BUY Rebel Flags For SaleArlene Barnum is not who many people expect to see placing Confederate flags on soldiers’ graves. A 63-year-old African American veteran of the Vietnam War era, she has traveled across the South decorating the graves of fallen Confederate soldiers. In an interview in Ardmore, Oklahoma, she explained her mission and her plans to raise money to restore a Confederate statue in Bryan County, Oklahoma.
Honoring the Dead
For Barnum, decorating graves is about honoring men who served and died, not about politics. Many Confederate soldiers lie in small family plots and country churchyards with no living relatives to visit them. Placing a small flag on a grave is a way of saying that they have not been forgotten. Across the South, volunteers do the same every year on Confederate Memorial Day, which is still observed in several states.
Oklahoma’s Confederate History
Oklahoma was not yet a state during the war. It was Indian Territory, home to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole nations. Most of these nations signed treaties with the Confederacy in 1861 and sent thousands of men to fight for the South. The Choctaw and Chickasaw were among the Confederacy’s most loyal allies.
The last Confederate general to surrender his command was a Cherokee, Brigadier General Stand Watie, who laid down his arms on June 23, 1865, more than two months after Appomattox. Bryan County, where Barnum hoped to restore a statue, lies in what was once the Choctaw Nation.
Keeping the Memory Alive
People like Arlene Barnum show that respect for the Southern soldier crosses every line of race and background. Her work is a reminder that the men in gray were Americans, and that honoring their graves is an act of remembrance shared by people of every walk of life.
Read more about Confederate soldiers from Indian Territory in Confederate Choctaw Nation Soldiers and Cherokee Confederate Soldiers, and honor the fallen with a flag from our Confederate flag collection.
Source: KXII: Cemetery adorned with Confederate flags
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