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Civil War veteran gets new gravestone
Regan Hill photo
Saturday’s grave dedication ceremony included a gun volley salute.
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Published: June 21, 2009
They were there to take part in a small chapter about a larger story; a story about the South.
Two women mourners were dressed in black from head to toe and stood to the side as the bishop made remarks about the dearly departed, and a small brigade of soldiers moved to orders barked out by a superior officer.
The woman would later lay a wreath on the bright new tombstone and the soldiers would offer a gun volley salute.
But the honored dead had died 115 years ago.
The event was the adding of a new military grave marker to the tomb of a once prominent Statesville resident and Civil War officer during a rededication service Saturday morning at Statesville's Oakwood Cemetery.
The ceremony recalled the life and dedication to the Confederate cause of E. Haynes Davis, a Statesville attorney and officer in different North Carolina militia groups during the Civil War.
Davis, who served as a captain, lieutenant and drillmaster, later became the executive officer of the conscription district out of Mecklenburg County. And later still he served as the inspector general of another unit.
In March 1865, Davis sustained an injury to his right arm during combat and subsequently was forced to have it amputated.
That last bit of information is etched into Davis' original grave marker, the legibility of which has been eroded by time.
Civil War aficionado Bobby Turner came across the old granite stone while laying flags on the graves of his ancestors whose burial plots are nearby.
When he discovered it, he said, "It was almost hidden."
Turner than went to work getting Davis a new grave marker.
He contacted Donald Archer of the Major Absalom Knox Chapter of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars (MOSB).
According to its Web site, the MOSB is "a fraternal organization comprised of descendants of the Confederate Government, officer corps, and civil officials."
Archer said his chapter has recently taken on the task of supplying new grave markers for Confederate soldiers in Iredell County if the old one is missing or unreadable.
The markers are supplied by federal government as part of a veteran's program.
"It takes filling out about four times more paperwork than is actually needed," Archer said. "But I think it's still a great thing the government does for our veterans from every war from the Revolutionary War all the way to Iraq."
The Davis marker is the group's second project. Last year, the MOSB was involved in having a new stone place at the grave of Augustus Byers, a Confederate soldier, killed in battle, who is buried in the cemetery of Baptist Primitive Church.
Archer said his group has already identified some 1,400 Confederate soldiers buried in Iredell County and said the number will probably top 2,000 before the search ends.
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