Compatriots and Gentlemen,
This is indeed wonderful news. Please keep in mind that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) has not officially been signed by myself or Richmond City Officials. The paperwork is in the city’s legal department for review and we are currently waiting hour by hour for a phone call to sign the agreement. Please be patient and keep the process in your prayers. It’s been a long time coming and we are very, very close. We were hoping to officially announce the signing at the Hot Springs Reunion and even possibly have C-I-C McMichael put his signature to the agreement at that time.
As part of the agreement with the City of Richmond, we are obligated to only install upright markers in consecutive rows, section by section and not randomly. We realize that there will be many inquiring as to the placement of their ancestor’s marker and even more seeking information and further details. Again, we ask your patience. This is a massive undertaking and requires much planning and additional research confirming and documenting names and the proper burial plots at Oakwood. It is our hope and purpose, before each group of stones are installed, to list the name of veterans’ markers to be installed in the Confederate Veteran Magazine, as well as listing each group on the Virginia Division Web site at http://www.scvva.org as well as updated announcements about Oakwood.
The six upright markers that were installed at Oakwood were ordered several years ago by their ancestors and/or at the request of the Oakwood Committee. The committee got the verbal okay from the city to install the six existing upright markers that we had in storage but no randomly placed stones will be installed after these as we must abide by the MOA that the city has put before us.
Unofficially, it has been mentioned by some of the cemetery workers that the Confederate section in Oakwood will be turned over to the Virginia Division on August 1st. With God’s blessing that the final signatures will be obtained within the week, we can get to the business of properly marking these Confederate American veterans which is long overdue.
And so it begins…
John Sawyer, Commander
Virginia Division SCV
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