Sons of Confederate Veterans Ceremony Honors Seven Men Tied to Mosby’s Rangers; Keynote Urges Duty, Truth, and Remembrance

An evening ceremony hosted by the Col. John S. Mosby Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) #1237, opened with welcome remarks from Commander Dwayne Mauck, a presentation of colors, and prayers led by SCV Chaplain Buzz Gregory. Attendees recited the Pledge of Allegiance and saluted the Virginia and Confederate flags before turning to the night’s main purpose: remembering seven men executed after capture during the Civil War, six of them from Mosby’s Rangers.

Keynote speaker James Diehl, Brigade Commander for the Virginia SCV, delivered an address titled “For the Last Time? A Challenge for Today.” A retired Marine officer with decades in federal service, Diehl framed the program around duty, the laws of war, and public memory. He said he would focus less on the Union officers involved and more on the character of the Rangers themselves.

Diehl recounted the retaliatory execution ordered by Col. John S. Mosby following the hangings—an act Mosby later said he regretted having to do, but not doing his duty. Diehl then led a solemn call-and-response “roll,” asking the crowd to join after each third reading of a name: Thomas Anderson; Carter (surname only provided); David Joan; Lucian Love; Thomas Overby; Gallatin Willis; and Henry Rhodes, described as a teenage bystander shot after the chaos in town. After the final call of each name, the audience replied, “Died a Southern hero.”

“Men don’t really die until their names are said for the last time,” Diehl said, citing a proverb he encountered in military traditions that keep the fallen present by name. He argued that men of character give honor to the ground where they are laid to rest—not the other way around.

Diehl also pressed a moral challenge to the living. “What are you willing to die for?” he asked, urging listeners to be “honorable men and women, nobly seeking and defending truth.” Quoting the scripture inscribed at the CIA—John 8:32—he said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” He referenced former Defense Secretary James Mattis’s guidance to veterans who are thanked for their service: “Our freedoms are worth it.”

The keynote touched on ethics and public debate, including a reference to the reported killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which Diehl framed as a reminder of the risks people take when speaking in hostile settings. He urged attendees to keep the historical record alive in schools and public life.

Diehl closed with the SCV Charge delivered in 1906 by Gen. Stephen Dill Lee—a call to defend the Confederate soldier’s name and history—and a line from Robert Lewis Dabney, chaplain to Stonewall Jackson: “You have no need to be ashamed of your Confederate dead. See to it that they have no need to be ashamed of you.”

Before dismissal, the Warren Rifles UDC chapter president, Patricia McMillen, placed wreaths, escorted by SCV Lt. Commander Roy Unger. Chaplain Gregory offered a closing prayer, asking that future generations remember and follow the example of those who have fallen. The color guard retired the flags, and Mauck thanked attendees and the crew recording the event “for posterity.”

Watch the SCV Ceremony on this exclusive Royal Examiner video by Mark Williams.