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Researchers Find A.P. Hills Initial Burial Site |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 04 April 2005 |
Confederate Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill was buried standing up.
It took three tries before he reached his final resting place.
And if all that wasn't odd enough, the search to find his first grave -- and perhaps correct the historical record -- has been led by a group of Civil War devotees whose primary focus is illuminating not the life of Hill, but of another Confederate general, George E. Pickett.
Patricia Wood, a member of the Pickett Society, noted that the nonprofit society was formed in 1999 to honor Pickett but also to correct "many subjective and historically incorrect items and pretensions."
Which brings us to the search for the location of Hill's first grave.
Hill was shot to death near Petersburg on April 2, 1865, as his battle lines were collapsing during the last days of the war.
Then the race was on to bury him appropriately -- and before nature took its course and ravaged his body even further.
Research by the Pickett Society indicates that the first burial came not where some Civil War researchers believe it was, at Bellgrade Plantation, near Huguenot and Robious roads in Chesterfield County.
Wood said records at the Virginia Historical Society and other research from local historians and authors, instead indicate that Hill was buried in an area south of the James River near Bosher's Dam, in what is now the city of Richmond.
And why is all that important?
"Our concern," Wood said, "is that if [the first grave] is not marked, it'll be lost in 100 years."
Dr. Andrew DelSordo, a physician who owns the property where the first grave is believed to be, has been watching over the site for more than 30 years, because it also is the site of an old family cemetery.
"I'm the caretaker," said DelSordo, who also has given the Pickett Society permission to mark Hill's first gravesite.
Hill lay in that grave for two years before he was unearthed and his remains transferred in the autumn of 1867 to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, which was where some of his former soldiers wanted him.
In 1891, the remains were moved again and buried under a statue erected in Hill's honor at the current intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road.
Wood said that a granite marker will be placed on the site of Hill's first grave, and another marker will be placed in Hollywood Cemetery, the site of his second grave.
Meanwhile, efforts are under way by others to raise money to repair Hill's statue, which Wood said has suffered from longtime neglect.
Wood and her husband along with descendants of Pickett and yet another Confederate general, James Longstreet, visited Hill's first grave yesterday to get an idea of where the marker should go.
"There are no direct A.P. Hill descendants, male or female," said Wood, suggesting that those other than family have to look after his memory.
She noted that Hill's first burial site is set in a lovely area, and that while some of his soldiers wanted him moved, other former colleagues-in-arms strongly urged that he remain where he was originally set down.
"They thought digging people up and moving them around was disrespectful," Wood said.
http://editorial.yellowbrix.com/editorial/editstory.nsp?step=5&story_id=68229647 |
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