Selma City Council Halts Work on N.B.Forrest Monument

Outrageous.  Unbelievable.  Unfathomable.  What else can describe the decision by the Selma City Council  to halt work on the renovations and enhancements to the Confederate Circle and the Forrest monument at the Live Oak Cemetery in Selma.  Injustice and anarchy and revisionists and political correctness and black racism prevails in the face of heritage and legality. By militant action and outrageous claims of injustice, a crowd of racially motivated demonstrators have influenced the legal and historical right to restore the final resting place of Confederate heroes and a place to honor them.  Thieves stole the bust of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate defender of Selma and despite rewards offered, no one has been brought to justice regarding this robbery.  The replacement of this bust and enhancements to the Confederate Circle including handicap accessibility improvements so that ancestors of the brave soldiers who gave their lives in defense of their families and homeland interred at this site could be honored. Vandals disrupted and damaged property at the construction site where a new monument pedestal was under construction, properly and legally Permitted.  These same terrorists harassed and assaulted workers until a postponement of the construction work was deemed necessary.  Local police literally stood idly by and offered not to intervene or apprehend these criminals but to document a report for posterity.  The Selma City Council had previously moved the N.B. Forrest monument from its original historical downtown Selma location but now played ignorant to any deed or provision permitting the restoration of the monument and Confederate Circle.  The Confederate Circle portion of the Live Oak cemetery was bequeathed to the United Daughters of the Confederacy to rightfully honor the men who defended the Cause and their homeland against the unConstitutional aggression of the Yankee invaders.  So thieves, vandals, terrorists succeeded thru unrestrained anarchy to stifle the remembrance of our Southern heritage and honoring of our Confederate ancestors and veterans.  Outrageous that the Selma City Council demonstrated such cowardice, ignorance, and ineptitude in postponing commencement of the restoration work on this hallowed ground.  Outrageous but not surprising.  Please support the Friends of Forrest as they must meet the challenge of a frivolous challenge and lawsuit meant to deter them from completion of this meaningful important restoration and enhancement work at the Confederate Circle at Live Oak.  The following is a news article which the Associated Press distributed on Sept 25, 2012 regarding this dishonorable disgraceful development.

The Selma City Council voted 4-0 with two members abstaining to stop work on the monument to Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest until the courts decide whether the city or a Confederate heritage group owns the cemetery property where the monument would be rebuilt. The vote came after a group of protesters marched to City Hall. Demonstrations by civil rights groups about 10 years ago led to the relocation of a Forrest monument from outside a city building near downtown to a section of a city cemetery honoring Confederate war dead. But Forrest’s bust was apparently stolen from atop a 7-foot granite memorial earlier this year, and efforts to rebuild it have drawn calls by civil rights activists not to replace it. Detractors say Forrest massacred black Union soldiers and joined the early KKK.

Restoration of the Old Raspberry Family Cemetery in Mulberry/Isabella Community, Chilton County, Alabama

From Prattville Dragoons SCV camp member Benny Harris:

I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am to have participated in each of the three cemetery restoration workdays (at the Historic Raspberry Family Cemetery) that have been held so far since the 1^st of June.  I am extremely proud of 16 year-old (Eagle Scout Candidate) Trevor Cofer and his family for their commitment to this noble undertaking.  Our family ancestral cemetery was lost in deep woods and undergrowth, head stones and foot markers are broken and damaged and still need a lot of work, and I am once again requesting that you come and help preserve the honor and dignity of this final resting place of two generations of our grandparents (as for those of us in my generation, it is one set of our 4xgreat-grandparents and one set of our 5xgreat-grandparents) .  This cemetery also contains several Confederate graves!  I assure you, you will be glad you participated and helped out!  We have even had one 96 year-old descendant to come out and help with one of our workdays!  Please make a special effort to be in Chilton County (the Mulberry/Isabella Community) on Saturday morning, September 29^th, around 8:00 a.m. and let’s all help Trevor Cofer earn his Eagle Scout Badge (the highest award a boy can earn in the Boy Scouts of America).

