Friendship Cemetery is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

located in

Columbus, Mississippi Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterwa ...

. In 1849, the cemetery was established on 5 acres by the

Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd ...

. With . The original layout consisted of three interlocking circles, signifying the Odd Fellows emblem. By 1957, Friendship Cemetery had increased in size to 35 acres, and was acquired by the City of Columbus. The cemetery was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980 and was designated a

Mississippi Landmark The following is a list of Mississippi Landmarks officially nominated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and approved by each county's chancery clerk. The Mississippi Landmark designation is the highest form of recognition bestow ...

in 1989. As of 2015, the cemetery contained some 22,000 graves within an area of 70 acres and was still in use.

Memorial Day connection

During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Columbus served as a military hospital center for the wounded, particularly after the

Battle of Shiloh The Battle of Shiloh (also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing) was fought on April 6–7, 1862, in the American Civil War. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. The battlefield i ...

. More than 2,000

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldiers were interred in Friendship Cemetery, along with 40 to 150

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

soldiers. On April 25, 1866, the graves of these fallen soldiers, both Confederate and Union, were decorated with flowers by a large group of ladies from Columbus. The women's tribute – treating the soldiers as equals – inspired poet

Francis Miles Finch Francis Miles Finch (June 9, 1827 – July 31, 1907) was an American judge, poet, and academic associated with the early years of Cornell University. One of his poems, "The Blue and the Gray", is frequently reprinted to this day. Biography Franc ...

to write the poem, ''The Blue and the Gray'', which was published in an 1867 edition of ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. In 1867, the remains of all Union soldiers were exhumed and reinterred in

Corinth National Cemetery Corinth National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery in the city of Corinth, in Alcorn County, Mississippi. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses , and as of the end of 2005, had 7,137 interm ...

. Over time, these ''grave decoration days'' – honoring those who died in military service – eventually morphed into

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

Monuments

The cemetery contains two Confederate monuments: File:Friendship Cemetery 280-001.JPG, Monument to Confederate dead (1873) File:Friendship Cemetery 286-001.JPG, Monument to an ''unknown Confederate soldier'' (1894)

Notable interments

* William Edwin Baldwin (1827 – 1864), Confederate brigadier general during the

. *

William Barksdale William Barksdale (August 21, 1821 – July 3, 1863) was a lawyer, newspaper editor, US Representative, and Confederate general in the American Civil War. A staunch secessionist, he was mortally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg while he le ...

(1821 – 1863), Confederate brigadier general during the

. Cenotaph only, Barksdale's remains were interred in

Greenwood Cemetery (Jackson, Mississippi) Greenwood Cemetery is a cemetery located in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. Still in use, it was established by a federal land grant on November 21, 1821. It was originally known simply as "The Graveyard" and later as "City Cemetery" before the ...

. * William S. Barry (1821 – 1868), member of the

Provisional Congress of the Confederate States The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, also known as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governing body ...

(1861 – 1862). *

William Cocke William Cocke (1748August 22, 1828) was an American lawyer, pioneer, and statesman. He has the distinction of having served in the state legislatures of four different states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and was one of t ...

(1748 – 1828),

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

(1796 – 1797, 1799 – 1805). *

Cornell Franklin Cornell Sidney Franklin (1892–1959) was an American lawyer and judge and also served as the chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council from 1937 to 1940. Early life Franklin was born April 1, 1892, in Columbus, Mississippi, United States. He ...

(1892 – 1959), judge who served as chairman of the

Shanghai Municipal Council The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British Concession (Shanghai), British and American Concession (Shanghai), American list of former foreign enclaves in China, enclaves in Shanghai, i ...

(1937 – 1940). * Jeptha Vining Harris (1816 – 1899), Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War. *

James Thomas Harrison James Thomas Harrison (November 30, 1811 – May 22, 1879) was an American politician who served as a Deputy from Mississippi to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1862. Biography James Thomas Harrison was born in ...

(1811 – 1879), member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States (1861 – 1862). *

Clyde S. Kilby Clyde Samuel Kilby (26 September 1902, in Johnson City, Tennessee – 18 October 1986, in Columbus, Mississippi) was an American writer and English professor, best known for his scholarship on the Inklings, especially J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lew ...

(1902 – 1986), noted

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

author and English professor. *

Stephen Dill Lee Stephen Dill Lee (September 22, 1833 – May 28, 1908) was an American officer in the Confederate Army, politician and first president of Mississippi State University from 1880 to 1899. He served as lieutenant general of the Confederate ...

(1833 – 1908), Confederate lieutenant general during the American Civil War. * Joshua Lawrence Meador (1911 – 1965),

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

. * Jehu Amaziah Orr (1828 – 1921), member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States and the

Second Confederate Congress The 2nd Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from May 2, 1864, to March 18, 1865, during the last year of Jefferson Davis's presidency, at the Virginia S ...

. * Jacob H. Sharp (1833 – 1907), Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War. *

Jesse Speight Jesse Speight (September 22, 1795May 1, 1847) was a North Carolina and Mississippi politician in the nineteenth century. Born in Greene County, North Carolina, Speight attended country schools as a child. He was a member of the North Carolina H ...

(1795– 1847), U.S. Senator from

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

(1845 to 1847). *

Henry Edward Warden Henry Edward "Pete" Warden (December 26, 1915 – November 15, 2007) was a colonel in the United States Air Force. He served almost four years in the Pacific War, Pacific Theater during World War II. Although he was trained as a fighter aircraft ...

(1915 – 2007), Career officer in the US Air Force; father of the B-52. * Henry Lewis Whitfield (1868 – 1927),

Governor of Mississippi A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

(1924 – 1927). * James Whitfield (1791 – 1875), Governor of Mississippi (1851 to 1852).

References

External links

{{commonscat-inline Columbus, Mississippi Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi 1849 establishments in Mississippi Mississippi Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Lowndes County, Mississippi Odd Fellows cemeteries in the United States Cemeteries in Mississippi