The Founding of Kirby-Smith Camp No. 1209 Sons of Confederate Veterans

At the National Convention of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, in 1950, the Commander-in –Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Judge William Beard, requested Mrs. H. Grady Mathews, who was then Florida State President of the U.D.C. to undertake to form a Camp of S.C.V. in Jacksonville; Mrs. Mathews accepted the task. She was assisted by her husband, H.Grady Mathews, Harry Fozzard, a prominent Jacksonville attorney, and by members of Jacksonville’s chapter of U.D.C. As a result Kirby-Smith Camp No. 1209, Sons of Confederate Veterans, was charted in Jacksonville on May 3, 1952, with fifteen members. For her achievement Mrs. Mathews was awarded the National S.C.V. Medal as their member of the U.D.C. who performed outstanding service to S.C.V. in the year of 1951.