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 proper graves. Their father gave them two and half acres of land to use as a cemetery. They and their African-American cook and maid dug graves and began re-interring the dead soldiers in the Confederate cemetery.

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