Laurel Grove Cemetery

Laurel Grove Cemetery
Details
Established 1853
Location Savannah, Georgia, United States
Coordinates 32°03′56″N 81°06′30″W / 32.06548°N 81.10833°W / 32.06548; -81.10833Coordinates: 32°03′56″N 81°06′30″W / 32.06548°N 81.10833°W / 32.06548; -81.10833
Type Public municipal
Owned by City of Savannah
Find a Grave 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]

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.

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.

Notable interments
Name Notability References
Francis Stebbins Bartow Confederate politician and Confederate States Army officer during the American Civil War
John M. Berrien United States 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 Senator representing Georgia (U.S. state)
Stephen Elliott 37th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA)
William Bennett Fleming United States 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, he co-founded and served as the first president of the Central Railroad and Banking Company (now the Central of Georgia Railroad)
George Paul Harrison, Sr. Brigadier general (18611862) and colonel (18641865) in the Georgia (Confederate) militia; member of the Georgia House of Representatives
Julian Hartridge United States Representative from Georgia
Juliette Gordon Low founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA
Florence Martus nicknamed "the Waving Girl", the unofficial greeter of all ships that entered and left the Port of Savannah
Lafayette McLaws U.S. Army officer and a Confederate general in the American Civil War
John Millen United States 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
Moxley Sorrel Confederate States Army officer and historian of the Confederacy
William Henry Stiles United States Representative from Georgia.
Thomas Manson Norwood United States Senator and Representative from Georgia
George Welshman Owens United States 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 United States Representative from Georgia
Dr. Richard Wayne mayor of Savannah, Georgia for four terms

References

  1. 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," FSU Law Review 43 (2016):831 (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).


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