- (September 2007) RICHMOND, Va. - Thousands of Confederate dead at Richmond's Oakwood Cemetery are being dishonored by poor maintenance and the lack of headstones, says the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), and members intend to do something about it.

The SCV's Virginia Division contends that possibly as many as 18,000 Confederates lie at Oakwood, and they deserve better than they're getting.

"Like all city-owned cemeteries it looks like hell," said Brag Bowling, former division commander. "But the city will have nothing to do with us. They don't even have the respect to return a phone call."

The SCV is offering to take over maintenance of the 7.5-acre Confederate section of the 100-acre cemetery. They say they will do more than improve maintenance; they will also seek headstones from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the 11,000 to 12,000 graves of Confederates whose identities are known.

Robert E.L. Krick, historian at Richmond National Battlefield Park, said Oakwood contains as many if not more Confederate burials than the more famous Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. But unlike Hollywood, which boasts 24 Confederate generals, Oakwood's dead comprise "the privates, sergeants and corporals."

"It was driven by geography," Krick explained.

Oakwood, started in the mid-1850s, was only about a mile northeast of the Confederate military Chimborazo Hospital. As Bowling put it, it was "a quick wagon ride" to dispose of the remains of Confederates who died of disease or of wounds from nearby battles like the Seven Days.

Most of the graves are marked by short stone blocks set in the ground, each with three numbers that relate to names on a list.

Care of the cemetery was satisfactory well into the 20th century, said Krick, who is not himself an SCV member. But geography took its toll.

"As beautiful as Hollywood is," with its rolling terrain, "Oakwood is almost equally unattractive," he said. "It's flat and scrubby."

It's also in a seedy part of the city, plagued by drugs and crime. Vandalism is a problem.

The city took over the cemetery in 1930, according to Bowling. Today, he said, the grass is not mowed as often as it should be, mowers have left "blade whacks" on stones, and a gazebo has been long neglected and is rotting.

"You wouldn't want any of your relatives buried there," he said.

The SCV has already undertaken repairs. They spent $6,000 to cut out trees that had grown up around the headstone of a lieutenant from South Carolina, resetting the grave's coping stones and putting up a wrought-iron fence that vandals pulled down.

Bowling said the division was at work now to replace an iron fence originally erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy around a granite obelisk.

Obtaining the VA headstones is a major aspect of the SCV's plan, although Bowling said the city doesn't want the upright markers. Krick noted that visitors to the national park often inquire about ancestors buried at Oakwood, and the park directs them to the cemetery.

"It's extremely vexing," however. Names are not accurately listed, "regiments are garbled, graves are not well marked and they're out of alignment."

"Very often visitors come back saying they couldn't find their ancestors," Krick said. If the city gives the go-ahead to the SCV, he will supervise several volunteers as they research the burials, correcting spellings and unsnarling errors.

"If it's to be commemorated in stone, it must be accurate," Krick stated. The VA will supply the headstones free of charge.

Krick cited 7,200 names "that can attach to specific graves." Another list surfaced at the Museum of the Confederacy a few years ago, however, with 5,900 dead from 1861-62. There is some overlap, but a lot of the names are not on the Oakwood list, and the museum's list offers no grave locations.

"So it's very, very complicated," Krick said.

Improving Oakwood's Confederate section has long been in the SCV's sights. Two years ago the division successfully appealed to the Virginia General Assembly to receive $12,000 annually from a state fund for maintenance of historic cemeteries. The money had formerly gone to the Oakwood Trust, a small group that Bowling said "was not doing a very good job."

The SCV also raised division dues by $3, earmarked for Oakwood, for each of its nearly 4,000 members three years ago. And the national SCV donated $50,000 to the project. Meanwhile, Bowling said, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources is on board with the SCV plan.

Bowling said Richmond spends $25,000 a year to maintain the Confederate section at Oakwood. "I think we can do it for $15,000 and do a better job. Here we are offering to save the city taxpayers $25,000 a year.

"We're going to put as much heat on as we can," he added. "We've been diplomatic, but this is just foot-dragging. These soldiers have been ignored. Our goal is to make this the Arlington National Cemetery of the South. It will be a tourist attraction."

Bowling cited "racial sensitivities" with Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder, former Virginia governor, and his City Council. "He apparently doesn't want to have anything to do with the SCV," Bowling said. "But we're not talking about raising a Confederate flag at the state capital. We're talking about maintaining a cemetery."

Wilder's press secretary only had praise for the SCV's work at Oakwood.

"They're doing a superb job," said Linwood Norman. He said he could not predict, however, whether the city would allow the SCV to take over the Confederate section.

"It's one of our most historic cemeteries," said Norman. "We don't want to rush into anything." He said the City Council member whose east-end district includes Oakwood, council Vice President Delores McQuinn, has been asked for her reaction. Norman said the city should have an answer within three months.

Krick suggested that answer should be easy to make.

"Marking and commemorating the Confederate dead is a worthy project," he said. "I've never understood why there would be any obstacles to it. It's a matter of conscience, and taking care of the Confederate dead."

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