The Sons of Confederate Veterans, Stuart Horse Artillery Camp 1784 will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 13 at Ray’s Restaurant, Rt. 221, north of Floyd.
Members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy are also invited to attend.
Camp member, Dana Jackson, will speak on ‘Local Confederate POWs who chose to go west and participate in the Indian Wars.’
Jackson speaks about confederates who were recruited from the prison camps to serve in support roles guarding wagon trains, train tracks and payroll, freeing Union soldiers to fight native Americans.
To get out of the horrible conditions of a northern prison camp, an southern insurgent could take the oath of allegiance to the United States and go help fight the Indians.
“About 5,500 took ‘em up on the offer,” Jackson said. There were approximately 300 Virginians and Jackson speaks about the men who came from this area.
In 1866, when southern soldiers were pardoned, troops were discharged, but, those who went west were often disowned for their betrayal of the cause and struck from family Bibles in the South, according to Jackson. Many changed their names and stayed out west.
Jackson, a Fairlawn resident, also speaks about his research in confederates who served 33 years later in the Spanish-American war in the Caribbean.
If Floyd County Public Schools are closed on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week due to weather, the meeting will be cancelled.
For further information, please call 1-216-233-8401 or Dana Jackson at 239-9864.