The Blue and Gray Tour guides visitors through two cemeteries to learn about locally buried Civil War veterans.
By NORA KOCH
Published October 22, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - Nestled among the 8,000 graves in Cycadia and Rose cemeteries are the headstones of the Confederate private who made a pact with God to survive a battle, the Union captain who opened Tarpon Springs' first drugstore and the slave who fought for the Confederacy before going on to run his own horse and carriage service.
The lives of these locally buried Civil War veterans and 14 others will be showcased Saturday on The Blue and Gray Tour, a daylong event sponsored by the Tarpon Springs Historical Society.
"The fact we have both Union and Confederate soldiers in our cemetery says something about our town," historical society curator Judy LeGath said as she cleaned headstones at Cycadia Cemetery this week.
Saturday's event is the historical society's fifth annual cemetery tour at Cycadia. For the second year, it will include next-door Rose Cemetery, historically a burial ground for African-Americans.
The daylong event will include a living-history Civil War encampment led by Cycadia groundskeeper and re-enactor Eric Steffy. Steffy and others will set up their camp Friday evening, and sleep in the cemetery. The re-enactors will stay through Saturday, showing visitors how soldiers lived at war and demonstrating cannon fire.
On Saturday morning a ceremony will unveil new headstones at the burial sites of three Civil War veterans. The 9 a.m. ceremony will also include placing wreaths on graves, and members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy wearing authentic mourning dress from the era. That evening, the remembrance will continue with a tenor performing songs from the Civil War at the performing arts center inside City Hall.
Throughout the day visitors will be able to take self-guided tours through the cemetery, learning more details about each soldier.
Confederate Pvt. Albert A. Keith, who prayed to survive the war, went on to become a minister at First Baptist Church in Elfers. He died in 1927.
Union Capt. Charles Dix Webster, the engineer-turned-pharmacist, opened a store known as Old Reliable in 1886 and died in 1907.
And Confederate Pvt. Richard Quarls, the slave who changed his name to Christopher Columbus after the war, died in Tarpon Springs in 1925. At the time, he was perhaps the area's most well-known black resident. He is the only one of the 17 veterans to be remembered who is buried in the Rose Cemetery.
The former slave was born on a plantation in South Carolina, where he was given his master's name. When the Civil War began, he enlisted along with his master's son in the 7th Regiment of South Carolina's K Company. He is thought to have been a rifleman who may have fought at Gettysburg.
After the war, Quarls changed his name to Christopher Columbus, thinking some might not appreciate his service with the Confederate Army.
In 1866, he moved to Florida, where he married for the second time and had a third child. He was a chicken farmer and owned a horse and carriage service.
In 2003, Quarls was honored with a ceremony unveiling a headstone, marked by a beveled top edge and the Confederate seal.
The Blue and Gray Tour, hosted by the Tarpon Springs Historical Society, will showcase 17 Civil War veterans buried at Cycadia and Rose cemeteries. The day will include a living history exhibition of a military encampment with re-enactors in period costumes. The side-by-side cemeteries are on the north side of Tarpon Avenue, just east of U.S. 19. The self-guided tour kicks off with a 9 a.m. ceremony at Cycadia Cemetery on Saturday and lasts until 3 p.m. Admission is free. Call (727) 937-1130.
Also on Saturday, tenor Robert Trentham will perform In Thinking of America: Songs of the Civil War at 8 p.m. at the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center, 324 Pine St. Tickets are $16, or $14 for students and center members. Call 942-5605.
