U.S. Memorial Day Is NOT Just A Three-Day Weekend

Ten U.S. Navy sailors being laid to rest at sea aboard the USS Intrepid (CV-11) following a
Japanese kamikaze attack on October 27, 1944.

Fallen U.S. soldiers from Omaha Beach following the Operation
Overlord (D-Day) June 6, 1944 waiting for burial.

Just remember while y'all are enjoying your day off today that U.S. Memorial Day isn't just about having a three-day weekend, or barbecues and family gatherings, or watching war movies.

Its about the men and women in those graves that fought and paid that ultimate sacrifice so y'all can have the freedom to enjoy those activities, as well as the freedoms and liberties granted to us by God, our U.S. Constitution, and by our Constitutional Republic -- all in that order.

So take time out today to remember and reflect on those lives while you enjoy your grilling and your celebration of the federal holiday honoring their memories.

Remember them. Never forget!

God Bless Y'all and Happy U.S. Memorial Day today!

Night Sky Photography -- 05-30-2021 -- Venus, Mars & The Constellation Gemini

Good evening y'all, and Happy U.S. Memorial Day weekend!

This evening I traveled over to the local baseball field and using it as a backdrop was able to capture some really outstanding photos of the planets Venus and Mars an hour after sunset.

Venus appeared not long after sunset, being the brightest object in the evening sky. Mercury was unfortunately below the tree line, otherwise I might have been able to capture all of the inner planets this evening.

In the first photo you can see bright Venus appearing in the evening dusk.

Between about 9:00 PM EST and 9:08 PM EST I was able to capture several shots of Venus sinking below the top of the ballpark fence as it sank lower into the west following the sun.

As the evening progressed and dusk started deepening more into night time, smaller Mars and the major stars finally began to appear in the sky.

In this next shot you can faintly see Mars in the top left of the photo with Venus now just above the tree line.

Finally you can see the major stars of the Constellation Gemini The Twins with Mars close to the bright stars Castor and Pollux. The other bright stars Procyon and Capella, which together with the Twin Stars make up the top portion of the now waning Winter Hexagon asterium, can also be seen in the photo.

I've also outlined the major stars of the Constellation Gemini and Canis Minor. Venus can still be seen in this wide shot overlooking the baseball field.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos for the evening. This will close out the month of May for this year. Have a Happy U.S. Memorial Day 2021 tomorrow and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!

What Does It Mean When You Put A Coin On A Veteran's Grave?

Have any of y'all ever visited the grave of an armed forces veteran and found coins on the headstone, or marker? If so, then please leave them be.

Unlike the loose change one might find laying around on the ground in a store, or parking lot, the coins placed on the graves of U.S. Veterans holds much more personal meaning as a way of honoring the dead.

In the United States, the tradition of leaving coins on the graves of veterans is rumored to have started during the Vietnam War (1964 - 1975) as a silent way for a veteran to communicate respect to the family of a deceased comrade during a time when the country was deeply divided.

The tradition of leaving coins is not actually sanctioned by any branch of the U.S. military, but rather serves as an unofficial token of respect by individual U.S. veterans themselves.

Each coin left actually holds a very specific and special meaning for the person who left it:

A penny means that someone stopped to visit the grave and paid their respects to the veteran.

A nickel means that someone stopped to visit the grave who went to basic training with the veteran.

A dime means that someone stopped who served together in the armed forces with the veteran.

And a quarter means that some was with the veteran in the grave when he/she was killed in battle, or passed away in the line of duty.

Coins left at National Cemeteries are usually collected and go towards keeping the grounds clean and maintaining the headstones, or to the care of living U.S. Veterans. 

At the rising of the sun and at its going down
We remember them.

At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
We remember them.

At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring
We remember them.

At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
We remember them.

At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn
We remember them.

At the beginning of the year and when it ends
We remember them.

As long as we live, they too will live;
for they are now a part of us

as we remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength

We remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart

We remember them.
When we have joy we crave to share

We remember them.
When we have decisions that are difficult to make

We remember them.
When we have achievements that are based on theirs

We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live;

for they are now a part of us
as we remember them.

~We Remember Them by Rabbis Sylvan Kamens & Jack Riemer

British & Confederate Monuments At Old St. David's Episcopal Church in Cheraw, South Carolina

Historic Old St. David's Church in Cheraw, South Carolina.

Historic Old St. David's Episcopal Church in Cheraw, South Carolina, was established in 1768 by the South Carolina General Assembly and completed in 1774. Named for Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, it was the last Episcopal parish to be formally established in British Colonial South Carolina under King George III.

