Woodlawn National Cemetery
Elmira, New York
Woodlawn National Cemetery is a constant reminder to Chemung County that
nearly 3,000 Southern soldiers sleep there. There are 36 trenches
extending across the plot, north to south, all occupied by Confederate
dead. All thirteen Confederate states have soldiers buried here. North
Carolina has the most soldiers, with 1,208. Missouri has the least with
1.
John Jones, a runaway slave had charge of the burial of every
Confederate soldier. He transcribed every record which appeared on the
coffin lids into a book he kept for that purpose. The largest number of
burials in a day was 48. Mr. Jones saw that the burials were properly
and reverently conducted. He received from the government a fee of $2.50
for each body buried. In 1911, the bodies of the Shohola Train Wreck
victims were disinterred from their graves in Shohola and buried here.
The marble markers at the head of each grave were placed there in
1907 replacing the rotted illegible wooden ones. Because of Jones
accurate record keeping the graves were able to be marked with the new
marble ones. Many families of the prisoners have been able to visit
their loved ones grave, many have also brought some soil from their
native state and poured it on the grave.
