Confederate Cemetery

The camp that founded this burial ground took its name from John A. Wharton, born near Nashville in 1828 and raised in Brazoria County. A lawyer and planter who enslaved people, he rose to major general of Confederate cavalry and fought at Shiloh, Stones River and Chickamauga. He was shot dead in Houston in April 1865 by a fellow officer, George Wythe Baylor, in a quarrel over military matters, and Baylor was acquitted after the war. The Alvin camp was organized in 1894, and its members' names are inscribed on the monument in the cemetery.

What the plaque says

Confederate Cemetery Established in the 1890's by John A. Wharton Camp, U. C. V.; burial ground for Confederate veterans and families. After increase of acreage, use of cemetery was extended to public. Veterans of 4 wars; 1900 hurricane victims as well as prominent civic leaders are buried here. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Space Center Houston — 12 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Galveston Island State Park — 22 mi
  A cattle ranch willed to the state that now runs the full width of Galveston Island, from two miles of Gulf beach across dunes and prairie to the marshes of West Galveston Bay.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 23 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Emancipation Park — 23 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church of Alvin — 1.5 mi
• First Methodist Church of Alvin — 1.9 mi
• Fig Industry in Friendswood — 6.7 mi
• Runge Park — 7.3 mi