Associated Press

COLUMBIA, Mo. • Missouri lawmakers have set aside $375,000 to make repairs to a Civil War monument at a Mississippi historic site, but state Department of Natural Resources officials say the money is coming from the wrong fund and can't be used for that purpose.

The Missouri monument at the Vicksburg National Battlefield needs stone and metal work, which heritage groups want to be finished in time for an October 2017 rededication ceremony on the 100th anniversary of its unveiling, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

Missouri's monument is the first — and for nearly 100 years the only — memorial honoring Confederate and Union soldiers who fought at Vicksburg, Miss.

Lawmakers appropriated money from the State Parks Earnings Fund, which consists of cash donations and revenue from contracts and concessions at state parks.

The DNR "doesn't oppose" efforts to restore the monument, acting general counsel Marty Miller wrote on Friday to Dale Crandell, commander of the Sons of Union Veterans Westport Camp 64 in Kansas City.

"However ... the State Parks Earnings Fund is simply not an appropriate funding mechanism for this project, which is located outside of Missouri on land neither owned nor controlled by the department," Miller wrote.

That decision could endanger the timeline for completing work before the centennial, Crandell said.

State legislators return to work on Jan. 6, but if a new funding source is needed, no money can be spent until after July 1 unless Gov. Jay Nixon requests it in a supplemental appropriation.

DNR's decision requires more explanation once budget hearings begin, said Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, a Columbia Republican.

"I think it would be appropriate to find another source of funds if that is the problem," Schaefer said.

Missouri was deeply divided over the issue of slavery and which side to take in the Civil War. More than 100,000 men fought for the Union in federal and state units, while more than 40,000 fought for the Confederacy.

Missouri taxpayers paid $40,000 to install the monument in 1917.

"I think the legislature wanted to see Missouri represented well in that monument," Schaefer said.

Arlington Cemetery- Confederate Monument

The fallen figure of a woman, also representing “The South”, leans on a shield emblazoned with the words “The Constitution” as a symbol of what the UDC believed the South fought for.

A figure representing “The South” stumbles while clutching a shield representing the Constitution of the United States on the south face of the Confederate Monument at Arlington National Cemtery in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States. Mineva, goddess of war, supports her. American historians agree that many of the civic wounds created by the American Civil War were healed by the feelings of common cause generated during Spanish-American War. In June 1900, the U.S. Congress passed legislation setting aside Section 16 of the cemetery for the burial of Confederate States of America war dead. Many Confederate dead were already buried at the cemetery, and were memorialized by the Civil War Unknowns Monument. But the new area of the cemetery would allow for individual burial of those whose identities were known.

By December 1901, 482 Confederate remains were disinterred at the cemeteries at Alexandria, Virginia; the Soldiers’ Home in Washington, D.C.; and portions of Arlington National Cemetery and reinterred in concentric circles in Section 16. Their headstones were given a pointed top, to indicate that they were Confederate graves. 

Shortly thereafter, the United Daughters of the Confederacy asked that a memorial to the Confederate dead be erected in Section 16. Secretary of War William Howard Taft granted the request on March 4, 1906. Confederate veteran and nationally-known sculptor Moses Ezekiel was commissioned to design and sculpt the monument. It was cast and manufactured by Aktien-Gesellschaft Gladenbeck of Berlin, Germany. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_Memorial_%28Arlington_National_Cemetery%29#/media/File:Confederate_Monument_-_S_frieze_detail_-_Arlington_National_Cemetery_-_2011.JPG

from: thecivilwarparlorthecivilwarparlor.tumblr.com

BY CAROLYN P. SMITH

News-Democrat

The mission of making sure that eight men who answered the call to patriotism and service of the United States was not forgotten Saturday as a crowd braved temperatures in the low 30s to celebrate their memories and legacy.

The event was the dedication ceremony for the Veterans Monument at Messinger Cemetery at 3450 Old Collinsville Road near Swansea.

The monument is in honor of the eight veterans buried in the cemetery:

John Messinger, who served in the Blackhawk War; Pvt. John Altman, Pvt. H.B. Bevirt, Pvt. William A. Isaacs, Cpl. Daniel J.M. Phillips, Cpl. George D. Rittenhouse and Pvt. William H. Rutherford, who served in Company 1, 117th Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War; and F1C John E. Neill, who served in the U.S. Navy in World War I.

