Graveside dedications held for Confederate officers
An honorary musket squad was present for three graveside dedication ceremonies in Medina for three Confederate veterans who received the Southern Cross of Honor Photo Courtesy
Last Saturday, the Sullivan Ross Chapter of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars (MOS&B) dedicated three Medina graves with the installation of the Southern Cross of Honor.
The Southern Cross of Honor was a commemorative medal established in 1899 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to honor Confederate Veterans. Today, it is issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs, placed on graves of Confederate veterans. [8]
Saturday’s dedication occurred during graveside services for Second Lieutenant George Wilson Banta and Captain Charles Michael Richards in Oak Rest Cemetery and Captain George Washington Humphreys in West Prong Cemetery.
The guest of honor for the proceedings was Margie Watkins of Medina, the great granddaughter of Lt. Banta.
“She told us of his escape, while wounded from a Minne Ball in his hip on a bareback horse,” recalled First Lieutenant Dale Tidwell of the Sullivan Ross Chapter.
An honorary rifle squad fired a volley at each grave, and members from Order of the Confederate Rose performed the Black Rose Ceremony at each grave.
Following the event, the group gathered at Brick’s Riverside Cafe in Bandera for lunch.
MOS&B was founded in 1938 in Columbia, South Carolina, at a meeting attended by 17 former Confederate officers and 47 descendants of Confederate officers.
The organization’s website says membership is open to direct or collateral descendants of Confederate officers who served honorably in the Confederate military, elected or appointed civilian officials of the individual Confederate States, officials of the Confederate National government, and officials of the Five Civilized Tribes that allied with the Confederacy
According to the organization’s handbook, members pledge to "commemorate and honor the service of leadership these men rendered in the cause of the fundamental American principles of self-determination and States' Rights and to perpetuate the true history of their deeds for the edification of ourselves, our society, and for generations yet unborn.”