Abraham Lincoln on Race

Abraham Lincoln, the consumate political manipulator, often spoke out of both sides of his mouth on the subject of race, depending on who he was speaking to. Much the same was true of his utterances on politics. Here are some samples of each. Judge for yourself the words versus the reality of Lincoln's actions.ON POLITICS:"This country with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.""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."With statements like these one wonders how Lincoln could have opposed Southern secession. Could it be that Lincoln was a liar? Did his words depend on who he was speaking to? Actions speak louder than words, and Lincoln's actions brought about the deaths of over 600,000 Americans. Was Lincoln a liar and a murderer as well?ON RACE:"What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races."— Spoken at Springfield, Illinois on July 17th, 1858; from ABRAHAM LINCOLN: COMPLETE WORKS, 1894, Vol. 1, page 273"See our present condition---the country engaged in war! Our White men cutting one another's throats! And then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or another. "Why should the people of your race be colonized, and where? Why should they leave this country? This is, perhaps, the first question for proper consideration. You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." — Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862, from COLLECTED WORKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Vol 5, page 371"I will say, then, that I AM NOT NOR HAVE EVER BEEN in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races---that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making votersor jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race." — 4th Lincoln-Douglas debate, September 18th, 1858; COLLECTED WORKS Vol. 3, pp. 145-146
Lincoln the Racialist? NOT.An answer to yet another Lincoln lover"There is a rancor in our hearts you little dream. We hate you sir."— Gen. Henry A. Wise, CSA, to a Union officer at Appomattox It is with some considerable measure of sorrow that I pen this response to Richard McCulloch's article praising Abraham Lincoln and Mr. McCulloch's native North for their putative once-upon-a-time belief in "racial purity" ("The Open Wound", February 1997). Unlike Moriarity—who first raised the subject of Lincoln, but who is unknown to me—Richard McCulloch is a friend. We have spoken and corresponded over the years, and I have the greatest respect for the contribution he has made to racial awareness with his books. I keep a stack of The Nordish Quest at hand for whites awakening to the realities of race.However, his apologia for Lincoln and the North in provoking and prosecuting their fratricidal war against the Confederate States of America is so divergent from historical reality and so utterly devoid of understanding of the Puritanical political climate of the mid-19th century as to be laughable. It demands reply despite ties of friendship or consideration of past service to our common cause.Briefly, Mr. McCulloch's thesis is that Lincoln was really a racialist at heart. He and the saintly Northern people wanted nothing less than an all-white Nordic nation. But those nasty, selfish Southerners just wouldn't give up their slaves. Lincoln was forced to call out the army and invade the South for the greater good of whites everywhere. Had he not been assassinated, after he finished killing a few hundred thousand recalcitrant Southerners he would have magically whisked away America's blacks. We few survivors of his benevolence would have then lived happily ever after, with nary a black in sight to spoil our Nordic paradise. No doubt this would have, in time, assuaged our anger over our wrecked nation and our grief over our 260,000 dead fathers, sons, uncles, nephews and cousins.Thus, according to Mr. McCulloch, Abraham Lincoln's war was really fought to create an all-white America. Those evil Southerners fought to preserve multi-racialism— and so they and their country had to be destroyed in order to save whites from their folly. As evidence, Mr. McCulloch cites the sometimes reluctance of Northern states to admit blacks and Lincoln's occasional statements supposedly voicing a desire to expel blacks. Conveniently ignored, of course, is the historical fact that during the war Lincoln emancipated all those slaves he did not control and kept as slaves all those he could have himself sent back to Africa.Mr. McCulloch makes much of Lincoln statements defaming blacks. However, he has made the mistake of believing what Lincoln said and ignoring what Lincoln actually did. Since Lincoln was a consummate liar, telling each audience what it wanted to hear in order to advance his political career, it is easy to find pretty much anything one wants in Lincoln's utterances. For example, Lincoln, often cited for his atheism by close associates—so much the atheist that he wrote a book in his youth parodying Christianity—cynically invoked America's religious values in public as a means of gaining a political following.His 1848 Congressional speech for self-determination ("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.") led many European statesmen to believe Lincoln could not, on principle, oppose Southern secession. What Europeans did not account for was Lincoln's duplicity. In reality, 1848 was the year communist revolutions broke out all over Europe. Lincoln's speech gave encouragement to those revolutionaries, many of whom later served as officers in his Union invasion army. However, closer to home, where Anglo-Saxon America was engaged in wresting the Southwest away from mestizo Mexico, he bitterly opposed the Mexican-American war as immoral.Lincoln carefully targeted his speeches to fit the audience. While campaigning for the U.S. Senate against Stephen Douglas in southern Illinois, an area sympathetic to the South, he said "I will say, then, that I am not nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races. . .and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race."However, in northern Illinois—filled by that time with German and other non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants—he glorified Negro equality: "In the right to eat the bread his own hands have earned he is the equal of Judge Douglas, or of myself, or any living man." Carl Sandburg's adulatory biography quotes a private statement written during the debate, belittling "inferior race" and "Negro equality" abolition opponents. This pro-abolition paean ends as follows: "I am proud, in my passing speck of time, to contribute an humble mite to that glorious consummation, which my own poor eyes may not last to see." Nowhere in this private confession is black separatism to be found. His famous "house divided against itself cannot stand" speech was universally seen both in the North and the South as a harbinger of emancipation, not of separatism.Racialist sentiments undoubtedly existed in the North, as they certainly did in the South—a region that lived day and night with the terrifying possibility of racially motivated massacres. But it was not the majority opinion. Northern politics was dominated by outrage at the "immorality" of slavery and not by "racism." Set against this backdrop, it seems likely that Lincoln's flirtation with "black separatism" was a ploy designed to appease a racialist minority while allowing prosecution of the war to continue. His refusal to free slaves in Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware with the Emancipation proclamation fits the same mold. He needed these states to sustain the war effort. And so, as the eternally opportunistic politician, he took whatever actions required to achieve his objective, no matter how bizarre they might appear to an objective observer.It is a historical fact that in 1860 Lincoln was the candidate of the abolitionist Republican Party. As their candidate, he inevitably reflected their viewpoint. Not without reason were they called "Black Republicans", hardly the sobriquet one would apply to white separatists. Black Republicans did not advocate removal of blacks to Africa. They wanted not only black emancipation but social and political equality as well, a status they enforced with a vengeance as soon as the war was over—a predictable outcome that is utterly at odds with Mr. McCulloch's thesis.Also conveniently ignored is the historical fact that a black repatriation movement had existed since the 1820s. The American Colonization Society, founded by Southerner James Monroe, never attracted a politically significant (i.e. vote-getting) following in the supposedly white separatist North. Monrovia, the African city created for black repatriation, received only a few thousand blacks, most of whom settled there voluntarily rather than by forcible removal. If the North was determined to create an all-white nation, the vehicle had been available for decades. Since this option languished, one suspects that Northern motives were somewhat less racialist than Mr. McCulloch contends.Also conveniently ignored is the historical fact that Lincoln never publicly offered the South a separatist solution to the race crisis. If he wanted an all-white America, he could have, at any time—either before the War or after it began—proposed a plan to purchase and repatriate all slaves from federal tax revenues, thus obviating Southern concern over financial loss. If the Northern people really supported such a solution, it would have cost him nothing politically. If refused, it would have put the South in the untenable position of renouncing an ideal solution to the crisis. (Southerners might have been excused if they had objected—well over half of all U.S. tax revenues came from tariffs on Southern imports and exports.) But Lincoln never made such an offer—for the very good reason that he neither truly believed in it himself nor judged that the Northern electorate would accept it. In his 1860 inaugural address, Lincoln said that he had no intention to interfere with slavery because he had no legal right to do so. When this ploy failed to bring undeceived Southern states back into his clutches, he then proceeded with armed conquest, his 1848 speech affirming the right of self-determination notwithstanding. Lincoln soon put the lie to his words professing respect for law by his actions. He arrested Maryland's legislature on the eve of their secession vote, installing fiat legislators who then voted as he directed. This initiated a long bout of constitutional mayhem. When informed that the Supreme Court had ruled that he had no constitutional authority to wage war against Americans, he asked derisively if the Supreme Court had an army to enforce its ruling. And, of course, the utterly illegal Emancipation Proclamation stood the constitution on its head, making Lincoln solely culpable for destruction of the Founders' creation.The Emancipation Proclamation—an expedient designed to keep Britain and France out of the war, and not, as Mr. McCulloch suggests, to give "meaning, dignity and noble purpose to the traumatic suffering"—is the ultimate refutation of Mr. McCulloch's "Lincoln-as-racialist" thesis. Had Lincoln really wanted to remove blacks from America, surely he realized that, once blacks were freed, equality would be impossible to prevent—exactly the outcome that did occur after the war? Had the North really wanted to expel blacks, would they not have removed Lincoln from office in the 1864 election for freeing blacks rather than expelling them? Would not the Northern states have refused to ratify the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments after the War? No, the simpler explanation—and the correct one—is that the Northern majority saw slavery as a moral issue and not a racialist one. They approved of emancipation, never dreaming that one day their grandchildren would reap the whirlwind they had so foolishly sowed with their pious moralizing.Evidence of this permeates the historical record. Northerners operated the notorious Underground Railroad. Northerners—by refusing to return escaped slaves to their owners as the Constitution required—provoked the crisis that drove the South from the union. Northerners—such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the scurrilous Uncle Tom's Cabin—fanned the flames of race war, emitting a veritable flood of provocative lies in order to inflame opinion against the South. Northerners financed atrocities such as John Brown's raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry—the purpose of which was to arm Virginia's slaves for massacre of Virginia's white population. Finally, a Northern Congress whitewashed Brown and the abolitionists who backed his murderous ambition. The late Revilo Oliver, an Illinois "Yankee"—and one of the foremost racialist intellects of the 20th century—nailed Brown and his admirers in America's Decline:". . .Americans have been taught to venerate a particularly vicious homicidal maniac named John Brown, who, after a long series of murders in Kansas, appointed himself President of the United States and slipped into Virginia in the hope that he could enjoy seeing white men, mutilated but alive, hanging by their heels from trees while their intestines were pulled out of their bodies and torches were used to ignite their hair, and he yearned to see white women blinded and herded together in pigpens, but kept alive for the amusement of black beasts."Oliver adds: "Of Brown's purposes and plans there can be no possible doubt, for he openly boasted that he would model his work on the great slave revolt in Hispaniola, which, after the extermination of the Aryans by the procedures I have mentioned, eventually produced the fetid pest-hole now called Haiti." It is this same John Brown that Northerners eulogized as a holy martyr after Virginia hung him for murder. Oliver concludes his skewering of Brown's admirers thus:"[T]hose facts were, of course, well known to the liars, chiefly of degenerate Puritan stock, who started the canonization of Brown and publicly compared him to Jesus Christ as they labored to arouse enthusiasm for an invasion of the more civilized states in the southern half of the nation—enthusiasm for the war that they greatly enjoyed, to say nothing of its aftermath, when they so richly appeased their sadistic lusts with the suffering they inflicted on the conquered white population."Also conveniently ignored is the historical fact that miscegenation between blacks and whites was far more prevalent in the North than in the South. In his 1867 book, A Defense of Virginia and the South, Robert L. Dabney, chaplain to Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, analyzed pre- war census records. Prior to the war, census-takers noted the race of each person counted, a record that included mixed-race mulattos. Dabney found that the greatest percentage of mulattos lived in the North. In many Northern states, mulattos exceeded half the non-white population. On the other hand, Southern Negroes were largely pure African. Contending that the same people who bred so freely with their few blacks were in reality frothing white separatists is simply a case of wish replacing reality.Dabney's book lays bare the hypocrisy of Northern commercial interests and political leaders on the issue of slavery. Forgotten is the fact that slavery was at first legal in Northern states as well as Southern. Slave ships were exclusively of Northern registry. Virginia efforts to eliminate slavery in the early 1770s were opposed by Northern slave trading interests. As Northern slavery was phased out— due to climate and unsuitability of African labor in a rapidly industrializing North—laws allowed sale of slaves out of state but did not require repatriation. Northerners cynically sold their "problem" to the South. Only after they had recouped their own investments did they begin self- righteously beating the drums for emancipation—and let the South's financial interests be damned.Finally, also conveniently ignored is the historical fact that it was the South that—after the horror of Reconstruction was thrown off—imposed a virtually air-tight political and social apartheid on its blacks. Northern attitudes toward blacks in the intervening century have unquestionably been more tolerant than those of Southerners. It took two 20th century invasions by the United States Army to defeat Southern segregationist resolve—one by Midwesterner Dwight Eisenhower (he of German descent, a fact that will not be lost on Mr. McCulloch), and a second by that self-absorbed son of an Irish bootlegger, John F. Kennedy. Are we to believe that, up until the War, Northerners were rabid white separatists, but that by some mysterious Vulcan mind-meld they suddenly became ardent pro-integrationists—while racially tolerant Southerners simultaneously underwent an equally miraculous reverse transformation? This tortured explanation defies the bounds of credibility.No, the North's acts were not those of noble idealists, intent on creating an all-white America. They were the acts of venal, self-serving, holier-than-thou zealots—the kind of people who always know what is best for everyone else but who never get around to applying their pious drivel to their own lives. The word that describes them is "liberals", and nothing has changed in 130 years—as is amply attested by current Northern voting patterns.Perhaps the saddest point of all is Mr. McCulloch's plea for acceptance of Lincoln as "one of our own." We are asked to embrace a genetic defective, an illegitimate bastard, an inveterate liar, a delusional egotist, a homosexual deviant, a communist sympathizer, an emancipator of 4 million Africans, and a man whose war caused as many white deaths as all other American wars combined. Think, for a moment, about who one allies oneself with in bowing to Lincoln. Shall we lick the tyrant's hand, thus dancing as puppets for our Marxist adversaries' amusement? The effrontery of this boggles the mind.Finally, why is it "highly partisan" to criticize a man who killed one-quarter of the South's military-age men—but "non-partisan" to praise him? No wonder the white race is in trouble. If racialists are unable to ascertain truth and to accurately assess self-interest—even when it smacks them in the face with the force and stench of a dead fish—where is our hope of victory? I cannot say what others may think about this self-abasing homage to Lincoln. But I can tell you that this son of Scottish and Scotch-Irish pioneers and Confederate veterans knows who the enemy is—and eagerly awaits the coming day when the redemption of the destiny of our people begins.

