Thursday, January 31, 2013

Upcoming Alabama Statewide Events of Interest for Confederate Heritage for February 2013

A perusal of the Alabama Tourism Department Sweet Home Alabama statewide Calendar of Events and the Alabama Division SCV website calendar for February includes just one event of interest for Confederate heritage supporters this monrth.  If you have any other recommended events, please leave a comment to share.  
Fayette
Feb 23-24, Fayette . Civil War Reenactment. 205-442-3535. Free. Behind Walmart on Hwy 171--School day presentation Friday beginning at 9 a.m., battles Saturday & Sunday at 2 p.m. and a Victorian Ball on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored and hosted by The Hartsook Guard Camp #2163..

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Mardi Gras in Alabama in the Era of the Confederacy

Our family just enjoyed the Prattville AL Mardi Gras parade yesterday afternoon and we are making plans to celebrate the Millbrook event next weekend, Saturday February 2nd.  Although tiny parades in comparison to those held in Mobile, Biloxi, Pensacola and New Orleans, these are enjoyable events for the family to attend.  Mardi Gras in Alabama is actually an historical tradition and the first celebrations were held and mystic societies or krewes were organized in the country were in Alabama at the very beginnings of the 18th century.  The French and Spanish colonial histories of the gulf coast region served as the genesis of the celebratory observation of the last day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent from a religious perspective but what has evolved into a month long carnival culminating with Fat Tuesday revelry.  The first parades were conducted in Mobile and it was businessmen formerly of Mobile who in 1856 organized the first and oldest krewe in New Orleans, the Mistick Krewe of Comus.  During the War for Southern Independence, Mardi Gras celebrations were cancelled.  According to Wikepedia though, immediately after the War, in 1866 Joe Cain revived the Mardi Gras parades by portraying a fictional Chickasaw Indian chief named Slacabamorinico while parading in costume through the city streets on Fat Tuesday. He celebrated the day in front of Union Army occupation troops.  The Order of Myrhs, Mobile's oldest mystic society that continues to parade, was founded in 1867 and held its first parade on Mardi Gras night in 1868.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Contrast of Images on General Robert E. Lee Day

January 21st 2013 was a state holiday in Alabama designated General Robert E. Lee's Birthday.  The Prattville Dragoons commemorated his birthday by posting an advertisement announcing the state holiday on AL.com.  The ad was professionally designed by AL.com and was viewable throughout the morning that Monday to bring viewers attention to the importance of the day as a state holiday and educate them as to the history of one of the great men in the history of the Confederacy and the United States of America.  Lee commanded website viewer's attention from atop the header/banner position as shown in the screen-capture below.  What is shocking in contrast are two of the day's leading stories viewable in this same screen shot just below Lee's birthday commemorative banner.  There sit photographs and headlines for two of this nation's most notorious socialists.  In contrast to those qualities attributable to General Robert E. Lee which flashed across the ad space including Honor, Loyalty, Courage, Character, Devotion and Leadership, one is reminded of other less honorable characteristics of these two other persons whose photographs were displayed in those stories beneath.  Socialist, drug user, philander, plagiarist, adulterer, Marxist, hypocrite, liar, and arrogant.  Oh yes, and "articulate and bright and clean", at least in Vice President Joe Biden's opinion.  Striking contrast.
Courtesy of Alabama Media Group, AL.com

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

General Robert E. Lee Birthday Memorial Program

On Saturday January 19th, the Alabama Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans commemorated the birthday of General Robert E. Lee as well as General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson with a program at the Confederate Memorial on the grounds of the Alabama state capital.  The morning event started at 10am lasting til noon and brought together Confederate compatriots to celebrate the birthday of two of the most beloved heroes of the Confederacy and the defense of the South in the War for Southern Independence.  The program included a reenactment color guard as well as a gun salute.  Others participating and spectating in attendance were also in period dress.  A music program as well as guest speakers including officers of the Alabama Division completed the program.  The weather was beautiful and sunny on this glorious morning and helped to make the event a tremendous success.  Seven members of the Prattville Dragoons were in attendance including past Commander Larry Spears and Brigade Commander Bill Myrick. 

