Saturday morning February 22, a handful of Dragoons of Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 overcame poor road conditions including slick, soupy, red mud to access the grounds of the William B. Smith Family Cemetery just off County Road 3 west of Prattville AL. CR3 is a dirt road itself running between Hwy 14 and Hwy 82 and the access road to the cemetery is a rough track off that maintained road. The historic cemetery is the final resting place of Dr. Arch Smith McKeithen who was the son of Callie Smith. Arch was an original enlistee of the Prattville Dragoons, a Private but having graduated from the Medical College of Virginia prior to the War, he subsequently became the Assistant Surgeon of the CSA Provisional Army. The men used chainsaws and other hand tools, spending about three hours cutting trees and clearing the original fence line to the cemetery. Camp Treasurer John Dennis led teh cemetery cleanijng effort and coordinated the workday. He was joined by Commander Harold Grooms, Adjutant Douglas Butler, Quartermaster Bill Myrick and compatriots Todd Rogers and his grandson Carson Rogers. The men did a commendable job with first clean up. Cemetery maintenance is a community service that the Dragoons perform and is also codified by the SCV Guardian Program to care for historic cemeteries which are the final resting place for Confederate veterans.
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