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The first casualties of the War Between the
States arrived in Chattanooga in February of 1862 from evacuated hospitals
in Nashville due to the fall of Fort Donelson. General Johnston called Dr.
Samuel H. Stout to take charge of the hospital facilities in Chattanooga.
He came in March and found only one hospital,. the Academy Hospital on a
spur of Cameron Hill. He soon upgraded that and opened the Newsom
Hospital. When General Braxton Bragg came to Chattanooga, he inspected
these two hospitals, found them in good order (unusual for Bragg), and
placed Dr. Stout in charge of the general hospitals in his Department of
the Army of Tennessee.
As Bragg' s forces gathered in Chattanooga, the need for
more facilities became apparent, and Dr. Stout opened other hospitals in
the area, including the Gilmer Hospital also on Cameron Hill, the Bragg at
Ringgold, the Buckner, the Withers Hospital at Tyner's Station (the
Silverdale Confederate Cemetery holds the remains of men who died at that
hospital), the Crutchfield House, which became known as Foard's Hospital,
and others in Cleveland, Tunnel Hill, Catoosa Springs, Dalton and Atlanta.
The boom of cannons and the rattle of musketry on New
Year's of 1863 brought a wave of wounded by train from the Battle of
Murfreesboro that overflowed the Chattanooga hospitals. Every available
building was appropriated: practically every church, every hotel and every
public building, including warehouses. Bragg's men were coming in rags and
often barefoot. Small-pox struck, and the countryside was filled with bushwhackers.
It was only safe for soldiers to travel in large groups. Local residents
took up collections of blankets, clothing, beds and bed linens, chickens,
butter, milk and vegetables. No ice was to be found. Drinking water became
scarce as only one well just off Market Street at 6th served everyone.
In February of 1863, Bragg made Dr. Stout Medical
Director of all the General Hospitals of the Army in the Department of
Tennessee. But in June, Bragg gave Stout the word to begin evacuating
Chattanooga. Union General Rosecrans was pushing this way. Stout
instituted a plan that mobilized a whole hospital unit, minus the
building, to a new location. Those men who died in Chattanooga Confederate
Hospitals were originally buried in a plot of ground beside the river, in
the vicinity of the current Manker Patten Tennis Club. But the river rose
and fell over some of the graves and the wooden headboards were lost for
about 141 of them. The ground came to be partly a pasture and partly a
ball field. After the war, the veterans sought to move the graves to
higher ground and purchased for $750 the northern portion of the current
site from George W. Gardenhire in 1867. A man named Sively was employed to
disinter the remains and box up the bones and re-bury them in this new
site.
In the 1880's a trustee system was set in place for
management of the cemetery in co-operation with the City of Chattanooga,
with designated trustees being descendants of Confederate soldiers and the
City as a trustee. In the 1890's various Confederate burials were found
during work for the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and
they were re-interred in the Chattanooga Confederate Cemetery.
In 1901, it was decided by the United Confederate
Veterans and the A. P. Stewart Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy
that more ground was needed for the remaining veterans and their wives.
Mr. Francis M. Gardenhire deeded over the southern end of the plot for one
dollar provided that it was only to be used for a Confederate Cemetery.
The limestone gate and wrought iron battle flag gate, designed by Lawrence
Thompson Dickinson, were erected in 1901 and dedicated the following year.
Since there was no way to know exactly where any
individual's remains were re-interred in the northern section, the tablets
you see in that section were placed in 1913 to identify the known names in
alphabetical order, by the state and regiment which they served. Where
names could not be related to command or state, they were placed
separately. The list had been provided in 1876 by R. L. Watkins who
assisted in the removal from the original site to this present one.
In the years 1890, 1913, 1921, 1934, 1942, 1945 and
1947, the City of Chattanooga hosted the annual reunion of the United
Confederate Veterans with the old cemetery being a prominent feature of
each reunion. In the 1950's, the last associate member (son of a veteran)
of the Confederate Veterans camp died, leaving the City of Chattanooga as
sole trustee.
Around 1992, the Trustee situation and the decaying
condition of the cemetery was brought to tile attention of Mayor Gene
Roberts. He authorized City co-operation with
descendants of Confederate veterans to maintain and upgrade the cemetery.
In 1994, funds were raised by members of the local Sons of Confederate
Veterans and Military Order of the Stars and Bars and restoration of the
cemetery began. Monuments were uncovered where grass had grown over them;
cast iron plaques were scraped and painted; monuments were uprighted,
repaired, and cleaned; a new roster of burials was made and placed on the
internet; additional stones were placed for burials known to be there from
obituaries but had no stone present and various and other sundry
maintenance procedures were done. Much of this work was done by volunteers
with the co-operation and help of the City of Chattanooga. The centerpiece
of the restoration is the repair and restoration of the cast iron gates at
the entrance of the cemetery and which represent the Confederate
battleflag. In 1995, the restored cemetery was rededicated with attendees
from all over the South.
 In the year 2000, the last burial in the cemetery
involved the remains of a soldier found during the excavation for a
swimming pool on Missionary Ridge around that time. While he was unknown
as to being a Northern or Southern soldier, it was felt he most likely was
a Confederate and thus was buried in the Confederate Cemetery. This also
followed the tradition established when bodies were found during work in the
National Park in the 1890's.
The names of some of the veterans interred from the
large monument down toward the entry gate may be recognized by
Chattanoogans today. Captain S. J. A. Frazier was the developer of a part
town originally called "Hill City" but now known as North
Chattanooga. He donated $10,000 for the building of a bridge across the
river, now known as the Walnut Street Bridge. Frazier Avenue is named for
him. Colonel J. C. Nisbet wrote a book entitled Four Years on the Firing
Line. Benjamin Lloyd Goulding was a member of the "lmmortal 600"
human shields used by the Union in Charleston, South Carolina, weighed
only 81 pounds when paroled. He became the founder of the first Weather
Bureau in Chattanooga.
There are others whose names may not be as familiar to
modern residents, but who have fascinating stories. Shadrick Searcy is one
buried here, who started the war as a body servant to two brothers named
Searcy from Talbotton, Georgia. Both joined the 46th Georgia Infantry and
Shadrick went with them. William was killed at Kennesaw and James was
killed at Franklin. Shadrick stayed with the Army of Tennessee until the
surrender in Greensboro, North Carolina, in April of 1865. He settled in
Chattanooga and received a Tennessee State Confederate Pension until his
death in 1936.
Another is Sgt. Edward J. Wentworth of the 19th Michigan
Infantry, Union army, who was on his way to a  military prison but was off
loaded from a train in Chattanooga because he was so weak and near death.
The staff at Academy Hospital tried in vain to save him, and he died in
April of 1863. He was buried at peace with his former enemies.
Generally,
you won't find Union Soldiers buried in Confederate cemeteries.
The Chattanooga Confederate Cemetery is not only a
resting place for some of the finest men who ever graced our city, but it
is also a treasure trove of our history. Those who would minimize the
importance of the life stories resting there should remember the words of
George Santayana (1863-1952), U. S. philosopher and poet: "Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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