According to Robin Pohlman, the Confederate Battle Flag did NOT come down because someone stated that it was offensive or racist. In 1998 someone called Robin Pohlman’s office and stated that they were going to start a letter writing campaign to have the US flag removed from this, an all Confederate Cemetery.

This cemetery is unique in that it contains ONLY the remains of over 14,000 Confederates. All Union soldiers/guards who died at Pt. Lookout were buried in a different graveyard and later moved to Arlington Cemetery.

Instead of just ignoring this ONE complaint, the Vet. Adm. consulted their departmental cemetery flag regulations and stated that the Confederate Battle Flag flew in error and must come down! This regulation is left up to the discretion of the person having jurisdiction over the Pt. Lookout Cemetery. Before Robin Pohlman held this office, it was occupied by a gentleman who installed and flew the Confederate Battle Flag over the mass grave. The Vet. Adm. even paid to acquire the flags to fly in the cemetery. After this gentleman was transferred and Ms Pohlman came into office, the PLPOW Descendants Organization paid for the flags and the postage to ship them to/from the cemetery. A new flag was flown each month. On May 8, 1998 our organization was denied the privilege to fly our ancestors’ flag over their immortal remains.

CSA Veterans Aren't Allowed Their Flag Over Their Graves

Sec. II. 1b: Flags authorized for public display in national cemeteries are the United States flag, the VA’s Distinguishing flag, State flags, the POW/MIA flag, service banners, Medal of Honor flags, and, under limited circumstances, the Confederate flag.

6. THE FLAG OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (CSA)

a. The flag of the Confederate States of America (Confederate flag) will be displayed in national cemeteries only to represent respect for those decedents who served in the armies of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. As such, the display of the Confederate flag is limited to small individual grave flags arrayed on Memorial Day and, in States where it is officially observed, Confederate Memorial Day.

b. The display of the Confederate flag in national cemeteries is allowed only under the sponsorship of a local service or historic organization. The stock of Confederate flags for display in national cemeteries will be maintained through donation by the sponsoring organization. Confederate flags may not be purchased with Government funds. On occasions when they are displayed, Confederate flags will be placed and removed with volunteer labor organized, provided and supervised by the sponsoring organization.

c. The Confederate flag is to be subordinate to the United States flag in size and prominence of display. When displayed on graves in conjunction with the United States flag on Memorial day, Confederate flags are placed 3 feet (.914m) in front of and centered on the headstone of deceased Confederate veterans. When displayed without the presence of the United States flag, as may be done on Confederate Memorial Day, the Confederate flag is placed 1 foot (.304) in front of and centered on the headstone of deceased Confederate veterans.

.... Flags in VA National Cemeteries Handbook, Dept. of Vet. Affairs, Washington D.C.

Security and Law Enforcement:
Veterans Administration Regulation #38CFT@1.218(a)(14)

For the purpose of the prohibition expressed in this paragraph, unauthorized demonstrations or services shall be defined as, but not limited to, picketing, or similar conduct on VA property; any oration or similar conduct to assembled groups of people, unless the oration is part of an authorized service; the display of any placards, banners, or foreign flags on VA property unless approved by the head of the facility or designee; disorderly conduct such as fighting, threatening, violent, or tumultuous behavior, unreasonable noise or coarse utterance, gesture or display or the use of abusive language to any person present; and partisan activities, i.e., those involving commentary or actions in support of, or in opposition to, or attempting to influence, any current policy of the Government of the United States, or any private group, association, or enterprise.

It may surprise you, but for speaking in opposition to a government policy on VA property, a person may be arrested, fined and put in federal prison for 6 months. The VA's discrimination against the Confederate Flag is of course a VA policy, as is the VA's unconstitutional restrictions on verbal speech...Rick Griffin

Below are excerpts of correspondences by Mr. Lawrence Fafarman of California, concerning the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the mass grave of the POWs in the Pt. Lookout Cemetery.

At one point Roger Rapp was citing CFR, section 1.218(a)(14)(ii) as the reason why the flag wasn’t allowed in the Pt. Lookout Cemetery......this section is a subpart of a CRF section titled "Demonstrations" which includes any service, ceremony, or demonstrations, which was obviously intended to apply just to visitors! The former caretaker of Pt. Lookout Cemetery was not a visitor, so this CFR section obviously does not apply to his decision to fly a Confederate flag year-round over this cemetery.

