SCV Camp 458 held their Confederate Memorial Day service on April 30th at River View and Greenwood Hills Cemeteries, in Portland, Oregon.
This year, we did things a little different than previous years. Division Commander Ernst looked thru our Camp’s database of Confederate Veterans buried in Oregon, and was able to locate 10 CSA Veterans buried in the two Cemeteries. Staff from both Cemeteries helped assist us in locating the graves. Unfortunately two of the 10 Veterans, we were unable to locate.
Everyone arrived 3pm at River View Cemetery. Once we were ready, we all convoyed to each individual Confederate Veteran. We researched and prepared biographies for each one of them. Every one of them had a Battle Flag and beautiful arrangement of flowers placed on their grave.
God blessed us with wonderful weather and a great turnout. We ended our walking/driving tour at Col. Isaac W. Smith’s grave. I spoke of his long military history and his successes as a engineer in the Pacific NW and South America.
I want to thank Commander Willis, Lt. Commander Gillaspie and Secretary Ernst, for doing special presentations on several of the Confederate Veterans.
I also want to thank Larry Farley for outfitting us with a proper Color Guard and Rifle Salute. Our very own Lt. Commander Gillaspie was volunteered to wear the uniform and join the Rifle Salute.
After we left the Cemetery, we headed to DeNicola’s Italian Restaurant for dinner. Commander Willis, Lt. Commander Gillaspie and myself, all did special presentations.
It was a wonderful day of celebration for our fallen Patriots and a great time of fellowship with our brothers and sister in the cause. Thanks to all who attended the 2016 Confederate Memorial Day service!
Sons of Confederate Veterans Pacific NW Division 
Hello, I just dropped off a donation of $30 in the mail for the clean up of the Jeff. Davis monument. I wish that it could be more. You may or may not be aware of the upcoming BLM and other social media warriors event at the O.O. Howard House at Ft. Vancouver on Oct. 3 rd. There was a Sept. 6 th story in The Columbian which dealt with their attempts to remove the heritage markers from the county register. The Historical Society rightly said that the monument is on private property but this isn’t good enough for this group. The public comment period is bound to be dominated by this dangerous terrorist group. Obviously it is all an agenda and I fear what it will be leading up to. I would suspect another assault upon the Ridgefield site on or about the October 3 rd date. I’m not sure what if any security is there now, but perhaps fencing should be considered. Just food for thought. Thanks again to all those who took the time to clean up the monuments.