Wednesday Cemetery Blogging - Patriot's Cemetery

"Patriot" seems to be one of those words that's always been politically-charged. Nowadays we see that with the PATRIOT Act and the extreme nationalism put forward by the current presidential administration. It's not just a modern thing, though. In 1864, the Union Army needed a place to bury their dead in the New Orleans area. After a brief naval engagement won by the US Navy, the city surrendered itself to Union forces, who occupied the area for the majority of the Civil War.

The area in Chalmette where the Battle of New Orleans was fought had been preserved as a memorial area since the 1830s. (It's now the Chalmette Battlefield, a part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park). Since this land was already federal property prior to the war, it was easy for the Union Army to convert a strip of land in the back of the battlefield into a cemetery.

The cemetery was accessible from the Great River Road, but a side entrance was also constructed. This side entrance included the archway you see above, with the "patriot" label.

Originally both Union and Confederate soldiers and sailors were buried in the cemetery. A large number of the Union soldiers buried there were "Colored Troops." Combine that with the sign proclaiming those resting there as "patriots," and many New Orleanians were very offended. After the war, the Daughters of the Confederacy raised money to build a tumulus in Greenwood Cemetery at the head of Canal Street. The Confederates buried in Chalmette were re-interred in that tumulus.

The wooden fence and archway were replaced by a brick wall in the 1880s. The cemetery is still there and is a wonderful thread in the historical fabric of New Orleans.

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