People observed Memorial Day with solemn ceremonies across Middle Georgia on Monday, including one at the area’s oldest military burial ground.

Fort Hawkins was established in 1806 and is considered to be the birthplace of Macon. The nearby Fort Hill Cemetery has the graves of soldiers who fought and died there.

Under the shade of a large oak tree, Marty Willet with the Fort Hawkins Commission spoke about the fallen soldiers, both known and unknown.

"You see before you, between the cedars, 20 symbolic American flags. They represent the estimated 20 to 200 US army soldiers," Willet said to the approximately 30 people in attendance.

"There lies a veteran from the Spanish-American war," he said. "There in the enclosure lies a confederate general."

The earliest grave Willet pointed to was that of Captain Robert McDougall who died in 1809. Married — by some accounts — to a Creek woman, one of the nearby Ocmulgee mounds is named after him.

Tags: Memorial Day, Fort Hawkins, Adam Ragusea, Center for Collaborative Journalism, Erica O'Neal