Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Meeting February 2024 - SCV National Museum

About 28 members and friends of the Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 met on Thursday evening February 8th for the monthly camp meeting at the Prattville Masonic Lodge downtown.  Chaplain Brantley opened the meeting with an Invocation followed by Brigade Commander Grooms leading everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags.  Commander Waldo then recited the SCV Charge and welcomed the guests including two prospective members.  The upcoming events were then enumerated and a business portion of the meeting was conducted taking nominations for the camp officers' positions which will be voted on at the next march camp meeting for men to serve in the coming year.

Army of Tennessee Commander and past Alabama Division Commander Jimmy Hill was the guest speaker and he provided updates including photographs of the SCV National Museum at Elm Springs TN.  He began with a slide of General Robert E. Lee and a quote of his, "The education of a man is never completed until he dies."  The quote emphasized Jimmy's point that the SCV National Museum is an educational museum not simply showing artifacts but telling the true history story of the Southern states thru a timeline, a concept envisioned first by past Commander in Chief Chuck McMichael.  The museum started as an empty building but it now contains permanent and loaned displays throughout with an entrance welcoming visitors with a display including a cannon donated by the Alabama Division and the photo of a young anonymous Confederate soldier.  

The timeline begins at 1607 with the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.  The timeline is displayed with dates along with top of the walls in a maroon strip above the displays.  Carl Jones article "Forming the Country" is displayed in this area; QR codes are found throughout the museum providing a way for visitors to get additional information about specific displays.  In 1819 Alabama entered the Union and the timeline shows a portrait of John C. Calhoun there at that timeline spot.  Important events which shaped the nation and the south are mentioned along the timeline including tariff crises and the nullification crisis and western expansion.  One interesting and perhaps controversial display is that of Harriet Beecher Stowe whose book (an 1852 edition of which is on display), "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was said to have caused the War Between the States.  Slave stories/narratives are related - some tell stories of slaves who fondly remember their masters and felt they were part of the family.

From the War period, the anchor from the Star of the West is on display - this was the Union ship sent to resupply Ft. Sumter and which was seeking to sneak 200 Union troops in to reinforce the fort.  A carriage from one of Gen. Pendleton's cannons, the Mathew gun is on display - he had four artillery pieces which he names Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. A number of Confederate uniforms are on display including a vest worn by Gen. Forrest which has a blood stained bullet hole in the back.  One display is entitled Our Confederate Heroes and shows photographs of a couple of heroes identified by each Division of the SCV - those for Alabama include Capt. Jefferson Falkner who founded the Confederate Veterans Home in Marbury following the War and "The Gallant" John Pelham, horse artillery officer under Gen Stuart who was cited by General Lee for his "unflinching courage" during the Battle of Fredericksburg.  

A religious section of the museum tells the story of the Great Revival of the Southern Army with photos of Gen Stonewall Jackson and his pastor on display there.  A section on Reconstruction shows actual carpet bags which were emblematic of the Yankee's who tormented the Southern families following the War.  Actual restored/conserved battle flags are on display including one which was that from Union Col Streight captured by Gen. Forrest. Another is an original Confederate Battle Flag from South Carolina.  A life size portrait of Sam Davis is displayed - the Boy Hero of the Confederacy, Sam was hung by Union soldiers at the age of 21 in Pulaski County TN accused as a spy. There is even a section showing Confederate memorabilia part of pop culture including movie posters and an original edition book of "Gone with the Wind", advertisements, NASCAR photos, and even a Duke of Hazzard lunch box. Jimmy emphasized that you could spend the better part of a day perusing all the displays and information in the museum.  Following the meeting, Commander Waldo presented Jimmy with a check from the camp for $250 for the SCV Museum, continuing donations made by Camp 1524 for this wonderful treasure of the foremost Confederate historical organization, the Sons of Confederate Veterans. 

Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Chaplain’s Column for January 2024 - When Facing a Storm, Trust God

 

"Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?"

Matthew 6:27

 

When I was a teenager, and I was living in the Atlanta area, Hurricane Opal blew through the area. Many of you will remember Opal as a particularly vicious storm that was still powerful as it reached my parent's home in Marietta. I remember watching the trees whip back and forth and crash all around us. My Mom and I made a bee-line for the safety of the basement. We sat down in the dark worrying that this might be the end. Meanwhile my dad was sound asleep upstairs in his bedroom without a worry in the world. The next morning it looked like a bomb had gone off. There were trees everywhere but none had hit the house!

