‘Taps’ played, flags flown at small, somber Memorial Day salute in Macon

A bugler played “Taps” at the oldest cemetery in Macon on Monday.

A couple of dozen people were there paying their respects on Memorial Day.

The ceremony was nothing elaborate. But that seemed to make it more reverent. It was just a handful of folks under a shade tree, a couple with small American flags in hand, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and, for a moment, standing at attention while the bugler played.

Fort Hill Cemetery, which dates to the founding of Macon in the first half of the 19th century, lies a few blocks north of Emery Highway on a rise up from the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds and historic Fort Hawkins. The graveyard sits in the middle of a neighborhood bounded by Gray Highway to the west and Shurling Drive to the north.

Some think there could be soldiers buried there from the War of 1812, from days when Macon was a frontier trading post. There also may be as many as 300 Civil War veterans’ graves there as well.

On Monday, a journal entry from one of the militiamen from 1812 was read aloud. His words told of hardship and rain.

Michael Lynch of the Fort Hawkins Commission said the low-key Memorial Day event never attracts much of a crowd.

“But we’ll continue to do it,” he said.

“It is small. We’ve hauled chairs over here before, but we’ve had to just haul them back. So we don’t bring chairs. It’s just a very brief explanation of the cemetery. ... It’s never well-attended, but I hope it will be someday.”

This story was originally published May 30, 2016 at 2:31 PM with the headline "‘Taps’ played, flags flown at small, somber Memorial Day salute in Macon."