What a Cemetery Says (second view)

The graveyard of the Circular Congregational Church was the oldest cemetery in Charleston. The church itself was established in 1681, second only to St. Philip’s Anglican (Episcopal after the Revolution). The notable circular building was completed in 1806; Robert Mills was the architect. A tower was added in 1838. “One may trace the evolution of Charleston’s history by reading the names in the churchyard,” writes Mary Moore Jacoby in The Churches of Charleston and the Lowcountry (1994). This view takes in the graves of Sarah Julia Porcher (1793–1847) and her husband, Francis Yonge Porcher. His tombstone reads, “The Beloved Physician, who for upwards of forty years was eminent in his profession in this city. He died in Greenville, So. Ca 27th of May 1862 in the 74th year of his age.”

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.