Sons of Confederate Veterans reunion to be held in Murfreesboro

The Convention and Visitors Bureau is excited to announce that the 2012 Sons of Confederate Veterans National Reunion will be held in Murfreesboro.

Capturing this event is a great accomplishment for the city, as Murfreesboro was up against stiff competition with Civil War-entrenched Richmond, VA—among other cities—to play host to the event, which brings in around 500 registered SCV members plus their families.

The dates of the 2012 reunion in Murfreesboro will be July 11-15 and the event will fall on the sesquicentennial—or 150th —anniversary year of the Battle of Murfreesboro as well as the exact anniversary date of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Murfreesboro raid and his birthday.

"For several years, Murfreesboro SCV Camp # 33 had looked at the sesquicentennial years of the ‘War Between the States,’ especially the Battle of Murfreesboro and Forrest's Raid, as an opportunity to commemorate those two great battles,” said James G. Patterson, Adjutant. “Winning the bid for the 2012 SCV reunion is a significant victory.”

Stones River National Battlefield, Oaklands Historic House Museum, the Sam Davis Home and other sites will help make this event a glowing success. Hosting a reunion during one of the sesquicentennial years is a prized time for commemorating the “War Between the States” and SCV expects record-breaking attendance.

Murfreesboro-based Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #33 worked with the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, Mayor Bragg and County Mayor Burgess to attract the SCV reunion to Murfreesboro.

In February, Camp #33 placed a bid for the 2012 SCV National Reunion to be held in Murfreesboro. Camp Convention Chairman James G. Patterson made a presentation in the spring of 2009 at the SCV Time and Place meeting in Columbia, Tennessee at the SCV National Headquarters—Elm Springs.

Also at Elm Springs for the presentation were: Mona Herring, Vice President, Convention and Visitors Bureau; Barbara Wolke, Director of Group Sales, Convention and Visitors Bureau; Sheron Clifton, Senior Sales Manager, Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center; Dr. Steve Murphree, Camp #33; Ashley McCrary, Camp #33; Wayne Wilson, Camp #33; Brian Corley, Camp #33; Mike Puckett, Camp #33.

The Time and Place committee made a recommendation to the General Executive Council that Murfreesboro be the site of the 2012 SCV National Reunion. Camp #33 members were told that Murfreesboro’s presentation was the most well-organized the Council has seen in many years.

Camp #33 then made a presentation at the 2009 SCV National Reunion in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Richmond members also made a final attempt to secure the 2012 reunion. Murfreesboro won the bid with only one descending vote from the 500 delegates.

There has never been an SCV National Reunion in Murfreesboro, although Richmond has hosted nine reunions over the past 114 years. With Richmond being the Capitol of the Confederacy and the site of many battles, it was an enormous victory for Murfreesboro to win the bid.

“Hosting this will help establish Rutherford County as a Civil War destination within the SCV organization and it should bring other Civil War-related groups to our community,” said Patterson.

National membership in the SCV is around 30,000 members and Murfreesboro Camp #33 has 165 members and is the third largest camp in the state. Camp #33 also celebrated the 30th anniversary of their charter last year.

The SCV was founded in 1896 and is the predecessor of the United Confederate Veterans which was a veterans’ organization for the surviving Confederate soldiers. Membership to the SCV requires a direct descendant link to a Confederate soldier.