(AP) -- In a somber, reflective ceremony, dozens of descendants of Southern troops gathered on the Battery in Charleston to mark Confederate Memorial Day in the state where the Civil War began.
With Fort Sumter in the distance, a wreath was laid Thursday in memory of the Southern defenders of Charleston. About three dozen people told the crowd of about 100 people where their ancestors fought and, many times, died.
They sang "Dixie" and then re-enactors fired a cannon in nearby White Point Garden.
A holiday to honor Southerners who fell fighting for the Confederacy is officially observed in nine states of the old Confederacy, but are held at different times of the year.
In the Carolinas, Confederate Memorial Day is May 10th, the day Gen. Stonewall Jackson died in 1863.
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