[VAcourier] Oakwood Confederate Cemetery

[Virginia Division SCV Communication List]

Compatriots,


By now many of you have heard of the six upright markers that were 
placed this past week at Oakwood Confederate Cemetery. Officially, the 
Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) has not been signed by myself or 
Richmond City Officials. The paperwork is in the city's legal department 
for review and we are currently waiting hour by hour for a phone call to 
sign the agreement. Please be patient and keep the process in your 
prayers. It's been a long time coming and we are very, very close. We 
were hoping to officially announce the signing at the Hot Springs 
Reunion and even possibly have C-I-C McMichael put his signature to the 
agreement at that time.

As part of the agreement with the City of Richmond, we are obligated to 
only install upright markers in consecutive rows, section by section and 
not randomly. We realize that there will be many inquiring as to the 
placement of their ancestor's marker and even more seeking information 
and further details. Again, we ask your patience. This is a massive 
undertaking and requires much planning and additional research 
confirming and documenting names and the proper burial plots at Oakwood. 
It is our hope and purpose, before each group of stones are installed, 
to list the name of veterans' markers to be installed in the Confederate 
Veteran Magazine, as well as listing each group on the Virginia Division 
Web site at http://www.scvva.org as well as updated announcements about 
Oakwood.

The six upright markers that were installed at Oakwood were ordered 
several years ago by their ancestors and/or at the request of the 
Oakwood Committee. The committee got the verbal okay from the city to 
install the six existing upright markers that we had in storage but no 
randomly placed stones will be installed after these as we must abide by 
the MOA that the city has put before us.

*Unofficially,* it has been mentioned by some of the cemetery workers 
that the Confederate section in Oakwood will be turned over to the 
Virginia Division on August 1st. With God's blessing that the final 
signatures will be obtained within the week, we can get to the business 
of properly marking these Confederate American veterans which is long 
overdue.

And so it begins...


John Sawyer, Commander
Virginia Division SCV
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