Richmond, VA, Hollywood Cemetery, 25 June 2014

This small chapel sits near the entrance to Hollywood Cemetery and is now the office. 

 It is situated among beautiful, rolling hills above Richmond, Virginia-

with views of the James River along its southeastern border.

It is the final resting place of the first and only Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.  The angel to his right marks the grave of his second wife, Varina

Also buried here are President James Monroe,

and President John Tyler.  Tyler died less than three months before the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, signaling the beginning of the Civil War.

Across the road from the Circle of Presidents are the graves of some of Penny's distant cousins.  The tall monument to the right rear is that of Eppa Hunton.   A Confederate Brigadier General, he was present at the Battles of Manassas (Bull Run) and Sharpsburg (Antietam) among others, and was captured by General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Five Forks.

Hollywood is a public cemetery with lots and crypts still available.  The grave of this child with the sculpture of her faithful dog watching over her is one of the most visited.

Many, if not most, of the graves in this cemetery are of Confederate dead.  This is the Confederate soldiers' monument.  Completed in 1869, it is 90 feet tall, a few feet shorter than the reach of the crane used in its construction.  The workers were unable to place the capstone until a sailor who was serving a sentence in a local penitentiary volunteered to climb the monument and hoist the stone.  For his efforts, the remainder of his sentence was forgiven. 

This monument marks the grave of the flamboyant Confederate Cavalry leader J.E.B. Stuart.  He was mortally wounded in the Battle of Yellow Tavern near here.  The bough to the left of the monument belongs to one of the many large, lovely holly trees that gave this place its name.

This is the memorial to George E. Pickett, leader of the infamous Gettysburg event known as Pickett's Charge.  Asked after the war why the charge had failed so disastrously, his usual reply was, "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."

Many, many more of the stones mark graves similar to that of the unfortunate Arkansas Private William Morgan who died less than two months after the onset of the war.