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The 1st Confederate Memorial Day is Celebrated Wee

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Autograph Letter Signed, 7p. octavo, Richmond, May 29, 1865, with cover addressed to Charles Parkhill in Maryland, it reads in part: "...I must tell you what the ladies of R. are doing for our Confederate Soldiers, who sleep their last sleep beneath the sod. They have organized themselves into two Associations, one known as the Oakwood Memorial Association, and the other as the Hollywood; they are doing all in their power to raise means enough to have their graves turfed and to procure some kinds of head boar to put at each one. I don’t suppose they will be able to get monuments...The tenth of May was observed as the anniversary of the death of ‘Stonewall’ Jackson not only of him but it was the Virginia anniversary of the death of all our brave soldiers. As the paper said the day seemed to do honor to the occassion, it was not one of those bright beautiful spring days nor was it dark with thick lowering clouds, but the sun was hid just enough to prevent it from being oppressive. Great many persons suspended business on that day, and I believe it was generally observed in the south. A crowd of ladies and gentleman went to Oakwood and Hollywood to scatter flowers on the graves of our beloved soldiers, the flowers wil lfade, but the noble deeds of those patriots will ever be fresh in the memory of the Southern people...I never felt as I did when I entered Oakwood Cemetery, it was my first visit to the place, I was astonished to see the numbers of graves, the ground was so level in some places, you would hardly think anyone was buried there except by a piece of board put up at the head with the name of the soldier on it..." More. VG.

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