Traditional masonry specialists from Habalis repointed weathered and worn joints using natural lime mortar to stabilize and preserve this beautiful stonework for decades more. Before (L) shows the scaffolding word around the statue, and after (R) shows the finished result.
Interested in contributing to this project? Please visit our donations page to make a contribution.
By James Scott Baron, The Free Lance–Star
Dec 2, 2019
As far as Mike Burns is concerned, it’s a project that may not be completed in his lifetime, but he’s going to keep doing it as long as he’s able.
Burns, a retired Marine Corps aviator, as well as a member of the Civil War Round Table of Fredericksburg, is leading a headstone upgrade effort at Fredericksburg’s Confederate Cemetery to further honor the 3,553 fallen soldiers interred there.
Burns’ efforts center on enhancing each of the cemetery’s existing 800 white Georgia marble headstones by eventually adding new granite flat stones to the base of each one of them.
“Many of the marble markers are weathered, they are worn, some are broken, some have the name misspelled, and some have the data incomplete,” said Burns. “We do our research and correct all the errors that we can find, knowing where that particular soldier lies, and get a new marker for him with the correct information.”
Burns described the symmetrical design of the Confederate burial area within the cemetery as a “Southern Cross.” He said the white marble headstones that stand in the cemetery today were installed in the 1880s. Those stones replaced the rows of wooden posts that were originally used as grave markers by locals who buried the fallen Confederate soldiers following the Civil War.
Replacing the existing vertical stones with new horizontal granite stones would change the visual appearance of the cemetery significantly, something the Ladies Memorial Association doesn’t want to happen.
Justin Polcha is a member of Boy Scout Troop 170. In November he completed his Eagle Scout project in the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery. With the help of Architectural Stone Products and Hampton Covert & Son Masonry, Justin created and installed a monument naming Confederate soldiers who are buried in the cemetery but for whom there are no stones.
His fellow troop members assisted under Justin’s supervision. The project also included fundraising to finance the construction of the monument.
Thank you, Justin!
We have received a grant from The Order of The Southern Cross. This will allow The Ladies’ Memorial Association to continue to purchase flat markers to be placed in front of the original confederate stones which have become illegible due to weather and or age.
Happy new year to all our visitors and supporters of the Cemetery. We’d like to say thank you to the following organizations and individuals who have worked so hard donating their time and money toward the upkeep of the Cemetery.
First, we’d like to thank the Order of the Southern Cross for their recent funding. The funding will allow us to complete the replacement of 6 Confederate stones with flush markers and fund our annual Saturday night Luminaries on Memorial Day weekend.
Thank you to the Ann Page Garden Club for the beautiful decorations on the gate at Christmas.
Thank you to the Sons of Confederate Veterans Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp for the beautiful wreaths on the soldiers graves.
And a big thank-you to Anne Little of Tree Fredericksburg for the fall clean up in the Cemetery.
The Civil War Round Table of Fredericksburg, Va installed 12 flat markers in place of Confederate stones that were illegible or broken due to age.
Recently, The Confederate Cemetery received 2 grants. The Society of the Order of the Southern Cross donated funds to replace 6 soldiers’ stones with flat markers. These stones were illegible due to age and weather. The grant also covered the repainting of all the railings and fences.
The Duff McDuff Green Jr Fund of the Community Foundation donated funds to start our Generals Plaques Project. This will allow us to mark 2 of the 5 Generals who are located in our Cemetery. We will, with the help of the Mathew Fontaine Maury Camp 1722, mark each grave with granite pictorial markers and a short description of their Confederate service along with their post war contributions to the Fredericksburg area. This will be an ongoing project.
We continue to take care of the Cemetery. We have added many trees from our previous grants program which enhance this peaceful place.
Our thanks goes out to Anne Little and Tree Fredericksburg, Va, for cleaning up the cemetery last week and for all their help with the Cemetery Tree Program.
With their help we have now replaced trees which have been lost over the years.
The Duff Green Foundation of the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region funded our grant request of $3310. These funds will be used to mark the 14 sections of the cemetery with flat stone markers to identify the sections. There are no markers now so this will be very helpful in finding graves.
The funds will be also be used to identify and explain the mammoth shell which sits in the cemetery. This representation of a mammoth shell was originally on top of the Confederate Monument in the Cemetery completed in June of 1881. In 1891, the bronze confederate soldier statue was crowned the apex of the momument and the shell was placed in the cemetery.
