The annual Oakwood Cemetery Confederate Lantern Tour will be held on Saturday, October 27 from 6:00pm until 10:00pm. The tour will consist of 6 skits based on actual historical figures buried in Oakwood. This year’s skits will contain a Gettysburg theme, as there are many Confederate casualties from Gettysburg buried in the Oakwood’s Confederate section (and one previously misidentified Yankee). Tour groups leave every 10-15 minutes and the entire tour lasts about one hour. The cost is $6 for adults and $3.00 for children 12 and under. All proceeds go towards the continued preservation of Oakwood’s Confederate section. For more information you can call 919-612-4775.
when the yankees got to raleigh, the original soldiers' cemetery was on rock quarry rd, i believe....anyway, the yankees decided that there should be no confederate soldiers buried where union soldiers were buried, and dug up all the confederate soldiers, throwing their bones out into the street. the women of raleigh came together and gathered the bones, taking them to the current location of oakwood cemetery and reburied them.... that area of the cemetery has been worked on ever since. i have personally helped to place stones on graves there. it's a great history lesson. heck, the whole cemetery is a great local history lesson. i guess the upshot is i recommend this to everyone
That story is told a lot, but I've heard from someone who has done a lot of research on Oakwood and the soldiers buried there, that it probably didn't happen quite that way. I don't have more info on it though... Having placed headstones, does that mean you're in one of the local SCV camps?
agreed. i was a member of the wake forest camp for a while, mostly due to their meeting schedule coinciding with mine. also became friends with gary pearce who used to be the commander of the garner camp. which camp are you part of, and do they have a webiste?
The Polk camp in Garner. Gary is still a member as well. If you're interested in coming out to a meeting, PM me and I'll give you details. The website is many years outdated...
Bumping this up again with a writeup from MSN City Guides (link below) on the best Halloween celebrations in the US. It'll be a good time next Saturday, so I hope some of ya'll can make it out. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.: Lantern Tours at Historic Oakwood Cemetery 701 Oakwood Ave. (919) 832-6077 History haunts the Historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh every Halloween. If you're up for a stroll through the graveyard at night, don't miss the annual Lantern Tour on the last Saturday in October. Follow your lantern-toting guide (a woman in a period dress) down luminary paths among the headstones of the Confederate section of the cemetery. Along the way, you'll watch skits, each showing events of the Confederate past: a hospital, musicians, a military skit and other historical scenes. You should plan to show up right around nightfall (around 6 p.m.) to join a group and enter the cemetery. Ticket prices are nominal, and families can attend with confidence—the focus is on fun, not fright. Return to the 21st century for some hot chocolate and cookies as historians answer the questions you're "dying" to ask. —Kathleen M. Reilly http://cityguides.msn.com/citylife/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5551118&page=5
He was not a Confederate soldier but Jim Valvano is buried in Oakwood. Any chance you will honor this outstanding Yankee. "Never Give Up! Never Give Up".
Being new to the area last year DH and I went to Oakwood for many events including the latern walk and learned alot about the history of the area and events of the civil war not mentioned in the history books. It's one of our favorite things to do in Raleigh.
The rain will be gone by tomorrow evening and it's not supposed to be too cold, so make plans to come to the Oakwood Lantern Tour! There will be 5 skits totalling about an hour and groups leave every 15 minutes or so. Cost is 6.00 for adults and 3.00 for children 12 and under.
