Fort Ward's Lost Graves: Who speaks for the dead? Sgt. Lee Thomas Young

Fort Ward's Lost Graves:  Who speaks for the dead?  Sgt. Lee Thomas Young

In 1996 a consultant for the City of Alexandria’s Office of Historic Alexandria interviewed Sgt. Lee Thomas Young at the “Fort Ward Neighborhood” in Alexandria, VA.  Sgt. Young lived on land that is now Fort Ward Park.  He noted that he had a home and work shed close to Clara and Robert Adams graves in the Fort Ward Park Nursery and Maintenance Yard.  Near his home he noted that there was “a set of graves between this and the cemetery”.  He said that there were 5 or 6 grave stones and old headstones.

In 2009 Sgt. Young was interviewed, along with his family members,  by Dr. Pam Cressey, Archaeologist for the City’s Office of Historic Alexandria at Fort Ward Park.  He noted that he bought the land in what is the Nursery and Maintenance Yard in 1947.  

He described how he had 5 cabins behind the kitchen portion of the house in the back yard.  “...I rented a couple of them to soldiers.... and the rest I used for tools”.

He told Dr. Cressey that “there was people buried around..”.  He noted that there were one or two in his yard and then the rest of them in the back of the yard. When asked about the graves behind his house he said, “Oh, there’s plenty of graves here 18 and 17....little short graves”. He added that the graves were in a wooded area that led to the Oakland Baptist Church Cemetery.  “The back, all this was trees, all this was woods, and then graves, the grave you’d stumble over was all in here”.  Sgt. Young’s daughter, Judy said, “I know for a fact, there’s probably ten [graves]”.