Sons of the South

Camp fires of the confederacy: a volume of humorous anecdotes, reminiscences ... By Benjamin La Bree

2010-09-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

Every Inch a Hero.

BY J. B. KILLEBREW

One of the saddest and most thrilling events of the Civil War was the hanging of Sam Davis, in Pulaski, Tenn., November 27, 1863. He was a young man of excellent habits, and possessed a

SAM DAVIS.

(From a photograph, the property of S. A. Cunningham, Publisher and Editor "Confederate Veteran." Nashville, Tenn.)

courage that nothing could daunt. He was reared in the country, and up to the time of the breaking out of hostilities labored on the farm. He entered the army in 1861, in his seventeenth year. joining Colonel Ledbetter's company of the First Tennessee regiment, and in a short time his bravery, prudence, and zeal recommended him to his commanding officer as one fitted to perform the arduous and perilous duties of a scout. He was accordingly detached from his regiment, and made a member of Coleman's scouts.

Toward the close of October, 1863, it was considered highly important to the success of Bragg's movements that the strength of the Federal fortifications of Middle Tennessee should be accurately known, and young Davis was selected to procure this information.

He set out on his dangerous mission, and, after securing all the information that was expected or desired, he was arrested on his return, on the 20th of November, within the Federal lines, with the plans of the fortifications of Nashville and all other places in Middle Tennessee on his person. The accuracy of these plans and the minuteness of details showed at once that his informant was a man holding a high position among the Federal engineers, and when questioned concerning his sources of information, young Davis candidly admitted that the plans had been furnished by an officer high in command in the [Federal army , but resolutely refused to disclose his name. A free pardon was offered him and a safe return within the Confederate lines, on the condition that he would impart the sources of his information, but nothing could shake his resolution.

General Dodge, finding it impossible to move him in his stubborn determination after repeated conferences, summoned a military commission, of which Colonel Madison Miller, of the Eighteenth Missouri Infantry, was president, for the trial of Davis on the following charges and specifications :

Charge I: Being a spy. Specifications: In this, that he. Samuel Davis, of Coleman's scouts. In the service of the so-called Confederate States, did come within the lines of the United States forces in Middle Tennessee for the purpose of secretly gaining information concerning these forces, and conveying the same to the enemy, and was arrested within the said lines on or about November 20,1S63. This in Giles County, Tennessee.

Charge II: Being a carrier of mails, communications, and information from within the lines of the United States Army to persons In arms against the government. Specifications: In this, thai the said Samuel Davis, on or about November 20, 1863, was arrested In Giles County, Tennessee engaged in carrying malls and Information from within the lines of United States Screes to persona In arms against the United States Government.

To which charges and specifications the accused pleaded as follows:

To the specification in first charge, " Not guilty "
To the second charge, " Guilty."

After a patient investigation of several days, the following were the findings and sentence:

The court finds the accused as follows :

Of the specifications to the first charge, " Guilty."

Of the first charge, "Guilty."

Of the specifications to the second charge, " Guilty."

Of the second charge, " Guilty."

And the Commission does therefore sentence him, the said Samuel Davis, of Coleman's scouts, in the service of the so-called Confederate States, to be hung by the neck until he is dead, at such time and place as the commanding general may direct; two thirds of the members of the Commission concurring in the sentence.

Brigadier-General G. M. Dodge approved of the findings and sentence. The sentence was ordered to be carried into effect Friday, November 27, 1863, between the hours of 10 o'clock A. M. and 6 o'clock P. M., and Brigadier-General T. W. Sweeney, commanding Second Division, was ordered to cause the necessary arrangements to be made for carrying out the order in the proper manner.

The prisoner was notified of the findings and the sentence of the military commission by Captain Armstrong, the local provost marshal, and though manifesting some surprise al the severity of the punishment to be inflicted, he bore himself bravely, and showed not the quiver of a muscle. Later in the day Chaplain Young visited him, and found him resigned to his fate. After prayer by the chaplain he inquired concerning the news of the day, and upon being told that Bragg was defeated he expressed the deepest regret.

The scaffold for the execution of the prisoner was built upon an elevation on the eastern side of the town of Pulaski, near the college, and commanded an extensive view. The position could be seen from almost every part of the town. At precisely 10 o'clock on the morning of Friday, the 27th of November, 1863, the prisoner, with pinioned arms, was placed in a wagon and seated upon his coffin. In this condition he was conveyed to the scaffold. Davis stepped from the wagon, and, without any nervousness, seated himself on a bench at the foot of the scaffold, glancing occasionally at the coffin while the assistants were taking it from the wagon. He displayed no trepidation, and seemed to be the least interested of all those present. Quietly turning to Captain Armstrong, he asked with an unshaken voice

how long he had to live, and being told just fifteen minutes, he remarked in substance that the remainder of the battles for the

, Do you suppose, I would betray a friend? No; I would die a thousand times first! ,

freedom of his government and the liberties of his people would have to be fought without his assistance.

Captain Armstrong, turning to him, said, " I am sorry to be compelled to perform this painful duty." To which Davis replied, " Captain, I am innocent; I have only tried to serve my country and my people ; I die in the discharge of duty, and am prepared to die. ! do not think hard of you."

Captain Chickasaw, then approaching, asked the prisoner if it would not be better to save his life by disclosing the name of the officer who furnished the facts concerning the fortifications, etc., and then intimated that it was not yet too late. Upon hearing this the prisoner turned and, with a glowing indignation, said, "Do you suppose, sir, that I would betray a friend ? No; I would die a thousand times first. I will never betray the confidence reposed in me."

Committing then a few keepsakes to Mr. Lawrence, a Methodist minister, he mounted the scaffold with a serene countenance, in company with Chaplain Young, whom he requested to pray with him. After a prayer by the chaplain, the delicacy and appropriateness of which on this occasion may well be questioned, the prisoner stepped upon the trap, and paid the severe penalty of devotion to principle and duty. He died with the calmness of a philosopher, the sternness of a patriot, the serenity of a Christian, and the courage of a martyr.

Never did a deeper gloom spread over any community than did over that of Pulaski when Davis' tragic death was made known. The deed was openly and boldly stigmatized by the common soldiery as a needless assassination. No man ever awakened a deeper sympathy. His youth, his courage, his inflexible devotion to the principles of honor, his coolness under trying circumstances, all pleaded powerfully in his behalf. His sad fate is one of the touching themes of the county, and even now, after the lapse of thirty-four years, whenever his name is mentioned a tender sympathy causes the tear to rise unbidden to the eye. His memory is cherished by the people he loved so well; his name is embalmed in the hearts of his kindred and friends ; and they regard him as a martyr to what he conceived to be his duty—the preservation of the sacredness of confidence. His case furnishes a melancholy example of the atrocities still permitted under the usages of civilized warfare.

In reviewing, after the lapse of years, all the facts connected with this sad affair, it must be admitted that there were many mitigating circumstances in the case of this dauntless young soldier which pleaded powerfully for clemency on the part of the post commander. Davis was captured fifteen miles from Pulaski. He pretended no disguise, but wore at the time of his capture his arms and the Confederate uniform. It is true that the plans of the fortifications in Middle Tennessee were found on his person, biri no proof further than his own admission was adduced to show that he was in possession of them in any other capacity than as a courier or letter-carrier, and might, in the discharge of his duty as such, have unconsciously come within the lines, la addition, his youth, his manliness, his high courage and sense of honor, his unflinching constancy under the severest trial and the greatest temptations, and his heroic conduct to the last, were qualities that should have induced a noble-hearted commander to give the prisoner the benefit of a doubt.

Camp fires of the confederacy: a volume of humorous anecdotes, reminiscences ... By Benjamin La Bree

2010-09-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

FORREST.

At the end of April, 1863, General Streight, an Indiana officer, was designated by the Federal General commanding the Army of Tennessee, to prepare for a raid into Northern Georgia, the object being to cut the Confederate communications by destroying railways, bridges, and to burn commissary stores and, above all, to wreck the splendid arsenal at Rome, Georgia.

It was calculated that Streight's raid would require a march of some 300 miles. He was given picked troops and supported by a large force for reconnoissance, to hide as long as possible the real purpose of the incursion.

Streight began his real operations on April 28th, and by the 29th General Forrest, who had been ordered to pursue and baffle the Federals, was close at his heels.

Forrest was one of the wonderful men of the war. Judged by his resources and opportunities, no man who wore the gray accomplished more, and an enemy who opposed him was bound to fight, conquer, run or die.

The moment Streight felt the first stroke of Forrest's hand, he

• Forrest, like a mighty and tireless Noodhound, would follow the prey.'

realized that a tireless, skilled foe was on his track, and for ninetysix hours, never by day or night, was the Federal column at rest.

Like some insatiate monster, the Confederate General followed the Federal column, and, whenever and wherever found, there was a vigilant and relentless attack. In 164 miles he fought eight battles by day and three by night, and in two of the latter, where artillery was drawn by his men to within 100 feet of the enemy's line, the only guide or light was the flash of rifles and the blaze of cannon.

Streight was himself a man of nerve and resource. Skillfully

arranged ambuscades, tierce charges and stubborn resistance met Forrest, and in a fair proportion of the conflicts the Federals held their own ; but they greatly outnumbered the Men of the Gray. The fierce onslaught of Forrest, his impetuous attack, his unyielding tenacity and uncompromising assaults, combined with his swift and rapid movements, were enough to paralyze the stoutest heart and make the bravest soul question the outcome. Like as a mighty and tireless bloodhound would follow the prey, so this wizard of the saddle pursued the hard-marching Federals, and never for a single instant in these days or nights was tliere otner thought or plan but to destroy the invaders.

Streight found friendly guides and helping hands amongst the Union men and women of Northern Alabama ; but these could not hide him from the eagle eyes or the smiting arm of those following the trail, or stay the avenging hand that was ever uplifted in his rear.

With horses dropping dead in the roads, with men falling in the unconsciousness of sleep from their steeds, and with their guns sliding from their paralyzed grasp, Forrest still hunted the foe. One-half of the command, on the third day, was killed, wounded, or broken down ; but still, with only 500 soldiers he hunted the Federal raiders, and, on May 3d, within twenty miles of Rome —the objective point of the expedition—Streight and his 1,600 men laid down their arms and surrendered to the Confederate General, who could then, after his terrible pursuit, muster less than 500 followers.

Every mile of the 164 was covered with war's wrecks. Dead soldiers, mutilated animals, wounded men and stricken beasts, broken wagons, abandoned trains and scattered supplies, told the story of the relentless and pitiless assault. Nearing the end, in forty-eight hours, four battles and ninety miles marching and four hours' sleeping.

Surely these deeds of the Cavalry of the Army of Tennessee are not unworthy of Confederate valor.

2010-09-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

A Brave Man.

One of the Alabama regiments was fiercely attacked by a whole brigade in one of the battles around Richmond. The Alabamians, unable to withstand such great odds, were compelled to fall back about thirty or forty yards, losing, to the utter mortification of the officers and men, their flag, which remained in the hands of the enemy. Suddenly a tall Alabamian, a private in the color company, rushed from the ranks across the vacant ground, attacked a squad of Yankees, who had possession of the flag, with his musket, felled several to the ground, snatched the flag from them, and returned safely back to his regiment. The bold fellow was of course immediately surrounded by his jubilant comrades and greatly praised for his gallantry. His captain appointed him to a sergeancy on the spot, but the hero cut everything short by the reply: "Oh, never mind, captain! Say no more about it. I dropped my whisky flask among the Yankees and fetched that back, and I thought I might just as well bring the flag along."

2010-09-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

Camp fires of the confederacy: a volume of humorous anecdotes, reminiscences ...

By Benjamin La Bree

THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER—HIS RETURN HOME ELOQUENTLY PICTURED.

By HENRY W GRADY.

The following extract from the famous address delivered by the late Henry W. Grady before the New England Society of New York, on the occasion of its annual dinner in 1886, derives special interest and appropriateness from the associations of Memorial Day:

"Dr. Talmage has drawn for you, with a master hand, the picture of your returning armies. He has told you how, in pomp and circumstance of war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their glory in a nation's eyes. Will you bear with me while I tell you of another army that sought its home at the close of the war—an army that marched home in defeat and not in victory, in pathos and not in splendor— but in glory that equaled yours, and to hearts that were as loving as ever welcomed heroes home ?

" Let me picture to you the footsore Confederate soldier, as, buttoning up, in his faded gray jacket, the parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appomattox in 1865. I think of him, as ragged, half-starved, heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds; having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades in silence, and, lifting his tearstained and pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot old Virginia's hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow, and begins the slow and painful journey.

"What does he find? Let me ask you, who went to your homes eager to find, in a welcome you had justly earned, full payment for four years' sacrifice—what does he find when, having followed the battle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dreading death not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and beautiful ? He finds his house in 2 " (17)

ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless, his social system—feudal in its magnificence—swept away, his people without law or legal status, his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy on his shoulders.

" Without money, credit, employment, material or training, and, besides all this, confronted with the greatest problem that ever confronted human intelligence—the establishing of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves — what does he do, this hero in gray, with the heart of gold ? Does he sit down in sullenness and despair ? Not for a day. Surely God, who had stripped him of his prosperity, inspired him in his adversity. As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier stepped from the trenches into the furrow; horses that had charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June ; women reared in luxury cut up their dresses and made dresses for their husbands ; with a patience and a heroism that fit women always as a garment, they gave their hands to work. There was little bitterness in all this. Cheerfulness and frankness prevailed. 'Bill Arp' struck the keynote when he said, 'Well, I killed as many of them as they did of me, and I'm going home to work.' "

Stonewall Jackson

2010-05-02T18:40:00.001-07:00

* 1824 January 21
Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born at Clarksburg, [West] Virginia.
Parents: Jonathan Jackson (1790-1826) an attorney, and Julia Beckwith Neale (1798-1831). They were married in September 1817 and had four children: Elizabeth (1819-1826); Warren (1821-1841); Thomas (1824-1863), and Laura Ann (1826-1911).

* 1826 March
Jackson's sister Elizabeth (age 6) and his father died of typhoid fever. Julia Jackson gave birth to Laura the day after her husband died. Widowed at age 28, Julia was left with extensive debts and the family was impoverished.

* 1830-1841
Julia Jackson remarried. Her new husband, Blake Woodson, disliked his stepchildren and the family had financial difficulties. A short time after the marriage, Thomas and Laura were sent to live with Jackson relatives in Jackson's Mill [West] Virginia; Warren was sent to Neale relatives. Julia Jackson died, as a result of childbirth complications, on Dec. 4, 1831. She left behind the three Jackson siblings and a newborn son (Thomas's half brother), William Wirt Woodson (1831-1875). Jackson and Laura spent the remaining years of childhood with their paternal uncles. Jackson's brother, Warren, died of tuberculosis in 1841.

* 1842 June-1846 June
Jackson attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Jackson was not the first choice for his congressional district's appointment, but the top applicant withdrew from the academy after only one day. Jackson graduated in June 1846, standing 17th out of 59 graduates. Jackson began his U.S. Army career as a 2nd Lt., First Artillery Regiment. In 1844, Jackson's beloved sister, Laura, married Jonathan Arnold.

* 1846-1851
United States Army officer. Served in the Mexican War, 1846-1848; stationed at Carlisle Barracks, PA; Ft. Hamilton, NY; Ft. Meade, FL.

* 1851-1861 April

o In the spring of 1851 Jackson was offered and accepted the appointment to teach at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia; he resigned from the army.
Elinor Junkin, Jackson's first wife, died in childbirth
Elinor Junkin Jackson
o Reported for duty at VMI on August 13, 1851. He taught natural and experimental philosophy (related to modern day physics and including physics, astronomy, acoustics, optics, and other scientific courses).
o On August 4, 1853, Jackson married Elinor Junkin (1825-1854), daughter of Dr. George Junkin (President of Washington College) and Julia Miller Junkin.
o Elinor (Ellie) died in childbirth on October 22, 1854. Their child, a son, was stillborn.
o During the summer of 1856 Jackson toured Europe, visiting Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, England and Scotland.
o On July 16, 1857, Jackson married for the second time. His wife was Mary Anna Morrison (1831-1915), daughter of Robert Hall Morrison and Mary Graham Morrison. Mary Anna's family resided in North Carolina; her father was the retired President of Davidson College.
o Mary Anna gave birth to a daughter, Mary Graham, on April 30, 1858; the baby died less than a month later, on May 25.
o In November 1859, Jackson was one of the VMI officers who accompanied a contingent of VMI cadets to Harper's Ferry, where they stood guard at the execution of abolitionist John Brown.

* 1861-1863
o April 21, 1861 - the VMI Corps of Cadets was ordered to Richmond to serve as drillmasters for new army recruits. Jackson was placed in command of the cadets.
o April 27, 1861 - Gov. John Letcher ordered Colonel Jackson to take command at Harper's Ferry, where he organized the troops that would soon comprise the famous "Stonewall Brigade" (2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th and 33rd Virginia Infantry Regiments; Rockbridge Artillery; all were from the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia).
o July 1861 - Promoted to Brigadier General. Battle of 1st Manassas, where he acquired the legendary nickname Stonewall. "Look, there stands Jackson like a stone wall."
o October 1861 - Promoted to Major General. Placed in command of the Valley of Virginia (Shenandoah Valley)
o 1862 May & June - Jackson's brilliant Shenandoah Valley Campaign; victories at Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys and Port Republic. Following the successful campaign, Jackson was ordered to join Gen. Lee in the Peninsula (Eastern Virginia).
Julia Jackson (1862-1889).
Her mother was Mary Anna Morrison, Jackson's second wife.
o 1862 June 15-July 1 - Seven Days Battles. Jackson displayed ineffective leadership which stood in stark contrast to the brilliance of the Shenandoah Valley campaign; the reasons for this uncharacteristic military failure is still debated among Jackson scholars. Returned to the Valley.
o 1862 June-September. Battles of Cedar Mountain, Clark's Mt., 2nd Manassas (July 21), Antietam (September 17).
o 1862 October - Lee reorganized his army into two corps. Jackson was promoted to Lt. General and given command of the new Second Corps. Jackson was now in charge of half of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
o 1862 November - Jackson's daughter, Julia Laura, was born.
o 1862 December 13 - Battle of Fredericksburg
o 1862 December-1863 March - In quarters at Moss Neck, 10 miles south of Fredericksburg. The estate was owned by the Corbin family, who offered their home as winter headquarters.
o 1863 April - in camp at Hamilton's Crossing
o 1863 May 1 - Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
o 1863 May 2, 9:00 p.m. - While reconnoitering with members of his staff, Jackson was accidentally fired upon by his own troops. The 18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment was responsible for the "friendly fire" incident. Jackson was struck by three .57 caliber bullets. He was taken to a field hospital near the battlefield, where his left arm was amputated.
o 1863 May 4 - Jackson was moved to a field hospital at the home of Thomas and Mary Chandler, near Guiney Station, approximately 30 miles from the battlefield.
o 1863 May 10 - Jackson died at 3:15 p.m. His last words were "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."
o 1863 May 15. Jackson's funeral took place in Lexington, Virginia, the town that was Jackson's home during his years as Professor at VMI.

Postscript
o Mary Anna Morrison Jackson never remarried. She was known as the "Widow of the Confederacy" and lived until 1915.
o The close relationship between Jackson and his sister, Laura Jackson Arnold, was destroyed during the war. Laura was an outspoken Unionist who became estranged from her brother and other members of her family. Federal troops occupied her hometown of Beverly [West] Virginia during most of the war, and Mrs. Arnold cared for Federal wounded in her home. See the Johnson Family Papers for a letter mentioning Laura's wartime reputation.
o Julia Jackson was less than one year old when her father died. She married William E. Christian in 1885; she died of typhoid fever in 1889, at age 26. Her children were Julia Jackson Christian (1887-1991), who married Edmund R. Preston; and Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian (1888-1952), who married three times. Both of Jackson's grandchildren had several children; thus there are many living descendants of Stonewall Jackson.

Echoes From The Battle of Murfreesboro

2010-05-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

Confederate Veteran
Volume 11, Number 2
February, 1903

B. L. RIDLEY

[Federals designated it Stone River.]

The memory of incidents in boyhood is rarely incorrect, because impressions first made are most lasting. I was seventeen when the great battle of Murfreesboro (Stone River) was fought between the Army of the Cumberland (Rosecrans) and the Army of Tennessee (Bragg). It was midway of the war between the States, and it was one of the most hotly contested battles in that great conflict.

Bragg had concentrated his forces at Murfreesboro, after the famous battle of Perryville, and Rosecrans massed his forces in Nashville, thirty-one miles north.

My home was between the two armies, at Old Jefferson, twelve miles from Murfreesboro, on a pike intersecting the Nashville and Murfreesboro pike near Lavergne. The battle ground was six miles from my home, northeast on a road that could flank Murfreesboro or intersect with the Murfreesboro and Lebanon pike and afford a fine route for the left wing of a pursuing army.

The location in the disputed territory gave me a better opportunity for taking in the situation than one who was in the front or rear. I had brothers in Morgan's Cavalry, stationed at Black's shop, the intersection of the Murfreesboro and Lebanon and Jefferson and Milton pikes, and a brother in Bragg's army, and my father's home was, of course, the rendezvous of many on our side. Wharton's Cavalry was near Triune, in front of Ilardee. Wheeler was below Lavergne, while John Morgan was watching approaches from Lebanon at Black's shop. Pegram was on the flank in front of our infantry at Readyville.

Scouting parties, making petty fights and movements, and foraging parties of both sides, made things lively, and an occasional gathering of the young folks between the lines, when "kissing games and chasing the glowing hours with flying feet" lent a lively pastime to some of our soldiers.

It was before the "cradle and grave act" of our Congress enlisting persons eligible for soldiers from sixteen to fifty, and as one of what was known as the "Seed Corn of the South." too young to be called on for service, the limit being eighteen, T would go along with the soldier boys "bearded like the pard, jealous in honor, seeking hubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," and join in the revelry-raids in progress about the State Insane Asylum, dashes on the Chicken road about Nolensville, the Hermitage, around Nashville, Lebanon, Gallatin, and other places.

On December 8, 1862, among the flying ordits, we received the news that Gen. John Morgan had taken his own command and Hanson's Kentucky Brigade and captured 2,000 prisoners at Hartsville. Morgan returned a lion, and my young heart leaped with joy when I went up to Black's shop and saw the 2,000 bluecoats filing by. Every tongue was in his praise, and the Confederate Congress congratulated the brilliant achievement. In the midst of this rejoicing it was secretly whispered that one of Muefreesboro's fair women, Miss Mattie Ready, had captured John Morgan. "The voice of the bridegroom and the bride" was soon to be heard, and from out the exuberance over military glory, on December 14, at the home of the bride's father, Judge Ready, in Murfreesboro, Lieut. Gen. Polk (Bishop Polk) in full uniform, performed the ceremony, and Gens. Bragg, Hardee, Cheatham, and Duke stood by them as best men. Even Col. St. Ledger Grenfel, the Moor, whose rigid enforcement of military discipline was causing a reign of terror among the cavalry, was there. \vreathed in smiles, and, while he was fearful that the marriage might lessen Morgan's usefulness, yet he thought it grand that his chief was honored by such guests. About this time Stevenson's infantry division had been sent off to Baton Rouge, while Rosecrans was reenforcing. Then Forrest had to look after hostile forces in West Tennessee, and, in order to divert Rosecrans, Morgan was started on another raid to Kentucky.

Some of our infantry was sent near the front as supports to cavalry, and dashes and fights became more frequent. On the night of December 28, at a party of young folks at Smyrna Depot, it was said that the Federal army was moving upon us; that McCook's Corps had taken the Nashville-Triune pike, Thomas's the Franklin to the intersection of the Wilson pike, leading to Nolensville, and that Crittendon and Rosecrans were advancing on the pike from Nashville toward Murfreesboro, and had reached Lavergne. The soldiers at the party took leave of their friends and sweethearts. Among them was a lieutenant, F. B. Crosthwait, who went to his command (the Twentieth Tennessee). whilst the "Seed Corn Contingent" returned to their respective homes, awaiting developments.

On December 29 there was heard the rumbling of artillery. Toward Lavergne it was more distinct and gradually came closer and closer, until about nightfall on all of the pikes could be seen time stubborn falling back of the cavalry. At Nolensville, Thomas came in the rear of McCoo, who was at Triune fighting Hardee's front (Bragg's left wing), which also was slowly falling back toward Murfreesboro. At Lavergue, Crittenden's Division broke off at the intersection and took the Jefferson pike and camped that night at Espey's Church, throwing their vanguard to the north side of the bridge, on the west fork of Stone River. There was a calm that night preceding the storm, that even a boy in bewilderment noticed. About daybreak Wheeler's Cavalry from Murfreesboro moved out to strike the Federal rear. Meandering paths were taken to the Sharp Springs ford opposite Espey's church, and in a short time the zip-zip of Minies and the basso interlude of the shells beat upon the air.

It was my first sight of a battle. It sounded like the breaking of millions of sticks, and the cannons boomed like a trip hammer sounds over a stubborn piece of heated iron. Then followed the woo-oo-oo-ing of the solid shot, the whizzing, whining howl of a shell as with a shuck tied to it. Wheeler bad engaged them for a while with a brigade, and continued to the rear toward Lavergue, where he struck the wagon train, and must have destroyed much.

One of the diverting incidents of the Espey's Church battle was the conduct of a neighbor physician. He was of a nervous turn, but, like Weelam McClure in "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush," he was highly respected as the doctor of the glen. When the shells crashed through his house he broke through the woods, urging his wife to follow. She said "Hold on; let me get my baby." The Doctor said, "Let the baby go," and off he ran to get away from danger.

In a short time after the fight this flanking column was all marching via Smyrna Depot, called back to the Murfreesboro pike, and then the rattling and rumbling of firearms everywhere all day and at rapid intervals was kept up at Stone River and in the rear. The flank movement via the Jefferson pike having been withdrawn, when perhaps they found that the bridges above and below Jefferson in the fork of the junction of the river had been burned, it left us high and dry from the invader, and their "round up" made the west fork of Stone River their line of defense. And so it was that Rosecrans had concentrated his army near Murfreesboro.

From a memoranda issued by Gen. Bragg for general and staff officers the line of battle of the Army of Tennessee was formed for the coming onslaught:

"1. The line of battle will be in front of Murfreesboro, half of the army (left wing) in front of Stone River, right wing in rear of the river.

"2. Polk's Corps will form left wing, Hardee's Corps right wing.

"3. Withers's Division will form first line in Polk's Corps, Cheatham's the second line. Breckinridge's Division forms first line, Hardee's Corps; Cleburne's Division, second line, Hardee's Corps.

"4. McGowen's Division to form reserve opposite center on high ground, in the rear of Cheatham's present quarters.

"5. Jackson's Brigade reserve to the right flank, to report to Lient. Gen. Hardee.

"6. Two lines to be formed from 800 to 1,000 yards apart, according to ground.

"7. Chiefs of artillery to pay especial attention to posting of batteries and supervise their work, seeing that they do not causelessly waste their ammunition.

"8. Cavalry to fall back gradually before the enemy, reporting by couriers every hour when near our lines. Wheeler will move to the right and Wharton to the left to cover and protect our flanks and report movements of the enemy. Pegram to fall to the rear and report to commanding general as a reserve.

"9. To-night if the enemy has gained his position in our front ready for action, Wheeler and Wharton, with their whole commands, will make a night march to the right and left, turn the enemy's flank, gain his rear, and vigorously assault his trains and rear guard, blocking the roads and impeding his movements in every way, holding themselves ready to assail his retreating forces.

"10. All quartermasters, commissaries, and ordnance officers will remain at their proper posts, discharging their duties. Supplies and baggage should be ready, packed for a move forward or backward, as the results of the day may require, and the trains should be in position out of danger, teamsters all present, and quartermasters in charge.

Should we be compelled to retire, Polk's Corps will move on Shelbyville, and Hardee on Manchester pike. Trains in front, cavalry in the rear.

BRAXTON BRAGG.

And so was Bragg's disposition of his army.

Our cavalry was so persistent that it took Rosecrans four days to move twenty miles to confront Bragg. Rosecrans was all day Tuesday, the 30th, locating his artillery and extending his right so as to flank BraggÆs right from the McFadden Ford. When nightfall came McCook commanded Rosecrans's right, Thomas the center, and Crittenden the left.

Gen. Rosecrans reported: "My plan of battle was to open on the right and engage the enemy sufficiently to hold him firmly and to cross with my left (at McFadden's Ford), consisting of three divisions, to oppose which they had only two divisions. But the enemy attacked the whole front of our right wing, massing his forces on its right flank, which was partially surprised, thrown into confusion, and driven back."

Gen. Bragg says that it became apparent that the object was to flank on his right, and be determined to assail him on our left Wednesday, the 31st. For this purpose he moved Cleburne's Division, Hardee's Corps, from the second line on the right to the left, having previously moved McCown to the first line on Triune road left, and Gen. Hardee was ordered to that point and assigned to the command of that and McCown's Division.

The movement was made on the evening of December 30, and before seven o'clock the next morning, the anticipated time for Rosecrans to begin his flank movement on his left. The result of this was the entire rout of the Federal right wing, and it would have been of Rosecrans's army had it been vigorously followed up. To show that this was so, those of us in the rear picked up stragglers fleeing in every direction. A number of tts near Old Jefferson got over 200 during the battle and marched them to our pickets at Black's shop, four miles on the Lebanon pike crossing, and turned them over as prisoners. They came down the west side of the river in squads, and when we would halloo "Halt," up would go a white handkerchief.

The flush of Wednesday's battle, together with the information from these stragglers that we had run them back north of the pike and corralled the whole Federal army from the turnpike north at what is now the cemetery to the McFadden ford, coupled with Wheeler's and Wharton's burning 800 wagons from Overall Creek to the asylum, led all to believe that the retreat of Rosecrans was inevitable and the destruction of his army certain.

Among these stragglers that the "Seed Corn Contingent" were picking up appeared a lieutenant colonel with his eagles and epautlets. He was on a good horse and had a pair of fine Holsters. Two of us, anxious for big game, commanded him to surrender, but that fellow went for his navies, and, fearing that our little six-shooters were too small, we "absquatulated," and after picking up a few more boys, followed on, and took him in seven miles this side of Lebanon. He said that he was not going to let two boys with pocket pistols capture him. That colonel was six miles from the battlefield, and a Federal officer told me after the war that he was cashiered for cowardice.

Notwithstanding the apparent confusion in the enemies' rear on Thursday, the roaming of artillery continued at Murfreesboro, and about three o'clock on Friday the firing of artillery and small arms was more terrific than usual. A fearful battle was evidently in progress. It turned out to be Breckinridge's fatal charge, where he is said to have been repulsed with a loss of 1,500 killed and wounded. It is the history of that event that he was driving one or two lines into the river at McFadden's Ford, when fifty-two pieces of artillery opened up and almost decimated his ranks. On that Friday my dear mother made her way to Murfreesboro through the Confederate pickets to look after husband and sons, and reached there, after passing through long lines of cavalry mounted arid ready for the conflict.

I quote from a letter she wrote of this trip: "On entering town what a sight met my eyes! Prisoners entering every street, ambulances bringing in the wounded, every place crowded with the dying, the Federal general, Sill, lying dead in the courthouse-killed Wednesday-Frank Crosthwait's (Twentieth Tennessee) lifeless corpse stretched on a counter. He had been visiting my house, and was killed on Wednesday. The churches were full of wounded, where the doctors were amputating legs and arms. I found my own safe, and, being informed that another battle was expected to begin, I set off on my way home, and passed through our cavalry all drawn up in line. I had only gone a mile when the first cannon boomed. but I was safe. I think of that trip now with wonder that I had no fear, but my anxiety was so intense it seemed at the time that it was no more than a visit."

In all these days, from the 26th to the 29th, Wheeler, Wharton, and Pegram seemed busy, and then from the 30th to the 4th of January they made three rounds of the Federal army, and rushed back to Murfreesboro at times to protect the flanks. The movement was wonderful, and it was there that Gen. Wheeler properly won the sobriquet of "Fighting Joe."

Undoubtedly up to the time that Breckinridge made his fatal charge the Confederates had the battle, and the Federal commander was expecting to retreat. It is said, whether true or not, that in the Federal conference after the rout of December 31 the commander was bewildered.

The papers captured on the field out of McCook's headquarters wagon placed the Federal army there between sixty and seventy thousand. And with Bragg's force of 30,000 effectives, beside 5,000 cavalry, undoubtedly his battle as aggressor in an open fight was one of the most masterful efforts of tlmc Army of Tennessee. Bragg outgeneraled his adversary in the outset, and on Wednesday evening, had he thrown BreckinridgeÆs division-although heavily drawn from-against Crittenden at McFadden's Ford, as he says he ordered, the fruits of the victory of Hardee and Polk on Wednesday would have been realized.

There were incidents in that b~ittle that made wonderful impressions on me. For eight long hours MeCown, Cleburne, and Withers and Cheatham's Divisions were mowing down line after line of McCook and Thomas, and even parts of Crittenden's until they were driven from the Triune road across he Wilkerson to the Nashville pike, two and one-half miles back, until the enemy was formed into a north and south instead of the former east and west line.

The backward run of the enemy's right and center became a whirlpool of disorder until the railroad embankment was their only salvation. Men, although mortally wounded, continued the pursuit until they fell fainting from loss of blood. Col. Locke, of a Texas regiment, they say, slapped his hands over the wound in his breast to stop the blood, and hallooed, "Charge em, boys: and followed on until he fell. Maj. Douglas, of artillery fame, captured a battery from the enemy. In the twinkling of an eye, and with grape and shrapnel, at the critical moment he cut swaths in the lines of blue, appalling and stampeding them. They also say that Sergt. A. Sims, flag bearer of the Tenth Texas, seeing in one of the charges a Federal flag bearer with his flag waving his regiment forward, sprang at him and seized it, and while struggling both fell dead while waving their banners. It is said that Lieut. Fred James, volunteer on Cheatham's staff, a lawyer from Murfreesboro, was killed near his mother's farm in the battle. The Allen boys, Orville Ewing, Nat Gooch, J. B. Johns, Col. Don McGregor (First Arkansas, who formerly lived here) were wounded or killed, and the death knell throughout the army was awful.

Capt. Semple, of Semple's Battery, located on the left, saw a fine-looking officer dashing up the pike in the direction of the center. He thought him a general, and asked one of his gunners to pick him off. The gunner loaded a solid shot, took careful aim with his cannon, and at her belch the officer fell down dead from his horse. It turned out to be the adjutant general of the Federal army, Col. Garesche, reported "killed by a solid shot."

In the meantime the "Seed Corn Contingent" were picking up stragglers, in a hard rain, and delivered them to our pickets at Black's shop. As the blue lines rose and fell the Federal general Sill (we heard) was killed, and our Gen. Rains was pierced through the heart. The fearful destruction of color bearers, some regiments losing six to eight, will give an idea of the fierceness of the struggle. Two Federal brigadiers were captured; Gens. Wood and Vancleve were wounded. The seven days' fight around Murfreesboro recalls that of the name around Richmond. It has been forty years ago, but the memory is as vivid as if it were yesterday.

