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Confederate Memorial Day marked with ceremony in Montgomery
Descendants of Confederate soldiers met on the north portico by the Alabama Confederate Monument to remember their ancestors' sacrifices and bravery on the field of battle as well as those who kept hearth and home together during four grinding years of warfare. Mrs. Lorraine Ennis of Huntsville, president of the Alabama Division United Daughters of the Confederacy, (UDC) gave the Memorial Address and in it she recounted the history of how women of the South beginning as early as November 1865 began an effort to place Confederate monuments across the South. With 250,000 men dead, the economy in shambles and the infrastructure destroyed; the task taken on by the UDC seemed impossible. But today across the 11 Southern States as well as Kentucky and Maryland, monuments to the Confederate dead, results of the egg sales and bake sales begun by Southern women, dot courthouse squares and cemeteries.
Mrs. Ennis's speech paid tribute not only to the gallantry of Southern men on the field of battle, but also to their wives, mothers and sisters who suffered great deprivation and hardship back home. She recounted how the Southern people persevered through 12 years of political reconstruction and called that one of the "darkest periods in the history of the United States." She said that Jefferson Davis died a "man without a country," because he refused to ask for a pardon believing that sovereign states entered in a compact and as sovereigns had a right to withdraw from that compact in peace. The Capitol grounds resounded with Southern music, Dixie, God Save the South, The Bonnie Blue Flag, The Daughters' Song and Amazing Grace and How Firm a Foundation. Ron Taylor of Red Level, Southeast Brigade Commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sang two original compositions: Montgomery (cradle of the Confederacy) and Long May She Wave, (a tribute to the large battle flag on I-65 north of Montgomery). Perhaps the most moving part of the ceremony was the Roll Call where each person present spoke aloud the name, rank and state of their Confederate ancestor. Most of the Southern states were represented and notable was a descendant of Col. John Singleton Mosby and one descended from one of the young cadets of VMI who marched into Northern bullets at the command, "Send in the boys."
When General Bill Rambo and members of the First Confederate Legion fired their cannon to end the celebration, the city of Montgomery knew that it was Confederate Memorial Day.
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