Good news: Isaac Rodman's final resting place cleaned up

NOW AND THEN: No longer choked by weeds, the Rodman family cemetery looks much better
 today than it did when I shot the bottom photo last November. 
(Top photo courtesy Michael J. Stewart)

Isaac Rodman was mortally wounded at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862

Last November, I wrote about the deplorable state of the small family cemetery in Peace Dale, R.I., where Brigadier General Isaac Rodman, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam, lies buried. Weeds, briars and poison ivy choked the small plot of land that is surrounded by a thick, 2 1/2-foot high stone wall. Many markers were toppled or broken and Rodman's gravestone, masked by vegetation, was difficult to find. The Providence Journal took note of my post and wrote about the awful condition of the cemetery, and the president of a sand and gravel company that owns the property vowed to clean it up.

On Thursday night, Jamie McGuire of the Rhode Island Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Elisha Dyer Camp No. 7 delivered good news. Someone indeed cleaned up the cemetery, removing those weeds, briars and poison ivy and placing upright once-toppled tombstones.  I'll aim to find out who did the good deed.

"Went down to scout it today with an intention of getting in there on this coming Sunday and doing a big clean-up," McGuire messaged me. "Imagine my surprise when I saw that the whole area looked pretty great. It is now my intention to get in there and upright some of the fallen stones and repair the broken ones, but that's not something for this weekend." McGuire is hopeful that he'll be able to take on that project later this summer.

Last November, this memorial to Rodman in his family cemetery was surrounded by weeds. 
Photo courtesy Michael J. Stewart. (See interactive panorama and 
video I shot at the cemetery in November below.)