SOUTH CAROLINA: Confederate Groups Seek New Members
ANDERSON, S.C. — About 40 people gathered Saturday morning in front of the Anderson County Courthouse to observe Confederate Memorial Day.
The annual event, staged by the Palmetto Sharpshooters Camp 1428 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, included period arms and a team of re-enactors. Information about other groups dedicated to studying the Civil War and its combatants was available at various booths.
People gather for the Confederate Memorial Day observance.
Julia Barnes belongs to the Winnie Davis chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which she says would welcome any Blue or Gray descendants interested in learning more about the War between the States.
Barnes said her group’s membership has waned in recent years, but there are some signs of hope, too.
“Most of the veterans are remembered because they were honorable men who fought for what they believed in,” Barnes said.
Her group, like other ones such as the American Legion, is experiencing an aging of its membership and is looking for new, younger members.
“It’s like every other organization,” Barnes said.
She added, “Now there does seem to be a resurgence of interest among young people.”
One way to stir up more interest in Confederate history would be to reach out to children, said Henry Richardson, 1st Brigade commander for the Sons of Confederate Veterans South Carolina division.
“The youth is what this is all about,” Richardson said. “We need to get youth into our organizations. When you see youths, stop and talk to them about the Confederate soldiers and why they fought for the South.”
Camp 1428 Commander Paul Dowdy is also active with the Civil War Roundtable group in Anderson. He said one of the purposes of the ceremony was to draw attention to the monthly meetings of the roundtable group (second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Anderson Senior Solutions, 3420 Clemson Blvd., Suite 17) as well as the 100-member strong Camp 1428 (third Thursday of each month at 6:15 p.m. at Mama Penn’s Restaurant, 2820 N. Main St., Anderson).
“This is the big observance for us every year,” Dowdy said about the gathering Saturday.
Charles Kelly Barrow, international lieutenant commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, was the featured speaker. He railed against what he considers to be inaccurate history instruction in schools about the Civil War and the Confederacy — likening the teaching to “political correctness or fascism, which is what I call it.”
The Griffin, Ga., native said the fight was about states’ rights and the South’s fight against the “federal tyranny” of the Northern states.
“My children hear the real history of the Confederacy from me and their mom. … They’re home-schooled, I’m proud to say,” Barrow said.
Anyone interested in the learning more about the United Daughters of the Confederacy should email juliabarnes@charter.net. More information about the local chapter of the Civil War Roundtable and Sons of Confederate Veterans can be found on the groups’ Facebook pages.
he Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History has opened a special 1864 exhibit with items loaned from private collections not seen by the public at the museum before, including letters, a snare drum, drumsticks and a sling.
Special to the MDJ
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History displays never before seen artifacts
In the collection are letters written by George Hudson of the 36th Georgia regiment out of Decatur, said the museum’s curator, Jonathan Scott.
“He wrote letters home all the time,” Scott said. “He was a very well-written guy.”
The letters to his wife and family reveal his fear of dying, missing home and “common sense issues,” such as how much money the army owes his wife if he were to die, Scott said.
“We wanted to talk about the hardships and how hard the war was for both sides,” Scott said. “It really wasn’t a pleasant time for anyone to be alive.”
The focus of the Southern Museum’s temporary exhibit is to tell a particular story of who owned and used an item, Scott said, such as a snare drum, drumsticks and a sling used by Jesse Thornburgh of the 39th Iowa regiment, who is also pictured in a period photograph at age 24.
On the battlefield, Scott said the drum was used to keep the pace for the marching soldiers. It also served as a modern-day radio to give commands to cease fire, retreat or charge.
“The drummer is actually extremely important in that they get those commands to the army at large,” Scott said.
The museum, 2829 Cherokee St., is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
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TENNESSEE: Confederate Veteran Remembered
MARYVILLE, Tenn. — A soldier who served the Confederacy during the Civil War was remembered by his family and others during a ceremony held May 3 at Baker’s Creek Church Cemetery near Greenback.
Pamela Coffin stands with the marker commemorating the Confederate service of her third-great uncle, William C. Carter, at Baker’s Creek Cemetery.
Sgt. William C. Carter’s final resting place, an unmarked grave, was located after diligent research and a monument placed in the cemetery near the marked grave of his brother, Frank Carter, by members of the Captain W.Y.C. Chapter 1881, United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The search for Carter has been a labor of love for Elaine Russell, Hannum Chapter grave marker chairman. “I’ve worked on this project for about four years. It is nice to finally come to closure and be able to honor this worthy Confederate,” she said. “I have researched his life from the 1850 census (he was born in 1844), all the way to the 1930 census, and his death on May 15, 1930, at his son’s home in Knoxville. I have a copy of his death certificate, his approved Tennessee Colored Man’s Pension Application, his marriage license and certificate, the deed to his farm in the Meadow Community and a bill of sale for a portion of it.”
