Prattville Dragoons Chaplains Column for October 2013

Chaplain’s Column:  Walking Wisely - Ephesians 5:15-17

            When Paul exhorts us to walk wisely, he gives three instructions to help us make godly choices. First, he says to "be careful how you walk" (Eph. 5:15). Because the society we live in is morally corrupt we must be vigilant about the way we think and act. Unless we deliberately choose to guard ourselves, we will simply do what comes naturally and go along with cultural influences.

            Next, in verse 16, the apostle instructs us to make the most of our time. The Lord has entrusted each of us with twenty-four hours per day and various opportunities to participate in His plans for us. But so often we are tempted to squander our time and energy on our own personal pursuits. And we do so without a thought of what our heavenly Father may have in mind for us.

            In verse 17, Paul lays out the final exhortation:  to "understand what the will of the Lord is". God’s will for us is that we would each become the person He created us to be and do the work He planned for us to accomplish (Eph. 2:10). We should look at every decision with consideration of whether our choice will further or hinder our heavenly Father’s purposes for us. To live outside of His will is foolish.

            The Lord wants us to walk wisely so that we can enjoy all the marvelous benefits that He’s promised in His Word and longs to give us. When our time is misspent it can never be reclaimed. 

May I suggest that we try to make our lives count for Christ instead of merely living for ourselves.

            Please pray for the following:

           

1. James & Ann Spears
2. Bobby Carter & wife Merrill
3. James Little's wife Nita
4. David Brantley's wife Jennifer
5. Allen Herrod
6. John Durden's son, David Fail
7. J J Oakley
8. Billy Parker's son-in-law Stan Stuckey
9. James Whittington
10. Harold Grooms's mother Sue Grooms
11. Bill Myrick's Step-Grandson Cain M. Simonson
12. Wayne Sutherland
13. Pray for justice in Selma court cases

           

Yours In Christ,

Tom Snowden, Chaplain

Prattville Dragoons Commanders Column for October 2013

Commander's Column:  Let's Answer the SCV Charge

            Our Confederate ancestors founded their nation to preserve the Jeffersonian principles of State Rights.  They believed in a decentralized government, individual liberty, God and family as the bedrock of their society, sustained by individual responsibility and self-sufficiency.  But today a growing portion of our nation relies on entitlements instead of working for their families.   The federal government has grown into a behemoth which intrudes into every conceivable corner of our lives.  Washington tells us what kind of light bulbs we can buy and use.  The tires on our car are registered with the federal government. Our phone conversations are recorded.  Our money is confiscated with income, property and sales taxes totaling up to 50, 60 or 70% of our hard-earned wages.

            At the Alabama Division Reunion in Foley, Army of Tennessee Commander Tom Strain read CiC Givens’s address urging attendees to resist federal domination.  At the Confederate Heritage event in Biloxi earlier this past spring, Past CiC Chuck McMichael bemoaned the long tentacles of the federal government.  The irony in his words was that his speech was delivered in front of the beautiful new Jefferson Davis Presidential Library, funded primarily through Federal Emergency Management Agency monies.  Recent editions of the Confederate Veteran magazine contain a full-page advertisement explaining the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs--the Veterans Administration--denying funding for government markers on the Confederate graves at Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

            A quote attributed to President Gerald Ford but actually originated by Harvard McClain of the Economic Club of Chicago warns, "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have."

            Thomas Jefferson declared in his first inaugural address in 1801, “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

            Lincoln waged a war on our Confederate forebears, a war on the Jeffersonian principles of limited government and self-determination.  Our government has unceasingly expanded and infringed ever more on our inalienable rights and freedom ever since, for the past 150 years.  As we are reminded, we have an “obligation to our forefathers, who gave us the undeniable birthright of our Southern Heritage and the vision, desire, and courage to see it perpetuated.”  Our ideals as Sons of Confederate Veterans are relevant today perhaps as never before, since the War for Southern Independence. As Jefferson Davis foretold, “The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.”   Let us carry the Charge and advance the Cause for our ancestors, for our families today, and for our future generations.

Stuart Waldo

Camp Commander

The Truth About Nathan Bedford Forrest

Disinformation regarding the character and heroism of Nathan Bedford Forrest has been part of the attack of those who would slander Southern heritage and the truth of the Cause for which our Confederate ancestors established and defended their nation.  Vandalism has resulted in Memphis and Selma perpetrated by those ignorant of the truth resulting in the despicable theft and destruction of memorials to one of the great generals produced during the War for Southern Independence and has hindered the rightful honoring of all brave Confederate veterans.

Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander in Chief Michael Givens eloquently states, "In recent years, the Cause of the Confederacy, indeed the cause of American Liberty, has been under attack at an ever-increasing intensity. The bully-club of choice is mainly “slavery” with the proposed notion that the invaders from the North left their homes and families, risking mortal danger, on a benevolent mission to end the burdensome institution (that was financed and perpetuated to a large degree by their own kith and kin). One only needs to study a little history to realize that that nursery-rhyme was far from reality, but facts will never be found in the arsenal of the liar. The Cause of the South was simply independence and self-determination. The Cause was quelled (not lost). These United States were formed as a result of a victorious war of independence and self-determination. Our Confederate ancestors were merely continuing the legacy and heritage of that American brand of liberty. But, the liberty ideal did not fit the narrative of invasion and usurpation as was perpetrated by Mr. Lincoln and his hosts in the name of “saving the union.” A new and more globally palatable excuse was needed—the abolition of slavery. Slavery is indeed the very antithesis of liberty, and what better way to one-up the Southern Cause than to claim the mantle of liberty as their own—hence all the confusion to this day. Our ancestors fought a bloody, internecine war that resulted in the near destruction of a unique people, who then suffered a tyrannical military occupation that was designed to reprogram the mind of the South to be more in line with that of the oppressors. The surviving Southern veterans of the War came together as the United Confederate Veterans with the intention of setting the story straight and educating the country on the truthful aspects of the War. After the shooting had ceased, our ancestors were again at war—fighting for the intellectual honesty of that struggle. The struggle continues today and is now in the hands of the sons of those venerable men of the Confederacy - the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  The victors of the War of Northern Aggression distracted their fellow countrymen from the true facts concerning the War. They painted a picture of the South as Hades, populated by demons of varying degrees of evil. The leaders of modern misinformation needed to provide their doe-eyed minions with a chief-demon, the Devil himself to help explain the depths of depravity of the typical Southerner. To them, General Nathan Bedford Forrest fit the bill perfectly. He was a slave trader before the War and led the
“infamous” assault on Ft. Pillow during the War. They took these truths and twisted them into the vilest and most reprehensible actions of a malevolent racist—all with the intention of cutting the legs from under the true story of the South. Today, General Forrest has become the poster-boy for the current propaganda efforts."

