Sunday, September 23, 2012

Alabama Civil War cemetery, nearly lost, dedicated in northern Virginia today

Via Billy

10th Alabama Infantry Regiment cemetery 

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans spread red Alabama dirt across the new cemetery at Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park in Bristow, Va. (Mary Orndorff Toryan | Birmingham News)

Descendants of Civil War soldiers carrying buckets of red dirt from Alabama gathered Saturday to formally dedicate a 151-year-old restored cemetery that was nearly lost to the march of suburban development in northern Virginia.

Not until the restoration work of a local Eagle Scout candidate, guided by county historians who
recently gained ownership of the site, did the 90 or so soldiers from the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment have a marked and permanently preserved resting place.

The new cemetery, at Camp Jones in the Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park, is now registered with Prince William County and on the official tour trail of the Civil War site not far from Manassas. About 150 people, including 50 from Alabama, watched as a new Alabama stone monument was unveiled and the dirt and water was spread across the cemetery.

"I was giving our boys their last drink," said Linda Currey of Albertville. She and her husband, David, ferried the water from the spring near where the 10th Alabama gathered the night before leaving for Virginia in 1861.

More @ AL

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