Why did my Dad remain so calm in the face of the storm? Well, two reasons. One, he was from the Mobile/ Brewton area originally, so hurricanes were nothing to him and second, and more importantly, he felt if it was his time that the Lord would call him home or protect him otherwise.

Now, I am not recommending not seeking shelter in a storm, but my dad faced down the storm as David faced down Goliath with confidence. Both knew that their God was bigger than the storm or obstacle before them.

How do we face the storms in our life? Do we waste days worrying? I know several people in my life who will worry about something even when there is nothing to worry about yet. We worry about a potential doctor's prognosis or possibly an expensive bill for the car or the house repair. I admit that sometimes I am guilty of it as well.

But when I read the above verse from Matthew, Jesus' words hit home. What good has worrying done for me? Has it helped with finances? Found a new home or a better job? No. Not once. As I read once, "all worrying does is make us forget that our future really isn't our future: it's God's." We'll experience our future, but we don't possess it or have control over it, God does. And that's a good thing. The future is God's because He's the only one who can control it.

I think of my Dad often and when I am facing a storm I remember the confidence he had in the Lord when staring down his.

So let us rest in this: the future is God's, so instead of worrying about it, we should trust the One who controls it.

Amen.

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 at the Millbrook Revelers' Mardi Gras Festival and Parade

This year's edition of the Millbrook Mardi Gras Festival and Parade had to be postponed one week due to inclement weather on the Saturday planned, last of January.  The weather was beautiful on Saturday February 3rd and the crowds showed up at the festival in Millbrook's Village Green Park which lasted from 9am til 3pm.  There were many food and craft vendors and the Dragoons had a booth where they gave away mini-Battle flags and SCV coins and AL Division education posters while selling license plates, 3x5 flags, and ballcaps emblazoned with Confederate and historical period flags.  It was a very successful effort led by Quartermaster Bill Myrick who stayed all day along with Treasurer Billy Leverette.  Compatriots Darrell Haywood and Rob Schwartz also were there for most of the day at the festival and they were joined by Brigade Commander Harold Grooms, compatriot Thomas Griffith and camp Commander Waldo.  A very successful campaign with many items sold and many new friends made and potential members provided information about the camp and the SCV.  At 11am the parade lineup started at Millbrook's Mill Creek Park.  Compatriot Larry Miller carried the camp Mardi Gras banner across the front of his truck.  Harold and Thomas walked the parade route handing out mini-Battle flags to parade onlookers who clamored for them.  Commander Waldo and his son drove a Mardi Gras purple Charger next which had Confederate Battle flags flying from the rear passenger windows.  Then, five members and prospective members of the Mechanized Cavalry rode their Harley Davidsons as the ultimate portion of the Dragoons' entry.  Thousands of spectators lined Main Street and the Dragoons handed out hundreds of mini-Battle flags and SCV recruiting coins as well as lots of candy to everyone. The parade is billed as the largest Mardi Gras parade north of Mobile.  It was a very enjoyable Confederate Mardi Gras celebration with the Revelers.  

Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Commander's Column for January 2024 - Remembering Black Confederates for Black History Month

 February is generally recognized as Black History month in the mainstream indoctrination media.  This provides an opportunity to review the truth around some of the myths surrounding the slaves and freedmen in the South during the period around the War for Southern Independence.  Not to be forgotten is Juneteenth which falls outside of February.  This newly invented holiday supposedly celebrates the last slaves being freed in Texas in June of 1865 with the surrender of the last Confederate troops.  Unfortunately it erroneously associates those events whereas the last slaves were of course freed in Yankee New Jersey in January of 1866 when that state ratified the 13^th Amendment - https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/essex/montclair/2021/02/28/american-dream-paramus-nj-part-north-jersey-slavery-legacy/4212248001/#:~:text=The%20last%2016%20enslaved%20people,about%20New%20Jersey's%20slave%20history . 