The above CFR sections were obviously directed at disruptive and inappropriate activities by visitors. Displaying a Confederate flag in a Confederate cemetery can hardly be considered a disruptive or inappropriate activity. Depending on how far you are willing to go in interfering with visitors’ right to display Confederate flags in Confederate cemeteries, 1st Amendment issues of freedom of expression may arise.

The only part of the above CFR sections that specifically gives the VA the authority to regulate Confederate flags is the statement banning "foreign" flags on VA property "unless approved by the head of the facility or designee." If the VA ran a cemetery for "foreign" veterans other than Confederates, I wonder if the VA would limit the display of those veterans’ national flag to only 1-2 days per year?

Under the laws of CA, these rules on Confederate flags would probably fall into the category of so-called "underground regulations," which are regulations adopted without going through the prescribed administrative procedure, which includes public hearings. Under CA law, "underground regulations" are unenforceable adoption. There is a special California agency, the Office of Administrative Law, for dealing with underground regulations, but unfortunately there is no counterpart at the federal level.

Also, in regard to their claim of a "consistent approach," there is not and cannot be any consistency here because not all Confederate cemeteries and graves are under VA jurisdiction. Some may be under the National Park Service or another federal agency, a state or local government, or private control. In fact, Title 38, U.S. Code 2405, authorizes the VA to transfer "inactive" cemeteries to the NPS, other federal agencies, and state or local governments. Along this line, I have asked the NPS and the American Battle Monuments Commission for their specific policies on flying Confederate flags in cemeteries.

"It is appropriate to display a Confederate flag of the proper type when necessary to accurately recreate or interpret a historic setting or event. Displayed in a historical context, the flag cannot readily be interpreted as a present-day political or social statement"

.....Edwin C. Bearss, Chief Historian, US Dept. Of Interior, NPS

The VA’s discrimination against Confederate flags is a betrayal of the United Confederate Veterans, the predecessor of the Sons of Confederate Veterans -- which, as shown below from the book "Ghosts of the Confederacy" by Gaines M. Foster, most supported the idea of federal care of Confederate graves in the North.

..... In the decade or so after the war, the North nurtured this southern sense that the nation loved "all her children everywhere the same." Like southerners, northerners apparently interpreted southern heroism in the war against Spain a retroactive demonstration of the honor of Confederate soldiers. Through the federal government, the North paid its respect to the former foes in two highly symbolic ways: by caring for the graves of the Confederate dead and by returning captured Confederate battle flags to the South.

President McKinley...During an Atlanta celebration of the Spanish-American War Peace Treaty, the president also praised Confederate heroism...."Every soldier’s grave made during our unfortunate CW is a tribute to American valor," he declared. After the applause died down, he went on to say that in the evolution of sentiment and feeling under the providence of God, when in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers. The audience approved his offer with tremendous applause and long continued cheering.

A few former Confederates belittled McKinley’s gesture as insincere or politically motivated. In the "Confederate Veteran" however, Cunningham commended and even seemed moved by it, although he did add that it was long overdue. At the next UCV reunion Stephen Lee introduced a resolution to accept the offer of federal care for the graves and to urge southern congressmen to support implementing legislation. The committee on resolutions amended Lee’s motion to call for federal oversight only for Confederate graves in the North, since those in the South were already under the care of devoted southern women. A few delegates still opposed the resolution. One claimed that by acting on an incidental remark by the president, the UCV appeared to be "asking for something from those who slew our men." When other delegates proposed changes, one of the resolution’s supporters demanded to know if the veterans would insult the Chief Magistrate of this nation. " No, No," they shouted. "It is our government." He then continued, "Why should it not take care of our graves?" After additional discussion, the delegates voted in favor of federal care for Confederate graves in the North by a "decisive vote" according to the minutes in near unanimity according to a reporter for the "Atlanta Constitution."