Monday, January 21, 2013

Anniversary of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's Birth

The Prattville Dragoons celebrate the birthday of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson today, January 21st.  Gen. Jackson was a devout Christian man who was perhaps General Robert E. Lee's most accomplished commander, leading Confederate forces to victories at the Battles of First and Second Manassas, Harpers Ferry, the Valley Campaign, the Seven Days Battle, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.  General Stonewall Jackson remains a hero of the Cause for which the troops under his command fought and the citizens of the Confederacy suffered.  Please join the Dragoons in honoring the birth of this legend in gray and join us as we celebrate his birth and his life with commemorative events planned throughout the weekend and throughout the Prattville-Montgomery river region.  January 21st is recognized in Alabama as a state holiday for General Lee's birthday but coincides this year with the birth of Gen. Jackson and he is honored alongside General Robert E. Lee in these heritage events - see other posts on this blog providing details of these events.  Happy Birthday General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

The Anniversary of General Robert E. Lee's Birthday

The Prattville Dragoons celebrate the birthday of General Robert E. Lee today, January 19th, the 206th anniversary of his birth.  See other posts on this blog regarding General Lee's illustrious history, accomplishments and character which even today ellicit admiration and reverence.  General Lee is a hero of the Cause for which the troops under his command fought and the citizens of the Confederacy suffered.  Please join the Dragoons in honoring the birth of this legend in gray and join us as we celebrate his birth and his life with commemorative events planned throughout the weekend and throughout the Prattville-Montgomery river region.  January 21st is recognized in Alabama as a state holiday for General Lee's birthday. See other posts on this blog providing details of these events.  Happy Birthday General Robert Edward Lee!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Prattville Dragoons Camp Meeting - Battle of Okolona

Dr. Brandon Beck provided a wonderful account of the Battle of Okolona at the Prattville Dragoons camp meeting on Thursday January 10th based on his book of this historical battle.  Dr. Beck began his presentation with an explanation of the Mississippi prairie in which Okolona was situated and the importance of this fertile region as the breadbasket of the Confederacy.  Railroads which ran from Memphis to Mobile, Vicksburg to Meridian though the Mississippi prairie, played a vital role in the commerce of the region and brought focus to the wartime strategic importance of this area. General Forrest with 3300 men defeated Union Gen. Smith who commanded a force of 7500 cavalry, the largest raiding force yet assembled in the War Between the States.  The men serving under Forrest had actually only been in his command for a few months having been recruited by him from western Tennessee and trained in the central Mississippi area around Como immediately prior to the battle.  Smith was to move south along the railroad from Memphis and Corinth Mississippi to join forces with General Sherman who drove from Vicksburg thru Jackson to Meridian with 20,000 infantry and artillery. The plan was then to move this combined force to Selma 130 miles eastward and then to Mobile early the following year of 1864. Gen. Smith was delayed and then routed by Forrest, delaying Sherman's march of destruction across the South.  The year of 1864 was the worst period of the War (despite 8 of the 10 bloodiest battles occurring outside that timeframe) for four reasons, 1) there was intense fighting and once the big armies engaged, they locked to the end, 2) there was extensive fighting throughout the entire theatre, throughout the Confederacy, even Florida saw it's bloodiest clash with the Battle of Olustee, 3) there was desperate fighting with Lincoln facing reelection, and 4) it was the first year the federal government implemented a sustained plan to attack and burn the civilian infrastructure and populace and Mississippi was the first.  In the middle of 1863 General Robert E. Lee appointed General Stephen Dill Lee to command Confederate forces in the Mississippi prairie region. He set about equipping his army but he needed an executive officer to elevate civilian morale and he found one in Gen. Forrest who had just fought under Bragg at Chickamauga but had found himself in disfavor with his commanding officer. Bragg released Forrest to Lee and replaced him with General Wheeler.  Gen. Smith was to move south down the railroad and lay a swath of destruction along the way as ordered by Sherman and he burned crops and farms in Okolona and then razed the town of Egypt including burning civilians to death before encountering Forrest's troops at West Point.  This was the second Union raid against which Forrest had defended following a pursuit of General Streight across northern Georgia to Rome in 1862.  Following skirmishes with Forrest's troops around West Point, Smith decided to retreat north on Feb 20th and Forrest sought to annihilate the Union raiding force saying in a message to his second in command, "I think they are badly scared. I will stay on them as long as I feel I can do any good."  When Smith reached Okolona he saw a single file line of cavalry led by Major Barteau (one of the officers under Forrest's command) along the railroad track.  Forrest soon arrived and crossed Barteau's line receiving a salute from the troops and then turned and charged into Smith's forces sending the Union troops into disarray and retreat. Gen. Smith lost 400 men and 6 artillery and Forrest lost approximately 80 men in the Battle of Okolona.  Important notes regarding the battle were Forrest's unrelenting pressure, the psychological impact Forrest's actions had on his troops and the enemy, the psychological impact the destruction of the prairie had on the Confederate troops, Forrest turned over the pursuit of Smith's forces to state guard troops, and much of the site of the Battle of Okolona has been preserved due to preservation efforts.  The year of 1864 was the greatest year of Forrest's command starting with the victory at the Battle of Okolona and including the Battle of Fort Pillow and his greatest victory, that at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads and eventually taking command of the cavalry of the Army of Tennessee. 

