Archibald Bulloch’s tomb can be found in the Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.  Though his name most likely does not ring a bell today, he was an historically significant figure in the State of Georgia’s history.

Brickwork covers his tomb.  Atop the stepped brick ledger sets a gray marble monument in three parts—plinth, base, and decorative urn.   

On each of the four-sides of the base is a carved Ouroboros Ophis.  The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a snake eating its tail. The word, Ouroboros, is Greek—oura meaning tail; vora meaning eating, and ophis meaning serpent or snake. In ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros represented the daily passage of the sun.  However, the symbol was adopted by Western culture and came to represent the cycle of endless creation and destruction; for living creatures, the cycle of life and death.  The snake eating its tail in cemetery symbolism represents the cycle of life—birth and death—and eternity.

Inside the Ouroboros on the front of the base is inscribed:

FIRST PRESIDENT

Of

GEORGIA

1776 – 1777

ARCHIBALD BULLOCK

Born in So. Carolina

1730

Died in Savh

1777

Below the base on the plinth is inscribed the following:

Patriot Soldier Statesman

Georgians! Let the memory

of Archibald Bulloch live

in your breasts, tell your

children of him and let them

tell another generation.

Next to Bulloch’s tomb is a marker placed by the Georgia Historical Commission that reads:

“This is no time to talk of moderation; in the present instance it ceases to be a virtue.”
Speech to Provincial Congress, June 5, 1776

Foremost among Georgia’s Revolutionary patriots stood Archibald Bulloch whose remains rest in this vault. An early and staunch advocate of American rights, Bulloch was among the patriots who issued the call in 1774 for the first province-wide meeting of the friends of Liberty in Georgia.

He served as President of the 1st and the 2nd Provincial Congress & was a delegate in 1775 to the Continental Congress where he won John Adams’ praise for his “abilities and fortitude.”

In April, 1776, Mr. Bulloch became the first President and Commander in Chief of Georgia, an office he ably filled until his untimely death during the latter part of February, 1777. His loss was a severe blow to the revolutionary cause in Georgia as his was the only leadership which united the Whig factions in the troubled young State.

Theodore Roosevelt was the great-great-grandson of the Georgia patriot.”