In May of 2014 The LMA participated in the Community Give.  This was a day of giving to local charities and encompassed the whole Fredericksburg Region.  The LMA raised $1075.00.  These funds were raised to go towards the Marker Replacement Program.

In June  of 2014 we applied for a grant from The Order of The Southern Cross. Founded originally in 1863 as an organization to provide for the relief of disabled soldiers and the widows and orphans of those who had died in service to the Confederacy, today the Order of the Southern Cross serves as a philanthropic organization whose purpose is the preservation of our Southern heritage and its history. In September we received a grant of $995 to go toward the Marker Replacement Program.  With these funds we will be able to replace 6 more soldiers’ stones.  The LMA is so very appreciative of all of our donors.  

The Civil War Round Table of Fredericksburg, VA, donated $1500 to be used for the Marker Replacement Program and the general upkeep of the cemetery. Founded in 1957, The Round Table is one of the oldest in the nation. They couldn’t ask for a better location: four major battles of the Civil War were fought within 20 miles of Fredericksburg. The group of about 100 members meets once each month for a catered dinner followed by the presentation of a Civil War topic by a guest speaker – frequently a nationally-known author.

The replacement program started several years ago by the CWRT. They research the oldest civil war soldiers stones which are either broken beyond repair and or illegible . Then they order replacement flush markers to identify the soldiers. It has been a great help to the LMA. They do the installation themselves and the LMA is so very appreciative.

Repairs have been completed on 14 tombstones damaged by unknown vandals in September 207006. In addition to breaking and turning over stones, the vandals managed to overturn the tall pinnacles of several major stones.

Carroll Memorials, W. O. Grubb Crane Rental, Public Works Department of the City of Fredericksburg, the Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans joined forces to the complicated job…

W. O. Grubb’s crane was used from outside the wall to lift the heavy stones. Carroll Memorials repaired and reset the stones, some of which were badly broken. Both firms generously did this work at cost, a great saving to the Association. Members of the Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp, SCV, volunteered their services to help clean the stones before the repairs were made.

We are very grateful to all of the above for their help, and to the friends of the Cemetery who have made contributions for the repair of these stones. Thanks to the Virginia Division, United daughters of the Confederacy fro funds for this project from the Historic Resources Fund.

We also wish to express our thanks to Mike Witt who removed a large tree limb which fell during a summer storm. (No stones were damaged.)

Without being asked, Landscaper Mike Witt has come to the Cemetery’s aid again, just as he did in 2006.

Last year Mr. Witt, owner of A Cut Above Landscape and Tree Service, removed a huge rotting oak tree which endangered the Confederate soldiers’ stones.

This year he and his workmen cleared out dead and broken branches, cut hanging limbs from trees and removed piles of trash. Plans call for his work in the Cemetery to be featured in a national landscape magazine.

All of his work in the Cemetery has been done without charge.

We thank you, Mr. Witt!

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.

Carroll Memorials

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.”

A Cut Above Landscape and Tree Service

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.