Old Marietta Historic Confederate Cemetery

Established in 1863, this was originally the resting place for 20 Confederate soldiers killed in a train wreck north of Marietta. Located in Land Lot 1290, District 16, the address is 381 Powder Springs St. After the Civil War more than 3,000 Confederate soldiers who died elsewhere were recovered and reburied there. By 1902 their wooden markers had deteriorated, and many names were lost by that time. They were replaced with plain marble markers. Those names that are known are listed in: Cobb County Georgia Cemeteries, Vol. I, pages 352-361

The Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, Ga., began in 1863. Adjacent to the older Marietta City Cemetery, Marietta Confederate Cemetery is on a hill overlooking the downtown square from the south. This is the final resting place for Confederate soldiers from nearby hospitals and the battles of the Atlanta Campaign that took place around Marietta, including Kolb's Farm and Kennesaw Mountain.

In 1833 the first church in Marietta was built on the site that today holds the Marietta Confederate Cemetery. In 1839 the baptist church moved closer to downtown, on the aptly named Church Street just north of Marietta Square. John Glover, who was Marietta's first mayor, bought the land as part of a larger parcel shortly after he arrived in 1848. Jane Glover, his wife, officially gave the land to the "Memorial Association" in 1867, but the city began using land to bury Confederate war dead four years earlier, with Glover's permission.

That year a train wreck near Emerson, Ga., not far from Allatoona Pass brought the war home for the people of this small Georgia town. The dead were buried on a hill beneath an oak tree.

As the Marietta operations began, the city prepared for inevitable dead. By then Marietta had witnessed the carnage of battle a number of times. Confederate wounded from Chickamauga were transported through the railway station at Dalton to Marietta. A number of buildings, including the Kennesaw House, served as hospitals, and the cemetery accepted its first men killed in battle.

With the launch of the Atlanta Campaign on May 4, 1864, Marietta became a major hospital town for the Confederacy, and the number of dead in the Confederate Cemetery began to rise. Burials of Confederate soldiers on the site continued until July 2, 1864, when William T. Sherman took the city.

Prior to1867 Henry Cole, aprominent businessman and ardent Unionist, proposed the Marietta National Cemetery, intended to include the bodies of men who died on both sides during the Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea. Southerners in many towns, including Marietta, were outraged at the idea of burying Confederate dead in the same graveyard as Yankees. When the national cemetery was approved, Mrs. Glover donated the land containing the Confederate war dead.

Over the years the Confederate Cemetery suffered. Unlike the nearby National Cemetery, the Confederate Cemetery had to rely on donations, mainly from Marietta citizens. The area fell into disrepair over the years. However, thanks to the efforts of many local groups, including the Marietta Confederate Cemetery Foundation, over the past 20-25 years many repairs and improvements have been made, returning the cemetery to its former glory.