Patrick Woodburn grew up in St. Mary’s County’s 1st Election District, but it wasn’t until he went to work at Webster Field that he learned about the Tulip Memorial. Many local residents likewise don’t know about what is the smallest federal cemetery in the United States.
The USS Tulip was a Union gunboat during the Civil War. It plied the Potomac River looking for Confederate traffic. She was docked in St. Inigoes Creek on land leased from the then owner of Cross Manor, Randolph Jones.
On November 11, 1864, the USS Tulip left the creek and headed up the Potomac to DC to repair a defective starboard boiler. Under orders not to use that boiler, it was fired up anyway and exploded. Forty-seven of the 57 men aboard were killed instantly and two died later.
Eight unidentified bodies washed ashore and were buried along the St. Inigoes Creek with the property owner’s permission. The Navy purchased a half acre near where the burial site was supposed to be and the USS Tulip Memorial was erected in 1941.
It is hard to find if you don’t know what you are looking for. The gravel Cross Manor Road dead ends at the old manor house now owned by journalist Ted Koppel and his wife Grace Anne. A lane along the fence line of Cross Manor leads down to the memorial which also has several historic plaques explaining what happened to the USS Tulip.
Woodburn found out about it when he was put in charge of maintaining the grounds, which he is to this day. Woodburn was the guest speaker at Friday’s annual Navy ceremony at the memorial. Patuxent River Naval Air Station Commanding Officer Ted Mills also spoke. Descendants of some of those killed in the disaster also attended.
Capt. Mills said the event is a shared reminder of “a tradition of those who have gone before us.” He said to the family members, “We owe you a thank you.” What the men on the USS Tulip and others who have gone before and since, he said, “had a calling of sacrifice and a calling of service.”
Woodburn said that St. Mary’s County in the Civil War was a hotbed of Southern sympathizers, so the men of the Tulip may not have been welcome in the community. Luckily Cross Manor’s owner was a Union sympathizer. Woodburn said Jones was the only Union supporter who spoke at a meeting in Great Mills and was still remembered in his obituary in the St. Mary’s Beacon 30 years later for his Union leanings.
The annual ceremony was started a few years ago at the suggestion of Pax River Fire Chief George Kennett and is another reason for November 11th to be remembered for those who have served their country.
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