THE GEN. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON CAMP #28

Confederate Memorial Hall

One of the most ambitious tasks of the Gen. Joseph E. Johnston Camp # 28 is the Confederate Memorial Hall. Mount Olivet Cemetery has many notable Confederate soldiers buried within its grounds.

The memorial hall contains panels which describe the events of the Civil War, as it related to Nashville, and a brief history of the soldiers buried within the grounds.

The Confederate Memorial Hall was opened for a brief look during the Confederate Illuminated Walking Tour in 1998. Additional changes will make the Confederate Hall a must see attraction in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

The wall panels contain information on the numerous soldiers buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

The Confederate Memorial Hall is a memorial to those soldiers. The most notable of these soldiers are:

William Brimage Bate

William Nelson Rector Beall

Benjamin Franklin Cheatham

William Grace

Adolphus Heiman

William H. Jackson

George Earl Maney

Randall W. McGavock

John Morton

James Edward Rains

Thomas Benton Smith

Due to their position, officers are more easily remembered than the private soldiers. But, it was the Confederate privates that suffered most. They were the ones who slept through cold winter nights without tents, and who left bloody footprints on the snowy ground. A general killed by a stray bullet will be remembered by posterity, while a private killed while charging across an open plain filled with flying lead is likely forgotten. It is impossible to record the lives of all those buried at Confederate Circle in this medium. Their tragic stories could fill volumes. This is just a sample of the privates buried within the grounds of Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Private Wesley Patton

Private William J. Crapps

Private John Ruth

The Gen. Joseph E. Johnston Camp #28 presents a Confederate Illuminated Walking Tour in the month of October. The tour is held the Saturday before Halloween. The camp presents many of the above mentioned persons as re-enactors, in period dress, present their stories.

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