Monument dedication to open commemoration event Posted on Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 1:47 pm CITY EDITOR brian justice This weekend’s Civil War Tullahoma Campaign commemoration carries special meaning well beyond Tennessee’s boundaries, with several South Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans leaders driving the 10-hour, 553-mile distance to see their fallen forefathers honored in a special dedication. South Carolina and Kentucky have been the only two states out of the Confederacy’s 11 states with soldiers buried in the local cemetery who have not been recognized with special monuments. The special dedication will take place this evening, Friday, at 5:20 p.m. at Maplewood Confederate Cemetery on Maplewood Avenue, featuring Civil War re-enactors paying tribute to the fallen soldiers buried there, including four from South Carolina and seven from Kentucky. Ken Thrasher, South Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans division lieutenant commander, from Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Vernon Parker, Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp Battery White commander, Georgetown, S.C., explained Thursday the reason why they traveled the distance to share in the dedication to honor their military forefathers. “I don’t know if I can put it in words,” Thrasher said, explaining his feelings about the occasion. “It’s a special time to do this, and it means so much to me.” O.B. Wilkinson, Sons of Confederate Veterans B.F. Cheatham Camp 72 lieutenant com-mander, Manchester, and the Maplewood Confederate Cemetery’s trustee, displays a can-nonball fired in the Tullahoma Campaign that is being donated by his organization and the Beech Grove Confederate Memorial Association to the Tullahoma Mitchell Museum. —Staff Photo by Brian Justice O.B. Wilkinson, Sons of Confederate Veterans B.F. Cheatham Camp 72 lieutenant commander, Manchester, and the Maplewood Confederate Cemetery’s trustee, displays a cannonball fired in the Tullahoma Campaign that is being donated by his organization and the Beech Grove Confederate Memorial Association to the Tullahoma Mitchell Museum. —Staff Photo by Brian Justice Parker echoed Thrasher’s sentiments. “I’m right proud,” he said, referring to the dedication, and adding that being at Tullahoma is a homecoming of sorts. “My grandfather (Pvt. John Wilson) was in the (Confederate) 10th Infantry Division (from South Carolina) and was wounded at Murfreesboro.” Parker went on to explain that in addition to Wilson, his other grandfather, A.J. McCants, and several uncles had fought in the Civil War. Thrasher and Parker referred to language on the monument that says: “Heroes of The Palmetto State Buried Far From Home, Their Grateful State Remembers, 28 June 2013, South Carolina Division SCV.” “That says it all,” Thrasher said. Parker said he brought South Carolina soil to be placed at the monument and Thrasher added he had brought water from The Palmetto State. “It’s for their last drink of South Carolina water,” Thrasher said. The dedication will also feature a cannon ball, fired by the Confederate Eufaula Artillery Battery at the Union’s 18th Indiana Battery, falling short of its intended target at what is now the Beech Grove Confederate Cemetery. O.B. Wilkinson, Sons of Confederate Veterans B.F. Cheatam Camp 72 lieutenant commander, Manchester, and the Maplewood Confederate Cemetery’s trustee, said the Beech Grove Confederate Memorial Association and Camp 72 are donating the Tullahoma Campaign artifact to the Tullahoma Mitchell Museum to commemorate the Confederate Army of Tennessee’s soldiers who fought in the campaign against the Union forces. Dr. Michael Bradley, a noted Civil War historian and the Sesquicentennial Celebration’s chairman, recently said the Tullahoma Campaign was one of three major events taking place in June and July 1863 — the siege of Vicksburg, the Confederate move into Pennsylvania which culminated in the battle of Gettysburg, and the Tullahoma Campaign for control of Middle Tennessee.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 03:03:24 +0000
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