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Athens
Cedar Grove Cemetery
S. Hill Street, Athens
Directions: I-75 to Exit 42 toward Riceville. Follow TN 39- E approximately 2 miles and turn right on Hwy 11. Travel 0.1 miles and turn left on Hwy 39. Travel approximately 7 miles and turn right on S. Hill Street.
Cedar Grove Cemetery is the burial spot for both Federal and Confederate veterans in Athens. It began as the family cemetery for the Thomas N. Van Dyke family, who lived in the adjacent antebellum mansion named Prospect Hill. During Federal occupation, Van Dyke paid a high price for his unwavering support for the Confederacy; Union officers arrested him and sent him to a Federal prison in Ohio. He returned to find his plantation in ruins and his family devastated. Only one of his four sons who had joined the Confederate armies survived the war.
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