Historic Riverside Cemetery is along the banks of the Nottoway River in Courtland.

There you will find buried some of this area’s most decorated veterans from all the wars.

Directly behind St. Lukes Episcopal Church is the “historic section” of Riverside Cemetery.

Some of this commonwealth’s most prominent soldiers rest there. Among them are Gen.William Briggs Shands and Capt. James Henry Rochelle. Recently, re-enactors (at left) pictured paused a moment to honor and remember some of the soldiers that fought from this area.

These re-enactors also observed the lack of maintenance and upkeep that surrounded them. This “historic section” was littered with unsightly yard debris seemingly abandoned.

The occasion was May 8, before Adjutant Russell E. Darden’s funeral.