Jun 23, 2017 Orange County Review
Local residents have multiple opportunities this weekend to celebrate two outstanding patriots!
In Orange County, we honor Captain Andrew Maples, Jr.
The particulars below are taken from recent posts in the Orange County Review and research provided by Jane Ware, David A. Maurer and others.
On Saturday, June 24 at 12 noon the Town of Orange will honor Maples’ sacrifice during World War II with the installation of an approved Virginia Board of Historic Resources Highway Marker.
The marker will be placed in the town right-of-way at the intersection of W. Church and S. Madison Road. The location is on land once owned by the Maples family and was where Andrew Maples, Jr. grew up.
The public is invited to attend the dedication ceremony and to offer our respect to Capt. Maples, Jr. and his family.
Captain Andrew Maples, Jr., an Orange County native raised in a family that respected patriotism and honored the United States with military allegiance, always had a fascination with flying, according to family history. After securing his pilot’s license, Andrew Maples set his aspirations on joining what would later be known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
Upon graduation in 1943 from the Advanced Flying School at Tuskegee Air Field in Alabama, Maples was assigned to the Army Air Corps’ 301st Fighter Squadron and sent to Italy. During an escort mission, Maples’ plane went down and his body was never recovered.
For more information about the ceremony, please contact Jane Ware at 672-2197.
In Madison County, we honor Corporal Clinton Greaves.
Saturday, June 24 at 1 p.m. at the Madison County Courthouse Square on Main Street, the Madison County American Legion Post will dedicate a marker to Madison County native Medal of Honor recipient, Corporal Clinton Greaves.
(Note to those who plan to attend: Main Street through the Town of Madison will be closed at 12:40 p.m. There will be parking on Washington St. (which intersects with the Route 29 traffic light at McDonalds’ on the corner and is only a short walk to the ceremony site.)
According to published documents and a vast collection of research, Greaves was born—likely to enslaved parents and a slave himself—in Madison County Aug. 12, 1855. Following the end of the Civil War and his new status as a free man, he joined the United States Army in September 1872 to become a member of the celebrated Buffalo Soldiers. Jan. 24, 1877, while serving as a corporal in Company C of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, Greaves was part of a detachment which participated in an engagement with a band of renegade Apaches in the Florida Mountains of New Mexico.
Records describing the event detail dire circumstances as the men of Company C found themselves surrounded, with little prospect of survival. Cpl. Greaves managed to clear a path through the enemy numbers allowing the troops to escape. Two years later, June 26, 1879, Corporal Greaves was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in that engagement.
Greaves served in the army for more than 20 years and had reached the rank of sergeant upon his discharge in 1893.
Recognition of the service and character of both these men and others like them is long overdue, but welcomed now with appreciation to all those who made this possible.
David A. Maurer, a features writer for The Daily Progress, wrote about Maples marker a worthy thought that can easily be applied to both: “The signage will serve as a reminder of a brave man who overcame prejudice and unknowable difficulties to achieve a dream and serve his country.”
Until next week, be well.
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