Confederate groups honor black soldiers

Roanoke Times ^ | Sunday, September 08, 2002 | KEISHA STEWART

[stainlessbanner]

Soldiers were 'patriots who loved our Southland and suffered in its defense'

The United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated memorials to three black soldiers from Franklin County.

---

The time came for Creed Holland to get the recognition he was due.

He was a black slave, but also a Confederate soldier.

And for such, Creed Holland was honored Saturday morning at a graveside ceremony in a small cemetery behind Riverview Baptist Church in Rocky Mount.

The Jubal Early chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated Confederate memorial markers to Creed Holland and two other black Confederate soldiers, also named Holland, from Franklin County.

Hazel Holland Davis, a member of the Jubal Early chapter and great-granddaughter of a Confederate soldier, organized the service as part of a chapterwide project to identify Confederate soldiers' graves in Franklin County.

The three Holland soldiers, of no known relation to each other or to Davis, worked as slaves on Thomas J. Holland's 732-acre farm in Glade Hill. Thomas Holland was Davis' great-great-grandfather.

The service was a rare memorial that honored the little-known Confederate soldiers: enslaved black soldiers.

About 45 Confederate re-enactors and members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans performed the ceremony, which included poems, speeches, prayers and customary military funeral rites such as cannonball volleys and rifle shots.

William Daniel Holland, great-grandson of Creed Holland, welcomed the crowd of about 60 people. He called the service a gathering of all people.

"Today is a day of unification," said William Daniel Holland, 33, of Atlanta.

Sam Lougheed, Virginia president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, described the three black soldiers as "patriots who loved our Southland and suffered in its defense." Lougheed, of Stafford, called the three Hollands "Confederate heroes."

Brag Bowling, state commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, used the service as a platform.

"Southern heritage is becoming a cutting social, cultural and political issue in the landscape of Virginia," Bowling said. He urged the crowd to back those behind a monument protection bill that would thwart efforts to rename buildings and monuments.

Sen. Charles Hawkins, R-Chatham, in a spirited speech, pointed to a female re-enactor dressed in a black dress and veil, standing before Creed Holland's grave.

"We need to come to grips with the ghosts of our past by understanding our history," Hawkins said. "We need to understand this history if we are to grow and prosper."

Linda Stanley of the Franklin County Historical Society said the Confederate government required slaveowners to offer a certain percentage of their slaves to the war effort, possibly explaining the three Holland men's involvement in the war.

According to federal pension records, Creed Holland worked as a teamster, hauling supplies for soldiers. Cornelius Holland worked under Jubal Early as a cook. Claiborne Holland performed breastwork, which involved erecting earthen walls from which soldiers protected themselves in battle.

Davis and William Daniel Holland knew of their families' connection. But both families found out about Creed Holland's status as a Confederate veteran this year, William Daniel Holland said.

Davis, 61, a retired teacher living on her family's Glade Hill farm, asked Creed Holland's descendants if they were interested in having a Confederate marker and a ceremony at Creed Holland's grave. They agreed.

William Daniel Holland, along with his brother John Wayne Holland, 47, a Yokohama tire finisher from Roanoke, and another brother are members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Their sister Wanda Holland Chewning, 46, an artist living in Penhook, is a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Their grandfather Sam Holland, 75, of Glade Hill, a retired worker for Fleetwood Homes, appreciated the ceremony for Creed Holland. "I'm glad they remember him," he said.

At the end of the ceremony, Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander Robert "Red" Barbour presented a folded Confederate flag to Sam Holland as Creed Holland's oldest known living relative.

The second part of the ceremony ended at Davis' Glade Hill farm off Virginia 40. There, Daughters members placed two magnolia wreaths for Cornelius and Claiborne Holland in the Holland family cemetery. Davis cannot find descendants of the two, or their graves.

[Non-Sequitur]

there were at least 100,000 blacks, about 50,000 indians (my ancestor was one of them) & about 40,000 latinos (mostly Mexican or Cuban nationality)that served the CSA.

Oh yeah? Well there were at least 500,000 blacks, 200,000 Indains, 310,000 Latinos, 110,000 Chinese, 78,000 Japanese, 29,930 Koreans, 11,310 Eskimos, and 1 native Hawaiian islander in the Union army.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

"Its time heros on both sides be recognized for their sacrifices for their country however they defined that term."

Well said. And so was this:

"Today is a day of unification," said William Daniel Holland, 33, of Atlanta."

BRAVO to both statements, and to the soldiers who died for this country.

[stand watie]

i can't tell where you are (twilight zone or wherever), but i fear you perfectly fit the term of scalawag. if so i am sad for/about you.

no decent son of the southland should feel as you do, imVho.

honoring our sacred battleflag as a symbol of our heritage, ancestors & separate culture is no more blasphemy than honoring a representation of the cross at a church. surely nobody thinks that our Savior hung on every cross, at every place of worship in the country!

and IF you are a scalawag, i.e. not on the side of the true southrons, then i'll have no more to say to you, except: go in peace.

free the southland,sw

[rdb3]

Excuse me, but Christ died on the Cross (which was the first step in securing Salvation for the believer), and your analogy of a flag to the Cross is blasphemous.

Scalawag? Ummm... You have to be white to be one, I believe. If I'm white, I'm the darkest white man on earth. Also, Reconstruction was in the late 19th century. I wasn't born until 1971.

The lights are on, but nobody's home. You need some help. Seriously. You're not well.

The elevator isn't going all the way up to the top in your brain.

[stand watie]

scalawags come in both genders,various ages, all religions & all colors. pardon me, but i think your "publick screwl edumacation" is showing.

what scalawgs all have in common is their hateful blindness to the TRUTH about the south's struggle for independence AND their adherence to the hatefilled, arrogant, ignorant, anti-semitic, all too often racist, self-righteous, imperialist, damnyankee cause.

we loyal southrons, especially from the "old rebel families", regard their stance as collaboration with the enemy.

FYI, i'm NOT white either.

FREE the southland,sw

[rdb3]

scalawags come in both genders,various ages, all religions & all colors. pardon me, but i think your "publick screwl edumacation" is showing.

Here your assumption is false. I didn't graduate high school in a public school system. But thanx anyway.

what scalawgs all have in common is their hateful blindness to the TRUTH about the south's struggle for independence AND their adherence to the hatefilled, arrogant, ignorant, anti-semitic, all too often racist, self-righteous, imperialist, damnyankee cause.

You need 911 to come and sweep you away to the emergency room.

we loyal southrons, especially from the "old rebel families", regard their stance as collaboration with the enemy.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?!?

[stand watie]

it is seemingly always true that damnfools/damnyankees/scalawags ALWAYS try ridicule and/or "ad hominum" attacks to try and hurt others. you seem to fit at least two of those groups.

you might also look under "dunce" in the dictionary;i think you'll find your likeness there.

free dixie,sw

[rdb3]

it is seemingly always true that damnfools/damnyankees/scalawags ALWAYS try ridicule and/or "ad hominum"...

No, I won't go there. That's just to easy.

[stand watie]

not too easy for YOU! scalawags are beneath comtempt.

free dixie,sw

[rdb3]

Guys, come get your friend. He's gone off the deep end.

[catfish1957]

okay...where are all the jerks that claim that SCV is a racist organization?