A Confederate Family Reunion in Abbeville GA Part 1

I attended my Rhodes family reunion in Abbeville GA the weekend of June 28-30th.  We had an early lunch at Cracker Barrel with my cousin Richard and his wife Ramona in Cordele on Saturday morning.  Richard is the pastor of his apostolic church in Abbeville.   My grandmother lived most of her life on her farm there just south of Abbeville and my mother was born there.  I recall many summers there fishing and hanging around with Richard as he lived across Highway 129 from my grandmothers place.  My mother and Richard's father were first cousins.  Richard bought my grandmother's farm from her and has done a wonderful job renovating the place and he raises dogs there.  After some good fellowship over lunch and catching up we took off for our Confederate field trip.  I had never known growing up there that such rich Confederate history laid there in this part of south Georgia.  The previous year I had found information about my great grandfather Joseph Edwards Rhodes who fought in Company E of the 49th Georgia Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia.  He is buried at Cedar Creek Baptist Church just north of Abbeville.  I battled the gnats and finally found his grave under the stand of moss draped oak trees in the cemetery and planted a Confederate flag there.   The 49th Georgia Infantry served in Georgia and North Carolina and were assigned to General J.R. Anderson's and E.L. Thomas' Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia.  They participated in battles from Seven Pines to Cold Harbor and fought in the Petersburg Trenches and were surrendered at Appomattox.  The unit reported 68 casualties at Second Manassas and 61 at Fredericksburg, 13% at Chancellorsville and over 25% at Gettysburg.  Joseph enlisted on May 10, 1862 and was wounded less than two months later on June 30, 1862 in the Seven Days' Battle at Savages Station.  Union Gen. McClellan approached Richmond intent on getting close enough to bombard the Confederate capital with his artillery. But Confederate General Robert E. Lee's troops repelled the invaders and in the deadly Battle of Gaines Mill where there accrued 15,000 casualties, succeeded in forcing their retreat.  The action on June 30th at Savages Station included hand to hand combat.  On July 1st the final day of the battle proved to be the bloodiest where at Malvern Hill, Union forces holding the high ground were able to avoid total destruction and capture by the Army of Northern Virginia but the defense of Richmond was successful and Lee was hailed as a hero.  Joseph Rhodes returned home to recuperate for four months but then he reenlisted in the wagon trains and was wounded again in battle near Sharpsburg Maryland on September 17, 1864.   He was captured near Petersburg VA on May 25, 1865 and was sent to Point Lookout Prison in Maryland as a prisoner of war.  He was released on June 17, 1865, making his way back to Georgia and his family.  A true unsung Confederate hero - what a record of service for the Cause.

Joseph Edwards Rhodes Grave in Cedar Creek Cemetery near Abbeville GA

Prattville Dragoons Commanders Column for July 2013

Warner Brothers has decided to eliminate the Confederate Battle flag from the roof of the General Lee Dodge Charger in the upcoming remake of the 1980s TV classic.  Who would General Robert E. Lee have been without his courageous soldiers advancing the Battle Flag against overwhelming odds?   Fortunately, the comments to the article seemed to demonstrate overwhelming support for the flag, Southern culture and heritage and many expressed growing weariness and frustration with the incessant misplaced political correctness by the liberal news and entertainment media.  Today we fight the winds of political correctness.  Our Southern Anglo-Saxon culture is being diluted and revisionists incessantly attempt to erase and dismiss our Confederate heritage as in Memphis and Selma and in the very history books which indoctrinate our children in the schools our tax dollars support.  

Confederate General Patrick Cleburne warned, “Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late… It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by  Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision… It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all that our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties”.  Rev. James P. Smith from Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s staff stated, “All that was, or is now, desired is that error and injustice be excluded from the text-books of the schools and from the literature brought into our homes; that the truth be told, without exaggeration and without omission; truth for its own sake and for the sake of honest history, and that the generations to come after us not be left to bear the burden of shame and dishonor unrighteously laid upon the name of their noble sires.”   But this fight against revisionists is nothing new and our fight must continue to ensure our children and grand-children know the truth of our glorious heritage.  

