Still Waters--Notes from a Virginia Shire: After the Park

After we left Bells Mill Park,

we drove by a sign directing visitors

to a small "Afro-Union" cemetery and Civil War Memorial.

There is a lot of Civil War history in Virginia,

and my husband and I have visited quite a few historical sites over the years,

but none that memorialized

the contribution of freed slaves to the Union cause.

So we decided to go.

We traveled a long and winding street back to an area

on the other side of the same creek

we had seen from our hike in the Park.

It was the Bells Mill neighborhood,

at one time an African-American settlement established in 1872.

(source: Bells Mill Historical Research and Restoration Society)

And we easily found the small cemetery

although it was encroached upon by houses and industry.

A huge shade tree in the corner

spread its branches over the graves in the narrow lot:

Some of the old Civil War soldiers' graves

were marked with still-legible stones, but most were not.

It's probable that for some of them,

their families never knew where they were laid to rest.

But someone had tried to commemorate their war service

by marking their resting places with makeshift headstones and silk flowers:

According to the National Archives,

180,000 freed African slaves joined the Union Army

toward the end of the Civil War,

after a 1792 law banning them from serving had been essentially repealed.

The site also says that 16 black soldiers

were awarded the Medal of Honor for valor.

Still Waters--Notes from a Virginia Shire