June 20, 2008 - 12:00 a.m. EST
LONG CREEK — As far as Doug Blackwell is concerned, 99 years was long enough for his great-grandfather’s grave to lie, marked only by a rock, in the cemetery at Holly Springs Baptist Church.
Blackwell knew that his great-grandfather was a brave soldier of the Confederacy and a prisoner of war. It just didn’t seem right that there was no marker.
Recently, that all changed, but it wasn’t easy.
Little did Blackwell know, however, that when he set about to get a marker from the Sons of the Confederacy he would have to set a few records straight along the way.
Born in 1843, Benjamin F. Blackwell enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 18, being assigned from the Walhalla-Pickens District to the 12th South Carolina Infantry. His regiment saw action on the coast and went on to participate in some of the biggest battles of the war in northern Virginia.
On July 14, 1863, members of the 6th Michigan Mounted Cavalry at Falling Waters, Md, took Blackwell prisoner. Two days later he arrived at Maryland’s Point Lookout prison.
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