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Eagle Scout restores cemetery, honors soldiers
However, not long ago, Brewer-Bell was not the tranquil place it is today. As a requirement for the last step in his Eagle Scout program Ethan Elmore of Chilton literally transformed the historic Bell-Brewer Cemetery from an overgrown patch filled with weeds, brush, downed trees, limbs and debris into the comforting, restful place it now is. In addition to clearing Bell-Brewer, Ethan replaced one side of the fence which was down. On July 13, Ethan, who is a sophomore at Clarke Prep, finished the last badge requirement by personally conducting a memorial service for three of the four Confederate soldiers at Bell- Brewer and dedicating a CSA headstone for Captain John Bell of the 32nd Alabama.
A color guard of the 38th Alabama Re-enactors commanded by Steve Kennedy of the SCV, marched into the cemetery carrying Confederate flags. The January sun glistened off the brilliant colors of the flags, as the color guard stood at rapt attention at the grave of Captain John Bell, who died on Feb. 14, 1864 of pneumonia in a hospital in Casewell, Ga. The body of Capt. Bell was brought by train from Georgia back to Clarke County. And today, the musical tribute "Going Home," was offered for him. The words could not have been more fitting: "We'll have what we lost and all that we've won when this road finally takes me home."
The research uncovered Mrs. Renae McGhee of Petal, Miss., the great-great-granddaughter of Captain Bell. She was present at the Sunday ceremony, as was Mike Hinson, a local citizen who is also a Bell descendant. Both descendants thanked Ethan for his preservation efforts at their ancestor's final resting place. Then Ethan told of what the project meant to him personally. He spoke of how soldiers of the Confederate States of America loved their country with the same kind of love that the Boy Scouts of America do. He said, "They (CSA soldiers) gave us a lot of the principles we live by today. They did their best to drive an invading army out of their country. And some of them gave their lives doing it." He spoke of the day's program as a "remembrance of what CSA soldiers did for their country." And he praised the Confederate States of America as "a good country though it did not endure long."
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