Congressional approval for federal care of Confederate graves in parts of the North came slowly. Congress had not acted by 1901, so the UCV unanimously reaffirmed its support for federal care. In 1903 and 1904 Senator Joseph B. Foraker of OH sponsored legislation to care for the Confederate graves, legislation that passed in the Senate only to die in the House. The 1904 and 1905 UCV annual meetings endorsed the Senate bill despite protests by a few members the second year. A UCV member who lived in Washington lobbied in its behalf, and its congressional sponsors apparently discussed it with UCV leaders. At one point in the floor debate, a senator urged that no amendments be made to the bill because "it has been gone over carefully by the committee and it has been carefully considered by Gen. Lee. With UCV endorsement and aid, in 1906 Congress finally passed and the president signed, a bill providing for federal care of Confederate graves in the North.

I feel that refusing to fly a Confederate flag year-round over an all-Confederate Cemetery (including all-Confederate sections of cemeteries, such as the Confederate section at Arlington, which, incidentally, has a Confederate monument) is in the words of the Adm. Procedures Act, "arbitrary and capricious." Furthermore, such refusal may conflict with the spirit -- if not the letter -- of agreements transferring Confederate graves or cemeteries to NPS care. Confederates buried in government cemeteries are entitled to the same treatment that they would receive in private cemeteries.

Regarding the Veterans’ decision to not fly the Confederate Battle Flag in the Pt. Lookout Cemetery can only properly be called a preposterous interpretation of a VA regulation. The regulation in question is obviously directed at inappropriate and/or disruptive displays of "foreign" flags by visitors at VA facilities, and has nothing to do with the display of flags by the VA itself.

It was disingenuous of Ms. Pohlman of the VA to state that the ruling was based on a law when the ruling could not even reasonably be derived from a regulation. However, I am no longer surprised by dishonest statements from bureaucrats.

Actually, if the Confederate flag is to be treated as a "foreign" flag, then federal law specifies that it be of the same size and elevation as the U.S. flag.

As for the display of "foreign" flags by visitors, the regulation in question gives the heads of the VA facilities --- and not VA headquarters --- the discretion to permit such display on an individual basis. Furthermore, the court ruled that any discretionary decision by the agency under such a regulation is subject to judicial review as possibly "arbitrary and capricious."

Jim Dunbar points to the Maryland monument honoring Confederates who died at the Point Lookout prison camp. In the background is the federal monument, which lists some, but not all, of the names of the dead.

Without proper markings, thousands of graves were moved not once, but twice, from a massive prison camp for Confederate soldiers that operated at Point Lookout at the southernmost tip of St. Mary’s. A pair of memorials — and a third in the works — attempt to keep the men’s memories alive. And a group of the dead’s kin still honor the prisoners, who records show were mistreated and ill fed.

The Point Lookout prison camp, officially known as Camp Hoffman for the Federal Commissary General of Prisoners Col. William Hoffman, operated for about 18 months, opening in August 1863 just after the battle of Gettysburg. It was designed to hold up to 10,000 prisoners, but as many as 20,000 were there at a single time and more than 50,000 passed through the prison during its time in operation.

With only tents and blankets, the prisoners suffered exposure, disease and starvation. Reports of the number of Confederate soldiers and sympathizers who died at the camp vary widely, from as few as 3,000 to as many as 14,000.

Bitterness ensued between the north and south for some years after the war had ended, and many Confederate graves were never officially or permanently marked. By the late 1890s reconciliation had begun in earnest, according to the National Cemetery Administration.

In 1906 a federal commission was formed to mark the graves of the Confederate dead. The Van Amringe Granite Company of Boston was contracted to build at least four Confederate monuments at Point Lookout, as well as at Finn’s Point National Cemetery in New Jersey, and North Alton Confederate Cemetery, and Confederate Mound in Oakwoods Cemetery, both in Illinois. In all, 24 monuments to Confederate soldiers are located in NCA cemeteries.

By 1910 the federal government erected an 85-foot monument with 3,389 names of Confederate POWs who died at Point Lookout to mark a mass grave where bodies had been moved. This was the first federal monument to pay honor to Confederate soldiers.

Originally the bodies were in individual graves with wooden markers in an area next to Tanners Creek. A fire destroyed the markers and in 1870 the bodies were moved a mile or so inland to where they rest today, under or near the federal monument, according to the NCA. A state monument was erected in 1876, listing a total of 3,004 prisoners who died. This monument was moved several times and now stands next to the federal monument.

Jim Dunbar said some people have estimated that more than 14,000 Confederates and incarcerated civilians died at the prison. Only one unknown is listed, which is unbelievable to Jim Dunbar and others. Some descendants have letters or other evidence that an ancestor whose name is not on the monument perished at the prison.

