William Alexander Wood - Gravestone

This gravestone belongs to a Confederate soldier of the 27th Mississippi Infantry William Alexander Wood (death 1917) which is now engulfed by a 98 year old tree planted by his family.
The gravesite is located at the Beauvoir Memorial Cemetery which was founded when the Jefferson Davis Beauvoir Soldiers’ Home was opened on December 2, 1903. The first documented burial of a Confederate veteran is Adam W. Alexander of Tate County, Mississippi, on January 31, 1904, and the first documented burial of a Confederate wife-widow is Elizabeth L. J. Rough Williams (Mrs. J. R. Williams) on October 6, 1906. The last Confederate veteran burial was James Walton of Winston County, Mississippi, on August 27, 1947, and the last Confederate widow burial was of Bettie Herring of Attala County, Mississippi, on April 7, 1953. The last burial in the cemetery was that of Erwin E. Droege on August 23, 1958, who was married to the niece of Varina Davis.
The first known surviving list of the cemetery was done by Superintendent W. A. Evans, William Richards and Dr. Riley on August 27-28, 1941, titled “Register of Marked Graves in Beauvoir Confederate Cemetery Beauvoir Soldiers’ Home.” At that time there were unmarked graves and notes within the handwritten list such as “aluminum marker without name” or “no marker.” These metal markers were still in place in the cemetery as late as 1977 as evidenced by notations to this effect on the 1941 list. The Resident Register, a book in which veterans, wives and widows are listed who were admitted to the Home, contains the military service of the veterans. No research or correction has been made in this area as of yet.
The study of the Beauvoir Memorial Cemetery is an ongoing project of several years, and this list may be updated with further research—some names may be deleted and others added with proper documentation.
With the advent of the internet it is now possible to view primary sources online and to communicate with the descendants of the veterans, wives, and widows buried at Beauvoir to gain information. Research has been compiled from these sources: The Archives at Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis Home, The Sons of Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Bradford O’Keefe Funeral Home records, and obituaries from the Sun Herald-Daily Herald newspaper of Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi and the Times Picayune, New Orleans States, and New Orleans Item newspapers of New Orleans, Louisiana.

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