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Prattville Dragoons January 2013 Camp Meeting Outstanding

The Prattville Dragoons held their monthly camp meeting at the Shoneys on Cobbs Ford Rd in Prattville on Thursday January 10th at 7pm.  This proved to be an outstanding enjoyable evening of fellowship and education. Commander Chris Booth was not able to attend so 1st Lt Harold Grooms led the meeting.  After the invocation by Chaplain Tom Snowden and pledges to the flags, there was a recognition of the passing of member Henry Owen Gober, a Real Son of a Confederate Veteran.  Past Commander Larry Spears introduced his grandson and passed around a photograph of Mr. Gober with Nathan and he recalled that Henry always said he was proud to be the son of a Confederate veteran.  He also said that soon after the I-65 flag was raised, Mr. Gober told him, "Keep her flyin'!"  Joe Smith was sworn in as the newest Prattville Dragoon and there was a round of applause to greet him.  Dr. Brandon Beck was the guest speaker and he did a wonderful job of entertaining and educating us on General Nathan B. Forrest and the Battle of Okolona.  Dr. Beck is the author of numerous books and he brought along copies of "Third Alabama", "Battle of Okolona" and "Battle of Holly Springs".  Dr. Beck is from Columbus, Miss. and is the Director of the Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University and he explained the endowment of the Institute as a preface to his discussion saying he believes education is the key to heritage defense.  He pointed out that this was evidenced by General Robert E. Lee serving as President of what is now Washington-Lee University and General Stephen D. Lee serving as President of what is now Mississippi State University.  See the following blog post here for an accounting of the Battle of Okolona as presented by Dr. Brandon Beck at the Dragoons camp meeting. 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Upcoming Events Honoring General Robert E. Lee

January 19th is the birthday of General Robert E. Lee and this year marks the 206th anniversary of his birth.  A number of events are planned to celebrate his birthday and honor this Confederate hero.  January 21st of course is a state holiday in Alabama honoring Robert E. Lee. 

On Thursday January 17th, the Selma AL Col. C.C. Pegues camp #62 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans will host a steak dinner at the Tally-Ho Restaurant on Mangum Avenue in Selma.  A delicious steak dinner will be served and guest speaker Dr. Harry Reeder will highlight the events for the evening which begins at 6:30 pm.  Pat and Butch Godwin, Friends of Forrest, can be contacted for further information.

On Friday January 18th, the Montgomery AL Semple camp #2002 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans will again host their Lee-Jackson banquet at the Dalraida Methodist Church fellowship hall. Bob Bradley will be the keynote speaker and a rib eye steak dinner with all the trimmings will be provided.  Contact Semple Camp Communications Officer Alan Parker at alantparker@gmail.com for further information. 

The Alabama Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans will hist a memorial service for General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson at 10am at the Confederate monument at the state capital.  In the event of rain or inclement weather, the program will be held in the State Archives building.  The program will start at 10am and will include a band, a reenactment honor guard, a 21-gun salute and a keynote address by the Honorable Hank Arnold. 

On Monday January 21st, the St. Clair SCV Camp #308 has planned a travelling memorial for this holiday.  At 9:30 am at the Pell City courthouse there will be a gun salute and placement of a memorial wreath.  At 10am at the Ashville courthouse there will be a gun salute and placement of a memorial wreath. Then at 11am, at the Oneonta courthouse there will be a program including gun salute.  Period dress is requested but not required. 

