I am writing to ANNOUNCE that I am coming to
Montgomery. I will be in Montgomery at the Alabama Book Festival on April
23rd. I will also be the guest speaker for the SCV Cradle of the
Confederacy Camp # 692 on the 24th at the Downtown Library. I am asking
that you please share this information with your UDC Chapter. I pray to
make the most of my time while there in an attempt to share with as many as
possible. Please consider sharing this with local and surrounding UDC members.
Please call me if you have any questions.
I am author of Robert E. Lee's Orderly A Modern Black Man's Confederate
Journey. My Great-great grandfather, Turner Hall Jr., served
in the Confederate army for four years. He was an orderly for Robert E. Lee and
a Slave of Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was interviewed in 1941 in New York
City on the national talk radio show, "We, The People" as a Black
Confederate. My book was released in October of 2015. I contend
that Confederate Heritage and Black History are one in the same and to throw
away Confederate Heritage is to destroy Black History. Please review this
for consideration of a story and or review of my Book. The book has 4.5
Stars/5 stars on Amazon.
I am a graduate of Ole Miss University and an Alumni of a historical Black
college, Jackson State University. I live in Madison, MS and
published a book in October, 2015. Robert E. Lee's Orderly A Modern Black
Man's Confederate Journey tells the story of my great-great grandfather, Turner
Hall Jr., the discovery of my Confederate Heritage and how I reconcile
both through my Christian faith. I am writing to inquire about how to get an
interview on Book TV-CSpan2? Please direct this email to the appropriate
staff for consideration.
BOOK
NARRATIVE:
A descendant of a slave, Al Arnold, tells his
journey of embracing his Confederate heritage. His ancestor, Turner Hall, Jr.,
a Black Confederate, served as a body servant for two Confederate soldiers and
an orderly for General Robert E. Lee. Turner Hall, Jr. returned to Okolona,
Mississippi after the Civil War. Hall served a prominent family in that
community for five generations. His life's journey eventually led him to Hugo,
Oklahoma where he established himself as the town's most distinguished citizen
receiving acclaim from Black and White citizens alike for his service. In 1938,
his journey continued to Pennsylvania as the last Civil War veteran from his
community to attend the final Civil War veteran reunion, as a Black
Confederate. He also traveled to New York City and was interviewed by the
national talk radio show, "We, The People" in 1940.
One hundred and three years after the Civil War,
Hall's great-great grandson, Al Arnold, was born in Okolona, Mississippi.
Raised in North Mississippi, Al would later discover the history of his
ancestor and began an eight year journey of why, how and for what reasons his
ancestor served the Confederate armies? To his amazement, Al discovered that
seventy two years after the Civil war, his ancestor was a proud Confederate and
held in his possession a cherished gift from the Confederate Civil War general,
Nathan Bedford Forrest. Al's personal research discovered that his ancestor was
owned by Forrest and was enthusiastically warm toward the general and his
service to the Confederate armies. This amazing connection to two famous
Confederate generals awakened a new perception of curiosity about Confederate
heritage in Al and challenged his traditional thoughts. He grew to accept his
heritage and now embraces it with a desire to see African Americans embrace
Confederate heritage instead of rejecting it on the notion of modern ideology.
This is a deep personal journey of faith, heritage, race and family wrapped
around the grace of God through the eyes and honest thoughts of a modern black
man. Al tells the story of Turner Hall, Jr., his personal Confederate journey
and how family and faith has brought harmony to his new found heritage. Arnold
argues for the revitalization of the lost Black history of the Civil War era.
He bestows dignity and honor on his Confederate ancestor and challenges the
traditional thoughts of modern African Americans. Arnold rests in his faith as
the uniting force that reconciles our colorful past to our bright future.