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:  Eagle Scout candidate, Trevor Cofer, is requesting that all descendants, fellow scouts and scouters, as well as anyone interested in helping to restore historic old cemeteries, to please come and help with the cemetery restoration project scheduled for this coming Saturday, September 29^th.  We have already held three work days but a lot of work is still needed.  I would suggest that you wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants, socks and closed toe shoes, a hat and work gloves.  Bring a folding chair to rest, insect repellant, water and something to eat for lunch.  Don’t forget to bring some good tools to use in cutting and clearing small trees and undergrowth.  Trevor is also requesting donations be made to a cemetery fund to help with signage, a gateway and concrete benches.  You can make your tax deductible check payable to Trevor Cofer (FOR: Eagle Scout Service Project) and feel free to mail your donations to his home address at 23 County Road 223, Thorsby, Alabama 35171.  Please make a special effort to come and help with this work day and don’t forget that he needs donations to make some improvements to the cemetery. 

Directions to the cemetery…..take Hwy 22 leaving Clanton heading west toward Maplesville…turn right (north) on County Road 15 when you see the signs to Isabella High School and Mulberry Baptist Church…when you get to the 4-way intersection at Isabella High School turn right (east) on County Road 29…when County Road 29 forks go left (northeast) on County Road 223 (a dirt road)…you will see signs and a logging road on the left of County Road 223 leading to the cemetery.  See you there!

For descendants of Lee Dora (Price) “Bambam” Foshee:  If you are wondering how you are related to our ancestors buried in this cemetery, here is the linage…

Starting with Eula (Foshee) Wells, Hattie (Foshee) Massey and Pearl (Foshee) Scott

Eula, Hattie and Pearl were the daughters of Lee Dora (Price) “Bambam” Foshee and Riley Monroe “Papa” Foshee – buried in the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery – Chilton County, Alabama

Lee Dora (Price) Foshee was the daughter of Francis Marion “Frank” Price and Mary Frances (Pate) Price – buried in the Cedar Grove Methodist Church Cemetery – Chilton County, Alabama

Francis Marion “Frank” Price was the son of John J. Price and Piety Pertissa “Purity” (Hayes) Price – buried in the Cedar Grove Methodist Church Cemetery – Chilton County, Alabama

Piety Pertissa “Purity” Hayes was the daughter of William C. Hayes and Luritie “Charity” (Raspberry) Hayes – buried in the Old Raspberry Family Cemetery – Chilton County, Alabama

Luritie “Charity” (Raspberry) Hayes was the daughter of Green Raspberry and Mary Ann (Mullins) Raspberry – buried in the Old Raspberry Family Cemetery – Chilton County, Alabama

BATTLE FLAGS GOING UP ON GEORGIA'S HIGHWAYS TO COMMEMORATE SESQUICENTENNIAL

As part of the continuing  Sesquicentennial commemoration of the War Between the States,
dozens of huge Confederate Battle Flags are going up across the state. The "Flags
Across Georgia" project is being conducted by the Georgia Division of
the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) as part of the effort to
commemorate the War and to promote Southern heritage.

Within the last month, new 50 foot flag poles have been erected in both
Augusta and Ringgold, both on major highways in heavily commercialized
areas. The pole in Augusta is located on Wheeler Road, a busy four lane
highway just off I-20. The flagpole in Ringgold is located on
Battlefield Parkway at I-75 exit 350. Each of the poles is located in a
highly visible location and flies a large 10 x 15 foot battle flag.
Other recent additions include a flag on Ga Highway 520 and US Highway
19 in Baconton, both locations in south Georgia.

The SCV has already erected a dozen such flags across the state on major
thoroughfares and has plans to increase the number over the next three
years during the ongoing Sesquicentennial commemoration of the late War.
The largest flag erected so far is a Confederate Battle Flag just
north of Tifton, Georgia right beside I-75; that flag is 30' x 50' atop
a pole that stands 120' and was erected more than a year ago. It has
attracted a huge amount of attention, especially since it is positioned
on the main route travelled by tourists heading to Florida and back from
all over the country.

