Marietta Confederate Cemetery

We were in the Atlanta, Georgia area visiting with friends on this rainy and foggy weekend.  After saying our 'good-byes' to our group of friends, we wanted to take the opportunity to sight-see around the Civil War historic area of the northwest Atlanta suburbs.

It was rainy, foggy and chilly as we hiked in the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park where a major battle of the Civil War took place over one hundred and fifty years ago.   I was thrilled to have my camera to try to capture photos of this historical area.  We were actually walking in the very area where so many casualties of this war took place.  These photos can be seen in the previous Sweet Southern Days blog post.

Our next sight-seeing destination would be to visit the Marietta Confederate Cemetery where over 3,000 soldiers from this Kennesaw Mountain Battle were laid to rest.

The Cemetery came into being in September 1863.  The first burial here was Dr. William H. Miller,  a Confederate surgeon from Kentucky.  

There are over 3,000 graves from confederate states and including Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland.

In 1911 this white marble entrance-arch was placed in the cemetery near the 

northeast corner of the cemetery.

In 1910 marble markers as seen in the below photo,  were placed in the cemetery as monuments to the Confederate soldiers.  The marble markers replaced the original wooden markers which had fallen into disrepair.

           The Confederate Flag in the below photo is seen blowing in the cold breeze on this day. 

The Confederate Flag was seen in several places throughout the Cemetery.  It is also known as the Rebel Flag or the Dixie Flag,  and has become widely recognized as the symbol of the South.   Some think the Flag is offensive, but to me it is just a symbol for a segment of history.

This Cemetery became the first place in the South where the Confederate flag was allowed to fly.

 On this cold, rainy and foggy day,  looking out over all of the grave markers was a touching moment.

You can see we were visiting during the Christmas holidays.  In some areas of the 

Cemetery someone had placed Christmas wreaths on many of the grave sites.

It was very touching to see all of these grave sites along with the tribute to all 'Unknown Soldiers.'

There is a granite wall listing the names of the known dead who lie in the Confederate Cemetery.

Here Lie the Men in Gray.

As we walked around the cemetery we noticed large markers dedicated to some of the individual states represented here in this cemetery.

Leaving the cemetery we noticed these bronze statues of three southern ladies grouped together outside of the gates of the cemetery.  If you look closely you can see some of the grave sites through the iron fence in the background.  

I was not able to find out the reason for these statues, but am assuming they represent the widows of the fallen Civil War soldiers.

The bronze statues seen below show a mother and son leaving the cemetery after visiting the grave of a loved one.  We were told many visitors to this cemetery stand beside these statues to have their photos taken with these life-size statues.

As we walked along the paths through these grave sites of fallen Civil War soldiers one could feel the echoes of the past and the solemnity of what this Confederate Cemetery represented.  Let us all pray for the day when war anywhere or any place will not happen.

Are you familiar with the words to the song, "Let There Be Peace On Earth."  If you would like to hear this touching song just click on the link below and hopefully you will be able to see the YouTube video and hear the song. 

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0LEVvuiK8dUE2QA6iknnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N25ndmVnBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwNF8x?p=let+there+be+peace+on+earth+youtube&tnr=21&vid=4116FC26F951EE165B4C4116FC26F951EE165B4C&l=271&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DUN.608015632653288433%26pid%3D15.1&sigi=11run1n7q&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHPH4LRASWbo&sigr=11b65gcpo&tt=b&tit=Let+There+Be+Peace+on+Earth&sigt=10r8iv46n&back=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dlet%2Bthere%2Bbe%2Bpeace%2Bon%2Bearth%2Butube%26ei%3DUTF-8%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla&sigb=13d1ldu10&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001