Dunbar has ancestors who died at the camp and is a member of the Point Lookout Prisoners of War Descendants Organization. In addition to the thousands of Confederate prisoners who died, ‘‘more than 300 guards died of things like yellow fever,” Dunbar said. ‘‘And these men were well fed.”

Edwin Beitzell, a local historian and author, wrote in 1972 that the death toll would have exceeded 4,000.

‘‘His references are very good. It’s taken from what Congress called the Official War of the Rebellion,” Dunbar said of Beitzell’s writings in ‘‘Point Lookout Prison Camp For Confederates,” originally published in 1972.

Local residents, who were mostly Southern sympathizers despite Maryland’s remaining in the Union, helped some escapees and when caught were also imprisoned at Point Lookout.

‘‘During the war, the people of St. Mary’s County were not conspicuous for their loyalty to the federal government,” Beitzell wrote. ‘‘Indeed, no one seems to remember any white resident of the county who fought for the north, although there were a few. On the other hand, practically every family in the county had members in the Confederate service. At the beginning of 1861, excitement was at a fever-pitch.”

Beitzell made many of his observations based on diaries from actual prisoners and archived records. ‘‘The story of the prison camp is a horrid story to tell. It is a story of cruel decisions in high places — decisions arrived at coldly and without compassion,” Beitzell wrote. ‘‘It is a story of diarrhea and dysentery, of typhoid and typhus, of burning sands and freezing cold in rotten tents — it is a story of senseless shootings by guards, it is a story of despair and the death of 4,000 prisoners, many of whom could have been saved.”

Several years ago the Point Lookout POW Descendants Organization began building a memorial on a lot sold to it by a private owner.

‘‘The reason we started this over here is we used to fly the Confederate flag right underneath the American flag,” Dunbar said. Dunbar said that his group had tried to hold ceremonies at the federal monument site but that speeches, albeit sometimes ‘‘fiery,” were censored by the Veterans Administration.

In part because there are no Union soldiers buried in the cemetery where the monument stands, the group feels it has a right to fly the Confederate battle flag over the monument. ‘‘This was their flag that they fought under, was imprisoned for, and died for,” according to the group’s Web site. The group is requesting a change to the Veterans Administration rules regarding flags and that the battle flag fly over the grave 365 days a year.

‘‘The Supreme Court ruled against them,” said Kirk Leopard, director of Baltimore National Cemetery Complex, who also has jurisdiction over the Point Lookout cemetery and monument.

‘‘It’s seen as a separate country,” Leopard said of the Confederacy. And based on U.S. regulations, only the American flag is flown over national cemeteries, Leopard said.

‘‘We try to work with them and accommodate them as much as possible,” Leopard said. He said he would like to see the events at the park be less about the flag and more about the soldiers who died at Point Lookout in the line of service.

For the last several years the group has solicited donations and planned a new privately owned memorial a block away from the state and federal monuments. Several flagpoles are in place and ground has been broken, but construction has been slow. The memorial will have informational kiosks and feature flags from each state that fought with the Confederacy. ‘‘We want the people to hear, as [radio legend] Paul Harvey would say, ‘the rest of the story,’” Dunbar said.

For Dunbar and others in his group, it all comes down to kin who died at Point Lookout. ‘‘These men shouldn’t have died at the hands of their captors,” he said. It would be dishonorable, Dunbar said, to not fly the flag they fought and died for and instead fly the flag of their enemy over their graves.

As for the racist undertones represented by the battle flag, Dunbar said that is not what it signified nor is it why the organization wants to use it. He points to the use of the American flag by groups like the Ku Klux Klan. And, ‘‘There’s more slaves sold under that flag and none were sold under [the Confederate battle] flag,” he said. ‘‘To them the war wasn’t about slavery. It was about preserving the Union, states’ rights.” People fighting on both sides owned slaves, and there were black soldiers who served on the Confederate as well as the Union side.

The new Confederate Memorial Park plans its own monument, which will include names of those who died at the prison camp and were left off the federal monument, as well as flags and trees from each of the Confederate States of America and a POW statue. The group purchased land next to the park.

… excerpts from Group Wants to Fly Confederate Flag at Monument, article & photos by Jesse Yeatman, The Enterprise, 5/30/07