At over 230 years old, this church is one of the oldest structures in South Carolina. The church has been renovated over the years, with the steeple added in 1826 and the cross on top added in 1883. The building today serves as the most popular historic landmark in the town of Cheraw. It was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1971.

There are many old graves here, some of which bear the inscriptions of families that settled in and around Cheraw from Britain and Ireland. One can find many graves that list counties in Wales, Ireland and Scotland in particular among the birthplaces.

During both the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and the War Between The States (1861-1865) Old St. David's Church opened its doors and served as a hospital for soldiers from both sides of these conflicts. The church is a popular spot on any Revolutionary War and Civil War pilgrimage through the State, as the church's graveyard is the final resting place of soldiers who have fought in all major American wars. 

A historical marker tells the story of the
71st Frazer Highlanders in Cheraw during
the Southern Campaign of the American
Revolutionary War in 1780 - 1781.

With a few notable exceptions, it is very rare to find the graves of British and Loyalist soldiers who died in South Carolina during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War (1780-1781). This is largely due to the fact that most of those killed in battle were usually buried in mass graves that were crudely marked with wooden headstones, if at all.

During the American Revolutionary War, Cheraw was at the center of a wide area of civil unrest and considered strategically important by both sides. St. David's was used by the South Carolina militia as quarters on several occasions during the spring of 1780, before the British moved in later that year and established a post there. The area was occupied by members of the British 71st Regiment of Foot who also used the church as quarters and a hospital.

The 71st Regiment (also known as The Fraser Highlanders) were recruited in Scotland in 1775 at Inverness, Stirling and Glasgow by Lieutenant General Simon Fraser who was the chieftain of the Clan Fraser of Lovat.

When war erupted with the American Colonies, Britain's recruiting efforts became crucial to her ability to wage the war and the Scottish flocked to the cause. In 1778, two-thirds of the nearly 15,000 men British men who enlisted into King George III's army during this time were from Scotland.  

These Scots served with distinction in both the Northern and Southern Campaigns in every major battle of the American Revolutionary War, from the Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn Heights) in 1776 to the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.

The 71st Regiment (also known as The Fraser Highlanders) served under British General Lord Charles Cornwallis during the Carolina's Campaign. Command by Lieutenant Colonel Duncan MacPherson this regiment served with distinction in every major engagement in the South Carolina in 1780 from the second Siege of Charleston and Battle of Camden, to the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781.

The first detachment of the 71st Highlanders under the command of Major Archibald McArthur arrived at Cheraw (then known as Cheraw Hills) on Friday, June 9, 1780 and secured the place as an outpost where local Loyalists would come to reaffirm their allegiance to the British Crown.

The Scottish men camped in the open fields near the Pee Dee River, a place notorious for malaria carrying mosquitoes. A number of these men became sick from malaria -- as well as possibly from small pox.

Old St. David's Church was used as a hospital for these men, a number of whom died from these diseases. The soldiers were buried in an unmarked mass grave at the front of the church in burial shrouds often times with some of their personal possessions. The officers who died were buried in graves covered by brick mounds known as cairns -- a Scottish tradition for honoring the dead.

The 71st remained quartered near Cheraw Hills until Sunday, July 23, 1780 when they received orders to withdraw back to Camden in anticipation of General Horatio Gates' disastrous campaign which culminated in the Battle of Camden on Wednesday, August 16, 1780, which the 71st Highlanders took active part in.

Those Highlanders too week to make the march were left behind at Old St. David's Church and later taken prisoner by Patriot militia forces commanded by Captain Tristram Thomas. These men were transferred to North Carolina where they would later be exchanged for Patriot and Continental POWs.

On Sunday, November 13, 2011, the people of Cheraw placed two granite markers at the burial sites in respectful memory of these foreign-born enemy soldiers laid to rest at Old St. David's Churchyard. The larger marker rests at the head of one of the unknown British officers and a smaller one sits on the site of the mass grave of the common soldiers buried beside the church itself.

Marker next to Old St. David's Church where soldiers of the
71st who died of disease while stationed nearby are buried.
The exact number buried in the mass grave are unknown.

Grave of an unknown officer of the 71st Highlanders buried
beneath a traditional cairn of bricks and rocks.
As was British tradition, officers were buried separately from
common soldiers.

