War Veterans of Elmwood

    There are veterans from every American war buried at Elmwood, including the Revolutionary War, the Spanish-American War, The War of 1812, the Mexican War, and of course, the Civil War.

 Colonel John Smith (1765 - 1851) 

        Colonel John Smith is the only soldier who served in the Revolutionary War that is buried in Elmwood. He was born in Virginia in 1765 and served in the 6th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line from 1781 to 1783. He died in 1851 and was buried first in Virginia, then in Winchester Cemetery, and finally came to rest at Elmwood. His wife and children are buried in Elmwood as well.

 

 Nathaniel Anderson (1796 - 1867)

Anderson-Coward House

       Nathaniel Anderson was born in 1796 in Virginia and moved to Memphis with his wife in 1823. He fought in the War of 1812 and was a major in The Mexican War under General Winfield Scott. In 1827 or 1828, Anderson built what was called the first attractive hotel in Memphis, the City Hotel. In 1846, he was appointed quartermaster of the volunteer army that was involved in a war with Mexico and was stationed at Point Isabel. He retired after that war ended. At one time, Anderson and his family lived in the building that used to be Justine’s, a French restaurant that was opened in 1958 and stayed open for 37 years. The 1874 Elmwood book had this to say of him: “Happily for the city, which he did so much to serve, if successive generations of its people could be moulded by his example.”

 

                                            Admiral George R. Phelan III (1902 - 1975)

    George R. Phelan was rear Admiral and served 30 years in the Navy. He was born in what is now known as the the Hunt-Phelan home, a house that was commandeered by General Ulysses S. Grant as his Memphis headquarters. Phelan graduated from Annapolis in 1925 and went on to participate in the Sino-Japanese War from 1931 to 1938. He also served during World War II commanding destroyers in the Coral Sea, Solomon Islands, Midway, and Marianas campaigns. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on December 7th, 1941. After his long war career, Phelan organized and lead the Navy’s technical intelligence program and became chief of Navy Intelligence in 1946. After retiring in 1955, he came back to Memphis and lived in the Hunt-Phelan home until his death in 1975.

 The Confederate Rest section is Elmwood's resting place for soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Union dead were originally buried there as well, but were moved to National Cemetery. Elmwood is home to over a thousand Confederate soldiers, including nineteen Confederate generals and two Union generals.

General Alfred Jefferson Vaughan (1830 - 1899)

    Alfred Jefferson Vaughan was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. He became a Civil War Confederate Brigadier General in the Civil War, fighting in the battles of Shiloh, Chattanooga, Belmont, Richmond, and Murfreesboro. When the Civil War began, Vaughan recruited volunteers for the Confederacy and became Lieutenant Colonel of the 13th Tennessee. He had eight horses shot out from under him in battle was never injured in any of his campaigns until 1864. While in Atlanta with the army, Vaughan was conversing with fellow soldiers under a tree when a shell fell under his foot and exploded, causing him to lose his leg and effectively ending his military career. He came back to Memphis in 1873 and served as Criminal Court Judge. He died in 1899 and was buried in the Confederate Rest section of Elmwood with a large monument.

Works Cited

"Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records." Find A Grave. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.findagrave.com/index.html>.

Jordan, Mark. "For Sale?" The Memphis Flyer: Cover Story. Memphis Flyer, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.memphisflyer.com/backissues/issue577/cvr577.htm>. 

 Magness, Perre, and Murray Riss. Elmwood 2002: In the Shadows of the Elms. Memphis, TN: Elmwood Cemetery, 2001. Print.