Stone Mountain Cemetery

On July 18 and 19, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign, Union Brigadier General Kenner Garrard's cavalry division raided Stone Mountain, skirmished with the Confederate cavalry brigade of Colonel George G. Dibrell, and destroyed two miles of railroad track, a water tank, military stores, and 200 cotton bales. Interment of Confederate soldiers began here in 1864, and half of those buried were with five local units: McCullough Rifles, Magruder Dragoons, DeKalb Riflemen, Stone Mountain Guards, and Company E, 36th Georgia Infantry. The initial 150 burials filled much of the original cemetery, and local veterans Private Ransom M. Thompson and Surgeon John L. Hamilton donated land to increase it to 16 acres; another 65 veterans, including Thompson and Hamilton, eventually joined their comrades. Confederate veterans buried here include Paul T. Goldsmith, a Georgia Military Institute cadet; Captain John H. F. Mattax, a Mexican War veteran; Captain John G. Rankin, who enlisted at age 45; Sergeant Jesse B. Taliaferro, who joined the 1st Georgia Regulars before the war started and surrendered after more than four years of continuous duty; and four others who surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia: Sergeants William F. A. Dickerson and James A. Mackin, and Privates Isaac B. Pope and John L. Sawyer, who enlisted at age 16 eight months before the war ended and whose headstone bears a carving of the Southern Cross of Honor. Created in 1898 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, that medal was awarded to thousands of Confederate veterans, including nine buried here. Several veterans suffered wounds, including Private Edward N. Nash, whose left knee was fractured by a bullet during the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, leaving him hobbled for his remaining 50 years, and his cousin Corporal Isaac N. Nash, who lost a hand at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Others survived imprisonment, including Private William V. Cronic and Corporal James A.J. Duren at Camp Morton in Indianapolis, Indiana, Sergeant Elwin L. Phillips at Rock Island, Illinois, and 2nd Lieutenant John F. McClelland at Fort Delaware; after the war McClelland became a Presbyterian minister and chaplain of the Georgia House of Representatives, while Sergeant Philip B. McCurdy became a preacher at Stone Mountain Baptist Church, where Lieutenant George R. Wells was Sunday School superintendent for 50 years. The nearby granite monolith Stone Mountain also witnessed Union Major General William T. Sherman's Left Wing begin its March to the Sea, as soldiers in the Federal 14th and 20th Corps marching east on November 15 and 16, 1864, clearly saw the summit, which Major James A. Connolly, Private Rice C. Bull, and General Sherman each vividly described.

Stone Mountain, Georgia · United States