Posted on 05/06/2004 7:33:58 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
Breezy gusts out of the north flutter banners of red, white and blue near a quiet gathering in Oakdale Cemetery. Long wisps of gray moss swing in the wind.
The sudden sharp boom of a small cannon shatters the stillness as a man's cracked voice raises an old battle cry. The piercing howl once struck fear into the hearts of brave soldiers in blue, and inspired those in gray.
Echoes of the rebel yell die away like a kind of benediction to Confederate soldiers buried in Oakdale.
The annual ceremony marking Confederate Memorial Day is a patriotic event held at a large granite and bronze monument honoring Confederate soldiers in Oakdale. It was placed there in 1958 by United Daughters of the Confederacy, an old organization represented at the ceremony with Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The United States flag flies with the Bonnie Blue, the Stars and Bars, the Stainless Banner, and other flags of the short-lived, and long remembered, Confederate States of America. Prayers are offered for American soldiers of the past, and of today who are fighting, and dying, for their country in far off lands. There are stirring renditions of the "Star Spangled Banner," "Dixie" and "Amazing Grace."
Here and there across the cemetery, colorful flags contrast with gray stones where the local Sons commander, Jay Cross of Pierson, placed Confederate flags at graves of Confederate veterans. Similar flags mark perhaps 150 graves in two dozen or more Volusia County cemeteries. There are seven at Pilgrim's Rest in Ormond Beach, one at Lungren near Volusia, four at Spruce Creek in Port Orange, nine in Edgewater, three at Mt. Zion in Pierson, and at Pinewood in Daytona Beach, there are 21.
Flags mark thousands of Confederate graves in Florida, most placed by Sons members. It's a traditional tribute to southerners who fought in the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history.
"It's pretty much a thing done all across the nation, from New York to California," said John Adams of Deltona, state commander of Sons of the Confederate Veterans. But in southern states, it's been done religiously for generations.
National Memorial Day on May 30 has Civil War origins, but its focus was broadened to honor all United States soldiers who died in all the nation's wars. Confederate Memorial Day's focus stayed the same and became a legal holiday in most southern states. In Florida, it's April 26.
Peninsular Florida may not be the deep South, but the heritage of many Floridians is rooted there. It's not by accident that two other legal holidays here are the birthdays of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, and Robert E. Lee, the man who led its armies against the United States.
Passions of the 1860s like secession, slavery and state's rights have faded away. Symbols of those days, like the flags marking soldiers graves, no longer carry old divisive meanings for most southerners. It's truly unfortunate that one Confederate flag, the old battle flag, is a symbol used by some hate groups. In that role, it incites understandable fury from most Americans who are proud to live in a country where citizens are taught to respect the heritage, beliefs and values of others, regardless of their color, ethnicity or where they were born.
Gene Hendrickson is the man who placed the flags in Pinewood Cemetery. He's a Michigan transplant to Daytona Beach and has no known Confederate ancestry. He performs the task out of a love of history, and with a deep reverence for these American soldiers who left homes and families out of a sense of duty to God and country.
"I guess I'm just honoring these gentlemen for what they did, what they gave up in life, what they sacrificed," he told me. For seven years, he has hunted, cleaned and marked Volusia's Confederate graves. "I know these guys by name now. A lot of them were really just young kids in that war, some just 14 years old."
Today, 139 years after the war, those bright flags beside faded tombstones don't represent hate, or slavery or treason. They're simple marks of respect for the deeds and sacrifices of American soldiers of the South. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less.
May God bless you richly sir. Deo vindice
Well, unless Jackson and the rest of his race-baiting pimps can score a few bucks from making trouble.
If ALL Americans shared his attitude, we wouldn't have ANY problems. I am truly impressed by his actions, and even more by his attitude.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he that sheds his blood with me this day
Shall be my brother -"
Try reading the article next time.
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