Statues to Be Added to Marietta Garden of Heroes

Two bronze statues will be unveiled at the on April 15, following the observance of Confederate Memorial Day. The statues show a mother and son leaving the cemetery after visiting the grave of a loved one.

Sculptors T.J. Dixon and James Nelson also did the statue of Mattie Harris Lyon in the Marietta City Cemetery and the various bronze pieces located on benches throughout the cemetery and Brown Park.

The Garden of Heroes Statue Dedication will begin at 1 p.m. The statues are located at the wagon road entry from Brown Park into the Marietta Confederate Cemetery, according to a press release.

Immediately following the unveiling and dedication, cemetery tours will begin at 2 p.m.

A Look at the Cemetery

The cemetery was established in September 1863 and is home to more than 3,000 soldiers. The cemetery was originally the resting place of about 20 Confederate soldiers who perished in a train wreck north of Marietta.

In 1833 the first church in Marietta was built on the site, according to the City of Marietta. In 1839, the church moved downtown Marietta. John Glover bought the land in 1848. Jane Glover, the wife of Marietta's first mayor, officially donated the land in 1867; though, the city began using the land to bury Confederate dead four years earlier, with Glover's permission, according to the City of Marietta and Marietta Confederate Cemetery Foundation.

Few new graves were added to the cemetery until the launch of the Atlanta Campaign on May 4, 1864.

Fallen from the battles of Chickamauga in Tennessee, and Kolb's Farm and Kennesaw Mountain from the Atlanta campaign are interred there, according to the Marietta Confederate Cemetery brochure.

Over the years, the original wooden markers deteriorated, and the names of soldiers buried there were lost. In 1902, caretakers replaced the deteriorated original wooden markers with plain marble markers, according to the City of Marietta and Confederate Cemetery Foundation.

Several monuments have been added to the hillside where the cemetery rests.

In the early 1900s, the Kennesaw Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated the tall marble monument in the cemetery to "Our Confederate Dead," according to the Marietta Confederate Cemetery brochure.

General Clement A. Evans referred to the cemetery as a "garden of heroes" in a speech at the dedication.

In 1910 the "Little Cannon," which Union forces captured near Savannah in 1864 and was retrieved in arsenal at Watervliet, New York, was returned, according to the Marietta Confederate Cemetery brochure.

In 1910, marble markers were placed in the cemetery as monuments to the Confederate states. In 1911, a white marble arch was placed in the cemetery near the north east corner.

The last resident of the Confederate Soldiers Home who was buried in the cemetery was William H. "Bill" Yopp. Bill Yopp was born a slave and followed his then-master to war. Bill Yopp died on June 3, 1936.

Tours

Local actors will be portraying several of the people who are buried in the cemetery. They will relate poignant stories about the people and many events that happened during the war.

The last tour will start at 5 p.m. on April 15. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and students, and free for children under 12 years of age.

All money made from the sales of tickets will go to the Marietta Confederate Cemetery Foundation.

Be a Cemetery Guide

If you love acting or history, the Marietta Confederate Cemetery is looking for volunteers to work as guides during the cemetery tours and statue dedication.

For more information, call 770-794-5606 or email jellars@mariettaga.gov.