http://www.civilwarhistory.com/_/lincoln/Abraham%20Lincoln%20on%20Race.htm

Telling the truth about American History

Public Indoctrination
by Gail Jarvisby Gail Jarvis

DIGG THIS
Dr. Ron Paul’s contention that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) should be eliminated has raised eyebrows. The networks’ talking heads along with many average citizens simply cannot conceive of how children can be educated without the assistance of the U.S. Department of Education. The idea that we could survive without ED is dismissed as ludicrous.
Many of the same objections made against Dr. Paul’s criticisms of ED have been made against homeschooling. The National Education Association (NEA) has vociferously criticized home schooling. Indeed, one member of NEA angrily referred to home schooling as "child abuse." But most parents who choose to home school do so based on what they have learned about public schools; primarily from their own children. Their conclusion is that public schools indoctrinate rather than educate.
Indoctrination and behavior modification in public schools are the result of the policies of the Department of Education and the influence of the National Education Association. Many in academia approve of these policies and vigorously defend public education. They maintain that indoctrination is not taking place in public schools. Instead, they claim that today’s educators are simply viewing history and other subjects from a new and enlightened perspective.
Is it "indoctrination" or an "enlightened perspective" that is attempting to shape the opinions of today’s youth? Your answer may depend on your political persuasion. But you can decide for yourself by reviewing the results of a recent study conducted on high school students: 2000 juniors and seniors from all 50 states. The study was reported in the February 5th edition of USA Today and the results of the study are scheduled to appear in the March issue of The Journal of American History.
Students were instructed to list the most famous Americans in history – from the time of Columbus up to the current year. The only restriction placed on them was that presidents and first ladies could not be named. From the time of Columbus (1492) to the year 2008 covers a wide range of persons to choose from. During those centuries, there were countless exceptional Americans.
Below is the published summary of the students’ lists of the "top 10" most famous Americans in history, ranked in order on their importance, with the percentage of students who chose each person:
Martin Luther King, Jr.: 67%
Rosa Parks: 60%
Harriet Taubman: 44%
Susan B. Anthony: 34%
Benjamin Franklin: 29%
Amelia Earhart: 25%
Oprah Winfrey: 22%
Marilyn Monroe: 19%
Thomas Edison: 18%
Albert Einstein: 16%
I was a bowled over when I first saw this list but I shouldn’t have been surprised. It is another illustration of the ongoing revisionist accounts of history. It is significant to note how pop-culture influenced this list. Based on the students’ choices, it appears that public schools not only indoctrinate students but also dumb-down the learning material presented in classes.
But many of us, along with Dr. Paul and homeschoolers, profoundly object to this manipulation of our youth. This is another illustration that when the central government has a monopoly on public education, fair and balanced presentations of history suffer. What results are listless programmed minds of malleable young students conditioned to accommodate the state’s goals.
February 13, 2008
Gail Jarvis [send him mail] is a free-lance writer.
Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com

