“Yasser Boss”: Old Jeff Mabry Attends a Reunion

Rare film footage from the 1914 reunion of the United Confederate Veterans in Jacksonville, Florida, captures a remarkable moment. Among the gray-haired veterans, a former slave named Jeff Mabry is introduced to the camera. Mabry does not appear to be wearing a uniform, but he proudly wears at least one reunion ribbon, a sign that this was probably not his first reunion.

The Great Reunions

From 1890 until the 1950s, the United Confederate Veterans held large reunions in cities across the South. Thousands of veterans came each year to march in parades, attend speeches and share memories with the men they had served beside. Host cities decorated their streets, and local families opened their homes to the old soldiers. The 1914 reunion in Jacksonville came just weeks before the start of World War I in Europe, when many of the veterans were in their 70s and 80s.

Camp Servants at the Reunions

Jeff Mabry was one of a number of Black men who attended Confederate reunions. Most had served as camp servants, cooking, carrying supplies and caring for officers or soldiers in the field. Some had followed their masters to war, and a few had been present in some of the war’s great battles. Decades later, many of these men came back to reunions to see the veterans they had known.

Several Southern states eventually granted small pensions to former camp servants who could prove they had served with Confederate units. Mississippi did so in 1888, and Tennessee followed in 1921. Historians continue to debate how these men should be understood, but their presence at the reunions is a real and fascinating part of Southern history.

Why the Footage Matters

Moving pictures of Confederate veterans are rare. Footage like the Jacksonville film lets us see the men and women of that generation as they really were, walking, talking and smiling for the camera. Jeff Mabry’s brief appearance is a reminder that the story of the war, and of how the South remembered it, includes many people whose stories are rarely told.

Read more in How the South Remembers the War, and browse our Confederate flag collection.

Source: Civil War Memory: “Yasser Boss”: Old Jeff Mabry Attends a Reunion

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