But after Wednesday the aggressive work stopped. Cleburne said that the enemy was intrenched, and while he could defend, yet it was unsafe to pursue again with worn-out troops. So Thursday came, and every moment's delay was death to the ultimate success of Southern arms. The suspense made us restless about the result. Wagons and bodies of troops were moving back toward Nashville, and stragglers from the Federal lines did not diminish. But the charge of Breckinridge came on the 2d, causing that awful slaughter. It fell upon us like a thunderbolt. Our neighbors and relatives and friends were there. The gallant Hanson, of Kentucky, was killed. Col. Palmer of our town. was wounded, and our dead and dying lay before fifty pieces of the enemy's guns, massed by Mendelhall, Crittenden's chief of artillery, at McFadden's Ford.

It was a sudden shock to the flushed spirits of the Army of Tennessee. Friday night in the lull my father, who had been watching the battle, returned to its and said that our army would retire. And thus ended the great battle. Polk withdrew on the Shelbyville pike and Hardee on the Manchester pike.

We boys went through the form of paroling our prisoners. After the war we received a letter from one of those Yanks, wanting a certificate of parole, having mislaid the one we gave him. They were accusing him up North of desertion in a race for the Legislature. But we could not help him, as we were not empowered to issue paroles.

And now, when summing up the battle of Murfreesboro (Stone River), we assert that for fierceness and the display of military skill it was not surpassed.

In the official reports Union and Confederate armies (Volume XIV., Series I., page 1,097), the list of ordnance and other articles captured and of men wounded and taken prisoners by Gen. Bragg's army at Murfreesboro are as follows: Artillery, 40 pieces; muskets, 6,000; wagons, 800; mules, 4,000; killed, 5,000; wounded, 16,000; prisoners, 6,103. This report, though, does not agree with the returns of casualties in the Union forces, which places the aggregate of losses in killed, wounded, and missing at 13,249. The returns of casualties in Confederate forces killed, wounded, and missing, 9,865. Of these, 7,706 were killed and wounded, and only 888 missing, showing a game fight on the part of our army from start to finish. (See Series I, Vol. 20, page 681, Rebellion Records.)

The battle was never a victory to Rosecrans. His overwhelming numbers in pursuit were defenders in the conflict.

It was a victory to Southern arms, for the lion dared not pursue us. We retired at will, and retained the larger part of Tennessee for ten months, that we had been forced before to give up, affording supplies to our people. Our outpost retired back only twelve to fifteen miles.

On the night of January 3, 1863, after burying valuables for loved ones and saying good-by, those of Jeff Davis's "Seed Corn" that had been so active at Old Jefferson during the battle, retired with the grand old Army of Tennessee to pick their flints and come again.

The result of the battle with some tended to impair Gen. Bragg's usefulness, for all felt sure that the battle was won. Bragg's conception of it was grand, his execution praiseworthy, and he had ordered the right to advance on Wednesday and complete the rout, and but for the unfortunate information to Breckenridge that enemy was flanking, the order would have been carried out. That was the turning point in the battle, and no commander could foresee it. Information as to increased reenforcements to his army induced Bragg's generals to advise retreat.

Bragg's conception of every battle displayed generalship. The more the passions subside, and reason sits enthroned upon the heart, the more history will take the part of the private soldier and do Gen. Bragg's memory justice, and the world will commend the Confederate government for retaining him among her faithful generals.

It was not Northern generalship that brought mishaps in some of our battles, nor a want of Southern skill that caused the overthrow of the Confederacy-it was God.

Quotes

2010-04-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

"Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War; will be impressed by all the influences of history and to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision." --Gen. Pat Cleburne, CSA

Charles Dickens- English author 1861 - "The Northern onslaught upon slavery is no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states."

London Times 7 November 1861 - The contest is really for empire on the side of the North and for independence on that of the South.."

Karl Marx-European Socialist-1861 - "The war between the North and the South is a tariff war. The war is further, not for any principle, does not touch the question of slavery, and in fact turns on the Northern lust for sovereignty. "

New Orleans Daily Crescent-1861-- "They (the South) know that it is their import trade that draws from the peoples pockets sixty or seventy millions of dollars per annum, in the shape of duties, to be expended mainly in the North, and in the protection and encouragement of Northern interest. These are the reasons why these people do not wish the South to secede from the union".

"The Southern Confederacy will not employ our ships or buy our goods. What is our shipping without it? Literally nothing... it is very clear that the South gains by this process and we lose. No...we must not let the South go".
-- Union Democrat Manchester, New Hampshire. 19 February, 1861

"The cause of the South was the cause of constitutional government, the cause of government regulated by law, and the cause of honesty and fidelity in public servants. No nobler cause did man ever fight for!"
~ Rep. Benjamin Franklin Grady-Duplin Co. NC 1899

"Instead of friends, I see in Washington only mortal enemies. Instead of loving the old flag of the stars and stripes, I see in it only the symbol of murder, plunder, oppression, and shame."
Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Confederate Spy

"To me, the campaign by certain groups to remove all the symbols and memorials to our Southern past amounts to the same thing...a desecration of graves. Every flag or monument that is removed, every plaque taken down, every school or street or bridge that is renamed, is no different from a broken tombstone. It is wanton and hateful violence directed at the dead who can no longer defend themselves.'' -- John Field Pankow

The real issue involved in the relations between the North and the South of the American States, is the great principle of self-government. Shall a dominant party of the North rule the South, or shall the people of the South rule themselves. This is the great matter in controversy.
(Montgomery, Alabama, 1860) -- Robert Barnwell Rhett

" To tar the sacrifices of the Confederate soldier as simple acts of racism, and reduce the battle flag under which he fought to nothing more than the symbol of a racist heritage, is one of the great blasphemies of our modern age".
James Webb-Secretary of Navy And Assistant Secretary of Defense under U.S. President Ronald Regan and current U.S. Senator (D.VA.) (Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, New York: Broadway Books, 2004, p. 225)

“…We must forevermore do honor to our heroic dead. We must forevermore cherish the sacred memories of those four terrible but glorious years of unequal strife. We must forevermore consecrate in our hearts our old battle flag of the Southern Cross – not now as a political symbol, but as the consecrated emblem of an heroic epoch. The people that forgets its heroic dead is already dying at the heart, and we believe we shall be truer and better citizens of the United States if we are true to our past.”
~ Confederate Veteran Rev. Randolph Harrison McKim

Had the cotton gin of Massachusetts inventor Eli Whitney not come on the scene in the late 1700’s, African slavery in this country was most likely doomed. The antislavery and emancipation feeling in the South was ascendant, but thwarted by profitable slave-trading and hungry cotton mills in New England which gave rise to more plantations in the South, and the perpetuation of slavery. And after years of treating the American South as an agricultural colony, New England set out in 1861 to strip it of political power.
Bernhard Thuersam- Director Cape Fear Historical Institute NC.

"The Confederate battle flag is based upon the national flag of Scotland. The national flag of Scotland is the cross of St. Andrew and the cross of St. Andrew is a symbol of the Christian faith and the heritage of the Celtic race... It was adopted consciously, purposefully, and deliberately...in order to display faith in the sovereign God of heaven and earth, faith in the providence of God, and the God of salvation."
Pastor John Weaver-Former SCV National Chaplain

I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis

"We feel that our cause is just and holy; we protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honor and independence; we ask no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind from the States with which we were lately confederated; all we ask is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms."
President Jefferson Davis, CSA, 29 April 1861

"I tried all in my power to avert this war. I saw it coming, for twelve years I worked night and day to prevent it, but I could not. The North was mad and blind; it would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came, and now it must go on unless you acknowledge our right to self government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence."
President Jefferson Davis, CSA

"When the South raised its sword against the Union's Flag,
it was in defense of the Union's Constitution."
Confederate General John B. Gordon

Confederate Col. Richard Henry Lee - "We were not rebels; we did not fight to perpetuate human slavery, but for our rights and privileges under a government established over us by our fathers and in defense of our homes".

"Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right, a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world".
Abraham Lincoln-U.S. Congress 1847

A little over 10 years later after the South attempted precisely that , Lincoln, when asked, "Why not let the South go in peace"? replied; "I can't let them go. Who would pay for the government"? "And, what then will become of my tariff"?
Abraham Lincoln to Virginia Compromise Delegation March 1861

The states of the South refused to see the law of the land violated and chose as their leader Kentucky born and educated leader, Jefferson Davis, the descendant of Celtic (Welsh) Baptists who had immigrated to South Carolina in 1660 A.D.

Long ago (1281A.D.) Sir William Wallace, leader of the Scot resistance against English oppression said, "Any society which suppresses the heritage of it's conquered minorities, prevents their history, and denies them their symbols, has sewn the seed of it's own destruction".

A true Southerner

2010-04-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

"The SOUTH is a land that has known sorrows; it is a land that has broken the ashen crust and moistened it with tears; a land scarred and riven by the plowshare of war and billowed with the graves of her dead; but a land of legend, a land of song, a land of hallowed and heroic memories.

"To that land every drop of my blood, every fiber of my being, every pulsation of my heart, is consecrated forever. I was born of her womb; I was nurtured at her breast; and when my last hour shall come, I pray GOD that I may be pillowed upon her bosom and rocked to sleep within her tender and encircling arms."

Edward Ward Carmack (1858-1908),
United States Representative, Tennessee

Watch this before it is removed.

2010-04-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

The Manning Report

http://la-gun.com/manning/

CIVIL WAR TENNESSEE

2010-01-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

http://www.civilwartraveler.com/WEST/TN/M-Murfreesboro.html

Murfreesboro Camp33 Facebook

2010-01-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out the new Facebook page and sign up.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=346591&id=328154880275&op=12#/pages/Sons-of-Confederate-Veterans-Camp-33-Murfreesboro-TN/328154880275?v=info

How To Speak Southern

2009-09-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Addled: Confused, disoriented, as in the case of Northern sociologists who try to make sense out of the South, "What's wrong with that Yankee? He acts right addled."

Afar: In a state of combustion. "Call the far department. That house is afar."

Ahr: What we breathe, also a unit of time made up of 60 minutes. "They should've been here about an ahr ago."

Ar: Possessive pronoun. "That's AR dawg, not yours."

Ary: Not any. "He hadn't got ary cent."

Awfullest: The worst. "That's the awfullest lie you evr told me in your life."

Bad-mouth: To disparage or derogate. "All these candidates have bad-mouthed each other so much I've about decided not to vote for any of 'em."

Baws: Your employer. "The baws may not always be right, but he's always the baws."

Best: Another baffling Southernism that is usually couched in the negative. "You best not speak to Bob about his car. He just had to spend $300 on it."

Braht: Dazzing. "Venus is a braht planet."

Bud: Small feathered crature that flies. "A robin sure is a pretty bud."

Cawse: Cause, usually preceded in the South by the adjective "lawst" (lost). "The War Between the States was a lawst cawse."

Cayut: A furry animal much beloved by little girls but detested by adults when it engages in mating rituals in the middle of the night. "Be sure to put the cayut out-side before you go to bed."

Chunk: To throw. "Chunk it there, Leroy. Ole Leroy sure can chunk 'at ball, can't he? Best pitcher we ever had."

Clone: A type of scent women put on themselves. "what's that clone you got on, honey?"

Contrary: Obstinate, perverse. "Jim's a fine boy, but she won't have nothin' to do with him. She's just contrary, is all Ah can figure."

Daints: A more or less formal event in which members of the opposite sex hold each other and move rhythmically to the sound of music. "You wanna go to the daints with me Saturday night, Bobbie Sue?"

Danjuh: Imminent peril. What John Paul Jones meant when he said, "Give me a fast ship, for I intend to put her in harm's way."

Deah: A term of endearment, except in the sense Rhett Butler used it when he said to Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly, my deah, Ah don't give a damn."

Didn't go to: Did not intend to. "Don't whip Billy for knockin' his little sister down. He didn't go to do it."

Dollin: Another term of endearment. (darling) "Dollin, will you marry me?"

Dreckly: Soon. "He'll be along dreckly."

Effuts: Exertions. "Lee made great effuts to defeat Grant."

Everthang: All-encompassing. "everthang's all messed up."

Everhoo: Another baffling Southernism - a reverse contraction of whoever."Everhoo one of you kids wants to go to the movie better clean up their room."

Fahn: Excellent. "That sure is a fahn-lookin' woman."

Farn: Anything that is not domestic. "Ah don't drink no farn liquor, specially Rooshin vodka."

Fetchin': Attractive. "That's a mighty fetchin' woman. Think I'll ask her to daints."

Fixin' to: About to. "I'm fixin' to go to the store."

Foolin' around: Can mean not doing anything in particular or sex, usually of the extramarital variety. "Sue caught her husband foolin' around, so she divorced him."

Fummeer: A place other than one's present location. "Where do we go fummeer?"

Gawn: Departed. "Bo's not here. He's gawn out with somebody else."

Gone: Going to. "You boys just git out there and play football. We gone make mistakes, but they are, too."

Got a good notion: A statement of intent. "Ah got a good notion to cut a switch and whale the dickens out of that boy."

Grain of sense: An appraisal of intelligence, invariably expressed in negative terms. "That boy ain't got a grain of sense."

Gummut: A large institution operating out of Washington that consumes taxes at a fearful rate. "Bill's got it made. He's got a gummut job."

Hahr: That which grows on your head and requires cutting periodically. "You need a hahrcut."

Hod: Not soft, but meaning stubborn or willful when used to describe a Southern child's head. "That boy's so hod-headed it's pitiful."

Hot: A muscle that pumps blood through the body, but also regarded as the center of emotion. "That gull (girl) has just broke his hot."

Hush yo' mouth: An expression of pleased embarrassment, as when a Southern female is paid an extravagant compliment. "Honey, you're 'bout the sweetest, best-lookin' woman in Tennessee. Now hush yo' mouth, Jim Bob."

Ignert: Ignorant. "Ah've figgered out what's wrong with Congress. Most of 'em are just plain ignert."

Ill: Angry, testy. "What's wrong with Molly today? She's ill as a hornet."

Innerduce: To make one person acquainted with another. "Lemme innerduce you to my cousin. She's a little on the heavy side, but she's got a great personality."

Iont: I don't. "Iont know if Ah can eat another bobbycue (barbecue) or not."

Jack-leg: Self taught, especially in reference to automobile mechanics and clergy-men. "He's just a jack-leg preacher, but he sure knows how to put out the hellfire and brimstone."

Jewant: Do you want. "Jewant to go over to the Red Rooster and have a few beers?"

Ka-yun: A sealed cylinder containing food. "If that woman didn't have a kay-un opener, her family would starve to death."

Kerosene cat in hell with gasoline drawers on: A colorful Southern expression used as as evaluation of someone's ability to accomplish something. "He ain't got no more chance than a kerosene cat in hell with gasoline drawers on."

Kin: Related to. An Elizabethan expression, one of many which survived in the South. "Are you kin to him?" "Yeah, He's my brother."

Klect: To receive money to which one is entitled. "Ah don't think you'll ever klect that bill."

Laht: A source of illumination. "This room's too doc (dark). We need more laht in here."

Lar: One who tells untruths. "Not all fishermen are lars. It's just that a lot of lars fish."

Layin' up: Resting or meditating. Or as Southern women usually put it, loafing. "Cecil didn't go to work today 'cause of a chronic case of laziness. He's been layin' up in the house all day, drivin' me crazy."

Let alone: Much less. "He can't even hold a job and support himself, let alone support a family."

Let out: Dismissed. "What time does school let out?"

Lick and a promise: To do something in a hurried or perfunctory fashion. "We don't have time to clean this house so it's spotless. Just give it a lick and a promise."

Mahty raht: Correct. "You mahty raht about that, Awficer. Guess Ah WAS speedin' a little bit."

Make out: Yes, it means that in the South too, but it also means finish your meal. "You chirren (Children) hadn't had nearly enough to eat. Make out your supper."

Mind to: To have the intention of doing something. "Ah got a mind to quit my job and just loaf for a while."

Nawth: Any part of the country outside the South _Midwest, California or whatever.If it's not South, it's Nawth. "People from up Nawth sure do talk funny."

Nekkid: To be unclothed. "Did you see her in that movie? She was nekkid as a jaybird."

Nemmine: Never mind, but used in the sense of difference. "It don't make no nemmine to me."

Of a moanin: Of a morning, meaning in the morning. "My daddy always liked his coffee of a moanin."

Ownliest: The only one. "That's the ownliest one Ah've got left."

Parts: Buccaneers who sailed under the dreaded skull and crossbones. "See that third baseman? He just signed a big contrack with the Pittsburg Parts."

PEEcans: Northerners call them peCONNS for some obscure reason. "Honey, go out in the yard and pick up a passel of PEEcans. Ah'm gonna make us a pie."

Pert: Perky, full of energy. "You look mighty pert today."

Pick at: To pester and annoy. "Jimmy, Ah told you not to pick at your little sister."

Purtiest: The most pretty. "ain't she the purtiest thing you ever seen?"

Quar: An organized choral group, usually connected with a church or school. "Did you hear the news? The preacher left his wife and run off with the quar director."

Raffle: A long-barrelled firearm. "Dan'l Boone was a good shot with a raffle."

Rahtnaow: At once. "Linda Sue, Ah want you to tell that boy it's time to go home and come in the house rahtnaow."

Ranch: A tool used to lossen or tighten nuts and bolts. "Hand me that ranch, Homer."

Raut: A method of getting from one place to another which Southerners pronounce to rhyme with "kraut". Yankees, for reasons that remain shrouded in mystery, pronounce "route" to rhyme with "root". Or worse still, "foot."

Restrunt: A place to eat. "New Yorker's got a lot of good restrunts."

Retard: No longer employed. "He's retard now."

Sass: Another Elizabethan term derived from the word saucy, meaning to speak in an impertinent manner. "Don't sass me, young lady. You're not too old to get a whippin'."

Shainteer: Indicates the absence of a female. "Is the lady of the house in?" "Nope. Shainteer."

Shudenoughta: Should not. "You shudenoughta have another drink."

Spell: An indetermined length of time. "Let's sit here and rest a spell."

Stain: The opposite of leaving. "Ah hate this party, and Ah'm not stain much longer."

Supper: The evening meal Southererners are having while Yankees are having dinner. "What's for supper, honey?

Take on: To behave in a highly emotional manner. "Don't take on like that, Brenda Sue. He's not the only man in Lee County."

Tal: What you dry off with after you take a share. "Would you bring me a tal, sweetheart?"

Tawt: To instruct. "Don't pull that cat's tail. Ah tawt you better'n that."

Thank: Think. "Ah thank Ah'll go to a movie tonight."

That ole dawg won't hunt no more: That will not work. "You want to borrow $20 when you still owe me fifty? That ole dawg won't hunt no more."

Tore up: Distraught, very upset. "His wife just left him, and he's all tore up about it."

Uhmewzin: Funny, comical. "Few things are more uhmewzin than a Yankee tryin' to affect a Southern accent, since they invariably address one person as 'y'all when any Southern six-year-old knows 'y'all is always plural because it means 'all of you.'"

Unbeknownst: Lacking knowledge of. "Unbeknownst to them, he had marked the cards."

Usta: Used to. "Ah usta live in Savanah."

Vaymuch: Not a whole lot, when expressed in the negative. "Ah don't like this ham vaymuch."

Wahn: What Jesus turned the water into, unless you're Babdist who is persuaded it was only grape juice. "Could Ah have another glass of that wahn?"

Wars: Slender strands of coated copper that carry power over long distances. "They're puttin' telephone wars underground now."

Wawk: A method of non-polluting travel by foot. "Why don't we take an old-fashioned wawk?"

Wear out: An expression used to describe a highly-effective method of behavior modification in children. "When Ah get ahold of that boy, Ah'm gonna wear him out."

Wender: A glass-covered opening in a wawl. "Open that wender, It's too hot in here."

Yat: A common greeting in the Irish Channel section of New Orleans. Instead of saying "hey" in lieu of "hello" the way most Southerners do, they say, "Where yat?"

Yew: Not a tree, but a personal pronoun. "Yew wanna shoot some pool?"

Y'heah?: A redundant expression tacked onto the end of sentences by Southerners. "Y'all come back soon, y'heah?"

Yontny: Do you want any. "Yontny more cornbread?"

Yungins: Also spelled younguns, meaning young ones. "Ah want all you yungins in bed in five minutes."

Zit: Is it. "Zit already midnight, sugar? Tahm sure flies when you're having fun."

Taken from "More How To Speak Southern" written by Steve Mitchell

Things a True Southerner Knows

2009-09-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

The difference between a hissie fit and a conniption fit.

Pretty much how many fish or collards greens make up a mess.

What general direction cattywumpus is.

That "gimme sugar" don't mean pass the sugar.

When somebody's "fixin" to do something, it won't be long.

The difference between Yankee's and damn Yankee's.

How good a cold grape Nehi and cheese crackers are at a country store.

Knows what, "Well I Suwannee !!" means.

Ain't nobody's biscuits like Grandma's biscuits !!

A good dog is worth its weight in gold.

Real gravy don't come from the store.

The War of Northern Aggression was over state rights, not slavery.

When "by and by" is.

How to handle their "pot likker".

You should never loan your tools, pick-up, or gun to nobody.

A belt serves a greater purpose than holding Daddy's pants up.

The differences between a redneck, a good ol' boy, and trailer trash.

Never to go snipe hunting twice.

At one point learned what happens when you swallow tobacco juice.

You may wear long sleeves, but you should always roll 'em up past the elbows.

The difference between "pert' near" and "a right far piece".

They know that "just down the road" can be 1 mile or 20.

Never to assume that the other car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.

A true Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder."
A true Southerner knows exactly how long "directly" is - as in "Going to town, be back directly."

True Southerners know instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. (If the trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin'.)

True Southerners make friends standing in lines. We don't do "queues," we do "lines." And when we're in line, we talk to everybody.

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself lookin", you know you're in the presence of a genuine southerner.

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 on the freeway - you just say, "Bless her heart" and go your way.

GOD BLESS DIXIE !!!!

Black Confederates

2009-08-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

Walter Williams

DURING OUR WAR OF 1861, ex-slave Frederick Douglass observed, "There are at the present moment, many colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down ... and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government."

Dr. Lewis Steiner, a Union Sanitary Commission employee who lived through the Confederate occupation of Frederick, Maryland said, "Most of the Negroes ... were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army." Erwin L. Jordan's book "Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia" cites eyewitness accounts of the Antietam campaign of "armed blacks in rebel columns bearing rifles, sabers, and knives and carrying knapsacks and haversacks." After the Battle of Seven Pines in June 1862, Union soldiers said that "two black Confederate regiments not only fought but showed no mercy to the Yankee dead or wounded whom they mutilated, murdered and robbed."

In April 1861, a Petersburg, Virginia newspaper proposed "three cheers for the patriotic free Negroes of Lynchburg" after 70 blacks offered "to act in whatever capacity may be assigned to them" in defense of Virginia. Erwin L. Jordan cites one case where a captured group of white slave owners and blacks were offered freedom if they would take an oath of allegiance to the United States. One free black indignantly replied, "I can't take no such oaf as dat. I'm a secesh nigger." A slave in the group upon learning that his master refused to take the oath said, "I can't take no oath dat Massa won't take." A second slave said, "I ain't going out here on no dishonorable terms." One of the slave owners took the oath but his slave, who didn't take the oath, returning to Virginia under a flag of truce, expressed disgust at his master's disloyalty saying, "Massa had no principles."

Horace Greeley, in pointing out some differences between the two warring armies said, "For more than two years, Negroes have been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the Confederacy. They have been embodied and drilled as rebel soldiers and had paraded with white troops at a time when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the Union." General Nathan Bedford Forrest had both slaves and freemen serving in units under his command. After the war, General Forrest said of the black men who served under him "[T]hese boys stayed with me... and better Confederates did not live."

It was not just Southern generals who owned slaves but northern generals owned them as well. General Ulysses Grant's slaves had to await the Thirteenth Amendment for freedom. When asked why he didn't free his slaves earlier, General Grant said, "Good help is so hard to come by these days."

These are but a few examples of the important role that blacks served, both as slaves and freemen in the Confederacy during the War Between the States.

The flap over the Confederate flag is not quite as simple as the nation's race experts make it. They want us to believe the flag is a symbol of racism. Yes, racists have used the Confederate flag, but racists have also used the Bible and the U.S. flag. Should we get rid of the Bible and lower the U.S. flag? Black civil rights activists and their white liberal supporters who're attacking the Confederate flag have committed a deep, despicable dishonor to our patriotic black ancestors who marched, fought and died to protect their homeland from what they saw as Northern aggression.

They don't deserve the dishonor.
by Walter Williams

http://www.euportal.cz/Articles/4734-black-confederates-cernosi-v-armade-jizanske-konfederace-.aspx

Sons of Confederate Veterans reunion to be held in Murfreesboro

2009-08-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Convention and Visitors Bureau is excited to announce that the 2012 Sons of Confederate Veterans National Reunion will be held in Murfreesboro.

Capturing this event is a great accomplishment for the city, as Murfreesboro was up against stiff competition with Civil War-entrenched Richmond, VA—among other cities—to play host to the event, which brings in around 500 registered SCV members plus their families.

The dates of the 2012 reunion in Murfreesboro will be July 11-15 and the event will fall on the sesquicentennial—or 150th —anniversary year of the Battle of Murfreesboro as well as the exact anniversary date of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Murfreesboro raid and his birthday.

"For several years, Murfreesboro SCV Camp # 33 had looked at the sesquicentennial years of the ‘War Between the States,’ especially the Battle of Murfreesboro and Forrest's Raid, as an opportunity to commemorate those two great battles,” said James G. Patterson, Adjutant. “Winning the bid for the 2012 SCV reunion is a significant victory.”

Stones River National Battlefield, Oaklands Historic House Museum, the Sam Davis Home and other sites will help make this event a glowing success. Hosting a reunion during one of the sesquicentennial years is a prized time for commemorating the “War Between the States” and SCV expects record-breaking attendance.

Murfreesboro-based Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #33 worked with the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, Mayor Bragg and County Mayor Burgess to attract the SCV reunion to Murfreesboro.

In February, Camp #33 placed a bid for the 2012 SCV National Reunion to be held in Murfreesboro. Camp Convention Chairman James G. Patterson made a presentation in the spring of 2009 at the SCV Time and Place meeting in Columbia, Tennessee at the SCV National Headquarters—Elm Springs.

Also at Elm Springs for the presentation were: Mona Herring, Vice President, Convention and Visitors Bureau; Barbara Wolke, Director of Group Sales, Convention and Visitors Bureau; Sheron Clifton, Senior Sales Manager, Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center; Dr. Steve Murphree, Camp #33; Ashley McCrary, Camp #33; Wayne Wilson, Camp #33; Brian Corley, Camp #33; Mike Puckett, Camp #33.

The Time and Place committee made a recommendation to the General Executive Council that Murfreesboro be the site of the 2012 SCV National Reunion. Camp #33 members were told that Murfreesboro’s presentation was the most well-organized the Council has seen in many years.

Camp #33 then made a presentation at the 2009 SCV National Reunion in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Richmond members also made a final attempt to secure the 2012 reunion. Murfreesboro won the bid with only one descending vote from the 500 delegates.

There has never been an SCV National Reunion in Murfreesboro, although Richmond has hosted nine reunions over the past 114 years. With Richmond being the Capitol of the Confederacy and the site of many battles, it was an enormous victory for Murfreesboro to win the bid.

“Hosting this will help establish Rutherford County as a Civil War destination within the SCV organization and it should bring other Civil War-related groups to our community,” said Patterson.

National membership in the SCV is around 30,000 members and Murfreesboro Camp #33 has 165 members and is the third largest camp in the state. Camp #33 also celebrated the 30th anniversary of their charter last year.

The SCV was founded in 1896 and is the predecessor of the United Confederate Veterans which was a veterans’ organization for the surviving Confederate soldiers. Membership to the SCV requires a direct descendant link to a Confederate soldier.

Washing Day In Camp

2009-07-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

" This is washing day' with us," writes a soldier of the Forty-first Onio regiment " Washing day! You know at home what a terrible disturber of domestic comfort it is. My recollections of it are associated with cold feet, damp floors, meagre dinners, cros* mothers, and birch rods. The servant girls and I used to fight more on washing days than on any other. Washing is as much a duty as fighting. Woe to the unlucky sloven that appears at Sunday morning inspection with dirty clothes, dirty hands, long hair, or untrimmed beard. We are expected to bathe all over once or twice a week. This requirement is one of the soldier's greatest blessings. At first, clothes washing was o difficult and tedious operation; but now there is not one of us that is not thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of washing, rinsing, and wringing. It is genuine satisfaction to see a fastidious youth, who, perhaps, has often found fault with his mother or sister on account of fancied imperfections in his linen, knee deep in water, worrying about some garment, in vain endeavors to wash it. Justice comes round at last. When I was a little brat I frequently used to throw down my bread and butter when it was not sugared to suit my whim. My mother would then say, ' You'll see the day, my boy, when you'll be glad to get that crust.' I have realized the truth of her words scores of times within the last year. Washing day with us has its amusements. On one occasion, last summer, while we were stationed at Murfreesboro', a party of about a hundred of us were washing at a large spring on the opposite side of the town from where we were encamped. Buell's army was, at that time, exceedingly short of supplies. But few of us had more than one shirt — some were not even that fortunate. It was a warm, pleasant day. We had removed our clothes, placed them in kettles, built fires, and were boiling them out, busying ourselves, meanwhile, in playing ' leap-frog,' ' tag,'' blackman,' and divers other games, when lo! a party of rebel cavalry came thundering down upon us in pursuit of a forage train that had been sent out in the morning. What were we to do ? We had no arms with us ; our clothes were in boiling hot water; the enemy were drawing near, fearfully near. Jumping over the fence, the whole party of us scud right through the town for camp like* so many wild Indians, as fast as our legs could carry us. The citizens, supposing we would all be captured, came out in great glee, shouting,' Run, Yanks! run Yanks!' as we fled through the streets. We reached camp in safety, to the great astonishment and amusement of our comrades. It was a long time before we heard the last of that washing day. I asked one. old black woman if she didn't blush when she saw us running through town. She replied, ' Why, de Lord God A'mi'ty bress ye, child — I couldn't blush for laughing.'"

Emma Sansom Of Cherokee

2009-07-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Emma Sansom Of Cherokee. — The following is the story of her exploit, as related by Gen. Forrest to a party of his friends at Chattanooga:

Our readers have doubtless seen one or two short versions of the romantic part played by the above-named indomitable girl, in the great raid of Gen. Forrest from Murfreesboro', Tenn., to Rome, Ga., in pursuit of Streight's cavalry; but never the story as related by the General himself. The romantic and heroic conduct of Miss San- som will long live in the memory of the survivors of this war; and we are pleased in this connection to add, by late action of the Legislature of our State, she has been granted a valuable donation of land, as a token of appreciation for the undaunted bravery and fearless patriotism she evinced on the occasion referred to. The editor of the Southern Confederacy remembers the story, as related by Gen. Forrest, shortly after the capture of Streight and his command, and says:

He had been pursuing the enemy all day, and was close upon their heels, when the pursuit was effectually checked by the destruction, by the enemy, of a bridge over a deep creek, which, for the time, separated pursuer and pursued. The country was exceedingly wild and rugged, and the banks of the creek too steep for passage on horseback. Gen. Forrest rode up to a modest little farm-house on the road-side, and seeing a young maiden standing upon the little stoop in front of the dwelling, he accosted her, and inquired if there was any ford or passage for his men across the creek, above or below the destroyed bridge. The young girl proceeded to direct him with animated gesture, and cheeks flushed with excitement, and almost breathless in her eagerness to aid die noble cause of the gallant Confederate General.

It was a scene for a painter — the Southern girl, her cheeks glowing, and her bright eyes Dashing ; while her mother, attracted by the colloquy, stood holding the door, and gazing upon the cavalcade over her venerable spectacles, the cavalry chieftain resting his legs carelessly over the saddle pommel, his staff drawn up around him, and his weather-worn veterans scattered in groups about the road, and some of them actually

During the war the ship George Griswold was nt to England with a cargo for her starving poor.

»ent to

nodding in their saddles from excessive fatigue. After some further inquiry, Gen. Forrest asked the young lady if she would not mount behind him, and show him the way to the ford. She hesitated, and turned her mother an inquiring look. The mother, with a delicacy becoming a prudent parent, rather seemed to object to her going with the soldiers. "Mother," she said, " I am not afraid to trust myself with as brave a man as Gen. Forrest."

"But, my dear, folks- will talk about you." " Let them talk," responded the heroic girl; " I must go." And with that she lightly sprang upon the roots of a fallen tree. Forrest drew his mettled charger near her; she grasped the hero fearlessly about the waist, and sprang up behind him; and away they went — over brake and bramble, through the glade, and on towards the ford. The route was a difficult one, even for as experienced a rider as Forrest; but his fair young companion and guide held her seat, like an experienced horsewoman, and without the slightest evidence of fear. At length they drew near to the ford. Upon the high ridge above, the quick eye of Forrest descried the Yankee sharpshooters, dodging from tree to tree; and pretty soon an angry minie whistled by his car.

" What was that, Gen. Forrest ? " asked the maiden.

" Bullets," he replied; " are you afraid ? " She replied in the negative, and they proceeded on. At length it became necessary, from the density of the undergrowth and snags, to dismount; and Forrest hitched his horse, and the girl preceded him, leading the way herself—remarking that the Yankees would not fire upon her; and they might fire, if he went first. To this Forrest objected, not wishing to screen himself behind the brave girl; and taking the lead himself, the two proceeded on to the ford, under the fire of the Yankee rear-guard. Having discovered the route, he returned, brought up his axe-men, and cleared out a road, and safely crossed his whole column.

Upon taking leave of his fair young guide, the General asked if there was anything he might do for her, in return for her invaluable services. She told him that the Yankees on ahead had her brother prisoner, and if Gen. Forrest would only release him, she should be more than repaid. The General took out his watch, and examined it. It was just five minutes to eleven. " Tomorrow," he said, " at five minutes to eleven o'clock, your brother shall be returned to you." And so the sequel proved. Streight, with his whole command, was captured at ten the next morning. Young Sansom was released, «od despatched on the fleetest horse in the command, to return to his heroic sister, whose courage and presence of mind had contributed so much to the success of one of the most remarkable cavalry pursuits and captures known in the world's history.

Where are the missing Civil War flags?

2009-06-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

Nashville, Tenn. – June 6, 2008 – As the Tennessee State Museum curators gathered information on historic battle flags for a forthcoming book titled “Volunteer Banners: The Civil War Flags of Tennessee,” a mystery unfolded. Where are the banners that were carried by the Tennessee Union troops who fought in the Civil War?

At the beginning of the war, Tennessee found itself divided when the General Assembly voted to secede. Most people in East Tennessee were opposed to the Confederacy and many joined regiments to preserve the Union. Support for the Confederacy was centered in Middle and West Tennessee.

“The museum has located many Confederate flags and has photographs of color guards who carried their banners into battle, which will be included in the book,” noted Greg Biggs, renowned Civil War historian, project director and lead author of Volunteer Banners. “Only eight Union regimental flags out of the 60 to 70 believed to have been in existence during the war have been located. As there is no known record of Union flags being destroyed by post-war Confederate sympathizers, there is the possibility that the flags were hidden.”

The State Museum, known for one of the finest Civil War and battle flag collections in the nation, has been working on this project for several years. Because Tennessee was the primary western battlefield of the Civil War, with more than 400 battles and skirmishes within its borders, the state has vast holdings of military documents, firearms and uniforms. The institution holds some 60 flags, mainly Confederate in its permanent collection.

The West Point Museum, in Highland Falls, New York, just outside the gates of the United States Military Academy, holds seven Tennessee Union Flags as part of its collection. The 12th and 13th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops of Middle Tennessee carried three of these flags. These troops fought in the Battle of Nashville and were also responsible for building the railroad that ran from Kingston Springs to Johnsonville. These seven flags and their history are an example of the stories that will be included in the book.

