South Carolina marks Confederate Memorial Day on Tuesday

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina will close state offices on Tuesday to mark Confederate Memorial Day. South Carolina chose May 10 because it is the day when Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died in 1863 after he was wounded by his own troops and the day Union soldiers captured fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia in 1865. A bill that would allow state employees to take the Juneteenth holiday or any other day instead of Confederate Memorial Day unanimously passed the South Carolina Senate in March but is stuck in a House committee and will likely die when the session ends Thursday. It wasn’t immediately clear from the language of the bill whether state officers would have remained closed on Confederate Memorial Day like they do currently or of they could end up closed on Juneteenth.