Camden Rev War Burial Ceremony

[SCSG-G4]

The Military Vehicle Collectors of South Carolina HMMWVs will be driving the remains of 14 individuals who died in the Battle Of Camden (1780) from Columbia to the Battlefield where they will be given a proper burial. The 'Last Mile' will be on horse drawn caissons furnished by Rev War Renactors from at least four different states. My MKT will be feeding the volunteers participating in the ceremony. Here is the official e-mail >

Honoring Heroes: Camden Burials, International Event of a Lifetime

The South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust has released the schedule of events for the Camden Burials, April 20–22, 2023 for the reinterment of the remains of fourteen Revolutionary War soldiers excavated in the Fall of 2022. Thursday, April 20 Procession from Columbia to Camden: The public is invited to honor these soldiers by assembling on the procession route. The procession will pass through Main Street in Columbia to the State Capital on Gervais Street. After a brief pause, it will continue to Fort Jackson where current Army members will be waiting to pay respects. Past Fort Jackson the cortege will pass by each public school between Fort Jackson and Camden, including the Camden Military Academy. The final stop will be at the Historic Camden campus. Lying In Repose: The public is invited to pay their respects starting Thursday evening at 6:00 PM through midnight Friday. Panel Discussion: Thursday evening from 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M., the Revolutionary War Visitor Center will host a panel discussion with Dr. Mattie Atwell, James Legg, Dr. Steven Smith, and Dr. Bill Stevens about the project and what the forensic and archaeological study has revealed. Friday, April 21 Lying in Repose: until midnight Living history Camp: at Historic Camden. From 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Concert: Friday evening, US Army Old Guard will offer a public concert and a narrated demonstration. The event is free; however, prior registration is required. Saturday April 22 Funeral Cortege & Church Service at 11:00 A.M.: The funeral cortege will leave Historic Camden and make its way to Bethesda Presbyterian Church. The public is invited to watch the cortege along Broad Street and follow the procession to the church. Burial Honors Ceremony at 3:00 P.M.: Camden Battlefield. The battlefield ceremony is open to the public, but due to space limitations prior online registration is required. Please note that the road to the Battlefield will be shut down earlier in the day so parking registration is required. Dinner Theater - Special thank you event for patrons who donated to help make this possible.

“This will be a one-of-a-kind event - the opportunity to respectfully bury these soldiers that did not have that burial with respect in 1780…This is going to be a ceremony that none of us will see again in our lifetime. And, to do so with full military honors is what these soldiers deserve. So on behalf of the SC Battleground Preservation Trust and our many partners, we invite you to Camden in April 2023. ” - Doug Bostick, SCBPT

While most events are free, registration is required to secure parking and entry.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

It is humbling to know that they fought and died in a war between brothers and countrymen.

The Gettysburg Address comes to mind.....



Gettysburg Address


Delivered at Gettysburg, Pa.

Nov. 19th 1863.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. “But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”



May they rest in peace.