# Friendship Cemetery

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{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                           = Friendship Cemetery
| nrhp_type                      =
| image                          = Friendship Cemetery (160958986).jpg
| caption                        = View within Friendship Cemetery
| location                       = 1300 4th Street South, [Columbus, Mississippi](/source/Columbus%2C_Mississippi)
| coordinates                    = {{coord|33|28|51|N|88|25|50|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin                       = Mississippi#USA
| area                           = 70 acres
| built                          = 1849
| architect                      =
| architecture                   =
| website                        =
| added                          = July 23, 1980<ref name="nris">[https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/78de780a-5ab2-4c29-b921-30ccffa97877 National Park Service, Digital Asset Management System (Friendship Cemetery)] Retrieved 2018-01-02</ref>
| refnum                         = 80002287
| designated_other1_name         = Mississippi Landmark
| designated_other1_link         = Mississippi Landmark
| designated_other1_abbr         = USMS
| designated_other1_color        = #B3A1D7
| designated_other1_number       = 087-CBS-1601-NR-ML
| designated_other1_date         = December 14, 1989{{#tag:ref|{{cite web |url=http://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/rpt.aspx?rpt=msLandmarkList&City=Columbus&County=Lowndes |title=Mississippi Landmarks (Lowndes County) |publisher=Mississippi Department of Archives and History |access-date=2018-01-02 }}
|name="usms"}}
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| image_size                     =
}}

'''Friendship Cemetery''' is a [cemetery](/source/cemetery) located in [Columbus, Mississippi](/source/Columbus%2C_Mississippi).  In 1849, the cemetery was established on 5 acres by the [Independent Order of Odd Fellows](/source/Independent_Order_of_Odd_Fellows).<ref name=NRHP>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=80002287}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Friendship Cemetery |publisher=[National Park Service](/source/National_Park_Service)|author= |date=April 28, 1980 |access-date=2018-01-01}} With {{NRHP url|id=80002287|photos=y|title=9 photos from 1980}}.</ref> The original layout consisted of three interlocking circles, signifying the Odd Fellows emblem.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ioof.org/|title=Welcome to IOOF|publisher=Advanced Solutions International|website=www.ioof.org|access-date=2018-01-02}}</ref>  By 1957, Friendship Cemetery had increased in size to 35 acres, and was acquired by the City of Columbus.  The cemetery was listed on the [National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Lowndes_County%2C_Mississippi) in 1980 and was designated a [Mississippi Landmark](/source/List_of_Mississippi_Landmarks) in 1989.  As of 2015, the cemetery contained some 22,000 graves within an area of 70 acres and was still in use.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=40355|title=Historic Friendship Cemetery is still open for business|work=The Commercial Dispatch|access-date=2018-01-02}}</ref> The [Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science](/source/Mississippi_School_for_Mathematics_and_Science) hosts a public event every April at night in the cemetery. Students complete a research project on someone buried at the cemetery, before dressing up and doing a performance as the person they researched.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mississippitoday.org/2017/03/25/columbus-students-tell-tales-from-the-crypt/|title=Columbus students tell ‘Tales from the Crypt’|last=McCollum|first=Anna|work=Mississippi Today|access-date=2024-05-05}}</ref>

==Memorial Day connection==
During the [American Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War), Columbus served as a military hospital center for the wounded, particularly after the [Battle of Shiloh](/source/Battle_of_Shiloh).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lowndes.msghn.org/history.shtml|title=Lowndes County, Mississippi History|website=lowndes.msghn.org|access-date=2018-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121003138/http://lowndes.msghn.org/history.shtml|archive-date=2018-01-21|url-status=dead}}</ref>  More than 2,000 [Confederate](/source/Confederate_States_of_America) soldiers were interred in Friendship Cemetery,<ref name="Ghosts">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JCXVDAAAQBAJ&q=Ghosts+of+Mississippi%E2%80%99s+Golden+Triangle|title=Ghosts of Mississippi's Golden Triangle|last=Brown|first=Alan|date=2016-09-26|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781439657591|language=en}}</ref> along with 40 to 150 [Union](/source/Union_(American_Civil_War)) soldiers.<ref name="Friendship">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LkkUAAAAYAAJ&q=Friendship+Cemetery&pg=PA128|title=A History of Columbus, Mississippi, During the 19th Century|last=Lipscomb|first=William Lowndes|date=1909|publisher=Press of Dispatch printing Company|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|127}}

