Albany group remembers Confederate ancestors

ALBANY — In observance of Confederate History and Heritage Month in Georgia, the Albany-based Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 141 will honor those who served and suffered in the South. The annual memorial service will be held at the Confederate Memorial Park on Philema Road April 14.

Speaking at the event will be Robert Hurst from Tallahassee, where he has commanded an SCV “camp” for the past 12 years. A published author, Hurst is a frequent speaker on Confederate topics.

According to Hurst, the central theme of his memorial speech will address “the importance of celebrating and protecting our Southern and Confederate history and maintaining our distinctive Southern identity.”

Hurst said the presentation will address the concepts of change, or how things once were in the Southland; challenges, in the form of current events threatening Southern history and culture; untruths employed by enemies of Confederate history and heritage; and riding to the guns, which explores ideas toward combating what Hurst sees as challenges to Southern history and heritage.

The event will begin at 9 a.m. with a musical tribute to the Confederacy by the Lee County musical group A Joyful Noise, followed by opening remarks by James W. King, Albany SCV camp commander.

“The Confederate veterans and the civilian population of the South in the War Between the States deserve to be remembered and honored,” King said. “The Confederate soldier fought not for conquest but for his family, fireside, home and for Constitutional limited government and states’ rights.”

King said that Georgia and other Southern states had been forced into seceding from the Union by powers in the North, and that the act of secession was perfectly legal and allowed by the U.S. Constitution.

“Robert E. Lee had to make a decision in 1861,” King said. “Defend the Constitution or defend the Union. He made the correct decision to defend the Constitution. This makes him an American hero, not a traitor as claimed by some who do not understand the ideas and concepts of government as established by America’s founding fathers.”

Included in the memorial events will be the reading of a Confederate poem by Ray Houston of the Sylvester SCV camp; a presentation of awards; the traditional presentation of the order of secession by the Confederate states, and the laying of flowers and wreaths to honor fallen Southerners. The service is scheduled to close with a musket and cannon salute by Confederate re-enactors.

King said that members of the general public are invited to attend the memorial event.