Confederate Memorial Day
By LARRY P. JORDAN, T&D Correspondent
Monday, May 11, 2009
A 21-gun salute by rifle and cannon fire Saturday marked a Confederate Memorial Day weekend ceremony on the Russell Street square in Orangeburg Saturday.
Jim Wyrosdick, commander of the Olin M. Dantzler No. 73 Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans, told those gathered the ceremony was being held “to commemorate the sacrifices made by Southern soldiers in the war for Southern independence from 1861-1865.”
Wyrosdick said more than 400 “out-numbered and out-supplied” soldiers from the Orangeburg area died in the Civil War.
The featured speaker was Karen Black, president of the UDC chapter, who serves as UDC’s Edisto District Secretary and a member of the UDC’s South Carolina Historical Committee.
Black said there are 112 documented Confederate veterans buried in Sunnyside Cemetery in Orangeburg and Confederate casualties from Orangeburg during the war totaled 441.
Winnie Betsill, chaplain of the Paul McMichael Chapter No. 427, also greeted those attending on behalf of the UDC chapter.
The Confederate veterans were remembered with a moment of silence and a 21-gun rifle salute as well as a cannon salute rendered by a squad of Civil War re-enactors. “Taps” was performed by the Rev. Max Kaster, USN-Retired.
Copyright © 2009, The Times and Democrat, Orangeburg, SC
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