Why isn't Michael Jackson name on the list, can you believe what they are mandating our children be taught in American History class. We can thank the U.S. Department of Education for our declining nation. We must teach the our children true history of our nation or the truth will be lost forever.

Yankees Hang Lincoln on Presidents Day ( Old news but well worth reading)

It took the Yankees in Keene, New Hampshire about 150 years to figure out (or acknowledge) what we have known about that wicked tyrant, Abraham Lincoln, down here in the South since the War to Prevent Southern Independence. Better late than never I guess...
So, why did these Yankees hang the Empire's favorite son?
According to the Keene Free Press, this patriotic display by the New Hampshire Sons of Liberty was a result of them being "Disturbed by current efforts to justify totalitarianism by appealing to Abe Lincoln's legacy."

Truer words were never spoken!
The effigy of the president was hanged without the benefit of clergy on President’s Day, after a short program that began at 8 p.m. in the town square. The charges for which he was hanged were affixed to the effigy and were as follows:

• That he suspended the writ of habeas corpus – treason, and an act of war against the American people.

• That he imprisoned tens of thousands of Union political opponents – treason, and an act of war against the American people.

• That he shut down hundreds of Union opposition newspapers – treason, and a violation of his oath to preserve and protect the Constitution, specifically the first amendment.

• That he waged total warfare on the South, burning her cities, permitting rape of Southern women, and destroying the agriculture and means of food production, intentionally targeting civilians – treason, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

• That he pledged to support a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting the federal government from ever interfering with slavery – crimes against humanity, particularly African Americans.

• That he was a lifelong white supremacist who advocated deporting slaves to Africa – crimes against humanity, particularly African Americans.

• That he waged the bloodiest war in American history to prevent them instituting “new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness” – treason.

• That he deported opposition leader, Ohio Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham in 1863 – treason, and a violation of his oath to preserve and protect the Constitution, specifically the separation of powers.

• That he launched an invasion without the consent of Congress – treason, and a war crime.

• That he censored all telegraph communications – treason, and a violation of his oath to preserve and protect the Constitution, particularly the first amendment.

• That he imprisoned a large percentage of Maryland’s legislature and the mayor of Baltimore – treason, and a violation of his oath to preserve and protect the Constitution, particularly the tenth amendment.

• That he orchestrated the Unconstitutional secession of West Virginia from Virginia, in defiance of the Constitution’s mandate that no new state may be formed from part of another state without that state’s permission – treason, and violation of his oath to preserve and protect the Constitution.

• That he signed an arrest warrant for the 84 year old Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney, for ruling against him on the suspension of habeas corpus – treason, and a violation of his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, particularly the separation of powers.

• That he carried out a campaign of intimidation against federal judges in order to prevent them from ruling against his actions, specifically by surrounding their homes with federal marshals – treason, and a violation of his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, particularly the separation of powers.

No Southerner could have articulated the crimes of Honest Abe better themselves. These patriots of the North have got it exactly right.

It is reported that the dead president “hung around” the town square approximately 24 hours before being taken down.

While the federal Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is coordinating three years of events surrounding the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 2009, we hope all Americans, North and South, will reflect upon what was gained and what was lost at Appomattox. Perhaps the commission will consult the citizens of New Hampshire as to the proper way to get the party going. Well, perhaps that is asking too much!

SLRC

SLRC GIVES CITY OF RINGGOLD 10 DAYS TO REPLACE FLAG



The Southern Legal Resource Center has notified the Ringgold, GA, City Council that it will face legal action unless it replaces within 10 days a Confederate Battle Flag it removed from the Historic Ringgold Depot monument three years ago.

The letter puts the city on notice that its clients, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and its local camp in Ringgold, will “seek legal redress” if the flag is not replaced within the stated time period.

The ultimatum was delivered after the city council failed to respond to a detailed January 15 letter from SLRC Executive Director Roger McCredie. That letter set forth reasons why the Battle Flag was the appropriate flag to be flown at the depot site and asked the Council to restore it to the flagpole from which it was removed in March of 2005.

At that time the Battle Flag, one of four flags displayed at the recently completed memorial site, was removed at the request of local NAACP members and was replaced by a so-called Hardee pattern flag on grounds that the Hardee flag was the one used by Confederate units at the Battle of Ringgold Gap; however, in its January letter the SLRC cited primary source material proving that other types of Confederate flags were present at that action. McCredie’s letter further stated that the battle argument was moot anyway because the Depot monument was erected to honor Confederates who departed from Ringgold to serve throughout the Confederacy, and the Battle Flag, as a soldiers’ and later a veterans’ flag, was therefore the appropriate flag to display. The SLRC also indicated that the city may have acted in violation of Georgia law by violating the integrity of the monument.

The current letter was signed by SLRC Chief Trial Counsel Kirk D. Lyons, with Georgia attorneys Martin K. O’Toole and Daniel A. Coleman acting of counsel.

The SLRC has been doing legal and historical research since last summer, in preparation for contacting the city council, McCredie said.



