This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here. The information was researched and produced in the summer of 2011 for The Gettysburg Daily.

The thing that initially attracted me to Hollywood Cemetery was the fact that two U.S. Presidents are buried there. Once I actually got on the grounds to look for their graves, I noticed a bunch of names that are familiar to a Civil War nerd and the idea for this series was born.

The first really notable burial in the cemetery was President James Monroe.

Originally buried in New York City (since he died there while living with his daughter) Monroe’s body was moved back to Virginia in 1858. Apparently the Virginia legislature could not tolerate the idea of one of their Presidents resting in a northern city.

 

His tomb is incredibly ornate, and easily stands out within the cemetery.

I talk a little bit about President Monroe’s life in this brief video:

The second U.S. President buried at Hollywood is a man who is not necessarily a household name, but a very interesting figure nonetheless: John Tyler.

Tyler’s grave is found just a few yards from Monroe’s in the aptly-named “Presidents Circle” section of Hollywood Cemetery.

His monument is quite large, and features a bust on one side.

In this video I give a bit of information on Tyler, who was an exceptionally interesting 19th century political figure. When the Civil War broke out, he sided with the Confederacy – even going so far as to be elected to the Confederate Congress – but he died before he could assume that office. As a result of his rebel status, he remains the only U.S. President to not be officially mourned following his death.

Speaking of Confederates, there is one more President buried in Hollywood Cemetery: Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America.

He is buried in the far southwestern corner of the cemetery, near several other notable Confederate political figures.

The monument that rests at his burial site includes a statue of Davis, as well as a few plaques with biographical information.

I provide some more information about Davis in this brief video.

All videos in this post were shot by George Skillman.

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

Another of the sites at Hollywood Cemetery that I never posted about during my series at Gettysburg Daily was the grave of Bernadine Rees. While not a famous Civil War figure – let alone a Gettysburg-related one – her grave is best known for the black iron dog watching over the plot.

Ms. Rees died before she was even 3 years old – probably a victim of the 1862 Richmond scarlet fever epidemic. There a many stories associated with the statue of the dog. One is that it was a bought by the family especially for the plot (as Bernardine supposedly loved dogs). It’s also said that the dog statue belonged to a family friend who loved to see the little girl pat it whenever she came over, so he placed it next to her memorial.

The dog makes for an odd curiosity to be sure, but there may be a Civil War connection, too. One of the stories is that the piece was a treasured object to the family (maybe because of Bernardine’s connection with it) and the family didn’t want it to be confiscated in a metal-hungry Confederacy in the midst of war. Not even the Confederate government would be desperate enough to turn to grave-robbing they thought, so they put the statue here for safe keeping.

Whatever the truth happens to be, it’s a unique site for a number of reasons, and very popular with tourists to the cemetery. It’s become something of a tradition to leave toys and other gifts for Ms. Rees, and many of the visitors take part. The shape of the alcove in her headstone makes that a very tempting thing to do. Maybe it’s the dog, and maybe it’s the story of the death of a young child who never got a chance to grow up, but something about this place really seems to resonate with people.

If you’d like to see it for yourself, the Rees plot is located at one of the major intersections within the Cemetery. It is highlighted by the red box on the map below:

My speech in the video below repeats a lot of the information from above, but it also gives you a better idea of the scale, and a closer look at the kinds of trinkets people leave on the headstone.

Video by John Dolan

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

I never posted about the massive Confederate monument in Hollywood Cemetery during my series at Gettysburg Daily. That makes this post the first of the “lost episodes”.

South of Gettysburg Hill is a giant monument to the Confederate dead that was erected by the Hollywood Memorial Association in 1869. It’s a 90-foot, 4-sided stone pyramid on top of a hill. It makes for a very hard-to-miss landmark.

Each face of the monument has an engraved stone with an inscription near the middle of it, about 6 feet off the ground. The one on the west side reads, “Erected by the Holly-Wood Memorial Association A.D. 1869”. On the south side, “Numini et Patri ae Asto” (my Latin is a little rusty, but I think this translates to “God and the Father Await”). On the north side, “Memoria in Aeterna” (or “Eternally in our memory”). Finally, the main inscription is on the eastern face:

As I said above, the pyramid is located just south of Gettysburg Hill, and is plainly visible on satellite photos. It’s that big.

In the short video below, I give a description of the monument and tell one of the stories people tell of how it was built.

Video by John Dolan
 

Next time, we’ll showcase another landmark in Hollywood Cemetery from the “lost episodes” archive.

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

Most Gettysburg nerds have heard of Wesley Culp – the boy from Gettysburg who went south and fought for the Confederacy. The story is that he was killed on Culp’s Hill (owned by members of his family) during the battle some time between July 2nd and 3rd, 1863.

As you can imagine, since we aren’t really sure when he died, we aren’t really sure where he died either. So we don’t know for sure where his remains ended up. That being said, he has a marker here at Hollywood:

This marker is located among the multitudes on Gettysburg Hill:

I explain more about the controversy here (along with giving some more background on Private Culp) in the video below:

Video by George SkillmanIn the next installment, we’re going to move away from the Gettysburg Hill section of the cemetery and explore some of the other notable landmarks.

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

Anyone who has seen the movie Gettysburg knows the story of Brigadier General Richard Brooke Garnett (or at least an interpretation of it). The fact of the matter is that he is shrouded in some mystery.

