MaineMilitia.com

For those who don't get The Civil War Courier the March issue just arrived with a very interesting story on the front page.
This past Christmas season the Salvation Army put out their annual call for volunteers and, having a community service obligation, the Thomas W. Patton SCV Camp 2021 answered the call. They set up in front of the Boardman,Ohio Wal-Mart ringing bells in Confederate uniforms. After about 20 minutes of folks responding positively to the uniforms, talking to the SCV members and, most importantly, donating money to the Salvation Army, the manager of the Boardman Wal-Mart reportedly told them "this is not going to work" and they needed to leave. The manager explained that he had recieved complaints.
Camp Commander Ron Johnson explained that the group recieved permission from the local Director of the Salvation Army to ring bells in Confederate uniform, but the Wal-Mart manager reportedly told them they had to take off the uniforms or leave.
They continued to ring bells and fill the pots with donations until the manager returned and told Mr. Johnson to remove the displayed flag along with their uniforms. Allegedly Mr. Johnson explained that the flag was an 1860's Ohio state flag and NOT a Confederate one.
After a brief discussion the flag was removed and the group relocated to another area to continue ringing bells and collecting donations for the Salvation Army.
The manager of the Boardman,Ohio Wal-Mart had not resonded on the incident by press time.