Archive for the 'Cemetery' Category

Chalmette National Cemetery: A Historical Cemetery With a Rich Past

February 19th, 2009

The War of 1812 essentially ended on January 8, 1815 with the Battle of New Orleans on Chalmette Battlefield in southern Louisiana.  Four soldiers killed in that war were buried nearby on a large tract of land that would later become a national cemetery housing soldiers and veterans of every war from the Civil War to Vietnam - including the Spanish-American War and World Wars I and II.

It was during the Civil War, in May of 1864, that the 17.5 acre strip of land along the Mississippi River began being used as a burial ground for both the Confederate and Union dead in Louisiana.  After the war, hastily buried soldiers around the state were moved to the more permanent national cemeteries.  Over 12,000 of them found a final resting place in what is now Chalmette National Cemetery.  In 1868, the 132 Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery were moved by the Ladies Benevolent Association of New Orleans, with permission, to Cypress Grove Cemetery in New Orleans.  In the following years, over 7,000 Union soldiers from around southern Louisiana and Mississippi were re-interred in the cemetery.  While the cemetery is said to hold 12,000 Civil War dead, close to 7,000 of these are unknown soldiers.

Over the years, veterans and new casualties of war were buried in Chalmette National Cemetery; today, after a halt on new burials some time after the Vietnam war, the cemetery holds over 15,000 occupants.  It is also the final resting place of many soldiers' wives and children.

A part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Chalmette, Louisiana, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 5, 1966 along with Chalmette Battlefield, which sits adjacent to it.  A veritable treasure trove of history lies buried beneath the green grass of this national cemetery.

The cemetery holds 113 members of the Native Guard; the first African-American soldiers in the Union Army.  On September 27, 1862, the 1st Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards was sworn into service.  Controversial as the militia unit was, they contributed greatly to the war effort and later focused their energies on Reconstruction and promoting black rights.

The story of the Native Guards began with their enrollment as part of the Louisiana militia and ended with their participation in the civil rights movement during Reconstruction. As a militia unit, the Native Guards paraded with Confederate troops and sought to contribute to the Southern cause in other ways. After the fall of New Orleans, many of the officers and some of the men embraced the Old Flag by forming the first officially-sanctioned black regiment in the Union Army. During the war, the Native Guards fought at Port Hudson, Mansura, and Mobile. They also guarded prisoners, built fortifications, and contributed to the Union war effort in numerous other ways. Their service in the Union Army was as honorable as it was controversial. When the war ended, veterans of the Native Guards entered a third phase of their unusual career when they took up the struggle for black civil rights.  - from The Louisiana Native Guards

Another piece of buried history lay beneath the damp earth at plot 4066 in Section 52 and was not discovered until 1994 when some old papers were found, forgotten, in the attic of an old home in upstate New York.  The grave, from 1864, reads Lyons Wakeman, but the lost papers proved the grave's occupant was actually named Sarah.  Nineteen year-old Sarah Rosetta Wakeman - known as Rosetta - found that posing as a man got her better paying jobs, and when the prospect of making $13/month as a soldier came up, Sarah jumped at the chance.  She saw action as Private Lyons Wakeman of the 53rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, but succubmed to dysentery in a New Orleans hospital on June 19, 1864.  The book An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864 details Rosetta's experiences in the Union Army during the Civil War from the complete collection of her letters home.

The cemetery was greatly damaged when Hurricane Katrina's path of destruction passed over the old burial grounds.  Particularly damaged was the historical red brick fences around the cemetery.  A wonderful article that appeared in NOLA.com details the reconstruction the cemetery has undergone and the work that still needs to be done:

The vast majority of the gravestones have been patched together, but other contractors are working to rebuild the two red-brick walls lining the graves, some of which date back to 1870.
The $3.7 million wall restoration is the most expensive post-Katrina project undertaken in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, which includes the Barataria Preserve on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish.  - from NOLA.com Historic Chalmette National Cemetery returning to life by Chris Kirkham

I highly recommend giving Historic Chalmette National Cemetery returning to life a read, as it details not only work being on the cemetery at present, but some interesting tidbits about the cemetery's colorful history.

I never realized this important cemetery was so close to home, or so close to New Orleans (only about 6 miles away from the heart of the French Quarter).  It's absolutely on the top of my list of cemeteries I want to visit now; though I intend to wait until reconstruction is complete.  It's a graver's dream to stumble upon something so full of history so close to home, and I believe I've done just that with Chalmette National Cemetery.

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Unexpected Finds

February 2nd, 2008

The most rewarding graving trips are those where I set out to find something in particular and end up finding more than I'd ever even hoped for.