Also on Monday at the First White House of the Confederacy there will be a program celebrating the birthday of General Robert E. Lee including birthday cake.  Enjoy all these activities and show your support for the Cause and these great and honorable Confederate heroes by participating in as many of these events as possible.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Dragoons Honor Passing of Real Son Henry Owen Gober

Dragoons filled a pew at Brookside Funeral Home in Millbrook on Saturday 12 January 2013 for the funeral of Mr. Henry Owen Gober, next-to-last Real Son in the Alabama Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  A long processional of friends of Mr. Gober stood to pay condolences to his family.  The funeral service  was standing room only and his pastor presented a personal heart felt message about Henry and his faith and witness over the course of his 99 year long life. The Dragoons presented a wreath with two small Battle Flags in it which stood among other beautiful sprays around the front of the chapel (picture below).  Mr. Gober's casket was draped with a United States flag as he was a veteran of the U.S. Navy.  Henry Owen Gober was buried at the Tricommunity Cemetery near the First Methodist Church of Millbrook.  The following is the article from the June 2004 Prattville Dragoons Camp Dispatch penned by Larry Spears announcing Henry and his brother Vince joining Camp 1524:
Real Sons Join Dragoons!
Our Camp is honored to have two real sons of a Confederate veteran join our Camp! Henry O. and James (Vince) Gober are the sons of Private
Lisbon Failes Gober, Company K, Georgia State Guards. Although members of the SCV, they were not members of an active Camp. With the work of Camp Adjutant Wayne Sutherland, Division 2nd Lt. Commander Wyatt Willis and our Division Adjutant Paul Vaughn we were able to bring them into our membership. Since they both live in Millbrook, this will make it very convenient for us to provide Camp services to them. If you would like to send them a card or note of welcome their addresses are Henry Gober, 401 Woodland Dr. and Vince Gober, 3840 Woodmere, Millbrook AL 36054.


Dragoons in attendance at Henry's funeral service on Saturday were Brigade Commander Bill Myrick, 1Lt Commander Harold Grooms, 2Lt Commander Stuart Waldo, Past Commander Larry Spears, Chaplain Tom Snowden, Adjutant Wayne Sutherland, Past Quartermaster Jeffrey Potts, and Communications Officer Tyrone Crowley.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

In the Light of Potential Imminent Federal Infringement of our 2nd Ammendment Rights

Received this news article from a friend regarding the clear benefit of an armed citizenry including concealed weapons.  Criminals won't respect wider "gun free zones" at schools and has been seen, they greatly appreciate media publications identifying "dangerous" armed household targets to avoid courtesy of recent NY newspaper articles.  We're more interested in taking guns away from the law abiding citizens that protecting our children.  Australia attempted to remove all guns from their country in 1997 thru a buyback program and wound up causing an increase in gun related crimes since of course then, only criminals carried guns -
http://www.gunsandcrime.org/auresult.html .  If we truly want to stop senseless killing in schools, we would train and arm the school administrators or place armed officers in schools (same as we have throughout the country at community colleges and universities). 

San Antonio Theater Shooting occurred Sunday December 17, 2012, 2 days after the CT shooting, a man went to a restaurant in San Antonio to kill his exgirlfriend. After he shot her, most of the people in the restaurant fled next door to a theater. The gunman followed them and entered the theater so he could shoot more people. He started shooting and people in the theater started running and screaming. It’s like the Aurora, CO theater story plus a restaurant!

Now aren’t you wondering why this isn’t a lead story in the national media along with the school shooting?

There was an off duty county deputy at the theater. SHE pulled out her gun and shot the man 4 times before he had a chance to kill anyone. So since this story makes the point that the best thing to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun, the media is treating it like it never happened.

Only the local media covered it. The city is awarding her a medal next week.

Just thought you’d like to know.

Another example of the media’s deliberate attempt to whitewash news while at the same time creating their own narrative for whatever sinister reasons.
  

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Chilton County Historical Society Lecture - Battle of Stanton/Ebenezer Church

Katherine Reece, President of the Chilton County Historical Society invites everyone to their next meeting on Sunday January 13th at 2pm at the Chilton/Clanton Library in Clanton AL.

The speaker will be Wayne Arnold who will be presenting a program on the Battle of Stanton. During the Civil War Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson of the Union army was ordered to go to Selma and destroy the munitions plants. His troops and Confederate troops led by Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest had a running battle through the western part of Chilton County which is called the Battle of Stanton or the Battle of Ebenezer Church.

Mr Arnold has researched this battle for decades, he's read the diaries of the officers of both sides, and he's walked the battlegrounds with metal detectors finding and preserving artifacts, which he'll be bringing to the meeting. Members and visitors are invited to come to this important and exciting meeting.   Mr. Arnold indicated he will be bringing a Springfield rifle he found that had the barrel bent like a Sherman tie. 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Memphis City Government Defacing Confederate Memorial Park

This story is hauntingly similar to the fiasco in Selma AL regarding the Forrest Monument and Confederate Circle enhancements - see other related posts.