The marker includes a carving of the Bonnet Badge worn by members
of the 71st Highlanders on their hats.
The inscriptions include the motto of the 71st Highlanders:
Quicquid aut facere aut pati (Whatever is to be done or endured)
and the motto of Scotland and of the Order of the Thistle:
nemo me inpune lacessit (No one assails me with impunity).

"When duty calls me, I must go, to stand and face another foe,

But part of me will always stay, o'er the hills and far away....
If I should fall to rise no more, as many comrades did before,
Ask the pipes and drums to play, o'er the hills and far away."

~From a Traditional British Melody

Erected in 1867, the St. David's monument is the oldest
Confederate monument built in the American Southland.

Erected on Friday, July 26, 1867, the Confederate monument in Old St. David's churchyard is probably the oldest monument to the Confederate soldier in the American Southland. 

 

The town of Cheraw played a leading role in South Carolina's secession from the Union in 1860 and the town became a haven for refugees and a storage place for valuables and military stores during the War Between The States.

For three days (March 2 - 5) in  1865, Cheraw became the unwilling host to Union General William T. Sherman's Yankee invaders.

Sherman's 60,000 men set up camp in and around town. Sherman’s army and its associated “bummers” (irregular troops and/or civilians who tagged along with Sherman’s columns, lured by the prospects of looting, etc.) emptied it of everything from foodstuffs to art works.

Despite the long path of destruction carved out across South Carolina by the Yankees, Cheraw was not set ablaze the way some other South Carolina towns had been. "Uncle Billy's Boys" surprisingly destroyed very little of the town -- save for causing an (sort of) accidental explosion that damaged much of the town's business district. 

The Confederate defenders of the town had been forced to leave a significant stock of munitions behind (about 3,600 barrels of gunpowder, more than 25,000 shells and bullets of assorted sizes) and had tried to hide them in a ravine near the river. A Union solider discovering this stockpile decided to drop a match into the pile, igniting a huge explosion that killed four of Sherman’s men and leveled several of the public and commercial buildings in the old downtown area, including damaging the church.

The people of Cheraw exacted some payback a couple years later, when the local Ladies Memorial Association in town erected a monument in the cemetery at a Old St. David’s Church, as a tribute to the fallen Confederate dead. Cheraw was the first town under the Federal occupation (Reconstruction Era) to raise such a memorial.

The Confederate monument is a solemn and simple memorial in the hoary graveyard outside Old St. David’s Church, depicts a large oak tree, partially uprooted, with the caption: "Fallen but not dead." The memorial also bears an anchor with the single word beneath: Hope.

The inscription on the memorial reads: "To the memory of our heroic dead who fell at Cheraw during the war 1861-1865.  Loved and honored though unknown. Stranger, bold champion of the South, revere and view these tombs with love; Brave heroes slumber here, Loved, and Honored, though unknown."

The cemetery is filled with the graves of Confederate veterans and Confederate battle flags still fly on the cemetery grounds placed their by the descendants of these men. The Union soldiers that were buried there (including the four men killed in the explosion and others who perished from disease) were all later moved by the U.S. military to the Florence National Cemetery in the years after the war.

Sleep sweetly in your humble graves,
  Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause;
Though yet no marble column craves
  The pilgrim here to pause.

In seeds of laurel in the earth
  The blossom of your fame is blown,
And somewhere, waiting for its birth,
  The shaft is in the stone!

Meanwhile, behalf the tardy years
  Which keep in trust your storied tombs,
Behold! your sisters bring their tears,
  And these memorial blooms.

Small tributes! but your shades will smile
  More proudly on these wreaths to-day,
Than when some cannon-moulded pile
  Shall overlook this bay.

Stoop, angels, hither from the skies!
  There is no holier spot of ground
Than where defeated valor lies,
  By mourning beauty crowned!

~Henry Timrod
Ode Sung on the Occasion of Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday, June 16, 1866.

Special thanks to the Historical Society of Chesterfield County, the Cheraw Historical Society and the people of the town of Cheraw for their input in helping to make this article possible.
To learn more about the town and its outstanding history, please check out the following link: https://www.cheraw.com/government/historic_preservation.php

Night Sky Photography -- 05-13/15-2021 -- The Moon & The Smallest Of The Inner Planets

Good evening fellow stargazers!

This weekend looking towards the west y'all can see the waxing crescent moon with all of the inner planets in the night sky -- but only if you have a clear view of the horizon.

Venus is currently situated in the sky dome on the horizon chasing the setting sun. Unless you have an unobstructed view of the horizon then seeing the bright wandering "evening star" will be difficult.

