The
idea for the Order of Confederate Rose came to Jane Latture of Birmingham, AL,
after a Robert E. Lee birthday dinner in January 1993, when the speaker, Charles
Lunsford, told Mrs. Latture of an Order of Robert E. Lee that had been
reactivated in Georgia. Knowing that other ladies in Alabama felt the need to
help combat the growing attack on their Confederate Heritage, Mrs. Latture
proposed the idea of their own order to some ladies, including Ellen Daniel,
Sharon Dasinger, and Harriet Outlaw. All responded positively. The first name to
occur to Mrs. Latture was The Order of the Confederate Rose, based on the movie
"The Rose and the Jackal" about Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a Confederate Spy.
On May 1, 1993, eleven wives and daughters of Alabama Division SCV members
met by a picturesque pond in Alabama City during the SCV state convention and
organized the order. The ladies amended and approved the name Order of
Confederate Rose, and everyone agreed it was perfect.
Then, using ideas from the Georgia order, they mapped out the purposes and
the structure of the organization. One evening late in May, Ellen Daniel and
Jane Latture met by chance at the home of Sharon Dasinger, where they wrote up a
tentative constitution and by-laws for the organization.
In July 1993, the first application and a short history of the order
appeared in the "Alabama Confederate" offering charter membership to those whose
applications came in by August 1, 1993. As a result, 65 applications were
received and a charter signing ceremony was scheduled at Cahaba, the first
capital of Alabama, on 16 October 1993, to coincide with the fall muster of the
MOSB.
Great interest in the order was expressed by women from other states at the
1993 SCV National Convention in Lexington, KY., so the Alabama ladies put up a
sign and handed out applications.
Now, today this is where the order stands. The next steps in its history
are up to the members. Their ideas, support and talents will determine the
direction of its future.
Mrs. Rose O'Neal Greenhowe and daughter at Old Capitol Prison