MY RIVERSIDE CEMETERY TOMBSTONE
INSCRIPTIONS SCRAPBOOK PART III
By Jonathan K. T. Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1992
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MORE CONCERNING CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS
The SIXTH TENNESSEE INFANTRY, Confederate Army, composed of eight companies from Madison County and one each from Haywood and Fayette counties, were organized at Camp Beauregard in Jackson, May 15, 1861. Many a Madison Countian served the Confederacy in this regiment. For many years after the Civil War it was a local custom, a patriotic observance, to hold memorial services in the city cemetery (renamed Riverside in 1879) and on the courthouse square in Jackson, in mid-May. From the TRIBUNE-SUN of Jackson, May 22, 1879, in a mention for the observation of that year, May 15, "Being the anniversary of the organization of the Sixth Confederate Regiment, the 15th day of May was selected for this beautiful ceremony and now for eight years no spring season with its flowers and fragrance has passed without its proper observance."
THE JACKSON SUN, May 19, 1876, noting of the observance for that year, of the placing of flowers "above the resting place of their fallen comrades who had fallen upon the bloody field or sickened and died in the hospital. . . . There in the same cemetery were the graves of two Federal soldiers, whom the fortunes of war had buried here beyond the reach of the tender and loving offices of family and friends. . . . These two lonely graves were not forgotten" and flowers were placed on their graves. Where these graves may have been is unknown to us, also, now in 1992.
For years a growing fund was raised to pay for a permanent marker to be raised on the northwest corner of courthouse square in Jackson. Donations, mostly small, came in steadily. The ladies of the community lent their capable "offices" and held activities to raise money.
The WHIG of Jackson, October 1, 1887, "At last the monument to Madison County's brave sons who fell in the Confederate cause, stands at its full height in court square, a beautiful memorial to the fallen heroes. The statue of the soldier sentinel which for the present is veiled, was placed in position yesterday afternoon, facing northward. The unveiling will take place on Memorial Day next May."
The north side of this column is inscribed with "6th Reg't." "Erected 1888" and "J. T. Whitehead, Builder." On all four sides of this shaft at intervals, are inscribed the names of the major engagements in which the Sixth served; among them, Shiloh, Atlanta, Brice's Cross Roads, Chickamauga, Franklin and Selma. On the east side is inscribed, also: Madison County furnished the South more soldiers than she had voters.
Madison Co. Court Minute Book 17, page 12. Session, July 6, 1885. Magistrates gave permission to Monumental Committee to have a Confederate monument erected "in the western part of courthouse grounds" at no expense to the county.
HTML editor's note: The following quotation comes from one of these issues. It is not clear which.
THE FORKED DEER BLADE, Jackson, Jan. 7, 1888
THE JACKSON SUN, March 26, 1887
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THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT The work on the Confederate Monument has been suspended for several months for lack of means to complete it, but we are glad to learn that steps are now being taken to complete a labor of love especially dedicated to the immortal valor and heroism of the sons, whose lives, nearly a quarter of a century ago, went out in defense of their homes. Some of those gallant boys sleep in beautiful Riverside, and some sleep near the place where they fell on fields immortal. The ladies of Jackson will hold a fair, commencing with a concert Monday, April 18th, to continue one week, to secure means for completing the monument to the Confederate dead of Madison county. There is in the hearts of our noble women a deep sentiment that ever moves them to do signal services in enterprises like this, and when heartily enlisted success is inevitable. Donations to this fair will be gratefully received, in acknowledgement of which every donor will receive a souvenir. The merchants of our city will send solicitations to wholesale merchants of the various cities for subscriptions to the monument fund, and nothing will be left undone to finish the work at an early day. Not only Jackson, but Madison county, should have a great interest in the erection of the marble shaft which is to perpetuate those deeds of gallantry and chivalry characteristic of the Southern soldiery. There should be intense local pride in this work. On every field of battle where the sons of Madison county took part, they displayed a sublime courage, and it is but just to their memory that monumental marble emblazon their deeds and be a perpetual reminder of these fallen heroes. |
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Notations from two diaries of Robert H. Cartmell, relative to Civil War local dead.
Volume 2, page 145:
Jan. 19, 1862. Attended burial of Geo. T. Taylor, Lt. in Penn's Co. at Columbus; buried in Jackson; bro. of Mrs. Guthrie, Mrs. Dashiell, Mrs. John Chester and grandson of "old man" [Philip] Alston."
(His official war record shows that George Washington (not T.) TAYLOR enlisted at age 28 in Co. A, 6th Tenn. Inf., CSA, in May 1861. Promoted to 2 Lt. October 1861. Died January 18, 1862. Absent since August 1861, illness; in Capt. Wm. C. Penn's Company. His tombstone in the Guthrie lot at Riverside reads: GEO. W. TAYLOR, B/ July 1, 1832; D/ Jan. 18, 1862.)
IBID, page 26. Cartmell notes there was considerable, a "great deal" of communicable illnesses among the Confd. soldiers in and about Jackson. (A hospital had been established in Jackson, called Beauregard Hospital. Dr. R. R. Dashiell was its supervisor.)
IBID, page 161. April 9, 1862. Cartmell recorded that the wounded and dead from the Shiloh battlefield area began to come into Jackson this morning; among dead, the bodies of Jo. Freeman and I. Jackson. He attended Freeman's burial April 10.
Volume 3, page 14. June 8, 1863. Federals evacuated Jackson today after 1 year and 18 hours of occupation.
IBID, page 26. Of the Federal / Union-Confederate skirmish in Jackson, July 13, 1863, Cartmell wrote on July 15, 1863, "Four Confederates & one Federal were buried today, died since the fight. One was Lieut. Pig of Biffle's Regiment."
(His official war record shows that Lt. James H. Pigg of Maury Co., Tenn., enlisted in Columbia, Sept. 4, 1862, Capt. Jacob B. Biffle's 19 Tn. Cavalry. He was "Killed at Jackson, Tenn. July 15, 1863." As the battle had been two days previously it must mean, as Cartmell implies, that Lt. Pigg had died and he was buried, not killed, July 15.)
About the individual stone markers at the graves of Confederates buried in riverside. In the minute book of the Riverside Cemetery Improvement Association, 1955 to 1976, page 67. July 5, 1956. "Since the UDCs had asked about resetting some of the confederate stones, Mrs. Murdoch told the meeting that Mrs. Jamison for the city had replaced 15 small stones and made others firm in concrete."
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