For 24 years, the Arkansas Division Sons of Confederate Veterans have paid their respect to Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne during a memorial service. This Sunday was no different with several regiments and onlookers saluting the “Stonewall Jackson” of the South at the Confederate cemetery overlooking the Mississippi River and others souls buried in Maple Hill Cemetery.
W. Danny Honnoll, commander of the Shaver Camp No. 1655 and president of the Civil War Heritage Trails Foundation of Jonesboro welcomed the a group of Cleburne admirers.
While giving the invocation, Chaplain Andy Taylor of the Cleburne Camp No. 1433 of Pine Bluff spoke of the men of days gone by and asked for God to bless the souls of all of the individuals that fought in the war.
Greetings were brought by Elisabethe Kalkbrenner of the Children of the Confederacy of Pine Bluff, Capt. M. Ray Jones of Jonesboro Division, SCV, W. Danny Honnoll of the Military Order Stars and Bars, and Capt. Mark Kalkbrenner, Co. D., 1st Ark. Inf., of Pine Bluff on behalf of the re-enactors of Arkansas units.
The Cleburne Camp No. 1433 of Pine Bluff, Newton Camp No. 194 of Little Rock and the Shaver Camp No. 1655 of Jonesboro sponsored the event.
Doyle Taylor and David Taylor, both of the Co. D., 1st Ark. Inf., of Pine Bluff were the posted honor guard beside Cleburne’s monument during the service, reported Honnoll.
Honnoll reminded the gathering that Generals Thomas C. Hindman, James Tappen, Lucis Polk, Archibald Dobbins, Charles W. Adams, Daniel C. Govan and Cleburne, all hailed from Helena and the Arkansas Delta.
“They were friends before the war and four of them are honored here at the
Evergreen Cemetery and Confederate Cemetery at Helena. Hindman is at the base of Crowley’s Ridge, Tappen’s at the next level, Dobbin’s has a headstone in his memory in the Confederate part of Evergreen and Cleburne at the crest of this very ridge,” said Honnell during the invocation andafter giving a brief history of Helena’ generals. He told the gathering “these hills knew Cleburne as a young man full of life. Cleburne was athletic in stature and handsome to the eye.”
“He came to Helena working in the medicine field and ended up an attorney, just like his Masonic friends of Helena,” he continued.
Honnoll went on to say that Cleburne was Vice President of the Democratic Party in Helena while Honnoll’s distant cousin, Senator William King Sebastian, was president of the Democratic Party.
During the memorial, Honnoll called on Bobbie Barnett of Ravenden
to reenact the laying of the flowers, at the base of Cleburne’s Monument. Barnett was wearing a black period mourning dress and veil.
Capt. M. Ray Jones of the Shaver Camp, wearing a period Confederate uniform, escorted Barnett to the grave where she laid fresh flowers in honor of Cleburne.
Kalkbrenner was called on to perform a Masonic Memorial in honor of Cleburne, who was also a Masonic member, attending lodges across the south, including one in Tenn.
Kalkbrenner turned the service over to Lt. Robert Hutcheson to do Masonic honors for Cleburne. Master Masons surrounded Cleburne’s grave and laid green branches, flowers, a sword and a pistol as symbols of Cleburne’s life.
The re-enactors fired three volleys into the air and prayers were recited for the fallen general.
Helena-West Helena, Ark. —
