Community Corner
Report: Lists of Port Jeff Civil War Dead in Cedar Hill Cemetery
Port Jeff historian gives a little bit of background on how Memorial Day came to be and lists some of the Civil War era locals buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery.
According to Port Jefferson village historian Kenneth Brady Memorial Day used to be called “Decoration Day” when it was first observed back in May 1866. Residents of Waterloo in upstate New York would go out and decorated the graves of their Civil War dead in remembrance. (The official town website of Waterloo confirms this fact.)
“Port Jefferson subsequently honored its fallen sailors and soldiers during annual ceremonies organized by Lewis O. Conklin Post 627, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a Union veteran organization with a “camp” in the village,” wrote Brady in his latest post in the historical section of the village’s website.
The post describes how residents would honor the soldiers and provides a list of those soldiers buried at Cedar Hill.
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Read the entire post here.
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