Monument to Kershaw County’s Confederate Dead

Monument to Kershaw County’s Confederate Dead. . , In 1883, the Ladies Memorial Association of Camden unveiled this monument dedicated to Kershaw County’s Confederate War dead. Confederate General John Doby Kennedy of Camden laid the cornerstone with a Masonic trowel once used by Revolutionary War General the Marquis de Lafayette to lay the cornerstone of the Baron DeKalb Monument in 1825. Wade Hampton, III, U.S. Senator, former governor of South Carolina, and a general in the Confederate Army, delivered the ovation to a crowd of thousands. , The Ladies Memorial Association grew out of the ladies aid societies prevalent during the Civil War. After the South’s defeat, they came together to “protect and cherish the graves of our Confederate dead.” These women – many of them widows, orphans, or sweethearts of the dead soldiers they honored – placed wreaths upon soldier’s graves every Confederate Memorial day, cared for their burial places, and raised funds for monuments in their honor. In Camden, the Ladies Memorial Association persevered for more than ten years to collect the funds for this monument. , When first erected, this monument stood in the center of Monument Square. In the 1880s, Monument Square measured 700 feet square and neither Broad nor Laurens Streets extended into the park. In 1910, the park was quartered when both streets were paved, but the monument still stood in the center of the area. In 1950, the city moved the Monument to its present location.