For additional information, contact: Roger McCredie

(828) 669-5189

exec@slrc-csa.org

Taken from the Diary of Kate S. Carney

July 13th 1862
How to begin, I know not. I was aroused early this morning by firing. It has surely been an eventful day. I knew the firing must come from our own brave boys. Sprang from my bed, rushed to the window, called to cousin Ann & Bettie, we dressed hurriedly, not knowing what moment our house & yard would be full to overflowing with either our men or the frightened Yankees. The blue coats began to make a bee line through our yard & front yard, asking Pa to protect them, but he told them to push on, & acting on his advice they kept moving. It was amusing to see how frightened they were, although it was such a serious time, I prayed for victory, while I hissed the frightened Yankees on, expecting every minute to received a parting shot from some of them. Just think, only the day before they were our masters, I thought what would be our fate, if our poor fellows were whipped. The engagement grew general in a few moments. Persons dared not venture out on the square, if they did a report & a vacant saddle would be seen as the horse would dash by, carry their fate to their comrades. Our boys, after forming behind some one story buildings, made a bold rush gaining the court house, but many fell ere they reached the door, and although the Yankees had every advantage they were forced to surrender, & our prisoners turned out to seek their families & friends. Two of them stopped on their way home out here, Mr. Peyton & Mr. Brothers. They looked so happy but who did not except the dusky forms that hovered around our front steps. The gentlemen were afraid to venture up town, as they were firing from the houses, so much it was dangerous to go on the street. In the meanwhile they had attacked the camp down by the river where the battery was stationed, & on the approach of our men threw themselves into a hollow square with their artillery, pointed to resist a determined attack, and as our men had nothing but shot guns they could not get in range & were compelled to fall back three times. But later in the day a flag of truce was sent, & in a few minutes they consulted, surrendered 15,000 men including sick & wounded, including cannons, Camp equipage, which was mostly burnt, & small arms. This is one of the greatest victories of the war considering the number engaged. Gen. Forrest reports 17,000 men consisting of his men & Texas Rangers. (a number were Georgians) With a single piece of artillery besides being the attacking party, I'm sure the hand of Providence guided & directed our boys, for without a higher power that handful of men could never have succeeded against such odds. Our Great Father saw our suffering & travails. Gen. Duffield was wounded early in the engagement, & taken to Maj. Maney's. Gen. Crittenden surrendered to Mrs. Hagen, the lady with whom he was boarding. He was the man that came up to have several of our men hung tomorrow. Some say that was why the attack was hurried. Yes old Gen. Crittenden said we had not a right to the air we breathed (just yesterday). I would like to have asked him who had a right now. Two Genl's, four Col's & ever so many Lt's, Capt's and others [were captured]. A glorious haul. Gen. Duffield was paroled with a number of others that could not be taken away on account of their wounds. When Col. Lester went up on the square, he asked where is the army that took us, & Gen. Forrest proudly answered here they are, pointing to our handful of dirty & worn down by travel boys that stood by. A nobler set never breathed than those rough looking fellows. Nobler hearts never beat. The poor fellows that were waiting for the Yankees decision about surrendering, went fast to sleep so fatigued were they [by] forced marches & no rest. The Yankee Col. awoke our officer by saying "we surrender, we surrender." That gave the Yankees some idea how independent our boys were. We saw a Texas Ranger ride hastily over to Mrs. Laws, & Ma thinking he needed something made us run over and ask [if] we could do anything for him or any of the rest of his comrades. He was introduced as Mr. Dodd of Ky. (though now a Ranger), thanked us, [but said] he had been provided for by the kind ladies up town. Found him quite nice. Saw a Mr. McKa come riding up kissing his hand & we all rushed out to shake his hand. Pa asked if he had ever met him before, but he said no but I'm a Confederate soldier. Very proudly he replied. We insisted so, he had to get down, come in & get breakfast, but would take nothing to drink, which made me think all the more of him. Said he never drank anything. While he was breakfasting we trimmed his hat off beautifully with flowers, not knowing then & until sometime afterwards that he was a single man. He had heard that two stray horses were here, & thought one of them might be his, but neither were, but sent us word by cousin William Tilford this afternoon that he found his, & many thanks for our kindness. That morning as our soldiers were starting to attack the camp by Maj. Maney's, we saw two of our men coming toward our house. We insisted on them getting down & having something to eat. They said as they were about to charge the enemy they didn't have time, but finally said they would take a strong cup of coffee, & while they were drinking it the Yanks surrendered without any trouble. We had gone up into the garret to see the fight, but everything was very quiet. In the evening those two Rangers returned & ate supper with us. Lieut. Fort & AJG Robinson. When they got here not a servant was on the place, and we had to take their places until their return. The Yankee Provost Marshall was found hid between two feather beds, in Miss Corean's bed. The cover spread up & pillows upon it. It was at Mrs. Reeves' that he was captured. Mrs. Reeves & the girl treated our men shamefully. Said they didn't permit such ragged men to come to their house. Our men permitted Col. Parkhurst to go by and tell Josephine goodbye. Our men did better than the Yankees for they never allowed our boys to say goodbye to either mother or sister, much less sweetheart. They pressed Mrs. Reeves' carriage into service to take one of the wounded soldiers off, & when it was returned they cut up considerable, said they would never again ride in it. As if the Yankees had not time & again took our carriage, horses & everything else they could lay their hands on.


Monday July 14th 1862
We can scarcely realize the joy of being free. Many expect the Yankees back today. Bettie & I sat up at Mrs. Duffer's last night, cam back & slept until nine, in the meantime having been waked up several times, which we did not relish one bit. Uncle John Lytle was in to see us. It has been a long, long time since I had seen him. Aunt Helen, her two daughters Bettie & Mollie, & Mrs. King were in to see us, but had to leave early for fear the Yanks would put out pickets. Sister Amanda & Mary Turner were here also & had to hurry off. Ma & Pa have been [away] from home all day, attending to wounded soldiers, principally Yankee ones. We had our rooms prepared for some of the wounded Confederates, but did not succeed in getting any to nurse. Mrs. John Burton was here a few moments this morning. A number of ladies went out to the battlefield, I should like to have seen it. I slept nearly all the afternoon, then got up & had our new horse attended to, the one the Rangers left with us.


Tuesday July 15th 1862
It was clear until the middle of the day, then the clouds gathered & rained very hard. Cousin Ann, Bettie & I were up town today. B-- & I stopped to see Kate Marchbanks. Everybody seems so, so happy. We that are Southern in feelings sympathize in our troubles & share our joys. Kate will leave us for the mountains tomorrow, if nothing prevents her doing so. She insisted we should remain, & tell Mrs. Anderson goodbye, but she did not get back before we left. We stopped at Mrs. Boles' & they were as happy as we were, & had as much to tell us as Kate had. They said they heard a gentleman say he knew the negro that cursed us & he would have him shot. We then went around to Uncle Avent's, on our way Mrs. Brady hailed us & would have a talk with us. Cousins Tabitha & Ell were both around at their mother's, & had a bundle of news to tell. Capt. Rounds shot one of our men from the window at Mrs. Reeves', & he ran into Aunt's & told them who shot him. They told us how the Reeves girls did. I left Bettie there to return with her mother, & I came back alone. I saw Anna Murfree just as I passed Mrs. Henderson's, & we had quite a long talk. She said 4 Yankees had died up at Soule College since yesterday, and one was about to die. Said also they seem to be very grateful for the kindness of the ladies, but that those at the University were very ungrateful. It is rumored that Nashville has been taken by our men, & Clarksville has been attacked. If the first was true Bro. John would have been home by this time. Kate Avent is spending the night with Rosa. Last night 3 persons came up the pavement, rung the bell & we did not know at first who it was. Pa made them give their names before he let them in, for we were afraid they were Yankees, but they were after clothes to bury one of our men that had died.


Wednesday July 16th 1862
Was up writing before breakfast. Ma & Pa were around to see our wounded soldiers that are scattered around town. We have lost several, & they say it is impossible for some of the rest to get well. Ma & Pa went up to see Uncle Ephe Lytle this afternoon, they report Aunt Judy is looking badly. 13 or 14 of our soldiers passed by here today. Took that Yankee storekeeper prisoner, that our boys made take the oath. It is reported that Gen. Cheatham is in five miles of Nashville, & going to attack it. The Yanks are fortifying it strongly. The 1st Regt. is with Cheatham & Legrand with it. Kate Avent returned home this morning. Old Mr. Fritz, that old Frenchman that staid a day or two out here, sent word for Ma to send for him, but neither Pa or Ma was here, or the buggy either and I was glad of it, as I don't want him here.


Thursday July 17th 1862
I aroused earlier than usual, found it raining quite hard. A paroled Yankee took breakfast here this morning. He is from Bowling Green, Ky. & has been wanting Ma & Pa to help him desert & writing home to his brother not to join the army that they were not fighting for what they thought they were. His name was Holmes. Ma & Pa went up to see our wounded. At dinner another paroled Yankee came for his dinner, and as our boys had burnt up all their provisions, I felt it was a charity to give him something to eat, as he praised our boys. Said they even took their own provisions & gave to them, depriving themselves of something to eat. I afterwards found out he was an abolitionist, born in Boston, & now living in the West. He pretended to blame his Officers for surrendering. Everything he said only made me love Dixie, & the Southern boys more than ever. He said an unsophisticated country girl was out about 4 miles in the country sitting on a ten rail fence, hurrahing for Jeff Davis, said her mouth was large enough, but when she opened it, it reminded him of a coffee pot with the top open. He intended that as a witty remark, but I couldn't see the wit or the beauty, either. I did not enjoy the remark at all. If I had thought of it I would have given him another specimen, by making an ugly mouth at him. Old Mr. Fritz came here before dinner, & I don't know for how long. The Yankees came in town, did not stay long. I wonder if they have found afraid in their dictionary yet. Two flags of truce were in today, one from our men saying for the paroled Yankees to leave here, another from the Yankees to see about their sick & I must not forget a third that came in to hunt for their wagon. Some say he came in just to look around. Some think we will have a big battle here tomorrow, but I don't think so, or our men would not have sent word they would be in with 30,000 men.

