Pewee Valley Confederate Cemetery

View of the cemetery

The Pewee Valley Confederate Cemetery is a cemetery in Pewee Valley , located at the place where formerly the Kentucky Confederate Home was located. Not only is the cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places , but the Confederate Memorial in Peewee Valley , built in 1904 on the site, is independently classified as a cultural monument under the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS . The cemetery is the only state cemetery in Kentucky for Confederate soldiers , and a total of 313 of them are buried here.

history

In May 1871, several citizens of Pewee Valley, about 30 km northeast of Louisville , decided that a separate public cemetery was necessary. The property was acquired in August 1871 and the cemetery was laid out in the spring of 1872. Bushes and trees were planted to beautify the complex. Upon completion, a draft of the Kentucky government was requested. The Villa Ridge Inn was built near the cemetery in 1889. It was a four-story summer resort frequented primarily by wealthy Louisville entrepreneurs and their families. Despite the 90,000 US dollar construction costs (according to current prices around 2,575,000 US dollars) but did not attract the investment sufficient visitors to stay in business. Between its closure and 1902, it was used as a private high school, successor to the Kentucky College for Young Ladies .

The Kentucky Parliament decided in 1902 to build a retirement home for Confederate soldiers. It did so at the request of Confederate officer Bennett H. Young , who had long advocated such a facility when he saw how many veterans from the Civil War were no longer able to look after themselves. After Young's initiative raised $ 16,000, the legislature approved. The Initiative and the Daughters of the Confederacy chose the former Villa Ridge Inn, just outside the cemetery, because it was in a convenient location and relatively cheap to buy, especially when compared to the high construction costs.

The war memorial

In 1904 the cemetery was divided into three areas, one was for deceased Confederate soldiers, the other two served the local population and were separated by skin color. Shortly after the nursing home opened, the military cemetery was set up and a monument was erected shortly afterwards. The military cemetery and old people's home covered an area of 1050 m².

In the years it was in operation, the facility was a hospital and nursing home and looked after up to 350 former soldiers. A total of 700 veterans have lived here over the years. Admission requirements not only required the person to be a retired Confederate soldier, but also to live in Kentucky for at least six months, be mentally stable, and have no problems with alcoholism. Many of these veterans had once served under John Hunt Morgan .

A fire on March 25, 1920 destroyed the main building, the laundry and other ancillary buildings, but it did not cost any lives. The rest of the facility was large enough to accommodate the remaining residents. The number of veterans gradually decreased, and in 1934 the last five residents were transferred to the nearby Pewee Valley Sanatorium.

present

Only the main gate of the hospital - it was relocated to be used as the main entrance to the cemetery - and the part of the sidewalk from the hospital to the railroad have been preserved. A board indicates this. The hospital's drinking water reservoir was backfilled in the 1990s.

The monument is unique among the other memorials of the Civil War in that it is made of zinc , in contrast to the other 60 memorials, which are mostly made of marble or limestone .