“We are reaching out to the public to help us find Civil War battle flags and photographs of ancestors who may have been color bearers,” Biggs said. “This also includes females who may have been involved in the production of battle flags. Portions of the book will be dedicated to the women behind the banners.”

Women, who went to work in huge numbers during the Civil War, making flags, sewing uniforms, rolling bandages and working in arsenals, were responsible for the production of the community’s regimental flag. They often selected the fabric and the design and developed the patriotic slogans which appear on many of the flags. If they did not actually sew the flag, they generally hired the company that did. The Flag Presentation Ceremony, where women presented the flag to their men, was considered to be the “social event” of season, as it was the symbol and the bond connecting the soldiers to their home communities.

If the public has any information to contribute to the Tennessee Civil War Flag Book Project, please contact by emailing museuminfo@tnmuseum.org or by telephoning Myers Brown or Ron Westphal at 615-741-2692. Proceeds from the sale of “Volunteer Banners, The Civil War Flags of Tennessee,” will be used to preserve the Civil War Flag Collection of the Tennessee State Museum. For more information about the museum, visit www.tnmuseum.org.

About the Tennessee State Museum:

In 1937, the Tennessee General Assembly created a state museum to house World War I and Spanish-American War mementoes and other collections from the state, the Tennessee Historical Society and other groups. This museum was located in the lower level of the War Memorial Building until it was moved into the new James K. Polk Center in 1981. The State Museum currently occupies three floors, covering approximately 120,000 square feet with more than 60,000 square feet devoted to permanent exhibits of more than 5,000 artifacts.

For more information please visit: www.tnmuseum.org

Please contact Mary Skinner at Mary.Skinner@state.tn.us for high resolution images or for more information.

Echoes From The Battle of Murfreesboro

2009-06-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

Confederate Veteran
Volume 11, Number 2
February, 1903

B. L. RIDLEY

[Federals designated it Stone River.]

The memory of incidents in boyhood is rarely incorrect, because impressions first made are most lasting. I was seventeen when the great battle of Murfreesboro (Stone River) was fought between the Army of the Cumberland (Rosecrans) and the Army of Tennessee (Bragg). It was midway of the war between the States, and it was one of the most hotly contested battles in that great conflict.

Bragg had concentrated his forces at Murfreesboro, after the famous battle of Perryville, and Rosecrans massed his forces in Nashville, thirty-one miles north.

My home was between the two armies, at Old Jefferson, twelve miles from Murfreesboro, on a pike intersecting the Nashville and Murfreesboro pike near Lavergne. The battle ground was six miles from my home, northeast on a road that could flank Murfreesboro or intersect with the Murfreesboro and Lebanon pike and afford a fine route for the left wing of a pursuing army.

The location in the disputed territory gave me a better opportunity for taking in the situation than one who was in the front or rear. I had brothers in Morgan's Cavalry, stationed at Black's shop, the intersection of the Murfreesboro and Lebanon and Jefferson and Milton pikes, and a brother in Bragg's army, and my father's home was, of course, the rendezvous of many on our side. Wharton's Cavalry was near Triune, in front of Ilardee. Wheeler was below Lavergne, while John Morgan was watching approaches from Lebanon at Black's shop. Pegram was on the flank in front of our infantry at Readyville.

Scouting parties, making petty fights and movements, and foraging parties of both sides, made things lively, and an occasional gathering of the young folks between the lines, when "kissing games and chasing the glowing hours with flying feet" lent a lively pastime to some of our soldiers.

It was before the "cradle and grave act" of our Congress enlisting persons eligible for soldiers from sixteen to fifty, and as one of what was known as the "Seed Corn of the South." too young to be called on for service, the limit being eighteen, T would go along with the soldier boys "bearded like the pard, jealous in honor, seeking hubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," and join in the revelry-raids in progress about the State Insane Asylum, dashes on the Chicken road about Nolensville, the Hermitage, around Nashville, Lebanon, Gallatin, and other places.

On December 8, 1862, among the flying ordits, we received the news that Gen. John Morgan had taken his own command and Hanson's Kentucky Brigade and captured 2,000 prisoners at Hartsville. Morgan returned a lion, and my young heart leaped with joy when I went up to Black's shop and saw the 2,000 bluecoats filing by. Every tongue was in his praise, and the Confederate Congress congratulated the brilliant achievement. In the midst of this rejoicing it was secretly whispered that one of Muefreesboro's fair women, Miss Mattie Ready, had captured John Morgan. "The voice of the bridegroom and the bride" was soon to be heard, and from out the exuberance over military glory, on December 14, at the home of the bride's father, Judge Ready, in Murfreesboro, Lieut. Gen. Polk (Bishop Polk) in full uniform, performed the ceremony, and Gens. Bragg, Hardee, Cheatham, and Duke stood by them as best men. Even Col. St. Ledger Grenfel, the Moor, whose rigid enforcement of military discipline was causing a reign of terror among the cavalry, was there. \vreathed in smiles, and, while he was fearful that the marriage might lessen Morgan's usefulness, yet he thought it grand that his chief was honored by such guests. About this time Stevenson's infantry division had been sent off to Baton Rouge, while Rosecrans was reenforcing. Then Forrest had to look after hostile forces in West Tennessee, and, in order to divert Rosecrans, Morgan was started on another raid to Kentucky.

Some of our infantry was sent near the front as supports to cavalry, and dashes and fights became more frequent. On the night of December 28, at a party of young folks at Smyrna Depot, it was said that the Federal army was moving upon us; that McCook's Corps had taken the Nashville-Triune pike, Thomas's the Franklin to the intersection of the Wilson pike, leading to Nolensville, and that Crittendon and Rosecrans were advancing on the pike from Nashville toward Murfreesboro, and had reached Lavergne. The soldiers at the party took leave of their friends and sweethearts. Among them was a lieutenant, F. B. Crosthwait, who went to his command (the Twentieth Tennessee). whilst the "Seed Corn Contingent" returned to their respective homes, awaiting developments.

On December 29 there was heard the rumbling of artillery. Toward Lavergne it was more distinct and gradually came closer and closer, until about nightfall on all of the pikes could be seen time stubborn falling back of the cavalry. At Nolensville, Thomas came in the rear of McCoo, who was at Triune fighting Hardee's front (Bragg's left wing), which also was slowly falling back toward Murfreesboro. At Lavergue, Crittenden's Division broke off at the intersection and took the Jefferson pike and camped that night at Espey's Church, throwing their vanguard to the north side of the bridge, on the west fork of Stone River. There was a calm that night preceding the storm, that even a boy in bewilderment noticed. About daybreak Wheeler's Cavalry from Murfreesboro moved out to strike the Federal rear. Meandering paths were taken to the Sharp Springs ford opposite Espey's church, and in a short time the zip-zip of Minies and the basso interlude of the shells beat upon the air.

It was my first sight of a battle. It sounded like the breaking of millions of sticks, and the cannons boomed like a trip hammer sounds over a stubborn piece of heated iron. Then followed the woo-oo-oo-ing of the solid shot, the whizzing, whining howl of a shell as with a shuck tied to it. Wheeler bad engaged them for a while with a brigade, and continued to the rear toward Lavergue, where he struck the wagon train, and must have destroyed much.

One of the diverting incidents of the Espey's Church battle was the conduct of a neighbor physician. He was of a nervous turn, but, like Weelam McClure in "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush," he was highly respected as the doctor of the glen. When the shells crashed through his house he broke through the woods, urging his wife to follow. She said "Hold on; let me get my baby." The Doctor said, "Let the baby go," and off he ran to get away from danger.

In a short time after the fight this flanking column was all marching via Smyrna Depot, called back to the Murfreesboro pike, and then the rattling and rumbling of firearms everywhere all day and at rapid intervals was kept up at Stone River and in the rear. The flank movement via the Jefferson pike having been withdrawn, when perhaps they found that the bridges above and below Jefferson in the fork of the junction of the river had been burned, it left us high and dry from the invader, and their "round up" made the west fork of Stone River their line of defense. And so it was that Rosecrans had concentrated his army near Murfreesboro.

From a memoranda issued by Gen. Bragg for general and staff officers the line of battle of the Army of Tennessee was formed for the coming onslaught:

"1. The line of battle will be in front of Murfreesboro, half of the army (left wing) in front of Stone River, right wing in rear of the river.

"2. Polk's Corps will form left wing, Hardee's Corps right wing.

"3. Withers's Division will form first line in Polk's Corps, Cheatham's the second line. Breckinridge's Division forms first line, Hardee's Corps; Cleburne's Division, second line, Hardee's Corps.

"4. McGowen's Division to form reserve opposite center on high ground, in the rear of Cheatham's present quarters.

"5. Jackson's Brigade reserve to the right flank, to report to Lient. Gen. Hardee.

"6. Two lines to be formed from 800 to 1,000 yards apart, according to ground.

"7. Chiefs of artillery to pay especial attention to posting of batteries and supervise their work, seeing that they do not causelessly waste their ammunition.

"8. Cavalry to fall back gradually before the enemy, reporting by couriers every hour when near our lines. Wheeler will move to the right and Wharton to the left to cover and protect our flanks and report movements of the enemy. Pegram to fall to the rear and report to commanding general as a reserve.

"9. To-night if the enemy has gained his position in our front ready for action, Wheeler and Wharton, with their whole commands, will make a night march to the right and left, turn the enemy's flank, gain his rear, and vigorously assault his trains and rear guard, blocking the roads and impeding his movements in every way, holding themselves ready to assail his retreating forces.

"10. All quartermasters, commissaries, and ordnance officers will remain at their proper posts, discharging their duties. Supplies and baggage should be ready, packed for a move forward or backward, as the results of the day may require, and the trains should be in position out of danger, teamsters all present, and quartermasters in charge.

Should we be compelled to retire, Polk's Corps will move on Shelbyville, and Hardee on Manchester pike. Trains in front, cavalry in the rear.

BRAXTON BRAGG.

And so was Bragg's disposition of his army.

Our cavalry was so persistent that it took Rosecrans four days to move twenty miles to confront Bragg. Rosecrans was all day Tuesday, the 30th, locating his artillery and extending his right so as to flank BraggÆs right from the McFadden Ford. When nightfall came McCook commanded Rosecrans's right, Thomas the center, and Crittenden the left.

Gen. Rosecrans reported: "My plan of battle was to open on the right and engage the enemy sufficiently to hold him firmly and to cross with my left (at McFadden's Ford), consisting of three divisions, to oppose which they had only two divisions. But the enemy attacked the whole front of our right wing, massing his forces on its right flank, which was partially surprised, thrown into confusion, and driven back."

Gen. Bragg says that it became apparent that the object was to flank on his right, and be determined to assail him on our left Wednesday, the 31st. For this purpose he moved Cleburne's Division, Hardee's Corps, from the second line on the right to the left, having previously moved McCown to the first line on Triune road left, and Gen. Hardee was ordered to that point and assigned to the command of that and McCown's Division.

The movement was made on the evening of December 30, and before seven o'clock the next morning, the anticipated time for Rosecrans to begin his flank movement on his left. The result of this was the entire rout of the Federal right wing, and it would have been of Rosecrans's army had it been vigorously followed up. To show that this was so, those of us in the rear picked up stragglers fleeing in every direction. A number of tts near Old Jefferson got over 200 during the battle and marched them to our pickets at Black's shop, four miles on the Lebanon pike crossing, and turned them over as prisoners. They came down the west side of the river in squads, and when we would halloo "Halt," up would go a white handkerchief.

The flush of Wednesday's battle, together with the information from these stragglers that we had run them back north of the pike and corralled the whole Federal army from the turnpike north at what is now the cemetery to the McFadden ford, coupled with Wheeler's and Wharton's burning 800 wagons from Overall Creek to the asylum, led all to believe that the retreat of Rosecrans was inevitable and the destruction of his army certain.

Among these stragglers that the "Seed Corn Contingent" were picking up appeared a lieutenant colonel with his eagles and epautlets. He was on a good horse and had a pair of fine Holsters. Two of us, anxious for big game, commanded him to surrender, but that fellow went for his navies, and, fearing that our little six-shooters were too small, we "absquatulated," and after picking up a few more boys, followed on, and took him in seven miles this side of Lebanon. He said that he was not going to let two boys with pocket pistols capture him. That colonel was six miles from the battlefield, and a Federal officer told me after the war that he was cashiered for cowardice.

Notwithstanding the apparent confusion in the enemies' rear on Thursday, the roaming of artillery continued at Murfreesboro, and about three o'clock on Friday the firing of artillery and small arms was more terrific than usual. A fearful battle was evidently in progress. It turned out to be Breckinridge's fatal charge, where he is said to have been repulsed with a loss of 1,500 killed and wounded. It is the history of that event that he was driving one or two lines into the river at McFadden's Ford, when fifty-two pieces of artillery opened up and almost decimated his ranks. On that Friday my dear mother made her way to Murfreesboro through the Confederate pickets to look after husband and sons, and reached there, after passing through long lines of cavalry mounted arid ready for the conflict.

I quote from a letter she wrote of this trip: "On entering town what a sight met my eyes! Prisoners entering every street, ambulances bringing in the wounded, every place crowded with the dying, the Federal general, Sill, lying dead in the courthouse-killed Wednesday-Frank Crosthwait's (Twentieth Tennessee) lifeless corpse stretched on a counter. He had been visiting my house, and was killed on Wednesday. The churches were full of wounded, where the doctors were amputating legs and arms. I found my own safe, and, being informed that another battle was expected to begin, I set off on my way home, and passed through our cavalry all drawn up in line. I had only gone a mile when the first cannon boomed. but I was safe. I think of that trip now with wonder that I had no fear, but my anxiety was so intense it seemed at the time that it was no more than a visit."

In all these days, from the 26th to the 29th, Wheeler, Wharton, and Pegram seemed busy, and then from the 30th to the 4th of January they made three rounds of the Federal army, and rushed back to Murfreesboro at times to protect the flanks. The movement was wonderful, and it was there that Gen. Wheeler properly won the sobriquet of "Fighting Joe."

Undoubtedly up to the time that Breckinridge made his fatal charge the Confederates had the battle, and the Federal commander was expecting to retreat. It is said, whether true or not, that in the Federal conference after the rout of December 31 the commander was bewildered.

The papers captured on the field out of McCook's headquarters wagon placed the Federal army there between sixty and seventy thousand. And with Bragg's force of 30,000 effectives, beside 5,000 cavalry, undoubtedly his battle as aggressor in an open fight was one of the most masterful efforts of tlmc Army of Tennessee. Bragg outgeneraled his adversary in the outset, and on Wednesday evening, had he thrown BreckinridgeÆs division-although heavily drawn from-against Crittenden at McFadden's Ford, as he says he ordered, the fruits of the victory of Hardee and Polk on Wednesday would have been realized.

There were incidents in that b~ittle that made wonderful impressions on me. For eight long hours MeCown, Cleburne, and Withers and Cheatham's Divisions were mowing down line after line of McCook and Thomas, and even parts of Crittenden's until they were driven from the Triune road across he Wilkerson to the Nashville pike, two and one-half miles back, until the enemy was formed into a north and south instead of the former east and west line.

The backward run of the enemy's right and center became a whirlpool of disorder until the railroad embankment was their only salvation. Men, although mortally wounded, continued the pursuit until they fell fainting from loss of blood. Col. Locke, of a Texas regiment, they say, slapped his hands over the wound in his breast to stop the blood, and hallooed, "Charge em, boys: and followed on until he fell. Maj. Douglas, of artillery fame, captured a battery from the enemy. In the twinkling of an eye, and with grape and shrapnel, at the critical moment he cut swaths in the lines of blue, appalling and stampeding them. They also say that Sergt. A. Sims, flag bearer of the Tenth Texas, seeing in one of the charges a Federal flag bearer with his flag waving his regiment forward, sprang at him and seized it, and while struggling both fell dead while waving their banners. It is said that Lieut. Fred James, volunteer on Cheatham's staff, a lawyer from Murfreesboro, was killed near his mother's farm in the battle. The Allen boys, Orville Ewing, Nat Gooch, J. B. Johns, Col. Don McGregor (First Arkansas, who formerly lived here) were wounded or killed, and the death knell throughout the army was awful.

Capt. Semple, of Semple's Battery, located on the left, saw a fine-looking officer dashing up the pike in the direction of the center. He thought him a general, and asked one of his gunners to pick him off. The gunner loaded a solid shot, took careful aim with his cannon, and at her belch the officer fell down dead from his horse. It turned out to be the adjutant general of the Federal army, Col. Garesche, reported "killed by a solid shot."

In the meantime the "Seed Corn Contingent" were picking up stragglers, in a hard rain, and delivered them to our pickets at Black's shop. As the blue lines rose and fell the Federal general Sill (we heard) was killed, and our Gen. Rains was pierced through the heart. The fearful destruction of color bearers, some regiments losing six to eight, will give an idea of the fierceness of the struggle. Two Federal brigadiers were captured; Gens. Wood and Vancleve were wounded. The seven days' fight around Murfreesboro recalls that of the name around Richmond. It has been forty years ago, but the memory is as vivid as if it were yesterday.

But after Wednesday the aggressive work stopped. Cleburne said that the enemy was intrenched, and while he could defend, yet it was unsafe to pursue again with worn-out troops. So Thursday came, and every moment's delay was death to the ultimate success of Southern arms. The suspense made us restless about the result. Wagons and bodies of troops were moving back toward Nashville, and stragglers from the Federal lines did not diminish. But the charge of Breckinridge came on the 2d, causing that awful slaughter. It fell upon us like a thunderbolt. Our neighbors and relatives and friends were there. The gallant Hanson, of Kentucky, was killed. Col. Palmer of our town. was wounded, and our dead and dying lay before fifty pieces of the enemy's guns, massed by Mendelhall, Crittenden's chief of artillery, at McFadden's Ford.

It was a sudden shock to the flushed spirits of the Army of Tennessee. Friday night in the lull my father, who had been watching the battle, returned to its and said that our army would retire. And thus ended the great battle. Polk withdrew on the Shelbyville pike and Hardee on the Manchester pike.

We boys went through the form of paroling our prisoners. After the war we received a letter from one of those Yanks, wanting a certificate of parole, having mislaid the one we gave him. They were accusing him up North of desertion in a race for the Legislature. But we could not help him, as we were not empowered to issue paroles.

And now, when summing up the battle of Murfreesboro (Stone River), we assert that for fierceness and the display of military skill it was not surpassed.

In the official reports Union and Confederate armies (Volume XIV., Series I., page 1,097), the list of ordnance and other articles captured and of men wounded and taken prisoners by Gen. Bragg's army at Murfreesboro are as follows: Artillery, 40 pieces; muskets, 6,000; wagons, 800; mules, 4,000; killed, 5,000; wounded, 16,000; prisoners, 6,103. This report, though, does not agree with the returns of casualties in the Union forces, which places the aggregate of losses in killed, wounded, and missing at 13,249. The returns of casualties in Confederate forces killed, wounded, and missing, 9,865. Of these, 7,706 were killed and wounded, and only 888 missing, showing a game fight on the part of our army from start to finish. (See Series I, Vol. 20, page 681, Rebellion Records.)

The battle was never a victory to Rosecrans. His overwhelming numbers in pursuit were defenders in the conflict.

It was a victory to Southern arms, for the lion dared not pursue us. We retired at will, and retained the larger part of Tennessee for ten months, that we had been forced before to give up, affording supplies to our people. Our outpost retired back only twelve to fifteen miles.

On the night of January 3, 1863, after burying valuables for loved ones and saying good-by, those of Jeff Davis's "Seed Corn" that had been so active at Old Jefferson during the battle, retired with the grand old Army of Tennessee to pick their flints and come again.

The result of the battle with some tended to impair Gen. Bragg's usefulness, for all felt sure that the battle was won. Bragg's conception of it was grand, his execution praiseworthy, and he had ordered the right to advance on Wednesday and complete the rout, and but for the unfortunate information to Breckenridge that enemy was flanking, the order would have been carried out. That was the turning point in the battle, and no commander could foresee it. Information as to increased reenforcements to his army induced Bragg's generals to advise retreat.

Bragg's conception of every battle displayed generalship. The more the passions subside, and reason sits enthroned upon the heart, the more history will take the part of the private soldier and do Gen. Bragg's memory justice, and the world will commend the Confederate government for retaining him among her faithful generals.

It was not Northern generalship that brought mishaps in some of our battles, nor a want of Southern skill that caused the overthrow of the Confederacy-it was God.

Twentieth Tennessee Regiment Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A. , First Reunion

2009-04-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

On the second Thursday in September, 1877, the Twentieth Tennessee held its first re-union in McCavock's Grove, near Franklin, Tenn. About two hundred members of the regiment were present, together with a vast concourse of the citizens of Franklin and the adjacent section, estimated at between 6,000 and 7,000 people.

The first speaker on this occasion was the former surgeon of the regiment, Dr. Deering J. Roberts, who on being introduced delivered the following 'address, summarizing the history of the regiment, which was published in the Nashville Daily American of the next day.

" Felow-comrades of the past, ladies and gentlemen: Permit me to preface my remarks by begging your kind indulgence for one who is more given to practice than to preaching. More than fifteen years ago the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, in company with the rest of Crittenden's command, marched out from its encampment at Mill Springs, to meet the enemy, and one of the most sanguinary struggles that history has to record took place — an engagement memorable to all of us as being the forerunner of all the disaster, sorrow, and trouble that afterward overspread our grand old Commonwealth. You of the Twentieth, with your comrades, marched to the battle on that day in high spirits, colors flying, and hearts beating tumultously wild with that excitement that only brave men can feel. Many, for the first time, were to hear the terrific roar of the enemy's artillery, the murderous whistling of the minnie bullet; to behold for the first time in battle array the invaders of our country; to contend in a struggle for life with' their fellow-beings. How manfully the Twentieth stood its ground, history has already recorded. How bravely they fought on that occasion, became a household word throughout the land. Overpowered by an enemy superior both in numbers and equipments, they contested every foot of the ground, made charge after charge, until over half their number lay dead or wounded on the field, and then stubbornly and sullenly falling back to their encampments. Look at them again during those fearful days that succeeded, when stern necessity has demanded, and in obedience to their orders, behold them on their first retreat from Middle Tennessee, leaving behind them mothers, fathers, sisters, wives, homes, everything that man holds dear. Their hearts cannot but be sad, their minds enveloped in gloom; but without a murmur of disapprobation, they leave all to give their hearty support, their strong right hand, aye, even their lives if necessary, to sustain the government they were assisting to erect.

Behold them on the eventful field of Shiloh. From 8 o'clock on the morning of the first day till night had spread her sable pall over the field of the dead and dying on the second and most fatal day of that sanguinary engagement, right nobly did they sustain their already brightening reputation, having a large proportion of their officers and men killed and wounded; their grand old patriarchal Colonel, captured, and his two gallant sons dead on the field. See them again, in the poisonous swamps around Vicksburg, for months under the continual cannonading of the fleets above, and below that fated city, until the shriek of the terrific shell became as familiar as the nightly hum of the mosquito. And at Baton Rouge, while dashing through the Federal encampment, did the bright sun on the 5th of August, 1862, gild their colors with new honors, as they drove the boys in blue through the streets of the little town, over the river's bank, right down to the water's edge, where they cowered in terror under the powerful guns of their fleet.

At Murfreesboro, again, we see this little band, its ranks becoming thinned by disease and death, in the attack on the center on Wednesday evening, when Hollister, Cator, and .their comrades gave up all for your sake and mine, and went to join that gallant band led by Peyton and E. Shields, on whose muster-roll was subsequently added the names of L. Greenfield and others whom I know are ineffaceably enshrined in more hearts than are here to-day; and in the hottest of that ever-to-be-remembered charge of the day following of the gallant Breckinridge on Friday, when Bragg was a good dog, but hold-fast would have been better. At Hoover's Gap the ground was reddened with their best blood. Claybrooke, Callender, and others here laid down their lives for what they believed right. On the second retreat from Middle Tennessee, a great portion of the time in the post of honor bringing up the rear of our army, skirmishing with the enemy's advance, they are once more forced to leave their homes.

On Chickamauga's deathly banks, what colors are those now rushing forward in the headlong charge; now resisting an impetuous attack of the enemy, stubbornly holding them at bay; now being driven sullenly back, fighting and dealing death at every step? Yet, again, with a rush and a yell, forward is now the cry, and forward is the watch-word as they dash madly and impetuously over the enemy's breast-works. Surely that peculiar but beautiful flag is the one presented to this gallant command by one of Kentucky's most noble and gifted daughters. That white and crimson silk once enveloped the fair form of one of Kentucky's fairest maidens, when she plighted her troth at the altar with the noble soldier, statesman, and patriot, who himself knew that it could but receive additional honor in the hands in which she placed it. Look at their record at Mission Ridge. There they have left a name that will live through years to come. I quote from General Bragg's official report: " To Bate's brigade (of which this command was an integral part) is due the credit of having saved the Army of Tennessee from total rout and destruction." Again see them, after having been twice forcibly expelled from their homes, exiled from the land they loved so well, driven from point to point, their bodies scarred and bruised, their colors tattered and torn, but never dishonored; the beardless boy of two years ago now transformed into the robust soldier, the middle-aged man, the lines of care and thought deepened by his own and his country's trials — for more than one hundred miles of North Georgia's rugged soil did they contend every inch of the way; toiling and delving by night and righting by day, hastily snatching a mouthful of the hastily prepared and meagre food in occasional momentary lulls of the incessant skirmishing from Dalton to Atlanta, culminating in the brilliant charge on the twenty-second of July, when General McPherson fell and his followers recoiled from the living breastworks formed in part by this command ; and at Jonesboro, on the 3 1st of August, last but most fearful of all the engagements from Dalton down. Leonidas and his Spartans in the rocky defile of Thermopylae deserved not greater fame than did Hardee and his little corps when they measured swords with the whole of Sherman's grand army. From early morn till past mid-day did these heroes contend in a hand to hand struggle with a numerical opposition of more than ten to one; and when give way they did, it was not to superior valor, but to mere brutal weight, were they forced to succumb, and not then, until the point for which they strove so hard was accomplished. The other two corps d'armee and the Georgia militia were enabled to escape from the net the wily Sherman was weaving around them; and was so severely punished by the nettle Hardee that he thought within his grasp, that he gave Hood ample time, without further molestation to put his troops in order and mature his future plans. Here fell my old school-mate " Bob " Allison, he with whom I conned my " Liber Primus" and " Caesar's Commentaries." Only a private in Company C, yet he was a man in every sense of the word. No cenotaph could be raised too high to honor the names of such as he. One of the bravest of the brave — the truest of the true. Here also we lost our gallant major, John F. Guthrie, and if I am not becoming wearisome, I hope you will permit me to read you an extract from a little sheet that I know is familiar to some of you.

Here Dr. Roberts read an obituary published in the Chattanooga Rebel, printed at that time (Sept. 9, 1864) at Griffin, Ga., eulogizing this gallant officer and Christian gentleman, who, starting out as a private in Company B, had, at the time of his death, atained the rank of major of this heroic command.

But, to continue, shall we follow the lame Texan in his weary march through North Georgia and Alabama, across the Tennessee, until we find them on this hallowed ground? It is unnecessary for me to mention, surely in this historic locality, the brilliant action that here occurred on the last day of November, 1864. The very walls of the houses of your beautiful little town know that part of history only too well. Was the Twentieth here ? The soil of these grand old hills can exclaim with one accord: " We were moistened with some of its best blood." The gallant " Todd Carter," my old mess-mate, whose spicy communications in the Southern press under the nom de plume of " Mint Julep," was rapidly making fame in the field of literature, here breathed his last in his father's house, under his own roof tree that he had so successfully assisted to wrest from the occupancy of the enemy. Fit companion for the heroic souls of Cleburne, Strahl, and others of that stamp, he accompanied them on their last journey to receive the reward meted out to them from the hand of their Creator. And Bill Shy, noble spirit, who was ever the reverse of his name on the field of battle, though elsewhere as modest as a girl, he, too, in the trenches in front of our Capital city, on the 15th of December following, although then the colonel commanding this gallant wreck, with his hand tightly clasped on a fallen soldier's musket, closed his eyes on the terrible storm that was again to envelop his home in its last dark embrace. For the third and last time had this sorely-tried little band to turn their backs on their homes and everything that man holds dear, this time leaving their boy commander, whose trio of stars they had assisted to enwreath with a general's rank, a captive in the hands of the enemy, severely wounded by the stroke of a sabre on that imposing brow, that marred not his physical appearance in after life, but I sadly fear had much to do in shattering that wonderful intellect under whose powerful impulse the boy-soldier had attained a general's command. Think, if you please, of the manly, aye, the peerless form, the matchless courage and unvarying coolness, under the hottest fire, of one of Tennessee's bravest sons. Think of him in subsequent affliction, and hear him, as excitedly he walks the wards of an asylum, in maddened frenzy exclaim:—

" I'm adrift on life's ocean, and wildly I sweep Aimless and helmless, its fathomless deep; The wild wind assails me, it threatningly storms — The clouds roll round me in hideous forms." But let us draw the veil on that sad picture — too sad for the joy and jesting of this occasion — and follow me one step farther. Again crossing the Tennessee River, in obedience to orders and what they considerd their duty, across the little remnant of territory left to our Confederacy, through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, to an obscure little hamlet in the old North State, that grand old State that claims to be the mother of Tennessee, at Bentonville, after Lee's surrender and the fall of Richmond, was the last despairing blow struck by the shattered remnant of the Army of Tennessee and the Twentieth Regiment. I have followed rapidly the steps of this command in its gigantic struggle ; looking on its shifting scenes, its varying fortunes. My aim has been to draw but an outline of the mighty wrestle. Of this great American Revolution the world will always doubtless differ in their views; parties will hold opposing opinions, and during the life-time of the present generation, those opinions will be colored by partisan feeling. What men will not differ about, however — what all will agree upon — is the reluctance with which these men of Middle Tennessee entered upon the struggle, and the constancy and courage which they brought to the long, bitter, and terrible ordeal. Right or wrong, they were brave, were they not ? Ask their desolated fields, their vacant firesides, their broken hearts. Prostrate, panting, bleeding at every pore, they were faithful to the last in the defense of their principles, and rather than yield those principles, dear as their heart's blood, they bared their bosoms for four years of destroying war. Before that dread and sombre tribunal they dared all, risked all, suffered all — and lost all? No! Their stainless escutcheon is still left them, and their broken swords, which no taint of bad faith or dishonor ever tarnished.

On the 26th-day of April, 1865, the soldiers of the Twentieth stretched the hand of friendship to the foe they had fought so long. In accordance with the terms of the military convention entered into on that day between Gen. Jos. E. Johnston and General Sherman they took a solemn obligation not to take up arms against the United States Government, and were permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as they observed said obligation and obeyed the laws in force where they might reside. How that agreement has been observed by both parties I leave you to decide. One lesson which we may learn from the past is, that no uprising of a great people is wholly based on falsehood or delusion. Their errors are, at most, but half truths, and the opposing parties in the conflict are never either wholly in the wrong. The gallant knights in the fable, who fought about the shield, one side of which was of silver and one of gold, were both right, but neither could see the side the other saw until they met after the strife. So in our civil war, the North fought for a united country, from ocean to ocea% from the lakes to the Gulf, and shed its blood to oppose the right of secession. So far as the South was concerned, the question of negro slavery was but an incident of the strife. The great principle of individualism which asserts itself in local self-government, and which in a republic like ours must be jealously guarded as the bulwark of our liberties, was the mainspring of Southern valor. Nor was the precious blood shed in its defense poured out in vain. The doctrine of State rights, under the Constitution, which seemed in danger of being forgotten, is once more in the ascendant, guiding the policy of the government and transforming political parties. " War," says Dean Paul Ritcher, " is the moulting time of humanity." The eagle, when shedding his plumage is sick and his pinions droop, but when his time is over he plumes his wings for a higher flight. This each one of you must feel to-day is the attitude of our common country as it enters a new era of its existence, and to this consummation every act of sacrifice and self-devotion, all the patriotic blood shed on our battle-fields, whether by the wearers of the blue or the gray, has contributed.

And now, to these ladies here, permit me to assure you from my inmost heart that the debt of gratitude incurred whilst I had the honor to be with you in those sad closing days of '64, can never be repaid. Day after day I witnessed the fair daughters of Williamson bending o'er the rude couches extemporized for our wounded, and whether the sufferer was from the far away everglades of the land of flowers, or the pine ridge or sandy savannahs of Georgia, those fair hands ministered as tenderly, lovingly, and impartially as to the wounded scion that sprang from these historic blue-grass hills and dales. They treated them all as brothers, as brothers who had fallen in their defense.

Oaklands Celebrates 50 Years

2009-04-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

DIXIE... an American Classic!

2009-04-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

There are a wide variety of sights and sounds that one could immediately associate with the South or being Southern. Nothing proclaims the heritage and honor of the South like the sight of our sacred banner floating on a warm southern breeze. It is a scene that makes the heart swell, the blood run faster and brings forth a cheer from deep inside us.

Likewise no sound can engender deep emotion, pride and strengthen our bonds like the strains of DIXIE. Whether it’s detractors like it or not, no other tune speaks to the honorable history of the South, and indeed is as ingrained in the American psyche as the distinctive tune of DIXIE.

Daniel D. Emmett published and first performed DIXIE in April of 1859. This makes 2009 the sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary, of our beloved anthem. Since that time DIXIE has been played generation after generation at most any civic function. Every college band had it in it’s selection list. It was always played as a part of the program of Patriotic music both by the military and private organizations. School children were taught to sing it. It not only was the Song of the South but a cherished piece of American musical history.

All that began to change in the early 1990’s when the scourge of political correctness started sweeping the land. In reality this [sic] is nothing more than censorship of ideas and beliefs. They have tried to tell us that the simple act of playing or singing of DIXIE is an act of racism. This of course is ridiculous, however that has not stopped their success in removing DIXIE from the national song book.

It is time to take a stand for DIXIE! If you do not know it, learn it. Teach it to your children, school groups, church groups, etc. And make sure it is sung or performed.

Always Stand for DIXIE!
The Southron, Vol Nine, No. One: The Year of Dixie

DIXIE

Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton,
Old times there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land, where I was born in,
early on one frosty mornin',
Look away, look away, look away Dixie Land.

I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray! Hooray!
In Dixie Land I'll take my stand
to live and die in Dixie.
Away, away, away down south in Dixie.
Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

(Optional Verses)

Ole Missus marry "Will the weaver"
Willum was a gay deceiver
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

But when he put his arm around 'er,
He smiled fierce as a forty pounder,
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

His face was sharp as a butcher's cleaver
But that did not seem to grieve 'er
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

Ole Missus acted the foolish part
And died for a man that broke her heart
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

Now here's a health to the next ole Missus
An' all the gals that want to kiss us;
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

But if you want to drive 'way sorrow
Come and hear this song tomorrow
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

There's buckwheat cakes and Injun batter,
Makes you fat or a little fatter;
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

Then hoe it down and scratch your gravel,
To Dixie's Land I'm bound to travel,
Look away! Look away! Look away!
Dixie Land

THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AT MURFREESBORO.

