Unique ceremony planned for Confederate Monument

Posted: Monday, October 12, 2009 9:01 pm

By GLENDA H. CAUDLE
Special Features Editor
It has stood lonely sentinel over simple graves for 140 years, a circle of head and foot stones surrounding it in quarter sections and a few stately trees providing nature’s own shelter through the generations. The simple but impressive white pillar will be the center of attention once again, however, at a unique and impressive ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday when the local Otho French Strahl Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 176 calls attention to its restoration.
The 40-foot tall Confederate Monument was erected in 1869 and dedicated Oct. 21 of that year at a time when Union City was still struggling to emerge from the ravages of a civil war that had pitted brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor in far too many instances.
“Purses were short, though sentiment still ran high,” according to a later account of the dedication of the cemetery where the monument still stands. That recollection was noted by E.H. Marshall in his “History of Obion County,” published in 1940.
The cemetery itself, known at that time as the “Old Soldiers’ Cemetery,” had been laid out on the southern edge of the town that had been called into existence only a few years before and which owed its prominence to the convergence of railroad lines — the Mobile and Ohio and the Nashville and Northwestern.
The tracks of the latter, which would later become the property of the N.C. & St. L., formed the war cemetery’s northern border and marked the southern edge of the previously established City Cemetery. The cemetery was designed with its entrance on the north side and a flight of beautiful and stately oak steps leading from a set of double arched white panel gates down to the busy rail bed. The inscription “Unknown Confederate Dead” marked the arches as well as the white marble front of the monument.
Shaded walkways bordered the fence around the cemetery and delineated the quarter sections of graves, eventually circling the monument. There were probably as many as 40 wooden markers to begin with. Today those original grave delineators have been replaced with 29 small and simple concrete head and foot stones which face toward the cemetery’s center.
That soaring monument toward which they reach has laid exclusive claim to the designation of “first ever” dedicated to an “unknown soldier” as well as to the title of first monument to a Confederate soldier in the South. In the graves surrounding it are the remains of Confederate soldiers whose bodies were disinterred from hastily dug battle graves all over Obion County and reburied there in 1869. It was believed, at the time of the original dedication, that most of these soldiers may have actually been from Kentucky, but none were able to be identified with authority. While some of them undoubtedly gave their lives in battles that raged around Union City during the Civil War, others had fallen victim to disease while stationed at the Confederate camp in the area.
Two additional graves were added after 1869. One was for a young physician-soldier from Kentucky who died in the “service of the Old South,” according to Marshall’s account. His name was not recorded at the time, however, and the inscription on his stone, located in the northwest quadrant of graves, is no longer decipherable.
Some years later, in 1900, another grave was dug and a final marker was erected in the peaceful cemetery of soldiers. It is the final resting place of Charles Shepperd of Union City, “body servant of Gen. George Maney, Confederate States of America.” It was apparently the request of Shepperd, who was “the only (N)egro in the cemetery, the father-in-law of Dr. E.D. Walker, local physician,” (Marshall) to be buried with soldiers who had served in the CSA. His is the only name able to be identified in a cemetery dedicated to unknowns.
The lower cavity of the monument was the resting place for a Bible, a Confederate rifle, a history of the monument’s inception and some other items whose descriptions have been lost to time. At some point, vandals broke into the monument and removed whatever they found there, leaving an ugly hole at the base. Sometime near the publication of Marshall’s history, the monument was repaired, thanks to the efforts of the Leonidas Polk Chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy, which influenced the Obion County Court to appropriate $100 to restore the piece. According to Marshall, the restoration effort failed in only one regard — it lacked the date of the monument’s erection which had been part of the original construction.
A century after the cemetery and monument were dedicated, the late Congressman Robert A. “Fats” Everett of Union City succeeded in having it included in the “Congressional Register.”
Thanks to R.C. Forrester of Union City, county historian and author, the monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places a few years later.
Recently another restoration has taken place. The monument has been thoroughly cleaned and cracks have been repaired, according to Norman Chandler of Home Builders Mart in Union City, who volunteered to take charge of the effort. Bill Langford assumed responsibility for the actual cleaning and repainting of the pillar.
Events planned for Sunday include a memorial service set for 2 p.m. that day for W.B. Sowell, great-great-grandfather of local Civil War re-enactor Barry Sowell and soldier in the 48th Tennessee Infantry during the Civil War. Re-enactors will meet at East View Cemetery at his grave and, following the memorial service, will march to the Confederate Cemetery — located a block northwest of the Union City Middle School tennis courts — for the 3 p.m. ceremony. The keynote speaker will be Rick Revell. Bill Dahnke will provide a history of the monument and Dr. Charles Blair of Clinton, Ky., pastor of Poplar Grove Church near Hickman, Ky., will offer the invocation. Special guests will include Obion County Mayor Benny McGuire and state Rep. Judy Barker.
The occasion will also mark the celebration of the 1909 dedication of the Confederate monument that stands in Kiwanis Park in downtown Union City. Several similar markers are in place throughout the South. Descendants of those who attended that 1909 event are especially invited to attend the ceremony Sunday at the Confederate Cemetery. Included in the list of those who were present a century ago were John Barnes, A.L. Brevard, W.W. Casey, J.B. Caudle, John Cavehaugh, J.E. Cloan, J.R. Hughes, T.R. Inman, J.T. Lasley, W.Z. Massengill, Dr. P. Matlock, Hugh McDonald, J.H. McDowell, H.P. McMurray, F.M. McRee, E.N. Moore, R.W. Powell, Rice Ross, W.H. Sanders, W.B. Sowell and C.G. Thomas.
The public is invited to attend this rededication of the historic monuments and to offer respect to those buried in the cemetery, a spokesman said. Those planning to take part are reminded to bring lawn chairs for their comfort.
For more information, contact Sowell at 796-0698.
Published in The Messenger 10.12.09