Confederate Memorial Day Ceremony is Saturday

The historic Hagood-Mauldin House in Pickens will host a Confederate Memorial Day ceremony Saturday.

Ken Nabors, President of the Pickens County Historical Society, said the ceremony will begin at 10am.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans Pickens County Camps 7 & 71 will conduct the Confederate Memorial Day program to honor all of the veterans from Pickens County who served in the War for Southern Independence, Nabors said.

The program is open to the public and those who wish to remember their ancestors who wore the gray.

Anne Sheriff will speak on the ongoing Confederate Graves project the Pickens County Historical Society is a part of.

The historical society, Old Pendleton District Genealogical Society, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy are surveying cemeteries throughout Pickens county to document the graves of Confederate soldiers and their wives.

The project, predicted to take five years to complete, is being undertaken as part of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

A Confederate Cross of Honor is being placed at every grave that does not have one currently.

Each grave's location is being record with GPS technology so it will not be lost.

Biographical data on each soldier is being collected and filed at the Clayton Room for Family Research at Southern Wesleyan University.

“We'll be dedicating 38 of the crosses of honor to Confederate veterans,” Nabors said, of Saturday's ceremony. “Their names and their units will be read at our ceremony. You may find that some of them might be some of your ancestors. Their names will be spoken again after 150 years.”

The group has been visiting cemeteries throughout the county, identifying Confederate veterans and possible Confederate veterans, then proving their records, Nabors said.

“Most of these that we're honoring with the crosses of honor are the lucky ones,” he said. “Most of these came home. There are a few that didn't not make it home, that we're putting the crosses of honor on. Their bodies were put in a semblance of a mass grave and sent back.”

Pickens County sent 5,000 men off to the war, Nabors said.

“A lot of them didn't survive, of course, and are in mass graves in other Southern states and a few Northern states,” Nabors said. “We will eventually track those down over a longer period of time, but we're going to identify the ones that are physically buried here.”

The Confederate Graves project group goes out to cemeteries the third Thursday of every month, Wayne Kelley said.

He encouraged historical society members to come out and observe the process.

“It's something everybody should do at least one time, while we're doing this once-in-a-lifetime event,” he said. “It'll be a wonderful experience, and it's something we want to share because it's so positive. You'll learn things and you'll be glad you did. You're surrounded by historians and people who can tell you stories about the people buried in that particular grave. It's very powerful, it's very educational.”

If you're interested in taking part in the Confederate Graves project, email pickenscohistory@gmail.com to be added to the project's list.

He hopes the program will include a rifle salute and the firing of a military cannon.

The Confederate Memorial Day program will last one hour, Nabors said.

The Hagood-Mauldin House is located at 104 North Lewis Street in Pickens.

On May 10 at 3pm, Marion Whitehurst will lead a Confederate Memorial Day program will be held at Old Stone Church Cemetery in Clemson. The program includes a lecture and a tour of the cemetery.

“It's a wonderful place and no one knows it better than Marion Whitehurst,” Kelley said.