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FLORENCE NATIONAL CEMETERY HALLOWED SPOT WHERE U.S. KEEPS
WATCH OVER SOLDIER DEAD
By Leroy Bannerman
Dirt was hastily pushed into the trench and
still they came, wagon load after wagon load piled high like so much wood.
The dead were not a pretty sight particularly these thin, stiffened forms
that bore the tattered threads of the Union Blue. Yet, they came, wagon
load after wagon load.
It was 1865, the last
of the war, and the people of Florence and of the South were becoming
accustomed to death, to the black draped railroad cars that passed in the
day and night, to the small skirmishes that flared on the outer edges of
town and in the surrounding Pee Dee area. But to see wagon upon wagon
creak through the muddy streets by their homes loaded with dead soldiers
were often times too much even for the stout-hearted citizens of Florence.
But still they came.
They were Union
prisoners, having died of disease and starvation after crowded months of
confinement in the city square of Florence. The Confederacy having decided
that Florence was a safe place, had designated it as the site for a
proposed prison and had anxiously shipped most of them before the stockade
could be constructed. There, in the city square, the Union soldiers were
crowded in a make-shift camp, guarded by the boys in Grey. It was
during this period of overcrowding, exposure and lack of food that disease
spread among their number and they began to die in throngs.
BURIED IN
SHALLOW TRENCH
Even after the stockade was
completed the prisoners had been moved from the square, they continued to
die in large numbers and were buried in the same burial plot near the
prison. They died so fast that coffins could not be constructed and each
corpse was rolled in a blanket and laid to rest. In a shallow trench,
seldom more than four feet deep, alongside fellow prisoners of all ranks.
Nearly 4,000 Union soldiers were buried there, most of them without
markers, unknown but to God until this very day.
Today, this same burial plot stands in solemn
serenity endowed with nature's best, persevered by the United States as a
National Cemetery. Stately pines, cedars and elms cost their shade upon
the carpet of grass that covers the graves and the regimental rows of
marble slabs that mark the dead. Shrubbery, trim and well-kept, add to the
beauty of the natural surroundings. An ivy covered wall of brick borders
the six acre plot, while a gate of grilled iron swings open to the public
from sunrise until sunset.
Near the entrance,
a two story grey cottage stands, the home of the superintendent and the
only building on the premises beside a brick tool house located behind it.
An iron plaque at the entrance bears the War Department warning to all
visitors that no picnicking parties will be tolerated at any times. On the
screened porch of the superintendent's cottage is the visitor's register,
a book that bears the signatures of people from all over the country and
the names of many military dignitaries.
KEEPER CONTROLS
GROUNDS
A grass lane extends from the entrance
gate beyond the flag pole, that once marked the center of the cemetery
(before the addition of two more acres), to the brick and marble rostrum
constructed at the back. From this sheltered platform, special services
are conducted an every Memorial Day, commemorating the dead of many ways.
At that time, the cemetery is decorated with bunting and flags with a
small flag at every grave.
With the recent
resignation of the superintendent, only V.M. Leach, acting superintendent,
controls the affairs of the grounds. According to Mr. Leach, another
superintendent will be designated by the Washington office upon the
recommendation of the Atlanta office. A special six months training course
is now required for superintendents upon the passing of a Civil Service
examination, Mr. Leach said.
In the
cemetery, two superintendents and brother of one are buried. John Delecroy
of New York, a lieutenant in the Civil War, and Lt. Samuel McKown were
laid to rest in the National Cemetery after many years of duty as its
head. The nearest grave to the front is the burial plot of Thomas Alfred
Elgie, 32, brother of a superintendent, who died August 12,
1884(?).
WOMAN'S GRAVE
But of all the many
men who died during the war between the states that are buried here, there
is only one lone grave of a woman that tells a poignant story of love and
devotion. Such is the story of Florenna Budwin.
When Florena's husband, Captain Budwin, went
to war, she too donned a uniform and took her stand beside him. As far as
it is known, she kept her identity unknown, firing her musket with the
same deft marksmanship of the men around her. But Florena Budwin fell
captive to the Confederate forces and was imprisoned in the Florence
stockade.
Just how she died is not certain.
Some rumors say that it was from childbirth, that she died from the lack
of attention. Other stories say that she, like the many soldiers about
her, fell victim to disease and starvation. What ever the cause of her
death, she died January 25, 1865, was buried in what is now the National
Cemetery and her grave since marked plainly for the public to see.
Strangely enough, there is no record of her husband.
And there are other unusual graves. For
instance, there is the grave of an infant, Robert Abraham Lincoln Sattes,
who died August 8, 1873. There is the grave that bears the bodies of three
children, two sons and a daughter of Sgt. Jones, who died in the year
1876. Margaret A. Flyn, daughter of Thomas Flynn, who died January 15(?),
1879, is also buried there.
"JUST A MAN"
To ask John Howe, 52 year old Negro who has been employed for the past
seven years as caretaker of the grounds, about the many clustered markers
labeled "unknown", he will shake his head solemnly and mustter, "Just a
man". John, whose father worked in the cemetery five years before him,
knows most of the history known about the persons buried there. From six
until three, one will find him guiding a gasoline driven mower over the
grass or trimming a hedge, tasks that keep the cemetery a memorial of
sheer beauty beyond words.
In the office,
records are kept on file regarding the some 4,000 odd graves. There is
also a file for those who wish to reserve a grave, as is often done. For
example, John Francis Gilmore, second lieutenant in the quartermaster
corps died July 11, 1942, is buried in the Florence National Cemetery
while the adjoining grave has been reserved for his widow. Most of the two
acre area added in recent years for no graves as yet.
In addition to many graves of the last war,
there are graves representative of every conflict since the Civil War.
Similarly, nearly every state in the union is represented by a marker,
indicative of some boy who had given his life in the service of his
country.
As to the old stockade that houses
the imprisoned and the dying of 1865, hardly anything remains except the
embankments and a marble monument erected next to the road in 1945 by the
United Daughters of the Confederacy.
But the
impassioned beauty of the cemetery itself is enough to glorify the dead
that sleep within its walls, that rest within its ground, warriors of old
and new victims of strife and bloodshed, heroes of yesterday.
Florence Morning News, Florence South Carolina
June 22,
1947 |
