Gardens of Stone --- A Cemetery Blog by Alexandra Kathryn Mosca

  After completing a book --  The Truth About Chickamauga -- which chronicles one of the  bloodiest battles of the Civil War, and in which his father, a Brigadier General, fought,  Archibald Gracie IV rewarded himself with a trip to Europe, booking his return passage on the RMS Titanic. Awakened by  “a sudden shock and noise forward on the starboard side"   just before midnight on April 14, 1912, Gracie learned that the Titanic had struck an iceberg. In the time between the collision and its sinking, Gracie helped the crew load lifeboats and made sure that a number of women traveling alone got spaces on them. Pulled beneath the water, Gracie  surfaced and spotted a lifeboat, which he managed to reach, helping several other men onto the safety of the lifeboat.  After the tragedy, Gracie began work on a book about the sinking of the Titanic. However, eight months later he became the first adult survivor to die from health issues brought about by h...