From the Memphis TN Commercial Appeal, by Micael Lollar, dated Jan 8, 2013:
(http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/jan/08/city-removal-of-forrest-park-marker-angers-sons/ )

City Removal of Forrest Park Marker Angers Sons of Confederate Veterans

The city and the Sons of Confederate Veterans began a mini Civil War on Tuesday over the city's removal without warning of a half-ton granite marker from the south side of Forrest Park.
Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Lee Millar, past chairman of the Shelby County Historical Commission, said he noticed on his way to work Tuesday morning that the marker had disappeared. Ten feet long, the marker simply said "Forrest Park."

The ten-foot-long, two-foot-wide, solid Tennessee granite sign weighed roughly one ton and cost the historical society $10,400 to make and install with no cost to tax payers.
Millar said there were no signs of damage to surrounding grass in the park on Union in the heart of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center campus. UT maintains the park, which is owned by the city. Since the grass wasn't damaged, Millar said it would have taken a crane to cleanly lift the marker and its concrete base from the park. He filed a police report, but said he suspected the city was involved, because it would have been the only one with the equipment to move the 1,000-pound Tennessee granite stone.
Memphis Chief Administrative Officer George Little said he authorized the removal using city General Services equipment on grounds the marker had not been formally approved. Little said he did not notify anyone ahead of time because he had no idea who installed the marker, although Millar said the back side of the marker had an inscription saying it was placed by Memphis Park Services, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Shelby County Historical Commission.
Millar said he had formal approval in a letter from former Memphis Park Services director Cynthia Buchanan.
But Little said there was no indication of written approval. "I went by what I could find in terms of the written record. I'm just trying to maintain a level of fairness and consistency in terms of the way we do business around here."
The marker was installed in the park in May and dedicated in a brief ceremony in July. Millar produced a letter Tuesday dated March 21, 2011, in which Buchanan thanked him for offering to donate the granite sign for Forrest Park. "Many of our parks are without proper signage and we appreciate the Commission's offer to provide this important signage for one of the city's historic parks." Buchanan copied the letter to Little and to Mike Flowers, administrator of park planning and development.
Millar said the marker cost $9,000, with another $1,400 spent to install it. The marker has a concrete base with steel rods anchoring it.
The park's centerpiece is a sometimes-controversial statue of Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a cavalry officer who became the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Little said he received no pressure to remove the marker nor complaints about it, but Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey said he had "raised holy hell about it" to both Little and Mayor A C Wharton. "I wrote him (Little) a letter, and he said he would explore the issue," said Bailey.
Bailey said the marker "only exacerbated" what he called the offensive symbolism of the statue. "I commend the administration for having the sensitivity and understanding the breadth and depth of how offensive those symbols are. They're divisive, and we don't need that kind of divisive symbols in 2013. Those symbols hold us back. They make a laughing stock of us. They present us as a typical Southern town that refuses to let go."
Little said the groups can reclaim the marker, or he will see to it that it is returned to them, but Millar said he expects the city to return the marker to the park on Wednesday and to foot the bill for reinstallation.

The Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and members of the Shelby County Historical Commission held a small ceremony in July, dedicating a 'Forrest Park' marker weighing a half ton on the south side of the park along Union Avenue. Spokesman Lee Millar said the marker was removed Monday night without warning, while City Chief Administrative Officer George Little said the marker was removed because it was not formally approved by the city before it was installed. Photo courtesty of Shelby County Historical Commission.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Prattville Dragoons Camp Meeting for January 2012

The Prattville Dragoons will hold their monthly meeting tonight, January 10th at 7pm at the Shoneys on Cobbs Ford Rd.  Many arrive early to enjoy the Shoney's buffet.  Please join us for an enjoyable and educational time with fellow compatriots.

January Meeting Will Feature Talk On Nathan Bedford Forrest
          At our January meeting, our speaker will be Dr. Brandon Beck, Lt Commander of the Caledonia Rifles SCV Camp 2140 in Mississippi, who will present a talk on another great Confederate, General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  Dr. Beck is a retired college professor and Director of the Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia.  He is an author of ten books on WBTS history, including one on General Forrest and the Battle of Okolona, and a recent one on General Cullen Battle and the Third Alabama Infantry, published by the University of Alabama Press.  He says he enjoys doing these presentations as a part of the SCV's educational mission, so bring a friend and expect to be educated.

