Photographs and Video of the Confederate Memorial at Ole Miss – May 4, 2014

University, Miss. (TLV) – On Sunday, May 4, 2014,  a memorial service was held for Confederate soldiers buried on the University of Mississippi campus. Over 160 people attended the event which included reenactors, speakers, music, food, and plenty of flags.

The memorial was held at the Confederate cemetery located right behind Tad Smith Coliseum on the Ole Miss campus. Over 1,000 Conderate soldiers are buried there. Most of them fought at the 1862 Battle of Shiloh. The Ole Miss campus served as a hospital during the Civil War and it was controlled by both sides at various points in the war. Originally there were Union soldiers buried here as well, but after the war they were reinterred at the National Cemetery in Corinth, Mississippi.

The University Greys chapter of  Oxford, Mississippi along with the Bedford Forrest Chapter of Hernando of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and the United Daughters of the Confederacy hosts the memorial service each year on the first Sunday of May.

Speakers included Larry Mardis and Jon Rawls of the University Greys  and prayers by Rev. James Taylor of the Calhoun Avengers SCV.

The featured speaker was Stephen Enzweiler, author of Oxford In The Civil War. Enzweiler gave a fascinating speech that detailed the lives of several of the soldiers who fought in the war and were buried in the cemetery. He also spoke of the doctors and nurses who tended to the wounded soldiers at the Ole Miss hospital, and Oxford’s importance to both sides who fought during the Civil War.

Music was played by Alan Sibley & The Magnolia Ramblers, an acoustic quartet which included a guitarist, double bass, banjo, and violin The Forrest Highlanders held a bagpipe procession. A wreath was presented by Frances and Boyce DeLashmit  and laid at the center of the cemetery.

In previous years, the SCV’s memorial service has held gun salutes and cannon fire, however the Ole Miss campus police arrived before the service, and disallowed gun fire of any kind.

All photographs by Newt Rayburn  © May 4, 2014.