The state song of the state of Maryland (still) has some interesting lyrics demonstrating the citizens feelings toward the domineering federal government which invaded and subjugated the state during the War for Southern Independence. How many across the South still "spurn the Northern scum"? Awesome. http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/symbols/lyrics.html
Maryland, My Maryland
I The despot's heel is on thy shore,
Maryland! His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland! Avenge the patriotic gore That flecked the streets of Baltimore, And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland! My Maryland! II Hark to an exiled son's appeal,
Maryland! My Mother State! to thee I kneel,
Maryland! For life or death, for woe or weal, Thy peerless chivalry reveal, And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel,
Maryland! My Maryland! III Thou wilt not cower in the dust,
Maryland! Thy beaming sword shall never rust,
Maryland! Remember Carroll's sacred trust, Remember Howard's warlike thrust,- And all thy slumberers with the just,
Maryland! My Maryland! IV Come! 'tis the red dawn of the day,
Maryland! Come with thy panoplied array,
Maryland! With Ringgold's spirit for the fray, With Watson's blood at Monterey, With fearless Lowe and dashing May,
Maryland! My Maryland! V Come! for thy shield is bright and strong,
Maryland! Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong,
Maryland! Come to thine own anointed throng, Stalking with Liberty along, And sing thy dauntless slogan song,
Maryland! My Maryland! VI Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain,
Maryland! Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland! She meets her sisters on the plain- Sic semper! 'tis the proud refrain That baffles minions back amain,
Maryland! Arise in majesty again,
Maryland! My Maryland! VII I see the blush upon thy cheek,
Maryland! For thou wast ever bravely meek,
Maryland! But lo! there surges forth a shriek, From hill to hill, from creek to creek, Potomac calls to Chesapeake,
Maryland! My Maryland! VIII Thou wilt not yield the Vandal toll,
Maryland! Thou wilt not crook to his control,
Maryland! Better the fire upon thee roll, Better the shot, the blade, the bowl, Than crucifixion of the Soul,
Maryland! My Maryland! IX I hear the distant thunder-hum,
Maryland! The Old Line bugle, fife, and drum,
Maryland! She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb- Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum! She breathes! She burns! She'll come! She'll come!
The Alabama Division SCV will host their first annual Education Conference on Saturday March 5th, 2016 starting at 10am. Education is one of the Division's initiatives, part of the Vision 2016 National SCV effort and this conference is one of the means to educate members on "vindicating the Cause", arming compatriots to better educate the general public. Speakers include Brion
McClanahan, Ronnie and Donnie Kennedy and James
Roesch of the Abbeville Institute who will give presentations on
such topics as the “Constitutional basis of the
union” (Brion McClanahan), Secession and Independence
(Ronnie Kennedy), Slavery in the lead up to the war and
how it still affects us today (Donnie Kennedy), and
“Confederate Emancipation” (James Roesch). Cost for advance registration (which includes lunch) and at the door (without lunch) are both $30 for both Division members as well as the general public. Educators are encouraged to attend. It will be held at the Doster
Community Center in Prattville. This is going to be a great
event that is very affordable - these speakers are some who lecture at the Stephen D. Lee Institute lectures annually across the country. Over one hundred are anticipated to attend so arrive early to enjoy an outstanding educational opportunity.
Flagging of the Confederate Monument at the
Alabama State Capitol – ongoing afternoons;
remember to call or send your state representatives postcards to support the
heritage monument protection bill SB13
Division EC Meeting – Saturday February 20th at 10:00m at the Dalraida
Methodist Church in Montgomery; camp commanders and adjutants are encouraged to
attend
Alabama Division Education Conference - Saturday March 5, 10:00am - 4:00pm, Prattville
Doster Center
J.C.C. Saunders Lecture Series – University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Saturday
April 2nd
Dragoons Spring Picnic – Confederate Memorial Park, Marbury AL, Saturday
April 16th 9am
Living History Encampment at Confederate Memorial Park – Confederate Memorial Park, Marbury AL, Friday and Saturday April 22-23rd
Commander's Column: Honoring and Emulating our Ancestors
As was announced to the camp recently, my father
passed away recently at the age of 91.
Following the lead of Brigade Commander, last year I had
signed my dad up as a Friend of the SCV and certainly he was just that. He was always interested in reports of the
camp events. As some of you may recall,
he participated in one of the Prattville July 4th parades with the Dragoon
entry and we recognized him as a World War II veteran. He was born in Detroit
and raised in Brooklyn but after serving in WWII he found himself a southern
belle and made his home below the Mason Dixon line ever since. He of course
named me after Stuart and Forrest but also one of sisters after Lee. He gave me
the cotton Battle Flag many of you have seen.
