SCV Camp 1524 held their monthly meeting on Thursday February 13th at the Prattville Masonic Lodge. Members and guests started arriving around 6pm and enjoyed fellowship, snacks and beverages. At 6:45 Commander Grooms asked Color Sgt Dennis to lead everyone in an Invocation to open the meeting followed by the pledges and salutes to the US, Alabama and Confederate flags. Harold then went thru details of the upcoming events for the camp and also enumerated the candidates for the officers' positions for teh camp to be elected at the March camp meeting as well as revisions to the Camp Bylaws increasing the number of elected officer positions.
The guest speaker for the meeting was Mike Whorton of the Southern Cultural Center where the recent Alabama Division SCV EC meeting was conducted. Mike asked if we as members of the SCV are doing our duty under the Charge. General Stephen Dill Lee's Charge was given in 1902 in New Orleans. This was after the Spanish American War and not too many years before World War I. An interesting fact was that Lee was one of three Confederates who went to Ft. Sumter at the onset of hostilities in an effort to negotiate to prevent escalation into War. Addressing the United Confederate Veterans there in NO, Lee noted the patriotism and enthusiasm of the host city and pointed out all the flags displayed including international flags and of course the US flag but also the Confederate flags. At the time, New Orleans was the second busiest port in the nation behind only New York. Mike contrasted this 1902 scene to the dishonor shown to Confederate heritage in NO today.
Gen. Lee said he loved New Orleans and their Anglo-Saxons. He spoke in a metaphor of the fruit before him, referencing the Confederates but also their progeny in attendance. Lee praised General Joseph Wheeler for his service as a general officer on battlefields in both the Confederate Army as well as later in the US Army, just as many Confederates served their country. Lee mentioned the monuments erected to honor the Confederate soldiers who fought to defend their homes (and now look at their desecration). He believed (and stated such) that we need to honor our Confederate heroes and not leave it to others or future generations and to do so gladly. "They have a place with the immortals, martyr's devotion without the martyrs hope". Their generation and nation imposed upon them the challenge and their high service. The issue of the battle was with God but the issue of duty was with themselves. Mike quoted General Stonewall Jackson in saying, "Duty is ours, consequences are God's."
General Robert E. Lee said that there would have been no surrender at Appomattox if he had foretold the design of the Yankees and the horrors of Reconstruction. Mike continued saying, let us pass our days such that nothing we do brings us regret or shame. Many Confederates believed their very Christianity was at stake on those battlefields. The greatest revival in our nation's history was in Confederate camps and the post-War South, the Bible belt. Better defeat than dishonor. The principles we honor are the basis of our liberties. It was easier for them to walk into that fire of battle than walk away. A clear conscience to earn the eternal praise of mankind. We should live with Christian duty of charity and not leave to the government. The South still reveres our Christian faith for all mankind. Our monuments and history must be preserved and honored. Our connection to the soil of our ancestors is integral to our heritage and bound to it forever.
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