----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Tapley" <[email protected]> At 3:00 p.m. this coming Sunday, May 25, a marker unveiling and dedication ceremony will be held for Confederate Soldier John Branch and his wife, Martha Ricks Branch, at Blue Spring Church Cemetery in southeastern Laurens County, Georgia. The cemetery is two miles northwest of the village of Rockledge, which is one mile northwest of the intersection of Interstate Highway 16 and Georgia State Highway 29, near the Laurens-Treutlen County line. John Branch (1843-1918) and three of his brothers joined the Confederate army together and served together in Company B, 57th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment. All four were captured at the Siege of Vicksburg, and all later were set free in a prisoner exchange with the Union. John Branch rejoined his regiment and wound up fighting in several additional battles in and around Atlanta, including the Battle of Atlanta. John was born and lived most of his life in the area where he is buried. He moved late in life to northern Appling County, where some of his children earlier had relocated, but he and his wife were brought back to Blue Spring for burial. The marker unveiling and dedication were arranged by James R. (Jimmy) Branch of Lyons, Georgia, a great grandson. He has arranged for a Sons of Confederate Veterans crew to fire a three-shot salute from the same cannon that the same crew fired in the recent movie, "Gods and Generals." An honor guard from a different SVC camp in Vidalia, Georgia, also will be on hand. (Information provided by Ray Tapley, great-grandson of James Benjamin Branch, one of the three brothers who served with John Branch in the 57th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment)