When Pam Taylor and her sister visited their family grave in Humboldt's Rose Hill Cemetery on Memorial Day, they were not expecting to see the grounds dotted with Confederate flags.

"The first thing I thought when I saw those flags, I was afraid," Taylor said. "I never felt that before. I was afraid that maybe something has changed in this country and I don't know anything about it."

She said it was as if they had suddenly "went back in time again, and nothing had changed."

Taylor's father was an Army sergeant in World War II. She said she expected to see flags on the graves, and she knows veterans from several wars are buried there.

"I know the Civil War was one of the wars we fought, but (the Confederacy) lost," Taylor said. "... every flag should have been an American flag that day, and I saw nothing but rebel flags."

The director of Rose Hill Cemetery refused to comment.

Memorial Day tradition

Memorial Day originated as Decoration Day in May 1868, representing a nationwide effort to remember fallen soldiers after the Civil War. The day was born out of an un-unified movement by mourners in various states to decorate the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers.

The Confederate flags have been placed on Confederate graves at Rose Hill Cemetery intermittently for the past eight to nine years, according to John Blankenship, Commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans R.M. Russell Camp 209.

The group placed the flags this year on Memorial Day and will remove them after June 3, Confederate Memorial Day in Tennessee. The June date was chosen to honor Confederate veterans because Tennessee became the last state to secede from the United States of America in June 1861.

"We're organized to honor Confederate soldiers, so the flags would be put down to memorialize them and honor them for their service," Blankenship said of the practice.

He said they use Confederate flags because that is the flag the soldiers would have fought under in battle. Blankenship also said he doesn't see why someone would fear a flag or inanimate object.

When told that Taylor expressed fear toward the things that the Confederate flag has represented and come to represent, not the physical flag itself, Blankenship said that other groups have brought new meanings to the symbol.

"We know there are groups that have tarnished the Confederate flag, such as the KKK, the one that would always come first to somebody's mind," Blankenship said. "But our group is no more than a historical organization. It's recognizing the flag that they carried during the war and the flag that they would have taken to battle, and it's most appropriate to put the flag in which they served under on the grave."

Humboldt's Civil War history

Rose Hill Cemetery dates back to 1859. The grounds are the final resting place of at least a few dozen Confederate soldiers.

The small Confederate flags on wooden sticks were posted mainly at gravestones with Confederate veteran markers in the oldest portions of the cemetery. Some were placed on gravestones that did not have the marker. Blankenship said those markers were placed in the 1920s, and the graves of Confederates who died after this time may not have them.

One patch of the cemetery is marked "Confederate Memorial Garden." A stone marker reads, "In memory of all confederate soldiers buried in this cemetery; fate denied them victory but clothed them with glorious immortality."

A Confederate flag flies on a flagpole near this garden. This particular flag, called the "blood-stained banner" or the third national flag of the Confederacy, was adopted in March 1865, just one month before the Civil War ended. Few of these flags were made, and even fewer were used in the field.

Blankenship said this flag is one of several that he flies on the flagpole, changing them every six months. He also cares for a flagpole in another part of the cemetery which flies an American flag and a Marine flag in honor of an African American Marine killed during World War II.

Humboldt, originally a Confederate holding, was captured in 1862 and became home to a Union garrison. The Humboldt Female College, built in 1859, was used as a Union hospital in 1862 but later perished in an accidental fire, according to the Humboldt Tennessee Historical Society. Confederate forces retook the Humboldt area on December 20,1862.

Humboldt was not officially chartered as a city until 1866.

Confederate symbol controversy

This is not the first time the presence of Confederate symbols in Humboldt has been questioned by its inhabitants.

A statue honoring Confederate soldiers from Gibson County stands in Humboldt's Bailey Park. It was built in 1914 by the local Daughters of the Confederacy chapter. An ultimately unsuccessful online petition attempted to get the statue removed in 2015, gaining 110 supporters.

Taylor said the cemetery director told her he could not remove the flags because that would be considered grave desecration.

For Taylor, the flag represents a group who wants slaves and fought to keep them. The American flag, she said, represents a country that freed slaves and brought the United States of America back together.

Blankenship said his organization is a historical organization. He added that he did notice the lack of American flags placed on other veterans' graves this year and said the local Veterans of Foreign Wars organization used to ensure flags were placed. That branch closed a few years ago, he said.

"We want to see that all soldiers are recognized for their service," Blankenship said. "We can't do them all. Our group is organized to recognize the Confederate veterans."

Taylor said her father, who fought alongside men of all races and ethnicities, would be ashamed to see the display.

"What country do you want now?" Taylor asked. "Do you want to go back in time, or do you want to go forward?"

Reach Cassandra Stephenson at ckstephens@jacksonsun.com or at (731) 694-7261. Follow Cassandra on Twitter at @CStephenson731.