Our Visit To Woodlawn National Cemetery:Elmira, New York

   On October 20, 2011 my family and I visited the  Woodlawn National Cemetery as well as the former site of the Elmira Civil War Prison Camp in Elmira, New York. It always is a sobering experience to visit the cemetery, as this is my third time visiting there.


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.

Keep checking here for more photos of the cemetery an the Elmira Prison Camp as well.