Free black
Sgt. William Carter was a free black who, according to his pension application, served in Company D, 62nd Infantry, under Capt. Rowan. He resided in the Meadow Community following the Civil War.
Russell said Tennessee was the first state to recognize the service of men of color in the Confederate Army, and more than 250 “colored” pension applications are on file at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. As she looked through the files, she discovered one soldier from Blount County on the list — William Carter. She obtained a copy of his pension application and began piecing his story together.
“In one part of the application, it has a statement there, ‘Who was your master?’ and he says, ‘I was freeborn.’ That just struck me as proof that there were freeborn black Confederates of their own accord who went and served the Confederacy,” Russell said.
Not forgotten
Russell began amassing the information on Carter from census records, deeds, marriage records, etc. When she obtained his death certificate, she found his place of burial listed at Baker’s Creek. With Shirley Hall, Hannum UDC historian and a member of the church, she searched for a grave marker and found none.
Russell wanted to place a monument for Carter near the marked grave of his brother, but first a descendant had to be located to approve the placement of a marker noting his service. With Hall’s help, and the assistance of Ruth Joseph with the Greenback Historical Society, Carter’s third-great niece, Pamela Coffin, of Knoxville, was found in April 2013.
“The Hannum Chapter is most grateful for the generosity of the Maryville Monument Company for the contribution and setting of the grave marker,” Russell said. “Jeff Wallace, the owner, came to the grave marking, too. He seemed to enjoy it and was so pleased to have a part in it.”
Hall said 10 to 15 of Carter’s relatives attended the ceremony, and Pamela Coffin unveiled the monument.
Hall said Coffin told her she recalled visiting the cemetery with her grandmother when she was a child and being told, “Don’t ever forget your roots that are here.”
With the help of the Hannum UDC Chapter, those roots will be remembered for many years to come.
-Maryville Daily Times
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MISSOURI: Group Wants Confederate Flag to Fly at Cemetery
HIGGINSVILLE, MO. — A group interested in the putting the Confederate battle flag up full-time over the cemetery at the Confederate Memorial Historic Site in Higginsville is boosting their advocacy efforts by reaching out to a few state legislators.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group of people whose ancestors were Confederate soldiers, are hoping to let the battle flag fly once again after an absence of more than 10 years at the cemetery site.
Darrell Maples, state commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he and a few other members of the organization met with three state representatives at the cemetery site yesterday morning to tell them about the organization and explain their interest in the flag flying over the graves of deceased Confederate soldiers.
“They are Confederate veterans,” Maples said about those laid to rest in the cemetery. “They are representatives of all 13 Confederate states. They fought under that flag, and we think it should be put back up in honor of that.”
The Confederate battle flag — the most commonly recognized flag from the South during the Civil War — was removed in 2003 under an order from then-Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat. Holden’s order came after then-Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt, who was from Missouri, said the battle flag should not be flown anywhere, according to previous Associated Press reports.
Two years later, then-Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, ordered the Confederate flag to fly on Confederate Memorial Day on June 7. A spokesman at the time said the governor supported review of whether the flag should fly regularly.
There has been little discussion about the issue since Blunt’s decision in 2005, until now.
Wade Ankesheiln, historic interpreter at the Higginsville site, said the flag has only flown on “a couple of occasions with special permission” after Blunt’s 2005 decision. Otherwise, the flagpole that previously was inside the cemetery boundaries has been moved elsewhere at the historic site.
He said the United States and Missouri state flags are the only two that fly on that pole, and have been for years.
Ankesheiln said on Confederate Memorial Day, there is a “flag plaza” that’s set up with examples of multiple flags from the Civil War and the Confederacy, including the battle flag.
Maples said he and the other members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans pooled together their resources, along with some money from the organization, to put up a billboard near the Higginsville exit on westbound Interstate 70.
Maples said the group is interested in the flag flying below the U.S. and Missouri flags, which he called “perfectly proper.”
“We’d like to see it return permanently because you would really, really have to want to go see this place to actually see it,” Maples said. “It’s really off the beaten path. There are even signs that point out what it is. So you ought to know what’s coming when you’re going to the Confederate memorial cemetery.”
Maples and a few others met with state Reps. Glen Kolkmeyer, R-Odessa, John Mayfield, D-Independence, and Warren Love, R-Osceola, yesterday. The memorial site is in Kolkmeyer’s district.
“They wanted to know if we’d be willing to sit down, which we were, and so we listened to what they had to say,” Kolkmeyer said.
Maples said he hopes this is one of many meetings. He also said he understands there isn’t much the legislators can do with this week being the final one of the legislative session — he’s just happy to get the word out.
Current state law neither allows nor prohibits the battle flag flying in state parks like the Higginsville site. The law only mentions the U.S., Missouri, POW/MIA and Honor and Remember flags.
When asked if Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon would consider giving the OK for the flag to be flown again, spokesman Scott Holste said in an email Friday that “the Governor sees no reason to depart from the current practice.”
-Columbia Daily-Tribune
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