Interviews and more information may be obtained by contacting the
Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans online at
www.GeorgiaSCV.org or by calling 1-866-SCV-IN-GA.

Response to Montgomery Advertiser/Prattville Progress Editorial Regarding Gen.N.B.Forrest

 

Past Dragoons Commander Willis' letter to the editor:

Moon Revises Forrest's History Inaccurately

The inaccuracies of Josh Moon’s column on Nathan B. Forrest are legion. Any historical fact he disagrees with he labels “revisionist.”

But we can check the facts for ourselves by examining primary source documents. For example, in his first inaugural address Lincoln said he had no desire “to interfere with slavery and no lawful right to do so.”

Nathan Bedford Forrest called for the KKK to be abolished in 1868 and personally volunteered to help apprehend those responsible for lynchings. In an 1875 address to the blacks of the “Pole-bearers” society Forrest encouraged them to seek out the professions of their choice including public office and declared “I am with you in heart and hand.”

In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln publicly stated that the black man was not his “intellectual equal.” And when issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Lincoln told his cabinet that it was a necessary “war measure” since the Union was in the process of losing the war.

When the facts are examined it could be argued that Forrest is much more deserving of public praise than Lincoln. Regardless of current sentiment, Forrest was far ahead of his day (and Lincoln) in race relations. But sadly, propaganda rather than historical fact, usually wins the day.

Mr. Moon (perhaps out of sheer historical ignorance, or perhaps not) has added another layer of myth to further obscure the truth on Forrest. He could check the record to verify his folly, but undoubtedly this would not serve his divisive purposes.

Joseph W. Willis



10th Alabama Infantry Regiment Confederate Cemetery in Virginia

Alabama Civil War cemetery, nearly lost, dedicated in northern Virginia today Published: Saturday, September 22, 2012

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans spread red Alabama dirt across the new cemetery at Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park in Bristow, Va. (Mary Orndorff Toryan | Birmingham News)

BRISTOW, Va. - Descendants of Civil War soldiers carrying buckets of red dirt from Alabama gathered Saturday to formally dedicate a 151-year-old restored cemetery that was nearly lost to the march of suburban development in northern Virginia.
Not until the restoration work of a local Eagle Scout candidate, guided by county historians who recently gained ownership of the site, did the 90 or so soldiers from the 10^thAlabama Infantry Regiment have a marked and permanently preserved resting place.
The new cemetery, at Camp Jones in the Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park, is now registered with Prince William County and on the official tour trail of the Civil War site not far from Manassas. About 150 people, including 50 from Alabama, watched as a new Alabama stone monument was unveiled and the dirt and water was spread across the cemetery.
"I was giving our boys their last drink," said Linda Currey of Albertville. She and her husband, David, ferried the water from the spring near where the 10^th Alabama gathered the night before leaving for Virginia in 1861.
Many of them died just a few weeks later of disease in the damp campsite, before ever seeing battle.

Soldiers of the 10th Alabama Regiment are buried in the newly restored cemetery at Bristoe Station Battlefield Heritage Park in Bristow, Va. (Mary Orndorff Troyan | The Birmingham News)

