Gen Hardee
From: oldsouthrebel@zebra.net
To: cscitizen@windstream.net
Hello Billy,
You may forward this message to anyone whom you deem interested.
Regarding Gen Hardee’s grave, which is very beautiful…a wonderful monument …a head stone and a wrought-iron fence around his grave…
During hunting season 2011 while I was in Live Oak…which I go there at least 4 times a week…sometimes more…checking on Confederate Circle…it was in about Nov. 2011 while I was there a young man (in his 30’s) drove up…and started talking to me…as always, I am an ambassador for Live Oak and give many tours throughout the cemetery…this young man was very knowledgeable about Gen Hardee and inquired about his grave…naturally, I took him right to it….he said he was on his way to a hunting camp just south of Selma and wanted to stop in Live Oak as he had never been there & had heard Gen Hardee was buried there…I left him at Gen Hardee’s grave & went on about my business….
Then right after Christmas I went back over to Gen Hardee’s grave…just checking on the flags that I had put out…lo & behold his Southern Cross of Honor was GONE! I have NO way of proving who took it…but I suspect it might have been that young man back in Nov 2011..however, it would be like a Picasso…he cannot tell where he got it or whose grave it came from… a few months ago I was in Prattville with my brother…he took me to a relic shop…I spotted an ORIGINAL Southern Cross of Honor…!!!! the stake had been sawed off with a hacksaw…but I bought it anyway…$200…I have had it repaired ….I plan to hold a memorial service for Gen Hardee on his birthday this year and we will reinstall this Southern Cross of Honor for Gen Hardee. I know it was Providential that I went to that relic shop that day & discovered the cross up on a shelf. The owner told me he bought it several years ago from a fella who had been a gardener for someone in Montgomery and "found" it lying flat in a flower bed!!! Yeah right! It is not the one from Gen Hardee’s grave, of course, but it IS AN ORIGINAL…and NOT a reproduction, so I am thrilled that a REAL one will be put back on his grave!
We will also have a HUGE REDEDICATION SERVICE at Confederate Circle when we are finished with our work. I will keep everyone posted!
Thanks for your interest and for sending me the posts of other discussions.
Confederately yours,
Pat
