Laurel Grove Cemetery
Laurel Grove Cemetery is a cemetery located in midtown Savannah, Georgia. It includes the original cemetery for whites (now known as Laurel Grove North) and a companion burial ground (called Laurel Grove South) that was reserved for slaves and free people of color. The original cemetery has countless graves of many of Savannah's Confederate veterans of the American Civil War. Laurel Grove South holds the graves of thousands of slaves and free blacks from coastal Georgia. The cemetery was dedicated in 1852. The lawyer and poet Henry Rootes Jackson delivered the dedication address.[1]
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1853 |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 32.06548°N 81.10833°W |
| Type | Public municipal |
| Owned by | City of Savannah |
| Find a Grave | Laurel Grove Cemetery |
With lush plantings and beautifully carved stones, both sections of Laurel Grove Cemetery resemble more famous Victorian-era graveyards such as Green-Wood in New York City and Père Lachaise in Paris. The south section of the cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1978 and the north section was added to the NRHP in 1983.
History
Although planned as early as 1818, Laurel Grove first opened for burials in 1853. Administrators of Laurel Grove have recently begun an ambitious plan to computerize the cemetery's burial records.
| Name | Notability | References |
|---|---|---|
| Edward Clifford Anderson Sr. | Mayor of Savannah for eight terms before and after the American Civil War, 15-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, and brigadier general in the Confederate States Army. Led Savannah's Reconstruction efforts. | |
| George Wayne Anderson Jr. | Commander of Fort McAllister during American Civil War, member of the Republican Blues. Born at, and later owned, the Lebanon plantation located between Fort McAllister and Savannah. | |
| Francis Stebbins Bartow | Confederate politician and Confederate States Army officer during the American Civil War | |
| John M. Berrien | U.S. senator from the state of Georgia | |
| William Bellinger Bulloch | U.S. senator from Georgia and relative of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt | |
| Robert Milledge Charlton | U.S. senator representing Georgia | |
| Stephen Elliott | 37th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) | |
| William Bennett Fleming | U.S. representative from Georgia | |
| Jeremy F. Gilmer | Chief of engineers for the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War | |
| William Washington Gordon | Politician and businessman, co-founded and served as first president of the Central Railroad and Banking Company (now the Central of Georgia Railroad) | |
| W. W. Law | American civil rights leader and president of the Savannah NAACP, who established many African American cultural institutions in Savannah, Georgia. | |
| Juliette Gordon Low | Founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA | |
| George Paul Harrison, Sr. | Brigadier general (1861–1862) and colonel (1864–1865) in the Georgia (Confederate) militia; member of the Georgia House of Representatives | |
| Julian Hartridge | U.S. representative from Georgia | |
| Mary Haskell | Educator | |
| Frank O'Driscoll Hunter | World War I fighter ace and the recipient of Distinguished Service Cross five times. Later served as commanding general of the VIII Fighter Command and, later the First Air Force, during World War II | |
| Florence Martus | Nicknamed "the Waving Girl", the unofficial greeter of all ships entering and leaving the Port of Savannah from 1887 to 1931 | |
| Lafayette McLaws | U.S. Army officer and a Confederate general in the American Civil War | |
| John Millen | U.S. representative and lawyer from Georgia | |
| John William Pearson | Businessman and Confederate captain of the Oklawaha Rangers | |
| Phoebe Pember | Confederate nurse at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War | |
| Philip Phillips | Lawyer, politician and U.S. representative from Alabama | |
| Anna Davenport Raines | Founding Vice President of the United Daughters of the Confederacy | |
| Moxley Sorrel | Confederate States Army officer and historian of the Confederacy | |
| William Henry Stiles | U.S. representative from Georgia. | |
| Thomas Manson Norwood | U.S. senator and U.S. representative from Georgia | |
| George Welshman Owens | U.S. representative and lawyer from Georgia | |
| James Lord Pierpont | Writer and composer of the song Jingle Bells | |
| Joseph Wasden | Confederate officer in the American Civil War | |
| James Moore Wayne | Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and a U.S. representative from Georgia | |
| Dr. Richard Wayne | Mayor of Savannah for four terms |
References
- Laurel Grove Cemetery, An Account of its Dedication ... Delivered on the 10th of November, 1852 ...(Savannah, City Council 1852). See also Alfred L. Brophy, "The Road to the Gettysburg Address," Florida State University Law Review 43 (2016):831, 848. (discussing "rural cemetery" movement and the role of dedication speeches, including Jackson's, in explaining the movement's role in promotion of ideas of constitution and Union).
- Laurel Grove Cemetery at Find A Grave
External links
- Laurel Grove South Cemetery historical marker