Confederate History Month in Dixie
By: Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Chairman of the Confederate History
Month Committee for the Sons of Confederate Veterans
1064 West Mill Drive
Phone: 770 428 0978
Cell Phone: 770 330 9792
April 2010, Confederate History and Heritage Month, is the month
that marked the beginning of the War Between the States (1861) and
its end (1865.)
In 2009, the Georgia General Assembly approved Senate Bill No. 27,
signed by Governor Sonny Perdue, officially and permanently
designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month.
The Old South captures the imagination of people from around the
world who come to see; Southern Belle’s in hoop skirts, Confederate
flags and Southern Memorial’s like the famous carving of: Robert E.
Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis at Stone Mountain
Memorial Park near Atlanta.
On Saturday, April 10, 2010, an Annual National Confederate Memorial
Service is scheduled to begin at 12 Noon in front of the Carving
Reflection Pool at Stone Mountain Park sponsored by the Georgia
Society Military Order of Stars and Bars and Georgia Division Sons
of Confederate Veterans.
April is a time to remember the men and women of the Confederacy and
those who kept their memory eternal; like Ms. Mildred Lewis
Rutherford who almost a century ago served as Historian-General of
the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She was a respected
teacher, writer, speaker and defender of the true history of the War
Between the States. Ms. Rutherford also wrote a monthly newsletter
from 1923 to 1926 entitled “Miss Rutherford’s scrapbook” and in 1920
wrote the book “Truths of History.”
Efforts to mark Confederate graves, erect monuments and hold
memorial services were the idea of Mrs. Charles J. Williams. It is
written that she was an educated and kind lady. Her husband served
as Colonel of the 1st Georgia Regiment during the War Between the
States. He died of disease in 1862, and was buried in his home town
of Columbus, Georgia.
Mrs. Williams and her daughter visited
his grave often and cleared the weeds, leaves and twigs from it,
then placed flowers on it. Her daughter also pulled the weeds from
other Confederate graves near her Father.
It saddened the little girl that their
graves were unmarked. With tears of pride she said to her Mother,
"These are my soldiers' graves." The daughter soon became ill and
passed away in her childhood. Mrs. William's grief was almost
On a visit to the graves of her husband
and daughter, Mrs. Williams looked at the unkept soldiers' graves
and remembered her daughter as she cleaned the graves and what the
little girl had said. She knew what had to do.
Mrs. Williams wrote a letter that was published in Southern
newspapers asking the women of the South for their help. She asked
that memorial organizations be established to take care of the
thousands of Confederate graves from the Potomac River to the Rio
She also asked the state legislatures to set aside a day in April to
remember the men who wore the gray. With her leadership April 26 was
officially adopted in many states. She died in 1874, but not before
her native state of Georgia
adopted it as a legal holiday.
Mrs. Williams was given a full military funeral by the people of
and flowers covered her grave. For many years a yearly memorial was
conducted at her grave following the soldiers' memorial.
Among the gallant women of the Confederacy was Captain Sally
Tompkins who was the first woman to be commissioned an officer on
either side of the War Between the States. Commissioned by Jefferson
Davis, she took care of thousands of soldiers in Richmond, Virginia
until the end of the war.
Those who served the Confederacy came from many races and religions.
There was Irish born General Patrick R. Cleburne, black Southerner
Amos Rucker, Jewish born Judah P. Benjamin, Mexican born Colonel
Santos Benavides and American Indian General Stand Watie who was
born in Rome, Georgia.
Find out more about Confederate
History Month at: