The town of Gainesville was laid out in 1832 by Moses Lewis. By 1840 Gainesville had become the third largest town in the state of Alabama, with a population of over 4,000. Confederate Cemetery has the graves of Gainesville’s earliest settlers, including founder Moses Lewis. There are also graves of over 200 unknown Confederate and Union soldiers who were brought to Gainesville from battlefields to be nursed in hospitals housed in the hotel, school house, and homes. Located in the cemetery is a cannon that was one of four cast in Selma toward the end of the war. It was shipped to Mobile, but Mobile had already fallen. It was then shipped to Gainesville, which was also on the point of surrender. The cannon was thrown into the river to keep it out of Northern hands. Years after the war, it was removed from the river by the town’s citizens and placed in the cemetery as a monument to the fallen soldiers.
This cemetery is located on the east side of Gainesville on Cemetery Road (GPS coordinates 32.814111,-88.149194).
Source: Gainesville Tour Guide.
Pictures courtesy of RuralSWAlabama.