For one thing, we don’t reliably know what he looked like. The usual picture that you see of him is this one:

But there’s some thought (spurned on by members of the Garnett family, I think) that perhaps this was a photo of his cousin, Brig. Gen. Robert S. Garnett, the first general killed during the Civil War. Apparently the two men had very similar features.

There is another photo that could be Garnett. This one was found in the Library of Congress labelled as “Franklin Gardner“. At least some people think that this is in fact, Brig. Gen. Garnett:

Yet another mystery surrounds the whereabouts of his remains. As I explain in the video below, none of the Union burial details ever made note of finding the remains of a General among the Pickett’s Charge dead.

Video by George SkillmanThe location of his marker is right in the middle of Gettysburg Hill:

His “headstone” itself is also unique. Since the whereabouts of his remains is unknown, it’s more of a memorial than an actual marker. It was placed here (as it says) by family and friends in the 1990s.

In the next installment, we’ll highlight another mysterious “burial” on Gettysburg Hill.

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

Another of Pickett’s officers that was involved on July 3, 1863 was Lt. Colonel John T. Ellis of the 19th VA Infantry. He didn’t participate in the attack itself though, because he was killed shortly before Pickett’s division set out across the field.

Ellis is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in the Gettysburg Hill section, just a short way down the hill from General Pickett himself.

In the video below, I give a very brief biography of Lt. Col. Ellis and explain how he was killed.

Video by George SkillmanAnd of course, we have a close-up shot of Lt. Col. Ellis’s headstone. One of many here on Gettysburg Hill.

Next time, we’ll talk about another high-ranking officer in Pickett’s division who is likely to be buried here among his men.

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

The area of Hollywood Cemetery that we’ve been exploring so far is known as Gettysburg Hill. This hill got its name from the more than 2,000 Confederate dead from the Battle of Gettysburg that are buried in this section.

As we know, the Confederates didn’t hang around very long after the battle. They were on the road south by July 4. There was no way for the Confederates to collect or bury all of their dead – especially those who died near or beyond the Union lines. Those men were buried largely in mass graves by Union burial details and U.S. government contractors. So how did thousands of dead from Gettysburg end up in Richmond, VA?

The southern economy was wrecked by the war. Even families who wanted to exhume their relatives to move closer to home couldn’t afford to do so. It took until 1872 for the Hollywood Memorial Association to raise enough money to have a large number of these men – mainly the dead from Pickett’s Charge – moved to the cemetery. After nearly 10 years, there wasn’t much left of the remains, and no good method for identifying them. They were buried in a mass grave, much as they had been on the battlefield.

Since so many of the dead in this area were from Pickett’s Charge, Pickett himself chose to be buried on this hill near his men. For better or worse, July 3, 1863 really had become the defining moment in his life, and would remain so for all time.

In the last few years, headstones have been added to this section for the men who are likely to have been buried here. We’ll talk about a few of them in the next few posts, but for now, here are some views of the hill that we took during our visit two years ago:

In the next post, we’ll talk about one of the men who is memorialized by a headstone in this section.

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

Right next to Pickett’s grave is the grave of one of his officers, the commander of the 1st VA Infantry, Colonel Lewis B. Williams.

As most Civil War buffs know, Pickett’s Charge was a spectacular failure. In addition to a 50% casualty rate among the rank and file of the division, every single field officer under Pickett’s command was either killed, wounded, or captured. Colonel Williams was one of the men who was mortally wounded in the assault.

It was his decision to ride his horse across the field rather than walk – the same decision made by Brigadier General Richard B. Garnett that day – that was his undoing. When a shell exploded near him, he was thrown from the horse and landed on his own sword. He died later that night.

Like Pickett, his grave is located in the Gettysburg Hill section of the cemetery within a few feet of his division commander.

In the video below, I give a short biography of Colonel Williams and show his headstone. General Pickett’s marker is just behind the camera.

Video by George Skillman 

Here’s a close-up shot of Lewis B. Williams’ headstone. It’s very distinctive and easy to recognize from a distance.

In the next installment, we’ll talk a little more about the Gettysburg Hill section of the cemetery and how it came to be. Then, we’ll move on to discussing some of the men who probably found their final resting places there.

This is a continuation of my series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

We’re going to start out with one of the more famous figures buried at Hollywood Cemetery: Major General George E. Pickett.

His grave is located in the northern-most section of the cemetery near the area known as Gettysburg Hill.

In the video below, I give a short biography of Maj. Gen. Pickett, and talk about some of the particulars of his “headstone” at Hollywood Cemetery, which was originally designed to be a monument to his division at Gettysburg.

Video by George SkillmanHere are some close-up shots of his monument, so that you can get a sense for how much it resembles a division monument (because in reality, that’s what it is). There’s a lot to it.

Keeping with the Pickett theme, in the next few posts of the series, we’ll talk about a few officers who were killed in the famous attack that (rightly or wrongly) bears his name.

This is the beginning of a series on famous burials in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Other posts in the series can be viewed here.

Two years ago, I did a series of guest posts for Gettysburg Daily about the Confederate soldiers and officials who are buried at Hollywood Cemetery and who have some type of Gettysburg connection.

I never got all the posts that I produced up onto the site before they stopped regular operations. I’d like to re-post that work here, and also put up the never-before-seen “lost” episodes. For now, we’ll have the introduction:

Video by George Skillman

Look for more posts in this series in the coming days. As I said in the video, Hollywood Cemetery is kind of the Arlington of the Confederacy.

A special thanks to my friend, John Dolan and my dad, George Skillman for making a few trips down to Richmond with me to get the photos and videos for these posts.