In Memory Of The Seven (NC)
Flat Rock Cemetery Memorial Service 2025
On Saturday, April 19th of this year, my travels took me to Mount Holly, North Carolina to attend the annual service honoring the Flat Rock Seven -- a group of seven Confederate veterans who died by accidentally drowning in the Catawba River on their way home from the final surrender of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House (April 9th and 10th) earlier the same month. These men are buried together at Flat Rock Cemetery in Gaston County, North Carolina not far from the site where they'd drowned.
I've told the story of the deaths of these veterans before and the article can be found HERE. The tragic tale of the deaths of these young men, as well as the more well-known story of the Union soldiers who died in the Sultana disaster, serve as another reminder of the terrible cost in human lives of war, and even its aftermath.
The service was a…
This story is tough to read...all those battles and all that sacrifice only to drown so close home. Long Live their memories and Long Live the Confederacy!