Thanks to the generosity of over one-hundred individuals and organizations and the City of Fredericksburg, the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery wall has been rebuilt.
The Confederate Cemetery wall was built in 1870 and made of bricks from houses destroyed during the Battle of Fredericksburg.
As a result of Hurricane Isabel in the autumn of 2003, eighty-five feet of the Cemetery’s wall fell, with an adjoining portion unstable.
Two local firms — Carroll Memorials and Mike Witt’s A Cut Above Landscape and Tree Service — have come to the aid of the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery.
Both donated their services for two major projects which help ensure the preservation of the hundreds of Confederate soldiers’ gravestones which surround the Confederate Soldier
Monument.
Huge ancient trees were the culprits in both cases.
In January 2006 during a windstorm, a huge oak tree — roots and all — toppled into the gravestones to the left of the Monument. The City of Fredericksburg cleaned up the debris.
The tree’s fall cracked and felled nineteen of the soldier’s stones.
Carroll Memorials, a 58-year-old local company, came to the rescue, as they have in the past. In early May they pieced together the marble headstones using an adhesive. Some of the headstones are about half their original size since not all the parts were salvageable.
Mrs. Nancy Cole, Carroll’s office manager, said, “Carroll Memorials frequently donates services to the community as a way to say `thank you’ for local support and business over the years.”
Meanwhile,, to the right of the Monument, another oak tree had been casting menacing shadows for several years. Huge and rotting it had lost its last leaf a season ago. More soldiers’ stones were sure to be damaged if the tree fell and it was truly standing on borrowed time.
Mike Witt, owner of A Cut Above Landscape and Tree Service, offered his time and company resources to remove the tree. It was a tremendous and painstaking job, especially in the mid-July heat and the presence of a hive of bees.
Mr. Witt’s team also groomed branches of other trees in the Cemetery at no charge.
“It’s just my way of contributing when I can,” Mike Witt said.
The Ladies’ Memorial Association is profoundly grateful to these two local businesses who are continuing a proud Fredericksburg tradition.
Mrs. Nancy Cole, Carroll Memorials, 1529 Olde William St., Fredericksburg, VA 22401; 540-373-8651.
Mike Witt, A Cut Above Landscape and Tree Service, 5804 Red Fox Drive, Spotsylvania, VA 22553.