The Parish Church of St. Helena will replace Confederate battle flags decorating soldiers’ graves with a different Confederate flag in response to last week’s massacre in Charleston, the church’s pastor said in a parish newsletter.
The Rev. Jeffrey Miller wrote in a newsletter Wednesday that the battle flags in the historic Beaufort church’s graveyard will be replaced by the first national Confederate flags. Battle flags have adorned the graves of Confederate soldiers buried in the churchyard to honor the Civil War veterans, but after the events in Charleston, that flag’s purpose could be misunderstood, Miller said.
“As most of you know, it is this very flag that decorates the graves of Confederate soldiers in our historic churchyard, and I fear that our motivation for allowing its presence — namely to honor the memory of the Confederate dead — is going to be grossly misunderstood in the current climate,” Miller wrote in the newsletter.
Miller said Thursday about 70 battle flags were removed from graves in the historic churchyard. Replacement flags for the gravestones still need to be purchased, he said.
h/t cavmedic
