David Messer, Federick Messer's Nephew Died at Chicago's Camp Douglas

George Washington Messer, Federick's brother died in 1862 at the age of 64 or 65.  No service in the Confederate Army is mentioned.

He did have a son in the Confederate Army, though, David Messer born in 1828 and died in 1864, in Chicago, Illinois.

He enlisted as a private in Company C of the 62nd North Carolina Infantry  in Waynesville, North Carolina, on July 14, 1862.  He was captured at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, on September 9, 1863, and sent to Louisville, Kentucky, and later confined at Camp Douglas in Chicago.

On August 11, 1864, he died of dysentery and is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago in grave #1264 (Confederate Mound).

My Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp, Camp Douglas, has had a ceremony at the Confederate Mound every year except this one.

--Old Secesh

Removal of Confederate Mound in Chicago-- Part 2

Both groups are planning on peaceful events in April.

Said, SCV Camp Douglas Commander Matthew Evans:  "We respect their right to the First Amendment.  We respect their right to gather, but it is a two-way road.  We hope that they can respect our presence there at Confederate Mound and realize that this ceremony is not to divide or open old wounds, but to pay respect for the dead.

"Confederate Mound is not a monument, but a headstone for 6,000 men who never got to go home."

****************

I came across this article in the April 5,2018, Suburban Chicagoland paper.

"Later in the month, on April 22, Smash White Supremacy will come together to stand against the annual white supremacist gathering held by the Sons of the Confederacy.  This will be from 11-1 at the confederate mound in the cemetery."

I Sure Didn't Know That Honoring Your Dead, Especially Thousands Who Died As Prisoners Was a White Supremacist Thing.  --Old Secesh

Upcoming Protest Calls for Removal of Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery-- Part 1

From the April 18, 2019, Chicago Weekly Citizen by Katherine Newman.

The Camp Douglas Camp #516 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (which is named after the Union prison in Chicago in which some 6,000 Confederates died during the war) will hold a memorial service on April 22 at the Confederate Mound, where at least 4,000 victims are buried, in Oak Woods Cemetery. 

They will be met by a group calling themselves Smash White Supremacy.

Matthew Evans, the commander of the SCV group said:  We gather to honor the 6,000 men buried at Confederate Mound, who suffered through harsh winters, extreme summer temperature, starvation, human cruelty by the hands of Federal guards, only to die in a prison camp and never return home."

Both groups are planning a peaceful event near each other on April 22.

--Old Secesh

Black Group Disrupts Confederate Service in Chicago-- Part 2

Oak Woods Cemetery is at 67th and Cottage Grove streets in Chicago.  It was established in 1853.

Famous Blacks former Mayor Harold Washington and Olympian Jesse Owens are both buried there.  Other famous black people buried there are Thomas A. Dorsey (Father of Gospel Music) and Eunice and John H. Johnson, entrepreneurs.

The Confederate Mound, as the site in the cemetery is called, is the final resting place of some 4,000 victims of the Union prison called Camp Douglas who were buried there.  The prison camp was located in Bronzeville on the grounds of Stephen Douglas' land.

It features a 30 foot tall granite column with a Confederate soldier on top.  bronze plaques around the base list the names of 4,000 Confederates who died there.

It sits on federally-owned land run by the Veterans Administration.

It is Sad When a Group Does Not Pay Respect to American Veterans.  --Old Secesh

Camp Douglas Prison-- The Andersonville of the North-- Part 4

Gary Flavion's article "Civil War Prison Camps" says that these prisoners were potentially more dangerous and terrifying than the battles themselves.  Some 56,000 men died in prison camps over the course of the war.  That exceeds American losses in World War I, Korea and Vietnam.

Brent Harvey wrote about a memorial service carried out at the Camp Douglas Monument at Oak Woods cemetery in Chicago on April 29, 2007.  This was put on by the Camp Douglas camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  His website also gives information on his five direct ancestors and 24 other relatives who served in Co. B of the 8th Missouri Cavalry, CSA.

She was impressed by a quote on his website by Confederate General John B. Gordon saying: "For the future glory of the Republic, it is absolutely inmaterial whether on this battlefield or that, the Blue or Gray won a great victory, for, thanks to God, every victory won in that War by either side was a monument to American valor."

--Old Secesh

Camp Douglas Prison -- Andersonville of the North-- Part 2

Continued from Friday, May 8th.

There is only one monument to those Confederates who died at Camp Douglas in Chicago and, it is an impressive one, but not at the camp's site.  It is at Chicago's famous Oak Woods Cemetery at 1035 E. 67th Street in what is called "The Confederate Mound" where at l;east 6,000 are buried (4,200 known, the rest unknown).  They are buried in a mass grave on one acre of land.

The monument was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1895 and reads:  "To the memory of the six thousand Southern soldiers here buried... who died in Camp Douglas prison ... 1862-65."  This is the largest mass burial in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Every April, the Camp Douglas Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, based in the Chicagoland area, holds a memorial service for the dead at the mound.

The dead interred in the mound had previously been buried in paupers graves in Chicago's City Cemetery but were moved in 1867 to make way for the creation of Lincoln Park.  Who knows how many bodies are still buried there?

--Old Secesh