Sons of Confederate Veterans National Leadership Conference - Part 1

On Saturday March 2nd, the Fort Blakely SCV Camp 1864 hosted a National Leadership Conference at the Gift Horse in downtown Foley AL.  Camp 1864 Commander Tommy Rhodes brought the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to the Gift Horse where the members of Camp 1864 hold their monthly meeting.  The Gift Horse has a number of gift stores and a buffet restaurant.  The large room in which the conference was held had beautiful beaded pine paneling and Camp 1864 had decorated each linen topped table with a centerpiece of Alabama state and Confederate Battle flags.  There were about thirty attendees representing eight states including Texas, Indiana, South Carolina  as well as Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia.  Following Camp 1864 Chaplain Gary Riley's invocation, Commander Rhodes informed the group that they were very happy to host this National SCV conference and they are proud to have grown their camp membership from 10 to currently 87 men.  Camp 1864 has won awards as Alabama Division camp of the year and they have won awards for their camp newsletter.  Tommy provided information about the local Confederate Rest cemetery in Point Clear at the site of a former Confederate Hospital near the current Marriott Resort.  Camp 1864 has worked to maintain the cemetery and has used a grant from SCV Nationals to renovate the grounds and place concrete crosses at the graves.  The camp holds a yearly memorial service there and a recent highlight included the reinterment with full honors of a bone fragment which was inadvertently unearthed during flag placement.  Commander Rhodes presented Adjutant-in-Chief Steve Ritchie and Lt. Commander-in-Chief Kelly Barrow with tokens of appreciation for arranging the Leadership Workshop.  Presentations followed from Lt. Barrow, Adjutant Ritchie, Field Representative JM, and former Chief of Heritage Defense Tom Hiter.


The Gift Horse

SCV National Leadership Conference Hosted by Fort Blakely Camp 1864