In 1866, four women, who became known as the [Decoration Day Ladies](/source/Decoration_Day_Ladies_of_Mississippi), organized a formal procession and ceremony to be held at Friendship Cemetery on April 26 so that a large group of Columbus women, both young and old, could place flowers atop the graves of these fallen Confederate and Union soldiers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Image 191 of A history of Columbus, Mississippi, during the 19th century, |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.historyofcolumbu00lips/?sp=191&st=image |access-date=2024-06-17 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>  The women's tribute – treating the soldiers as equals – inspired poet [Francis Miles Finch](/source/Francis_Miles_Finch) to write the poem, ''The Blue and the Gray'', which was published in an 1867 edition of ''[The Atlantic Monthly](/source/The_Atlantic_Monthly)''.<ref name=Ghosts/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/03/the-blue-and-the-gray/388511/|title=A Famous Civil War Poem Comes to Life in Contemporary Mississippi|last=Fallows|first=James|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2018-01-02|language=en-US}}</ref>  In 1867, the remains of all Union soldiers were exhumed and reinterred in [Corinth National Cemetery](/source/Corinth_National_Cemetery).<ref name=NRHP/>  Over time, these ''grave decoration days'' – honoring those who died in military service – eventually morphed into [Memorial Day](/source/Memorial_Day).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usmemorialday.org/?page_id=2|title=Memorial Day|website=www.usmemorialday.org|language=en-US|access-date=2018-01-02}}</ref>

===Monuments===

The cemetery contains two Confederate monuments:<ref name=NRHP/>
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Friendship Cemetery 280-001.JPG|Monument to Confederate dead (1873)
File:Friendship Cemetery 286-001.JPG|Monument to an ''unknown Confederate soldier'' (1894)
</gallery>

==Notable interments==
* [William Edwin Baldwin](/source/William_Edwin_Baldwin) (1827–1864), [Confederate brigadier general](/source/General_officers_in_the_Confederate_States_Army) during the [American Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War).<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [William Barksdale](/source/William_Barksdale) (1821–1863), [Confederate brigadier general](/source/General_officers_in_the_Confederate_States_Army) during the [American Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War). Cenotaph only, Barksdale's remains were interred in [Greenwood Cemetery (Jackson, Mississippi)](/source/Greenwood_Cemetery_(Jackson%2C_Mississippi)).<ref>[http://www.genbarksdale.org/William%20Barksdale.html William Barksdale biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130916220313/http://genbarksdale.org/William%20Barksdale.html |date=2013-09-16 }}, [Sons of Confederate Veterans](/source/Sons_of_Confederate_Veterans).</ref>
* [William S. Barry](/source/William_S._Barry) (1821–1868), member of the [Provisional Congress of the Confederate States](/source/Provisional_Congress_of_the_Confederate_States) (1861–62).<ref name=NRHP/>
* [William Cocke](/source/William_Cocke) (1748–1828), [U.S. Senator](/source/United_States_Senate) from [Tennessee](/source/Tennessee) (1796–97, 1799–1805).<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [Cornell Franklin](/source/Cornell_Franklin) (1892–1959), judge who served as chairman of the [Shanghai Municipal Council](/source/Shanghai_Municipal_Council) (1937–40).
* [Jeptha Vining Harris](/source/Jeptha_Vining_Harris_(Mississippi_general)) (1816–1899), Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War.<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [James Thomas Harrison](/source/James_Thomas_Harrison) (1811–1879), member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States (1861–62).<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [Clyde S. Kilby](/source/Clyde_S._Kilby) (1902–1986), noted [American](/source/United_States) author and English professor.<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [Stephen Dill Lee](/source/Stephen_Dill_Lee) (1833–1908), [Confederate lieutenant general](/source/General_officers_in_the_Confederate_States_Army) during the American Civil War.<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [Joshua Lawrence Meador](/source/Joshua_Meador) (1911–1965), [Disney](/source/The_Walt_Disney_Company) [animator](/source/animator).<ref name="Meador">{{cite news |last1=Wilson |first1=Sarah |title=Son of Disney animator speaks on father's legacy |url=https://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=3379 |access-date=21 January 2020 |publisher=Dispatch |date=October 18, 2009}}</ref>
* [Jehu Amaziah Orr](/source/Jehu_Amaziah_Orr) (1828–1921), member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States and the [Second Confederate Congress](/source/Second_Confederate_Congress).<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [Jacob H. Sharp](/source/Jacob_H._Sharp) (1833–1907), Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War.<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [Jesse Speight](/source/Jesse_Speight) (1795–1847), U.S. Senator from [Mississippi](/source/Mississippi) (1845–47).<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [Henry Edward Warden](/source/Henry_Edward_Warden) (1915–2007), Career officer in the US Air Force; father of the B-52.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/8-december-1945/|title=8 December 1945|last=Swopes|first=Bryan|date=2018-12-08|website=This Day in Aviation|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-29}}</ref>
* [Henry Lewis Whitfield](/source/Henry_Lewis_Whitfield) (1868–1927), [Governor of Mississippi](/source/Governor_of_Mississippi) (1924–27).<ref name=Ghosts/>
* [James Whitfield](/source/James_Whitfield_(Mississippi)) (1791–1875), Governor of Mississippi (1851–52).<ref name=Ghosts/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commonscat-inline}}

Category:Columbus, Mississippi
Category:Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi
Category:1849 establishments in Mississippi
Category:Mississippi Landmarks
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Lowndes County, Mississippi
Category:Odd Fellows cemeteries in the United States
Category:Cemeteries in Mississippi
Category:Cemeteries established in the 1840s
Category:Burials at Friendship Cemetery

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Friendship Cemetery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Cemetery) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Cemetery?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.