In the Kingston Confederate Cemetery, a Confederate monument marks the graves of 250 Confederate soldiers, only one of whom is known. Two unknown Federal soldiers are also buried here, and a large obelisk honors the dead from both armies. The soldiers interred here were wounded in most of the significant battles of the Western Theater and died in Kingston hospitals between 1862 and May 1864.
The cemetery is the site of one of the nation’s earliest Decoration Day ceremonies, where the occupying Federal troops under Brigadier General Henry M. Judah allowed local women to decorate the graves of the war dead, provided that the Federal graves were also decorated. Held on the last Saturday in April throughout Georgia, this ceremony eventually evolved into Confederate Memorial Day, observed as a state holiday in Georgia.