(Right to Left) Cavalry Captain Tim Craddock, Sergeant Andy Anderson, Trooper Larry Dixon, Trooper William Harris pose for photos in the Confederate graveyard. Photo by: Ariel Cobbert
Confederate memorial groups gathered at the Confederate Cemetery on campus to honor fallen soldiers Sunday afternoon.
The University Greys Camp No. 1803, Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy and other groups joined in remembering fallen soldiers.
Nearly 100 people of all ages were involved in the event. A select few wore antebellum-style clothes or Confederate uniforms during the commemorative service, and some rode horses.
“The reason we do it on May 1 is because there’s so many reenacting groups that do go other places that we have to go to the first Sunday in May,” Mississippi Division President of UDC Janice Strohm said.
Ole Miss students who left their education behind to serve in the Civil War in 1861 are referred to as the University Greys. Many were killed or injured in the Battle of Gettysburg. The Lyceum functioned as a medical facility for wounded soldiers.
The Confederate Cemetery, located near the C.M. Tad Smith Coliseum, was originally the mass grave of Union and Confederate soldiers who fought and died in the Battle of Shiloh. Years later, the Union soldiers were removed and a monument was placed over the remaining graves.
“A fallen soldier is a fallen soldier,” Gaetano “Guy” Catelli, Oxford author and photographer, said. “Confederate women started what was called decoration day and has since become a national holiday called Memorial Day in honor of every fallen veteran of every American war. But it started with Confederate women placing flowers on graves.”
(Left to Right) Kaitlyn Hester, Aubrey Tidwell, Robbie Hester, David Proctor and Christian Steen pose for photos in the Confederate graveyard. Photo by: Ariel Cobbert
Although more than 430 grave shafts were identified, the total number of bodies is closer to 700. Shiloh was the bloodiest battle at the time and claimed more than 23,000 casualties on both sides.
The SCV and the UDC travel around the Eastern United States throughout the year to rededicate monuments and commemorate the deaths of various battles. Other groups devote hours each year to cleaning up abandoned military gravesites.
University Greys Researcher Starke Miller said he has spent more than 20 years studying the history and tracking down facts and personal narratives of people involved in the Civil War.
Miller is involved with the 11th Mississippi Memorial Association, which is responsible for erecting the 11th Mississippi monument at Gettysburg Battlefield as well as the one in Shiloh, Tennessee.
The third monument will be erected soon at Gaines Mill Battlefield, in Hanover County, Virginia.
“The University Grey’s left (Ole Miss) on May 1, 1861 to enlist,” Strohm said. “We need to remember these stones, we need to remember what these stones and that monument represent.”
