The casket containing the remains of LaSalle Corbell Pickett, the widow of Confederate General George E. Pickett, is prepared to be lowered into her grave at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va., Saturday, March 21, 1998.AP Photo/Alexa Welch Edmond

Wife of famous general reinterred in Confederate cemetery

Web posted March 22, 1998

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. -- As men dressed in Confederate garb stood still and crisply saluted, LaSalle Corbell Pickett was reinterred next to her husband on Saturday after nearly 70 years apart from his resting place.

Mrs. Pickett was reburied in the soldiers' section of Hollywood Cemetery, the first time a woman's remains have been allowed in that area of the burial ground.

Light rain fell as a horse-drawn carriage carried a small casket containing Mrs. Pickett's remains to a burial spot next to her husband. The Virginia Grays Fife and Drum Corps, dressed in traditional Confederate uniforms, escorted the casket though a crowd of hundreds.

Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett is best known for ``Pickett's Charge'' at Gettysburg, Pa., in 1863, an ill-fated rush on a fortified Union position that helped turn the tide of the war in favor of the North.

Casualties in Pickett's division during the battle approached 50 percent. At his death in 1875, Pickett asked to be buried among his men in his native Richmond.

Members of the crowd sang ``Dixie,'' and the retired state song ``Carry me Back to Old Virginny,'' and remembered Mrs. Pickett as a prolific author of books like ``Pickett and His Men,'' and a devoted mother.

``She became known nationally as a symbol of Confederate womanhood,'' said Nancy Gum, Virginia chairman of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. ``General and Mrs. Pickett have been joined in heaven for many years and now they are reunited here on earth.''

Members of the Pickett and Corbell families attended the ceremony, as well as Civil War enthusiasts.

``This has been a large family reunion more than anything,'' said Ray Pickett of New York City. Pickett, the great-great-grand nephew of Gen. Pickett, said he had met up with family members from as far away as Utah.

Near the end of the ceremony, the families sprinkled soil from the Mrs. Pickett's home in Chuckatuck in Nansemond County and were saluted by a volley of shots.

Mrs. Pickett died in the early 1930s and had wanted to be buried with her husband in the Hollywood Cemetery. But the Hollywood Ladies Memorial Society, which then controlled the Gettysburg Hill portion of the cemetery, wouldn't allow it, Richmond Discoveries tour guide Jim DuPriest said.

So Mrs. Pickett was buried in Abby Mausoleum, beside Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.

The mausoleum has been ravaged by vandals in recent years, and Civil War heritage groups made the arrangements to move Mrs. Pickett's remains.

A separate ceremony will be held Sunday to rededicate General Pickett's monument, which was recently restored.