Myrtle Hill Cemetery
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    History of Myrtle Hill Cemetery

    Myrtle Hill Cemetery, established in 1857, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is located on one of Rome's seven hills, where the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers meet to form the Coosa River. The cemetery contains perhaps as many as 20,000 graves, including those of individuals important to the history of the city, the region, and the nation - individuals such as early founders of Rome Daniel R Mitchell and Zachariah B Hargrove, numerous politicians and community leaders, First Lady Ellen Louise (Axson) Wilson, and "known" soldier Charles Graves, an infantryman in World War I who was originally slated to be buried in Arlington Cemetery. There are more than 300 Confederate soldiers from eleven of the Confederate states and and two Union soldiers who were buried in a special section of Myrtle Hill during the Civil War. As a witness to another major theme of our nation's history, Myrtle Hill cemetery also contains an African-American section, set aside when the cemetery was segregated. One of the African Americans buried at Myrtle Hill in 1915 was Tom McClintock, who had worked as a gravedigger in the cemetery for 42 years. The cemetery also features prominent monuments such as the Women of the Confederacy monument, Indian fighter General John Sevier, Confederate General and local hero Nathan Bedford Forrest and the Confederate Soldier monument on top of Myrtle Hill or "Crown Point" as it was called.

Establishment of the Cemetery

    Myrtle Hill was the second cemetery established by the city of Rome, the first being Oak Hill Cemetery, located on Seventh Avenue in downtown Rome. This site was nearing capacity by 1850, and the city apparently appointed Col Thomas A Alexander and Daniel S Printup to select a new site. The land they selected, on the large hill on the south side of the Etowah River, belonged to Alfred Shorter, a wealthy businessman who had acquired property throughout Rome and was a major stakeholder in the Rome Railroad. The original deed conveying the property to the city for a cemetery was lost during the Civil War, but it is believed that the land was sold in about 1855, around the time that Shorter built a bridge across the Etowah River linking the Cave Spring Road with the south end of Broad Street.

    The property had certainly been acquired and lots for burials laid out by 1857 when the city conveyed Lot 10 in the cemetery to C M Pennington. Cunningham Pennington had surveyed the Rome Railroad in the late 1840's and was also responsible for the first survey and plan for Myrtle Hill Cemetery. Since the deed for Lot 10 does not mention a purchase price, he may have received the plots in exchange for his services in laying out the cemetery. Mr Pennington's plan has not survived, but it is apparently reflected in the curvilinear road and lot layout of the cemetery. Because of this natural design, the lots are of irregular size and have varying numbers of spaces for individual plots. The plan is typical of mid-nineteenth century "picturesque" rural cemeteries but was also necessitated by the steep terrain. The roads circle the hill and, combined with the terracing needed to level the lots for burial, create a layered, "wedding cake" appearance. The Cemetery was named for the Vinca Minor that grew wild on the hill. Vinca Minor is more commonly called Myrtle or the Flower of Death. The Crepe Myrtle shrubs were later planted by a local garden club. The original cemetery plan occupied about 11 acres, although the city's original purchase was for 29 acres. Subsequently, several additions were made to the plan, the first being Branham Addition in about 1899.

The Civil War

    The number of burials in the cemetery increased significantly during the Civil War. Those interred were not necessarily citizens of Rome, Rome was designated a hospital town in January 1863, and the wounded and sick Confederate soldiers from the Tennessee campaigns were brought over the railroad and treated in warehouses, stores, public buildings, and other places converted to serve as hospitals. An editorial in the Rome Tri-Weekly Courier praised the officers and doctors of the hospitals but complained that nearly all of the city had been taken over, causing a great deal of inconvenience for the citizens. The paper periodically published the names of those who had died in the hospitals, and many of these were buried in the Confederate section of Myrtle Hill Cemetery. More than 300 graves are located in the section.

    During the Civil War, the Confederates constructed Fort Stovall on Myrtle Hill to defend Rome from Union raids. The Noble Foundry located in the city on the Etowah River across from the cemetery was a major target for federal troops looking to cripple the Confederate war machine. According to a map of the defenses of Rome made during the Civil War, the fortifications were erected in the fall of 1863. Fort Stovall is shown on the map as a bracket-shaped linear earthwork near the top of Myrtle Hill. There is no indication on the map that a cemetery was located on the hill. The line faced northwest, defending the western approach to town as well as the Coosa River. It was constructed with several faces, according to the map, which provided maximum coverage along its front. The zigzag shape permitted defenders to direct enfilading (from the side) fire on any men who approached the line.

    John L Harris (1877 - 1964), a former Clerk of the U S District Federal Court in Rome from 1930 to 1953 when he retired, was born across from the cemetery. According to him a "shell pit," or artillery emplacement, was located near the summit of the hill and was placed so as to be able to sweep the Cave Spring Road approaching form the south. The main orientation of the fort may have been modified during the course of the war depending on the expected direction of attack. In May 1863, Abel Streight's mule-equipped cavalry made its way toward Rome over the Cave Spring road after raiding through northern Alabama and burning Gadsden. Alerted to the approach by John H Wisdom, who rode 65 miles in 12 hours, the small garrison at Rome barricaded the road and delayed Streight's skirmishers enough for Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest to arrive. Forrest's demonstration against Streight's rear was so convincing that Streight thought he was outnumbered, despite the fact that Forrest had only 425 men at his disposal compared to Streight's 1,500. Streight surrendered, much to his embarrassment when he realized that he had been duped. The artillery emplacement recalled by Harris may have been constructed in anticipation of Streight's attack.