It is also generally accepted that all blacks were freedmen who served in the Union army.  In fact, the Southern states had thousands of blacks both freed and serving as slaves who served the Confederate army as body or personal servants to their masters who were serving in a unit, cooks, wagon team drivers, laborers but also as soldiers fighting alongside whites in defense of their homeland.  Officers often had such body servants and some were credited with caring for their masters injured in battle.  They were also recognized as Confederate soldiers and pensioners.    (https://fairfieldgenealogysociety.org/Members_Only/PDF/Articles/Body-Servants.pdf )  

In the “American Conflict”, abolitionist Horace Greeley even stated, “For more than two years, Negroes had been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the Confederacy.  They had been embodied and drilled as rebel soldiers and had paraded with white troops at a time when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the Union.”  “In 1861 (he Tennessee legislature) passed the Act for the Relief of Volunteers stating, “the governor is hereby authorized, at his discretion, to receive into the military service of the state, all male free persons of color between the ages of fifteen and fifty years —who may be sound in his mind and body, and capable of actual service.  That such free persons of color shall receive, each, eight dollars per month as pay, for such person shall be entitled to draw, each, one ration per day, and shall be entitled to a yearly allowance each for clothing.”” (https://www.timesnews.net/living/features/were-black-confederate-soldiers-real-or-postwar-propaganda/article_cbcbfbcc-cc19-5f3b-b8b7-8d62f4883e59.html)

This same article recounts of course those black men who served with Forrest’s cavalry numbering around forty-five.  Forrest offered them their freedom if they fought for him and all did even til death and to the end of the WBTS.  Nelson Winbush is an SCV member whose “grandfather Louis Napoleon Nelson, a slave turned freedman rode with Forrest in the 7th Tennessee Cavalry, an integrated unit. According to records, Nelson fought at Shiloh, Lookout Mountain, Brice’s Crossroads and Vicksburg. He later became the 7th Tennessee Cavalry’s chaplain.” 

Holt Collier was a black man in Mississippi “given his freedom papers (he) followed his former owner Howell Hinds to Memphis to join the Confederate Army where he first served as an orderly in a field hospital, then actively fought as a soldier, and served as a spy.   Collier (later) joined the Ninth Texas Calvary, riding with them until the end of the war.”  (https://www.lowerdelta.org/community-news/the-amazing-holt-collier-mississippis-famous-hunting-guide/#:~:text=Holt%20Collier%20was%20born%20a,successful%20hunter%20and%20hunting%20guide.)   He became well known after the WBTS as a hunter and sportsman and famously led President Theodore Roosevelt on a bear hunt in Mississippi in 1902. 

While the Union army often used blacks as cannon fodder in battle, many can’t understand why blacks would have fought for the Confederacy but one has to consider the allegiance to their homes and families who they were defending and to their masters many of whom they held genuine affection.  Edward C. Smith, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C., studied this phenomenon and concluded, “What many Americans forget is that there were 5,000 black soldiers that fought with George Washington during the Revolutionary War. And of course in (the War of) 1812 Andrew Jackson, who praised the blacks in his service profusely, also knew that those blacks were taking a risk fighting for the United States government. So if blacks can fight for George Washington, it’s hard for me to reject the idea that their grandsons could not have fought for Robert E. Lee.  I think the problem we have today is that most Americans have a difficult time accepting the past because we read into the past the prejudices of the present. The moment you do that you’re not dealing with history.”

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

 

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

 

Dragoons Camp Meeting – Thursday Feb 8^th at 6:45 pm at the Prattville Masonic Lodge  

 

Tannehill Reenactment – March1-3^rd at the Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park, McCalla AL

 

AL Division Education Conference – Saturday Mar 16^th, 9:30-3:30pm, Southern Cultural Center, Wetumpka AL 

 

Battle of Fort Harker Reenactment – April 6-7^th, Stevenson AL

 

Thunder on the Bay Reenactment – April 19-20^th, at Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, AL

 

AL Division Confederate Memorial Day – Saturday Apr 20^th, 9am Alabama State Capitol grounds

 

Living History and Skirmish – Saturday Apr 20^th, 9am at Confederate Memorial Park, Marbury AL

 

AL Division Reunion – Friday May 31^st (Commander’s reception, Gift Horse) and Saturday June 1^st (Graham Creek, Foley)