Forrest : Memphis' first White Civil Rights Advocate

Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) was a renowned Southern military leader and strategist during the War Between the States. During the Civil War, Forrest's Confederate cavalry wrecked havoc among Union forces throughout the mid-South. He gained worldwide fame from his many battlefield successes, but the wartime heroics have overshadowed his post-war work as a community leader and civil rights advocate. He fought fiercely on the battlefield, yet was a compassionate man off the field. After the war, Forrest worked tirelessly to build the New South and to promote employment for black Southerners. Forrest was known near and far as a great general, and was a well-respected citizen by both blacks and whites alike.
The Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association (predecessor to the NAACP) was organized by Southern blacks after the war to promote black voting rights, etc. One of their early conventions was held in Memphis and Mr. Forrest was invited to be the guest speaker, the first white man ever to be invited to speak to the Association.
After the Civil War, General Forrest made a speech to the Memphis City Council (then called the Board of Aldermen). In this speech he said that there was no reason that the black man could not be doctors, store clerks, bankers, or any other job equal to whites. They were part of our community and should be involved and employed as such just like anyone else. In another speech to Federal authorities, Forrest said that many of the ex-slaves were skilled artisans and needed to be employed and that those skills needed to be taught to the younger workers. If not, then the next generation of blacks would have no skills and could not succeed and would become dependent on the welfare of society.
Forrest's words went unheeded. The Memphis & Selma Railroad was organized by Forrest after the war to help rebuild the South's transportation and to build the 'new South'. Forrest took it upon himself to hire blacks as architects, construction engineers and foremen, train engineers and conductors, and other high level jobs. In the North, blacks were prohibited from holding such jobs. When the Civil War began, Forrest offered freedom to 44 of his slaves if they would serve with him in the Confederate army. All 44 agreed. One later deserted; the other 43 served faithfully until the end of the war.
Though they had many chances to leave, they chose to remain loyal to the South and to Forrest. Part of General Forrest's command included his own Escort Company, his Green Berets, made up of the very best soldiers available. This unit, which varied in size from 40-90 men, was the elite of the cavalry. Eight of these picked men were black soldiers and all served gallantly and bravely throughout the war. All were armed with at least 2 pistols and a rifle. Most also carried two additional pistols in saddle holsters. At war's end, when Forrest's cavalry surrendered in May 1865, there were 65 black troopers on the muster roll. Of the soldiers who served under him, Forrest said of the black troops: Finer Confederates never fought.
Forrest was a brilliant cavalryman and courageous soldier. As author Jack Hurst writes: a man possessed of physical valor perhaps unprecedented among his countrymen, as well as, ironically, a man whose social attitudes may well have changed farther in the direction of racial enlightenment over the span of his lifetime than those of most American historical figures.
When Forrest died in 1877 it is noteworthy that his funeral in Memphis was attended not only by a throng of thousands of whites but by hundreds of blacks as well. The funeral procession was over two miles long and was attended by over 10,000 area residents, including 3000 black citizens paying their respects.
Forrest's speech to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association July 5, 1875.
A convention and BBQ was held by the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association at the fairgrounds of Memphis, five miles east of the city. An invitation to speak was conveyed to General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the city's most prominent citizens, and one of the foremost cavalry commanders in the late War Between the States. This was the first invitation granted to a white man to speak at this gathering. The invitation's purpose, one of the leaders said, was to extend peace, joy, and union, and following a brief welcoming address a Miss Lou Lewis, daughter of an officer of the Pole-Bearers, brought forward flowers and assurances that she conveyed them as a token of good will. After Miss Lewis handed him the flowers, General Forrest responded with a short speech that, in the contemporary pages of the Memphis Appeal, evinces Forrest's racial open-mindedness that seemed to have been growing in him.

Ladies and Gentlemen I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God's earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. ( Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man to depress none. (Applause.) I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don't propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I'll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand.

(Prolonged applause.)

Whereupon N. B. Forrest again thanked Miss Lewis for the bouquet and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. Such a kiss was unheard of in the society of those days, in 1875, but it showed a token of respect and friendship between the general and the black community and did much to promote harmony among the citizens of Memphis.

Billy on guard duty

Is that a yankee out there

Forrest's Final Address To His Troops

Confederate Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, Northern And Central Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, And West Florida, From March 16 To June 30, 1865.--#8O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME XLIX/2 [S# 104]
HEADQUARTERS FORREST'S CAVALRY CORPS,Gainesville, Ala., May 9, 1865.
SOLDIERS: By an agreement made between Lieutenant-General Taylor, commanding the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and Major-General Canby, commanding U.S. forces, the troops of this department have been surrendered. I do not think it proper or necessary at this time to refer to the causes which have reduced us to this extremity, nor is it now a matter of material consequence to us how such results were brought about. That we are beaten is a self-evident fact, and any further resistance on our part would be justly regarded as the very height of folly and rashness. The armies of Generals Lee and Johnston having surrendered, you are the last of all the troops of the C. S. Army east of the Mississippi River to lay down your arms. The cause for which you have so long and so manfully struggled, and for which you have braved dangers, endured privations and sufferings, and made so many sacrifices, is to-day hopeless. The Government which we sought to establish and perpetuate is at an end. Reason dictates and humanity demands that no more blood be shed. Fully realizing and feeling that such is the case, it is your duty and mine to lay down our arms, submit to the "powers that be," and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land. The terms upon which you were surrendered are favorable, and should be satisfactory and acceptable to all. They manifest a spirit of magnanimity and liberality on the part of the Federal authorities which should be met on our part by a faithful compliance with all the stipulations and conditions therein expressed. As your commander, I sincerely hope that every officer and soldier of my command will cheerfully obey the orders given and carry out in good faith all the terms of the cartel. Those who neglect the terms and refuse to be paroled may assuredly expect when arrested to be sent North and imprisoned. Let those who are absent from their commands, from whatever cause, report at once to this place or to Jackson, Miss.; or, if too remote from either, to the nearest U.S. post or garrison for parole. Civil war, such as you have just passed through, naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings, and so far as in our power to do so to cultivate friendly feelings toward those with whom we have so long contested and heretofore so widely but honestly differed. Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out, and when you return home a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect even of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to Government, to society, or to individuals, meet them like men. The attempt made to establish a separate and independent confederation has failed, but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully and to the end will in some measure repay for the hardships you have undergone. In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. Without in any way referring to the merits of the cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination as exhibited on many hard-fought fields has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. And I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the officers and men of my command, whose zeal, fidelity, and unflinching bravery have been the great source of my past success in arms. I have never on the field of battle sent you where I was unwilling to go myself, nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be and will be magnanimous.
N. B. FORREST, Lieutenant-General.

General John Hunt Morgan

John Hunt Morgan was born June 1, 1825 in Huntsville, Alabama, and moved to Lexington, Kentucky, as a young boy. He served in the Mexican War as a first lieutenant with the 1st Kentucky and saw action at Buena Vista. After the war, Morgan returned to Lexington, where he conducted a prosperous hemp manufacturing business. In 1857 he raised a local militia unit known as the Lexington Rifles. Morgan officially enlisted in the Confederate Army on October 27, 1861, and was quickly promoted to the rank of Colonel after leading the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry on a successful campaign behind enemy lines.
Morgan's guerrilla tactics earned him the nickname "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" and inspired the Confederacy's Partisan Ranger Act of April 21, 1862, which authorized President Davis to commission units of Partisan Rangers for detached guerrilla operations. Morgan was infamous for his raids from Tennessee into Kentucky by which he would not only disrupt enemy communications by tapping into Union telegraph lines, but also round up fresh troops and supplies for the Confederate Army. The raids of the romantic Morgan thrilled Southerners throughout the Confederacy and struck fear in the heart of many a Yankee.
Morgan went on to be promoted to Brigadier General and commander of the Department of Western Virginia and East Tennessee. On September 4, 1864, Gen. John Hunt Morgan was killed in Tennessee en route to attack federal forces at Knoxville, leaving behind his wife, Martha, pregnant with their daughter. He is buried in the city of Lexington where an equestrian statue, unveiled in 1911, exemplifies his appeal as a symbol of the Confederate cause.
For more information on John Hunt Morgan and his men, visit these fine sites:

