I am sure we will here from EVERY state in the Confederacy, as they step-up to help in this effort !!! JWB
Gentlemen,
After a very long battle, permission has finally been granted to the SCV to mark the graves of over 17,000 Confederate soldiers. A large portion of these men are Tarheels. This will be a tremendous undertaking. At Raleigh’s Oakwood Cemetery it took us over ten years to install nearly a 1,000 markers in a well organized and supported effort. At that rate in Richmond it could take your lifetime and beyond to get the job done. I feel like our division should be responsible for our own. The first committee I formed upon being elected commander was that of the cemetery committee because I knew that sooner or later we would get permission for this to happen. The committee’s job was to research our boys in that cemetery to have that information on hand for when the ordering those VA markers began. Committee members Bruce Cloninger of the Gastonia Camp and Chuck Purser of the Garner Camp have completed the research on hundreds of these men gaining the information needed for the VA markers. These markers can now be ordered. While in Hot Springs this month I plan to get more details and logistics to work with. We will discuss the best way to handle all of this at the Salisbury Executive Council Meeting on August 15th. Please keep this in mind and come with ideas. All of these stones may not get placed in your lifetime but we can sure make a huge dent in it. It will just take a lot of working together to get it done………just like it happened at Raleigh’s Oakwood Cemetery.
Tom Smith
NC Division Commander
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