Ladies’ Memorial Association Continues 150 Year Memorial Day Tradition

The Ladies’ Memorial Association of Fredericksburg will continue a 150 year Memorial Day tradition with their sponsored commemoration at 10 a.m. Monday.

The group organized on May 10, 1866, to establish the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery.  It was here they began what they say is one of the earliest Memorial Day observances in the country.

Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery was dedicated in May 1870 to the 3,553 Confederates who were killed on four area battlefields and reinterred here.  Six were Confederate generals.

"They came from fourteen Southern states," the website says . "Those whose identities are unknown (2,184) rest under the massive Monument to the Confederate Dead. The others are buried in individual graves with stones of Georgia marble."

Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery and Fredericksburg City Cemetery are at the corner of William Street and Washington Avenue, surrounded by a common brick wall.

For more information, visit: National Park Service, Fredericksburg City and Confederate Cemetery

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