From the Richmond Dispatch, 8/20/1861 , p. 2

Graves for the Soldiers at Hollywood . – The Hollywood Cemetery Company generously gave a section for the burial of our soldiers dying in Richmond and its vicinity. Nearly a hundred graves now mark the spot. The additional labor imposed upon the small force at the Cemetery by the digging of the graves in connection with their regular duty, is very heavy, and should not go without compensation to the company or themselves, while most of the undertakers receive the exorbitant sum of twenty dollars for a very plain coffin and the use of a hearse in the burial of every soldier. More than a fourth of this sum might in every case have been saved to the Confederacy, or given to the grave-digger. We are glad to learn that some of our citizens, who have control of a part of the Hospitals in the city, have made a more equitable contract, which abates six dollars from the undertaker's price above named; and we hope the proper officer of the Confederacy will extend a similar arrangement to all the burials, and thus do justice both to the Government and the cemetery company, by giving a part of the sum thus saved to the latter, if desired.

• Prev
• Next