Dragoons Start Confederate History and Heritage Month with Flag Setting at Prattville’s Oak Hill Cemetery

Saturday morning March 31^st dawned clear, sunny and cool but warmed up quickly as 16 Dragoons participated in honoring nearly 100 Confederate veterans by placing memorial Battle Flags on their final resting places. Our traditional beginning to Confederate History and Heritage month was a reverent but enthusiastic occasion for all involved. Compatriot Allen Herrod began our memorial by offering a prayer of thanksgiving for these veterans, their families and the South. The song, “Legend of The Rebel Soldier" was played before we departed our rendezvous point. The song is about a Confederate soldier dying in a Yankee prison camp with a preacher by his side. He asks the parson if his soul will pass through his beloved Southland before it enters heaven.

We divided into groups of two or three and covered all the sections of Oak Hill cemetery where Confederate veterans are buried. We respectfully planted the flags beside each veteran’s grave and afterwards gathered to discuss our particular experiences that morning. Wayne Sutherland did an excellent job coordinating the event, providing flags and copies of each pertinent section of the cemetery to guide us. Dragoons Tyrone Crowley and Sam Reid came by on their way to Tuscaloosa where they would attend the Sanders Lectures on the War Between the States.

Partipants included Bill Gill, Sam Reid, Tyrone Crowley, James Spears, Karl Wade, Harold Grooms, Phillip Edwards, Wayne Sutherland, Don Owens, Karl Wade, Beir Butler, Rob Heyward,  Dale Boyles, Allen Herrod,  Louis Turner and son.