Of course, cemeteries are great places for ancestry research. The day after my friend and I toured Mount Olivet Cemetery, I found myself hunting two specific gravestones in cemeteries in rural Adams County, PA, looking for the final resting place of my first American Spertzel ancestor, Michel, and his wife, Mary Day.
There's a peaceful beauty amongst the tomb stones in Mount Olivet Cemetery, and I understand now why some folks jog or walk the paths through the cemetery frequently. I may add some other historic cemeteries to my travel list!
It is rare to have an opportunity to legally visit a cemetery at night. How dark they are! The harvest moon hadn't yet risen the night we were there -- and there was only a few nervous flashlights to light the way for the tour group as we strolled into the dark to visit the the 300 or so Confederate graves. The individuals inhabiting those graves met their end during one of the local Civil War battles -- either during the Battle of Antietam -- about 14 miles away -- or the Battle of the Monacacy, just 2 miles away.
Frederick, of course, served as a hospital town for both the Union and Confederate wounded from those battles. Many of those who died as a result of their wounds long after the respective armies had marched away found themselves interred in Mount Olivet, far from their loved ones and their homes. In addition, as many of the temporary graves were excavated in the years after the Civil War, the remains were moved to Mount Olivet Cemetery. There are no rows of Union graves, as Union soldiers were given the honor of being buried in one of the National Veterans cemeteries, but no such honor was bestowed on the rebel soldiers. Still, they lay beneath their flag, for the Confederate Flag flies at the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier, a few feet away from the row of 300.
This event is the subject of John Greenleaf Whittier's poem of 1864, Barbara Frietchie. Sadly, although she was an ardent Unionist, the events memorialized in the poem never occurred. Not only was she bedridden the day Stonewall Jackson's troops marched through Frederick, the rebels could only see Frietchie's flag, which flew throughout the day from a distance -- and they certainly never came within speaking, or even shouting, distance of her. Nevertheless, shoot they did at the flag, and it can still be seen at the Barbara Frietchie House Museum, located at 154 West Patrick Street. From all contemporary accounts, Frietchie was an opinionated, spitfire of a woman -- and certainly would have been likely to have verbally dueled with Stonewall Jackson had she been given a chance, just as Whittier imagined in his poem. I bet Mary Quatrell, who actually did wave a flag over the Confederate soldiers, was mad when she learned of the poem and Barbara's undeserved fame. As for Barbara -- she died before the poem was published, so she never knew how famous she'd become.
The tour focused on the famous inhabitants of the cemetery and cemetery trivia. But near the end of the tour, our tour guide leaned back against a tree and shared several ghost stories. Both ghosts were observed by homeowners living adjacent to the cemetery. One featured the ubiquitous lady in white, skitting around the tombstones on the darkest nights. I wasn't impressed. The other, more touching, was about one homeowner observing three uniformed soldiers kneeling before Confederate gravestones early one morning. These soldiers then quietly disappeared before the homeowner's eyes. Interestingly, while at the Confederate graves earlier in the tour, both my friend and I noticed a strong aroma that suggested a pipe or incense, which disappeared as we moved away. Other tour participants similarly noticed a very strong, sweet aroma around another group of graves. Who knows whether that was evidence of a haunting!
Getting there: 515 South Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701; no fee required to visit the cemetery but there are fees for the ghost tours.
Hours: The cemetery gates are open daylight hours; Candlelight tours are offered only a few times each month but now are offered regularly. Tickets go on sale 30 minutes prior to the start of the tours at the gates of the cemetery. Please check the Maryland Ghost Tours website for more information. Park across the street.
Dogs: There is a pet cemetery within Mount Olivet Cemetery; however, living pets aren't welcome.
Website: http://www.marylandghosttours.com/ and http://www.mountolivetcemeteryinc.com
Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple- and peach-tree fruited deep,
Fair as a garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,
On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain wall,—
Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.
Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,
Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.
Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;
In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.
Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced: the old flag met his sight.
“Halt!”— the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
“Fire!”— out blazed the rifle-blast.
It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;
She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
“Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country’s flag,” she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
To life at that woman’s deed and word:
“Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!” he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:
All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.
Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;
And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.
Barbara Frietchie’s work is o’er,
And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.
Honor to her! and let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall’s bier.
Over Barbara Frietchie’s grave
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!
Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;
And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!
Updated May 2018
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