Passing of Dragoons Real Son Henry Gober

Henry Owen Gober of Millbrook Alabama, a Real Son of Confederate Veteran Lisbon Failes Gober passed away yesterday.  Henry may be the last Real Son and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Alabama.  Henry was the seventh of nine children born to Lisbon and Caroline Elizabeth Rowlen.  Henry married Beno Grace Sego on December 17th, 1934 in what is now Millbrook.  Henry and Beno had two daughters and two sons together. Henry was a building construction contractor and helped build many of the houses in the community where he lived.  Henry was a member of the Prattville Dragoons, Camp 1524 of the SCV.  Former Dragoons Commander Larry Spears was saddened by the news but fondly remembers Henry having expressed how very proud he was to be the son of a Confederate veteran. His father Lisbon Failes Gober is buried at Rocky Mount Cemetery in Prattville, Elmore County.  Dragoons 2nd Lt Stuart Waldo and past Commander Wyatt Willis visited Henry this past May, informing him that Stuart had recently discovered on the Gober family ancestry website (http://www.goberfamily.org/Gober/gober-o/index.htm ) that they were related having the same great grandfather William Gober in the 18th century.  Henry will be missed as is his Confederate veteran father and as are all the heroes of the War for Southern Independence.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

General Robert E. Lee's Birthday Celebrated by the Sons of Confederate Veterans

This year marks the 206th anniversary of the birth of one of the South’s most noble courageous and admired leaders.  Robert Edward Lee was born on January 19th, 1807.  After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point at the top of his class and serving 32 years in the United States Army, Lee remained true to his constitutional principles and chose to defend his home state of Virginia despite being offered the command of the Union army by Abraham Lincoln.  General Lee served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, and Commander of all Confederate forces and has been praised by military historians for his tactical military genius in leading his forces to many victories against an enemy of superior force in the War for Southern Independence.  Even greater was his compassion for the soldiers he led and his fellow countrymen.  Lee emerged from the War a hero and subsequently served as President of Washington and Lee University and was a leader and example to all during the period of Reconstruction.  On January 19th, the Alabama Division will hold a celebration of General Robert E. Lee’s birthday at the Alabama state capital at the Confederate memorial on the north side of the building at 10am.  Please join us this morning to honor General Lee and General Stonewall Jackson (whose birthdate was January 21st, 1824).  For further information about this event please visit the Alabama Division, Sons of Confederate website http://www.aladivscv.com.  For further information about the heritage, educational, and charitable mission of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, please visit http://www.scv.org. 
Robert Edward Lee.jpg

Monday, January 7, 2013

Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 Executive Committee Meeting Tonight

The Dragoons EC will conduct their monthly meeting in downtown Prattville tonight to prepare for the camp meeting later this week and discuss other relevant business.  In addition to a report out of the successful Christmas Social and the introduction for our camp meeting scheduled speaker, Dr. Brandon Beck of Mississippi who will provide a presentation on General Nathan Bedford Forrest, we will be a couple other items of interest.  The Dragoons have historically not participated in the Prattville Mardi Gras parade but the parade upcoming on January 26th provides another opportunity for a fun time of fellowship and to put the Dragoons and the SCV out in front of the Prattville community.  We also have the Semple camp's Lee-Jackson banquet coming up January 19th, the very birthday of General Robert E Lee.  The other related item of interest will be our ad initiative for General Lee's birthday.  The Dragoons have placed an ad in several local newspapers including the Prattville, Millbrook, Wetumpka and Maxwell AFB circulars for a day (depending on their circulation) around Lee's birthday.  Another possibility for expanding the distribution of this information is to advertise on the internet and AL.com has been contacted about a possible ad spot and to submit press releases for the Lee memorial at the state capital on Jan 19th for instance.  Moving to internet communication will help further to disseminate information related to the SCV and the Cause to more audiences, furthering Lee's SCV Charge.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Emancipation Proclamation Contrast by Hollywood