A case in point is a visit I made to St. Charles Catholic Church Cemetery in Godeau, Louisiana. Far from being a random graving trip, I had made the seventy-plus mile trek to search for family graves in order to verify some genealogical records.

According to my data, and family recollection, my great-great grandparents, Ernest and Alice Beauvais, were buried here. Also interred in this small, local cemetery - where that part of my family had hailed from - were Telemark and Virginia Deaville; who I remember as Uncle Tilly and Aunt Virginia. Uncle Tilly was my great-grandfather's half brother and I have fond memories of searching for eggs in their chicken coop when we'd go to visit.

My great-grandmother, Alice Ortego, was born in Avoyelles Parish and as a young woman married a man by the name of Oge' Deaville. The union produced three children - Telemark, Victoria, and Aimee. It was after the untimely death of Oge' that Alice married my great-grandfather, Ernest Beauvais; an older gentleman who was able - and willing - to help an early-widowed woman with three young children. Ernest raised his three stepchildren with the same love and attention that was paid to his own six children with Alice - Horace, my great-grandfather, Salonie, Mildred, Ernest, Hazel, and Lillian.

I found - as I had hoped to - the graves of my great-grandparents, Ernest and Alice, as well as those of Telemark and his wife, Virginia. It was as I was walking through the graves, trying to snap as many as I could to record the cemetery for Find A Grave and others, that I stopped short at a familiar name...

Valentine is a name that stands out, regardless of the time or place. It especially stood out to me as I looked down upon it etched into cold, gray stone for Ernest had a sister with that very unusual name. In fact, some of the original paperwork in my genealogy records - typed up in 1940 - was noted as being "in some papers that Aunt Valentine had." The name that stared back at me on this day was "Valentine B. Lossoir". Could this be the same Valentine - my Valentine, my family? All signs pointed to a very possible yes - the middle initial of "B" most likely stood for her maiden name of Beauvais and here she was, if it was her, buried in the same cemetery as her brother (my great-great grandfather).

I snapped some clear photographs of her headstone and the one next to it belonging to Louis Lossoir, who it appeared was her husband, and went on to photograph as much of the remaining cemetery as possible before my dying camera decided to shutter its last.

One lucky find would have been enough to please me, so I certainly wasn't expecting another when I came upon the marker for Regina Beauvais Goudeau. There was no mistaking this lady's maiden name and, yes, Ernest had another sister that was, in fact, named Regina. Yet still - as most any genealogist worth his or her salt will tell you - nothing is certain until officially verified. I snapped my photographs just as my camera died out completely.

It wasn't until arriving home and cross-checking the dates on the photographed headstones with all of my paperwork that I could, as I'd hoped and guessed, say for sure that I had found the graves of my great-great grandfather's sisters, Valentine and Regina, and their husbands. I was absolutely delighted to have come back not only with what I'd gone to find, but with even more than I could've hoped for.

Home Repairs

April 4th, 2007

Rosedale Cemetery, the site of a recent graving trip, has a set of large, brick family tombs that I noticed had been renovated in the not so distant past.

Fresh paint - including bright colors - adorned the once crumbling and blackened brick of the two-level vaulted tombs. It was work that had likely taken some time to complete.

The repairs were not professionally done, as is obvious, yet the graves look considerably better than they previously had - and, most importantly - the names and dates are now easily readable.

The tombs belong to the Scardino Family - immigrants from Italy who settled in the area; quite a bit of history is interred in these brick graves.

The large brick tombs - each nearly six feet in height - hold two shelves each, though there are seven of the Scardino family buried within (how this done is another post). The Scardino family has many stories to tell, as evidenced by the markers of their final resting place.

There is Antonia Purpa Scardino, born in 1872 - the matriarch of this family - who originally came from Poggioreale, Italy, and is the only female buried here. Her husband, born in 1862, Frank Sardino, hails from Salaparota, Italy. I believe the rest are their children, most of whom seem to have done quite well for themselves.

There is the father's namesake, Frank, who is listed as a New Orleans business owner. His older brother, Anthony was a WWI veteran, and brother Joseph was a merchant and one time mayor of Rosedale itself.

Two tragedies, however, befell the Scardino family in the midst of their good fortune it would seem - both of them occurring in the year 1918. Son Sarfino was "killed in action" at Morgan Hill, France during WWI; he was only twenty-two years of age. Another son, Leon, died at the age of eighteen; cause unknown.

The family burial site tells a lively tale of Italian immigrants making their way in the New World; a story that might never have been heard if some decades-distant descendant had not taken the time to mend the deteriorating graves.

To see the transformation for yourself: View the old grave look (from LA Cemeteries, taken by unknown) and the new grave look (from Find A Grave, taken by me).

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