Cemetery Detective Work Helps Families Find Lost Confederates

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Official Release for  Southerners at Rest

For Immediate Release

Contact: John Fox 540-539-1260
Email:info@AngleValleyPress.com
“Countless families will discover the names of long-lost relatives
in the pages of this book.”  Robert E.L. Krick, Richmond NPS historian

Cemetery Detective Work Helps Families Find Lost Confederates

During the Civil War, thousands of Southerners never learned the fate of family members who served in the Confederate army. As the war dragged on, wagonloads of corpses continued to arrive at the gates of Richmond, Virginia’s Hollywood Cemetery.

Unfortunately, well-intentioned individuals carved wrong or misspelled names into the soldiers’ wooden headboards.This mistake caused the bodies of numerous fathers, sons and brothers to be lost to the ages. Now, thanks to the detective work of Hollywood Cemetery expert Chris Ferguson, many modern-day families have an opportunity to discover the location of their missing Confederate ancestors.

Ferguson’s new hardback book, Southerners at Rest: Confederate Dead at Hollywood Cemetery, updates the inaccurate 1869 list of Hollywood’s war dead. Ferguson’s massive research compiled a roster of almost 14,000 Confederate soldiers and officials who are buried there. Over 100 soldiers’ photos, many never before published, also add a face to the war’s many sad stories.

Richmond National Park Service historian Robert E.L. Krick penned the foreword for the book. He considers this work to be “the first comprehensive and accurate roster of Confederate soldiers buried in the South’s greatest cemetery.”

The easy-to-use roster is alphabetized by each soldier’s last name. Additional information includes the veteran’s unit, birth date, death date and most importantly – his burial location. A sidebar also adds nuggets of information for these men who came from every southern state. Numbered notes point the reader toward the source of Ferguson’s discoveries. This one-of-a kind resource includes a map of the soldiers’ section to send family members in the right direction as they walk the beautiful grounds of Hollywood in search of their Confederate veterans.

Southerners at Rest is Chris Ferguson’s third book. He is a Confederate records expert, Hollywood Cemetery authority, and tour guide. His first book covered the Confederate field officers buried at Hollywood Cemetery. Ferguson then teamed up with Robert K. Krick for another book which listed the Confederate dead from the Battle of Gettysburg. Ferguson is an Atlanta native, and he now lives in Winchester, Virginia.

Southerners at Rest is available for $34.95 in fine bookstores or by visiting Angle Valley Press at www.AngleValleyPress.com or calling 1+800-247-6553.

Southerners at Rest: Confederate Dead at Hollywood Cemetery by Chris L. Ferguson. First Edition.
8.5 x 11 hardback, 336 pages, 103 photos, 1 map, bibliography.  ISBN 978–0–9711950–4–2. $34.95.
Publication: Summer  2008.

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