Although I have not lined Steven Spielberg's and Hollywood's pockets with money to support their misinformed progressive agenda to further promote a contorted historical view of Lincoln and his legacy, I would offer the following link to interested readers.  Penned by Stephen Mansfield, this account purports that Lincoln was divinely inspired, nay personally directed by God to free the slaves thru an Emancipation Proclamation, God having given Lincoln and his Union army a victory at the Battle of Sharpsburg (aka Antietam). Giving little credence to the superior manpower and equipment the Northern troops had, he presents the Union victory there and Lincoln's proclamation as a divine gift bestowed by his apparent faithful servant Lincoln.  OMG.  Nothing of the invalidity of the proclamation attempting to effect the populace of a sovereign nation (although duly recognizing that it fabulously ignored any slaves in the states and territories under Northern control).  Nothing of the unconstitutional nature of the proclamation which attempted to overturn the constitutional law of the land which supported that institution.  Nothing of the Biblical support for the institution in that day and age contradicting any such divine inspiration (recognizing of course the certain preference for all to be free men). Nothing about the blatant strategic premise for the proclamation to reinforce the Union ranks with blacks who had formerly been unable by law to join the Union ranks.  Nothing about the unconstitutional entire premise of the War which Lincoln instigated to force the states of the Confederacy back into their subservient tax paying rolls in the Union. The article does present the position that the Emancipation Proclamation provided another impetus for those supporting the Union (including certain foreign nations) to rally behind the war effort of the North.  But again, another strategic rather than philanthropic gesture. The given title of the article is even blasphemous to infer a sacred motivation and legacy.  What an absurd farcical fantastic notion (and movie).  Yes, an imperfect document to be sure, but effective. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/12/30/sacred-legacy-150th-anniversary-emancipation-proclamation/?intcmp=features

Friday, January 4, 2013

Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation Part 4

Part 4 of 4 of an analysis of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation:

Historical experts agree the institution of slavery would have dwindled and died in the face of the modernization and industrialization of agriculture but, the immediacy of the freeing of slaves ill equipped to care for themselves proved disastrous. Every other country in the western hemisphere ended slavery peacefully but Lincoln viewed emancipation as a dire war measure.  The freed slaves who fought in the Union army were segregated from the balance of the Northern forces and were relegated chiefly to support roles such as laborers and were compensated a fraction of the wages of the white soldiers. They were also provided substandard food rations and other supplies as compared to the white Union troops and were limited on advancement with only about 100 of the approximately 180,000 blacks who joined the Union army achieving promotion to the rank of an officer.  Reconstruction crippled the recovery of the Southern states following the War and without the labor to work the land and farms, the agrarian economy was incapable of sustaining the demands of a starving, healing, rebuilding civilian populace.  The segment of the society least prepared to cope with the harsh realities of the reconstruction were the freed blacks with limited education and skills other than the very work they had provided as laborers on the plantations which lay in ruins following their pillage by the Union forces at the conclusion of the War Between the States.  Historian Jim Downs of Connecticut College in his book, Sick From Freedom, maintains perhaps a million freed slaves died from disease such as smallpox and cholera and from starvation following their emancipation calling it “the largest biological crisis of the 19th century”.  Downs stated, “In the 19th century people did not care and abolitionists, when they saw so many freed people dying, feared that it proved true what some people said: that slaves were not able to exist on their own.”  Downs continued, “So many of these people are dying of starvation in such a slow death, dying by scores, sometimes 30 per day in some contraband camps and are carried out by wagonloads without coffins and thrown promiscuously like brutes into a trench.” Some observers actually supposed that the mortality rate would lead to the extermination of the blacks on the continent.  But they did survive largely as an underclass which has ultimately resulted in a crippling burden on the nation’s economy supporting generations of welfare recipients with entitlements akin to lifelong reparations.  The emancipation of the slaves by force by a numerically superior Union army and unconstitutional dictate instead of thru a natural societal progression to gradually eliminate the institution of slavery created economic problems, tensions and racial disharmony still ongoing today not just in the South but throughout the United States.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation Part 3

Part 3 of 4 of an analysis of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation:

Surely the Emancipation Proclamation created a nirvana of racial harmony in the Northern states.  But, the proclamation interestingly did not free any slaves in any northern states.  It specified those states in the Confederacy as well as certain territories in which it provided the directive to free all slaves but excluded all the states of the Union. Famously, General Ulysses Grant retained ownership of his family’s slaves until 1865 when Missouri abolished slavery.  General Lee’s family freed the last of their slaves in 1862, prior to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.  As the Confederate States of America was a sovereign nation possessing its own constitution and governing institutions, Lincoln of course had no authority over the states of the Confederacy to issue any proclamation providing an executive order pertaining to people or property of these Southern states.  So, as the proclamation did not address any slaves in the United States over which Lincoln presided and his proclamations carried no weight within the country which was the Confederacy, the Emancipation Proclamation therefore freed not a single slave.  It was of course the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which was ratified after the conclusion of the War and the reunification of the Southern states to the Union that the institution of slavery was abolished and the slaves freed.  Many people including some in the South opposed slavery expansion westward into the new territories to preserve that land for white farmers in a segregated populace but from a political perspective, the admission of these western states as free or slave states was deemed critical to preserve the balance of power in Congress. 

