ONLY IN BEAUFORT: National Cemetery a 'sacred grove' for heroes

The dead rest surrounded by tennis courts, a boat dealership and houses full of people living in the moment.

At the National Cemetery in Beaufort, the brick walls serve as a guarded portal from one dimension to another, reminding those who enter of the hallowed ground -- and the heroes -- inside. That ground honors Union soldiers, their Confederate counterparts and every subsequent warrior who fought for a cause larger than themselves.

The Beaufort cemetery is not unique in itself -- there are 147 of them across the country, Arlington being the most famous.

However, it is among the oldest. Its first burial took place in 1863, two years before the national cemetery in Florence was created.

It was also arguably the first national cemetery in the Deep South -- the 14 cemeteries established ahead of Beaufort in 1862 were largely in border states such as Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky.

Beaufort was a logical choice for a Union cemetery. Thousands of fallen Union troops from nearby battlefields, hospitals and prison sites in Georgia and Florida were sent there under the Federal Reburial Program. It was also the final resting place of federal soldiers who died in makeshift hospital buildings here where we still worship and learn. The main old Beaufort College building -- now the University of South Carolina Beaufort -- as well as the Episcopal and Baptist churches downtown served as hospitals during the war.

While there are nearly 3,000 Union dead in the cemetery, there are just over 100 Confederates. They are united in death as they were not in life. The cemetery sees no side, no color, no gender.

It is also the resting place of many spouses of veterans who lie alongside their duty-bound partners.

That commitment to service that unites is commemorated by the many flags near the headstones on holidays.

Among those buried there are two Medal of Honor recipients, a former president of The Citadel, a recipient of the Navy Cross, and, perhaps most famously, Lt. Col. Bull Meechum's non-fictional alter-ego, author Pat Conroy's father Col. Donald Conroy.

The cemetery's ranks grow each year. With almost 500 burials a year, there is a near-daily addition of a veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, among other conflicts and wars.

Land was purchased for an expansion in 2003 and is still a necessary commodity today.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the great landscape architect who served as consultant regarding a uniform policy for national cemeteries, suggested they be "studiously simple."

The object was to establish a "sacred grove" which could be "expressed in the enclosing wall and in the perfect tranquility of the trees within."

You can visit the cemetery from 8 a.m. until sundown every day.

Expect to find yourself in the presence of heroes.

Ryan Copeland is a Beaufort native. He can be reached at rlcopeland@hargray.com.

This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 1:15 PM with the headline "ONLY IN BEAUFORT: National Cemetery a 'sacred grove' for heroes."