CIVIL WAR GENERAL With An Unusual Name and History Discovered in 193-Year Old Graveyard

We’re back at Matthews Chapel Church graveyard in the Rough Edge district of Talbot County, Georgia, continuing our exploration of this nearly 200-year-old cemetery. In part one, we documented the early settlers buried here and a separate section where enslaved individuals were laid to rest, many of them marked only by simple fieldstones. But this place holds even more history than we realized. Joined again by Mrs. Linda McCardle and Joy, we keep walking the grounds, uncovering more stories hidden in plain sight. Among those stories, while not buried here, is a Civil War general with a name you don’t hear every day: States Rights. It’s a name that raises questions right away, and like so much out here, it leads into a deeper look at the people connected to this land and the time they lived in. As we continue documenting the cemetery, we take a closer look at the graves, the names, and the history that still survives here nearly two centuries later. Places like this don’t just tell one story. They hold layers of history, from early settlement, to slavery, to the Civil War and beyond. And without documentation, a lot of it would simply fade away. Preservation through documentation. That’s why we do this work.