The Washington Confederate Cemetery is a Confederate Cemetery in

Hagerstown Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's sixth-most populous incorporated city and is the most populous city in the ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. Its burials include Confederate dead from such nearby battles as

Antietam The Battle of Antietam ( ), also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virgin ...

, Gettysburg,

Monocacy Monocacy (Shawnee: ''Monnockkeseymay'') may refer to the Monocacy River in Maryland, USA. Monocacy may also refer to: Other streams *Little Monocacy River, a tributary of the Potomac River in Maryland *Monocacy Creek (Lehigh River tributary), a t ...

and South Mountain. Less than 20 percent of its burials are identified. It was established in 1871 as a section of the

Rose Hill Cemetery (Maryland) Rose Hill Cemetery, located in Hagerstown, Maryland, is the oldest public cemetery in Washington County, Maryland, Washington County Maryland. The cemetery features over 102 acres of burial space and is the final resting place of over 43,000 ind ...

History

In 1869, Governor

Oden Bowie Oden Bowie (November 10, 1826December 4, 1894), a member of the United States Democratic Party, was the 34th governor of the State of Maryland in the United States from 1869 to 1872. Childhood He was born in 1826 at Fairview Plantation in Col ...

, of

, requested that the state should take care of the Confederate dead from the battlefields of western Maryland. Wind, water, and animals had exposed the dead, hurriedly buried in shallow graves. Governor Bowie requested that Thomas Boullt of Hagerstown, Maryland, one of the Trustees for Maryland in the Antietam Cemetery, employ men to find and identify the Confederate dead buried in

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

and

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

counties. Moses Poffinberger and Aaron Good of Sharpsburg identified ''ad hoc'' burial sites from throughout the western part of the state, primarily from the battlefields at

and South Mountain, but also from skirmishes and from

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

's retreat from Gettysburg.Oden Bowie. ''A Descriptive List of the Burial Places of the Remains of Confederate Soldiers Who Fell in the Battles of Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and Other Points in Washington and Frederick Counties, In the State of Maryland.'' Free Press Print, Hagerstown, MD, 1868. In 1871 the

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower ...

bought land in Hagerstown, Maryland, from the newly established (1865) Rose Hill Cemetery. With this land, the Assembly created the Washington Confederate Cemetery as part of the larger public cemetery. The States of Maryland,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

removed more than 2,000 dead from battlefield and skirmish sites and reburied them in the cemetery. In the course of removal and reburial, only 346 soldiers were identified.History of Rose Hill
Rose Hill Cemetery website. Accessed July 2014. One of the identified dead,

Isaac E. Avery Isaac Erwin Avery (December 20, 1828 – July 3, 1863) was a planter and an officer in the Confederate States Army. He died at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Avery is most remembered for a poignant blood-stained note ...

, died in action on July 2, 1863, at the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, ...

. On that evening, his brigade stormed

Cemetery Hill Cemetery Hill is a landform on the Gettysburg Battlefield that was the scene of fighting each day of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863). The northernmost part of the Army of the Potomac defensive " fish-hook" line, the hill is gent ...

, trying to dislodge the Union forces. Halfway up the hill, he was hit in the throat by a musket ball. Mortally wounded, he fell from his horse. He scrawled his final words on a piece of paper: "Tell my father I died with my face to the enemy." Avery's body was carried as far as Williamsport, Maryland and buried there, but moved to the Washington Confederate Cemetery. A plaque was placed in the cemetery for him in 2007.The Herald-Mail
Herald-Mail, November 04, 2007

Monument

The Statue of Hope Monument was placed on February 28, 1877, and dedicated on June 15, 1877. The dedication speaker was General

Fitzhugh Lee Fitzhugh "Fitz" Lee (November 19, 1835 – April 28, 1905) was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish–American War. He was the son of S ...

, nephew of

, and himself a cavalry general officer in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. The monument inscription reads: "The State of Maryland has provided this cemetery and erected this monument to perpetuate the memory of the Confederate dead who fell in the Battles of Antietam and South Mountain." Standing high, overlooks the section of the Rose Hill Cemetery where the Confederate dead are buried.
Rose Hill Cemetery Website. Accessed 26 May 2014. On September 3, 1961, the monument was rededicated with former President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

as the guest speaker.

Rose Hill Cemetery

Washington Confederate Cemetery is a cemetery within a cemetery: a subsection of the

, established in 1865, located at 600 South Potomac Street Hagerstown, MD. The Rose Hill site was originally part of a tract of land granted to the Wroe family by the King of England; the Wroe home was located on a hill, subsequently becoming known as "Wroe's Hill". In 1865, the state legislature chartered the property as a cemetery for the citizens of Washington County, Maryland, and changed the name to Rose Hill.

References

Bibliography

* Bowie, Oden. ''A Descriptive List of the Remains of Confederate Soldiers Who Fell in the Battles of Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and Other Points in Washington and Frederick Counties, In the State of Maryland.'' Free Press Print Hagerstown, MD, 1868. Available online a
A descriptive list of the burial places of the remains of Confederate soldiers, who fell in the battles of Antietam, South Mountain, Monocacy, and other points in Washington and Frederick counties, in the state of Maryland
Western Maryland Historical Library. Retrieved 2014 * Rose Hill Cemetery
History of Rose Hill
Rose Hill Cemetery website. Accessed July 2014.

External links

* * {{GNIS, type=retired, 591719, Rose Hill Cemetery Cemeteries in Maryland Confederate States of America cemeteries Buildings and structures in Hagerstown, Maryland Tourist attractions in Hagerstown, Maryland 1871 establishments in Maryland Cemeteries established in the 1870s