Morgan's Men AssociationSavage/Goodner Camp 1513, SCVJohn Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail in KentuckyJohn Hunt Morgan Heritage Trail in IndianaThe Longest Raid of the Civil War, by Lester V. HorwitzShotgun's Home of the American Civil WarSonoftheSouth.net - Confederate GeneralsLexington Rifles - Co A, 2nd Ky Cavalry11th Kentucky "Chenault's" Cavalry, CSAHunt-Morgan House, Lexington, KY

Oaklands

Zack telling Yankee Jokes

Zack trying to explain the joke now

It was a fun night Oaklands Mansion

We'll have to do it again soon

A great night of Confederate Fellowship

Confederate Roll Of Honor

Colonel Leopold Ludger Armant 18th Louisiana Consolidated Regiment April 8, 1864 - Mansfield, Louisiana
Sergeant Adam Washington Ballenger 13th South Carolina Infantry July 28, 1864 - Deep Bottom, Virginia
Private Wilson J. Barbee 1st Texas Infantry July 2, 1863 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Seaman Arnold Becker CSS H. L. Hunley February 17, 1864 - Attack on USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Private Christopher Columbus Bland 2nd North Carolina Artillery December 24, 1864 - Fort Fisher, North Carolina
Father Emmeran Bliemel Chaplain, 10th Tennessee Infantry August 31, 1864 - Jonesboro, Georgia
Captain Isaac Newton Brown Commander, CSS Arkansas July 15, 1862 - Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers
Colonel Henry King Burgwyn , Jr. 26th North Carolina Infantry July 1, 1863 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Corporal C. F. Carlsen CSS H. L. Hunley February 17, 1864 - Attack on USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne Cleburne's Division November 30, 1864 - Franklin, Tennessee
Seaman F. Collins CSS H. L. Hunley February 17, 1864 - Attack on USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Adjutant Claudius Virginius Hughes Davis 22nd Mississippi Infantry July 20, 1864 - Peach Tree Creek, Georgia
Private Samuel Davis Coleman's Scouts November 27, 1863 - Pulaski, Tennessee
1st Lieutenant George E. Dixon CSS H. L. Hunley February 17, 1864 - Attack on USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
David Owen Dodd Military Telegrapher January 8, 1864 - Little Rock, Arkansas
1st Lieutenant Richard William Dowling 1st Texas Heavy Artillery September 8, 1863 - Sabine Pass, Texas
Private Lamar Fontaine Discharged soldier May 24-May 28, 1863 - Vicksburg, Mississippi
Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest Forrest's Cavalry April 8, 1862 - Shiloh, Tennessee
Sergeant Robert Henry Gregg Gaines 23rd Alabama Infantry May 16, 1863 - Bakers Creek, Mississippi
Brigadier General Richard Brooke Garnett Garnett's Brigade July 3, 1863 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Brigadier General Thomas Green Green's Texas Cavalry Corps April 12, 1864 - Blair's Landing, Louisiana
Private William Guehrs Creuzbaur's Battery, 5th Texas Artillery May 6, 1864 - Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana
Brigadier General Wade Hampton Hampton's Brigade July 3, 1863 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Private Asbury W. Hancock 19th Mississippi Infantry May 12, 1864 - Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia
Lieutenant Colonel Tazewell Lee Hargrove 44th North Carolina Regiment June 26, 1863 - South Anna Bridge, Virginia
Juliet Opie Hopkins Nurse June 1, 1862 - Seven Pines, Virginia
Private William A. Hughes 1st Tennessee Infantry June 27, 1864 - Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia
Private Dewitt Smith Jobe Coleman's Scouts August 30, 1864 - Between Triune and Nolensville, Tennessee
Private James Keelan Thomas' Legion November 8, 1861 - Strawberry Plains, Tennessee
Sergeant Richard Rowland Kirkland 2nd South Carolina Infantry December 14, 1862 - Fredericksburg, Maryland
Captain James Lile Lemon 18th Georgia Infantry November 29, 1863 - Fort Sanders, Tennessee
David Herbert Llewellyn , M.D.Surgeon, CSS Alabama June 19, 1864 - Off coast of Cherbourg, France, engagement with USS Kearsage
Private Tapley P. Mays 7th Virginia Infantry May 5, 1862 - Williamsburg, Virginia
1st Lieutenant William Alexander McQueen Garden's Battery, Palmetto Light Artillery July 3, 1863 - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Captain John Singleton Mosby Mosby's Regulars March 8-9, 1863 - Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia
Private William Thomas Overby 43rd Virginia Cavalry September 23, 1864 - Front Royal, Virginia
Private Benjamin Welch Owens 1st Maryland Artillery June 15, 1863 - Stephenson's Depot, Virginia
Major John Pelham Stuart's Horse Artillery December 13, 1862 - Fredericksburg, Virginia
Brigadier General William Dorsey Pender Pender's Brigade May 3, 1863 - Chancellorsville, Virginia
Major General Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac Polignac's Brigade April 8, 1864 - Mansfield, Louisiana
Lieutenant Charles William Read CSA Navy June 6-June 27, 1863 - Cruise of the Clarence, Tacony and Archer 1st Lieutenant William Field Rector 39th Arkansas InfantryJuly 4, 1863 - Helena, Arkansas
Seaman Ridgeway CSS H. L. Hunley February 17, 1864 - Attack on USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Captain Samuel Jones Ridley 1st Mississippi ArtilleryMay 16, 1863 - Bakers Creek, Mississippi
Seaman C. Simpkins CSS H. L. Hunley February 17, 1864 - Attack on USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Seaman James A. Wicks CSS H. L. Hunley February 17, 1864 - Attack on USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
Captain Henry Wirz Ex-Commandant, Camp Sumter, Georgia November 10, 1865 - Washington, D.C.
1st Lieutenant Bennett Henderson Young 5th Confederate State Retributors October 19, 1864 - St. Albans, Vermont

Valor in Gray: The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor Excerpt from Appendix A: Miscellaneous War Decorations of the Confederacy

SAM DAVIS

TRIBUTE BY: ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

When the Lord calls up earth's heroes

To stand before his face,

O, many a name unknown to fame

Shall ring from that high place!

And out of a grave in the Southland,

At the just God's call and beck,

Shall one man rise with fearless eyes,

And a rope about his neck.
For men have swung from gallows

Whose souls were white as snow.

Not how they die nor where, but why,

Is what God's records show.

And on that mighty ledger

Is written Sam Davis' name

For honor's sake he would not make

A compromise with shame.
The great world lay before him,

For he was in his youth;

With love of life young hearts are rife,

But better he loved truth.

He fought for his convictions;

And when he stood at bay,

He would not flinch or stir one inch

From honor's narrow way.
They offered life and freedom

If he would speak the word;

In silent pride he gazed aside

As one who had not heard.

They argued, pleaded, threatened

It was but wasted breath.

"Let come what must,

I keep my trust,

"He said, and laughed at death.
He would not sell his manhood

To purchase priceless hope;

Where kings drag down a name and crown.

He dignified a rope.

Ah, grave! where was your triumph?

Ah, death! where was your sting?

He showed you how a man could bow

To doom and stay a king.
And God, who loves the loyal

Because they are like him,

I doubt not yet that soul shall set

Among his cherubim.

O Southland! bring your laurels;

And add your wreath,

O North!Let glory claim the hero's name,

And tell the world his worth.

Confederate VeteranDecember 1908

18th Tennessee

Gone but never forgotten.

