Honored in Death
— Atlanta Campaign Heritage Trail —
This cemetery was
established during the
Civil War on about
four and one-half acres
of Dalton's original
ten-acre cemetery
donated to the city by
Duff Green on
February 15, 1855.
Today this much larger
cemetery is known as
West Hill. Over four
hundred Confederate
and four Federal soldiers, many of whom died in
Dalton's military hospitals, now rest here. West
Hill is also the final resting place of Confederate
Brigadier General Bryan M. Thomas. A native of
Milledgeville, Georgia and graduate of the United
States Military Academy at West Point, New
York, Thomas lived in Dalton after the Civil War.
A veteran of many Western Theater
battles, during the latter years of his
life he served as superintendent of
Dalton's public schools. Names of the
Confederate soldiers buried here are
inscribed on the Memorial Wall of
gray Georgia granite erected by the
General Joseph E. Johnston Camp
#671, Sons of Confederate Veterans
(S.C.V.), the Civil War Roundtable of
Dalton, and the Private Drewry R.
Smith Chapter #2522, United
Daughters of the Confederacy
(U.D.C.). It was dedicated on April
24, 1999.
During the war Dalton, located
along the Western and Atlantic
Railroad, connecting Chattanooga with Atlanta,
was an accessible destination for transporting sick
and wounded Confederate soldiers from distant
battlefields.
Many arrived by railroad after the
1862 and 1863 battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Stones
River, Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Among
the first soldiers to die in Dalton were Corporal
John G. Reynolds, Company E, 20th Alabama
Volunteer Infantry Regiment, on April 20, 1862,
and Corporal John A. McBryde, Company H,
23rd Alabama Volunteer Infantry Regiment, on
June 17, 1862. The Oliver Hospital, opening in
July 1862, was the first Confederate hospital in
Dalton. The hospital is believed to have been
named for John P. Oliver who owned the building
it first occupied. Nine additional hospitals opened
in Dalton during 1863 and early 1864. Smallpox
and other diseases also took their toll on the
hospitalized men. All hospitals closed or moved
farther south before Dalton was occupied by
Union Major General William T. Sherman's army
on May 13, 1864.
The first Confederate Memorial Day service
held here was led by the ladies of Dalton on April
26, 1866, the first anniversary of Confederate
General Joseph E. Johnston's surrender in North
Carolina to General Sherman. Veterans and their
sons later planted beautiful oak trees to provide
shade for the services. The Bryan M. Thomas
Chapter #188, U.D.C., was organized in 1897 and
continued the memorial tradition until the 1980s.
Other groups, including the aforementioned
organizations and the Whitfield-Murray Historical
Society,
have since participated.
The granite grave markers erected in 1900 by
the Bryan M. Thomas Chapter, U.D.C., replaced
the original wooden headboards. The ladies of the
U.D.C. also acquired the wrought iron fence
surrounding the cemetery. The Soldiers Memorial
Statue, first erected in 1892, was moved to the
Confederate Cemetery in 1976 when Thornton
Avenue in downtown Dalton was widened. Future
generations will come pay tribute to their fallen
countrymen buried here.
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