While I was unfortunately unable to get a good shot of Venus (the cloudy skies were also a factor) I was able several beautiful shots of Luna in her waxing crescent phase meeting with the two smaller planets, Mercury (May 13th) and Mars (May 15th).

These three evening planets plus our planet Earth are called the inner (inferior) planets, to distinguish them from the outer (superior) planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune -- and yes Pluto too which is still a planet no matter what some astronomers claim!

On the evening of May 15th, the waxing crescent moon joined Mars inside the Constellation Gemini The Twins. As you can see in the first photo, there are the two bright twin stars, Pollux and Castor, above Luna and Mars, with a smaller bright star just visible beneath the moon.

The yellow supergiant star Mebsuta -- also know as Epsilon Geminorum -- marks Castor's right leg. At about 840 light years distant from our solar system, Mebsuta is a G8 lb star about 8,500 times brighter than our Sun with an estimated radius of between 105-175 times that of our star.

Epsilon Geminorum’s traditional name, Mebsuta, comes from the ancient Arabic Mabsutah, which means "the outstretched paw." In Arabic culture, Epsilon and nearby Zeta Geminorum represented the paws of a lion.

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my presentation this evening. I hope to have some more night sky photography again by the end of the month when Mercury and Venus meet in close conjunction on the evening of May 28th.

Until then have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all!

South Carolina Confederate Memorial Day Service 2021

On Saturday, May 1st of this year, my travels once again took me back to Columbia, the beautiful capitol city of my home state, to take part in the annual Confederate Memorial Day service at historic Elmwood Cemetery.

This event takes place yearly and is sponsored by the South Carolina Divisions of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Military Order of the Stars & Bars, Children of the Confederacy, Order of the Confederate Rose, and the Palmetto Battalion Reenactors.

This service honors the estimated 26,000 South Carolina men and boys who died during the War Between The States (1861-1865) and takes place on the first Saturday of May prior to the Confederate Memorial Day State Holiday (May 10th in both North and South Carolina).

This year's service took place at the Confederate Soldiers' section of Elmwood Cemetery in the older part of the cemetery. Approximately 189 Confederate soldiers are buried here, including 54 of which marked as Unknown Soldier and 7 known only by their initials -- Known Only To God. Most of these were men from the Confederate Army of Tennessee who died in hospitals in Columbia in late 1864-1865.

The following photos were taken by yours truly attending the service in downtown Columbia at Elmwood Cemetery.

Members of the famed 16th South Carolina Honor Guard
from Greenville, SC.
These men preformed the ceremonial guard of honor at the
graves of the Confederate Dead in Elmwood Cemetery
during this year's memorial service.

The Pickin' Pearls from Pickens County, SC preforming
the music for the memorial service.

The memorial service officially begins with the arrival of the Palmetto Battalion Reenactors and the posting of the colors by the 16th South Carolina Honor Guard.

Members of the South Carolina Mechanized Cavalry arrive.

The posting of the colors.

Mr. Perry Smith, SC Division SCV introducing the
division commanders and presidents.

Mrs. Darlene Dowdy, President,
SC Division United Daughters of the Confederacy (SC UDC).

Mr. Jamie Graham, Commander,
SC Division Sons of Confederate Veterans (SC SCV).

Miss Georgia Chumley, President,
SC Division Children of the Confederacy (SC CoC).

Mrs. Mosie Marlar, President,
SC Order of the Confederate Rose (SC OCR).

Mr. Leland Summers, Commander,
Palmetto Battalion Re-enactors.

Keynote Speaker Mr. Herbert O. "Bing" Chambers III.

The laying of the wreath by the heads of all the organizations present, escorted by the 16th SC Honor Guard. This was followed by the ceremonial firing of musket volleys over the graves of the honored dead and cannon salute.

Ready....Aim.....FIRE!

The members of the 16th South Carolina Color Guard preforming the canteen ceremony. This is followed by the playing of Dixie and the firing of the last cannon salute.

The ceremony ends with the playing of Dixie -- of course.

Colors of the Moses T. Fowler Camp #1721 SCV
Fountain Inn, SC.

Members of the SC SCV Mechanized Cavalry.

The memorial service ends with the furling of the colors.

With that the official South Carolina Confederate Memorial Day 2021 ceremony comes to an official end. On May 10th the State of South Carolina officially honor the memories of the Confederate dead during the state holiday. Graves and monuments are decorated with flags and flowers.

I hope that y'all enjoyed my photos and please let me know what you think in the comments section below. Have a wonderful Dixie day and y'all come back now, you hear!