All:
An interesting article in the Travel Section of The Dallas Morning News (www.dallasnews.com ) titled, Waking the Dead, appeared this morning about the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, TX. There, Confederate grave sites rival Arlington National Cemetery, according to the article's author, Linda Swift.
Included among the grave sites in various sections are 13 governors, early settlers, Civil War generals, along with other iconic Texans who have distinguished themselves in various fields. Josiah Wilbarger, early Texas pioneer, is buried in the cemetery, his claim to fame is that he survived 12 years after being shot, and completely scalped, by a Comanche Indian in a raid by the Indian Tribe.
One oddity is the shortest State Highway in Texas that runs for a total of one half mile through the cemetery. Hwy 165 also has the slowest speed limit for a State Hwy posted at 10 mph as one drives (coasting?) through the grounds.
Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston is the most popular attraction. His statue is sculpted in white marble lying on his white marble death bed after the Battle of Shiloh, done by Elisabet Ney, famed Bavarian sculptor.
Busloads of school children sit wide-eyed as a guide tells them the general is behind vertical bars inside a Gothic chapel to keep him from wandering the graveyard at night.
The guide, Jason Walker, director of research at the cemetery, also relates to the children, the cadence of drumbeats can be heard from the Confederate graves just down the hill on some nights.
Could this really be true, or is it just a tale to scare children ('she' says as the chill bumps run down my spine) ?
Wanda
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