2009-03-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AT MURFREESBORO.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn., Nov. 7., 1901.—This, perhaps, was the proudest day in the history of this beautiful little Tennessee city —when a handsome monument erected by this loyal people in commemoration of the valor of the Confederate dead, whose dust now mingles in the fields of this section, was unveiled with elaborate and dignified ceremonies. Fully 3,000 persons gathered at the Court Square this morning to witness the dedication of the memorial.
Intermingled in the vast assemblage were hundreds of veterans of the lost cause, many of whom had traveled miles to be present and pay tribute to their fallen comrades. Some of them had not been on the field since the days of the war. Perhaps half a hundred or more were present from distant cities, relatives of the gallant men who were swept down in the defense of principles they believed to be right and just. Here and there over the big audience which surrounded the stately structure were men and women, many of them bent with age, with tears trickling down their cheeks. These tears spoke forcibly the sentiment of the people, or at least their interest in the solemn, but at the same time happy occasion. Some of the old-time Southern melodies, as rendered by a bevy of pretty young ladies from Lebanon, were very striking, and as the sweet strains wafted out over the crowd, heads were bower: in remembrance of the fallen heroes.
By far the audience was the most distinguished that has gathered in Murfreesboro in years, likely in the history of the city. In the assemblage were many prominent sons of Tennessee, including the remnants of the Army of Tennessee. They were there from Major Generals down to the Johnny Reb who carried the musket. One happy feature of the dedication was that all of the comrades stood upon an equal footing; they were all comrades in the strongest sense of the word, engaged in a love feast. Among the more prominent men who were present were: Senator William B. Bate, Governor Benton McMillin, Hon. James B. Frazier, of Chattanooga; Hon. James D. Richardson, Hon. John C. Ferriss, of Nashville; Hon. E. D. Wilson, of Nashville; Judge Frank S. Wilson, Comptroller Theo. King, Hon. N. W. Baptist, Hon. J. N. McKenzie and Dr. J. B. Cowan, of Tullahoma.
WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY.
Nature smiled upon Murfreesboro for the day. The sun was

shining brightly, a slight breeze afloat, just enough to rustle the Confederate flags and bunting, which were displayed in profusion over the business portion of the town. It was an ideal autumnal day.
In front of the monument Captain Richard Beard, master of ceremonies, had a large speaker's stand erected. Just over this improvised stand in a neat frame resting upon the massive testimonial of love and esteem, was the original Eighteenth Tennessee battle flag, which passed through some of the most terrific battles of the civil strife. With this flag, five color sergeants fell. The last man to carry the historic emblem was T. J. Nelson, who had it in charge on the memorable Friday evening of Breckinridge's charge. Underneath this flag were Confederate streamers,

festooned over the inscription,

"Lest we forget—1861-65,"

wrought out in large letters. An arch was also formed across the stand with small United States flags. Directly in front were displayed two large United States and Confederate flags on either side. In the center hung the banner of Joe B. Palmer Bivouac, of Murfreesboro. Upon the side was a large bunch of fragrant flowers.
Before the ceremonies commenced the young ladies of the Lebanon Orchestra took seats upon the stand. There were Mrs. Lillard Thompson, chaperone; Misses Emma and Edna Beard. Mary Barbee, Annie Hearne, Irene Neal, Sammie Carter. Anna May Thompson, Mrs. Harry Freeland, Mrs. A. S. McDowell, and Misses Gertie Fakes, Mary Prewett and Olive Mace. Then came the invited guests, as follows: Governor Benton McMillin, Hon. James D. Richardson, Dr. J. B. Cowan, H. E. Palmer, Hon. James P. Frazier, John C. Ferriss, Gen. William B. Bate, Judge S. F. Wilson, Dr. T. A. Kerley, Mrs. J. B. Murfree, D. P. Perkins, and Gen. H. H. Norman. In charge of the unveiling, Miss Julia Ransom and others.
Those to occupy places upon the stand had been seated, when Company B and Troop A, of Nashville, came marching up the wide road leading from the station. They carried their large flags, and as they fluttered in the little breeze the old "Johnny Rebs" were cheered lustily. Approaching the stand, they circled around the structure and during the ceremonies stood "at rest." They were received at the monument with a pretty demonstration, which the old comrades apparently enjoyed.
CEREMONIES COMMENCED.
The master of ceremonies, Captain Beard, stepped to the front of the stand and presented Rev. T. A. Kerley, who delivered the invocation. In his prayer he paid homage to the dead who had sacrificed their lives upon the altar of their country; thanking the Lord for the love burning in the hearts of the people, for the surviving veterans who were present upoj1 the occasion. He asked for the blessing of all soldiers of the past, gathered again to express their devotion and love of those who had fallen in the mighty conflict. He said: "Let thy blessing rest upon these veterans in the time of peace and help us to be true citizens in everything that pertains to the high citizenship of our people. Help them to be true soldiers to all that is right and oppose everything wrong. May their lives be such as to win all to the higher principles of true manhood." He paid honor to the Confederate wives and sisters who had sacrificed their all in the vicissitudes of war and the dark days following the fall of the Confederacy. He dwelt at length upon their bravery in standing face to face with adversity and poverty during the long years of the struggle. He asked that the hand of God ever be with the noble women and guide them in their future laudable undertakings. "May they be shining lights to the whole land," he concluded.
Here the young ladies of the Lebanon Glee Club struck up a combination of stirring Southern melodies, ending with that soul-inspiring song, "Dixie." The enthusiasm of the assemblage knew no bounds. Their cheers rent the air.
MONUMENT UNVEILED.
Here the unveiling committee, composed of Captain Beard, Judge Richard Ransom and Captain Daniel Perkins, took charge of the exercises, assisted by General H. H. Norman. Miss Julia Ransom, one of Murfreesboro's fair daughters, arose from the center of the stand and pulled a small cord which unveiled one of the prettiest little monuments erected on a Southern battlefield. A thousand hands clapped their approval. Engraved upon the east face was this inscription:
"In commemoration of the valor of Confederate soldiers, who fell in the great battle of Murfreesboro, Dec. 31, 1862, and Jan. 2, 1863, and in minor engagements in this vicinity, this monument is erected."
On the north face is:
"Lest we forget 1861-1865." On the west face is:
"A monument for our soldiers, Built of a people's love." On the south face the inscription reads:
"Honor decks the turf that wraps their clay."
Following the unveiling, the boys of the Tennessee Industrial School band played. Their work was very creditable and well received.
ORATOR OF DAY PRESENTED.
Captain Beard then introduced Colonel Bennett H. Young, a brilliant Kentuckian, the orator of the day. In presenting the speaker Captain Beard made a few remarks, in which he referred to the trials and tribulations of those who raised the monument fund He said
that the monument should have been erected thirty years ago, telling Of the work of the old Monumental Association in the years gone by; how they raised $800 for the purpose, which was spent in the base. The work was taken up by the Daughters of the Confederacy, who, after years of constant and persistent effort, raised an additional $800, which was supplemented by $1,200 raised by the Palmer Bivouac. He said:
"There have been other monuments erected on the battlefields more gorgeous in design, but none on the face of the earth was ever erected for a higher or more noble purpose."
The master of ceremonies introduced Colonel Young, the orator, as a noble son of the Bluegrass State, which sent thousands of courageous and gallant men to aid the South, which fact, he said, was attested by the presence of their dead upon every battlefield in the West. These soldiers kept the lamps of chivalry in the hearts of many.
COLONEL YOUNG’S ADDRESS.
Colonel Young, the polished orator that he is, was at his best, and though he was at a disadvantage on account of the breeze carrying his voice toward the back of the stand, his delivery was excellent and his effort a masterpiece. He was eloquent and his frequent reference to the hallowed dead aroused the old-time enthusiasm of the Southern people gathered about him. Often his remarks were punctuated with violent outbursts of applause. He said in part:
"It is a great distinction to have been a Confederate soldier; it is a greater thing to have been a Confederate woman; it is a noble thing to have been a Tennessee Confederate, a representative of the great "Volunteer State" of the South that did so much to make the contest of the Southern people for liberty illustrious and immortal.
"Of the seventy regiments in the Confederate service which had the highest percentage of mortality, Tennessee had twelve. Four of these badges of honor were won here in the battles of Stone river. At Shiloh, fought on April 4, 6 and 7, 1862, of the ten regiments which experienced the most dreadful mortality, Tennessee had four. At Perryville, fought October 8, 1862, of the eight regiments sustaining the highest loss, Tennessee had seven, the Forty-first Georgia alone having a place alongside that of your state. Of the twenty-nine regiments having the highest percentage of loss at Murfreesboro, Tennessee had seven, and at Chickamauga, that awful holocaust, there were three Tennessee regiments among the sixteen which suffered the heaviest decimation. The infantry regimental number of the Tennessee troops passed the
100 1/2 mark and reach 154.
"In 1860 Tennessee had 160,000 men capable of bearing arms. Of these she put in over 120,000 for the Confederate service. Tennessee gave thirty-six generals, of whom seven died on the battlefield. She brought to the defense of the South two lieutenant generals, Forrest and Stewart, and. nine major generals,
FIRST TENNESSEE BATTLE.
"Beginning with the first fight on Tennessee soil on September 29, 1861, at Travisville, down to Germantown, in April, 1865, three years and eight months, 780 engagements were fought in Tennessee, and more than one-third of all the 2,2O0 skirmishes and battles which
marked the four years of death, havoc and destruction, took place within the limits of this Commonwealth.
DARK HOURS OF '63.
"In the crucial hour of 1861, when the people of the South appealed to the God of battles and placed their cause in his keeping, when millions of voices chanted :
"God save the South, God save the South, Her altars and her firesides, God save the South, now that war is nigh. Chanting her battle cry, Freedom or death,"
"In that period, so full of all that tested man's nobility and courage, out of Kentucky came thousands who loved right more than they loved their State Government, and followed principle rather than policy, and who left all that was dearest to man, who suffered expatriation, to cast in their lot with the men of the South. Forty thousand Kentuckians heeded this sacred call. Amid all the privations, sacrifices and dangers of that great contest they stood with you, Tennessee Confederates, to resist the invasion of your homes and to defend your firesides. It was not spoils they sought; it was not glory which beckoned them away from their State to yours; it was justice and truth as they saw them which ranged them on your side and impelle1l them to share your fortunes and all the trials fate should bring. A large percentage of Kentucky Confederate dead rest in your soil, and a common bereavement and burial brings Kentucky and Tennessee close together.
DEATH HAS THINNED RANKS.
"The pitiless hand of death, through thirty-seven years, has thinned the ranks of these Confederates, but they still love you, and, comrade, they glory in all that made you glorious, and with you they claim part of that transcendent renown which has made the name and the fame of the Confederate armies eternal.
"Nearly forty years have passed since the great conflict was fought near to where we stand, and which today you are commemorating by this monument. It takes rank as one of the great battles of the American war. Nine thousand killed or wounded on the Confederate side—one-fourth of the entire force engaged; 8,780 killed and wounded on the Federal side, and 3,500 prisoners, speak in unmistakable tones of the fierceness of the conflict."
Here the speaker unrolled the battle-scarred jacket he wore during the war, and as he exhibited the garment, with the remark that he would rather have it known that he had worn the gray than to be the greatest king on earth, the assemblage again became demonstrative.
''Bragg's army at Murfreesboro was composed in a large measure of Tennesseans, who receded from Tennessee with a sullen and grim courage which boded no good to the foes who sought to dispossess these men of their State and their homes. Of the forty regiments of Tennesseans with him—all were ready, if need be, to die in defense of Tennessee.
A SUPERB MONUMENT.
"This superb monument to our dead would not have been possible had it not been for the patience and zeal, the interest and usefulness of the women, who labored so long to erect this memorial. We call it 'ours' because it belongs justly to the Confederates. I doubt not that many who helped at the inception of the undertaking have been denied the happiness of witnessing its fulfillment, but we can feel their sweet presence though they passed over the river before success crowned their work. If they are not here we shall at least in gratitude remember them and their devotion to the cause and their absence alone mars the completeness of this occasion.
"The noblest and highest of the war's demands was to be worthy of the faith and trust of the Southern women, and it mitigated the anguish and bitterness of defeat to be able amid manly tears to look down into the tear-dimmed eyes of the women of the South and tell them that in all the conflicts and privations of that weary struggle, there had been nothing done or left undone which rendered the men of the Confederacy unworthy of what was required by its women. An now, after the lapse of long years, we find the same gentle, earnest, brave women with all the enthusiasm of their noble nature, erecting this splendid tribute to our comrades who went down in the storm of war, and thus keeping the record of those heroes who gave their blood as the seal of their fealty to the land of their love. Sincerest benedictions we utter for them. May the angels of blessing and peace hover over them in this life and at its end bring them joyfully to that place where there will be no tears, where monuments are not built, where death and sorrow never come.
ALL READY TO OBEY.
"There were none on that fateful field who were not ready to obey every call, to meet any fate, to respond to every order and to endure all that patriotic duty required at their hands. The battle of Murfreesboro has not received its just place in history. The casualties were as great as those at Shiloh, but Shiloh came in as the initial wave of destruction which was to sweep over the land, and it impressed the public mind and left memories on the public hearts which were more lasting than those probably of any battle fought outside of Gettysburg. If it be true that we had at Gettysburg 100,00 men, it will be seen that the percentage of loss was not any greater than at Murfreesboro. There were more men engaged at Shiloh, on the Confederate side, than were engaged> at Murfreesboro, and yet the loss in killed and wounded and missing was greater than at Shiloh; so that Murfreesboro stands alongside of Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Antietam. Very few, if any, of the battles of the war showed greater percentage of loss than was experienced on both sides at this battle, the valor of the troops engaged in which, you are this day assembled to commemorate.
NOT ALL TENNESSEEANS.
"The majority of those who sleep the sleep of death here are not Tennesseans. They were brought to Tennessee by noble, patriotic impulses and- are strangers in a strange land, but they gave up all for the right as they saw it; they made the most costly sacrifice man can make at the call of duty. The fact that those who loved them most will never come to weep at their sepulchers or place sweet flowers on their graves appeals with tenderest and most pathetic eloquence to the magnanimity of those for whose homes they fought, for whose liberty they died, and the care of their graves, unmarked— in many cases unknown—devolves upon those who are left a sacred trust. Somewhere in the Southland whence these unknown dead came, loving hearts mourn their loss. There are vacant chairs that will never be filled, there are firesides that will never be the same, because these heroes will never return, and there are broken circles where faithful ones will love on to the end, and in silence and tears keep sacred the memory of those who lie hidden in unmarked graves in this valley of Stone's river. They cannot sleep among their kindred and in most cases they do not rest 'Neath the parent turf, nor can the 'sunshine of their native sky shine sweetly on them' here, but I am sure that true, gentle, sympathetic hearts will guard these graves and keep the sod over them green until the great call from on high shall bring these dead once again into communion with those from whom war and death have so cruelly and harshly separated them.
"After all, comrades and friends, it was the man in the ranks, the man who carried the musket, who was the true Southern hero. The largest proportion of the courage and chivalry of the South was in the ranks, and the bravest men that died were those of whom history will never speak. Scouts, pickets, the men in the skirmish line, in the rifle pit, on the parapet, in the trench, the men who charged the batteries, who carried the colors, were the men who dared most, endured most and gave the most in that great struggle, the men who experienced the greatest privations, who exhibited the greatest bravery and the truest devotion and the super best courage, were the men who carried the guns and never reasoned why, but only dared to do and die.
SHOULD BE REMEMBERED.
"It is to this class of men to whom the South owes most, and their memory ought to be imperishable. There is glory enough in the defense which the South made for her liberty, to endow all her people who took part in that struggle with splendid renown. It is glory enough for any man to have worn the gray jacket, and of the thousands who possess that distinction, there are none who would exchange the humble uniform, typical of the grandest devotion to duty and the noblest patriotism, with its faded renown, for the jeweled coronet of any duke of any kingdom, which was inherited or won by manliness and courage.
"All the dead of our Confederacy are our treasure. All the precious blood that was poured out to defend the South is our inheritance. All the memories which gather about the thousands of battlefields involving innumerable instances of superb courage and splendid manhood—all, all belong to our Southland.
"Words are powerless to depict or paint the glory which lingers around the memories of the Confederate dead. Living, they met the requirements of every duty, they faced fearlessly every danger, they shrank at no sacrifice that patriotism exacted, and they denied their country no service its needs demanded. Two hundred thousand graves contain the dust of our heroes, 200,000 lives were the price we paid for our efforts to be free. Their glory is our glory.
"Magnificent host, superb assemblage of fate's immortals, we claim a share in your renown, and we count this joint tenancy in your splendid achievements the richest treasure earth can give.
ARMY OF TENNESSEE.
"I cannot close this address without reference to the magnificent record of the Army of Tennessee, which in many respects was the most gallant host that ever fought under any standard. I could not be induced to utter a single word in depreciation of Confederate valor or any field or in any department. Every courageous act done by any Confederate soldier is the common property of all who followed the Southern flag; but history has not dealt fairly or justly with the Confederates of this department The reasons for this are so obvious that they need not be mentioned in this intelligent presence. But I do affirm that the army that fought at Perryville and Richmond, Ky., that contended at Shiloh and battled at Murfreesboro, that unflinchingly met the terrific slaughter at Chickamauga, that bore without complaint and defiantly, the destruction and privations of the one hundred days before Atlanta; that captured Streight and Stoneman and won at Hartsville; that practically annihilated its foes at Tishomingo creek, or Brice's Cross Roads; that rode and fought with Forrest, Morgan and Wheeler, and at the end met substantial annihilation in the heroic, but useless, sacrifice on the bloody field of Franklin, is not unworthy to stand in any company of warriors who ever went forth to conflict, or fought for any cause in any land.
"The Army of Tennessee, never the best equipped of Confederate forces, met more defeats without destruction, endured more hardships without complaint, made longer marches with less straggling, followed more unfortunate leaders with fewer desertions, showed more cheerfulness in distress and exhibited greater fortitude in disaster than any military organization known in history. It was always hopeful in misfortune, brave in action, patient in privation, valiant in conflict, constant in trials, unmurmuring in difficulties and unconquerable in spirit, and no more brilliant display of extraordinary qualities was ever shown by this wonderful army than in the battle to whose slain you this day dedicate this shaft"
Again the Lebanon Orchestra discoursed sweet music, this time "OW Kentucky Home." As this followed the speaker from Kentucky, the scene was dramatic.
The exercises were closed with the reading of a poem by E. D. Hancock, entitled, "The Southern Soldier." The poem was one of some length, and in arranging it Mr. Hancock utilized the entire inscription upon the memorial monument.
The benediction was said by Rev. W. L. Logan.
WERE VERY APPROPRIATE.
The ceremonies were brief, that is, shorter than the usual exercises of this character, and the assemblage did not feel wearied at the conclusion as upon occasions when the orators speak for two or three hours. The address of Colonel Young was even shorter than he expected to make. In fact, he did not deliver the full address he had prepared for the occasion. The appropriate length of the programme, along with the smoothness with which it was presented, was frequently commented upon favorably.
After the exercises the visitors were invited to luncheon at the homes of Murfreesboro's hospitable people. Almost every citizen of the little city was a host during the day. Some of them had three and four visitors at their homes.
The afternoon was spent by many of those from distant cities in riding through the town and visiting the various points of interest upon the surrounding battle fields. Many of the old veterans tramped the fields over the entire afternoon in effort to locate a spot they might recognize. Several of those who had not been on the field in almost forty years were successful in locating old landmarks and in all they spent a most enjoyable day. The young ladies of the Lebanon Glee Club gave a concert at the armory during the afternoon, while the Tennessee Industrial School band held forth at the public square, rendering several selections.
To-night the Vendome Stock Company, of Nashville, played to a crowded house this being a part of the day's festivities.
Every road in the country led to Murfreesboro this morning. Hundreds came in from the surrounding country, but the largest crowd arrived on the Nashville special. Upon this train came the Confederate cavalry troop under command of Lieutenant W. T. Hardison and the infantry company commanded by Captain Mark S. Cockrill, and the Gaines Rifles, Captain Kramer. On this train were many State officials and citizens of Nashville.
Wm. Moffitt, Jr.

Memphis' Forrest Park on National Register of Historic Places

2009-03-21T09:27:00.001-07:00

Designation puts efforts to change name on hold
By Linda Moore (Contact), Memphis Commercial AppealThursday, March 19, 2009
Forrest Park has quietly been added to the National Register of Historic Places, and efforts to rename the park or disinter the bodies buried there have, for now, been laid to rest.
The park at Union and Manassas where Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife are buried received the honorary designation this month from the National Park Service.
The park has long been a point of racial controversy in Memphis, with local officials and other groups periodically rallying to rename the park and remove the statue of Forrest, a revered cavalry leader in the Civil War who also was a slave trader and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

The nomination was submitted by the Forrest Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
"It's just a great honor to have the park and the statue recognized as a historic place," said Lee Millar, the camp's public affairs officer. "We're very happy for fellow historians and the city and county to have another site listed on the national register."
Although not involved in seeking the designation, the Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy also was excited by the news.
"I'm very happy, basically because it's just a part of Memphis' history that needs to be preserved for future generations," said president Audrey Rainey.
Attorney and former Shelby County commissioner Walter Bailey tried to quash the nomination but says continued protests will be put on hold.
"I think we're at a point where until such time as we see some concern by our city leaders, we have to continue to pause," Bailey said.
And he doesn't blame the Forrest supporters for their success.
"It seems to me the responsibility and the blame rest with our city leaders for being so passive about it," Bailey said.
Last fall, the nomination went before the Tennessee Historical Commission. Initially approved, the vote was rescinded after about a dozen Memphians, including Bailey and state Rep. G.A. Hardaway, protested, arguing that the park had been created to pay homage to a slave trader.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans withdrew the nomination, regrouped and successfully appealed the state commission's decision to the park service, which administers the register.
Despite the successful bid, the designation is an honor, not a shield.
Because Forrest Park is owned by the city of Memphis, the city has the authority to rename it or have the graves moved unless the project involves federal dollars, said Bill Reynolds, spokesman with the National Park Service in Atlanta.
"If the city makes changes to the site in some way, shape or form that would or could cause a potential review of the status of the site, it could cause it to lose its designation if the historical integrity of the site is compromised in any way," he said.
The 8-acre park was established in the early 1900s and was designed by famed park and landscape designer George Kessler. The sculpture of Forrest was done by Charles H. Niehaus, whose work can be seen at the Library of Congress.
-- Linda A. Moore: 529-2702

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/mar/19/forrest-park-on-historic-register/

Schools asked to honor Confederate holiday

2009-03-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

By Diane Knich (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
MONCKS CORNER — A Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter wants Berkeley County schools to close for a day in honor of Confederate Memorial Day, even if the holiday falls on a weekend.
Wade Cheney, a member of the Gen. Ellison Capers Camp 1212 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, brought the group's concerns to the Berkeley County School Board on Tuesday.
He said the school district closed for the May 10 holiday from 2001 to 2007. Last year the holiday fell on the weekend, as it does this year, and the district didn't close offices or schools.
Cheney said according to a state law, when the holiday falls on a weekend, state government offices close on either Friday or Monday. He thinks the school district also should close.
Jim Foster, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said individual school districts set their own calendars. Only a handful of districts statewide close for Confederate Memorial Day, he said.
Board member Wilhelmina Moore said to Cheney, "My feeling, as a black person, is it's a slap in the face."
The Confederate battle flag, she said, "represents slavery."
Cheney said, "We're not celebrating the flag. We're celebrating the soldiers."
He would like to see schools and students attend memorial services and learn about history on the holiday, he said.
And he thinks it's possible to fit in the day, even in the current school year.
"There are days set aside each school year for weather days," he said.
"We could use one of those days."
Reach Diane Knich at 937-5491 or dknich@postandcourier.com.

http://charleston.net/news/2009/mar/11/schools_asked_honor_confederate_holiday74571/

Andy Rooney

2009-03-14T10:14:00.001-07:00

CBS DIDN'T STOP HIM- THIS IS GREAT - Good for him!!!Surprised CBS let him get away with this even though he's rightRight on, Andy Rooney ! Andy Rooney said on '60 Minutes' a few weeks back:'I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, which is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE ?I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.I have the right 'NOT' to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling; it is the Law of Probability.I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.I think the police should have every right to shoot you if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word 'freeze' or 'stop' in English, see the above lines.I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.I don't hate the rich I don't pity the poorI know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say 'NO!'I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!I am sick of 'Political Correctness.' I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa ; so how can they be 'African-Americans'? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else.And if you don't like my point of view, tough...I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if I don't. It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God.. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having 'In God We Trust' on our money and having 'God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the 14% to BE QUIET!!!

Jim Limber Davis—Black History Month’s Forgotten Story

2009-03-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

By Calvin E. Johnson, Jr. Kennesaw, GA --> -->Originally Published Feb 26, 2009, 9:22am --> -->(Updated Feb 26, 2009, 9:29am) -->
God’s children, of African, Asian, European, Hispanic, American Indian and Jewish ancestry, were once told stories about the men and women who helped make America great. When I was a child, the heritage of our ancestors was very important to both young and old but, today, political correct thought has taken the place of historical truth and many schools, streets and parks, named for our beloved forefathers and mothers have been changed.
I write this article as the Sons of Confederate Veterans of Virginia (SCV), a Southern fraternal-historical group -- www.scv.org -- is looking for a location to unveil a historically correct statue depicting Confederate President Jefferson Davis and two of his sons Joe and Jim Limber. Jim was a black child adopted by the Davis family, and Joe was tragically killed by a fall in 1864 at the Confederate White House in Richmond, Virginia.
It is ironic that a statue of Abraham Lincoln, Union President, 1861-65, was earlier unveiled in Richmond, Virginia, but plans of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to erect a statue of Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, has apparently been met with less enthusiasm. And this comes from the old Confederate Capitol and where Davis and his family are buried.
It is also reported that the SCV has even received a cool reception from Jackson, Mississippi, as a possible site for the statue, the state Davis and his family called home during the last years of the president’s life. But, there is good news with the following show of support recently published in Jackson Mississippi Clarion Ledger newspaper:
"The Director of Beauvoir—Davis’s last home---says he’d love to have the life size bronze sculpture of the former President of the Confederacy. Richard Forte says the statue of Davis, with his hand extended, looks like it’s welcoming people to Beauvoir." (www.beauvoir.org)
Why do today’s Historians praise the memory of Abraham Lincoln but ignore the many accomplishments of Jefferson Davis?
Some people write that Lincoln supported the abolition of slavery but Davis was a racist. If you read Lincoln’s first inaugural address from 1861, you will discover that Lincoln supported a bill that would have given the South a way to stay in the Union with slavery protected by a Constitutional amendment. If the South’s only intention in seceding from the Union was to keep their slaves, wouldn’t they have accepted such a deal?
In 1989, a magazine article caught my eye which I had to read from beginning to end. This was not an ordinary story but about a black child, a Confederate President's First Lady and the Southern Presidential Family. The story was written by Gulfport, Mississippi freelance writer, Mrs. Peggy Robbins and is entitled, "Jim Limber Davis." This is my summary of Mrs. Robbins’ splendid story.
On the morning of February 15, 1864, Mrs. Varina Davis, wife of Southern President Jefferson Davis, had concluded her errands and was driving her carriage down the streets of Richmond, Virginia on her way home. She heard screams from a distance and quickly went to the scene to see what was happening.
Varina saw a young black child being abused by an older man. She demanded that he stop striking the child and when this failed she shocked the man by forcibly taking the child away. She took the child to her carriage and with her to the Southern White House.
Arriving home Mrs. Davis and maid 'Ellen' gave the young boy a bath, attended to his cuts and bruises and fed him. The only thing he would tell them is that his name was Jim Limber. He was happy to be rescued and was given some clothes of the Davis' son, Joe, who was the same size and age.
The Davis family was visited the following evening by a friend of Varina's, noted Southern Diarist-Mary Boykin Chesnut-who saw Jim Limber and wrote later that she had seen the boy and that he was eager to show me his cuts and bruises.
The Christmas of 1864 would be memorable for the Davis family and probably the best Christmas Jim Limber would ever have. A Christmas tree was set up in Saint Paul's Church, decorated and gifts placed beneath it for orphan children.
The end of the War Between the States was coming and Richmond was being evacuated. Varina and the children left ahead of Jefferson Davis. The president and his staff left just hours before the occupation of Union troops.
Varina and the children were by the side of Jefferson Davis at his capture near Irwinville, Georgia, and again the family was separated. Jefferson Davis was taken to Virginia to spend two years in prison.
Mrs. Davis and her children were taken to Macon, Georgia and later to Port Royal outside of Savannah. At Port Royal, their Union escort, Captain Charles T. Hudson, made good at his earlier threats to take Jim Limber away.
As the Union soldiers came to forcibly take young Jim, he put up a great struggle and tried to hold onto his family as they to him. Jim and his family cried uncontrollably as the child was taken. His family would never again see him or know what happened to him.
The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia is home to a portrait of Jim Limber Davis in the Eleanor S. Brookenbrough Library. I thank Mrs. Peggy Robbins who wrote the Jim Limber Davis story in 1989 and the Southern Partisan Magazine for publishing her story in the second quarter Issue-Volume IX of 1989.
Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., is a freelance writer and author of the book, ‘When America Stood for God, Family and Country.’ He is also a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He can be reached at cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net. -->
Click HERE for more info...
http://www.dawsontimes.com/news50000/opinion/jim-limber-davisblack-history-months-forgotten-sto.shtml

Thomas Jefferson could be called a prophet.

2009-02-21T07:44:00.000-08:00

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe . Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson

Very Interesting Quote

In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802 : 'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

CONFEDERATE GRAVES IN BRITAIN

2009-02-17T14:33:00.000-08:00

by John CollierAbout 12 months ago I received a list of the known Confederates buried in Britain, and was amazed that there were only five recorded cases, knowing that there must be many more I decided to try and locate as many as possible. To begin with asked people who I thought might know of others buried here, like Roy Rawlinson who has a www site about the Liverpool-Bulloch-CSS Alabama connection. This added a few more names and locations to the list .An article I put in two local newspapers generated some interest, and I was informed of three soldiers buried locally.As you will know many of the CS commerce raiders had crews made up almost entirely of British seamen and after getting their names off the ships rosters I put notices on the family notice boards that are on the www. Also by now others with an interest in the war were beginning to hear of my search and some were able to contribute other names to my list.I often passed some of these names onto an associate SCV member here called Tony Jones who would often contact the authorities in the area these men came from and in many cases we were able to record that they had died there.Many of those buried in Britain were born here like Father John B Bannon (whose name I originally got from Camp Adjutant Lars Gjertveit). John B Bannon was one of the greatest of CS heroes ,as was Comm. James Dunwody Bulloch CSN who was American born but died in Liverpool in 1901,he was not covered by the amnesty after the war and he could not return to America.Others made a mark on history too, like Colonel Richard Milton Cary buried in Cornwall who led the 30th Virginia Inf. with distinction, Capt Stephen Winthrop buried in Gloucestershire rode next to Jeb Stuart, and Capt. John Low buried at Golborne brought so much arms and ammunition into America aboard the CSS Fingal that the South were able to fight a huge battle with it !( Shiloh).I must thank all those involved in the search for Southern graves here, people like the 'gravediggers 'of the Southern Skirmish association, Terry Foenander of Australia for giving me so many leads, the family members who recognized their ancestors names on family message boards, my wife Barbie who always makes sure a CS grave is always left tidy and free of weeds, and all those others who gave me so much help.I have estimated that between 400 and 2000 Confederates are buried in Britain, many will never be found and are sadly lost forever, but many are now listed and will be remembered and honoured for as long as there are people to do so.

JOHN COLLIER ,...FULL member SCV Camp # 584( Maj-Gen W D McCain)and associate member SCV Camp # 1770

( Capt J I Waddell)Confederate Soldiers and Sailors buried in Britain And those with monuments or memorial plaques

(1) Comm. James Dunwody BULLOCH ,CSN,buried Toxteth, Liverpool died Jan 7 1901.

(2) Lt. Irvine Stephens BULLOCH, CSN,( CSS Alabama, CSS Shenandoah) buried Toxteth,Liverpool.

(3) James Mc DONALD, CSS Florida buried West Derby Necropolis grave 240,died 20 Mar.1865 aged 28.

(4) Col. James DUFF ,33rd TX Cav. Died London 1900.

(5) Capt John LOW ,CSN died 6 Sept 1906 buried Golborne,Lancs.( CSS Alabama,CSS Fingal ,CSS Tuscaloosa).

(6) Pte. James WEADLEY ,CoE 2nd Tenn Inf ,CSA k.i.a.6th April 1862 at Shiloh, family grave Dean Rd, Scarborough.

(7) Capt Stephen WINTHROP, general staff ANV, died 13 March 1879, buried Painswick, Gloucs.Plot no. 2098.

(8) Capt Charles MURRAY, CSA, buried family vault, Dunmore,Scotland.

(9) Capt John ROWAN, CSA,died Nov 29 1867 buried,St James cemetery, Liverpool grave no C-1061.

(10)Pte.( later Sir) Henry Morton STANLEY ,6th Arkansas Inf.died 10 May 1904, buried Pirbright, Surrey.

(10a) Pte.( later Sir) Henry Morton STANLEY,6th Arkansas Inf.died 10 May 1904 ,plaque on the North wall of St Michael & All Angels church, Pirbright, Surrey.

(11) Michael MARS , CSN. CSS Alabama,believed buried London August 1878,but M.Rigby states he died America 1891.

(12) John CAREN ,CSS Alabama,died Mar1914 buried Anfield, Liverpool, grave 7-642.

(13) George HORWOOD,CSS Alabama & CSS Shenandoah, died 5 Oct 1888 buried grave C28, St James, Liverpool.

(14) Henry W. ALLCOT, CSS Alabama, CSS Shenandoah died 3 Mar 1891, Liverpool.

(15) Samuel BREWER ,CSS Alabama,died 1886 ,Liverpool.

(16) Capt Charles Ambrose McEVOY, CSN, buried Codicote,Herts.

(17) Col. Richard Milton CARY, 30th VA Inf.died 15 March 1886 in Woodfield, Budock, buried Falmouth, Cornwall 1886.

(18) Thomas POTTER, CSS Alabama, died 3 Feb 1867, Liverpool.

(19) Frederick Matthew JOHNS ,CSS Alabama, family grave St James, Liverpool Cof E no.C 432.(20) Gen. Patrick Royayne CLEBURN.plaque at St. Cuthberts church, Cliburn, Cumberland.

(21) Col. Robert Alexander SMITH ,10th Miss Inf.monument at Dean cemetery ,Edinburgh.k.i.a. Mundsfordville,Tenn. 1862.

(22) Samuel HENRY ,CSS Alabama, died Birkenhead 1919.

(23) Comm .Arthur SINCLAIR ,CSN buried 3 June Fleetwood 1865.

(24) Father John BANNON,1st Missouri Brigade died Dublin July 14 ,1913 ( now believed born 29th Dec.1829 died 14th July 1919).

(25)Col. William L KNIGHT ,3rd Alabama Inf. buried Croydon cemetery grave 7742-C5,7 March 1914 age 82. (lived at 42 Addiscombe Court Rd, E.Croydon).

(26) John TALLANTIRE, CSS Alabama, buried Bridlington grave C211buried 3 Sep 1913.DISPUTED

(27) William WATSON, CS Army & blockade runner, buried Seamer (?) , N.Yorks.

(28) James GLEVIN, CSS Alabama, buried 31 Jan 1915 , Maryport, Scotland. DISPUTED

(29) Capt.Henry Wemyss FEILDEN, CSA died 18 June 1921, Burwash , Sussex.buried 21 June 1921 age 82. buried in churchyard extension Burwash.

