One-tank trips: Hollywood Cemetery – Part 2
Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, is the final resting place of more than 18,000 Confederate soldiers from the Civil War, including 25 generals and President Jefferson Davis. Opened in 1849, the cemetery also holds the remains of many of Richmond’s leading citizens, as well as several governors of Virginia and other politicians and civic leaders.
Among the dead interred in this scenic “garden-style” cemetery on a bluff above the James River are the bones of hundreds of dead Rebels dug up from the Gettysburg battlefield and moved to Richmond. Presumedly these remains include those of Brig. Gen, Richard Garnett, who perished during Pickett’s Charge. His body was never identified.
George Pickett himself is buried nearby.
Here are some photos of the Gettysburg section of Hollywood Cemetery.
May the soldiers rest in peace.
The majority of the Gettysburg dead are unknown. They were originally buried in large trenches on the battlefield or in graves near temporary field hospitals where they expired. Dr. Rufus B. Weaver dug up more than 2,000 Confederate remains a decade after the Civil War; the bones were shipped to various cemeteries including Hollywood.
Individual memorial stones commemorate the lives of several people known to have been killed at Gettysburg and either identified as they were removed from that battlefield or, in the case of Garnett, strongly suspected to now lie in eternal rest in Hollywood Cemetery.
Among the stones in the Gettysburg section is one for John Wesley Culp, a relative of the Culp family whose farm was the scene of intense fighting. Culp’s death is the subject of much uncertainty and misinformation, including stories that family members discovered the body on their farm and had it secretly buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg. It is more likely that Culp’s remains are in Hollywood Cemetery, as this stone would suggest.
Maj. Gen. George Pickett moaned after his famous charge that he had “no division left,” after receiving an order from Robert E. Lee to reform his division in case of a Union counterattack on the third day at Gettysburg. Pickett lies not far from his men.
To get there:
Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery (412 S. Cherry Street) is an easy drive from Interstate 95. Take Exit 76B toward US-1/Belvidere St/US-301 for about 0.1 mile. Turn left on W. Leigh Street and then right onto US-1 South/US-301. Drive about a mile and turn right on Spring Street. In 0.2 miles, turn right onto S. Cherry Street. The entrance to Hollywood Cemetery will be on your left.
Stop at the main building and purchase a tour map.
To read the rest of this series on Confederate graves at Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
