The Confederate Section of Lynchburg's Old City Cemetery

Fourth & Taylor Streets
Lynchburg, Virginia

The Confederate Section of the cemetery at first glance appears relatively unchanged, for this space has usually been well maintained, regardless of the attention paid to the overall cemetery. In 1986 the antique rose collection was planted along the 500-foot old brick wall to revive the memory of the beautiful red and white roses which had delighted earlier generations. An eloquent California visitor wrote to his Lynchburg host: “...But if driving those streets put me in a memory mode it did not prepare me for the second experience of unusual nature -- the Confederate graveyard. As we entered into it there came within me a startling and unexpected sense of timelessness, as if time were suspended. Yet there was ambivalent feeling of sadness and death mixed with a sense of aliveness and light, and a sense of pride. This is poorly described, but there are not words that can communicate this mystical experience that retained its vividness throughout my wandering within that place. The graves of those young men against the backdrop of what seemed to be hundreds of roses in full bloom was a paradox streaming into reality.”

An excerpt from Fall/Winter 1995/1996 issue of “Lynch’s Ferry” magazine.
Used by permission of the author, Jane B. White.