Civil War Veteran, Zachariah Lawrence
~Information on this page submitted by descendant, Floyd Lawrence
Chattanooga National Cemetery
The large gravestone is that of Zachariah Lawrence (1848-1864) at the Chattanooga National Cemetery. A letter to the compiler from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs dated 2 December 1994, states: “…A possible explanation on why there is a private monument on the grave is that when the War Department had jurisdiction over the cemetery, private monuments were authorized for the family to place if they chose to do so.” This lone private gravestone, among the many U.S. Government gravestones, sends a silent message of respect from the family of this young man who paid the Supreme Sacrifice for his country.
Zachariah Lawrence (1848-1864). The Icarian Research Center, Corning, Iowa, provided from their files the following undated write-up about this young Civil War soldier: “Zachariah Lawrence was a young boy scarcely 17, a large overgrown bright faced boy endowed with bravery and love of country of all the Lawrences. His Grandfather before him captured a British ship in the War of 1812 and Zachariah despised everything and everybody who was against the Union. He served gallantly through 1862 and 1863 but the HARD siege of Vicksburg, the long march to Lookout Mountain and the winter march to Knoxville, Tennessee overcame his robust constitution, he was taken with typhoid fever and died [a family record states he died of measles] in the winter of 1863 at Woodville, Alabama. He has a large circle of friends known to us all.”
The inscription on his gravestone reads:
Zachariah, Son of J. H. & L. Lawrence
Born in Morgan Co., Ohio; Feb. 18, 1848
Died May 20, 1864, Aged 16 years, 3 mo, 2 das.
A Private in Co. H., 4th Regt, Iowa, Inf.
He is buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
~Source: 1998 publication on the Lawrences by Robert Howard Van Pelt
Chattanooga National Cemetery
~1994 photograph of Floyd Lawrence with Zachariah's tombstone--
