Women wore black veils and a bugler played taps at the Chickamauga Battlefield Monday in honor of Georgia's Confederate Memorial Day.
"When we're honoring our Confederate ancestors we're honoring our families," Georgia Civil War Commission President John Culpepper told those assembled. "They weren't involved in the politics behind the war, they were just defending their homeland and farms and families."
Monday was the second consecutive year that the United Daughters of the Confederacy's Catoosa Chapter held a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave of Pvt. John Ingraham on the battlefield. Pvt. Ingraham was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863.
During the ceremony, an honor guard dressed in Confederate gray escorted seven of the group's members, all wearing black Civil War-era gowns.
Catoosa County resident Jemima Reed Shirley had a personal connection to the ceremony. Pvt. Ingraham had lived with Ms. Shirley's grandfather, James Reed, before they went to fight and the men may have been related, she said.
Ms. Shirley, 90, brought Pvt. Ingraham's pocket watch, which Mr. Reed had received when his brother-in-arms was killed. She has a letter about the watch from Pvt. Ingraham's sister to her grandfather.
"She told him to keep the watch," Ms. Shirley said. "She was glad it was in good hands."
Patricia Silcox, a member of the Daughters chapter, read a poem at the grave of Pvt. Ingraham, the only soldier known to be buried on the battlefield. She said she had adopted Pvt. Ingraham's grave as a project a few years ago, restoring the iron fence around it, adding mulch to the foot path and cleaning the site.
Though the ceremony Monday morning focused on Pvt. Ingraham, the day is for all of the South's fallen soldiers, Mrs. Silcox said.
"This is just one -- we honor them all on this day," he said.
Gainesville and Rome held similar ceremonies Sunday, and other events are planned around the state this week. State offices were closed Monday in observance of the holiday.