Memorial Day in Columbus, MS

We made a drive to Columbus, MS (30 mi east of Starkville) on Memorial Day to see the cemetery.  We'd been there once before, but it was at night for "Tales of the Crypt", a high school event (see prior post).  Memorial Day actually started in Columbus in 1866, when some of the local women wanted to honor the Civil War dead, including Union soldiers.  That idea was not well received at first, but it eventually became widespread in scope, and evolved into the holiday we now have.

As close as we can count, there are about 2,000 Civil War dead in the Columbus cemetery.  About 500 of them are "unknown".  These graves are all together in the older section of the cemetery, and I took this picture of an oak and vines growing up over the grave of one soldier. 

Columbus was founded in 1821, and the cemetery dates to the 1820's.  Since this was the site of the beginning of Memorial Day, I thought there would be a lot more decoration, flowers, and upkeep, but many of the older sites are not maintained all that well.  There is moss an stuff growing on a lot of the older gravestones, and you can tell that there are no surviving family around to maintain them, beyone what is done to mow the grass and weeds.

The family plots are marked by a raised concrete border, as shown here, and in some instances, there are family members from several generations planted together.