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2014/08/07/persistence-genealogy-group/13751107/

Link to video

Art Holliday, KSDK

ST. LOUIS - A local genealogy organization is pleasantly surprised it successfully lobbied the Department of Veterans Affairs for a group of soldiers who no longer have a voice.

Newschannel 5 first met Sarah Cato in April 2013 at a meeting of the St. Louis African American History and Genealogy Society. The group's goal: come to the rescue of the 56th U.S. Colored Infantry, Missouri slaves who fought for the Union Army in the Civil War.

Sicangue Lakotah member Eric LaPointe finds his grandfather Black Bear’s name on the Zuya Wicasa panel of the Indian Memorial at the Little Bighorn National Monument in Garryowen. Six of LaPointe’s ancestors are listed on the panel. A ceremony Wednesday marked the completion of the memorial to Indian warriors 138 years after their defeat of the 7th Cavalry. (AP Photo)

By SUSAN OLP/The Billings Gazette

Members of Delaware Grays Camp 2068, Sons of Confederate Veterans of Seaford, include, from left, John Zoch, Richard Jamison, camp commander Jeff Plummer and Mark Brown. / staff photo by brice stump

 'All veterans should be honored, regardless of which side they were on'

Written by Brice Stump

GEORGETOWN — With the passing of almost 150 years since the end of the Civil War, there has been only one Confederate memorial in Delaware. A granite memorial, almost 14 feet tall, was placed on the grounds of the Nutter B. Marvel Museum in Georgetown in 2007.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans “Delaware Grays” Camp No. 2068 in Seaford, the United Daughters of the Confederacy “Caleb Ross” Chapter No. 2635 and the Georgetown Historical Society sponsored the construction of the monument. The cost of the memorial was underwritten by private organizations and donations, with no public or governmental sponsorship.

“Up until the Delaware Confederate Monument was placed here, there was not a single Confederate memorial in Delaware,” said camp adjutant John Zoch. “The only mention of a Confederate serving from Delaware is on a monument in Gettysburg.”

“We did this to honor the brave Delaware Confederates that left their homes and state to serve and fight for the South,” said Jeff Plummer, camp commander. “We have researched names of individuals from Delaware who served, and their names are inscribed on the monument.

“Though Delaware was a border state historically, New Castle County was pro-North and Kent and Sussex counties were pro-South. Obviously there were split loyalties within the state. Delaware was a slave state, and the majority of slaves were in Sussex County, a county tied to the economy of the rural South.”

North and South share cemeteries

The Seaford-based camp had initially requested the monument be placed on the grounds of the Gov. William H. Ross Mansion and Plantation in Seaford. The historical group there said the monument was not in keeping with the rural character of the site. Ross, whose name is among the 140 names presently cut into the stone, aided the Confederacy, and his son, Caleb, died while in Confederate service.

As for the granite, it was mandated that it come from a quarry in the South. Samuel “S.J.” Disharoon of Salisbury Monument said he personally made the 1,320-mile round trip to the quarry in Georgia to get the gray stone. According to Disharoon, the custom-cut stone memorial weighs about 28,000 pounds.

Conitinue reading at :http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20140330/NEWS35/303290039/A-monumental-honor-Giving-Confederate-soldiers-their-due

Greg Toppo, USATODAY

From USA Today

LEESBURG, Va. — On a busy stretch of suburban highway an hour's drive south of the Mason-Dixon Line, workers are digging holes in a grass median, then carefully planting thin, delicate trees: oak, maple, cedar and dogwood — 108 in all — before winter sets in.

The planting looks like a typical highway beautification, but it's part of a quiet effort that seeks to answer a very big question: 150 years after the end of the Civil War, can trees heal the nation's soul?

An estimated 620,000 soldiers died fighting from 1861 to 1865, far more than in any war Americans have fought since. Yet for all the intensity surrounding the war's 150th anniversary, almost no one — including most historians — can say for sure exactly how many died, or who nearly half of the dead were. Many soldiers, especially those who fought for the South, never received a proper burial.