Fairfax Chapter News
The 17th Virginia Infantry provided an honor guard for the cermony. Many members of the original 17th Virginia lie buried beneath the cemetery's Confederate monument (visible in the background). |
On June 8, 2002, Fairfax Chapter 1410 gathered at Fairfax Cemetery for its annual Confederate Memorial Day service. Although most Confederate Memorial Day observances are held in April or May, Fairfax Daughters traditionally mark the occasion in June because the cemetery's Confederate monument was originally dedicated in that month.
Highlights of the service included an address by Floridian Robert Macomber on the Confederate States Navy and the awarding of a Viet Nam National Defense Medal to Chapter member Virginia Norton. |
Mr. Robert N. Macomber spoke on "Determination and Innovation: The Confederate States Navy." |
With the assistance of Chapter Recorder of Military Service Awards Mrs. Noel W. (Charlotte) Clinger, Mrs. Boltz bestows a Viet Nam Conflict National Defense Medal on Chapter member Mrs. Charles V. (Virginia) Norton. Mrs. Norton was a First Lieutenant in the United States Army. |
Fairfax Chapter President Mrs. B. Donald (Martha) Boltz presided at the ceremony. |
Members of Antonia Ford 885, Virginia Division Children of the Confederacy, placed the memorial wreath at the Confederate monument. John Adams (left) and Robin Adams (right) posed with Virginia Division CofC Director Mrs. John M. (Kathie) Watson after the ceremony. |
Fairfax Chapter 1410 found a number of different ways to celebrate the birthdays of three great Confederate heroes -- Matthew Fontaine Maury (January 14), Robert E. Lee (January 19), and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21). On January 12, 2002, members gathered at the Marco Polo Restaurant in Vienna, Va., for a luncheon and a presentation by Chapter member Pat Gibson and her husband Keith, who perform music from the War era under the name "Professor and Mrs. Gibson" [see related story]. Following their performance, Pat was awarded the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal for her work in preserving the history and heritage of the South through its music.
Pat Gibson and her husband Keith, director of the VMI Museum, perform |
Fairfax Chapter President Martha Boltz bestows the Jefferson Davis Historical Medal on Pat Gibson as her husband (a previous Medal recipient) looks on |
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Virginia Division officers Kathie Watson (Third Vice President), Sam Lougheed (President), and Pat Bryson (Second Vice President), District of Columbia Division President Vicki Heilig, and Fairfax Chapter Presient Martha Boltz at the Chapter's Lee-Jackson luncheon |
On January 18, Chapter member Kathie Watson joined District of Columbia Division President Vicki Heilig and the DC Division's Robert E. Lee Chapter member Gail Brock in laying a wreath on behalf of the UDC's President General at the statue of Robert E. Lee in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. Because of security measures that were put in place following the September 11 attacks, the ladies of the DC Division were unable to hold their customary Lee birthday celebration. But Miss Heilig was able to gain permission from the office of Speaker Dennis Hastert to present the wreath and a single red rose, maintaining a tradition begun by the DC Division in 1917.
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Gail Brock, DC Division President Vicki Heilig, and Kathie Watson with the President General's wreath |
On January 20, Chapter members Martha Boltz, Mary Schaller, and Kathie Watson and prospective member Virginia Day joined members of the SCV's R.E. Lee Camp and the MOS&B's Samuel Cooper Camp for their annual Lee birthday dinner at the Radisson Old Towne in Alexandria, Va. Although the dinner had originally been scheduled for the actual day of Lee's birth (January 19), a snowstorm forced its postponment until the following evening. Attendance was good nonetheless, and a sizable crowd was on hand to hear author Jay Winik speak about his recent best-seller, April 1865: The Month That Saved America.
| Kathie Watson, Virginia Day, Mary Schaller, and Martha Boltz at the Lee Camp dinner |
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On September 15, 2001, the dream of Fairfax Chapter 1410 President Martha Boltz became a reality when Virginia Daughters gathered in Richmond's Oakwood Cemetery to dedicate a monument to the women and children killed in the explosion of a Confederate munitions factory on March 13, 1863.
Martha, a freelance writer whose articles are a regular feature on The Washington Times's weekly Civil War page, had researched the story of the Confederate States Laboratories and the tragic accident that claimed the lives of at least 46 women and children (most between the ages of 9 and 16) who were employed there making ammunition for the Confederate Army. When she discovered that most of the victims had been buried in unmarked graves and that no monument had ever been erected to commemorate their sacrifice, she set out to remedy the situation.
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| The monument to the victims of the Confederate States Laboratories explosion. The front of the monument tells the story of the explosion; the victims' names and ages are inscribed on the reverse. | |
Martha took her idea to Virginia Division President Susie Whitacre, who shared her concern and adopted the building of a proper monument as a Virginia Division UDC project. Over the next year, Susie raised funds, secured a site for the monument in the Confederate section of Oakwood Cemetery, and planned the design of the monument.
Virginia Division Children of the Confederacy President Katie Fraser, a member of Fairfax Chapter's Antonia Ford CofC Chapter, recognized that her organization shared a special kinship with the children who had lost their lives in the service of the Confederacy and made raising funds for the monument the focus of her presidency.
When the monument was dedicated on a picture-perfect late-summer afternoon, Katie (now a member of Virginia Division UDC) was present, along with other Virginia Division CofC members, to read the victims' names and ages. Martha was one of a handful of people given the honor of assisting in the unveiling.
Martha Boltz (right) assists Virginia Division President Susie Whitacre (left) in the unveiling of the monument as Virginia Division CofC Custodian Jenna Swanson looks on
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