Savannah Chapter #2 United Daughters of the Confederacy

08/19/2026

Why the Lafayette County Confederate Monument in Oxford, Mississippi Faces South

The Confederate monument on the Lafayette County Courthouse lawn in Oxford faces south deliberately. That decision belonged to Sally Murray Falkner, William Faulkner’s grandmother and a determined member of the local United Daughters of the Confederacy.

She and the other UDC ladies spent years raising money for a monument to the 432 Lafayette County men who never returned—over one-quarter of all the boys the county sent to fight!

While she was away seeking treatment for cancer, the chapter voted to place the monument at the University of Mississippi so students would daily see the cost of duty. That statue went up in 1906 and faces east.

When Sally returned and found “her” monument on campus instead of the courthouse square—where nearly every Southern town put its memorial—she refused to accept it. She went to the United Confederate Veterans and demanded a second monument on the courthouse lawn. The veterans preferred the north side. She insisted on the south side, so the soldier would stand with his back defiantly to the North. She died of cancer before it was erected.

Her grandson later recorded that she wanted the figure turned away from the invaders and hoped to see it from her home on South Lamar.

The monument’s southern face remains a quiet reminder: the men of Lafayette County faced north when called. Their monument faces south so no one forgets which way they stood. -RJ.

(Photo I took with my drone a couple years ago. -RJ)

08/17/2026

08/17/2026

The year is 1948, and the man pictured is 92-year old William W. Alexander.

Not only was he a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (his father served bravely in the 49th NC Infantry), but he was also a member of the United Confederate Veterans by virtue of his service as a Scout for the Southern Army when he was just a boy around the end of the war.

He once told a reporter, "I was [there] when Sherman started coming through South Carolina, and they put me and another man to burying gold & other valuables to keep the Yankees from getting them. Then they sent us to guard a railroad bridge.

"I never killed any of them, but I saw plenty. If we'd had this here atom bomb then we sure would have splattered Sherman all over Georgia!"

08/17/2026

Early County, 1861–1865…Bolling H. Robinson poses in the uniform of a Confederate officer. During the Civil War, Robinson served as a first lieutenant in Company G of the 13th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry. Company G was better known locally as the “Early Guards,” a company raised from the men of Early County.

Robinson was already a prominent figure in southwest Georgia long before the war began. He had represented his district in the Georgia Senate in 1845 and later served in the Georgia House of Representatives during the 1859–1860 session.

He was also active in the civic life of Blakely. Robinson was among the early members of Magnolia Lodge No. 86 and was serving as its Worshipful Master when the lodge was chartered in 1849. A history published in the Early County News later listed him among its original charter members.

His connection to Blakely can still be seen today. The historic Robinson-Glass House was originally built for Robinson and remains one of the community’s surviving links to the antebellum period. In 2025, the property was among Georgia historic sites awarded preservation funding for restoration work.

So this photograph preserves more than the face of a Civil War officer. Bolling H. Robinson’s life touched Early County politics, business, civic affairs and military history across much of the nineteenth century.


Georgia on My Mind curated by Lisa Land Cooper – Author and Historian

© 2026 Lisa Land Cooper – Author and Historian

08/16/2026

“This is the last you may ever hear from me.”

Those words, written by a dying young man and stained with his own blood, reached a mother in Holmes County, Mississippi, after Gettysburg. They came from Confederate First Sergeant Jeremiah Sanders Gage of the University Greys, Company A, 11th Mississippi Infantry—a 23-year-old law student who left Ole Miss to answer the call of his country.

On July 3, 1863, as the great cannonade roared before Pickett’s Charge, a shell tore into him. His left arm nearly severed and his side ripped open, Gage asked for paper and wrote:

Gettysburg Penn
July 3rd
My dear mother
This is the last you may ever hear from me. I have time to tell you that I died like a man. Bear my loss as best you can. Remember that I am true to my country and my greatest regret at dying is that she is not free and that you and my sisters are robbed of my worth whatever that may be. I hope this will reach you and you must not regret that my body cannot be obtained. It is a mere matter of form anyhow. This is for my sisters too as I cannot write more. Send my dying release to Miss Mary… you know who.
J.S. Gage
Co. A, 11th Miss.
This letter is stained with my blood.

He pressed the paper to his wound, then raised a cup in a final toast “to the Southern Confederacy, and victory.” Soon after, he was gone.

Gage and the men around him knew the road would be hard. They knew they were outnumbered, that the hardships would be severe, and that many would never return home. Yet they dutifully answered the call of duty for the independence of their states and the defense of their homes and families.

They were the men of their time—Southern men who placed honor above safety and paid the full price.

His body was first buried near the field, later moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond—hundreds of miles from Mississippi soil. His family never brought him home. That bloodstained letter was the last they ever heard from him.

What men like Jeremiah Gage did lives forever. Their devotion, their courage against the odds, and their willingness to yield life itself for Southern independence remain an enduring example of duty and honor. We remember & salute you Sgt Gage! -RJ

08/15/2026

A Husband’s Final Words: The Last Letter of Confederate Brigadier General Paul Jones Semmes

Brigadier General Paul Jones Semmes of Georgia was a banker, planter, and family man who left everything behind to fight for Southern independence. He led his brigade through South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Salem Church.

On July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, a Federal bullet struck him in the leg while he was at the head of his men. Eight days later he was dead.

The day before he died—July 9, 1863—Semmes wrote his last letter to his wife Emily from a private home in Martinsburg. Weak from fever and pain, he still managed these lines:

“My Dearest Wife,
I telegraphed you today: ‘Severely wounded. Main danger over. Stay at home. Will write.’

I was wounded on the 2d inst. at Gettysburg, Penn. I arrived here in an ambulance yesterday, a distance of 60 miles… The wound has done remarkably well though I traveled part of 4 days in an ambulance…

I was wounded in the leg but stopped the flow of blood in the field by a Tournequet applied by myself and drawn by one of my men…

My Brigade suffered severely and behaved well…

Much love to all
Your affec Hd
Paul J. Semmes
God mercifully spared my life—We all have Cause to be thankful to Him.”

Even in his final hours, his thoughts were of reassuring his wife, of the conduct of his men, and of gratitude to God. There is no complaint, only quiet duty.

This was his last letter. Like thousands of other Confederate soldiers, Semmes put his final words on paper knowing they might be the last his wife would ever receive from him.

Across the South, wives and mothers opened similar letters—bloodstained, written by candlelight or in hospital beds—from husbands and sons who would never come home. Each one is a quiet testament to the cost of defending home, hearth, and the right of self-government.

May we never forget the men who wrote them, or the loved ones who received them. -RJ