Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery
Scotland, St. Mary's County, Maryland, USA
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Cemetery Bio:
During the Civil War, Point Lookout was one of the largest prisons of CSA POWs. Many men died there from exposure, malaria, scurvy and TB. Originally, the soldiers were buried in two cemeteries near the prison camp. However, because the cemetery land started to erode into the Chesapeake, in 1870 the state of Maryland removed the remains. In 1910 they were moved again and re-interred in a burial trench one mile inland, near where a federal monument was constructed that year. The 80-foot granite obelisk marks the site, just outside Point Lookout State Park, but the actual boundaries of the pit are not marked.
'When the prisoners' remains were moved from Tanner's Creek to the present cemetery, they were moved by two black men, William Shorter and Yaret Hewlett. The skulls were put in one box, the arm bones in another and the leg bones in a third box. However, they were paid in accordance with the number of skull bones. Frequently, after having had too much to drink, they would gamble with the skull bones as stakes...'"Pt. Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates" pg. 198, by Edwin Beitzell.
The monument includes 12 bronze tablets inscribed with the names and command of 3,382 known Confederate soldiers and sailors, and 44 civilians who were buried at the prison. Four of these tablets are attached to the base of the monument, and eight are on the grass mound supporting the monument.
Adjacent to the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument, there is a marble monument erected by the State of Maryland in 1876 dedicated to the Confederate dead.
Cemetery Bio:
During the Civil War, Point Lookout was one of the largest prisons of CSA POWs. Many men died there from exposure, malaria, scurvy and TB. Originally, the soldiers were buried in two cemeteries near the prison camp. However, because the cemetery land started to erode into the Chesapeake, in 1870 the state of Maryland removed the remains. In 1910 they were moved again and re-interred in a burial trench one mile inland, near where a federal monument was constructed that year. The 80-foot granite obelisk marks the site, just outside Point Lookout State Park, but the actual boundaries of the pit are not marked.
'When the prisoners' remains were moved from Tanner's Creek to the present cemetery, they were moved by two black men, William Shorter and Yaret Hewlett. The skulls were put in one box, the arm bones in another and the leg bones in a third box. However, they were paid in accordance with the number of skull bones. Frequently, after having had too much to drink, they would gamble with the skull bones as stakes...'"Pt. Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates" pg. 198, by Edwin Beitzell.
The monument includes 12 bronze tablets inscribed with the names and command of 3,382 known Confederate soldiers and sailors, and 44 civilians who were buried at the prison. Four of these tablets are attached to the base of the monument, and eight are on the grass mound supporting the monument.
Adjacent to the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument, there is a marble monument erected by the State of Maryland in 1876 dedicated to the Confederate dead.
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- Total memorials11
- Percent photographed0%
Scotland, Saint Mary's County, Maryland, USA
- Total memorials9
- Percent photographed100%
- Percent with GPS0%
Scotland, Saint Mary's County, Maryland, USA
- Total memorials19
- Percent photographed95%
Scotland, Saint Mary's County, Maryland, USA
- Total memorials18
- Percent photographed0%
- Added: 1 Jan 2000
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 81385
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