Memorial Wall, Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh
The ivy covered wall of varying heights runs 365 feet along the southern boundary of the Confederate Cemetery parallel to Oakwood Avenue and was built using 52,000 red bricks. Breaching the wall at its center is decorative iron gate attached between stone columns built prior to the wall itself. Two stone tablets with inscriptions relating to the history of the cemetery adorn each column. A bronze plaque to commemorate the wall construction is attached to the right column.
Bronze plaque: THIS WALL ERECTED JUNE 3RD, 1931 / BY THE / GENERAL JAMES JOHNSTON PETTIGREW CHAPTER / UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY / RALEIGH, N.C. / TO COMMEMORATE THE HEROISM OF THE SOLDIER AND SAILORS OF / THE CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY AND NAVY. / WHO LIE BURIED IN THIS CEMETERY.
Oakwood Cemetery
September 27, 1931
35.784590 , -78.627420
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Historic Oakwood Cemetery, http://historicoakwoodcemetery.org (accessed May 19, 2021) Link
Williams, Charlotte Bryan Grimes. "History Of The Wake County Ladies Memorial Association: Confederate Memorials In Capitol Square, Memorial Pavilion, The House of Memory And The Confederate Cemetery" (Raleigh, NC: United Daughters of the Confederacy, Johnston Pettigrew Chapter No. 95, 1938), (accessed October 10, 2015) Link
Yes
Brick, stone, bronze
General James Johnston Pettigrew Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy and State of North Carolina
As the sun set on the evening of September 27, 1931 with a large crowd present and banners flying and a band playing the Memorial Brick Wall and Tablet were presented to the State of North Carolina. J.J. Blair made the presentation speech and State Auditor Baxter Durham accepted on behalf of the state. Draped with state and Confederate flags the plaque was unveiled by Ben King of the Raleigh Soldier’s Home and Alfred Williams, 3rd great grandson of General Bryan Grimes.
The ivy planted along the wall was brought from the plantations of Bon Arva and Grimesland in
memory of their owners, General James Pettigrew and General Bryan Grimes. Ivy from Mt.
Vernon, Yorktown and Abbotsford, Scotland was also planted along the wall.
Historic Oakwood Cemetery was founded in 1869 in North Carolina's capital, Raleigh, near the North Carolina State Capitol in the city's Historic Oakwood neighborhood. Annual Confederate Memorial Day services are held at the Oakwood Cemetery each May.
The memorial wall is located at the Historic Oakwood Cemetery, at 701 Oakwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27601. The wall marks the south boundary of the Confederate section running along Oakwood Ave. The Memorial Arch, House of Memory, Confederate Monument, Gettysburg Memorial, Colonel McLeod Turner Monument, Col. Burgwyn Monument, General George Anderson Monument, CSS H.L. Hunley Submarine Memorial, Randolph Shotwell Memorial, Arlington Dead Marker and the Civil War Sesquicentennial Marker stand in Confederate section of the Oakwood Cemetery. Outside the Confederate section are memorials to Worth Bagley and William Ruffin Cox.
Grass and trees are planted along the Memorial Wall.
The Oakwood Cemetery continues to serve for Confederate Memorial Services each Memorial Day.
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