event calendar

Ceremonies Saturday to reinter Col. Earp

By DAVID ELLISON
Gilmer’s downtown square is expected to resemble a scene from Gone With The Wind on Saturday (April 26), during special reburial ceremonies honoring a Civil War hero from Upshur County who died more than 140 years ago. The event is open to the public.

Included in the observance for Col. Cullin Redwine Earp will be more than 200 participants — most from East Texas — clad in military attire and dresses of the 1860s; a horse-drawn wagon containing a hand-crafted coffin with the soldier’s remains; a Confederate honor guard; a riderless horse, mounted Confederate cavalry reenactors and a period-authentic fife and drum corps from the Dallas area.

Also involved will be relatives of Col. Earp, some from Boston and Alaska.

An Upshur County farmer when the War Between the States erupted in 1862, Earp assumed full command of the 10th Texas Cavalry C.S.A. in 1863. He fought in at least 21 major conflicts throughout the Deep South, including bloody clashes at Chickamauga, Ga., Atlanta, Ga. and Franklin, Tenn. He died in Upshur County in 1865, possibly of wounds suffered in battle.

Until recently exhumed from a vandalized grave, Earp had been buried in a long-neglected cemetery near Latch. “He deserves better than to be in an isolated, unattended place and basically forgotten,” said Gilmer historian Bill Starnes.

The unique tribute to Earp will begin Friday morning, April 25, when his closed-coffin remains attended by an honor guard are placed in a dog-trot log cabin built in 1849, adjacent to what is now the corner of Cypress and Harrison, a few blocks east of downtown Gilmer. All mirrors in the cabin will be covered in black, as was the custom at the time of Col. Earp’s death. The log cabin site also is home to one of Texas’ oldest and largest magnolia trees, estimated to be between 150 and 200 years of age.

Col. Earp — who also served in the Texas State Troops, forerunners of the Texas Rangers — owned land adjacent to the cabin and probably visited the owners from time to time, speculated Starnes.

“Friday and Saturday ceremonies will be impressive and inspiring, and I hope that people from throughout Texas come to pay their respects to this brave soldier,” said Starnes, adding that visitors are welcome to file past his coffin as he lies in state throughout Friday and until the next morning.

At 9 a.m. Saturday, a formal procession comprised of Civil War reenactors — marchers and mounted cavalry — will escort Earp’s horse-drawn, flag-draped funeral wagon across U.S. 271 and along Jefferson St. to the south side of Gilmer’s courthouse. There, various dignitaries, including the head of the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, will speak about the respected soldier and his leadership of Southern forces.

If necessary because of inclement weather, morning ceremonies will be relocated to the Fellowship Hall of Gilmer’s First Baptist Church at 314 Tyler St.

Reinterment services, lead by Pastor Jamie Eitson of Park Heights Assembly of God Church in Tyler, will begin Saturday at about 1:30 p.m. at Hopewell Cemetery off FM 49 near Latch. Another procession, including marchers in period garb and mounted cavalry, will accompany the horse-drawn funeral wagon from nearby Lime Tree Road to the gravesite.

Hopewell Cemetery also is the burial place of Earp’s brother, Alex, a Confederate veteran and a former Upshur County sheriff. Twenty other Confederate veterans are buried at the cemetery, and their graves will be marked Saturday with related regimental flags.

Col. Earp’s graveside ceremony will conclude with the firing of two Civil War-type cannons and a series of black-powder musket volleys.

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