(30) William McNeil WHISTLER, Orr's rifles.buried London (?)

(31) Llewellyn Traherne Bassett SAUNDERSON, staff officer to Fitz.Lee, died Ireland 30 March 1913.(32) Joseph CONNOR, CSS Alabama, buried Liverpool.

(33) James McFADGEN,CSS Alabama, died L'pool (?)

(34)John DUGGAN,CSS Alabama & CSS Tuscaloosadied L'pool (?)

(35) William CRAWFORD, CSS Alabama, died L'pool(?)

(36) Robert EGAN .as above.

(37) John EMERY.as above.

(38) Edward FITZMAURICE.as above.

(39) James HOGGS or HICKS.as above.

(40) Peter HUGHES..as above.

(41) Thomas WILLIAMS,CSS Alabama & CSS Tuscaloosa,died Liverpool(?)

(42) Joseph PEARSON, CSS Alabama ,died Liverpool(?)

(43) Asst Surg.David Herbert LLEWELLYN, CSS Alabama, plaque at Charring Cross hosp.died June 19 1864.

(43a) Asst Surg.David Herbert LLEWELLYN, CSS Alabama, monument at Easton Parish church,Wilts.

(45) David MARSHALL ,CSS Shenandoah ,buried Liverpool(?)

(46) Asst Sur. Thomas J. CHARLTON, CSS Georgia, CSS Florida, buried Liverpool(?) NOW KNOWN TO BE BURIED IN GA.

(47) Maurice Berkeley PORTMAN, ACD to Wade Hampton died N.Petherton ,Somerset 12 Jan 1888.

(48) Herbert Sydney DAVIES,7th Tenn. Inf buried England(?)

(49) Thomas E. CAFFEY ,Co D 18th Miss,b.London ,buried England(?)

(50) Capt. Charles Hubert BRYNE, Co H ,1st Foreign Battalion CSA,buried England(?)

(51) Edmund Langley HUNT,CS forces,died July 1st 1911,buried England (?). Two of his brothers also believed to be in CS service.

(52) CS Chaplain Thomas Davenport OZANNE,died 20 Feb.1868 aged 48 buried Castel cemetery, St Peter Port, Guernsey.

(53) George Townley FULLAM,CSS Alabama, family grave is at Charterhouse,Hull.

(54) Bennett G. BURLEY CSN, buried Scotland?

(55) Major Henry Ronald MacIVER( Dec 25th 1841-May 1907) ,Scout to Gen.Trimble,buried Scotland?

(56)1st Sgt.William WATSON, 3rd Louisiana Inf, Pelican Rifles, buried Glasgow?

ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE EITHER CERTAINTIES OR VERY LIKELY , THE FOLLOWING ARE "POSSIBLES"

(57) John NOLAN, 2nd Florida Inf.

(59) Thomas Longmain CSS Virginia II ,born England 1842 .

(60) Capt Richard AGAR,CoG. 1st La Heavy artillery.

(61) Capt BURNES, on staff of Gen Bragg.

(62) Maj. Charles Henry FORD,1st Va Bn.

(63) Maj HODGES , Gen Beauregard's Staff.

(64)? PRENDERGAST,10th Tenn Inf.

(65) Stuart James SHORTT,on staff of T. F. Drayton & W. T. Martin.

(66) Lt.John F. RAMSEY ,CSN.

(67) Lt. John GRIMBALL,CSS Shenandoah.

(68) Asst. Engineer, W. H . CODD, CSS Shenandoah.

(69) John MINOR CSN, CSS Shenandoah.

(70)? MacGREFFERY, CSS Shenandoah.

(71) Ernest MUGGUFFENEY, CSS Shenandoah.

(72) Lodge COLTON, CSS Shenandoah.

(73) J. L. GUY,CSS Shenandoah.

Original leads supplied by;-Chris Old..........1,5,7,8,10-21.

Roy Rawlinson ........2,23,28,32-43.

Maurice Rigby..........3,9.

Scarborough B.C. (parks dept)..6

Tony Jones......... 10a

Norman Creaser...... 26,27.

Bill Torrens...........29-31,47-52,59-65.

Terry Foenander........43a,45,45,53,58,66.

Scots -in -the -Civil War.. 54-56.

Lars ( SCV Camp Europe)..24,25.

Steve( SCV Camp # 1770)...67-73.

Unrecorded ..........4,22

http://southernmessenger.org/scv_camps.htm

Keep the CHANGE

2009-02-09T16:20:00.000-08:00

Soldier’s Pay In The War Between the States

2009-02-08T17:58:00.000-08:00

White Union privates were paid $13 per month until after the final raise of June 20, 1864, when they received $16. Black Union privates received $10 per month. In the infantry and artillery, officers were as follows at the start of the war:

USA Lieutenant General (Three Star), $758;
USA Major General (Two Star), $457;
USA Brigadier General (One Star), $315;
USA Colonel, $212;
USA Lieutenant Colonel, $181;
USA Major, $169;
USA Captain, $115.50;
USA First Lieutenant, $105.50;
USA Second Lieutenant, $105.50.

Other line and staff officers drew an average of about $15 more per month.
The Confederate pay structure was modeled after that of the US Army. Privates continued to be paid at the prewar rate of $11 per month until June 1864, when the pay of all enlisted men was raised $7 per month. Confederate officer’s pay was a few dollars lower than that of the their Union counterparts.

CSA Brigadier General, $301 instead of $315 per month;
CSA Colonel of the infantry $195, as opposed to $212;
CSA Colonel of artillery, engineers, and cavalry, $210.

While the inflation of Confederate Money reduced the actual value of a Southerner’s military pay, this was somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that promotion policies in the South were more liberal. As for the pay of noncommissioned officers:

CSA Private, $11 per month;
CSA Corporals, $13;
CSA “Buck” Sergeants, $17;
CSA First Sergeants $20;
CSA Engineer Sergeants, $34.

About the same ratio existed in the Northern army between the pay of privates and noncommissioned officers.
Soldiers were supposed to be paid every two months in the field, but they were fortunate if they got their pay at four-month intervals (in the Union Army) and authentic instances are recorded where they went six and eight months. Payment in the Confederate Army was even slower and less regular. However, when payment did come around in the Confederate Army, the blacks and whites were paid equally.

Sources: “The Civil War Dictionary” by Mark M. Boatner
http://www.civilwarhome.com/Pay.htm
March 2001 issue of America’s Civil War magazine, article by Frank L. Grzyb on the all-black 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, page 16.

Congressional Support for Confederate Soldiers

2009-02-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

Researched by: Tim Renick, Combined Arms Library Staff, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Member: Brigadier General William Steele SCV Camp 1857.
Edited By: Lt. Col. (Retired) Edwin L. Kennedy, Jr. Member: Brigadier General William Steele SCV Camp 1857.

Background
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a move in the North was made to reconcile with Southerners. President McKinley was instrumental in this movement. When the Spanish-American War concluded successfully in December 1898, President McKinley used this as an opportunity to “mend the fences”. On 14 December 1898 he gave a speech in which he urged reconciliation based on the outstanding service of Southerners during the recent war with Spain. Remember, as part of the conciliation, several former Confederate officers were commissioned as generals to include former Confederate cavalry general, Wheeler. This is what McKinley said:
“…every soldier’s grave made during our unfortunate civil war [sic] is a tribute to American valor [my emphasis]… And the time has now come… when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers…The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in the year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.”
The response from Congress to this plea was magnanimous and resulted in the Appropriations Act of FY 1901 (below).
Remarks: McKinley’s address as the President is significant. He clearly alludes to Confederates as “Americans”. While the semantics may appear minor, the impact is major. Confederate soldiers were already Americans, however, the President acknowledged this fact officially. They are not addressed as “U.S.” soldiers, but “American” which carries the import of giving them equivalent, not equal, status to Federal soldiers. It did not grant them the right to a U.S. pension, however, it did recognize them as fellow countrymen due the respect and honor accorded to U.S. soldiers.

Congressional Appropriations Act, FY 1901, signed 6 June 1900
Congress passed an act of appropriations for $2,500 that enabled the “Secretary of War to have reburied in some suitable spot in the national cemetery at Arlington, Virginia, and to place proper headstones at their graves, the bodies of about 128 Confederate soldiers now buried in the National Soldiers Home near Washington, D.C., and the bodies of about 136 Confederate soldiers now buried in the national cemetery at Arlington, Virginia.”
Remarks: More important than the amount (worth substantially more in 1900 than in 2000) is the move to support reconciliation by Congressional act. In 1906, Confederate Battle flags were ordered to be returned to the states from whence they originated. Some states refused to return the flags. Wisconsin still has at least one flag it refuses to return.

Congressional Act of 9 March 1906
(P.L. 38, 59th Congress, Chap. 631-34 Stat. 56)
Authorized the furnishing of headstones for the graves of Confederates who died, primarily in Union prison camps and were buried in Federal cemeteries.
Remarks: This act formally reaffirmed Confederate soldiers as military combatants with legal standing. It granted recognition to deceased Confederate soldiers commensurate with the status of deceased Union soldiers.

U.S. Public Law 810, Approved by 17th Congress 26 February 1929
(45 Stat 1307 - Currently on the books as 38 U.S. Code, Sec. 2306)
This law, passed by the U.S. Congress, authorized the “Secretary of War to erect headstones over the graves of soldiers who served in the Confederate Army and to direct him to preserve in the records of the War Department the names and places of burial of all soldiers for whom such headstones shall have been erected.”
Remarks: This act broadened the scope of recognition further for all Confederate soldiers to receive burial benefits equivalent to Union soldiers. It authorized the use of U.S. government (public) funds to mark Confederate graves and record their locations.

U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958
(US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134)
The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States.
Remarks: While this was only a gesture since the last Confederate veteran died in 1958, it is meaningful in that only forty-five years ago (from 2003), the Congress of the United States saw fit to consider Confederate soldiers as equivalent to U.S. soldiers for service benefits. This final act of reconciliation was made almost one hundred years after the beginning of the war and was meant as symbolism more than substantive reward.
Additional Note by the Critical History: Under current U.S. Federal Code, Confederate Veterans are equivalent to Union Veterans.
U.S. Code Title 38 - Veterans’ Benefits, Part II - General Benefits, Chapter 15 - Pension for Non-Service-Connected Disability or Death or for Service, Subchapter I - General, § 1501. Definitions: (3) The term “Civil War veteran” includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term “active military or naval service” includes active service in those forces.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/titles.html
http://www.criticalhistory.info/html/us_support_for_cv.html

Some Surprising Facts Abut The Confederacy

2009-02-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

Michael T. Griffith
2006@All Rights Reserved
In recent years it has become increasingly fashionable in some circles, especially on college campuses and in the media, to demonize anything and everything related to the Confederate States of America (CSA). Some critics have gone so far as to compare the Confederacy to Nazi Germany. Many politicians and liberal groups have sought to erase any trace of Confederate heritage. They’ve labeled the Confederate flag as a “loathsome, offensive” symbol and have tried to ban its display on public property. They’ve also campaigned to rename public schools, roads, buildings and parks that are named after Confederate heroes. In some towns, liberal groups have worked to prevent the Confederate flag from even being flown over the graves of Confederate soldiers in public cemeteries. In response to the ongoing campaign to demonize Confederate heritage, I offer the following facts about the Confederacy:
1. By the latter part of 1864 the CSA was moving toward ending slavery. In fact, there are indications that the Confederacy would have ended slavery even if it had survived the war, as prominent historians like J. G. Randall and David Donald have acknowledged (see Randall and Donald, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1969, p. 522).
Critics will reply that the CSA only began to move toward emancipation as an act of desperation in the face of imminent defeat. If so, this proves that Southern independence was more important to Confederate leaders than was the continuation of slavery, that when push came to shove they were willing to abandon slavery in order to achieve independence.
However, this being duly noted, it should be pointed out that it was by no means clear in late 1864 that Southern defeat was imminent. Historians Herman Hattaway and Richard Beringer note that even in February 1865, just two months before the war ended, "a considerable degree of determination and high morale did still persist" in the South (Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, University Press of Kansas, 2002, p. 357). Militarily speaking, the situation was far from hopeless in late 1864. Even when the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered in April 1865, the situation was not completely hopeless. At the end of the war, fewer than one-third of Confederate troops on active duty were deployed against either of the two main Union armies. One of the arguments made by Southern leaders who opposed the arming and freeing of slaves was that the South's situation did not yet require such a measure. There is certainly room for debate about the CSA’s military prospects after the fall of Atlanta in September 1864. It’s also true that Confederate leaders felt that using slaves as soldiers was a matter of urgent military necessity. However, few if any Confederate leaders believed the South would be defeated by April if they didn’t arm and emancipate the slaves. George Rable noted that even after the fall of Richmond "a belief that somehow independence could yet be won persisted" (in Hattaway and Beringer, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, p. 357). Historian Robert F. Durden of Duke University echoed the observations of Hattaway, Beringer, and Rable:
Wracked though the Southerners were with the agony of a war they were losing, most Confederates, contrary to those persons who prefer to read history backward, did not know in November 1864 that they were beaten. (The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation, Louisiana Paperback Edition, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000, reprint of 1972 edition, p. 101)
One could correctly observe that the only reason the Union started using black troops was that Union casualties were mounting and that Northern resistance to the draft was increasing. One could also point out that Lincoln strongly resisted using black troops until intense pressure from the Radical Republicans coupled with mounting Union casualties caused him to change his mind. Even after Lincoln agreed to the use of free blacks and ex-slaves as troops, he refused to give them equal pay until forced to do so by Congress.
In his book Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream (Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 2000), African-American author Lerone Bennett presents evidence that Lincoln only issued the Emancipation Proclamation in response to increasing pressure from the Radicals and in order to blunt the effect of a more drastic confiscation measure that Congress had already passed. Bennett also discusses evidence that Lincoln worked to minimize the effects of the proclamation almost as soon as he issued it.
In the American Revolution, the Continental Army only began to use black troops as an act of desperation because the army was running short of soldiers and because the British had offered freedom to American slaves who would fight in the British army (Henry Wiencick, An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003, pp. 196-22; James and Lois Horton, In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community and Protest Among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1860, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 55-71). George Washington initially barred blacks from enlisting in the army. He relented because he was desperate for more soldiers, because white enlistment was falling dramatically. (Wiencick, An Imperfect God, pp. 196-227). Even then, some New England militias continued to bar blacks from enlistment. It took the Continental Congress two years to formally agree to black enlistment. Another factor that influenced the decision to use slaves and free blacks as soldiers in the Continental Army was the fact that thousands of American slaves were flocking to British lines in response to the British offer of emancipation.
I might add that after the Revolutionary War, American negotiators insisted on a provision in the treaty that ended the war, the Treaty of Paris, that the British return any American slaves who had fled to British lines during the war. One of those negotiators was none other than John Adams. In fact, Adams warmly endorsed the provision (Wiencick, An Imperfect God, p. 254). To their credit, the British later violated this provision and evacuated thousands of slaves with them when they left America.
I might also add that when it began to appear that the British weren't going to return the runaway American slaves, George Washington demanded a meeting with the British general who was in charge of enforcing the Treaty of Paris during the evacuation from New York, General Guy Carleton. Washington tried to persuade Carleton to honor the treaty provision on the return of runaway slaves. To his credit, Carleton stood his ground and refused to hand over the slaves. Carleton said the Americans could apply for compensation for the slaves, but that he would not return them. Carleton insisted the slaves were now free and that it would bring dishonor on England to return them after promising them safe refuge. Lord North, the British prime minister, called Carleton's stand "an act of justice." King George III himself voiced support for Carleton's action "in the fullest and most ample manner." One very rarely finds any mention of these facts in American history books.
The American colonies’ policies on black troops during the Revolutionary War and their insistence on the return of American slaves after the war are admittedly embarrassing and contrary to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. However, to my knowledge, no American historian has expressed regret that the Americans won the war.
2. The Confederate president himself, Jefferson Davis, came to strongly support ending slavery. So did CSA Secretary of State Judah Benjamin, Governor William Smith of Virginia, and leading CSA Congressmen Ethelbert Barksdale and Duncan Kenner (who was one of the largest slaveholders in the South).
3. The CSA's two highest ranking generals, Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, both disliked slavery and supported emancipation in various forms. Lee called slavery "a moral and political evil." Johnston called it "a curse." (Johnston initially opposed using slaves as soldiers only because he feared it would be disruptive and ineffective, not because he had any sympathy for slavery. He later came to support the proposal.) Other Confederate generals who supported emancipation included General Daniel Govan, General John Kelly, and General Mark Lowrey.
4. The majority of Confederate generals did not own slaves and did not come from slaveholding families (Hattaway and Beringer, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, p. 37).
5. Thousands of African Americans, Hispanics, and Indians fought for the Confederacy. Many of the slaves who served in the Confederate army did so because they hoped that by doing so they would be granted freedom after the war or because they were specifically promised freedom if they would serve. The same was true of most of the slaves who fought for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
The chief inspector of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, Dr. Lewis Steiner, reported that he saw about 3,000 well-armed black Confederate soldiers in Stonewall Jackson’s army--he added that those soldiers were "manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederate Army" (Issac W. Heysinger, Antietam and the Maryland and Virginia Campaigns of 1862, New York: Neale Publishing Company, 1912, pp. 122-123; cf. John J. Dwyer, general editor, The War Between the States: America’s Uncivil War, Denton, Texas: Bluebonnet Press, 2005, p. 409).
Three Confederate states authorized free blacks to enlist in state militia units. The first to do so was Tennessee, which passed a law on June 21, 1861, authorizing the recruitment of state militia units composed of "free persons of color" between the ages of 15 and 50. In 1862, Louisiana assembled the all-black 1st Louisiana Native Guard, and Alabama authorized the enlistment of creoles for a state militia unit in Mobile.
6. The Confederate Congress specified that black soldiers in the Confederate army were to receive the same pay, rations, and clothing that white soldiers received. In contrast, black soldiers in the Union army were paid much less than white soldiers were paid for over a year. The Union army began using former slaves and free blacks as soldiers in September 1862. They were paid $7 per month. Technically, they were paid $10 a month, but they were forced to pay a clothing allowance of $3, which meant their net monthly pay was only $7. White soldiers, on the other hand, received $13 per month and were not forced to pay a clothing allowance. Thus, in the Union army white soldiers were paid nearly twice as much as black soldiers were paid. Black Union soldiers didn’t start receiving equal pay until June 1864. When the Confederate Congress authorized the recruitment of slaves as soldiers, it stipulated that they were to receive “the same rations, clothing and compensation as are allowed to other troops” (An Act to Increase the Military Force of the Confederate States, March 13, 1865, Section 3). In addition, when the Confederate Congress authorized salaries for black musicians in the Confederate army in 1862, it specified that they were to receive the same pay as white army musicians, stating "whenever colored persons are employed as musicians in any regiment or company, they shall be entitled to the same pay now allowed by law to musicians regularly enlisted."
7. According to the 1860 census, only 31 percent of Southern families owned slaves. Seventy-five percent of the families that owned slaves, owned less than ten and often worked side by side with them in the fields. Approximately half of the free blacks in America lived in the South. The percentage of Southern citizens who held slaves was probably no more than 25 percent (some scholars put the percentage as low as 10 percent).
8. The Confederate Constitution allowed for the admission of free states to the Confederacy, banned the overseas slave trade, and permitted Confederate states to abolish slavery within their borders if they wanted to do so. During the Confederate debate on emancipation, both sides readily acknowledged that under the Confederate Constitution each state had the absolute right to abolish slavery within its borders (see, for example, Durden, The Gray and the Black, pp. 98, 115, 170,195).
9. The Confederate Constitution protected every right for its citizens that the U.S. Constitution protected for U.S. citizens, if not more (Charles Roland, The Confederacy, University of Chicago Press, 1960, pp. 25-27; see also below). Even during the war, the Confederacy held free elections and enjoyed a vibrant free press (William J. Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American, Vintage Books Edition, New York: Vintage Books, 2001, pp. 349-519; see also below).
10. The Confederate Constitution contained added protections against runaway government spending, excessive taxation, and harmful protective tariffs. Historian Allan Nevins said the following about the Confederate Constitution:
It differed from the old national model chiefly in its emphasis on State rights. . . . The general welfare clauses were omitted. Any Confederate official acting within the limits of a State might be impeached by the State legislature, though the Constitution, laws made under it, and treaties were declared “the supreme law of the land”. . . .
The most remarkable features of the new instrument sprang from the purifying and reforming zeal of the delegates, who hoped to create a more guarded and virtuous government than that of Washington. The President was to hold office six years, and be ineligible for reelection. Expenditures were to be limited by a variety of careful provisions, and the President was given budgetary control over appropriations which Congress could break only by a two-thirds vote.
Subordinate employees were protected against the forays of the spoils system. No bounties were ever to be paid out of the Treasury, no protective tariff was to be passed, and no post office deficit was to be permitted. . . . Some of these changes were unmistakable improvements, and the spirit behind all of them was an earnest desire to make government more honest and efficient. (Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln, Ordeal of the Union, Volume 2, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950, p. 435)
11. Unlike the federal government, the Confederate government did not imprison well over 10,000 of its own citizens without due process in order to suppress internal dissent (some scholars suggest the number of illegally imprisoned citizens was close to 30,000); it did not shut down the legislatures of two of its states because the citizens in those states elected anti-war majorities; it did not arrest members of a state legislature to prevent the legislature from even discussing a policy it didn’t like; it did not shut down over 300 newspapers for expressing "unpatriotic views"; it did not jail dozens of newspaper editors for expressing "unpatriotic views"; and it did not impose military rule on areas that were far removed from combat in order to suppress internal dissent. The federal government did all these things and more.
The Confederacy showed an amazing degree of respect for civil rights during the war. Renowned Civil War scholar (and pro-Lincoln biographer) David Donald has observed that the Confederacy was "astonishingly libertarian" and that "disloyal elements throughout the South had almost unrestricted freedom." His comments on the Confederacy’s respect for civil rights and on the contrast between the Confederacy’s policies and the Lincoln Administration’s policies deserve to be quoted at length:
If we could free ourselves of the notion that democracy (a “good” thing) must inevitably have been connected with the winning (hence “good”) Lincoln government, we would discover abundant evidence that the Confederacy, not the Union, represented the democratic forces in American life.
The democratic tendencies of the Confederacy were all too plainly reflected in its army. . . .
The Confederacy’s tolerance of democracy was not confined to military affairs. In civil rights, too, the South had an astonishingly libertarian record. Though engaged in deadly war, the Davis government preserved the traditional rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom from arbitrary arrest. . . .
Both Davis and his government were subjected to tirades of abuse. Davis, said T. R. R. Cobb of Georgia, was “the embodiment and concentration of cowardly littleness. . . .” The editor of the influential Richmond Examiner, E. A. Pollard, described Davis as “a literary dyspeptic who had more ink than blood in his veins, an intriguer, busy with private enmities.” Robert Toombs, the Confederacy’s first Secretary of State, declared: “Davis’s incapacity is lamentable. . . .” “How God has afflicted us with a ruler!” exclaimed Linton Stephens, the Vice President’s brother, a leader in the Georgia House of Representatives. “He is a little, conceited, hypocritical, sniveling, canting, malicious, ambitious, dogged, knave and fool.”
Not one of these, nor any of the other critics, of the Confederate President had his liberty of utterance impaired. . . . “When Davis’s advisers were to urge that anti-Administration papers be restrained, he would not hear of it,” Hudson Strode points out. “As a democrat, he believed in maintaining complete freedom of the press.” It is true that in January 1862, the Confederate Congress did pass a law forbidding the publication of unauthorized news of troop movements, but even this slight regulation was bitterly protested and flagrantly ignored. No Southern newspaper was ever suppressed by the Confederate government for its opinions, however critical or demoralizing. The ardent wish of Secretary of War George W. Randolph was realized: that “this revolution may be . . . closed without suppression of one single newspaper in the Confederate States.”
More significant militarily was the Confederacy’s insistence upon maintaining the cherished legal rights of freedom from arbitrary arrest and upon preserving due process of law. This sentiment was so strong that, though the Confederacy was invaded and Richmond was actually endangered, President Davis did not dare institute martial law until he had received the permission of his Congress. While General George B. McClellan was about to assault the Confederate capital in 1862, the Southern Congress debated the question and concluded that their President was “subject to the Constitution and to the laws enacted by Congress in pursuance of the Constitution. He can exert no power inconsistent with law, and, therefore, he cannot declare martial law.” Grudgingly Congress permitted Davis to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus [protection against arbitrary arrest and denial of due process] for three brief periods—once when McClellan was within sight of Richmond, again during the Fredericksburg-Chancellorsville threat, and once more when [General Ulysses] Grant was pushing through the Wilderness. Even then he was allowed to suspend the writ only in limited areas, not throughout the Confederacy. When he came to Congress for a renewal of his authority during the grim winter of 1864-1865, he was refused. . . .
The result, of course, was that disloyal elements throughout the South had almost unrestricted freedom.
(Donald, "Died of Democracy," in Donald, editor, Why the North Won the Civil War, Touchstone Edition, New York: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 82, 86-88)
Donald then examines the federal government’s very different approach to civil rights, noting that “in comparison with the Confederacy, the Union government did curtail civil liberties” (Why the North Won the Civil War, p. 88). Says Donald,
As soon as the fighting started, President Lincoln, without delaying to consult Congress, suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, at first for a small area of the East, later for the entire nation. At a subsequent date he reported his fait accompli to Congress. . . . Congress had little choice but to ratify, and the disloyal citizen [i.e., the citizen who opposed Lincoln and/or the war] had no alternative but to acquiesce. Thousands of citizens were imprisoned in the North for alleged disloyalty or sedition. They were arrested upon a presidential warrant and were kept incarcerated without due process of law. It did the disaffected citizen no good to go to court for a writ of habeas corpus to end his arbitrary arrest. On orders from President Lincoln himself, the military guard imprisoning him refused to recognize a judicial writ even when it came from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
Freedom of the press was also seriously abridged in the North. . . . Over three hundred Northern newspapers were suppressed, for varying periods, because they opposed the [Lincoln] administration’s policies or favored stopping the war. . . . (Why the North Won the Civil War, pp. 88-89)
Donald further notes that political democracy thrived in the Confederacy, and that the record was quite different in the North under Lincoln:
Political democracy, too, was unimpaired in the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis took care to abridge no Southerner’s political rights. Elected provisional president through no solicitation of his own, reelected as the first—and only—regular President of the Confederacy, Davis did not believe that he should interfere in politics, either to solicit votes for his friends or to win support for his measures. . . . When North Carolina held a critical gubernatorial election in 1864 to choose between Zebulon Vance, pledged to sustain the war effort, and William H. Holden, dedicated to withdrawing the state from the Confederacy and making an independent peace, Davis expressed no public preference between the candidates. Nor did he make any attempt to secure the defeat of Governor Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, though Brown, with the backing of Vice President Stephens, did all he could to hamstring the Richmond government. . . . Davis did not try to replace his arch-rival, Stephens. . . .
The record of the Lincoln government is in marked contrast. Lincoln regularly used patronage to build up a political machine dedicated to supporting his policies. . . .
When Republican Governor O. P. Morgan of Indiana was faced in 1863 with a hostile Democratic majority in the state legislature [which majority that had been elected by the citizens of the state], which threatened to curb his appointing powers and his control of the state militia, the Republicans, by prearrangement, walked out of the chamber, leaving the legislature without a quorum and unable to transact any business. The Democrats then adjourned the session, believing that Morton, in order to carry on the government, must call them promptly back. Instead, the Indiana governor made a flying trip to Washington, saw Lincoln and Secretary of War E. M. Stanton, and returned to Indianapolis bearing $250,000 [about $47 million in today’s dollars] extracted from war department funds, on which he ran the state government until the next election, blithely ignoring constitutional regulations and majority rule.
Having learned a lesson from 1862, Lincoln was prepared to take a more active, preventive role in the presidential elections two years later. When he saw that the Northwestern states were going to show a closely balanced vote, he wrote in September 1864 to General W. T. Sherman, whose army was in a tight spot before Atlanta: “Any thing you can safely do to let soldiers, or any part of them, go home to vote at the State election, will be greatly in point.” Although Lincoln added that “this is, in no sense, an order,” he was clearly giving a directive, and it was one which Sherman promptly obeyed. The Republicans carried the Northwest by narrow majorities. In Pennsylvania, too, the Democrats were threatening, and it was found possible to furlough several thousands from Grant’s army before Richmond. Not all soldiers were Republicans, to be sure—but Democratic soldiers found it strangely difficult to secure furloughs.
In 1864 a number of Northern states permitted their soldiers to vote in the field. Republican canvassers were afforded every facility for getting to the front, but Democratic politicians were often harassed by long delays in Washington. (Why the North Won the Civil War, pp. 89-91)
Donald states that most Northern citizens supported the Union cause and either didn’t know or didn’t care “that freedom of the press was abridged or that arbitrary arrests were numerous.” Saying that “most” Northern citizens felt this way might be a bit of an overstatement, since Lincoln’s opponent in the 1864 election, George McClellan, received 41 percent of the vote, in spite of everything the Republicans did to try to keep McClellan supporters from going to the polls. In any case, Donald correctly observes that “the test of civil liberties is not the freedom of the majority but that of the dissenter,” and that “in the Confederacy the dissenter retained his democratic rights down to Appomattox” (Why the North Won the Civil War, p. 89). Indeed, Donald argues that the real "weakness" of the Confederacy was that "the Southern people insisted upon retaining their democratic liberties in wartime" (Why the North Won the Civil War, p. 92).
12. Even though it was being invaded and ravaged, the Confederacy showed more respect for private property and limited government than did the federal government. Critics unfairly claim that the CSA became a highly centralized, micromanaging state, contrary to the doctrines of states' rights and limited government. For one thing, this is hardly a fair argument to begin with, since the Confederacy wouldn't have had to take any centralizing measures if it hadn't been invaded and ravaged. Furthermore, the federal government became highly centralized during the war and engaged in just as much micromanaging as did the Confederate government, if not more.
Moreover, the degree of CSA centralization has been somewhat misrepresented by critics. McPherson notes that while Republicans in the U.S. Congress gave Lincoln the power to seize all railroads at his discretion and that it established a bureau to build and manage railroads, the Confederate government “did not achieve similar control over southern railroads until May 1863 and thereafter rarely exercised this power” (The Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 514-515). In fact, the Confederate Congress did not mandate strict wartime, emergency control over railroads, telegraph lines, and water transportation until February 1865 (Hattaway and Beringer, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, p. 355).
Critics point out that the Confederate government resorted to impressment to support the war effort. But so did the federal government. When Confederate officials impressed goods, each impressing agent had to show written authority and had to issue the owner of the goods a certificate indicating the value of the goods that were being impressed.
In addition, when the Georgia supreme court ruled that major sections of the 1863 Act to Regulate Impressments were invalid within the state, the Confederate government respected the decision. Marshall DeRosa, a professor of political science, observes that the Confederate government's response to the Georgia supreme court's ruling was "conciliatory" and that there was no support in the Confederate Congress for any legislation that would force the state to comply with the entire impressment act (The Confederate Constitution of 1861: An Inquiry Into American Constitutionalism, University of Missouri Press, 1991, pp. 117-119).
13. One of the first things the Confederacy did after it was formed was to send a peace delegation to Washington, D.C., in an effort to establish friendly relations with the federal government. Lincoln wouldn’t even meet with the delegation, not even informally.
14. The Confederacy publicly offered to pay the federal government the Southern states’ share of the national debt, to pay compensation for all federal installations in the South, and to allow Northern ships free use of the Mississippi River. The Confederacy also hoped to establish good, extensive trade relations with the United States. But Lincoln refused to even consider any Confederate peace proposals.
15. The Confederacy was created by delegates from the seven states of the Deep South soon after those states seceded from the Union. A provisional constitution was produced and a president and vice president were selected, subject to the approval of voters several months later. The Deep South states separated from the Union in a peaceful, democratic manner. In fact, they seceded in the same manner in which the U.S. Constitution was ratified, i.e., by state conventions whose delegates were elected by the citizens of their respective states in special elections. Historian James McPherson estimates that about 80 percent of those states’ citizens supported secession (The Battle Cry of Freedom, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 235).
The Confederacy grew from seven states to eleven states when Lincoln made it clear he was going to launch an invasion to force the seceded states to rejoin the Union. Voters in the Upper South states of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia initially rejected secession by substantial margins. They were willing for their states to remain in the Union as long as Lincoln allowed the Deep South states to leave in peace. However, when Lincoln left no doubt he was going to use force, new votes were held in the Upper South states, and this time the results were strongly in favor of secession. It should be noted that these four states did not secede because of slavery but because they believed it was illegal and immoral to maintain the Union by violence.
16. Anti-Semitism was more of a problem in the North than it was in the South (Hattaway and Beringer, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, p. 137). In relation to this, it should be pointed out that the Confederate Secretary of State, Judah Benjamin, was Jewish.
17. Confederate soldiers were among the bravest, most determined soldiers in the history of warfare. Even many Union soldiers testified to the courage and fortitude of Confederate soldiers. This is an especially interesting fact because Confederate troops were frequently poorly fed and often suffered from a lack of clothes and shoes. Some Northern citizens who saw Confederate troops in Maryland and Pennsylvania commented on how surprised they were to see that many of those troops wore ragged uniforms and had no shoes. Confederate leaders did all they could to supply their soldiers, but the Confederacy was being blockaded and invaded; so Confederate authorities had a hard time keeping their soldiers properly provisioned. In addition, Confederate forces were often outnumbered by two or three to one. Yet, in spite of these hardships, they fought bravely and tenaciously. One Union officer wrote with amazement that Confederate soldiers fought so courageously even though they were so poorly supplied:
It is beyond all wonder how such men . . . can fight on as they do; that, filthy, sick, hungry, and miserable, they should prove such heroes in fight, is past explanation. (In McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 539-540; see also p. 535)
18. Even when the Confederacy was winning on the battlefield, Southern leaders wanted to end the war and desired peaceful relations with the United States (McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 650; Hudson Strode, Jefferson Davis: Confederate President, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1959, pp. 299-302). The South hoped that, if nothing else, England and France would prevail upon the Lincoln Administration to end the war or that Lincoln would eventually grow tired of Union casualties and would decide to allow the Confederacy to exist in peace. Jefferson Davis did not desire to conquer the North. He said repeatedly that the South simply wanted to be allowed to go in peace, and that the Confederacy wanted peaceful relations with the federal government (see, for example, William Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American, New York: Vintage Books, 2000, pp. 379-380). Davis expressed this position many times. For example, he said the following in his proclamation to the people of Maryland in 1862:
First, that the Confederate Government is waging this war solely for self-defense; that it has no design of conquest, or any other purpose than to secure peace and the abandonment by the United States of their pretensions to govern a people who have never been their subjects, and who prefer self-government to a union with them.
Second, that this Government, at the very moment of its inauguration, sent commissioners to Washington to treat for a peaceful adjustment of all differences, but that these commissioners were not received, nor even allowed to communicate the object of their mission; and that, on a subsequent occasion, a communication from the President of the Confederacy to President Lincoln remained without answer, although a reply was promised by General Scott, into whose hands the communication was delivered. . . .
Fourth, that now, at a juncture when our arms have been successful, we restrict ourselves to the same just and moderate demand that we made at the darkest period of our reverses, the simple demand that the people of the United States should cease to war upon us, and permit us to pursue our own path to happiness, while they in peace pursue theirs. (Proclamation of Jefferson Davis to the People of Maryland, September 7, 1862)
When judged fairly and objectively, it must be admitted that the Confederacy was one of the most democratic countries of its day, if not the most democratic country in terms of the rights that its citizens enjoyed. The Confederacy was more democratic than many countries in our day.
What about the fact that the Confederate States of America permitted slavery? How could the Confederacy have been a democratic country when it allowed slavery? This is a fair question. On the one hand, the Confederate Constitution established a marvelously democratic government for its citizens, but on the other hand it allowed its citizens to own slaves if they wanted to do so (though, as mentioned earlier, only about 25 percent of Southern citizens were slaveholders). Similarly, how could the United States of America have been a democratic country when it allowed slavery and when some New England states made huge profits from the overseas slave trade? This, too, is a fair question. The U.S. Constitution was the most democratic document of its era for the citizens who lived under it, but that document also protected slavery, guaranteed the continuation of the overseas slave trade for twenty years, and mandated the return of runaway slaves. Most Northern states that abolished slavery did so very gradually, so gradually that slaves were held in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island into the 1840s. When the Civil War began, there were over 400,000 slaves in Union states, and most of those slaves weren’t freed until several months after the war ended. Nevertheless, historians who are willing to fairly judge the United States as it was from 1789 to1860 generally conclude that America, for all her faults, was the most democratic nation in the world at the time. I would say much the same thing about the Confederacy.
http://www.factasy.com/civil_war/2008/02/29/some_surprising_facts_abut_confederacy

