The Journal & Messenge editors weighed in on the depressing topic and claimed to offer a simple solution to the problem of transporting dead soldiers: "To the above we have to add (and that from personal knowledge), that nothing is more easy, convenient, or cheap than transporting bodies at any season of the year, to any distance. Any common coffin will answer. Have a piece of cotton osnaburg or other cloth of the necessary size — dip it in boiling tar, and wrap the coffin in it and it is sealed tighter than it can be done in a metallic case. Place it in a box with some kind of packing to keep it from moving, and the work is complete. No charcoal, or disinfectant is necessary."

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Assuming those directions were followed, Private Jemison’s body could have been taken from a burial site on the Malvern Hill battlefield to Milledgeville after several years, even if it was not moved directly from the battlefield. The question remains, however, whether either of those steps was taken — and if Edwin Jemison’s body is actually under the obelisk on Memory Hill. That obelisk stands over a single grave and carries the name of Edwin’s older brother, Henry, who died in 1859, carved into the north side, while Edwin’s name is carved into the south side.

While it is not known exactly when the monument was erected, a rough idea of when it was put up can be gained from the inscription of the stone carver’s name on its base, "J. Artope & Son, Macon." The Macon City Directory listed the company as using that name between 1860 and 1872, and the other monuments in Memory Hill that carry that same name have death dates from the 1860s. Burials from the 1840s and 1850s have monuments that bear the company name "J. Artope, Macon, Ga." By 1877, the company was listed as "Tom B. Artope," and the monuments in Memory Hill erected after that year reflect that name change. It can therefore be assumed that the obelisk was erected between 1860 and 1877.

In 1896, Milledgeville had Confederate soldier markers placed on appropriate gravesites, and one such stone bearing the inscription "E.F. Jemison" is set in the ground west of the main obelisk. The main obelisk stands on top of a stone slab that covers the grave and measures 3 l/2 feet wide by just over 6 l/2 feet long. Like many in Memory Hill, the grave consists of an underground brick vault the length of the grave and about 3 feet wide, big enough to hold one coffin. The vault’s arched roof comes almost to the surface of the ground, and the stone slab that forms the base of the monument rests on the top of the vault much like a capstone. A coffin would be lowered into the ground after the vaults were built. A brick mason then would construct the vaulted roof and seal the entire underground structure with brick and mortar, leaving no door or opening. The tops of the vaults are so near the surface that their dimensions can be determined by inserting a thin metal probe into the ground and maneuvering it around the structure, and the vault under the Edwin and Henry Jemison obelisk appears to be of normal size for one burial.

Since Henry died first, it would appear that only his body is in the vault. The possibility, however, of Private Jemison’s remains being placed in a grave alongside the vault or nearby is worth consideration. The grave to the north side of the Jemison monument is that of Robert Small Pratt, who died in 1857 and was the first burial on the lot. To the west is a pallbearers’ path containing no graves. On the south side is the grave of W.B. Stubbs, who died in 1864. To the east is the grave of Robert W. Jemison, who died in 1879.

Each burial spot surrounding the obelisk, therefore, is occupied, and there is only one other possible place for Edwin to be buried adjacent to the Jemison obelisk. That is an unmarked grave to the north of Robert Small Pratt, covered with bricks that today are barely visible above the soil. In the 1930s, however, when the cemetery was first indexed, the bricks were thought to cover an infant’s grave.

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