Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond, VA
Oakwood Cemetery, on the east side of Richmond, is the resting place of nearly 17,000 Confederates who died in the battles around Richmond or in the capital city's many hospitals. One of the first Memorial Day services was held there in 1866. As the first photo shows, in 1930 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation that mandated the City of Richmond to provide perpetual care for the Confederate portion of the cemetery. The General Assembly allocated funds for this care and ordered the governor of the Commonwealth to visit Oakwood once a year to make certain that the city was doing its job. As these recent photos attest, the city has neglected its duty. The last photo in this series contrasts the care of the Confederate dead at Oakwood with the care of Union graves at the nearby national cemetery on Williamsburg Road.
Among the Confederate dead buried in Oakwood Cemetery are the following Acadians in Gray:
George Angelle, Adolph Badeaux, and Arvillien Badeaux, 3rd Battalion Louisiana Infantry; Adrien Charles Chiasson, 8th Louisiana Infantry; Hypolite Labarthe, 14th Louisiana Infantry
photos by Raymond Lipford of Prince George County, VA, June 2003