We definitely lost a friend of the South and the Confederate Cause but
we lost yet another World War II veteran, one of the greatest generation. The following day the Dragoons also lost
Harry Rawlinson, another World War II vet and a founding member of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans Camp 1524, our Prattville Dragoons. His was a direct lineage from one of the
original Prattville Dragoons of the War for Southern Independence. It’s been just a couple of years since the
Dragoons lost their final Real Son, Henry Gober. As each year slips by, we lose more and more
of our living history, these men who had a direct link to the history of the
19th century and who lived thru the tremendous world and national events of the
20th century.
I had meant to pen a different column for the
newsletter this month but as these unfortunate life events transpired, I opted
to instead to take a moment to honor these Southern compatriots and to ask that
we all take a moment to reflect and honor these men who helped shape our nation
of the past century. Membership in the
SCV and promoting the Charge and defending our Southern heritage honors our
Confederate forebears but also their descendants, our parents and grandparents
who more closely touched our lives. My
father did not want any formal funeral service but my siblings and I will
certainly get together to remember our father.
Over the weekend, my wife Kerri fondly recalled some of the simple
little things my father still tried to teach us and his grandchildren when we
visited. Finish what’s on your
plate. Don’t put your elbows on the
table. But so much more. I thought what a wonderful way to honor and
pay tribute to my father but to all of those who came before us, to remember
all the things I learned from my dad which helped make me the person I am
today. I decided that as a family we
would sit down and enumerate all the things we learned from my dad and recount
these in the service or observance we have together to celebrate his life.
What should we learn from our fathers, our
grandfathers, our Confederate ancestors?
My mother has said numerous times that my grandmother would be so
pleased that I joined the SCV. She grew
up the daughter of those who experienced firsthand the War and Reconstruction.
It was her memoirs which instructed me as to my Confederate ancestry. The Vision 2016 initiative of SCV National
and Division stresses the importance of education and my enlightenment of
Southern history since joining the SCV has been instrumental in my embracing
the Cause for which my Confederate ancestors struggled. I thought on Saturday morning as I saw the
Dragoons assemble in Millbrook for the parade that it was a nice diversion to
take my mind off my recent sad family news but I also thought how fortunate I
am to be a part of such a noble worthwhile organization and a compatriot with
such outstanding men. It’s participation in the camp events that make our SCV
membership so rewarding and brings us together for our shared Cause, the
Charge. As I compiled the newsletter, I
saw Chaplain Snowden’s column that recognized those who have recently passed
and the imperative that we are assured of our salvation. Sharing the message of God’s grace and the
message of salvation in the belief and trust in his son Jesus Christ is
certainly of the utmost importance in our lives, to share this good news with
our friends and our family. Sharing and
promoting Confederate history with our friends and family and embracing the
virtues of our Confederate ancestors and the ideals which inspired and
emboldened them and which define our Southern heritage unto today should be of
import to us also.
Chaplain’s Column: Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord
“We are confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” - 2
Corinthians 5:8
A man
named Solomon Peas died. His tombstone in London reads:
“Beneath these clouds and beneath
these trees
Lies the body of Solomon Peas.
But this ain’t Peas - it’s just the pod.
Peas shelled out and went to God.”
I
like that. That’s what your body is. It’s just a pod. What happens to a child
of God who has trusted Christ as his personal Savior? When he closes his eyes
in this life, he opens them in the next. Jesus did not say, “After two or three
thousand years, you’ll be with Me in paradise.” Jesus said, “Today, truly,
you’ll be with Me in paradise” Luke 23:43.
Are
you confident that, if you died today, you’d be with Jesus in paradise? If not,
then confess your sins and believe upon His name to save you. Now, go and tell
someone!
The
February meeting of the Prattville Dragoons was held at Shoney’s on Cobb’s Ford
Rd. this past evening. Over 30 compatriots were in attendance and the meeting room was rearranged and was very attractive and comfortable. Our speaker was Meredith McDonough from the Alabama
Archives and History who explained the new on line availability of newspapers
published during The War in Alabama. She explained how to find the newspaper
links on the website and also told us that the Alabama Department of Archives and History would soon be launching a
new improved website. All the newspapers are not uploaded yet but they will be
on line and digitized soon; the first phase of the project at ADAH completed last June was to scan their collection of actual newspapers and upload these and the next phase will be to digitize their collection of newspapers which are currently on microfilm.
