Lakelyn Wiley, “Historical Marker of the Fredericksburg Cooperation Buring Ground in Fredericksburg, VA,” 2018.
Inscription:
“The park around you was once known as the Corporation Burying Ground. Burials occurred here from 1787 through 1853 and included Dr. Charles Mortimer, who had been Mary Washington’s personal physician. He also served as Fredericksburg’s first mayor, under the 1781 charter granted by the Virginia Assembly, independent of the British Crown. Following the Civil War, the graves and stones were removed, and the cemetery converted to its current use as Hurkamp Park.
Fredericksburg encompasses many cemeteries, most of which are open to the public. Collectively they illustrate the broad patterns of history, including Colonial settlement, independence from Britain, the Civil War, the African-American experience, and foreign wars. The descriptions to the right briefly introduce these places. You are invited to explore them further.”
Research:
On December 13, 1862, Lt. Edmund Kirby’s Battery I, The First US Artillery, had moved on George Street. Union Major General William H. French personally led Kirby’s battery to hold Fredericksburg’s Corporate Burying Ground. Kirby placed one section of his guns in the burial site. Lt. George A. Woodruff planted two smoothbore cannons on the site. There, he had a clear view over a neighboring wagon yard and the ramshackle dwellings of a suburb known loosely as “Liberty Town.” (1)
The 91st Pennsylvania Infantry Formed a line behind the stone wall of the cemetery. This put them close to modern-day Barton Street. Between 3:45 and 4:00 pm, Kirby’s Battery I, left the Corporation Burying Ground and advanced to the hillside north of Liberty Town. (2)
