Mrs. Eliza Potter

Mrs. Eliza Potter is responsible for having two monuments placed in honor of Union Civil War soldiers at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, SC.

The larger of the two monuments is a tall obelisk bearing the inscription "Immortality to Hundreds of the defenders of American Liberty Against the Great Rebellion."

The second is a tablet bearing the names of soldiers reinterred from the Charleston Race Course Cemetery in Charleston, SC. A list of the names and information on each soldier is available at the following web site: Charleston Race Course Dead, SC.

Her husband, Lorenzo Tucker Potter, was a successful businessman from Rhode Island. He moved his business to Charleston around 1852. He is listed in Charleston directories as being a commission merchant at 147 East Bay Street in 1853. In 1859 he was proprietor of Wappoo Mills at the same address. His residence was given as 73 Wentworth Street. He is listed in 1867 as living at 89 Wentworth Street. He & Eliza apparently stayed in Charleston until around 1870. Shortly thereafter, they returned home to Rhode Island where Lorenzo died in 1872.

Eliza was originally from either Scotland or Ireland. She was living in Charleston during the war, and being a Union sympathizer, helped to care for the sick & wounded. After the war, she contacted many of the families of men that she had cared for; attempting to provide them with the soldier's final words and personal effects. Her work in Charleston throughout the war was so respected by the Federal Government that she was given a military funeral. 

Lorenzo & Eliza are buried in Grace Church Cemetery at Broad and Elmwood Ave's in Providence, RI.

Sec 274 Lorenzo T. Potter & Sec 178 Eliza Gorton Potter

If anyone has further info on Eliza Potter, especially the date of her death or an obituary, please contact Edward Boots at EdBoots@worldnet.att.net

One of the two monuments erected by Mrs. Potter at Beaufort National Cemetery, SC.