Meredith was most knowledgable in her subject matter and stayed
after the meeting to answer individual questions about the project and the
Archives in general. She demonstrated search capability and process from the ADAH website homepage - Search Our Collections - Digital Collections - Civil War Newspapers. Under Digital Collections are included also Photographs and Pictures, Maps Collection and Textual Collection (under which Newspapers are found). You can search the newspapers section for titles, dates ans counties in which the newspaper was published. Thumbnails are available for viewing and these can be enlarged to read, print or download. One interesting newspaper shown was the Montgomery Weekly Mail which under the newspaper title stated, "State Rights Without Abatement". Other period newspapers from the Montgomery area included the Daily Confederation and Montgomery Daily Post.
Commander Waldo also presented a $500 check to Ms. McDonough as our annual contribution to Confederate flag conservation at the Archives. This was made possible by the proceeds from our annual Dixie butt sales and other contributions to the camp.
Compatriot
Tyrone Crowley read a proclamation from the Dragoons honoring one of our
charter members, Harry Rawlinson, who recently passed away. He also took some
of Harry’s Q & A that he used in presentations to Historical Organizations to help them learn about
Southern Heritage as an impromptu quiz for the Dragoons. Commander
Stuart Waldo announced that camp elections will be held in March at our regular
meeting time and anyone who is interested in nominating themselves or someone
else for an officer position to let one of our existing officers know. Chaplain Tom Snowden showed slides of our camp activities and members before the meeting which was very enjoyable.
The
Provisional Confederate Congress convenes. The Confederate States of America is
open for business when the Provisional Congress convenes in Montgomery,
Alabama. The official record read: "Be it remembered that on the fourth
day of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-one, and in the Capitol of the State of Alabama, in the city of
Montgomery, at the hour of noon, there assembled certain deputies and delegates from the several independent South State of North
America..."
The first order of business was drafting a constitution. They
used the U.S. Constitution as a model, and most of it was taken verbatim. It
took just four days to hammer out a tentative document to govern the new
nation. The president was limited to one six-year term. Unlike the U.S.
Constitution, the word "slave" was used and the institution protected
in all states and any territories to be added later. Importation of slaves was
prohibited. Other components of the constitution were designed to enhance the
power of the states--governmental money for internal improvements was banned
and the president was given a line-item veto on appropriations bills.
The Congress then turned its attention to selecting a president. The
delegates settled on Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate who was the U.S.
Secretary of War in the 1850s and a senator from Mississippi.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that
the only Confederate flag known to have waved in the northwestern quarter of
the continental United States during the Civil War flew proudly over the Beaver
State, for a few weeks in 1862. Now, that “only flag” claim has to be
qualified a bit. The entire northwest quarter is rather a large patch, and
plenty of emigrant farmers, gold miners and ex-Army ruffians were sympathetic
to the South’s cause; surely somebody, somewhere, hoisted the stars and bars
over a shoddy Jackson County prospector’s cabin or loathsome San Francisco
waterfront flophouse. But if anyone did, he or she kept it
quiet enough to avoid the intervention of federal troops. Not so the fearsome Kentucky natives
who had settled in the tiny town of Smithfield (now called Franklin), just
south of Cheshire on old Territorial Highway. The good people of Smithfield were
surrounded and outnumbered, and they knew it. But they were a proud, fearless
bunch, and not a Republican or pro-Union Democrat among them. They were well
supplied with the long-barreled flintlock rifles with which their fathers had
helped win the Revolutionary War, and they had somehow also gotten hold of a
small cannon. They determined, in the summer of ‘62, to do their bit for the
old southern homeland, come what might. So they set to work. The men found a
tall, straight fir tree, which they felled, peeled and hauled to the town’s
general store. The women labored over a community sewing project: a massive
Confederate battle flag, the “stars and bars.” Then they mounted the pole
before the store, ran the flag up to the top, and let it billow in the soft
summer breeze.
