Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn The Art of Memory: Monuments Through Time | Page 7

the Art of Memory
civil war memory
During the Civil War, young soldiers and individuals fighting for the
abolitionist cause were buried at Mount Auburn. The tragic losses of
the war brought a new realism to commemoration — in contrast to
the previous period of Victorian sentimentalism. Personal military
effects, such as a hat, belt, and sword replaced earlier romantic motifs.
Many of these memorials include words and images that together

present a moving pictorial narrative.
Photo, Meg L. Winslow, 2013
Nathaniel Bowditch, (1839 – 1863),
Lot 1206 Tulip Path
Photo, Mount Auburn Staff, 2010
Henry Bowditch was stricken with grief at the loss of
his son, Nathaniel Bowditch, who was killed in Virginia
in 1863. Henry had Nathaniel’s body embalmed and
brought home to Massachusetts. He wanted to keep
Nathaniel’s memory alive through a tangible means that
would perpetuate his son’s presence. Drew Faust, author
of This Republic of Suffering, writes, “For Nat’s grave at
Mount Auburn Cemetery, Bowditch designed another
embodiment of his life, exactly copying his sword in
stone to serve as a monument.” 8 Nathaniel’s body lies
beneath the carved brownstone likeness of his saber.
Charles T. Torrey, (1813 – 1846),
Lot 1282 Fir and Spruce Avenues
A Unitarian minister who devoted himself to the abolitionist cause,
Charles T. Torrey was arrested for his actions and died in a Baltimore
prison. In 1846, the Friends of the American Slave commissioned
local stone carvers Joseph and Thomas A. Carew to design a capped
marble obelisk to mark his grave at Mount Auburn. Inscriptions
on the memorial reveal that Torrey died a martyr, a “victim of his
suffering.” A bas-relief depicts portrait of Torrey. A laurel wreath,
ancient symbol of victory over death, adorns the shaft of the monument
accompanied by the words from a letter Torrey wrote in prison: “It
is better to die in prison with the peace of God in our breasts, than
to live in freedom with polluted conscience.”
Photo, Janet Heywood, 2005
Fall 2013 | 5