A monument dedicated to the memory of Confederate soldiers is now a century old. Bradley County's next Civil War sesquicentennial events are planned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter. The 100th anniversary of the monument dedication and dedicating a grave marker of a soldier are events planned for June 11.
Staff Photo by Randall HIggins/Chattanooga Times Free PressCLEVELAND, Tenn.-His stony face has looked north for a century, a local landmark.
One hundred years ago, 50 years after the Civil War began, the United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter here dedicated the monument to the memory of Confederate soldiers.
On June 11, the chapter will hold a rededication of that monument, one of two events that day by the organization as part of Bradley County's Civil War sesquicentennial events taking place the next four years.
The first event will be a 10 a.m. dedication of a grave marker for Sgt. John Alexander Kinser, Company B, 12th Georgia Cavalry CSA, said Robin Ramsey, chapter president. The grave is in the Union Grove Church of Christ Cemetery on Bates Pike.
Kinser's grave did not have a Confederate marker, Ramsey said.
The second dedication is at 2 p.m. at the monument at the split between Ocoee and Broad streets. Ocoee is also part of U.S. 11, or Lee Highway, named for the general.
The monument rededication will take place in the green space next to the Cleveland/Bradley County Public Library, said Melissa Woody, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce's Visitors and Convention Bureau. The guest speaker will be the Tennessee United Daughters of the Confederacy president.
Many UDC members will be in period dress during the events, Ramsey said.
The first of 14 events was held in April to commemorate the raising of the American flag at the county courthouse by Union supporters.
The final Bradley County commemoration will be in October 2015 to mark the anniversary of a town picnic that celebrated the Union victory and the end of the war.