Albany SCV camp hosts annual Confederate Memorial Service

ALBANY — The Albany Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 141 will host its annual Southwest Georgia Confederate Memorial Service Saturday at the CSA Memorial Park located on Highway 91 (Philema Road).

The event begins at 9 a.m. and will feature live music, as well as speaker Henry Crain, a Constitutional historian. Crain writes a weekly column in the Lee County Ledger offering his take on the U.S. Constitution.

“The band Southern Sounds will sing period Confederate and Southern Gospel songs from 9 to 10 a.m.,” said SCV Camp Commander James King in a press release about the event. “The formal memorial service follows from 10 a.m. to noon, beginning with an invocation and the singing of the Southern National Anthem ‘Dixie.’ A proclamation by the Albany SCV Camp proclaiming April as Confederate History and Heritage Month will be read, followed by former CSA General Stephen Dill Lee’s 1906 charges to sons of Confederate veterans and people of the South.”

According to King, the Confederate States themselves will be honored by the reading of their names.

“The names of the Confederate States will be called in order of the date that they declared secession from the United States, beginning with South Carolina and ending with Texas,” he said. “Border states and western territories that supported the Confederate States of America will also be recognized, as well as soldiers of northern states that fought for the Confederacy.”

During the ceremony, as the name of each state is called, those attending the event who are descendants of soldiers from that state will be asked to stand for recognition as a carnation is placed at the base of the Confederate Monument to honor the CSA soldiers, according to King.

“A final flower and wreath will be placed to honor and remember the unknown CSA soldiers,” he said. “These are forgotten men who fought and died for the CSA flag that waved across our Southern land and who lie in a lonely soldier’s grave.”

According to King, the event is open to the public and to anyone who is interested in Southern and Confederate history, heritage and culture.

For more information, contact King at (229) 854-1944.