Black Confederate soldiers overlooked during Black History Month

2009-02-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ 2/27/5 EDWARD A. BARDILL
Posted on Saturday, February 26, 2005 11:53:22 PM by SmithL
The month of February has begun and so has the celebration of Black History Month in the nation, schools and communities. Throughout this time, many noteworthy leaders, citizens, scientists and soldiers who fought in wars and conflicts will be recognized.
However, there is one group of African Americans who will receive no recognition again this year during this month. I am speaking of black Confederates who served and fought to defend their homeland from what they believed to be an armed invasion.
The South was home to some 4 million who lived there and had roots going back more than 200 years. Deep devotion, love of homeland and strong Christian faith joined black with white Confederate soldiers in defense of their homes and families.
A conservative estimate is that between 50,000 to 60,000 served in the Confederate units. Both slave and free black soldiers served as cooks, musicians and even combatants. The first northern officer killed in battle was Maj. Theodore Winthrop, who was shot by a black sniper of the Wythe Rifles of Hampton, Va.
The most amazing fact concerning black Confederates is that they served within the Confederate units alongside their white brothers in arms while their Union counterparts were kept separate in all-black units led by white officers (as portrayed in the movie "Glory").
In fact, it was not until 1950 that the U.S. military integrated its units at the start of the Korean War.
On Jan. 22, H.K. Edgerton, a former head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in North Carolina, was the keynote speaker for the annual Sons of Confederate Veterans dinner in Knoxville. Although his scheduled appearance to speak on southern heritage and black Confederates was published a week ahead in the local paper, not one representative of any established mainstream news media was present to record his comments.
Edgerton was the second African American to speak on black Confederates and other historical facts in the last five years whose comments were only heard by the attendees and went unpublished. Dr. Leonard Haynes, a professor at Southern University, stated: "When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South."
For those who have been taught or misled to think the people in the northern cities were more tolerant and supportive of their black population, look up the Draft Riots of 1863.
Maj. Arthur Fremantle of the British Army was an observer for Queen Victoria and spent three months with the Army of Northern Virginia and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Freemantle kept a diary and had arrived in New York City just in time to personally observe and witness the worst riots in our history.
He included in his diary seeing gangs of white men chasing, beating and even hanging blacks. Some black men and women were even pulled from their homes and beaten. Police and militias were called out, and more than 1,200 people lost their lives during the three days of riots.
The rioters resented free blacks being excluded from the draft since they were not considered citizens. The motion picture "Gangs of New York" shows some of this violence.
In closing, I have written this article in the hope that it will ignite people to research, read, study and discover the true historical facts. For me to remain silent as an American citizen, Southerner, retired soldier and living historian and ignore the service and sacrifices of these forgotten soldiers is unacceptable.
I quote the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who said: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

TEDDY ROOSEVELT SPEAKS OUT

2009-02-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

Compiled by Annette Elam Wetzel

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt and his wife made a tour of the Southern states. This tour was reported in an article entitled "Visit of the President to the South," which appeared in The Confederate Veteran, Volume XIII, No. 9, November, 1905, pp. 488-490.
It was a "different era" in 1905. President Roosevelt's remarks were very "politically correct" for his day. He, however, managed to pay tribute to all of his heritage. All that is required of our President, or any other politician, today is a simple acknowledgement that all Americans have a right to be proud of their heritage.
Speaking at the State Capitol, Richmond, Virginia, 1905 [p. 488]: "Last Memorial Day I spoke in Brooklyn at the unveiling of the statue of a Northern general, under the auspices of the Grand Army of the Republic, and that great audience cheered every allusion to the valor and self-devotion of the men who followed Lee as heartily as they cheered every allusion to the valor and devotion of the men who followed Grant.....
"The proud self-sacrifice, the resolute and daring courage, the high and steadfast devotion to the right as each man saw it, whether Northerner or Southerner - these qualities render all Americans forever the debtors of those who in the dark days from 1861-1865 proved their truth by their endeavor. Here around Richmond, here in your own State, there lies battlefield after battlefield, rendered forever memorable by the men who counted death as but a little thing when weighted in the balance against doing their duty as it was given them to see it......"
Speaking at the welcome banquet, Richmond, Virginia, 1905 [pp. 488-489]: "Coming today by the statue of Stonewall Jackson, in the city of Lee, I felt what a privilege it is that I, as an American, have in claiming that you yourselves have no more right of kinship in Lee and Jackson than I have.
"There was an uncle of mine, now dead, my mother's brother, who has always been, among all the men I have ever met, the man who it seemed to me came nearest to typifying in the flesh that most beautiful of all characters in fiction, Thackeray's Col. Newcome - my uncle, James Dunwoody Bulloch, an admiral in the Confederate Navy....."
Speaking at the R. E. Lee Camp, Soldiers' Home, Richmond, Virginia, 1905 [p. 489]: "...I honor the State of Virginia because she has taken charge of the Confederate veterans in their old age. All Americans must ever show high honor to the men of the War Between the States, whether they wore the blue or whether they wore the gray, so long as they did their duty as the light was given them to see their duty with all of the strength that was in them. Here I greet you in the shadow of the statue of your commander, Gen. Robert E. Lee. You and he left us memories which are part of the memories bequeathed to the entire country by all the Americans who fought in the War between the States."
Speaking in Charlotte, North Carolina,, 1905 [p. 489]: "As I got off the train here I was greeted by one citizen of North Carolina...whose greeting pleased and touched me more than the greeting of any man could have touched me. I was greeted by the widow of Stonewall Jackson."
Speaking in Roswell, GA, 1905 [pp. 489-490]: "It has been my great fortune to have the right to claim that my blood is half Southern and half Northern, and I would deny the right of any man here to feel a greater pride in the deeds of every Southern man than I feel. Of the children, the brothers and sisters of my mother who were born and brought up in that house on the hill there, my two uncles afterwards entered the Confederate service and served in the Confederate navy. One, the youngest man....my uncle, Irving Bulloch....James Dunwoody Bulloch was an admiral in the Confederate service.....Men and women, don't you think that I have the ancestral right to claim a proud kinship with those who showed their devotion to duty as they saw they duty, whether they wore the gray of whether they wore the blue? All Americans who are worthy of the name feel an equal pride in the valor of those who fought on one side or the other, provided only that each did with all his might and soul and strength and mind his duty as it was given him to see his duty."
Mobile, Alabama, 1905 [p. 490]: "While there was a great demonstration in every city visited, it seemed to be in Mobile that the happiest association occurred. This is perhaps because of the fact that the President's proudest Southern association was through two brothers of his mother who performed service for the Confederacy under Admiral Rafael Semmes on the famous Alabama. The guard of honor on the parade was by members of the Raphael Semmes Camp, United Confederate Veterans. Hon. Oliver J. Semmes, son of the great Confederate admiral, presented to the President and pinned upon the lapel of his coat a handsome souvenir badge, as the gift of the people of Mobile.....The President thanked the people for their magnificent reception, and spoke a special word of greeting to the Confederate veterans who formed a portion of his escort. He referred to the fact that one of his uncles was on the Alabama during the War Between the States. The last time he came through Alabama he said he was going with his own regiment to the Spanish war, and in that regiment were more men whose fathers wore the gray than those who wore the blue....."
[Annette Elam Wetzel is a member of Richmond-Stonewall Jackson Chapter #1705, based in Richmond, Virginia]

http://vaudc.org/roosevelt.html

President Eisenhower Letter-Honor Robert E. Lee

2009-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Eisenhower letter regarding Robert E. Lee
President Dwight Eisenhower wrote the following letter in response to one he received dated August 1, 1960, from Leon W. Scott, a dentist in New Rochelle, New York. Scott’s letter reads:
“Dear Mr. President:
“At the Republican Convention I heard you mention that you have the pictures of four (4) great Americans in your office, and that included in these is a picture of Robert E. Lee.
“I do not understand how any American can include Robert E. Lee as a person to be emulated, and why the President of the United States of America should do so is certainly beyond me.
“The most outstanding thing that Robert E. Lee did was to devote his best efforts to the destruction of the United States Government, and I am sure that you do not say that a person who tries to destroy our Government is worthy of being hailed as one of our heroes.
“Will you please tell me just why you hold him in such high esteem?
Sincerely yours,
“Leon W. Scott”

Eisenhower's response, written on White House letterhead on August 9, 1960 reads as follows:
August 9, 1960

Dear Dr. Scott:
Respecting your August 1 inquiry calling attention to my often expressed admiration for General Robert E. Lee, I would say, first, that we need to understand that at the time of the War Between the States the issue of Secession had remained unresolved for more than 70 years. Men of probity, character, public standing and unquestioned loyalty, both North and South, had disagreed over this issue as a matter of principle from the day our Constitution was adopted.
General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.
From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained.
Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.
Sincerely,
Dwight D. Eisenhower

South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford

2009-02-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

By Carmen Dixon
Black Voices
A South Carolina state senator has proposed making mandatory a state holiday honoring Confederate war dead. Sen. Robert Ford, who is black, believes that such a holiday would help improve race relations by inspiring a fuller understanding of history. Here's what's going on:
Ford's bill won initial approval from a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. It would force county and municipal governments to follow the schedule of holidays used by the state, which gives workers 12 paid days off, including May 10th to honor Confederate war dead. Mississippi and Alabama also recognize Confederate Memorial Day.
Years ago, Ford said he pushed a bill to make both that day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day paid holidays. He considered it an effort to help people understand the history of both the civil rights movement and the Confederacy in a state where the Orders of Secession are engraved in marble in the statehouse lobby, portraits of Confederate generals look down on legislators in their chambers and the Confederate flag flies outside.
"Every municipality and every citizen of South Carolina should be, well, forced to respect these two days and learn what they can about those two particular parts of our history," Ford said Tuesday.
I understand Ford's point, but I also think that a Confederate day only matters if people are ready to engage in honest, informed, sometimes heart-pulling dialogue about everything, from secession and states' rights to the gangrene of slavery in our nation's past.
In a state steeped in a segregationist past, "there's no love in this state between black and white basically," he said. That's not apparent at the statehouse, where black and white legislators get along, "but if you go out there in real South Carolina, it's hatred, and I think we can bring our people together."
Lonnie Randolph, president of the state conference of NAACP branches, objected to that reasoning."Here Senator Ford is talking about the importance of race relations by forcing recognition of people who did everything they could to destroy another race -- particularly those that look like I do," Randolph said. "You can't make dishonor honorable. It's impossible."
Ron Dorgay, a Sons of Confederate Veterans member from Elgin, said race relations have moved far from hatred, but he hopes Ford's bill brings more understanding of the state's past."
Even in school systems, they don't teach the correct history," Dorgay said.
Once again, this debate looks like it may all come down to one color: green!
Large and small counties say they'll have put up more cash to cover holidays they don't now recognize, largely for law enforcement and emergency worker overtime, municipal and county association lobbyists said.
Ford says the cost is not the key issue here, and maybe he can convince his colleagues that he's right.
-
See the source article here: http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2009/02/06/black-senator-wants-proposes-confederate-holiday/
Posted by J. Stephen Conn at 6:44

http://www.confederatedigest.com/2009/02/black-senator-proposes-confederate.html

New round of Confederate disputes hits statehouses

2009-02-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

The Dickinson PressPublished Friday, February 06, 2009
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Confederate President Jefferson Davis, branded a traitor in his own country, is memorialized at statehouses across the South. But not in Mississippi, where he lived out his remaining days.
A bill to accept a statue of Davis from the Sons of Confederate Veterans is now the latest skirmish in the long battle over Confederate history, often fought on Southern Capitol lawns and rotundas.
This round takes on a new twist with the election of President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black commander in chief.

RELATED CONTENT
Add a comment “If there ever was a time it would be untimely and inappropriate, it would be now,” said Mississippi Rep. Robert Johnson, a black Democrat from the historic river city of Natchez.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans has been shopping for a home for the Davis statue for over a year. It was first offered to a Civil War history center in Richmond, Va., the former capital of the Confederacy. But the Confederate group later rescinded because the center wasn’t sure where the statue would be placed.
The statue depicts Davis holding the hands of two children — his son and a black slave who was adopted by the Davis family.
Mississippi is one of only a few Southern states that doesn’t have a statue of Davis somewhere on Statehouse grounds, said Larry McCluney of Greenwood, a division commander for the Confederate group.
An Army soldier who fought in the Mexican War, Davis went on to serve as a U.S. senator from Mississippi and played a role in what would become the Smithsonian Institute before he was named president of the seceding states that would become the Confederacy.
“He’s overlooked and misunderstood because of the four years of the Confederacy,” McCluney said.
A fellow Democratic lawmaker from Natchez, Sen. Bob Dearing, who is white, introduced the legislation and said he didn’t consider it controversial.
The chances of the statue finding a home at the Mississippi Capitol are slim. The Senate passed a version of the statue bill that would restore a Confederate monument that already exists at the Old State Capitol, now a museum.
The original proposal could have resulted in Davis’ statue standing near the spot once occupied by a bronze figure of Theodore Bilbo, an unabashed racist governor whose political career was mired in scandal.
Decades ago, Bilbo was a centerpiece in the Capitol’s rotunda. Now it stands in a first-floor committee room where the Legislative Black Caucus often meets. The former U.S. senator’s outstretched arm is occasionally used as a coat and hat rack.
“There’s a poetic irony in keeping him in that committee room,” Johnson said. “The person who would be most upset about Mississippi having the largest delegation of African-American legislators in the country has to sit and watch as we talk about policy.”
Other Southern states will again see legislation this year proposing to remove symbols of their segregated pasts.
In South Carolina, a statue on the Statehouse grounds of Ben “Pitchfork” Tillman — an 1890s governor who was proud of the terror he inflicted lynching blacks — has been targeted by lawmakers. State Rep. Todd Rutherford believes the nation can’t move forward with constant reminders of the past and plans to introduce a bill to remove Tillman’s statue. A similar bill died last year.
“Do I think it stands a chance this year? I doubt it, but it’s not going to stop me. I don’t feel that most people in the General Assembly feel this new era of change is going to come about,” said Rutherford, a black Democrat from Columbia.
At the Georgia Statehouse, there’s a statue of Eugene Talmadge, a three-term Georgia governor whose 1930s and 1940s politics was a mix of racism and pocketbook populism.
Martin Luther King’s portrait hangs inside the Capitol, but black Georgia lawmakers are urging the Legislature to hang pictures of other civil rights activists like Rosa Parks.
“I’m not opposed to showcasing our history, but let’s be holistic. Let’s be inclusive,” said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a black Democrat who introduced the legislation for additional portraits.
Brooks said visitors to Georgia’s Capitol find an “overabundance” of Confederate history and post-Reconstruction and Dixiecrat eras.
“I think America in general is trying to find a way to heal the wounds of the racial divide, but in some of the Deep South states, these states want to go in the opposite direction,” Brooks said.

http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/articles/?id=19941

Lincoln, 16th U.S. president, had Vicksburg ties

2009-02-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

By Gordon Cotton
Published:
Sunday, February 8, 2009 2:16 AM CST
Thursday, Feb. 12, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and this story is concentrated on his connections to Vicksburg and this area.When Abraham Lincoln ran for the presidency in 1860, he got just two votes more in his wife’s Kentucky hometown than he did in Vicksburg, and in the 10-county Bluegrass section of that state he received only 15 votes more than he did in the entire state of Mississippi.So how many votes did he get in Vicksburg and the rest of the state?None. He wasn’t on the ballot. Nationally, with a four-way split in the voting, he became president with the smallest minority ever.Born in Kentucky to Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, he grew up in Indiana and Illinois. He made a trip to the deep South when he was about 19, in 1828, perhaps stopping in Vicksburg when the river town had been incorporated only three years. He might have gotten off the boat, or perhaps he didn’t.Regardless, 33 years later when he was 52 and leader of the Northern states, he realized the military importance of the city on the bluffs and pronounced the possession of Vicksburg as the key to victory. He proved to be correct.Lincoln might not have been on the ballot, but through the national media he was well- known to voters here. Most probably knew only one side of the Illinois politician, for the press was most unkind in accounts and remarks.So antagonistic was one local voter that he offered a reward for the railsplitter: Dr. Richard S. Pryor, who was a pharmacist, deputy sheriff and U S. marshal, placed an ad in the Vicksburg Evening Citizen shortly after the fall of Fort Sumpter, offering $100,000 for the head of Abraham Lincoln, which he wanted to present to Jefferson Davis on July 4, 1861. He probably had nowhere near that much money, but no one misunderstood his feelings.The closest physical connection Lincoln had to Vicksburg was his in-laws. Mary Todd, his wife, was from a well-established Kentucky family, an aristocratic slave-holding household with many relations throughout the South. Mary Todd Lincoln had 11 cousins in Confederate service from South Carolina alone. Two of her brothers were in service to the South, and another was outspokenly pro-Southern. Her favorite sister married a Confederate general. Mrs. Lincoln also had relatives in the Northern army.Some of her close kin, the family of Dr. James Parker, lived in Port Gibson. Parker was her mother’s brother and was married to Mary Jane Milliken from Milliken’s Bend in Madison Parish. They had a son, John Milliken Parker, who was Mrs. Lincoln’s first cousin. Dr. Parker died just before the war began.Much has been written about Robert E. Lee agonizing over whether to stay with the Union or go with the secessionists. He wasn’t the only one — there were numerous others, including Benjamin Hardin Helm. Lincoln summoned Helm, a career soldier, to the White House and offered him a position in the Union Army. He told the president that though they opposed one another politically, that Lincoln had always been kind and generous to him. Helm would make up his mind and let him know.Helm then went to Virginia where he called on Robert E. Lee, who told him that he had just resigned his commission in the Union Army because, “I cannot strike at my own people.” Lee also told Helm he had no doubt of Lincoln’s good intentions, “but he cannot control the elements. There must be a great war.”When Helm told Lee that Lincoln was his brother-in-law, Lee advised, “Do what your conscience and honor bid.” Soon, Helm was wearing Confederate gray, serving with another family kinsman, Gen. John C. Breckinridge, related to Mary Lincoln through marriage.Helm commanded troops at Vicksburg during the bombardment of 1862. His brother-in-law, Alexander Todd, was a soldier here during that same time. He was Mrs. Lincoln’s brother and was later killed at Baton Rouge. The next year, her brother David H. Todd was among Pemberton’s army who were paroled after the siege of Vicksburg. A New Orleans paper described him as “tall, fat, and savage against the Yankees.” It isn’t known whether or not his captors were aware of his sister in Washington.In the fall of 1864, a number of people from Port Gibson were arrested by Union occupation troops, the only charges stating, “To be held as hostages,” on order of Gen. Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana. Of the approximately 20 prisoners most were male, a few were female, and one was a 12-year-old boy.And one was Mrs. Lincoln’s first cousin, John Milliken Parker, who had served in the Confederate Army. There was no hearing, no trial and after three months the prisoners were released. In later years, Parker’s son became governor of Louisiana and vice presidential candidate on a ticket with Theodore Roosevelt.A year after Vicksburg’s surrender, Lincoln ran for re-election, easily defeating Gen. George McClellan. Occupation troops, carpetbaggers and scalawags held celebrations wherever they were in control in the South. On Nov. 14, in Vicksburg, the Union commander ordered a national salute at 5 o’clock. A Union army chaplain, R.L. Howard, described the moment and labeled it “republican thunder” as 420 cannons roared in unison.The official celebration was staged Nov. 30 by the Union League at Crawford Street Methodist Church, of which the Union had taken control. The building was filled to capacity and the army band played “Yankee Doodle” before the Rev. Aiston Mygatt, a New York-born Methodist preacher and one of the most despised men locally, told of the trials and tribulations of Lincoln’s men in Vicksburg.There were other celebrations, private ones, including one at the headquarters of Col. Osband, commander of the colored troops. Two young officers, lifelong friends, had a bit too much to drink, bragged about their personal marksmanship, and decided to test the matter a la William Tell, but with a silver goblet rather than an apple. The one with the goblet on his head was leaning against the wall and decided to stand up straight just as his friend pulled the trigger. His funeral for that era was expensive — $65.A month or so later, on Christmas Day 1864, some Vicksburg ladies expressed how they felt about Lincoln. When the guest priest at Christ Church, on order of Gen. James B. McPherson, prayed for Lincoln instead of Jefferson Davis, they walked out of church — and were banished from Vicksburg.When the president was murdered in April 1865, Confederate truce officials in Vicksburg fled the city for Bovina, fearing for their lives. Union troops and their friends held an indignation meeting at the courthouse where resolutions of sympathy and regret were passed concerning the tragedy.The event divided families, Dr. George K. Birchett chaired the meeting. But his son, a Confederate officer, was described as “too disgusted for expressions” at the public actions of his father. Incidentally, Dr. Birchett’s brother-in-law was Dr. Pryor, the man who had offered a reward for Lincoln’s head in 1861.Following the war, the carpetbagger legislature changed the name of Davis County back to Jones, which it had been originally, and created a new county named Lincoln. His birthday, however, is not a state holiday.

Gordon Cotton is an author and historian who lives in Vicksburg.
http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2009/02/08/features/doc498c814feb2f4100422312.txt

Court sides with Missouri school in rebel flag dispute

2009-02-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

By Jim Salter
ASSOCIATED PRESS
01/30/2009
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A Missouri school district had the right to suspend a student who wore a baseball cap depicting the Confederate flag, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.The ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said schools may restrict First Amendment free-speech rights "in certain limited circumstances."Bryce Archambo was a 14-year-old freshman when he was suspended from Farmington High School in September 2006, after wearing a baseball cap depicting the Confederate flag with the words, "C.S.A. Rebel Pride, 1861." A day later, he was sent home again, this time after wearing a T-shirt and belt buckle depicting the rebel flag.Archambo's family pulled him from school, began home-schooling him, and filed suit, claiming his right to free speech was violated. A district court ruling in 2007 sided with the school district, and a three-judge panel of the appeals court affirmed the lower court ruling."I just see it as a ruling for school boards and public school educators to be able to take proactive steps in prevention of potential violence," Farmington Superintendent W.L. Sanders said.Archambo's attorney, Robert Herman, said he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court."It's a sad day when a court rules someone's opinion is not protected because it offends other people," Herman said. "The essence of this ruling is Bryce can be punished because he expressed an opinion others found offensive."The suspension occurred during a time of heightened racial tension at the high school in Farmington, a community of 17,000 residents about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.Court records show that in one case, a white Farmington student allegedly urinated on a black student while saying, "That is what black people deserve." The black student withdrew from the district.In another instance, white students, one with a baseball bat, showed up at a black student's home. When the black student's mother intervened, she was struck in the eye. Later, people drove around the home shouting racial slurs and threatening to burn down the house. The black student withdrew from school soon after that, and the family moved away.The court also cited a confrontation that occurred during a basketball game when two Farmington players who allegedly used racial slurs against two black players from nearby Festus. The schools no longer compete against each other.Farmington has a dress code stating that clothing "that materially disrupts the education environment will be prohibited." Sanders banned clothing depicting the Confederate flag.Archambo has argued that he wore the battle flag clothing not as a racial statement, but as a symbol of pride in his Southern heritage. The courts ruled that was irrelevant."Based on the substantial race-related events occurring both at the school and in the community, some of which involved the Confederate flag, we hold that the District's ban was constitutionally permissible," the appeals court ruling stated.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/639E2469553715CB8625754E0077ECA5?OpenDocument

Remembering George Pickett of Pickett's Charge Fame.

2009-02-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

With January coming to a close I noticed that there are a lot of famous Confederate generals' birthdays in January. James Longstreet is on the 8th, Robert E. Lee on the 19th and "Stonewall" Jackson is on the 21st. One famous, or infamous, Confederate general's birthday comes near the end of the month, appropriately, and that's good ole George Pickett of Pickett's charge fame.Born in Richmond, VA, January 28, 1825, Pickett was the first of eight kids. It seems as if he were fated to be either first or last his whole life.At the age of 17 he was appointed to the United States Military Academy by Illinois Congressman John T. Stuart, a friend of Pickett's uncle and a law partner of Abraham Lincoln. Pickett ended up as the class goat, graduating last out of 59 students in 1846. His classmates included Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, A. P. Hill and George B. McClellan.Fame smiled on Pickett during the Mexican-American war. The then second lieutenant became a national celebrity during the Battle of Chapultepec when he took the American flag from a wounded James Longstreet, the man who would be his Corp commander at Gettysburg, and was the first to reach the parapet where he waved the flag over the fort. An image something like the soldiers raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima during WW II.Little things always seemed to get George in trouble in a big way. You wouldn't thing a farmer shooting a pig would be too big of a deal but with Pickett involved it almost started a war with England.The territorial dispute, nicknamed the "Pig War" started in 1859, when Pickett and a garrison of 68 men on San Juan Island stood up to a British force of three warships and 1000 men after an American farmer had killed a pig belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company in area the farmer claimed was in the United States.Pickett was quoted as saying, "We'll make a Bunker Hill of it" which may show why he finished last at West Point, the British won at Bunker Hill in spite of the Colonial's impressive defensive efforts. Fortunatly President James Buchanan dispatched Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott to negotiate a settlement between the parties and no shots were ever fired.When the Civil War started Pickett left the army to join with his state, Virginia, along with fellow Virginians R.E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson.During the "Seven Days" campaign Pickett was knocked from his horse by a bullett at Gaines Mill and was out of action until September of 1862, missing the battle at Antietam.Pickett was given command of a two-brigade division in the corps commanded by Maj. Gen. James Longstreet, and was promoted to major general on October 10. His division, however, saw little or no action.During the battle of Fredericksburg Pickett's division was in the middle of Lee's two corps, the only place not attacked by the Union Army. Longstreet's entire corps was absent from the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, as it was detached on the Suffolk Campaign so again Pickett missed all the action.Gettysburg changed everything, all because Pickett was last to arrived.After two days of hard fighting Gen. Lee planned his attack on the center of the Union line. During the planning of the battle it was noted that Pickett's division had missed the fighting having been at the rear of the Column of the Army of Northern Virginia and was last to arrive and therefore should have the freshest troops. Logic dictates fresh troops should lead the attack and Pickett's fate was decided.Following an artillery barrage to soften up the Union defenses, three divisions stepped off across open fields almost a mile from Cemetery Ridge. Pickett inspired his men by shouting, "Up, Men, and to your posts! Don't forget today that you are from Old Virginia."Pickett's division, with the brigades of Brig. Gens. Lewis A. Armistead, Richard B. Garnett, and James L. Kemper, was on the right flank of the assault. It received punishing artillery fire, and then volleys of massed musket fire as it approached its objective. Armistead's brigade made the farthest progress through the Union lines. Armistead was mortally wounded as he cross wall and attempted to turn a Union cannon at what is now considered the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy" But neither of the other two divisions made comparable progress across the fields and Armistead's success was not reinforced, and most of his men were killed, wounded or captured.Pickett's Charge was a bloodbath, over fifty percent of the men sent across the fields were killed or wounded. Pickett's three brigade commanders and all 13 of his regimental commanders were casualties. Kemper was wounded, and Garnett and Armistead did not survive. Trimble and Pettigrew were the most senior casualties, the former losing a leg and the latter wounded in the hand and dying during the retreat to Virginia. Pickett survivied the battle unscathed thanks to his position well to the rear of his troops, as was command doctrine at the time for division commanders.As soldiers straggled back to the Confederate lines along Seminary Ridge, Lee feared a Union counteroffensive and tried to rally his center, telling returning soldiers that the failure was "all my fault." Pickett was inconsolable. When Lee told Pickett to rally his division for the defense, Pickett allegedly replied, "General Lee, I have no division."While many said that Pickett blamed Lee for what happened at Gettysburg, when asked years later why Pickett's Charge failed, he replied that "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."After the battle at Gettysburg Pickett commanded the Department of Southern Virginia and North Carolina and then served as a division commander in the Defenses of Richmond. Pickett's division was detached in support of Robert E. Lee's operation in the Overland Campaign, just before the Battle of Cold Harbor, in which Pickett's division again occupied the center of the defensive line, a place in which again the main Union attack did not occur.On April 1st, 1865, April Fool's Day, Pickett's division held the key position known as "Five Forks" on the far right of the Confederate line. Robert E. Lee had orded this position held at all hazard as it kept open the last supply lines to Richmond as well as the Army of Northern Virginia's last hope of escape if Richmond falls.The day lived up to its name. Pickett had accuired some fish, Shad, and invited his officers to a Shad bake some two miles away from Five Forks. While the officers dined, Union General Phil Sheridan attacked and over-ran the position, capturing more than 1,000 leaderless Confederate soldiers and threated to cut the last supply lines. Lee pulled out of the Richmond/Petersburg defenses the next day.One of the last things Robert E. Lee did before going to see General Grant was to relive Pickett of his command along with other officers involved in the Five Forks fiasco. There is some question if Pickett ever received that order but Lt. Col. Walter H. Taylor, Lee's chief of staff, wrote that he issued orders for Lee relieving Pickett, along with Maj. Gens. Richard H. Anderson and Bushrod R. Johnson.Reguardless of the order the war was over. You could almost say that in his lifetime Pickett nearly started a war with Britian over a pig and ended the Civil War over fish.Pickett had difficulty seeking amnesty after the Civil War. Former Union officers, including Ulysses S. Grant, supported pardoning Pickett, but it was not until June 23, 1874 that George Pickett received a full pardon by Act of Congress.Pickett died July 30, 1875 in Norfolk, Virginia. Pickett's grave is marked by an elaborate memorial in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Commissioned in 1875 by the Pickett Division Association, a group of veterans from his division, it was originally intended to be placed at Gettysburg National Military Park at the "High Water Mark" of Pickett's Charge, but was built in Richmond when the U.S. War Department refused permission for the battlefield placement.Even in death success at Gettysburg eluded George Pickett.

http://www.timesnews.net/blogger.php?id=10239&postid=7246

Two proud new members

2009-01-29T19:02:00.000-08:00

Great for Desktop Background

2009-01-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

Left click on image opens in new window, Right click on image and Save as desktop background

