In the late 19th century, when Memorial Day in Washington was observed by the decoration of Union graves, the Washington Star (May 30, 1891) reported that there were forty Union veterans buried in Holy Rood Cemetery. Perhaps ten of the distinctive white headstones that were furnished by the Quartermaster General can still be found, but the rest are no longer identifiable.

There does not appear to be any epitaph or marker in Holy Rood indicating a Confederate veteran’s grave. Should one conclude from this absence that the Catholics of Georgetown, as a whole, remained loyal to the Union? Probably not. Catholic slaveholders with roots in Southern Maryland are unlikely to have seen the conflict the same way as, say, Irish or German Catholics who had arrived on the scene more recently. The lack of marked Confederate veteran graves in Holy Rood is more likely a reflection of the predominance of Union veterans’ organizations in the capital of the victorious North.

The only actual evidence of a Confederate presence in Holy Rood comes to us through the efforts of a genealogist researching the Clements family of Georgetown. For the moment their story will have to stand for those that remain unknown.

In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, Horace Clements of Georgetown enlisted for three months in the District of Columbia Militia, to defend Washington against a threatened Confederate attack. Strange to say, his older brothers Joseph and Andrew were part of that threat, having gone to Alexandria and joined a company made up of Confederate volunteers from the District of Columbia and Maryland.

All three brothers survived the war and returned to live in Georgetown. Joseph was a tailor, Andrew a painter, and Horace a machinist. His three month service to the Union entitled him to end his days at the National Soldiers Home in Elizabeth City, Virginia. He is probably buried in a military cemetery there. His brothers Andrew and Joseph, who served on the Confederate side, lie buried in the family plot in Holy Rood Cemetery.

(Holy Rood Cemetery, Section 5, lot 36; David F. Riggs, 7th Virginia Infantry; 1860 Census, Georgetown, Ward 4; Obituary of Joseph E. Clements, The Evening Star, July 10, 1899; Obituary of Andrew J. Clements, The Evening Star, November 24, 1896.)

Carlton Fletcher

(Some of this history originally appeared in the Glover Park Gazette, in November 1998. All rights reserved.)

Holy Rood Cemetery I - origin, Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown
Holy Rood Cemetery II - transfer to the Archdiocese of Washington, 1942
Holy Rood Cemetery III - no room at the inn & digging up the dead, 1984
Joseph Nevitt - Minuteman & revolutionary war veteran
Slave Burials - for those too poor to even own themselves
The Unquiet Grave of Susan Decature - converted to Cathaloicism, buried on Georgetown University grounds, relocated to Holy Rood and then exhumed and buried a third and final time in Philadelphia. The other 900 bodies originally buried with her on the Georgetown campus are landfill somewhere.
Union Veterans
Confederate Veterans