They will live in our hearts forever

Bugs Bunny in Dixie

Address by Jefferson Davis to the Provisional Congress of the
Confederate States of America
Montgomery, Alabama
April 29, 1861

Gentlemen of the Congress: It is my pleasing duty to announce to you that the Constitution framed for the establishment of a permanent Government for the Confederate States has been ratified by conventions in each of those States to which it was referred. To inaugurate the Government in its full proportions and upon its own substantial basis of the popular will, it only remains that elections should be held for the designation of the officers to administer it. There is every reason to believe that at no distant day other States, identified in political principle and community of interests with those which you represent, will join this Confederacy, giving to its typical constellation increased splendor, to its Government of free, equal, and sovereign States a wider sphere of usefulness, and to the friends of constitutional liberty a greater security for its harmonious and perpetual existence.
It was not, however, for the purpose of making this announcement that I have deemed it my duty to convoke you at an earlier day than that fixed by yourselves at your meeting.
The declaration of war made against this Confederacy by Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, in his proclamation issued on the 15th day of the present month, rendered it necessary, in my judgment, that you should convene at the earliest practicable moment to devise the measures necessary for the defense of the country. The occasion is indeed an extraordinary one. It justifies me in a brief review of the relations heretofore existing between us and in a succinct statements of the events which have resulted in this warfare, to the end that mankind may pass intelligent and impartial judgment on its motives and objects.
During the war waged against Great Britain by her colonies on this continent a common danger impelled them to a close alliance and to the formation of a Confederation, by the terms of which the colonies, styling themselves States, entered "severally into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever."
In order to guard against any misconstruction of their compact, the several States made explicit declaration in a distinct article-- that "each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."
Under this contract of alliance, the war of the Revolution was successfully waged, and resulted in the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, by the terms of which the several States were each by name recognized to be independent. The Articles of Confederation contained a clause whereby all alterations were prohibited unless confirmed by the Legislatures of every State after being agreed to by the Congress; and in obedience to this provision, under the resolution of Congress of the 21st of February, 1787, the several States appointed delegates who attended a convention "for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union."
It was by the delegates chosen by the several States under the resolution just quoted that the Constitution of the United States was framed in 1787 and submitted to the several States for ratification, as shown by the seventh article, which is in these words: "The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same." I have italicized certain words in the quotations just made for the purpose of attracting attention to the singular and marked caution with which the States endeavored in every possible form to exclude the idea that the separate and independent sovereignty of each State was merged into one common government and nation, and the earnest desire they evinced to impress on the Constitution its true character-- that of a compact between independent States.
The Constitution of 1787, having, however, omitted the clause already recited from the Articles of Confederation, which provided in explicit terms that each State retained its sovereignty and independence, some alarm was felt in the States, when invited to ratify the Constitution, lest this omission should be construed into an abandonment of their cherished principle, and they refused to be satisfied until amendments were added to the Constitution placing beyond any pretense of doubt the reservation by the States of all their sovereign rights and powers not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution.
Strange, indeed, must it appear to the impartial observer, but it is none the less true that all these carefully worded clauses proved unavailing to prevent the rise and growth in the Northern States of a political school which has persistently claimed that the government thus formed was not a compact between States, but was in effect a national government, set up above and over the States. An organization created by the States to secure the blessings of liberty and independence against foreign aggression, has been gradually perverted into a machine for their control in their domestic affairs. The creature has been exalted above its creators; the principals have been made subordinate to the agent appointed by themselves.
The people of the Southern States, whose almost exclusive occupation was agriculture, early perceived a tendency in the Northern States to render the common government subservient to their own purposes by imposing burdens on commerce as a protection to their manufacturing and shipping interests. Long and angry controversies grew out of these attempts, often successful, to benefit one section of the country at the expense of the other. And the danger of disruption arising from this cause was enhanced by the fact that the Northern population was increasing, by immigration and other causes, in a greater ratio than the population of the South.
By degrees, as the Northern States gained preponderance in the National Congress, self-interest taught their people to yield ready assent to any plausible advocacy of their right as a majority to govern the minority without control. They learned to listen with impatience to the suggestion of any constitutional impediment to the exercise of their will, and so utterly have the principles of the Constitution been corrupted in the Northern mind that, in the inaugural address delivered by President Lincoln in March last, he asserts as an axiom, which he plainly deems to be undeniable, that the theory of the Constitution requires that in all cases the majority shall govern; and in another memorable instance the same Chief Magistrate did not hesitate to liken the relations between a State and the United States to those which exist between a county and the State in which it is situated and by which it was created.
This is the lamentable and fundamental error on which rests the policy that has culminated in his declaration of war against these Confederate States.
In addition to the long-continued and deep-seated resentment felt by the Southern States at the persistent abuse of the powers they had delegated to the Congress, for the purpose of enriching the manufacturing and shipping classes of the North at the expense of the South, there has existed for nearly half a century another subject of discord, involving interests of such transcendent magnitude as at all times to create the apprehension in the minds of many devoted lovers of the Union that its permanence was impossible.
When the several States delegated certain powers to the United States Congress, a large portion of the laboring population consisted of African slaves imported into the colonies by the mother country. In twelve out of the thirteen States negro slavery existed, and the right of property in slaves was protected by law. This property was recognized in the Constitution, and provision was made against its loss by the escape of the slave. The increase in the number of slaves by further importation from Africa was also secured by a clause forbidding Congress to prohibit the slave trade anterior to a certain date, and in no clause can there be found any delegation of power to the Congress authorizing it in any manner to legislate to the prejudice, detriment, or discouragement of the owners of that species of property, or excluding it from the protection of the Government.
The climate and soil of the Northern States soon proved unpropitious to the continuance of slave labor, whilst the converse was the case at the South. Under the unrestricted free intercourse between the two sections, the Northern States consulted their own interests by selling their slaves to the South and prohibiting slavery within their limits. The South were willing purchasers of a property suitable to their wants, and paid the price of acquisition without harboring a suspicion that their quiet possession was to be disturbed by those who were inhibited not only by want of constitutional authority, but by good faith as vendors, from disquieting a title emanating from themselves.
As soon, however, as the Northern States that prohibited African slavery within their limits had reached a number sufficient to give their representation a controlling voice in Congress, a persistent and organized system of hostile measures against the rights of the owners of slaves in the Southern States was inaugurated and gradually extended. A continuous series of measures was devised and prosecuted for the purpose of rendering insecure the tenure of property in slaves.
Fanatical organizations, supplied with money by voluntary subscriptions, were assiduously engaged in exciting amongst the slaves a spirit of discontent and revolt; means were furnished for their escape from their owners, and agents secretly employed to entice them to abscond; the constitutional provisions for their rendition to their owners was first evaded, then openly denounced as a violation of conscientious obligation and religious duty; men were taught that it was a merit to elude, disobey, and violently oppose the execution of the laws enacted to secure the performance of the promise contained in the constitutional compact; owners of slaves were mobbed and even murdered in open day solely for applying to a magistrate for the arrest of a fugitive slave; the dogmas of these voluntary organizations soon obtained control of the Legislatures of many of the Northern States, and laws were passed providing for the punishment, by ruinous fines and long-continued imprisonment in jails and penitentiaries, of citizens of the Southern States who should dare to ask aid of the officers of the law for the recovery of their property.
Emboldened by success, the theater of agitation and aggression against the clearly expressed constitutional rights of the Southern States was transferred to the Congress; Senators and Representatives were sent to the common councils of the nation, whose chief title to this distinction consisted in the display of a spirit of ultra fanaticism, and whose business was not "to promote the general welfare or insure domestic tranquillity," but to awaken the bitterest hatred against the citizens of sister States by violent denunciation of their institutions; the transaction of public affairs was impeded by repeated efforts to usurp powers not delegated by the Constitution, for the purpose of impairing the security of property in slaves, and reducing those States which held slaves to a condition of inferiority.
Finally a great party was organized for the purpose of obtaining the administration of the Government, with the avowed object of using its power for the total exclusion of the slave States from all participation in the benefits of the public domain acquired by all the States in common, whether by conquest or purchase; of surrounding them entirely by States in which slavery should be prohibited; of thus rendering the property in slaves so insecure as to be comparatively worthless, and thereby annihilating in effect property worth thousands of millions of dollars. This party, thus organized, succeeded in the month of November last in the election of its candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
In the meantime, under the mild and genial climate of the Southern States and the increasing care and attention for the well-being and comfort of the laboring class, dictated alike by interest and humanity, the African slaves had augmented in number from about 600,000, at the date of the adoption of the constitutional compact, to upward of 4,000,000.
In moral and social condition they had been elevated from brutal savages into docile, intelligent, and civilized agricultural laborers, and supplied not only with bodily comforts but with careful religious instruction. Under the supervision of a superior race their labor had been so directed as not only to allow a gradual and marked amelioration of their own condition, but to convert hundreds of thousands of square miles of wilderness into cultivated lands covered with a prosperous people; towns and cities had sprung into existence, and had rapidly increased in wealth and population under the social system of the South; the white population of the Southern slaveholding States had augmented form about 1,250,000 at the date of the adoption of the Constitution to more than 8,500,000 in 1860; and the productions of the South in cotton, rice, sugar, and tobacco, for the full development and continuance of which the labor of African slaves was and is indispensable, had swollen to an amount which formed nearly three-fourths of the exports of the whole United States and had become absolutely necessary to the wants of civilized man.
With interests of such overwhelming magnitude imperiled, the people of the Southern States were driven by the conduct of the North to the adoption of some course of action to avert the danger with which they were openly menaced. With this view the Legislatures of the several States invited the people to select delegates to conventions to be held for the purpose of determining for themselves what measures were best adapted to meet so alarming a crisis in their history.
Here it may be proper to observe that from a period as early as 1798 there had existed in all of the States of the Union a party almost uninterruptedly in the majority based upon the creed that each State was, in the last resort, the sole judge as well of its wrongs as of the mode and measure of redress. Indeed, it is obvious that under the law of nations this principle is an axiom as applied to the relations of independent sovereign States, such as those which had united themselves under the constitutional compact.
The Democratic party of the United States repeated, in its successful canvass in 1856, the declaration made in numerous previous political contests, that it would "faithfully abide by and uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legislature in 1799; and that it adopts those principles as constituting one of the main foundations of its political creed." The principles thus emphatically announced embrace that to which I have already averred-- the right of each State to judge of and redress the wrongs of which it complains.
These principles were maintained by overwhelming majorities of the people in all the States of the Union at different elections, especially in the elections of Mr. Jefferson in 1805, Mr. Madison in 1809, and Mr. Pierce in 1852. In the exercise of a right so ancient, so well-established, and so necessary for self-preservation, the people of the Confederate States, in their conventions, determined that the wrongs which they had suffered and the evils with which they were menaced required that they should revoke the delegation of powers to the Federal Government which they had ratified in their several conventions. They consequently passed ordinances resuming all their rights as sovereign and independent States and dissolved their connection with the other States of the Union.
(The balance of this message, omitted from these pages, deals with the formation of the Confederacy,
the firing on Fort Sumter, and preparation for war.)