Prattville Dragoons September Camp Meeting - Part 2

Mr. Charles Wayne Arnold addressed the Dragoons as guest speaker for the September camp meeting, presenting a history of the Battle of Ebenezer Church.  Mr. Arnold is a lifelong resident of Stanton AL where Ebenezer Church is located.  At the age of 12 he found a Springfield rifle in a creek near his home.  The rifle was actually cocked but the barrel and hammer mechanism were bent; the condition of the gun supported accounts from diaries which Arnold has studied that stores of arms were intentionally destroyed by Confederate forces before the retreat from Ebenezer Church.  Portions of the petrified wood stock remained on the gun.  Arnold has also found British Enfield and Spencer repeating rifles at the site of the battle. He has also found much ammunition and other artifacts in the area including a 12 pound cannon ball.

In 1865 the old Ebenezer Church was located where the parsonage now stands.  The old church actually had bullet holes in it from the battle.  The battle occurred on April 1, 1865 very near the end of the War.  Union commander General Wilson wanted to take Selma to destroy the arsenal and on the way to destroy the railroads and cotton gins.  At that time Selma was a bread basket for the Confederacy. Wilson's Raid was the fourth foray by the Union Army into the area.

Wilson's mission started March 22nd in Tennessee after he had spent months training and getting provisions from surround Tennessee units.  All Wilson's troops had Spencer repeating rifles and were mounted.  He was trying to make a cavalry out of infantry so much time was spent training the troops on horse and saber skills.  Wilson had a 100 strong wagon train for supplies.

Wilson believed Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and General Chalmers had joined forced but they had not so Wilson's troops outnumbered Forrest's forces by greater than two to one. Forrest was conducting a campaign to harass Wilson's forces as they advanced south from Tennessee.  Forrest sent word to Chalmers that he must reinforce Forrest's army at Stanton but the messenger was captured and Wilson had Forrest's intelligence, knowing he wasn't facing the combined Confederate forces.  Wilson split his forces and sent one group to burn the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa as the university was still producing 2nd Lieutenants for the Confederate Army.

Wilson parked his 100 wagon train north of Stanton in Randolph (where Union campgrounds have been found) in order to prevent Forrest from attacking his supply line.  Forrest set up his defensive line near Stanton where he built breastworks using railroad ties from the swamp on the east to the high ground on the west where the church was located.  Just to the west was a high ground called Lighthouse Point where it is thought a communication signal lighthouse was located. General Wirt Adams sent reserve troops up from Selma to help build the fortifications.

Along the high ridge west of Stanton County Road 45 ran and along this road part of Wilson's split forces advanced in a column two wide.  Captain James Taylor of Indiana led this detachment and he met Forrest and his escort north of Stanton and gave chase, seeking the $50000 reward and promotion to General offered for the killing or capture of Forrest.  They surrounded Forrest and he was wounded by Taylor's saber before Forrest drew his revolver and shot the Captain, the last man Forrest killed in combat during the War for Southern Independence.  Taylor actually died the next day, April 2nd of his wounds.

The battle lasted only a few hours and Wilson's forces spent the night in Plantersville, south of Stanton.  Various accounts claim 40 wounded and 12 died in the battle although other accounts place at least an additional 15 of Wilson's troops among the dead. The breastworks in the center of the line were manned by the Home Guard reserves with a wide range of weapons, old men and young boys who were never previously fired upon.  After initially holding off the charges of Wilson's two forces moving south along the two roads converging in Stanton, the Union troops regrouped and after an hour, pushed through. 

Forrest was looking for Chalmers to advance from the west and CSA General Armstrong's brigade to join from the north.  Had these forces joined together to reinforce Forrest, they would have constituted the largest cavalry battle of the War. But, Forrest had to retreat and couldn't slow the Federals advance on Selma. He was almost caught again in the retreat, jumping the Yankee line on his horse and escaping to Selma.  The defense of Selma was essentially over after the retreat of Forrest's forces from Ebeneezer Church. 

Lincoln's War on the South was almost complete.  The wealthy Southern agrarian economy supported the North's industrial and infrastructure projects including for example the dredging of the Boston and New York harbors at $1,000,000 each.  It was said that there would be a 70% pay cut and the U.S. would have an enemy at their southern border if the Confederacy was left to secede.  Hence Lincoln prosecuted the bloodiest conflict in the history of the nation, costing over 600,000 lives.  For the federal treasury. 

1st Lt Harold Grooms Makes Introduction at Camp Meeting

Dragoons September Camp Meeting

Charles Wayne Arnold Presents the Battle of Ebeneezer Church