Angels on the Battlefield
Oakwood Cemetery was formed in 1852 from land donated by Lavinia Porter, the daughter of Augustus Porter, the founder of Niagara Falls. Many of the burials from the original cemetery located downtown were moved to Oakwood by wagon. The earliest known grave is that of John Rish, a 15 year old boy from Fort Schlosser who died in 1803.
Over one hundred Civil War dead rest in Oakwood. Many have stories yet to be told. This is the story of three women--nurses--known by the soldiers as the Angels on the Battlefield...
“Oh boys!” said a little fellow to his sick companions, as the nurses were bringing them into our boat, “oh boys! It’s all right now, for the women have come down to look after us." He told us afterward, with a quivering lip, how his heart had bounded at the sight of a woman, for “we knew that they had not forgotten us at home,” he said, “when we saw they had sent you down to take care of us. For this is their dread - to be forgotten..."
Margaret E. Breckinridge
Memorial, 1865 The Civil War truly devastated our nation. Over 600,000 lives were lost. Niagara County lost more than seven hundred soldiers and nurses. Here in Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, New York, over 100 men and women, veterans of the Civil War rest in peace. Some died in the heat of battle. Others suffered from their wounds, both physical and mental, for many years until death finally gave them peace. They are buried in the sacred veterans plot, toward the front, in the back corners, scattered in between. Some are in the mausoleum. There were still others...those poor souls who never made it home ... hastily buried in a field somewhere down south. Welcome to Angels on the Battlefield, a virtual tour through the Civil War in Niagara Falls, New York, as told by the residents of Oakwood Cemetery. May we never forget. |