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation Part 2

Part 2 of 4 of an analysis of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation:

So if it was not from a humanitarian equalitarian abolitionist standpoint that Lincoln authored the Emancipation Proclamation, what strategy possessed him?  Clearly, slavery was the law of the land as supported by the Supreme Court's Dread Scott decision of 1857 which found that slaves and those of African descent were not citizens entitled to protection under the Constitution and that the U.S. Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in any state.  The Constitution provided that the states would have authority in self-determining the provisions for the institution of slavery within the rights established by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Nonetheless, in a tyrannical unconstitutional stretch of his executive powers, Lincoln felt compelled to issue a proclamation specifically violating this established law.  Surely, Lincoln meant to cater to the powerful abolitionist movement to garner support for his unconstitutional war against the Confederacy, bringing a moral component to what could only be previously viewed as a strong-armed attempt at preserving the tax base for the federal treasury.  So, Lincoln in his same letter to Greeley sought to appease the abolitionist appetite saying, “"If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong." Maneuvering to secure the endorsement of the war mongering abolitionists in the first debate with Douglas, Lincoln stated, “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”  Surely, Lincoln is more divinely inspired than the Bible itself in defining right from wrong and deploring the historical institution of slavery, no?  The proclamation sought to promote anarchy and chaos and security issues in the South as the abolitionists openly desired.  In 1829, David Walker published his highly controversial Walker’s Appeal praising slaves who defended themselves against their masters. Even in this early antebellum period when even abolitionists refrained from advocating violent and rebellious action against slavery, Walker dared to suggest that slaves kill their masters for their freedom.  Such anarchy of course found no restraint with William Lloyd Garrison author of the antislavery publication The Liberator who rejected slavery as well as the supporting Constitution, endorsing burning the founding document.  And of course, the Emancipation Proclamation itself explicitly overturned laws forbidding blacks in the armed forces of the United States stating, “I further declare and make known, that (all persons held as slaves within said designated [Confederate] States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward free) of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. “  It is estimated that 180,000 blacks joined the Union armed forces as a direct result of this proclamation, substantially reinforcing the armies of the North, especially considering the armies of the opposing Confederacy numbered only about 750,000 in total.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation Part 1

Part 1 of 4 of an analysis of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation:

As we approach the Sesquicentennial of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, it is instructive to highlight the historical truth behind this strategic executive order issued on January 1, 1863.   Lincoln’s own words expose someone who obviously did not endorse the radical abolitionist’s goals to free the slaves as a humanitarian gesture.   It was generally recognized by leading figures of that period and throughout history that Lincoln’s Proclamation was weighed as a calculated military decision as opposed to some philanthropic declaration.  This should be patently clear by the specific hypocritical exclusion of slaves residing in states under which Lincoln actually had authority to affect the supposed goal of freeing the oppressed indentured blacks.  While causing consternation among the Confederate leadership and having limited military benefit, the Emancipation Proclamation had insignificant humane consequences and rather probably was responsible for the suffering and deaths of thousands of slaves eventually freed and for stoking the fires of racial acrimony in the Reconstruction and twentieth century Southern states.
Lincoln, although kowtowing to the abolitionists for political gain, far from embraced racial homogeneity and equality.  Similar to President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was quoted as opposing the institution of slavery on moral principle but, as consummate evidence of the basis for his war against the Confederacy, he stated in his letter to the editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley, a stanch abolitionist, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”  In his New York Cooper Union Address of February 27th, 1860, Lincoln supported those states condoning slavery saying, “We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free state constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery” as was the law of the land.  The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 1862 itself provided a contingency whereby the Southern states could retain their slave holdings if they returned peaceably to the Union within 100 days; the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 terminated that offer.  He would have indeed been considered a racial white supremacist  by today’s politically correct establishment or standards.  Lincoln stated, “I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or 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 I believe will forever 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.”  To reinforce this position, Lincoln sought to deport freed slaves.  In Colonization After Emancipation (Magness and Page), Page, an historian at Oxford University, found an order dated June 1863 (after the Emancipation Proclamation) authorizing a British agent, John Hodge, to recruit freed slaves to be sent to colonies in what are now the countries of Guyana and Belize. “Hodge reported back to a British minister that Lincoln said it was his ‘honest desire’ that this emigration went ahead.” Despite setbacks in his plan, in 1864 Lincoln was quoted in a letter to his attorney general as saying,  “Further to your question, yes, I think you can still pursue this policy of colonization even though the money has been taken away.”