Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/302

 CONFEDERATES WHO FELL IN BATTLE RE-INTERRED IN MARYLAND.

Generosity of Maryland Legislature and People—Maryland Line Confederate Soldiers' Home.

By Col. WINFIELD PETERS, U. C. V., Baltimore, Md. As soon as practicable after the war (1865). at the instance of surviving Confederates and others in sympathy, the Legislature of" Maryland appropriated money to remove the remains of Confederates—of which many lay in scattered graves—and properly re-inter them, collectively. Those enactments were as follows: In 1870, $3,000 was appropriated to purchase two acres of land in which to re-inter the remains of Confederate soldiers who died while prisoners of war at Point Lookout, Md., appointing a board of trustees to have the work done; and in 1874 an additional $1,000 was appropriated to improve and complete the Point Lookout Cemetery. Again in 1870, $2,000 was appropriated to remove the remains of Confederate dead in Frederick County, Md., to Mount Olivet Cemetery, adjoining Frederick City. Again in 1870, $5,000 was appropriated to remove the remains of Confederates who fell in the Battles of South Mountain, Crampton's Gap, Sharpsburg and Monocacy, and other places in the State of Maryland, and those who fell at Gettysburg or died en route. The act provided for the purchase of ten acres of land within one mile of Hagerstown, Md., or for an agreement with a cemetery association in that city for the re-interments, and a board of trustees was created to carry out the work. The cemetery proviso was adopted, and in June, 1878, the Confederate plot was dedicated, General Fitzhugh Lee being the orator of the occasion.

In 1874, $5,000 was appropriated and paid over to the Society of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States in the State of Maryland, headquarters in Baltimore, to be expended in the