Stonewall

2009-01-28T21:08:00.000-08:00

Give the Confederate Flag a Break

2009-01-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 26, 2009

The Stars-and-Bars is a diversion in the nation's fight for racial harmonyBy Jamie O'NeilSan Francisco ChronicleOne Sunday morning shortly after the Civil War ended, Robert E. Lee attended church in Richmond, Va. On that morning, a black man shocked the congregation by making his way to the communion rail where he knelt to take communion. In that time, in that place, this simply was not done. The congregation held back. The church took on the silence that descends at moments of extreme discomfort. No one else came forward to join the black man. The minister was clearly embarrassed, unable to decide how to proceed.And then Robert E. Lee, defeated defender of those Southern states newly returned to the larger union, came forward and knelt beside the black man to participate in the key sacrament of his faith. Following Lee's example, other members of the congregation slowly began to make their way toward the communion rail to kneel together with a former slave and their former military commander.Two rare acts of moral courage on a long-ago Sunday morning down in Dixie, one black, one white.I was reminded of this story by a brief skirmish over the Confederate flag that arose at Thursday night's debate among the Democratic presidential candidates in South Carolina. It wasn't the first time. Back during the 2004 Democratic presidential primary when former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said he wanted to reach out to American Southerners who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag stickers on their bumpers. He caught hell for saying so. Al Sharpton, whose wit and passion are often admirable, said: "If I were to say that I wanted to be the candidate for guys with swastikas, I would be asked to leave the race." It was a disingenuous remark by a man who sometimes slips back into the rhetoric of automatic outrage.Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt chimed in, too, taking his own lick at the front-runner. "I will be," he said, "the candidate for guys with American flags in their pickup trucks." The Democratic Party, according to some, no longer has room for poor white trash, or for those who fly a flag Sharpton would equate with the swastika.Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were once more in full moral dudgeon this month, fulminating about the impossibly overwrought Don Imus affair, a national upheaval of automatic outrage of the kind we seem programmed to experience about three times a year. I won't bother repeating the words Imus uttered that got him fired and got everyone else all fired up, but suffice it to say, those words -- as offensive as they were -- are surely no worse than stuff routinely flowing through the talk radio sewer, or being blasted from booming automobile speakers playing rap and hip-hop to thoughtless youth.Imus got busted for trying to be hip. Hipness, especially for a man of Imus' vintage, often originated in the black community. For nearly a century now, the language that determines what's hip, slick and cool comes from the 'hood (case in point), and Imus was tapping into that, as he has done for years, trying to look cool by wrapping his thin lips around language that was, most demonstrably, not his own.And yes, he also has been known to wink and nod at those in his audience he knew were racists because ignorance is part of the demographic of any drive-time blatherfest. But the hypocrisy attendant to his condemnation was the real story there, as people crowded onto the national stage to proclaim their moral superiority, flash their creds as defenders of tolerance, and throw around the B.S. we always seem to trot out when one of these episodes snatches the media's wandering attention -- all the "healing" and "dialogue" stuff that must spin through the cycle before we load up new dirty laundry for its little tumble.And so it goes, in the words of recently departed Kurt Vonnegut, a wry commentator on human folly in all its guises whose leavening humor and wisdom will be sorely missed in a nation fairly bereft of both qualities. And nowhere is that wisdom and humor needed more than in our bogged-down-in-B.S. attitudes toward race, wherein we continue to countenance unequal schools and a vast disparity in opportunity while arguing about words and old flags.Some of my forebears fought under the Confederate banner that is, once more, causing a tempest in a tea cup as Rudy Giuliani tries to figure out what he thinks about that symbol in the context of his bid to head up the Republican ticket in '08. As a nation, we have bigger fish to fry, but this one keeps flopping back into the boat, and so presidential wannabes all have to kill it and cook it up, and see if their recipe will be swallowed by the pundits and the electorate.Although I had ancestors who fought under the Stars and Bars, I've yet to find one of them who owned slaves. I suppose I could take offense at people who would make my great-great-great uncles into the equivalent of the Nazis that my more modern uncles fought against in Normandy, but I'm inclined to let it go. It's just political grandstanding, and whichever way these political winds blow will have no bearing on the daily lives of Democratic voters, black or white.The vast majority of soldiers who fought for the South owned no slaves, and most of them were fighting not for slavery, but for the principle of state's rights, an issue that is still the focus of much controversy. Between 60,000 and 90,000 black men, both free and slave, also served under the banner of the Stars and Bars.One such soldier, a free black man from Louisiana wrote: "The free colored population love their home, their property, their own slaves and recognize no other country than Louisiana, and are ready to shed their blood for her defense. They have no sympathy for Abolitionism; no love for the North, but they have plenty for Louisiana. They will fight for her in 1861 as they fought in 1814-15."And Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate hero and later founder of the Ku Klux Klan, had both slaves and black freemen serving in units under his command. Of them, he wrote: "These boys stayed with me ... and better Confederates did not live." Nazis, all, those boys.By our standards, black Confederates were misguided, or scoundrels, or the victims of coercion, but there they are, historically, southerners and Americans, too, people of color, most of them poor, who fought beneath that much-hated banner.And, it should be remembered that the Union flag, the Stars and Stripes, flew over the entire nation before 1861, and that flag, too, symbolized a slave-holding nation. That flag, plus a few stars, is the flag we still salute at ball games and at parades.Other flags throughout the world are likewise sullied with histories of slavery. The first slaves in the Americas were offloaded from ships that flew the Union Jack, but slave ships also carried Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish and French banners. Slave trading was the basis of various Islamic economies before boundaries were drawn, states established and flags designed, but those countries, too, carry a heritage of slavery, and some, like Somalia and Sudan, still practice it. If flags symbolize all the acts done under them, perhaps all flags should come down because none is without stain.People's sensitivities should be respected, of course, and I'm sure that there are many black people who are affronted by the sight of the Confederate flag. Nonetheless, a recent survey disclosed that most young black people associated the flag with "The Dukes of Hazzard," a cartoonish TV show many of them had grown up with. Such is our national ignorance of history that the flag does not carry much historical significance for young people of either color, most of whom cannot name the century in which the Civil War was fought.Any country music concert you might attend will be festooned with that flag, either in the parking lot, or in the apparel of those attending, whether the group appearing is Alabama, Willie Nelson, Toby Keith or the Dixie Chicks. Does that mean that all those people are professing a belief in the rightness of slavery? Are they all racists?I once saw a young white mother wearing a Stars and Bars blouse at such a concert, escorted there by the black father of their two scampering children. Which member of that couple was missing the point? Which parent was unclear on the concept?Maybe neither. Maybe there has been a paradigm shift since the 1960s. Just check out Montel Williams, Maury Povich or "The Jerry Springer Show" if you want to see where the races are currently coming together most commonly. For those people, the flag doesn't symbolize slavery, but a heritage of defiance, a fierce regional pride, and a thumbing of the nose to those who persist in looking down at people like them with unearned superiority.As it happens, my family lived in a trailer park way back in the piney woods of Florida during part of the time I was growing up. There were some, no doubt, who thought of us as poor white trash. But my parents were lifelong Democrats, hardworking blue collar people, and their adherence to the Democratic Party had everything to do with their knowledge that the interests of working people had always been better tended by Democrats than by Republicans.There was a time when the Democratic Party didn't sneer at people like my parents. Because of that sneering, lots of people like them have left the party over the last 40 years, most voting against their own best interests rather than join forces with people who look down at them. Howard Dean was right when he sought to win them back.Robert E. Lee fought in the interest of a bad cause, but he, too, was an American, as noble as any who has ever drawn breath, or knelt down to pray. The character of a man like Robert E. Lee would put to shame millions of faux patriots who have, since his time, wrapped themselves in the banner he fought against. A man like Robert E. Lee would put to shame a whole lot of self-righteous liberals and dim-witted rappers when it comes to defending human dignity.Though the Confederate flag remains an easy target for politicians looking to take cheap shots, the heritage represented by that flag is far from simple. Though it retains negative power, there surely is not a soul left on the planet who waves that flag in support of slavery. Voters whose ancestors gave their lives under that banner should not be written off by the party that has, historically, best defended their interests.But this discussion will all come around again, in three months or six months, when someone says something that invites us all to feel superior and allows us to engage once more in the ritual of empty rhetoric that is our continuing national dialogue on race.
***
Jaime O'Neill, a retired community college teacher who lives near Chico, is a frequent contributor to Insight. See the original story here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/04/29/INGTUPDSFR1.DTL
Posted by J. Stephen Conn at 6:23 AM 1 comments Links to this post
Labels: American Flag, Black Confederates, Confederate Flag, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Robert E. Lee

History lesson needed in Tennessee

2009-01-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

Saturday, January 24, 2009

When students wear Confederate flag T-shirts to a public school, and if it causes racial tension, that is a sure sign of ignorance and misinformation among both the students and the faculty. It's happened again in Tennessee. With the incident another great teaching opportunity has been lost.Isn't it the mission of schools to teach? And shouldn't they be teaching the truth? Instead of censoring free speech, why don't the schools use such opportunities to educate their pupils concerning the true symbolism of the Confederate flag - Southern heritage, self government, states rights, the original intent of the United States Constitution, and resistance to a tyrannical central government.How sad to see so called educators, who are only government puppets, spreading "politically correct" but erroneous propaganda about the South's embattled emblem. It's sadder still to see them miss another opportunity to teach the true history of the misunderstood and misrepresented Confederate battle flag.
Here's the latest sad story from the Associated Press:
Tenn. students who sued over school ban on Confederate flag clothes won't get another hearing
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A full federal appeals court won't hear a lawsuit by three Tennessee students threatened with suspension if they wore Confederate flag T-shirts.A three-judge panel ruled in August that Blount County, just south of Knoxville, could ban the clothing. On Friday, the judges denied a request for a hearing by the full federal appeals court in Cincinnati.Students Derek Barr and Craig and Chris White argued their free speech rights were violated by the ban on clothes with the flag, which is considered a symbol of racism and intolerance by some and an emblem of Southern heritage by others.
School officials said their ban came after racial tension at William Blount High.There have been a string of similar claims from Texas to South Carolina
since the 1990s.Here's the story from Newsday.com: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-ap-confederate-flag-school,0,3541783.story
Posted by J. Stephen Conn at 7:11 AM
Labels: Confederate Flag, Current Events, Tennessee

http://www.confederatedigest.com/2009/01/tennessee-confederate-students-wont-get.html

Sidesaddle soldiers part of Civil War past

2009-01-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

Many readers of Shades of Gray have said they didn't know women took such an active role in the Civil War. There are actually many documented cases of women dressing as men and taking part in the fighting. I had never heard, however, that there was an entire cavalry company made up exclusively of women. I have to thank a contributor to Southern Heritage News and Views for bringing this special cavalry unit to my attention. During the War Between the States, Rhea County was one of the counties in eastern Tennessee that was the most sympathetic to the cause of the Confederate States of America. Rhea raised seven companies for the Confederate military, compared to just one company for the Union. One of those companies was made up of young women (in their teens and twenties) from prominent Tennessee families, most of whom had fathers or brothers in the Confederate army. This company was the only all-female cavalry unit on either side during the Civil War. Formed in 1862, the company was named the Rhea County Spartans. Until 1863, the Spartans simply visited loved ones in the military and delivered the equivalent of modern-day care packages. When Union troops entered Rhea in 1863, the Spartans may have engaged in some scouting for Confederate forces, though there is no record of specific action. The members of the Spartans were later arrested in April 1865 under orders of a Rhea County Unionist and were forced to march to the Tennessee River. From there they were transported to Chattanooga aboard the USS Chattanooga. Once in Chattanooga, Union officers realized the women were not a threat and ordered them released and returned to Rhea County. They were first required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States government. The Spartans were not an officially recognized unit of the Confederate Army.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_County,_Tennessee

http://www.jessicajamesblog.com/2009/01/sidesaddle-soldiers-part-of-civil-war.html

A Confederate Officer From Pennsylvania, And His Ties To The South

2009-01-28T17:08:00.000-08:00

The American Civil War was a very traumatic time for this country. The idea of Americans purposefully killing other Americans in battle just sends chills up most of our spines. This was true for the ordinary combat soldiers, the officers executing battle plans, or for those fortunate officers who were of administrative importance to the war. Everyone involved was fighting for a cause, the South was highly effective at converting this cause into a determination to fight and win the war. It is possible that those individuals involved in the fighting had a much stronger belief in the cause, since they risked life and limb everyday and every battle. This is found not to be true. Even though the non-combat Confederates did not engage the enemy first hand they too had a direct emotional response to the cause and for defense of the South.
Josiah Gorgas was the Chief Ordinance officer for the Confederacy. Josiah Gorgas was born into a Poor Pennsylvania family on July, 1st, 1818. Once of age Josiah Gorgas enrolled at West Point, where he graduated 6th in his class. His focus was on military ordinance and logistics. He was commissioned to the U.S. Army Ordinance department, where he remained until the Civil War broke out. Gorgas married his wife Amelia Gayle Gorgas while he was stationed in Alabama in 1853. Mrs. Gorgas was the daughter of a prominent Alabama politician and ex-governor named John Gayle. This highly influential family that Josiah Gorgas connects himself too casually persuades him to identify with Southerners and the Southern Cause. Josiah Gorgas feels more at home with his wife’s family than with his own. This may have been in part because Josiah was not home much after going to West Point. He felt disenfranchised from his family once the War broke out.
It is interesting to see how an educated man from the North can just simply change to the Southern vantage point. The transition Josiah Gorgas made from a Northerner to a Southerner is not covered in his journal. He avoids the issue and it is difficult to see why. I believe Josiah Gorgas resented the fact that his family was poor. When Josiah Gorgas was stationed in the South he was a white officer, which put him in the upper class of this highly aristocratic society. I believe Josiah Gorgas enjoyed his social standing in the South as well as the hospitality that came with it. These are characteristics he was not used too in Pennsylvania. It is, however, important to note that Josiah was not an advocate of slavery. Josiah did not view slaves from a pro-slave or abolitionist, he simply went with the status quoi. This simple fact should suggest that he is not a whole hearted Southerner. It is apparent to me that Josiah Gorgas is doing his best to fit in with his wife’s family. Josiah Gorgas was a Confederate volunteer, who left the Union army for the opportunity to be apart of a new nation. It is amazing to see a Northerner become a Southerner in such a short time span. It was only eight years from the time Josiah Gorgas met his wife to the start of the War. There must have been a very close relation for Josiah Gorgas to his wife’s family; therefore he felt a part of their family rather than his own in Pennsylvania.
When the War broke out Josiah Gorgas was torn between his true family and his new found one in the South. Mrs. Gorgas and her family had a strong connection to Josiah and their purpose must have called out to him. Amelia Gayle Gorgas’s father, the Alabama politician, was highly influential in this decision. In order to keep his daughter in the South he contacted Jefferson Davis, whom he knew well through his political channels. Jefferson Davis contacted Josiah Gorgas and offered Josiah a position on the Ordinance staff for the newly forming Confederacy. Gorgas first declined the offer. Shortly after the Confederacy offered him the Chief Ordinance officer job and he took the position. He was not excited about his decision; however Josiah Gorgas was on poor terms with his commanding officers in the Union and wanted to get away from them.
Josiah Gorgas felt a call of duty from the South, and his wife’s family. Since Josiah Gorgas is now a Southerner he feels that it is important to defend his honor by joining the Confederacy. Gorgas knows that he is destined to fight for the Confederacy and in doing so will sever all ties with his family. The severance is clear when he writes, “Days appear like weeks, and the last day above entered confounds itself with my early life” (Gorgas 1). This is stated by McPherson, “Among Confederates the emphasis on honor occurred most often in the letters of upper-class soldiers and officers” (24). It is difficult to convert many of McPherson’s arguments to accommodate Josiah Gorgas because he is an Ordinance Officer and not involved in the actual fighting. Josiah Gorgas does not present first hand battle experiences, however he does reflect an overall picture of how the Confederates are doing. According to McPherson most soldiers during the Civil War were anxious for the first fight. This anxiousness is presented when he writes, “Rebel and Yankee alike, they clamored for a chance to see the elephant” (McPherson 30). Josiah Gorgas does not show enthusiasm for his personal experiences; however he does seem to feel the War will go in favor on the Confederacy in the early stages. This enthusiasm is presented when Gorgas writes about General Magruder’s success, “His devotion had an electric effect, and was looked on as a happy omen of the spirit of the War” (1). Gorgas believes that his best service to the Confederacy is in the Ordinance Department, rather than on the battle field, this is how he relates to McPherson’s argument.
Early in his Journal Josiah Gorgas remarks seem upbeat and geared toward success. But as the War progresses the language becomes dimmer and shows the thin state of Confederate morale. One remark made by Josiah Gorgas that shows his loss of enthusiasm is when he discusses the state of Confederate combat soldiers. Gorgas states, “Our poor harrowed and overworked soldiers” in response to the plummeting troop morale in the South late in the War (145). This statement is then followed up by, “They see nothing before them but certain death, and have, I fear, fallen into a sort of hopelessness, and are dispirited” (Gorgas 145). McPherson’s argument is that those soldiers may have wanted to go home, but deep inside knew that it would be worse for them to give-up, than it would for them to keep fighting. If they gave into the fear and tried to quit fighting the ridicule that would accompany that decision would have been worse than the fighting itself. McPherson makes some good points some of which are at least in some ways evident in Josiah Gorgas’s writings. Unfortunately, though most of McPherson’s claims or arguments cannot be examined through Josiah Gorgas’s writings. There gaps become too large to interpolate between the context of McPherson’s combat soldier and Josiah Gorgas the administrative Officer.
Josiah Gorgas was a true administrative genius. He was able to perform miracles in order to keep the Confederacy running. His major feats included Building a national Powder works, and several rolling mills. This was highly important to supply guns and munitions to the front. Most of this industrialization took place in Richmond, which had most of the South’s industry already. Josiah Gorgas’s Ordinance department was the only Confederate supply department able to meet almost all of the requisitions that were sent from all over the South. He was able to meet those demands by thinking outside the box. He was successful in producing substitute goods when the real thing was not available. This quick thinking and resilient man became an unsung hero for the South, without his wit and know-how the Confederacy may have been defeated once the blockade took full effect. This is what made Josiah Gorgas such an important individual in Confederate history.
Amelia Gayle Gorgas was a very influential part of Josiah’s life. She was the reason he left the Union and became a true Southerner. Gorgas has said publicly that his life revolves around his wife, and that her comfort is what matters. Josiah Gorgas suggests this when he writes, “I am absorbed by the world of my wife” (16). Amelia Gayle Gorgas was a member of a very prominent Alabama family. She proved to be very helpful during the War. She would help the wounded at the hospital in Richmond, and nurse wounded family members back to health. This nursing was what Faust argued was common among Confederate and Union women alike. This desire to help is explained with, “The death of trained nurses in the South, the crying need for medical care, and the energy of women seeking a means to make a contribution to the Cause combined in the early months of war to encourage exceptional and privileged southern women to improvise solutions to the suffering they could not, as women, bear to ignore” (Faust 95). This is supported by Josiah Gorgas when he refers to his wife, “Mamma [Mrs. Gorgas] has been untiring in aiding, visiting and relieving these poor sufferers and has fatigued herself very much” (26). Josiah Gorgas later writes, “Mamma went to the hospital last evening and stayed some hours assisting the poor fellows” (37). These statements seem to support some of the view that Drew Faust presents to us in Mothers of Invention. Mrs. Gorgas seems to cope with the War effort as well as possible, she misses her husband when he is gone, but since he is not at the front she does get to see him periodically. The fact that Josiah Gorgas is not totally out of the picture allows her to keep much of her strength and focus.
A key issue to consider is how viable is this source, Josiah Gorgas’s journal. It is considered a primary source since he experienced the Civil War first hand; therefore he could present actual thoughts, feelings, and concepts that we will never be able to duplicate. The fact that we will never be able to replicate the Civil War makes documents like his invaluable. Since Josiah Gorgas was an educated man his account is considered to be an accurate portrayal of his beliefs and opinions of the War. Being a Confederate officer, Josiah Gorgas’s writings are considered more valuable when evaluating the chain of events that occurred throughout the War. Josiah Gorgas mentions almost every major event that took place during the Civil War, and gives the date to which that event occurred. This organized approach also validates his work and shows that he knew what many of the greater themes of the War were.
Josiah Gorgas wrote about many events in his journal, the accounts given by Gorgas all portray some basic strengths and weaknesses. The strengths that Josiah Gorgas’s works enforce are in his ability to organize anything and to place events and situations on a time line for readers to piece together quite easily. This is quite apparent with the date above each entry, and is an event occurred before that date he would mention the date of the occurrence. This would ensure that the reader would be able to place that event before what was happening currently on that date. This juggling of dates and events does not happen very often, which is amazing considering the amount of disarray and constant variation these soldiers lived their lives. They did not know what would happen later that day, let alone later that month or year. This was a time when it was literally imposable to plan or prepare for any event that did not directly concern the War or a battle.This source was not perfect; Josiah Gorgas had many weaknesses in his journal. Josiah Gorgas needed to include more personal information in his journal. There is not enough content about his wife, Amelia Gayle Gorgas, and the rest of the family. Josiah Gorgas did not put much emotion into his journal, it seems a bit too business oriented, rather than showing any feelings for the particular events he writes about. It is hard to visualize yourself in Josiah Gorgas’s shoes. The inability to connect with what he writes is the major drawback of his journal. Much of this was probably due to the War and how if adversely affected everyone who was involved.
Overall the Journal of Josiah Gorgas supports the views presented by Drew Faust and James McPherson. The actions taken by Josiah Gorgas are not exactly what were described by these historians, however if you look at the major themes and the ideology behind Gorgas’s actions it is apparent that the views are very similar. Josiah Gorgas and his wife Amelia Gayle Gorgas are interesting characters with many factors of their lives affected by the War. That is why we focused on individuals involved in the War and why it was important to compare these individuals to the major concepts that were presented throughout our class.
Works CitedAyres, Edward L. IN THE PRESENCE OF MINE ENEMIES, The Civil War In TheHeart Of America 1859-1863. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.
Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of Invention. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Gorgas, Josiah. THE CIVIL WAR DIARY OF GENERAL JOSIAH GORGAS. Ed. Frank E. Vandiver. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1947.
McPherson, James M. For Cause & Comrades, Why Men Fought In The Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

http://essays-free.org/a-confederate-officer-from-pennsylvania-and-his-ties-to-the-south/

Historical information you may like to know

2009-01-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

A bit of trivia you may like.... Lest ye be ignorant, historical information is now given to you. Be grateful. CANNON BALLS It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem.The best storage method devised was to stack them as a square based pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys. Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron would roll right off the monkey. Thus, it was, quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. And all this time, you thought that was just a vulgar expression, didn't you?

Charges Dropped Against SCV Member With Flag In Window

2009-01-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

By Scott C. Boyd(January 2009 Civil War News)
CONCORD, N.C. — How could a hotel participating in a Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) convention have a guest evicted from his room and arrested for displaying a Confederate flag? It happened the evening of July 17, at the Wingate Inn in Concord, N.C., where the SCV was holding its annual national convention (reunion).
It took two court dates before misdemeanor charges of second degree trespass were recently dismissed against the Kentucky member who could have faced a fine and/or community service if found guilty.
SCV events were held at the Cabarrus Arena and Events Center from July 16-20 in Concord, where seven hotels, including the Wingate Inn, offered a group discount rate. The Wingate also hosted some smaller meetings.
Basil D. “Bazz” Childress, vice-president for a community bank in Kentucky and Lieutenant-Commander of the SCV Kentucky Division, was the man arrested.
He checked in to the Wingate on July 16. The next night he was to host his annual “Kentucky Soiree” for an expected 100 or more guests.
Childress said he decorated the walls of his room with flags from his camp, John C. Breckinridge Camp 100 in Lexington. He hung a Confederate flag (a rectangular, or naval jack, version) inside the window, opposite the door, where it picked up the fading rays as the sun set.
While smoking a cigarette outside the non-smoking hotel, Childress said he noticed that the flag in his window could be seen from out front. He hadn’t planned it that way, but he thought it could help guests find their way to the soiree.
Within 30 minutes of hanging the flag, he received a call from a front desk clerk asking him to “display your flags inside the room.”
“I bit my tongue, because the technical response – the literal response to that question — was, ‘Well they all are inside my room,’” Childress said in a phone interview.
Instead, he asked the clerk why she was making this request and she told him “we’ve had some complaints.”
Inquiring about what kind of complaints, the desk clerk told Childress it was a “sensitivity issue.” He said he informed the clerk he would think about her request and hung up.
After that, he guaranteed the guests entering his room that he’d get another call from hotel management. He was right.
General Manager Garrett Jenio phoned Childress about 30 minutes later. Childress said Jenio specifically asked him to take down the flag in the window.
Having paid for his room, Childress said he told Jenio he had a common law right as a renter to the “quiet enjoyment” of his room.
Before he would remove the Confederate flag, Childress said he insisted that Jenio would have to “demonstrate that I’m in violation of my rental agreement,” and he asked to see a copy of the document.
Jenio replied that he did not have to show Childress a copy of the Wingate’s rental agreement for guests. Childress said he countered by saying he would not take down the flag under those circumstances.
Before Jenio hung up, Childress asked him if this situation would exist if the flag in question were the British Union Jack instead of the Confederate flag. Childress remembered Jenio replying, “Probably not.”
A short while later, Joel Griffin, one of the Wingate’s owners, went to Childress’ room. Childress said Griffin declined to shake his hand and told him, “You have a decision to make. You’re either going to take that flag down or I’m going to call the police and have you arrested for criminal trespass.”
Childress said he tried to discuss the “contractual problems” regarding whether he was violating his rental agreement by not taking down the flag. He said Griffin’s reply was, “I’m not getting into a debate with you. You have a choice. Make it now or you’re going to go to jail.”
Characterizing the choice Griffin presented him as unreasonable, Childress said he told Griffin to call the police. Griffin stormed out of the room, as Childress remembered it, returning some 30 minutes later with a Concord Police Department sergeant and two officers.
He said the police explained it was no longer a civil matter concerning the rental agreement, but was now a matter of criminal law. If Griffin wanted to claim Childress was criminally trespassing, the police said they would “have to deal with it.”
In a brief speech in defense of his position, Childress recalled saying: “I don’t see any way out of this matter of principle. I am absolutely finished with putting up with demands that cave in to the cultural Marxist interpretation of our history that requires spitting on the graves of our ancestors who gave birth to this country and hiding them and their symbols away in the name of a false tolerance. A line had to be drawn somewhere.”
An officer took Childress aside and asked how to defuse the situation. Childress explained he thought Griffin’s position was unreasonable. “The [Confederate] flag is plastered over everything we’re wearing and over our cars in the parking lot. So, what is the fundamental problem here vis-à-vis visibility?” Childress asked.
Griffin injected himself into the conversation and Childress told the officer, “I’m done with this silliness. Take me to jail.”
Frank Earnest, past commander of the Virginia Division, who was in Childress’ room when Griffin and the police were there, said in a phone interview, “Griffin’s actions made no logical sense.”
As national SCV Chief of Heritage Defense, he said what happened to Childress was definitely a “heritage violation,” which includes situations when people are mistreated because they display Confederate symbols.
Childress said his room was packed with supporters, many of whom arrived after the Virginia and North Carolina caucuses downstairs adjourned early when word got out about Childress’ situation (see related story).
Among them were lawyer Kirk Lyons of the Southern Legal Resource Center that specializes in freedom-of-speech cases involving display of Confederate symbols and incoming national SCV Commander-in-Chief Chuck McMichael, who said he was “appalled by what happened.”
After Childress made arrangements for his personal belongings to be packed by a friend, the police escorted him to one of their cars. He held out his hands to be handcuffed, and was told he would not be handcuffed.
Childress recalled the officer complimented the SCV people in his hotel room and in the halls, saying they “behaved as perfect ladies and gentlemen this evening, and we appreciate it.” Childress and Earnest likewise later praised the police officers’ professionalism.
After going through the police paperwork, Childress was released and picked up at the station by some friends who were waiting. He stayed at a different hotel for the rest of the convention.
The incident was the first topic discussed at the convention the next day by outgoing national Commander-in-Chief Christopher M. Sullivan. Resolutions were passed to praise Childress for his courage and the Concord Police Department for their professionalism, as well as to establish a legal defense fund. SCV members were urged to boycott all Wingate Inns and other hotels in the Wyndham Hotel Group.
The Wingate Inn charged his credit card for four nights, even though Childress only spent one night there. He had to dispute the charge with his credit card issuer to get a refund for the other three nights.
The inn lost a lot of other money the night Childress was arrested as a large number of SCV convention attendees checked out to protest how Childress was treated, according to Earnest.
At the Sept. 30 court hearing, the prosecutor was granted a continuance until Oct. 28. The prosecutor then asked for another continuance.
Childress said his lawyer, Chris McCartan, objected that this was the second time Griffin failed to appear and that Childress had come all the way from Kentucky. The judge agreed and approved the motion to dismiss the case.
No one connected with Joel Griffin or the Wingate Inn in Concord sent him an apology, according to Childress, who said he is pursuing a civil lawsuit in the matter. Griffin declined to comment for this story and Jenio did not return repeated e-mails and phone calls.
Postscript: The flag in front of Childress’ window came down after the police escorted him out. Inn owner Griffin did not seem to want to be photographed taking it down, said Childress.
John Suttles, Commander of the Purchase Area Brigade in the Kentucky Division, said he took the flag down after Griffin told him he had ancestors who fought under the flag.
“We wanted him to take it down, but after he stated this, I told him I didn't want him to dirty that flag, and I took it down,” reported Suttles. “Then Les Williamson, another Kentuckian, and I folded the flag and retired it from the room.”
http://www.civilwarnews.com/archive/articles/09/scv_010901.htm

Tactics give Union a victory at Vaught’s Hill

2009-01-24T19:06:00.000-08:00

By: MIKE WEST, Managing Editor

Murfreesboro Post
Posted: Sunday, January 11, 2009 8:01 am

Part 1 of a seriesWhen it came to the outcome of the Civil War, the Battle of Vaught’s Hill was not a factor, but the bloody little battle fought near Milton community is brimming with interesting facts.The battle’s outcome showed growing maturity of the Union Army of the Cumberland in the months following Stones River and demonstrated how proper military tactics could be used to defeat a superior Confederate force.It also marked a rare defeat of Confederate Raider John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry. Morgan had bloodied the nose of the Army of the Cumberland on Dec. 7, 1862 at the Battle of Hartsville during the opening of the Stones River Campaign.Greatly outnumbered, Morgan left the battlefield with minimal losses and 1,844 Union prisoners and a wagon train heavily loaded with captured equipment and supplies. Confederate Western Theater commander Joseph E. Johnston described Hartsville as a “brilliant feat” and recommended that Morgan be appointed brigadier general immediately. CSA President Jefferson Davis, visiting the Army of Tennessee at Murfreesboro, promoted Morgan in person on the eve of his wedding.Victory at Hartsville has often been described as Morgan’s wedding present to his wife, Murfreesboro socialite, Mattie Ready.But slightly more than four months later, the tables were turned and a Union brigade managed to defeat Morgan’s famed cavalry division.On March 18, 1863, Col. Albert S. Hall, 105th Ohio Infantry, lead the 2nd Brigade of Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds’ division on a reconnaissance in force of the Milton area.Hall, commanding some 1,300 men with rations for four days, was under orders to “reconnoiter the enemy and strike him, if the opportunity offers.”Hall’s brigade included the 123rd Illinois Infantry, 80th Illinois Infantry, 101st Indiana Infantry, 105th Ohio, one section of the 19th Indiana Battery, and Company A of Stokes’ cavalry. On the night of the 18th, the Union brigade captured Cainsville, taking two prisoners. The following morning Hall took the Statesville Road toward Prosperity Church. At Statesville, Hall was met by a detachment of Rebel cavalry and fought a small skirmish. Light fighting continued toward Liberty as a larger Confederate force began to mass. Hall rested his command at Prosperity Church for two hours.“Becoming entirely satisfied that a large rebel force, under Morgan’s command, was massed in the vicinity, and that I should be attacked by the next day [20th] at the farthest, I determined to choose my own ground for the engagement,” Hall wrote in his official report.At dusk, the Union soldiers moved in the direction of Auburntown with the goal of a position closer to Murfreesboro near Milton. Hall wanted the “high ground,” a classic military strategy predating the Roman Empire.The position, Hall had in mind was a “hillock” known locally as Vaught’s Hill. That’s where he would make his stand.The shape of the commanding hill was perfect for what Hall had in mind – a perimeter defense, which is a position without an exposed flank, consisting of forces deployed along the perimeter of the defended area.Typically, Civil War battles were fought in long battle lines and offenses tried to “flank” the opponent like at Stones River, where the Confederates dislodged the Union’s left flank and folded it up like the blades of a jackknife.It was impossible to “flank” Hall’s perimeter, which was anchored by two cannons from the 19th Indiana Artillery commanded by Capt. S.J. Harris. The cannon fire and volleys from the Indiana and Ohio infantry raked the Confederate columns, which were attacking the left and right side of the hill.“As it was, the terrible raking given it (the Confederate right) by the artillery, and the volley from the Eightieth Illinois which it finally received, quite effectually extinguished its valor and boldness, so that a thin line of skirmishers and part of Blackburn’s little company was all that was necessary to control them thereafter,” Hall reported.With the fighting intensifying on the left, Hall reshuffled his troops, moving the 80th Illinois.Morgan then opened fire on the Union’s center with four cannons and ordered an attack on the rear of the hillock. That attack was repulsed as the fighting became more generalized, but the Union artillery continued to sweep the field, inflicting heavy losses.Morgan continued his artillery barrage.“My line encircling the hillock, inclosing us within 5 acres of space, was entirely surrounded by the enemy, and every reachable spot was showered with shot, shell, grape, and canister,” Hall said.But Union troops were able to hold the high ground.“Artillery was never better worked. Again and again the enemy tried to break our devoted circle, and continued the unequal contest upon me steadily from 11:30 a.m. till 2:15 p.m., when, seeing it was of no avail, he drew off his cavalry to my front, leaving but a small force on my flanks; and, desisting from the attack with small-arms, continued to play his artillery till 4:30 p.m., when he finally withdrew it also,” Hall reported.Hall had sought reinforcements from Murfreesboro and the 4th Michigan Cavalry, commanded by Col. Robert H.G. Minty, was dispatched about 1 p.m., but did not arrive until six hours later prompting Hall to launch an official protest.Meanwhile, John Hunt Morgan, the famous raider, was having troubles of his own.

615-869-0800 online@murfreesboropost.com 630 Broadmor Blvd. Suite 120, P.O. 10008, Murfreesboro, TN 37129

What killed submarine's crew?

