A super crowd of twenty-eight folks gathered on Thursday evening August 10th for the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 meeting at the Prattville Masonic Lodge. Rob Schwartz entertained everyone who came early with his excellent guitar playing and singing before leading everyone in an Invocation. Brigade Commander Harold Grooms led everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags before Commander Waldo recited the SCV Charge. Upcoming events were highlighted including the camp's annual Dixie butt fundraiser, two reenactments, a conference at the Southern Cultural Center in Wetumpka, information for which was provided by Mike Whorton and Ed Boardwine of the SCC, and the SCV Division's Yellowhammer Jammer which will be held on Sept 30th at Confederate Memorial Park (CMP) in Marbury AL.
Speaking of Confederate Memorial Park, the guest speaker for the evening was Calvin Chapelle, site director at CMP who provided a great presentation on recent developments and upcoming events there. CMP was established in 1964 on the site of the former Confederate Veterans Home and has been under the direction of the Alabama Historical Commission since 1971. CMP has been getting some good press recently in the Autauga County News and Clanton Advertiser which have run stories on events including the Living History in April, the fall cemetery tour and Santa's Post Office in December. CMP is also on Facebook and has gained over 5000 followers where you can read of upcoming events, history and general information.
Calvin shared information about the major annual events held at CMP. The Winter Quarters was held Jan 27, 2023 and included many dedicated reenactors who stayed at the park using authentic period clothing, food, and eating utensils in a training and drilling environment. The Living History in April is the longest running event having been in existence for decades now and includes displays of weapons, food, music and a skirmish reenactment. A Cemetery Tour on May 28, 2023 was conducted which provided information on some of the 313 veterans interred there at CMP in one of the two cemeteries including their wounds incurred in combat, medicine and life at the Veterans Home. Santa's Post Office is a new event which was held on Dec 10, 2022 at the old Mountain Creek Post Office which was moved to CMP in the mid-1980s. Plans are to increase the use of the old post office providing interpretive displays on the Confederate postal service. A presentation of these new photographs will be conducted on Sept 16th at CMP. Additional events upcoming include a cemetery tour on October 21st and Santa's Post Office on Dec 9th.
Calvin shared plans for a new pavilion in the works at CMP for which bids are being pursued for construction. A number of original historical photographs of the Veterans Home were recently discovered on eBay and purchased which provide priceless images of the original structures at the Home including one panoramic photo. At the end of 2022 a new weapons display rack and flat file storage was obtained by the museum at CMP. Repairs and preservation work has been completed on a number of headstones in the cemeteries overseen by experts from the University of Alabama; one or two have been replaced with reproductions which could not be repaired. New displays in the museum include a frock coat from Eugene Allen Smith who was a cadet at the University of Alabama when the War for Southern Independence broke out. Three new flags are on display - the flags are on rotation, loaned by the Alabama State Archives and include one from the 30th Alabama (made by the women of Talladega of a First National Design) and another of the 22nd Infantry of a Polk cross pattern.
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