Is it wierd touring cemeteries? We don’t think so when you think about all the history, art and sometimes even geography you can glean from researching those interred in those ornate or historic graves. We visited the Colonial Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia which was established in 1750; 25 years before the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. That cemetery served the public until 1850.
Colonial Cemetery
Savannah, Georgia
Just imagine all the history that took place in that period of time. One of the signers of the Declaration of Indendence, Button Gwinnett, is buried there.
Lachlan McIntosh, also buried there, was a prominent figure in the Revolutionary War. Interesting enough, Gwinnett and McIntosh, didn’t care much for each other and fought a duel on the dueling grounds, conveniently located on the edge of the cemetery, both of them were shot. Gwinnett died 3 days later and McIntosh died later. With a twisted sense of humor, they were buried the customary dueling 10 paces from each other. Or so the local folklore is. We’re not sure of the truth of that. We were also told, and we’re not sure if this is true or not either, that no one knows for sure where Mr. Button Gwinnett is buried. There is a monument to him in the cemetery, but I think the tour guide said, some test was done on the monument and no one is buried there. The duel took place in the winter, where the ground is hard and cold. So, the grave diggers couldn’t break ground. They were able to bury in him with someone else that was slightly above ground. However, no one thought to write down where. So, when the ground thawed, no one could remember where they put him.
These two are just two of prominent citizens buried there. Many of the tombstones are dated back to the middle and late 1700’s.
Another well known historic cemetery in Savannah is Bonaventure. You may have heard of the book or movie “Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil”.
The Bird Girl Statue is just one of the most iconic statues in Bonaventure Cemetery. Because of so much interest in this statue, in order to preserve it, it was moved to the Telfair Museum in Savannah.
Gracie is another often visited grave site in Bonaventure. Gracie’s family owned hotel in Savannah. She was often seen sitting on a stool greeting guests as they arrived. At age 6, she contracted pneumonia and died.
We’ve visited this cemetery twice and still are impressed with the historic and ornate tombstones. The meticulous details in the carvings and the symbolism is remarkable. Many times in looking at a very striking tombstone, we would google the name of the person buried there and find out more about them. Many, or most, where prominent citizens in the area. Or, at least, very important to someone to create a monument such as the multiple ones we saw. People are still being buried there today.
You may know that he is the one that wrote Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, Hooray for Hollywood and many others. He also was a co-founder of Capital Records and winner of 4 Academy Awards.
Conrad Aiken, a Pulitizer Prize author and poet is another well-known individual buried here. Edward Telfair, Revolutionary War Patriot is also buried here.
These were just a few of the more ornate ones.
Although it’s not a cemetery, we included Gettysburg National Battlefield on our “Cemetery Tour” because there were over 51,000 casualties there.
This was our second visit there and we still didn’t see everything. The weather was a little stormy this time so this visit was a little shorter.
We took a lot of pictures while we were there but we’re only sharing a few of them.
The first thing you want to do is to go to the Visitor Center. There you can get a map, and information about significant landmarks, guided tours and see the diorama called “The Gettysburg Cyclorama”.
This is General James Longstreet. Visitors left him some flowers and his signature Cigar.
This is the Soldiers National Monument, located in the center of the park and is where Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg address.
This is Robert E Lee on the horse and the figures around the statue represent those who left various types of occupations and their lives to serve in the Confederate Army.
I found this historical marker interesting. This sign explained the “Deadened Woods”. It’s referring to an area where the trees were deliberately killed or “deadened” to clear lines of sight for artillery fire.
Since it was getting pretty stormy we didn’t stay any longer here.
The last cemetery we’re showing today, is Arlington National Cemetery. While we were on a volunteer project in Pennsylvania, we took advantage of not being that far from Arlington and went there for a very special reason. In 2016, my Dad became part of the over 400,000 military service members, veterans and their families buried there. He was buried in the Air Force section of the 639 rolling acres.
While we were in the National Cemetery we took advantage of the time and bought a ticket for the trolley tour. The cemetery is 639 acres and somehow, it’s all uphill! The tickets are not very expensive and there are even senior and military discounts. You can hop on and off at different locations.
We took several photos, but here’s just a few.
No visit to Arlington National Cemetery is complete without a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
On our Escaping Normal RV YouTube Channel we posted a full length video of our “Cemetery Tour” which includes video of Changing of the Guard. You can see more by clicking this link https://youtu.be/EIU1z7PGJHs
We hope this can encourage you to visit these honorable graves.
Escaping Normal RV 
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