Confederate Descendants

On a cold, wet, and rainy day, the weather will not stop us

from honoring our ancestors.

General Lee and John

I'm proud of you son your fighting a good fight.

Johnny Reb

Bonnie Blue Flag

How To out number a Yankee Army

The Battle of Stone Mountain

It is little known that Sherman, when arriving at the front to see what was holding up his march to the sea, found a Confederate on top of Stone Mountain waving signal flags and hurling curses at the enemy below. He immediately ordered his adjutant to sent his best man up that mountain to "throw that Reb off of it."

Up went Sgt. McGurk, an 8'-2" Irishman, after "the reb." After a slight lull in the signaling, a loud "thump" was heard at the base of the mountain. There laid McGurk, never to move an inch more to the sea.

Sherman then ordered the best 10 men in the regiment to clear that "no good murdering, signaling and shouting Reb" off of 'his' mountain."

Up went the 10 Yankees, armed with swords, bayonets, revolvers and rifles. Again the signaling and shouting paused. A few minutes later, another 10 blue clothed Yankees bounced one by one down the mountain. Never would they taste the salt of the ocean.
Well Sherman was really steamed!

He then sent 150 handpicked soldiers up the mountain. This time they took an howitzer with them in addition to every small arm available. The signaling hardly paused before the figures of 149 troopers were seen to be caroming down from the mountain. The 150th soldier limped back down the mountain, bloodied, weak and near to breathing his last. Sherman rushed over to him, dismounted, and put his ear to the soldier's mouth to catch his words.

The soldiers words were " Go around the mountain, General, it's a trap. There are two of them up there!" A seldom told story about the Battle of Stone Mountain in Georgia as found in the July 1865 issue of Reader's Digest.

Lunch Time

John offering to share his lunch

Confederate Quotes and some Yankee words

"You can be whatever you resolve to be."
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson
1842
"I am with the South in life or in death, in victory or defeat. I never owned a negro and care nothing for them, but these people have been my friends and have stood up to me on all occasions. In addition to this, I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the Constitution and the fundamental principles of the government...We propose no invasion of the North, no attack on them, and only ask to be let alone."
Patrick R. Cleburne
May 1861

"Ours is a just war, a holy cause. The invader must meet the fate he deserves and we must meet him as becomes us, as becomes men."
John Pelham

"They do not know what they say. If it came to a conflict of arms, the war will last at least four years. Northern politicians will not appreciate the determination and pluck of the South, and Southern politicians do not appreciate the numbers, resources, and patient perseverance of the North. Both sides forget that we are all Americans. I foresee that our country will pass through a terrible ordeal, a necessary expiation, perhaps, for our national sins."
Robert E. Lee
May 5, 1861

"War is inevitable, and there is not telling when it will burst around you . . . You have to move and make arrangements to go to some point of safety which you must select. The Mount Vernon plate and pictures ought to be secured. Keep quiet while you remain, and in your preparations . . . May God keep and preserve you and have mercy on all our people."
Robert E/ Lee to his wife,
Mary Anna Custis
May 1861

"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 and my home."
Robert E. Lee

"Do your duty in all things...You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less."
Robert E. Lee

"You cannot be a true man until you learn to obey."
Robert E. Lee

"I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself."
Robert E. Lee

"Never marry unless you can do so into a family that will enable your children to feel proud of both sides of the house."
Robert E. Lee

"Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in this right hand."
General Robert E. Lee,
August 1870 to
Governor Stockdale of Texas

"...In the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing....My trust is in the mercy and wisdom of a kind Providence, who ordereth all things for our good."
Robert E. Lee

"Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret."
Robert E. Lee

"It's bad. It's damned bad." Abraham Lincoln's first reaction to the Union Army's rout at First Manassas

"I failed, I failed, and that is about all that can be said about it. Abraham Lincoln's self-criticism of his famous."Gettysburg Address"

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" Union General John Sedgwick spoke these words just moments before being shot dead by a confederate sniper at Spotsylvania.

"He looked as though he ought to have been, and was, the monarch of the world." Description of Robert E. Lee

Look at Jackson's brigade! It stands there like a stone wall!Confederate General Barnard E. Bee of South Carolina gave this description of Stonewall Jackson's brigade at First Manassas

"Boys, he's not much for looks, but if we'd had him we wouldn't be caught in this trap."A captured Union soldier describing Stonewall Jackson

"That old man...had my division massacred at Gettysburg!"George Pickett said these words to John S. Mosby shortly after paying Lee a visit in Richmond

"Well, it made you famous."Mosby's reply to Pickett

"The time for compromise has now passed, and the South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel!"Jefferson Davis used these words in his inaugural speech on February 16, 1861

"a damned old goggled-eyed snapping turtle" Subordinate officers so described Union General George Meade

"The Rebel army is now the legitimate property of the Army of the Potomac."Joseph Hooker spoke these pompous words shortly before he was soundly defeated by Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville

"General, if you put every [Union soldier] now on the other side of the Potomac on that field to approach me over the same line, I will kill them all before they reach my line."General James Longstreet made this vow to Robert E. Lee as countless Federal assaults were beaten back by Longstreet's men at the Battle of Fredericksburg

"If you bring these leaders to trial it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution secession is not rebellion." (I love this quote) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court privately delivered this opinion on charging captured Confederate officers with treason

"General, unless he offers us honorable terms, come back and let us fight it out!" James Longstreet said this to Robert E. Lee as he rode off to discuss terms for surrender with General Grant at Appomattox

"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. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit.' Abraham Lincoln, January 12, 1848 speech in Congress (If I'm not mistaken 13 states did this and a war was waged against them, now ain't that something.)

"Robert E. Lee didn't surrender. Grant just stole his sword and Lee was too much of a gentleman to ask him to give it back." Chris Devereaux (a joke)