Last updated: April 5, 2024
Place
Auto Tour Stop #8: Groveton
NPS
Quick Facts
Location:
Manassas, Virginia
Significance:
Cemetery
Designation:
National Battlefield Park
Amenities
3 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV
Neither side had anticipated the war's cost in blood. After the fighting at Manassas, burial details dug shallow graves where soldiers had fallen. There was little time for ceremony. Crude wooden headboards sometimes noted the soldier's name and regiment. Many went to their graves anonymously.
The Bull Run and Groveton Ladies' Memorial Association, established in 1867, launched a campaign to recover Confederate dead from the battlefield. The organization established this cemetery and orchestrated the re-interment of an estimated 500 soldiers. Few could be identified and only two graves have individual headstones. Many of the Union dead were reburied in Arlington National Cemetery. The white marble obelisk was dedicated in 1904.
Honoring the Fallen at Groveton
After the war, the remains of Confederate dead were reburied on the knoll to your right. To your left, a footpath leads to the house of the widow Lucinda Dogan, on whose land the cemetery was located.
Inscription:
South face: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Erected to the Confederate dead. We care not whence they came, dear in their lifeless clay! Whether unknown or known to fame, their cause and country still the same. They died and wore the gray. North face: They gave their lives in defense of their country on the fields of the First and Second Battles of Manassas. East face: They sleep well in their unknown graves on the faraway battlefield. West face: But for them the counting of time is not: for they dwell in the city of God.
The Bull Run and Groveton Ladies' Memorial Association, established in 1867, launched a campaign to recover Confederate dead from the battlefield. The organization established this cemetery and orchestrated the re-interment of an estimated 500 soldiers. Few could be identified and only two graves have individual headstones. Many of the Union dead were reburied in Arlington National Cemetery. The white marble obelisk was dedicated in 1904.
Honoring the Fallen at Groveton
After the war, the remains of Confederate dead were reburied on the knoll to your right. To your left, a footpath leads to the house of the widow Lucinda Dogan, on whose land the cemetery was located.
Inscription:
South face: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Erected to the Confederate dead. We care not whence they came, dear in their lifeless clay! Whether unknown or known to fame, their cause and country still the same. They died and wore the gray. North face: They gave their lives in defense of their country on the fields of the First and Second Battles of Manassas. East face: They sleep well in their unknown graves on the faraway battlefield. West face: But for them the counting of time is not: for they dwell in the city of God.