Prattville Dragoons mark April as Confederate History, Heritage Month

The Prattville Dragoons used April to turn two Autauga County burial grounds into a stage for a fight over memory, honor and what Alabama chooses to celebrate. Camp 1524 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said it would kick off Confederate History and Heritage Month by placing more than 300 flags at Oak Hill Cemetery in Prattville and at Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury, a site that sits on the grounds of Alabama’s only Confederate veterans’ home and contains about 300 Confederate veterans’ graves.

The observance rests on more than one layer of state recognition. Alabama law lists Confederate Memorial Day as an official state holiday on the fourth Monday in April, with state offices closed that day. Gov. Bob Riley proclaimed April as Confederate History and Heritage Month on March 18, 2005, and Gov. Kay Ivey issued a similar proclamation for April 2020, both tying the month to Alabama history and to Montgomery’s role as the birthplace of the Confederate States of America.

For the Dragoons, the month is presented as a tribute to ancestors they say fought for independence in the same spirit as 1776. The camp, which operates out of the Prattaugan Museum/Archives in Prattville, has long marked April with grave-flagging, reenactments, parades and volunteer work. Local coverage has also tied the group to Confederate cemetery maintenance, including work at Oak Hill Cemetery and Confederate Memorial Park.

That effort lands differently across the community. Confederate commemorations remain deeply divisive in Alabama, where civil-rights advocates and the Alabama NAACP have argued that such observances honor a white supremacist cause. The pushback reflects a broader clash over public memory in places such as Prattville, where Confederate symbolism still appears in civic spaces, monuments and official calendars.

Prattville’s own Confederate markers make that conflict visible. A Prattville Dragoons Monument erected in 2002 by Camp 1524 stands alongside an earlier monument dedicated in 1916 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The original Prattville Dragoons were formed in 1861 from men in Prattville and Autauga County and were outfitted by Daniel Pratt, the city’s founder.

The month’s commemorations also overlapped with another local historical display at the Doster Center, where the 2026 Chronicle of America event ran April 11-13 and featured more than 250 displays. In Autauga County, April has become less a calendar note than a recurring argument over who gets remembered, where, and by whom.