2009-01-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090118_What_killed_submarine_s_crew_.html
The Civil War's H.L. Hunley has been recovered, but it's giving up its secrets only grudgingly.
By Bruce Smith
Associated Press
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - It could be one of the nation's oldest cold-case files: What happened to eight Confederate sailors aboard the H.L. Hunley after it became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship?
Their hand-cranked sub rammed a spar with black powder into the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston on a chilly winter night in 1864 but never returned.
Its fate has been the subject of almost 150 years of conjecture and almost a decade of scientific research since the Hunley was raised back in 2000. But the submarine has been agonizingly slow surrendering her secrets.
"She was a mystery when she was built. She was a mystery as to how she looked and how she was constructed for many years and she is still a mystery as to why she didn't come home," said State Sen. Glenn McConnell and chairman of the South Carolina Hunley Commission, which raised the sub and is charged with conserving and displaying it.
Scientists hope the next phase of the conservation, removing the hardened sediment coating the outside of the hull, will provide clues to the mystery.
McConnell, who watched the sub being raised more than eight years ago, thought at the time the mystery would be easily solved.
"We thought it would be very simple . . . something must have happened at the time of the attack," he said. "We would just put those pieces together and know everything about it."
But what seemed so clear then seems as murky now as the sandy bottom where the Hunley rested for 136 years. When the Hunley was raised, the design was different from what scientists expected and there were only eight, not nine, crewmen, as originally thought.
The first phase of work on the Hunley consisted of photographing and studying the outside of the hull. Then several iron hull plates were removed, allowing scientists to enter the crew compartment to remove sediment, human remains and a cache of artifacts.
Thousands of people, many reenactors in period dress, turned out in April 2004 when the crew was buried in what has been called the last Confederate funeral.
With the inside excavated, the outside of the hull will now be cleaned before the sub is put in a chemical bath to remove salts left by years on the ocean floor. The Hunley will eventually be displayed in a new museum in North Charleston.
When the sub was found there was no window in the front conning tower, suggesting it had been shot out, perhaps by Union sharpshooters.
But no glass was found inside the sub and the remains of the captain, Lt. George Dixon, showed no injuries to his skull or body consistent with being shot while looking through the window, McConnell said.
The crew's bodies were found at their duty stations, suggesting there was no emergency resulting in a scramble to get out of the sub. And the controls on the bilge pump were not set to pump water from the crew compartment, suggesting there was no water flooding in.
After the attack both Confederates on shore and Union ships reported seeing a blue light, believed to be the Hunley signaling it had completed its mission.
A lantern with a thick lens that would have shifted the light spectrum and appeared blue from a distance was found in the wreck.
But after the attack, the USS Canandaigua rushed to the aid of the Housatonic, and there is speculation that the light could have come from that ship instead.
Could the Canandaigua have grazed the Hunley, disabling it so the sub couldn't surface? A good look at the hull in the coming months may provide the answer.
Historians also know the Hunley needed to wait for the incoming tide to return to shore.
"Were they waiting down there and miscalculated their oxygen and blacked out?" said McConnell.
Then there is the mystery of Dixon's watch, which stopped at 8:23 p.m. Although times were far from uniform in the Civil War era, the Housatonic was attacked about 20 minutes later, according to federal time, McConnell said.
One theory is the concussion of the attack stopped the watch and knocked out the sailors on the sub. Or the watch simply might have run down and was not noticed in the excitement of the attack. That could have led to a miscalculation of the time they were under water.
Union troops reported seeing the Hunley approaching and the light through the tower window "like dinosaur eyes or a giant porpoise in the water," McConnell said.
If the Hunley crew members miscalculated and surfaced too close to the Housatonic on their final approach, they would not have had enough time to replenish their oxygen before the attack, he said.
The clues now seem to indicate the crew died of anoxia, a lack of oxygen, and didn't drown. "Whatever happened, happened unexpectedly, with no warning," McConnell said

January is "Generals Month"

2009-01-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday, January 17, 2009

January is "Generals Month"

Praise For Lee And JacksonBy Chuck BaldwinJanuary 16, 2007January is often referred to as "Generals Month" as no less than four famous Confederate Generals claimed January as their birth month: James Longstreet (Jan. 8, 1821), Robert E. Lee (Jan. 19, 1807), Thomas Jonathan Jackson (Jan. 21, 1824), and George Pickett (Jan. 28, 1825). Two of these men, Lee and Jackson, are particularly noteworthy. This is especially true, as this year will mark General Lee's two hundredth birthday.Without question, Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson were two of the greatest military leaders of all time. Even more, the Lee and Jackson tandem is regarded by many military historians as having formed perhaps the greatest battlefield duo in the history of warfare. If Jackson had survived the battle of Chancellorsville, it is very possible that the South would have prevailed at Gettysburg and perhaps would even have won the War Between The States.In fact, it was Lord Roberts, commander-in-chief of the British armies in the early Twentieth Century, who said, "In my opinion, Stonewall Jackson was one of the greatest natural military geniuses the world ever saw. I will go even further than that-as a campaigner in the field, he never had a superior. In some respects, I doubt whether he ever had an equal."While the strategies and circumstances of the War Of Northern Aggression can (and will) be debated by professionals and laymen alike, one fact is undeniable: Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson were two of the finest Christian gentlemen this country has ever produced. Both their character and their conduct were beyond reproach.Unlike his northern counterpart, Ulysses S. Grant, General Lee never sanctioned or condoned slavery. Upon inheriting slaves from his deceased father-in-law, Lee immediately freed them. And according to historians, Jackson enjoyed a familial relationship with those few slaves which were in his home. In addition, unlike Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Grant, neither Lee nor Jackson ever spoke disparagingly of the black race.As those who are familiar with history know, General Grant and his wife held personal slaves before and during the War Between The States, and even Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation did not free them. They were not freed until the Thirteenth Amendment was passed after the conclusion of the war. Grant's excuse for not freeing his slaves was that "good help is so hard to come by these days."Furthermore, it is well established that Jackson regularly conducted a Sunday School class for black children. This was a ministry he took very seriously. As a result, he was dearly loved and appreciated by the children and their parents.In addition, both Jackson and Lee emphatically supported the abolition of slavery. In fact, Lee called slavery "a moral and political evil." He also said "the best men in the South" opposed it and welcomed its demise. Jackson said he wished to see "the shackles struck from every slave."To think that Lee and Jackson (and the vast majority of Confederate soldiers) would fight and die to preserve an institution they considered evil and abhorrent is the height of absurdity. It is equally repugnant to impugn and denigrate the memory of these remarkable Christian gentlemen.In fact, after refusing Abraham Lincoln's offer to command the Union Army in 1861, Robert E. Lee wrote to his sister on April 20 of that year to explain his decision. In the letter he wrote, "With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the army and save in defense of my native state, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed . . ."Lee's decision to resign his commission with the Union Army must have been the most difficult decision of his life. Remember that Lee's direct ancestors had fought in America's War For Independence. His father, "Light Horse Harry" Henry Lee, was a Revolutionary War hero, Governor of Virginia, and member of Congress. In addition, members of his family were signatories to the Declaration of Independence.Remember, too, that not only did Robert E. Lee graduate from West Point at the top of his class, he is yet today the only cadet to graduate from that prestigious academy without a single demerit.However, Lee knew that what Lincoln was about to do was both immoral and unconstitutional. As a man of honor and integrity, the only thing Lee could do was that which his father had done: fight for freedom and independence. And that is exactly what he did.Instead of allowing a politically correct culture to sully the memory of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson, all Americans should hold them in a place of highest honor and respect. Anything less is a disservice to history and a disgrace to the principles of truth and integrity.Accordingly, it was more than appropriate that the late President Gerald Ford, on August 5, 1975, signed Senate Joint Resolution 23, "restoring posthumously the long overdue, full rights of citizenship to General Robert E. Lee." According to President Ford, "This legislation corrects a 110-year oversight of American history." He further said, "General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations . . ."The significance of General Lee's (and Thomas Jackson's) life cannot be overvalued. While the character and influence of most of us will barely be remembered two hundred days after our departure, the sterling character of these men has endured for two hundred years. What a shame that so many of America's youth are being robbed of knowing and studying the virtue and integrity of the great General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.(c) Chuck Baldwin

http://beyondbabylon.blogspot.com/2009/01/january-is-generals-month.html

Make way for Gen. John Hunt Morgan

2009-01-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

By: MIKE WEST, Managing Editor
Posted: Sunday, January 18, 2009 6:31 am
Email Print
Gen. John Hunt Morgan It was the famous Confederate Raider John Hunt Morgan who personally directed the attack on Union troops near Milton.“Open ranks! Open ranks for the general,” commanded the staff of one of the most glamorous soldiers of the Civil War.Morgan, receiving word of the Army of Cumberland’s reconnaissance in force in the Auburntown area, moved from McMinnville on the night of March 18, 1863,It was his plan to catch Col. Albert S. Hall, 105th Ohio Infantry, who was leading the 2nd Brigade of Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds’ division, near Auburntown before he reached more defensible terrain outside of Milton.Morgan’s brigade commanders Col. Richard Gano of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry and Col. William Campbell Preston Breckinridge of the 9th Kentucky Cavalry had already moved through the area and had skirmished with the Union troops. He was former U.S. Vice President John C. Breckinridge’s first cousin.Auburntown residents left their homes to witness the troop movements. Women and children cheered the famous general, urging him to attack the Yankees.Ironically, one company of the Union detachments was from the nearby Liberty, Tenn., area. Capt. Joe Blackburn commanded the men as part of DeKalb County native William B. Stokes’ 5th Tennessee Cavalry. Stokes served in the U.S. House of Representatives both before and after the Civil War.Morgan had the Union troops outmanned, but Hall’s men had a considerable lead in the race to the high ground near Milton. Hall chose his battleground well and was able to set up a perimeter defense on a knoll called Vaught’s Hill.At daylight on March 21, both Yankees and Rebels were already on the move.“After daylight one of the scouts returned bringing intelligence that the enemy was moving. Captain Quirk was ordered to move forward with his company and attack the enemy’s rear,” Morgan wrote in his official report of the battle.It was Morgan’s plan that Capt. Thomas Quirk delay Hall’s retreat toward Murfreesboro until the main body of the Confederate forces could arrive. Quirk, an Irishman, was one of Morgan’s most aggressive fighters.Hall deployed skirmishers, but answered Quirk with an artillery barrage while the Union troops continued to move toward Vaught’s Hill.Seeing that the Union artillery was largely unsupported, Morgan sent Breckinridge and Lt. Col. Robert M. Martin in an attempt to capture the two cannons. Hall pulled back his cannons to a position fronted by a cedar brake, which made it difficult for the Confederates to pursue.By then Hall was in his final position atop Vaught’s Hill, and Morgan had no choice but to dismount his cavalry and order them up the hill to attack.“Lieutenant-Colonel Martin, who still occupied his position on the left, was ordered to threaten the right of the enemy. At the same time, I ordered the command under Colonel Gano to move up, dismount and attack the enemy vigorously, immediately in the front. Colonel Breckinridge was ordered to move to the right with his command and attack their extreme left. Captain Quirk, in the meantime, had been ordered to get on the pike immediately in the rear of the enemy, which he did in most satisfactory manner, capturing fifteen or twenty prisoners,” Morgan wrote.The Confederates were putting the squeeze on the outnumbered Union troops when a strange thing happened. Morgan’s men ran out of ammunition, but not before Hall’s troops inflicted heavy damage.Col. Grigsby was wounded in front of his command, and Col. Napier was severely injured while encouraging his Rebels forward.“At the same time the firing from the center of the line nearly ceased; a few scattering shots, now and then, gave evidence that nearly all of the ammunition was exhausted. Two more rounds would have made our victory complete and two thousand Federals would have been the result of the day’s fighting,” Morgan said.Morgan ordered a quick withdrawal back to Milton where he found an ordinance wagon train and four cannons waiting for him. Oops.The Confederates attempted to renew the attack with Quirk taking the point only to be repulsed.Morgan withdrew his men to Liberty with no Union pursuit.Col. Basil Duke, Morgan’s brother-in-law and second in command, commented on the impact of the Battle of Vaught’s Hill in his book, “Morgan’s Cavalry.”“Our loss in this fight was very heavy, especially in officers. The list of wounded officers was large. Captains Sale, Marr, Cooper and Cossett, and a number of other officers were killed. Captain Sale was the third captain killed of Company E, Second Kentucky. Captain Cossett, of the Ninth Tennessee, was under arrest at the time, for charges of which he was acquitted after death. He was killed, fighting with his musket, as a volunteer. General Morgan’s clothing was torn with balls,” Duke wrote.As for losing the battle, Duke offered a few reasons including the fatigue of horses and riders during the long and rapid ride from Auburntown to Milton. Some of horses failed, and men got scattered and separated from the main attacking body.“The scanty supply of ammunition, however, and its failure at the critical moment was the principal cause of the repulse, or rather withdrawal of our troops. All who have given any account of his battle concur in praising the conduct of the combatants. It was fought with the utmost determination and with no flinching on either side,” Duke wrote.There was good reason the Confederates lost so many officers at Milton. The exploits of Lt. Col. Robert Martin at Vaught’s Hill is one example.“Just here Martin performed one of those acts of heroic but useless courage, too common among our officers. When his regiment wavered and commenced to fall back, he halted until he was left along; then at a slow walk rode to the pike, and with his hat off rode slowing out of fire.“He was splendidly mounted, wore in his hat a long black plume, was himself a large and striking figure and I have often thought that it was the handsomest picture of cool and desperate courage I saw in the war,” Duke wrote.Late in the Civil War, that same Robert Martin led a Confederate plot to take the war North by burning select buildings in New York City. The plot was uncovered and Martin fled to Canada, eventually returning to Kentucky where he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the United States.

'The Battle Of Bulls Gap' Reenactment Planned In May

2009-01-22T16:31:00.000-08:00

Source: The Greeneville Sun
Major Civil War Re-enactment,
Living History Planned By Group
East Tennessee Civil War Campaigns, a non-profit organization chartered by the State of Tennessee on Dec. 15, 2008, has announced a partnership with I-81 Motorsports Park for Civil War re-enactments and other living history events.
The inaugural event will is being described as a major Civil War re-enactment of "The Battle of Bulls Gap" that took place in November 1864, a press release said.
The event will take place on May 1-3, on 482 acres of farm land owned and operated by I-81 Motorsports Park. The park is located two miles from Exit 44 on Interstate 81, at Jearoldstown.
Dr. Robert Orr, a local historian, said, "The Battle of Bulls Gap involved a large number of East Tennessee Unionist volunteers who escaped Confederate control and were trained in Kentucky.
"The battle occurred late in the Civil War and reflects the bravery and determination of both armies to control the railroad that connected Virginia with the Confederate South."
Dr. Orr, who helped plan the event, said, "This represents a rare opportunity for people in this region to witness the struggle our ancestors endured right here in our own backyard!"
Bill Ringel, lead coordinator for the inaugural event, said, "The reenacting community is very excited about this opportunity, and the response from participants is overwhelming."
Ringel is a veteran re-enactor, having led and participated in events on a national scale, according to the release.
He was assistant director of the Re-enactment of the Battle of Blue Springs for the past several years, but this fall announced he would be reducing his involvement with that effort.
Ringel had roles in several major movies including "North and South," and most recently, "Freedom," which was produced locally.
He said, "Our partnership with I-81 Motorsports Park Owners will provide the highest quality events in a natural setting reminiscent of the Civil War era in East Tennessee."
Kirk Hayes, owner and operator of I-81 Motorsports Park, said, "We are very excited about expanding the use of our park for living history events.
"East Tennessee Civil War Campaigns' experienced living historians are committed to the highest quality events, and we are pleased to be a partner in historical education that embraces the heritage of East Tennessee."
For more information, contact Carlos Whaley, Chief Executive Officer, East Tennessee Civil War Campaigns. Email: carlos.whaley.sr@etcwc.org, Telephone 423-620-7483, or visit our website: www.etcwc.org

Sons of Confederate Veterans files suit for specialty license plate

2009-01-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

By Sarah Lundy Orlando Sentinel
January 21, 2009
The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants its Florida specialty license plate.The group — composed of descendants of Confederate soldiers — filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court to force the state to approve one designed with Confederate flags.Last year, the group attempted to get lawmakers to pass a bill that would add its plate to the list of dozens of other specialty tags. The organization spent years completing the requirements: a $60,000 application fee, a marketing strategy and a survey with 30,000 motor-vehicle owners who say they intend to buy the tag.
Money raised from the sale of the plate would go toward improving veteran cemeteries, academic grants and scholarships, John Adams, lieutenant commander of the group's Florida division, said last week.A roadblock arose when the House of Representatives Infrastructure Committee chairman refused to bring the bill up for a vote — killing the proposal, according to the lawsuit. No Senate bill was ever sponsored.Lawmakers sent the message that no matter what the group does, the specialty tag might never happen, said the group's attorney, Fred O'Neal.Lawmakers also agreed on a moratorium on new specialty plates until 2011.State Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, who is named in the lawsuit in his role as Senate transportation-committee chairman, said he would like to comment but can't because it's an ongoing legal issue.The group has fought similar battles for "Confederate Heritage" plates in other states with some success, according to the lawsuit.Adams said the state fears how popular the tag could become. "A lot of people want this plate," he said.O'Neal said the issue is similar to getting a parade permit, which often needs approval from a city or county. If a group meets the requirements, city leaders can't deny the permit because they disagree with the message, he said.The group wants the court to compel the state to issue the plate. If not, the group then will suggest the court declare the specialty-plate law unconstitutional.The Orlando Sentinel is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

Confederate Heroes Day in Texas

2009-01-21T21:26:00.000-08:00

I hope the day will never comethat my grandsons will be ashamed to ownthat I was a Confederate Soldier.Pvt. A.V. Handy32nd Texas CavalryRemembering . . .William Paschal Henry (1836-1912)Artificer, 7 Texas Field Battery (Moseley's Co. Light Art'y.)Sergeant, 35 Texas Cavalry (Brown's Regiment)Sergeant, 7 Texas Field Battery (Moseley's Co. Light Art'y.)Joseph Helidorah Nettles (1832-1890)Co. G 4th TX Regt. Hood's BrigadeNettles, Jos. H., sick, sent to rear Sept. 17, 1862 (Antietam), duty with CSA Engineer Corps, June 1863, wounded Gettysburg (July 2, 1863) wounded (leg) (Wilderness) (May 6, 1864). Nothing further is given.Samuel Houston Sharp (1839-1885)Capt. Nunn's Company of CavalryConfederate Hero's DaySaturday, January 19, 1931Memorial Day (May 30) started soon after the Civil War ended in 1865. In the South many states also observe another Memorial Day called Confederate Memorial Day in memory of the soldiers who fought in the Confederate Army during the War Between the States. In Texas, Confederate Hero's Day is observed each year on the 19th day of January.
House Bill 126, 42nd Legislature, Regular Session. Chapter 8. Approved and effective 30 Jan 1931 as Robert E. Lee's Birthday. Senate Bill 60, 63rd Legislature, Regular Session. Chapter 221. Approved 1 Jun 1973 and effective 27 Aug 1973 as Confederate Heroes Day. This bill deleted June 3rd as a holiday for Jefferson Davis' birthday and combined the two into Confederate Heroes Day.
Why do we remember?Written/edited by James Dark of Arlington, TexasWe have a duty to God, given to us in the Ten Commandments, to honor our fathers. By logical extension, this would seem to apply to all of our forebears. Those who revel in the heritage and history of their ancestors are justifiably proud of their great-great-grandfathers participation in the greatest conflict our nation has ever fought. Why should I be inclined to sit idly by when someone suggests that my ancestor, who was dirt-poor farmer from the Ozarks in Arkansas, fought to preserve slavery? What should I do about that vein that pops out in my forehead when someone suggests that he was a traitor? The answer is to learn and to educate. The fact is that no Confederate leader was tried for treason, much less convicted. When a trial was contemplated for Jefferson Davis, Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon Chase advised strongly against. He knew that Davis's defense was center around the constitutionality of secession. Chase, in a letter to President Andrew Johnson said, "The war was fought to determine that secession was illegal. Let it remain illegal." Jefferson Davis was released from his dungeon prison shortly thereafter. This passage probably best sums up our reverence for our Confederate ancestors.
"The Confederate soldiers were our kinfolk and our heroes. We testify to the country our enduring fidelity to their memory. We commemorate their valor and devotion. There were some things that were not surrendered at Appomattox. We did not surrender our rights in history, nor was it one of the conditions of surrender that unfriendly lips should be suffered to tell the story of that war or that unfriendly hands should write the epitaphs of the Confederate dead. We have a right to teach our children the true history of that war, the causes that led up to it, and the principles involved." Senator Edward W. Carmack, 1903

http://benotforgot.blogspot.com/2009/01/confederate-heroes-day-in-texas.html

Tennessee observes Robert E. Lee Day

2009-01-21T21:16:00.000-08:00

KNOXVILLE (WVLT) – Monday, January 19th is a federal holiday remembering the life of Martin Luther King Jr. In several southern states, it is also a holiday commemorating the life of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
One of Governor Phil Bredesen’s annual duties as the head of the state is to proclaim January 19th, “Robert E. Lee Day.” The law is listed in the Tennessee Code as a special observation, and asks Tennesseans to, “observe the day in schools, churches and other suitable places with appropriate ceremonies expressive of the public sentiment.”
Gen. Lee was born January 19th, 1807 and went on to graduate from West Point in 1829. He is probably best remembered for turning down President Abraham Lincoln's request to command the Union forces during the Civil War.
According to Douglas S. Freeman, who wrote a biography on Gen. Lee in 1934, the general justified his decision not to serve the north before having to make it when he said, “I shall never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state, Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty."
The Civil War ended with Gen. Lee’s surrender to the Union at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865.
He spent the last five years of his life helping the reconstruction process along and serving as president of Washington College which later became Washington and Lee University.
Lee died on October 12th, 1870.
January 19th, 2009 marked his 202nd birthday.

Stones River Campaign

2008-12-31T16:03:00.000-08:00

As 1862 drew to a close, President Abraham Lincoln was desperate for a military victory. His armies were stalled, and the terrible defeat at Fredericksburg spread a pall of defeat across the nation. There was also the Emancipation Proclamation to consider. The nation needed a victory to bolster morale and support the proclamation when it went into effect on January 1, 1863.
The Confederate Army of Tennessee was camped in Murfreesboro, Tennessee only 30 miles away from General William S. Rosecrans' army in Nashville. General Braxton Bragg chose this area in order to position himself to stop any Union advances towards Chattanooga and to protect the rich farms of Middle Tennessee that were feeding his men.
Union General-In-Chief Henry Halleck telegraphed Rosecrans telling him that, “… the Government demands action, and if you cannot respond to that demand some one else will be tried.”
On December 26, 1862, the Union Army of the Cumberland left Nashville to meet the Confederates. This was the beginning of the Stones River Campaign.
On December 26, 1862, the Union Army of the Cumberland left Nashville to engage Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. General William S. Rosecrans sent the three wings of his army on different routes in search of the Rebel army.
Rain, sleet and fog combined with spirited resistance from Confederate cavalry slowed the Federal advance. By the evening of December 30, 1862 both armies faced each other in the fields and forests west and south of Murfreesboro.
During the night, Bragg and Rosecrans planned their attacks. Both chose to attack the right flank of the enemy and cut off their supply line and escape route. Bragg extended his lines to the south using all but General John C. Breckinridge's Division of General William Hardee's Corps. This movement of troops left only Breckinridge's men to face Rosecrans's planned onslaught on the east bank of the Stones River with General Thomas J. Crittenden's Left Wing.
While the generals planned, then men lay down in the mud and rocks trying to get some sleep. The bands of both armies played tunes to raise the men's spirits. It was during this "battle of the bands" that one of the most poignant moments of the war occurred. Sam Seay of the First Tennessee Infantry described what happened that evening.
“Just before ‘tattoo' the military bands on each side began their evening music. The still winter night carried their strains to great distance. At every pause on our side, far away could be heard the military bands of the other. Finally one of them struck up ‘Home Sweet Home.' As if by common consent, all other airs ceased, and the bands of both armies as far as the ear could reach, joined in the refrain. Who knows how many hearts were bold next day by reason of that air?”
December 31 Dawn - The Attack
At dawn on December 31, 1862, General J. P. McCown's Division with General Patrick Cleburne's men in support stormed across the frosted fields to attack the Federal right flank. Their plan was to swing around the Union line in a right wheel and drive their enemy back to the Stones River while cutting off their main supply routes at the Nashville Pike and the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad.
The men of General Richard Johnson's Division were cooking their meager breakfasts when the sudden crackle of the pickets' fire raised the alarm. The Confederate tide swept regiment after regiment from the field.
Lieutenant Tunnel of the Fourteenth Texas Infantry described the confusion.
“Many of the Yanks were either killed or retreated in their nightclothes … We found a caisson with the horses still attached lodged against a tree and other evidences of their confusion. The Yanks tried to make a stand whenever they could find shelter of any kind. All along our route we captured prisoners, who would take refuge behind houses, fences, logs, cedar bushes and in ravines.”
Union artillery tried to hold its ground, but the butternut and gray wave swept over them. Federal commanders tried to halt and resist at every fence and tree line, but the Confederate attack was too powerful to stop against such a piecemeal defense.
Soon General Jefferson C. Davis's Division found itself caught between attacks from the front and the right. By 8:30 AM those units also began to fray and retreat to the north.
The ground itself helped stave off disaster. The rocky ground and cedar forests blunted the Confederate assault, and Rebel units began to come apart. Confederate artillery struggled to keep pace with the infantry. Still, the Army of the Cumberland's right flank was shattered beyond repair. The Round Forest was a crucial position for the Army of the Cumberland. Poised between the Nashville Pike and the Stones River, the forest anchored the left of the Union line. Colonel William B. Hazen's Brigade was assigned this crucial sector.
At 10 AM, General James Chalmers' Mississippians advanced across the fields in front of Hazen's men. The partially burned Cowan house forced Chalmers' men to split just before they came a within range of the Union muskets. Artillery batteries guarded Hazen's flanks with deadly fire while the infantry poured volley after volley into the Confederate ranks. General Chalmers was wounded as his men wavered then broke.
Chalmers' attack was followed by General Daniel Donelson's Brigade as General Bragg sought to tie up Rosecrans' reserves pressing the Union left. Donelson's men crashed through Cruft's Brigade south of the pike. Hazen's men held firm to the north and Union reinforcements were able to seal the breach.
December 31 Afternoon
During the afternoon of December 31st, Bragg called on General Breckinridge's troops to hammer the anchor point of the Union line guarding the Nashville Pike. Two brigades went in first suffering the same fate as those that went before. Two more of Breckinridge's Brigades made a final assault as daylight began to fail. Hazen's men, reinforced now by Harker's Brigade, clung to their positions.
The carnage as described by J. Morgan Smith of the Thirty-second Alabama Infantry prompted soldiers to name the field Hell's Half Acre.
“We charged in fifty yards of them and had not the timely order of retreat been given — none of us would now be left to tell the tale. … Our regiment carries two hundred and eighty into action and came out with fifty eight.”
Colonel Hazen's Brigade was the only Union unit not to retreat on the 31st. Their stand against four Confederate attacks gave Rosecrans a solid anchor for his Nashville Pike line that finally stopped the Confederate tide.
Hazen's men were so proud of their efforts in this area that they erected a monument there after the battle. The Hazen Brigade Monument is the oldest intact Civil War monument in the nation.
After McCown's dawn assault, Confederate units to the north began attacking the enemy in their front. These attacks were not meant to break through, but to hold Union units in place as the flanking attack swept up behind them.
General Philip Sheridan had his men rise early and form a line of battle. His men were able to repulse the first enemy attack, but the loss of the divisions to his right forced Sheridan's commanders to reposition their lines to keep Cleburne's Division from cutting off their escape route. Sheridan's lines pivoted to the north, anchored by General James Negley's Division in the trees and rocks along McFadden Lane.
Confederate brigades assaulted Sheridan's and Negley's Divisions without coordination. The terrain made communication and cooperation between units nearly impossible. For more than two hours, the Union forces fell back step by bloody step slowing the Confederate assault.
By noon, the Confederate Brigades of A.P. Stewart, J. Patton Anderson, George Maney, A.M. Manigault, and A.J. Vaughn assaulted the Union salient from three sides. With their ammunition nearly spent, Negley's and Sheridan's lines shattered and their men made their way north and west through the cedars towards the Nashville Pike.
The cost of this delaying action was enormous. Sam Watkins of the First Tennessee Infantry, CS was amazed at the bloodshed.
“I cannot remember now of ever seeing more dead men and horses and captured cannon all jumbled together, than that scene of blood and carnage … on the (Wilkinson) … Turnpike; the ground was literally covered with blue coats dead.”
All three of Sheridan's brigade commanders were killed or mortally wounded and many Federal units lost more than one-third of their men. Many Confederate units fared little better. Union soldiers recalled the carnage as looking like the slaughter pens in the stockyards of Chicago. The name stuck. While the fighting raged in the Slaughter Pen, General Rosecrans was busy trying to save his army. He cancelled the attack across the river and funneled his reserve troops into the fight hoping to stem the bleeding on his right. Rosecrans and General George Thomas rallied fleeing troops as they approached the Nashville Pike and a new line began to form along that vital lifeline backed up by massed artillery.
The new horseshoe shaped line gave the Army of the Cumberland solid interior lines and better communication than their attackers. The Union cannon covered the long open fields between the cedars and the road. Most of the troops in this line had full cartridge boxes and knew that they must hold here or the battle would be lost.
Again the woods and rocky ground helped the Union. Confederate organization fell apart as they struggled through the cedars. Most of Confederate artillery was unable to penetrate the dense forests strewn with limestone outcroppings. Each wave of enemy attack along the pike was repulsed in bloody fashion by the Federal artillery that commanded the field.
Lietenant Alfred Pirtle (Ordnance Officer, Rousseau's Division) watched the cannon do their deadly work that afternnon.
“… then our batteries opened on them with a deafening unceasing fire, throwing twenty-four pounds of iron from each piece, across that small space. … But men were not born who could longer face that storm of canister. … They broke, they fled, and some took refuge in the clump of trees and weeds.”
As night approached, the Union army was bloody and battered, but it retained control of the pike and its vital lifeline to Nashville. Although Confederate cavalry would wreak havoc on Union wagon trains, enough supplies got through to give General Rosecrans the option to continue the fight.
January 2, 1863
After spending January 1, 1863 reorganizing and caring for the wounded, the two armies came to blows again on the afternoon of January 2nd. General Bragg ordered Breckinridge to attack General Horatio Van Cleve's Division (commanded by Colonel Samuel Beatty) occupying a hill overlooking McFadden's Ford on the east side of the river. Breckinridge reluctantly launched the attack with all five of his brigades at 4 PM. The Confederate charge quickly took the hill and continued on pushing towards the ford. As the Confederates attacked, they came within range of fifty-seven Union cannon massed on the west side of the Stones River. General Crittenden watched as his guns went to work.
“Van Cleve's Division of my command was retiring down the opposite slope, before overwhelming numbers of the enemy, when the guns … opened upon the swarming enemy. The very forest seemed to fall … and not a Confederate reached the river.”
The cannon took a heavy toll. In forty-five minutes their concentrated fire killed or wounded more than 1,800 Confederates. A Union counterattack pushed the shattered remnants of Breckinridge's Division back to Wayne's Hill.
Faced with this disaster and the approach of Union reinforcements, General Bragg ordered the Army of Tennessee to retreat on January 3, 1863. Two days later, the battered Union army marched into Murfreesboro and declared victory. The Battle of Stones River was one of the bloodiest of the war. More than 3,000 men lay dead on the field. Nearly 16,000 more were wounded. Some of these men spent as much as seven agonizing days on the battlefield before help could reach them. The two armies sustained nearly 24,000 casualties, which was almost one-third of the 81,000 men engaged.
As the Army of Tennessee retreated they gave up a large chunk of Middle Tennessee. The rich farmland meant to feed the Confederates now supplied the Federals. General Rosecrans set his army and thousands of contraband slaves to constructing a massive fortification, Fortress Rosecrans that served as a supply depot and base of occupation for the Union for the duration of the war.
President Lincoln got the victory he wanted to boost morale and support the Emancipation Proclamation. How important was this victory to the Union? Lincoln himself said it best in a telegram to Rosecrans later in 1863.
“I can never forget, if I remember anything, that at the end of last year and the beginning of this, you gave us a hard earned victory, which had there been a defeat instead, the country scarcely could have lived over.”

18th Tennessee Color Bearers at the Battle of Murfreesboro

2008-12-30T10:03:00.000-08:00

18th Tennessee Infantry Color Bearers. L-R: Dr. Nat Gooch, Logue Nelson and William McKay. Published in Confederate Veteran, 1911. (Note: At the Battle of Murfreesboro, 10 men were killed or wounded bearing this flag, including Gooch and McKay.) (Courtesy Tennessee State Museum)

CAPTAIN WILLIAM SCANTLAND SADLER, CSA

2008-12-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

CAPTAIN WILLIAM SCANTLAND SADLER, CSA
“the bravest of the brave”
by Shirley Farris Jones
The War Between the States was a very difficult and trying time for the
men, women, and children of this defining period in our nation's history.
Very few families were left “untouched” as a country at war with itself
struggled to survive. Regrettably, more than half a million lives were lost
for the “Cause” each believed to be right and when it was all over, those
who were left had to pick up the pieces and get on with the business of
living with or without their loved ones and the way of life they had
previously known. Many were left with only memories and footprints of a
past that was now history. Such is the story of a young man from Jackson
County, Tennessee.
William Sadler was born in 1832, the first born son of Betridge Scantland
and Nelson Sadler. Both the Scantland and the Sadler familes were among
the earliest settlers of Jackson County. The couple was married on
September 23, 1830, and William would soon have five sisters, Rachel Ann,
Nancy, Elizabeth, Mary Jane, and Lucetta, and two brothers, Lee and Henry,
to play with. Another brother, Garret, died in infancy but there was still a
lot of love and laughter in the house full of children, although the parents
didn't always get along too well and ultimately divorced in 1858 – which
was almost unheard of in that day and time. William was a grown man by
that time and the previous year, in 1857, had an “infatuation” with a young
woman named Elizabeth or “Betsy” White. This “infatuation” produced a
son, William Henry, nicknamed “Bose”, which is an old Scottish name for
Buddy. The couple never married, and Elizabeth soon married another man
named John Dixon and they were the parents of twin boys. Why the couple
chose not to marry is a mystery to this day as William was known
throughout the community as a “good” boy and a stickler for the rules.
On June 8, 1861 Tennessee voted to join the newly formed Confederate
States of America as the last seceding state. William Sadler, along with
two of his brother-in-laws, soon joined the Confederate Army. On June 6,
1862 he wrote to his Mother from Camp Trousdale where they were in
training.
“I now seat myself to write you a few lines to let you know I am
well and in good spirits and hope these few lines may find you all in good
health. ... Mother, I want you to get some cloth and make me two pairs of
pants for summer. Get some that will not show dirt and have them made in
a week from this time, and send them by the first one that comes if you
have the chance. ... Get the cloth at Mahaneys and Sons that will last, for
fine cloths does not recommend a man much here for we have a dandy in
our ajoining (sic) company and the visitors tell him he is too fine for a
soldierin'. ... Tell all to write to me and write all the news of importance.
Tell Marion McCawley I am as fat as a Lion and would not give a cent to be
at home and would not come home if I had the chance without peace was
made. ... your son, Wm Sadler”
From Camp Trousdale, Pvt. Sadler was sent to Corinth, Mississippi.
Following reorganization, he became a part of Bragg's Army. On May 8,
1862, he was promoted to Captain, Company G, of the 8th Tennessee
Infantry. (The 8th Tennessee was comprised of men from Smith, Overton,
Lincoln, Fentress, Putnam, Jackson, Moore, and Marshall Counties.) In
the fall of 1862, the 8th Tennessee passed through Jackson County on their
way into Kentucky to face Federal forces there. It took three days and
three nights for General Bragg's troops to march through Jackson County.
They were greeted by Jackson countians who cheered the men on and
offered their support. William was able to visit his family for a short time
and encouraged his brother, Lee, to join up. Lee enlisted on September 8,
1862, just in time for the battle of Perryville the next month on October 8,
1862. Both William and Lee escaped the battle unharmed. But seeing this
kind of action must have made an impression on the brothers.
It was shortly after this that Captain William wrote a letter to his
fourteen year old brother, Henry, who was still at home on the farm. In the
letter, he expressed his concern about being killed in battle and what would
happen to his son, Bose. Apparently, William did not think too highly of
Betsy's husband, and didn't want his son growing up at the Dixon place and
“never larn (sic) to work as a man needs to.” He wanted Henry to promise
that if anything should happen to him that he would get the boy and “raise
him up good. ... raise him as his own, if something were to happen to him
during this war.”
After Perryville, both William and Lee were at McMinnville for a short
while and then headed to Murfreesboro. Just before the battle, the
brothers were bathing and William told Lee, “If you get hurt here, I can't
stop to take care of you. And if I get hurt or killed, you go on.” With those
words, a pact was made.
The Battle of Murfreesboro began on December 31, 1862. On the field,
William was shot in the head with a Yankee minute ball. Lee saw him shot.
William's last words were, “Go on! You can do nothing for me! Go on!” As
previously promised, Lee passed right on by his brother, just where his body
fell on the battlefield, and kept on fighting. The next day, Lee and some of
William's men came back to the battlefield, retrieved William's body, and
buried it behind a building nearby, leaving only a large stone for his marker.
It was said of the thirty year old William that “He was the bravest of the
brave.” William's horse, on its own, returned home to Jackson County, a
distance of almost one hundred miles.
John S. Quarles, who succeeded William Sadler as Captain of the 8th
Tennessee Infantry, wrote the following report: “... He was killed leading
his men in a charge on a 16-gun battery known as Loomis Battery. When he
fell his younger brother, Lee Sadler, ran up to him and asked him some
questions. His only answer was to go on, go on. I suppose these were his
last words. Capt. Sadler was a very brave man. As fearless as a lion and
as gallant as a knight. He was a very correct and strict disciplinarian. To
do his duty was but to know it. He hated the coward and deserter, but had
the greatest admiration for a brave man. Valor covered all faults with Capt.
Sadler. He sought no friends and dodged no foes but did his duty as he saw
it. ...”
Note: The Eighth Tennessee was in Donelson's Brigade of Cheatham's
Division so their main action was against Hazen's and Cruft's Brigades at
Hell's Half Acre around noon on December 31, 1862. Although Captain
Sadler's name appears only in the report of officers killed, it is highly likely
that he died during that ill fated attack. In all probability, Captain Sadler's
remains were most likely reburied at the Confederate Cemetery on South
Church Street in Murfreesboro after the war before being reinturred for the
third and final time at Confederate Circle in Evergreen Cemetery several
years later.
Henry, abiding by his brother's wishes, got on his brother's horse,
bringing along a mule, and headed for the Dixon farm. He collected Bose,
just five years old, “kickin' and a screamin' taking him from his mama and
brothers and stepdaddy. We all agreed to abide by William's wishes and
understood his reckoning. But it was mighty hard to watch such a
distraught little boy coming up the road, ridin' on a mule, towards our farm.”
Then “We stripped him down, washed him clean, and burnt his clothes.
Washin' the traces of his Dixon life away.” Henry, true to his word, raised
Bose as his own, and Bose came to know Henry as his father, at least the
only real father figure he ever knew. In 1886, when Bose was 30 years old,
he married Sarah Melvina Ray , and they became the parents of four
children, John, Kate, Mary, and Annie. Bose inherited much of his father's
sense of duty and belief in justice. Bose became Sheriff of Jackson County
in 1898 and again in 1916, serving a total of two terms. Bose and Vinnie
both lived into old age, living full and satisfying lives.
Descendants of Capt. Sadler continue to reside in Jackson County, near
Gainesboro, Tennessee to this day.
This information was provided by Mrs. Bonnie Mae West Dudney
Roberts, one of the children of Kate, the eldest child of Bose and Vinnie,
who married William Dillard West. She is the great-granddaughter of
Captain William Sadler. With special thanks to her daughter, Mrs. Janet
Dudney Meadows, great-great-granddaughter of Capt. Sadler.
Bibliography furnished upon request.