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Enlarge Marietta Confederate Cemetery
Photo by Don Worth |
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Marietta National Cemetery
Marietta, Georgia
 Bivouac of the
Dead
Photo and narrative by Rick Jordahl
Among the
nation�s most elaborate cemetery layouts at the time, the Marietta
National Cemetery was designed by Union Army Chaplain Thomas B. Van
Horne
The National Cemetery Act, passed by Congress in 1862, provided a final
resting place for those who gave their lives in defense of the Union.
This meant that many Union soldiers killed in action would be
disinterred from the battlefield where they fell and re-buried within
the confines of a national cemetery.
In 1866, the Marietta National Cemetery was established as a final
resting place for the staggering losses from Sherman�s Atlanta Campaign.
Many Union casualties were disinterred from surrounding battlefields,
including Kennesaw Mountain, and re-buried here.
Our national cemeteries provide us with quiet places for peaceful
reflection on the violence and struggle that once raged throughout the
nation. By 1870 interment of Civil War dead in 73 national cemeteries
was completed and today men from both North and South rest side by side
in many of them. |
