Shockoe Hill

Shockoe Hill is one of several hills on which much of the oldest portion of the City of Richmond, Virginia, U.S., was built. It extends from the downtown area, including where the state capitol complex sits, north almost a mile to a point where the hill falls off sharply to the winding path of Shockoe Creek. Interstate 95 now bisects the hill, separating the highly urbanized downtown portion from the more residential northern portion.

Near the northern edge of Shockoe Hill are two important cemeteries. "Shockoe Hill Cemetery" is the burial place of Chief Justice John Marshall, American Revolutionary War hero Peter Francisco, and many other notables. It also is the resting place of many Confederate States of America soldiers, though hundreds of deceased Union Army POWs were buried in less desirable land across the street before being moved after the war. The "Hebrew Cemetery of Richmond", founded in 1816, contains within it what is reputed to be the largest Jewish military burial ground in the world outside of Tel Aviv. Next to the cemeteries is the City Alms House building (built 1860), which saw service as an American Civil War hospital and which in 1865 briefly served as the home of the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets.

External links

* [http://www.johnmarshallfoundation.org/ The John Marshall Foundation]
* [http://soldiersofshockoehill.com Union Army Burials on Shockoe Hill]
* [http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/shockoe.htm Shockoe Hill]
* [http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/Fw00/3363.html "The Jewish Confederates" by Robert H. Rosen]