetery and the erection of the monumnet was the work of the Ladies' Memorial Association. The monument whose corner-stone was laid May 10, 1877, is thirty feet high, bearing the inscription:
OUR
CONFEDERATE
DEADA subsequent report by a committee of N.B.Forrest Camp says: "It is with pleasure that we here make record, of the fact that in the efforts of the ladies to secure funds, generous donations were given by a number of persons from the North, resident to this city, and by many ex-Federal soldiers; and at the laying of the corner-stone of the monument troops from the U.S.barracks took part in the exercises."
The Ladies Memorial Association has ceased to exist, and the cemetery is now cared for by the Memorial Committee of N.B.Forrest Camp U. C. V., and a committee of the Daughters of the Confederacy. The corner-stone of the arch and gateway was laid May 22, 1901.
Inside the smaller gateway is a metal tablet with the inscription:
ERECTED IN 1901
BY THE
DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY
CHAPTER 81
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE
TO COMMEMORATE THE VALOR
AND THE HEROSIM THAT OUR
CONFEDEATE SOLDIERS
DISPLAYED IN THE BATTLE FOR OUR
BELOVED SOUTHLAND
IN THE WAR FROM 1861 TO 1865
IN FRATERNAL RECOGNITION OF
N. B. FORREST CAMP, U. C. V.
*********
It is not in the Power of Mortals
to command success
The Confederate Soldier did more -
HE DESERVED IT.
*********
On the maltese cross on the small gate are the inscriptions SOUTHERN CROSS OF HONOR and DEO VINDICE 1861 1865, with a single star in the center, while on the other side of the cross are thirteen stars and the inscription UNITED DAUGHTERS CONFEDERACY TO THE U. C. V.
One-thousand or more Confederate soliders are buried in the cemetery. Confederate veteran R. L. Watkins compiled a list of the dead soldiers shortly after the war. For access to the Watkins list see Chattanooga Confederate Cemeteries
Chattanooga's Confederate Cemetery: Descriptions, Lists of Burials, and photographs.
1912
Description of the Chattanooga National Cemetery
19th Century and Free
Expression Conference Home Page.
U.S.
Library of Congress American Memory Project: The Civil War
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