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Descendants of South Carolina troops place monument to state's courageous soldiers at Spotsylvania Court House battlefield's Bloody Angle
BY CLINT SCHEMMER It didn't come with a bow or wrapping paper, but a very big gift was presented to the nation on Good Friday near Spotsylvania Courthouse. South Carolinians arrived early yesterday on the most storied part of the Civil War battlefield, bearing a 61/2-ton present from their home. The volunteers, aided by a couple of Virginians, loosened the ties on a 9-foot-tall monument they trucked 470 miles from Laurens, S.C. A crane carefully swung and lowered the granite onto a pre-made concrete bed, decorated with a Confederate battle flag for the occasion. Their handiwork, set between a path and a tree line, will be the first thing that visitors see when they tour the Spotsylvania battlefield's famed Bloody Angle--scene of what the National Park Service says was the most prolonged hand-to-hand combat of the whole war. "If you have any Southern ancestors that fought for the Confederacy, it's something that everybody is going to be proud of," said Gary Davis, an officer of the Sons of Confederate Veterans camp in Laurens that created the monument. "It wasn't just South Carolinians. There were North Carolinians, Louisianians, Mississippians all the way down through here," Davis said, motioning back and forth toward the sector's well-preserved trench lines, now part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. "It's a rarity to get a monument put in a national park these days, and we've done that." The imposing new memorial honors the South Carolina brigade--five regiments, with some 1,300 troops--commanded by Brig. Gen. Samuel McGowan during the fierce fighting there on May 12, 1864. Davis' SCV camp is named for the general, a Laurens County native wounded as 2,500 Confederates rushed to plug the breach a Union attack blew in a mule-shoe-shaped bulge in the Southerners' line. Fighting without relief or support for 18 to 20 hours, McGowan's Brigade repelled the Northerners and held the earthworks at what became known as the "Bloody Angle" until Gen. Robert E. Lee could create a second defensive line.
Date published: 4/11/2009
Chriswald,
I gather by reading your post you must be severely historically challenged. A comparison of the Confederate constitution and the United States constitution you will see they almost mirror each other. Only street corner historians whose knowledge of history is lacking compare the CSA to the Nazi's. History proves this is a lie. Feel free to wallow in your mud hole of ignorance.
George Purvis
http://southernheritageadvancementpreservationeducation.com
...he justified that seemingly callous act by distinguishing between honoring the young men ("victims" in his words) who were "drafted into service to carry out the hateful wishes of the Nazis", and honoring Nazism itself. The McGowan Brigade Monument is a fitting tribute honoring brave soldiers who died in a misguided attempt to subvert the Constitution and attack the United States of America. No one should misinterpret this monument as a tribute to the Confederacy.
Thank you for this well writen article. I enjoyed it very much.
I realized how far from home our Confederate soldiers traveled in their attempt to preserve our Constitution in their 2nd War for Independence.
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