A historic
marker in Franklin, denoting the stagecoach stop at Smithfield, photographed by
Ben Maxwell in 1961. (Image: Ben Maxwell/Salem Public Library)
Now, this was
not exactly an act of quiet rebellion. Smithfield owed its regional prominence
and prosperity to the stagecoach line that ran up and down the Territorial
Highway. Dozens of travelers passed up and down that highway every week en
route to or from hamlets like Elmira, Veneta, Crow, Lorane and west Eugene, via
Junction City.
One can only imagine the shock of
these passengers as the stage pulled up before the Smithfield General Store and
they saw a giant rebel flag flapping in the breeze, its flagpole surrounded by
grim-faced expatriated Southerners with rifles ready to defend it. Word flew around Lane County like a
summer zephyr: There was open rebellion brewing at Smithfield! What was to be
done? Staunch Unionists in Eugene were
outraged. They did not, however, feel outraged enough to brave those grim-faced
Smithfield sharpshooters in an attempt to do something about it. So instead,
they complained bitterly to every authority they could reach: the sheriff, the
state legislature, and yes, the federal government in Washington, D.C. The sheriff was the man everyone was
looking at, but he showed little inclination to risk his life and those of his
deputies in a hopeless assault on such a fearsome foe. So the flag continued to
fly. A few weeks later, one of the
Smithfield rebels was caught in Eugene trying to buy supplies, and arrested and
lodged in a jailhouse. Word spread quickly, and a lynch mob soon had assembled
to lay siege to the jailhouse. But the rebel, who had hidden a tiny penknife
somewhere on his person, put up such a ferocious fight that vigilante justice
was delayed long enough for the sheriff to arrive with a posse, and soon the
mob was dispersed. And still that flag flew, proud and
rankling over the Long Tom River, visible for miles from every oncoming stage.
The
Franklin Grange as it appears today. (Image: visitor7/Wikimedia)
It flew there,
proud and defiant, until a day in late August, when something rather remarkable
happened — another “first and only” for the Beaver State.
On that historic day, the McCornack
family had just settled down to supper at their farm on Elmira Road, just
outside Eugene, when to their astonishment a large detachment of federal troops
— blue-coated United States Cavalry officers and men — filed up to the
farmhouse in two columns, which split apart and flowed around the farmhouse and
outbuildings. Soon the whole spread was surrounded with a cordon of several
hundred armed men. Two officers then approached the
farmhouse, and family patriarch Andrew McCornack — no doubt more than a little
nervously — came to the door to see what they wanted. The officers were gracious and
courteous. Did Mr. McCornack have an employee by the name of Armstrong, they
wondered? “As a matter of fact, I do,” he
replied, or words to that effect, and the captain then called to Armstrong to
come out and give himself up. He was, as it turned out, a deserter from the
U.S. Cavalry. Once he’d been collected, installed on a horse and surrounded by
his once-and-future comrades, the bugler played “recall” and the troop rode
away in the direction of Eugene, leaving the astonished McCornacks to finish
their supper. “Now, these troops were stationed at
Vancouver,” Elwin McCornack wrote in his account of his relatives’ adventure.
“Had they ridden 150 miles to take Armstrong the Deserter? No, they had not.
They had other business in this vicinity and had orders to pick up the deserter
while they were there.” By the time poor Mr. Armstrong was on
his way back to the barracks, that business was all over and done, and the
prize — a large home-made rebel flag — was safely stowed in a saddlebag. One source claims there was a “small
skirmish” before the flag was confiscated. While possible, this seems unlikely;
if shots had been fired at U.S. Cavalry troopers, Smithfield would no doubt
have been burned to the ground and its surviving occupants hauled back to
Vancouver as prisoners. I’ve been able to find no record of anything like that. But, skirmish or no, it was the first
and only incidence of an operation by the U.S. Army against a non-Native
American military enemy on Oregon soil, and it ended in defeat for the
Smithfield rebels. (Sources: McCornack, Elwin. “When the
Rebel Flag Flew on the Long Tom,”Lane County Historian, March 1962; Aplin, Glenn. “Notes on the Civil War,”Pacific Northwest Forum, winter 1978; Fletcher, Randol.Hidden History of Civil War Oregon. London: The History Press, 2011)
