Almost exactly 100 years to the day after the Soldiers and Sailors Confederate Monument was dedicated on Mathews Court Green, approximately 150 people gathered to rededicate the structure.
Last Wednesday’s program was a blending of some of the old with some of the new. While the expected Civil War re-enactors and several others dressed in period attire participated, the program also included the new generation of Mathews youth taking prominent parts.
The Confederate monument was originally dedicated on Sept. 11, 1912, by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Lane-Armistead Camp 1772 and Sally Tompkins Chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy. Both groups held many fundraising events and received good community support to erect the monument to honor Mathews soldiers and sailors who served the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The monument recognizes the valiant efforts of so many Mathews residents who underwent “untold agony” during the Civil War, said C. Ralph Anderton, commander of Lane-Armistead Camp 1772. The rededication ceremony, he said, was an opportunity to gather to “remember their efforts.”
Walter Scott Hunley said that Mathews soldiers and sailors fought bravely in the war, some making the long trek home following Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865. Many people had to eat green corn simply to survive back then, he said.
Several descendants of Major J.N. Stubbs—the master of ceremonies at the original dedication in 1912—were recognized. Mary Dame Stubbs Broad of Hampton said that Stubbs served with General John Bankhead “Jeb” Magruder when he surrendered his forces in Texas, the last Confederate force to do so. Stubbs died in 1919 at Church Hill in Gloucester, she said.
“They are heroes,” said Janine Burns, chairman of the Mathews County Board of Supervisors, of all the soldiers and sailors who served on both sides during the Civil War.
“We live in complex times,” Burns said, noting that Mathews was then—and still is—a community that works together for the common good. The other four supervisors, along with County Administrator Mindy Moran, were recognized at the program but did not speak.
For many, the end of the Civil War marked four years of “arduous service” in the military, said Wallace Sterling, chairman of the Mathews Sesquicentennial Committee. In referencing Robert E. Lee’s orders given the day after the surrender at Appomattox, Sterling said that the general wanted “to avoid useless sacrifice” as many lives had already been lost in the costly bloodshed.
Sterling, again referencing Lee, said the many brave individuals who served demonstrated valor and devotion.
The program also included short presentations by Tyler Bass and Jonah West, both seniors at Mathews High School. Bass spoke about the history of the monument, while West read the poem “The Men Who Followed Lee.”
The Mathews High School Band, under the direction of Anthony Fillingim played “America.” Fillingim pitched in, playing the tuba.
Other participants included master of ceremonies Morgan C. Pritchett; the Rev. Elisa Wheeler, retired rector of Kingston Episcopal Parish, who delivered the prayer; American Legion Post 83, raising of flags; Lynda Smith Greve, singing the National Anthem; Christine Anthony, president Sally Tompkins Chapter UDC; Marilyn Iglesias, Bonnie Daughtery and Shelby Miles (all dressed in mourning clothes of the Civil War period), laying of wreath; Wally Scheid, playing Taps, and Edmund Ruffin Fire Eaters, SCV Camp 3000 of Mechanicsville, musket volley firing to conclude the rededication.
About 50 seventh graders from Thomas Hunter Middle School also attended, but did not participate in the program.
Sponsors were the Mathews County Historical Society, Mathews County Sesquicentennial Committee, SCV Lane-Armistead Camp 1772, and UDC Sally Tompkins Chapter 2626.