One of them, Jesse Frank Leatherwood was only 20. When a historian read his name aloud during Saturday's ceremony, one of Leatherwood's distant relatives was there to hear it, and he was comforted by a fellow member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
"I'm just glad the site was saved," said Frank Leatherwood, a truck driver from Boaz who volunteered to haul the stone monument from Alabama that now anchors the site. "They need to be remembered."
The Alabama Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans donated $5,000 for the plaques and raised another $1,500 from around the country, said Jimmy Hill, a commander with the Alabama Division.
Research by Harold Bouldin of Fyffe, the genealogist with the Alabama Division, shows 92 soldiers buried there, including some who died in battle in Dranesville and were moved to Camp Jones for burial. Eventually, their names will be added to the trail sign near the cemetery entrance.
Among the records used to determine exactly who is buried there is an 1883 letter from a Virginia minister to a newspaper in Jacksonville, Ala., that listed names he saw there on crude headstones. There is also a plea from a veteran in a 1909 letter, asking that the site be commemorated.
"It took us 130 years, but your friends are here and are immortalized," said Brendon Hanafin, the Prince William County Historic Preservation Chief.
It was a deal between the county and a local developer that preserved the battlefield site, which had been in private hands and farmed for decades. The cemeteries - including one for a Mississippi regiment - were largely untouched and overgrown.
Dane Smith, an Eagle Scout candidate from nearby Nokesville, organized the clearing of the Alabama site, which is now surrounded by a split rail fence and accessible by a wooden foot bridge. He was a part of the color guard ceremony Saturday.
"These men left their homes and wound up here 150 years ago and they're still here today. We could not take these men back home to their families, so we brought a little bit of Alabama back to them," said Thomas Strain Jr., of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The cemetery's rebirth is not without controversy. Civil War relic hunters and historians had visited the site in the 1980s and said they saw headstones with names on them that have since gone missing. Descendants, some of them angry that they were removed in the first place, are hoping that whoever has them will return them.
The overall 133-acre Bristoe Station park opened in 2007, marking the Battle of Kettle Run in 1862 and the Battle of Bristoe Station in 1863. It is about an hour's drive west of Washington, D.C., in Bristow, Va., near the Manassas National Battlefield Park.

Betty Royal from Slapout pauses at one of the unmarked graves at the new 10th Alabama Regiment Cemetery. (Mary Orndorff Troyan | The Birmingham News)

The 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment included companies from Jefferson, Shelby, Calhoun, Talladega, St. Clair and DeKalb counties, according to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
The Birmingham News first reported on the cemetery's rebirth in December, sparking interest from around the country. Descendants of Archibald Canaday, who died there Sept. 4, 1861, according to Civil War records, drove about 900 miles from Illinois for Saturday's ceremony. Canaday's great-great-great-granddaughter Kim Hughes and her husband George from Kimberly just north of Birmingham had seen the story and alerted the family.

UDC Friends of Forrest Pavers to Support Selma Live Oak Cemetery Confederate Circle Renovations

