Memorial Day weekend was all about time off, barbecues and family gatherings, but it was also about honoring those that have served this country in the military, past and present. The 28th Virginia Infantry Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans decided that the Memorial Day weekend was the perfect time for a cleanup at the city-owned cemetery on Tazewell Avenue, behind the Roanoke Rescue Mission.
The city cemetery features the graves of more than 50 Confederate veterans and other Roanokers, including Maria A. Hambrick, the granddaughter of patriot and former Virginia governor Patrick Henry. The work crew last Saturday cleaned headstones and put some back in to place after they had fallen or even been vandalized. That meant cementing or gluing the headstones back in to place in some cases.
The Mary Custis Lee Chapter of the Order of the Confederate Rose and the Hupp-Deyerle-McCausland Chapter of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars took part at the cleanup, as did the Belmont Neighborhood Association, the Southeast Action Forum, Old Southwest Inc and the adjacent Roanoke Rescue Mission. “It’s been neglected for so long,” said one man as he scrubbed decades of moss and mold off one headstone.
On a bright, sunny weekend day dozens of people stooped to scrub headstones or place others back in to place. Some of those headstones tumbled over when city maintenance crews cut the grass between them with equipment that was too big for the task in some cases.
Charles Poland, who handles public relations chores for the 28th Infantry Camp, said a cleanup at Tazewell Cemetery has been long overdue. Neglect has long been a problem there – Poland said more than 100 years ago a reader complained to the local daily newspaper in a letter about that very issue.
“We’re resetting a lot of stones – gluing them back together again,” noted Poland. Hambrick’s grave had already been repaired. Records from the Roanoke Historical Society and Roanoke City library’s Virginia Room allowed the Sons of Confederate Veterans allowed the chapter to identify which graves belong to rebels that fought for the south during the Civil War; chapter members are typically descendants of those that fought in the War Between the States.
Mark Craig, commander of the 28th Infantry Camp, noted that the Tazewell Avenue Cemetery “has been in horrible shape for well over a hundred years.” The camp started two years ago cleaning Confederate soldier graves, then expanded that effort when it became apparent that other headstones needed repair as well. 80 man-hours of work were needed to repair Maria Hambrick’s tombstone alone, including a ton of dirt trucked in and reseeding of the plot.
The 28th Infantry Camp got the Belmont Neighborhood Association involved and the project took off. The Belmont group even got the Roanoke City Sheriff’s Department to bring inmate trustees over when some tree limbs needed to be cut down.
“This has been an ongoing thing for two years,” noted Craig.“If you could have seen what it looked like two years ago compared to now, there’s no comparison.” Any expenses for the cleanup come out of the Infantry Camp’s pockets, although the Rescue Mission provided lunch this year and $100 for supplies. Expect the 28th Infantry Camp to be back, maybe next Memorial Day weekend: ‘there’s still a long ways to go,” said Poland. “There’s a lot of history in this cemetery.”
By Gene Marrano
