That’s the reaction I sometimes have when going to our old, inactive family cemetery to clean up graves for Easter. Those who passed away during the Civil War and even Reconstruction have graves marked with rocks. A “store- boughten” headstone was totally out of reach to them then, and we’re talking a formerly prosperous family whose sons attended university, antebellum. They didn’t own slaves, either. Then there are all the males in the family who died scattered across numerous battlefields and were buried in unmarked mass graves. That’s what the memorials and statuary were for, since they had nothing else. Gordonsville at least has a roster so they’re not totally unknown, several there alone.
Wow. A testament to how civil war destroys wealth, destroys families, destroys futures. It's awful, but it's coming back again. God help us all.