Cemetery dedication to highlight Danville history

By: John Crane | GoDanRiver
Published: April 11, 2008

History buffs and others can get some exercise and learn a little Danville Civil War history by taking a walking tour of Green Hill Cemetery.
Sharon Hughes, education coordinator at the Danville Museum Fine Arts and History, will hold a dedication ceremony for Green Hill Cemetery: A Civil War Walking Tour at 2 p.m. Sunday on Lee Street.
To earn her certification for museum management from the Virginia Association of Museums, Hughes recently completed a brochure for the walking tour, which features a map with numbers corresponding to the cemetery’s 15 sites. Hughes’s work is the result of extensive research and is separate from her endeavors at the museum.
“It was something I did on my own,” she said.
About 600 brochures have been printed and visitors to Green Hill can use them for self-guided tours. Sunday’s event is not a guided tour, Hughes said.
Zach Barksdale, an Eagle Scout, collaborated with Hughes and made the cemetery’s site markers.
Sites include the family plot for the Sutherlin Mansion, namesake of Maj. William T. Sutherlin, where Confederate President Jefferson Davis stayed the week before Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse 143 years ago this month.
It was Hughes’s labors at the old Sutherlin Mansion, now home of the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, which sparked her interest in Green Hill.
“Through that I became fascinated with Green Hill Cemetery,” she said.
The Victorian-era cemetery, named after Dr. N.T. Green, was established in 1863 and is the last resting place for several Confederate veterans and prominent Danville figures, according to the Danville Historical Society’s Web site. It also features Danville’s Confederate Soldiers Monument, a 16-ton obelisk that was dedicated in 1878.
“I want Danvillians to learn a little bit of their own history,” Hughes said. “This is just one small part of that. There are many stories to be told.”
Sunday’s event is free and open to the public and is expect to last about 30 minutes.
Contact John R. Crane at jcrane@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7987.

Cemetery dedication to highlight Danville history

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