Confederate Cemetery - Battle of Resaca

In May 1864 the Civil War battles raged in the community of Resaca.  Hundreds of Confederate and Union soldiers died during the battles.  Col. John F. Green was forced to take his family and flee his home in Resaca.

Returning back to their land, they found the dead Confederate soldiers still lying on the battlefield area where they fell or buried in shallow graves around their home.

Col. Green’s daughters Mary and Pyatt were upset by the sight and decided to collect the bodies and give them a proper grave.  Their father gave them two and half acres of land to use as a cemetery.  They began by writing letters to their friends asking for money to help in this cause.  They and their African American cook and maid dug graves and began re-interring the dead soldiers in the Confederate cemetery

In 1866, Mary was elected president of Resaca Ladies Memorial Association, the second in the state.  The expense and upkeep of the cemetery was higher than they expected so Mary Green went to the Georgia Legislature for help.  She was granted money and asked to undertake the reburial of the soldiers who died at Chickamauga. Approximately 450 soldiers are buried in the cemetery symmetrically arranged in plots for the states having Confederate dead buried there.

Mary Green started the Resaca project without any money in July of 1866, finished it in the end of October and all debts were paid by end of December 1866.  Dedication services for the cemetery were held on October 25, 1866.  Mary Green died on January 2, 1924 and is buried with her parents in Historic Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta.

• Physical description of cemetery

2 ½ acre in size surrounded by a stone wall and an imposing entrance constructed of Stone Mountain granite with large gates bearing the Southern Cross of Honor in the center.