Greetings Cosmic Americans!Last Saturday was Confederate Memorial Day. Now when talking about Rebel graves, most people associate Hollywood with the cemetery in Richmond. But here in Hollywood California we have our very own Confederate monument - at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Santa Monica Blvd. - a mere few blocks from Cosmic America HQ.
As I have mentioned, a good many Civil War veterans moved west after the war to seek their fortunes or otherwise benefit from the perfect...yes perfect climate we enjoy here in Southern California. They did a lot of the same things their comrades did in the East - they formed organizations and participated in Civil War commemorative activities. When they died, many were buried in plots throughout the area maintained by their organizations. In the case of the Confederate plot and monument in Hollywood Forever, we can thank the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Saturday's turnout was pretty light. In the Daughters' defense, there was a big reenactment going on at Pierce College, which more than likely lured the main Confederate contingent to the Valley. And there was little else alerting the general pubic to the event. As you may remember, the Daughters' have had some trouble in the past with issues concerning placement of Confederate flags at the cemetery - they fought and won a case to allow for such activities.
But from what I understand, the Daughters want the event to fly under the radar anyway. On the Thursday prior to the event, I briefly discussed Saturday's ceremony with UDC representative Margaret Alley. She was hesitant to publicize the event for fear of vandalism. In her words..."The neighborhood has gotten...well...shall we say..."dark" over the years - if you know what I mean." She feared that these "dark" (again...her word, not mine) people would take offense to Confederate activity and damage their monument. I'll let you make what you will of Ms. Alley's comments. But I think you can get the drift.
Below are a number of pictures from Saturday's memorial festivities. I'll place some video on my Youtube channel in short order - so you can get the full experience.
Deo Vindice (maybe)
Keith
That's interesting. I wondered about the different flags in the bottom picture, but zooming in it looks like the First National is placed over the graves of spouses, while some variant of the CBF is placed over the graves of actual veterans. I don't think I've seen that distinction made before.
ReplyDeleteI made a similar observation - and found it odd as well. The first national flags were on graves of UDC members. And yes, the battle flags (both square and rectangular) flew over the graves of veterans.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense to me -- soldiers vs. civilians. I just hadn't seen it done that way.
ReplyDelete