Honoring the Caretakers

There is a wonderfully original and thoughtful set of sculptures at the Marietta Confederate Cemetery that honors the caretakers of that cemetery. A series of benches are placed throughout the area so that visitors can contemplate the graves, the history represented there and the lovely, tree-filled setting. On each bench are two articles: A bronze book and a bronzed item representing the ladies who cared for the graves or the soldiers buried there.

Arch marking the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta

South 120 Loop and Powder Springs Rd

The books are "open" in the middle and have text on two pages. The left pages contain exerts from the diary of Mattie Harris Lyon, a devoted caretaker and community leader. The right pages contain information about the context of the cemetery and its creation.

Bench with bronze book and parasol

The personal items on the benches are quite poignant in their singularity. On one bench a sunbonnet seems casually placed, its owner perhaps nearby. On another bench, a set of gloves and a fan tell the viewer how small and dainty the hands were that tended the graves.

Bronzed parasol

Bronzed book

Bronzed sunbonnet

Exerpt from Mattie Harris Lyon's diary

Bench with book and trowel

Bronzed clippers

The items representing the soldiers are less personal (a bugle, a drum, a canteen, a kepi) except for a set of officer's boots. The boots were clearly made for one individual and show the slouch and bend of wear.

Bronzed canteen

Bronzed képi

Bronzed drum

Bronzed boots

Boots in context in front of the gazebo

Most touching is the rendering of the character of Mattie Harris Lyon. We hear her voice in her diary entries and we see her as an old woman sitting on a bench - a statue near her own grave on the hill above the Confederate Cemetery. She clutches her diary and gazes into the distance, a tiny, yet powerful, figure.

Bench with book and statue of Mattie Harris Lyon

Closer view of Mattie

It is rare to find artwork in cemeteries that honors the caretakers. Their years of devoted toil, tending the graves of loved ones and strangers alike, finds moving representation here.

Note:  The vision and leadership for the creation of this site sculpture is due to the devotion of  Betty Hunter, Marietta city council member for 24 years, and President of the Confederate Cemetery Foundation. California sculptors, T. J. Dixon and James Nelson, created the work. This project has been in progress for 15 years and is still ongoing.

The statue below of a woman and boy in Civil War era dress was unveiled at the recent celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Great Locomotive Chase.

Statue of a woman and boy at Brown Park

South 120 Loop and Powder Springs Rd

And when we honor these, the long-ago residents of Marietta who suffered so terribly from war, let us not forget that others suffered, too. Servants and slaves of these residents and soldiers from both South and North had their lives torn apart by the war that passed through this place.