Editor, Gazette-Journal:

With the caveat that I am not a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans who erected the flag on Route 14, I shall attempt to answer Dr. Scott’s query (“Who is being welcomed?,” May 10 Readers Write).

The flag isn’t there to welcome anyone. It is there to celebrate our county’s rich Confederate heritage and honor the men and women who served their country, the Confederate States of America, during the four years of its existence and fought an invading army from the north.

In Christ Church Cemetery rests Captain Sally Tompkins, the first woman in all 50 states to hold an officer’s commission. She ran a hospital in Richmond caring for wounded, Confederate and Federal alike. Inside the church are two plaques, one dedicated to Dr. Thomas Lane, a surgeon serving in the Army of Northern Virginia and then doctor serving our county for many years. On another wall, the cenotaph honors Maj. Rev. Giles Buckner Cooke, who, after hel...