This is one of the few true mausoleums around here. It has tall columns, all carved marble, just a beautiful work of art.
While I’ve photographed it a number of times I came on it from a direction I rarely walk. Well, photography 101 kicked in. The rule is ‘always shoot from different angles’.
Better late than never.
Below was provided by Google AI. Completely accurate.
‘The cemetery at Old Childsbury Towne refers to the burial grounds next to Strawberry Chapel, the only surviving structure from the historic but vanished town of Childsbury in Berkeley County, SC, near Moncks Corner. This private property, managed by descendants for preservation, holds graves of early families like the Ball, Harleston, and Waring, and includes the historic Harrison family vault.’
Caked in mud and almost hidden in dead leaves and brush.
There’s a large number of stones with the marking ‘Unknown’ here.
Soldiers Ground CSA cemetery.
In the ‘Soldiers Ground’ there are a few areas that have rows of burials, like a traditional cemetery. From what I have been able to find, mostly by researching dates, the formal side coincided with local engagements or disinterment from a large battle site to be closer to their home.
Scattered around here there are old stones not in any formal places. Typically a date or the unit they fought with is on the marker. No formal abbreviations make for guess work.
2. From the 1st Regiment SC Volunteers. Organized in early 1861 and mustered into state service. major engagements like the Battle of South Mountain and Sharpsburg (Antietam). Led by Colonel James R. Hagood who is buried in the old side of Magnolia Cemetery.
3. From the 6th Regiment SC Volunteers. A prominent Confederate infantry unit known for extensive service from Virginia to North Carolina, fighting in major battles like The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg before surrendering at Appomattox.
An interesting side note, in CSA volunteer units 40% of the personal were from wealth families, had some type of connection to slavery, better educated, and more politically interested. The average Confederate soldier was drafted and in service for the duration. Union troops had a set time and left service after.
Another side note, I knew none of this until I started to photograph the old cemeteries or meet other local photographers.
Usually I wander the oldest parts of the cemeteries. However this group of photographs were taken along the area that has newer burials mixed with the old. Likely people related to the original Charleston families.
Cemeteries are a relatively new concept here, and in the US actually. Tradition had burials be in church graveyards. Places like Charleston and New Orleans just ran out of room. Both towns are around swamps/marshes and land was wet. When the church yard was full towns finally built cemeteries. Pandemics and the Civil War moved the process along faster.
A number of years ago I started walking and shooting the ‘Soldiers Ground’ in Charleston. Most buried here are forgotten, some were never known even then.
These people should be remembered, now more than ever considering where we are headed. It seems like a good time to start a photo project around the old military cemetery in Charleston.
Note; I don’t know where the name Soldiers Ground came from, but that’s what it’s called. This piece of land was owned by the Magnolia Umbra Plantation. The old house still sits on this spot. CSA war (Confederate States of America) dead were enormous and the Plantation already had a cemetery, so land was appropriated for military burials. Most dead were southern soldiers, but soon CSA naval troops, and even non military burials were here. At the end of the US Civil War federal troops camped here, northern casualties were then buried in space available. On any given holiday you can see flags placed here from many different states and both Union and CSA.
This stone is standing, in the roots of a large Live Oak, on the edge of ‘Soldiers Ground’ in Charleston. There’s nothing to relate it to any member of the military but here it is. I don’t know how I’ve miss it here.
I haven’t walked the ground for a while so it was time.
Note; ‘Soldiers Ground’ is the name given to the area of Umbra Plantation that was used for Confederate military burials during the US Civil War. Charleston was under a naval blockade and the location for multiple battles so there needed to be a burial site nearby.
Always on the lookout for different stones that may tell a story.
The first I noticed were in a small grouping together. All were small, one too old to read much, but the shapes of the border stones outlined children.
Next one has a mystery to it. The young man is buried in Charleston but died in Birmingham, Alabama. Today it’s common of course. but 1893… a long trip.
Last is another cluster. A few small stones, some broken markers, a few with pieces missing. The engravings washed away so mystery stories.
Charleston, South Carolina.
