Confederate Memorial Day 2016 At Soldiers' Rest
CSA Cemetery, Vicksburg, Mississippi

All gave some; some gave all.

Home
 

"We wish to hand down to our posterity a feeling of reverence for their heroic forefathers, who risked their lives and lost fortunes for their country."

-- Gen. Stephen Dill Lee on the 1893 dedication of the Monument to the Confederate Dead, Soldiers Rest, Vicksburg

The flags were placed beside the Monument to the Confederate Dead, centered in Soldiers' Rest.

From left are the American flag, the Confederate or Naval flag, the 1st National flag, the 2nd National flag or Stainless Banner, the 3rd National flag or Bloody Banner, the first state flag of Mississippi, the current state flag of Mississippi.

All photos by Bryan Skipworth

All around the monument are the graves of soldiers from the thirteen Southern states.

Pemberton Camp Commander Edward Campbell welcomed everyone to the Confederate Memorial Day Ceremony, hosted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1354 Vicksburg.
 

Dr. Mary Landin, President of UDC Vicksburg 77, spoke on the UDC and SCV.

2nd Lt Commander Joel Bailey, J. C. Pemberton's camp poet, read his poem, "The Confederate Dead." See it further below.

Persons interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery were remembered with short biographies

Dr. Mary Collins Landin spoke on
Patience Potticary Gamble,
Vicksburg's first civilian killed
by Yankee shelling.

Ms Jane Lauderdale Flowers' ancestor, John Francis Lauderdale, was born in Alabama, but around 1860 his family migrated to Arkansas. He signed on with the 3rd Reg. Ark. Vols. Co. D. He was assigned to Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and fought under Hood and Johnston. He saw action at Atlanta and Wilderness and was twice wounded during his career.

Camp member Jeff Cartwright spoke about General Lloyd Tilghman, whose orders at Champion Hill on 16 May 1863 were "hold until dark or death."

1st Commander Charles "Eddy" Cresap spoke about Daniel Montjoy Cloud, a member of the 7th Reg. Virginia Vols., Army of Northern Virginia. He was later involved with the Confederate Intelligence Service in Washington, DC.

The Rev. Bryan Dabney, Camp Chaplain, spoke about Major William Thomas Walthall. The major, born in 1840, was an Adjutant, during the war. Afterwards, he assisted Jefferson Davis with his writings and later was greatly involved in fighting the 1878 yellow fever epidemic which killed so many people up and down the state's western border, the Mississippi's river..

Commander Campbell spoke about the three Hicks brothers, William Alexander, Benjamin I., and John R. (a surgeon), all who served in the Confederate Navy, Artillery, or Infantry

Sam Price, center, gave some genealogy of the Bobb and Mattingly families and told how, during Reconstruction, citizen John H. Bobb was murdered by Union soldiers.

Bryan Skipworth gave some background on William M. Rockwood and William Anner Fairchild, two men of great import and bravery, gratefully remembered for their parts in fighting the 1878 epidemic of yellow fever that struck Mississippi. Rockwood and Fairchild, both CSA veterans, succumbed to the yellow fever.

Among the visitors to the Confederate Memorial Day ceremony was April Skipworth
and, right, Martha Leese and Bobbie Edwards.

Use back button to return