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REIDSVILLE — Twenty-seven flags are flying today over the graves of Armed Forces veterans buried in the historic Mount Bethel Evangelical Covenant Church cemetery in Bethany.

Those flags represent men who have died in war since the church was founded on April 18, 1857, said Wayne Barham, 70, a Navy veteran.

Also on display on the flagpoles at the lighted Claudia Cummings McCollum Memorial Flagpole, at one corner of the church cemetery, will be flags that have flown above the state or national capitols.

These flags, flown only on holidays and at special events, are the 13-star Betsy Ross flag, the 50-star United States flag, the old North Carolina flag carried by the state’s Confederate soldiers, the present North Carolina flag and the seven-star Confederate First National flag.

Barham said he has been researching church history and got interested in the people buried in the cemetery. As he learned more about the Confederate soldiers there, he thought it would be good to share the information with other parishioners and the public.

“This is a part of Mount Bethel’s rich history,” Barham said. “It is important because, in years to come, a lot of this could be lost.” He said he hopes he can publish a Mount Bethel history in the near future.

Nineteen flags will honor Confederate soldiers, most of whom are buried in the cemetery, Barham said.

The church was only four years old, when 85 men marched off to war after a Saturday afternoon rally at Mount Bethel, then at what is today the Lomax-Garrett House, at N.C. 65 and Witty Road.

North Carolina was the last state to secede from the union on May 20, 1861. Of the 125,000 men serving in the Confederacy, more than 40,000 of them did not return home, Barham said.

The war started in 1861 at Fort Sumter in South Carolina and ended four years later with Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Va.

Mildred McGee Smith, 89, of Tampa, Fla., told Barham last July that her great-uncles, the Southern twins, went to war but both died of pneumonia in camp. They were among the first Confederate soldiers to be buried in the cemetery with two rocks near a “big oak tree” marking the location of their graves, Smith reported.

Henry Julius Sharp is the last-known Confederate soldier to be buried there. The three Sharp brothers and the two Truitt brothers were sons of founding members of the church, George and Sarah Keck Sharp and the Spencer Truitts.

Although Eli Price, who served for four years and died in 1865, is not buried at Mount Bethel, his wife’s grave is in the cemetery. He is in an unknown grave near Richmond, Va. Barham said. Cummings is buried at Gettysburg, Pa.

Andy Barham, another soldier who died, worked as a carpenter on the original church. Sidney Albert, who died in 1864, is buried in a cemetery at Mount Jackson, Va.

One of the church pastors, the Rev. J.W. Pinnix, who was at Mount Bethel from 1877 until 1880, was shot on April 2, 1865, in a battle around Petersburg, Va. He returned home, recovered and went on to his life’s work of teaching and preaching.

Another pastor, the Rev. William T. Walker, who served Mount Bethel in 1872 and 1873, had enlisted when the war began,  but lost an arm in May of 1863 at Seven Pines near Richmond.

The church’s founding pastor, the Rev. Daniel T. Deanes, was actively engaged in the ministry for nearly 40 years. He served as a chaplain during the war, but returned home in 1868 to be church pastor for another three years. He has a son buried in the cemetery.

In addition to Barham, current members of the church who have seen duty include Rodney S. Phibbs, Brian Furniss-Roe, Bobby Snow, David Smother, David C. Stewart and Joe Tiller.

Ann Fish is a Reidsville native but has lived in Eden since 1979. She is a retired newspaper editor and reporter. Contact her at annsomersfish@yahoo.com