    General Forrest's defense of Rome is honored in Myrtle Hill Cemetery by a monument that originally stood on Broad Street at Second Avenue. The statue was moved in 1952 because it had become a traffic hazard. It stand in Veterans Plaza with the monument to the Women of the Confederacy, moved from its Broad Street location at the same time.

    The orientation of Fort Stovall as shown 'on certain maps' likely reflects the position taken by the Confederate units defending Rome in May 1864 when Union General Jeff Davis, in command of the 2nd Division of Palmer's 14th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, approached down the west side of the Oostanaula and took up a position opposite the city and engaged with the Confederate pickets. On reaching this position, Davis received an order to return to the 14th Corps, but as he was already engaged with the enemy and suspected a weak defense, he determined to stay on and capture Rome. Davis' considerable force was held at bay overnight by a small garrison assisted by three brigades of Polk's Corps on their way through town from Mississippi to reinforce General Albert Sidney Johnston. Fort Stovall was occupied during this brief standoff, but the main point of Confederate artillery was on Shorter Hill on the west side of the Oostanaula. The next day, Union forces moved into Rome, from which the Confederates had retreated.

    The exact location of the earthworks of Fort Stovall is impossible to determine from a map, and no evidence of it can be seen in the cemetery. Defensive lines constructed on a hill were typically built on the "military crest" of the hill which was below the very top of the hill. This was to prevent the occupants of the line from being silhouetted against the sky and giving the enemy a better target. It also gave the soldiers a clearer line of sight down the slope of the hill. The extensive terracing necessary for burials at Myrtle Hill has eliminated any evidence of Fort Stovall on the surface. It is possible, although unlikely, that remnants of the earthworks survive as subsurface features.

    While it is clear that subsequent earth-moving activities at Myrtle Hill affected the Civil War earthworks, it is also likely the Civil War action resulted in damage to the cemetery. Although Myrtle Hill had only been opened a short time, a number of antebellum burials have been noted, and numerous interments had been made in the Confederate section by the fall of 1863. Others were probably added before the Atlanta Campaign. The top of the monument on John Billup's grave, which dates to 1857, is believed to have been shot off by a musket ball during the war, but no other specific mention is made of damage to the graves. However, because of the excellent vantage point provided by the hill, there was likely considerable activity at the fort by Confederates scouting for raiding parties. In addition, Union forces likely used the fort during their occupation of Rome. Graves in the Confederate section were reportedly marked with painted wooden parkers prior to circa 1900. Sometime after that date, these were replaced with the present stone markers.

The Postbellum Period to Ca 1900

    The occupation of Rome by Federal troops - and later the Freedman's Bureau - is often cited as the reason for the loss of records related to the cemetery before 1872. In any case, in 1874, Hines M Smith made a new survey of the cemetery which defined what is called the Old Original cemetery. New numbers were assigned to the lots at that time. Some deeds after 1874 make reference to the old number as well as the new one. Boundaries of the Old Original cemetery are based on a copy of the Smith survey updated to 1901. Some of the lots on this map, especially in the western part of the cemetery, may have been added between 1874 and 1901. The 1901 survey indicates that the original road pattern within the cemetery was nearly identical to its configuration today. A short section of road in the southwestern part of the Old Original section was closed by 1901. Also, it is evident that in the western part of the Old Original cemetery, some of the original walkways between the lots were being filled in by that date.

    The monument to the Confederate dead in Rome and Floyd County in the Civil War was conceived soon after the war's end by the local chapter of the Ladies' Memorial Association. A notice in the local paper in 1869 stated that subscriptions were being taken for the monument which was to stand atop "Crown Point" in Myrtle Hill Cemetery and would cost approximately $6,000. Raising the necessary funds during Reconstruction and the financial panics of the 1870's proved difficult, however, and it was not until 1887 that the statue was dedicated. Cunningham Pennington, who had laid out the original cemetery, oversaw the placement and the raising of the statue.

    After the Civil War, Myrtle Hill became the preferred resting place for Rome's elite, as well as its more common citizens. Among the prominent citizens of Rome and Floyd County buried in Myrtle Hill in the nineteenth century were: Daniel R Mitchell (died 1876), on the of the founders of Rome and the one who put "Rome in the hat" giving Rome its name; Daniel S Printup (died 1877), who helped select the site of the cemetery; educator J M M Caldwell (died 1892), head of the old Rome Female College; Alfred Shorter (died 1882), the former owner of the land on which the cemetery is located. In 1873, Shorter donated $20,000 to a college founded by the first Baptist Church.

The following are buried in the Confederate Cemetery section of Myrtle Hill Cemetery, located in the center of Rome, Georgia. Eighty two are unknown soldiers, several are civilians, and two Union Soldiers are also buried there, they being listed among the unknown.

                      CITY OF ROME BURIAL REPORT FOR  MYRTLE HILL CEMETERY

          DATE  08/07/2000   

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