As you all are aware, we, the Friends of Forrest, are in a full blown war with our local domestic terrorist, Rose Sanders, her husband Senator Hank Sanders and now they have brought in the national organizations that have been waging war on our heritage & culture for years. Let me assure you...WE HAVE THE HIGH GROUND AND WE ARE GOING TO WIN! We are in a truce at this time...I will be able to expound more on that in the upcoming days. In the meantime, my job is to raise money...AGAIN! I know a lot of you might be saying, "well, I have been giving to this effort for years...when is it gonna stop and when is Pat Godwin going to stop asking me for money"....Gentlemen, there are not words adequate enough to express to you my most sincere gratitude for everything y'all have done for us and General Forrest here in Selma through all these years, plus the committed money for the reward for the information leading to the arrest & conviction of the perpetrators of the theft of the NBF bust. I am just an humble player in this theater of war...I have told many folks through the years, that I really think this entire project from its inception has been Providential. There are people who walk the planet for their entire life, and then when the time comes for them to stand at their judgement, they wonder why they have been here and feel they have lived a lifetime not knowing why they were here and wondering what they have done with their lives during their time here. I am blessed to KNOW why I am here...our Lord has allowed me to be just a small part in this effort to pay homage to General Forrest that is properly due him...especially here in Selma Alabama where he only had about 3000 troops against more than 13,000 of the best equipped troops in the history of the world..this took extreme raw courage and commitment to duty to his country! Based on the history of Selma, I truly believe that General Forrest's spirit STILL LIVES HERE IN SELMA...and there is a reason this war continues to exonerate him in OUR time as he was exonerated in HIS time. Confederate Circle will be an historical learning site ...we plan to have historical markers telling the history of the circle, the Ladies Memorial Association, Selma chapter 53 UDC, Elodie Todd Dawson, the Confederate Monument, the Forrest Monument...we are installing two more flag poles - one will fly the Confederate Battle Flag (the soldiers flag) one will fly the Stars & Bars (the daughters flag) and we plan to move the existing flag pole to the Forrest Monument and fly Gen Forrest's 7th Tenn Cavalry flag (the Battle Flag without the center star ). We plan to have the heavy duty wrought iron park benches within the circle also. We are planning to re-landscape the Circle with Southern trees, flowers & shrubs. There is sooo much to tell and I will be putting out a detailed report soon...however, please be assured that SECURING the FORREST monument and the entire Confederate Circle is the objective...we will have state of the art security system installed with 24/7 surveillance. There also will be LED lights installed on the Forrest Monument and the Confederate Monument. We will be offering an opportunity to sponsor the flag poles ($2100 each), a park bench (cost is unknown right now) bronze historical markers, and the bronze historical plaques that will be attached to the eight-sided pedestal that the entire Forrest monument will be placed upon. There will be a 5 ft.wrought iron period correct fence installed around the Forrest monument, as well. I am currently working on the order forms for the sponsorship of these features. Thank you again for your continued faithful support of the Forrest Monument effort here in Selma. ORDER FORM GENERAL FORREST NEEDS YOUR HELP! He fought for you…will you fight for him? Please support the friends of forrest & Selma chapter #53, UDC by honoring your ancestor at the Nathan Bedford forrest memorial! Honor your Confederate Ancestor, UDC Chapter/Division, OCR Chapter/Society, SCV Camp/Division or other Southern Heritage organization by purchasing a permanent granite paver to be installed around the base of the NBF Monument at Confederate Circle in Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama. The order form is attached below. If your ancestor served with General Forrest, please indicate by putting a star at the beginning of your ancestor’s name on the top line. If you have any further questions, please contact Patricia S. Godwin, President of Selma Chapter #53 and Friends of Forrest, Inc. @ 334-875-1690 or 334-419-4566 (cell) or @: oldsouthrebel@zebra.net The pavers are $50 each; you may purchase more than one if you wish. Please mail your completed form, with your check made payable to NBF Monument Fund/Confederate Circle, to: Patricia S. Godwin Fort Dixie 10800 Co. Rd. 30 Selma, Alabama 36701 ************************************************************************* ORDER FORM Name: _________________________________________________________________________ Address: _________________________________________________________________________ City/St/Zip __________________________________________________________________________ Phone: _________________________________________________________________________ (Home) (cell) e-mail _________________________________________________________________________ Please engrave my 4” x 8” paver as follows: (Max. 3 Lines, 19 Characters per line) ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___ __ ___

Prattville Dragoons Camp Dispatch - September Newsletter Column

Speaking of Black Confederates...

            Following are the last two paragraphs of a July 1904 article in the Montgomery Advertiser, describing a barbecue held in Prattville honoring Confederate veterans of the Prattville Dragoons and the W. W. Wadsworth Camp, United Confederate Veterans.

            "Two honored Confederate Veterans about the grounds at the barbecue were the two old negroes who, as slaves, were devoted to their masters, (and) served in the war. One, Monroe Stuart, belonged to the late Mr. George L. Stuart, loaded guns at Vicksburg, was in prison for months, refused pardon to remain in the fight, and as he came out of prison, took the clothes off a dead Confederate soldier, put them on, and stayed by the side of Col. H. J. Livingston the last two years of the war. He is ever faithful to his white friends and always votes the Democratic ticket.

            "The other black veteran is Bosin Lynum of Camden, who belonged to the late William Lynum. On Thursday he wore a Yankee sergeant uniform which, he said, was captured during the war. He said:  'They gin it to me at Montgomery.' He wore a white helmet with a red and yellow tassle on it. This, he said, belonged to 'Marse Gin'ral Bragg.' Well, he had soldier's clothes on, and was happy whether he got their history quite correct or not. He carried with him as credentials, as it were, an old New Orleans Times-Democrat, in which appeared a long article about him on an occasion when he made a speech there. He said:  'After the war I waited a while for that mule and forty acres, and then I went back to my white folk and have voted the Democratic ticket ever since.' "