Memorial Service For The Flat Rock Seven

Greetings and Salutations, Y'all!

Confederate Memorial Day arrives this weekend on Sunday, May 10th in both North and South Carolina -- falling on the same day as Mother's Day this year. 

In honor of the holiday honoring the memories of the Confederate dead, your favorite blogger traveled north across the Carolina border to the Southern town of Mount Holly, North Carolina to Flat Rock Cemetery for a very special memorial service. 

As many of y'all might recall from a previous blog post, the story of the Flat Rock Seven -- a small group of Confederate veterans who tragically died returning home from the war on April 26, 1865 when a raft they were using to cross the swollen Catawba River collapsed drowning all of the young men just miles away from their homes. 

Earlier this year, the Stonewall Jackson Camp #23 Sons of Confederate Veterans from Charlotte, NC installed three new grave markers for these men. Originally there were only four grave markers with the three other names listed on Confederate Crosses of Honor. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Stonewall Jackson Camp and other volunteers, all seven men now have proper grave markers. The service today was the official dedication of those markers.  

The service included: the retelling of the tragic story of the Flat Rock Seven, followed my the presentation of the new stones, musket and cannon volleys, and the playing to Taps in honor of their everlasting memories. 

The following are the photos I took of the event:

To their honored memories, as well as those of the other estimated 260,000 Southern men and boys who did not come home after four bloody years of civil strife, let us remember them on their memorial day. 

 

In Everlasting Memory. Deo Vindice.