My father recently gave me a real treasure, a 1912 original volume of The History of the Civil War by Benson J. Lossing with Brady War Photographs.  Just as Gen. Cleburne warned though, the book is rife with such bias that it can only be considered propaganda, an editorial or fiction but, it is presented as a preeminent historical accounting.  Lossing  was praised in the prologue as being beyond any question on the subject, “a great authority; a court of last resort for facts and data.”  Examples of the presented facts include, when speaking of the South Carolina delegation which went to Washington to negotiate the “disposition of property” within their sovereign borders, they “set forth the objects of their mission in haughty language (and) their demands had been uttered in a manner so insulting that the President (Buchanan) was justly indignant and wrote them a letter, courteous in tone” declining to receive the diplomatic correspondence. Embellishing a bit aren’t we?  Lossing then proceeded to provide an accounting of the action at Fort Sumter, claiming the Star of the West attempting to reinforce and resupply Ft. Sumter was “fired upon from redoubts which the Secessionists, now become insurgents, had erected on the shore. The assailants had no respect for the insignia of the Union.  This overt act of the insurgents was the beginning of the terrible Civil War that followed. The language of the Declaration of War against the Union by the politicians of South Carolina was arrogant, boastful and savage. They proceeded in hot haste to inaugurate Civil War and to drag the peaceful inhabitants of the other slave-labor states into its horrid vortex. The people whose rights they had violated and whose sovereignty that had usurped, were stunned and bewildered by the violence of the self-constituted leaders and they found themselves at the mercy of madmen, totally unfit to lead in the councils of a free, intelligent, and patriotic community.  Meanwhile, the loyal people of the Northern States loved peace and friendship and were willing to make almost any concessions.”  Except conceding the subjugation of their “friends” to the South. Outrageous stuff, eh?  

Lossing continued, incessantly. “When the Civil war had ended, there was joy and hope in every bosom in the land. The soldiers of the great armies of the republic had saved the nation from political death and incidentally achieved the great work of emancipation for an enslaved race.”  Hope and joy in the ravaged condemned Southland?  Can you stand to read more?  “When the starvation plan had succeeded in reducing forty thousand Union prisoners to skeletons, generally no better for service than dead men, a proposition was made by the Confederate authorities for a resumption of exchanges. Again, (Union) humanity took precedence and these poor creatures in Confederate prisons were exchanged for as many prisoners who had been well fed and otherwise comfortably provided for in the North.”  And on and on.  “A reign of terror under the Richmond despotism crushed out all freedom of speech and action in the Confederacy, defying all moral and civil law granting that the people of the South were as good, benevolent, humane, refined, kind-hearted and Christian-like in character and deeds as any on the face of the earth and have unjustly suffered reproaches because of the wrongs committed by self-constituted political leaders who misrepresented them.” No mention of Lincoln’s innumerable unconstitutional measures.  Reconstruction?  “There was nothing to be reconstructed for nothing worth preserving had been destroyed.   No State as a component of the republic had been severed from the others for secession was an impossibility. The insurrection against the National Government only placed the constitutions of some of the States in a condition of suspended animation.”  The readers belief system must be placed in suspended animation to undoubtingly accept this disinformation.  

The UCV, the SCV and the UDC are to be commended for standing in the face of this propaganda for the past 150 years, educating the low-information populace as to the true history of the South and the Confederacy.  It is a commendation that during this Sesquicentennial that there remains our voices proclaiming the truth and we should be encouraged when mainstream media and politicians such as Judge Andrew Napolitano, economist Walter Williams and Rep. Ron Paul recognize and advance these same facts and principles.  While outstanding letters to the editor such as our own Charlie Graham faithfully publishes are priceless and reach our neighbors, the new digital and social media also enables our voices to be heard across a limitless audience everywhere.  As we mourn our fallen forefathers at this anniversary of Vicksburg and Gettysburg, do your part to advance the Cause and disseminate the truth, never forgetting the constitutional principles they espoused and the ideals they fought and died for.

Remember our Fallen Forefathers on this July 4th Anniversary of Vicksburg and Gettysburg

As we celebrate July 4th and the founding of our great nation in 1776 by the Declaration of Independence, we should also remember the Sesquicentennial of the Siege of Vicksburg and the Battle of Gettysburg today.  Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was repulsed as they attempted to gain a military victory deep in Union territory in order to force Lincoln to negotiate a peace and simultaneously the fall of Vicksburg crippled the Confederacy's Mississippi River lifeline.  The Confederacy would not recover from these dual blows but they struggled on for nearly two more years to thwart the Yankee onslaught and protect their homeland and their newly formed constitutional republic. Gettysburg is planning huge events to commemorate this anniversary and the Sons of Confederate Veterans is holding their annual convention in Vicksburg in just two weeks time.  But while July 4th is celebrated for the founding of the United States of America and the promise of liberty and freedom our founding father's sought and fought for, the Sesquicentennial of Gettysburg and Vicksburg may be solemnly recognized as the fateful beginning of the end for the Confederacy whereby Lincoln and his Union federalists established sectional superiority by force and henceforth a more centralized form of government which has effectively robbed us of our rights and liberties even unto today.

The June 28th edition of the Montgomery Advertiser contained a letter to the editor from Roger Broxton, President of the Confederate Heritage Fund:

Sacrifices of Confederate veterans not forgotten 

The 150 year anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg re­minds us of the sacrifices made by our Confederate vet­erans in self-defense of the voluntary union of “indepen­dent states,” promised three times in the Declaration of Independence of 1776.

We also remember that Abraham Lincoln and the fed­eral government declared they supported permanent slavery in the United States and that the war was fought only to collect a new 40 percent feder­al sales tax from Southerners under the Morrill Tariff Act.

Lincoln explained in his first inaugural speech, March 4, 1861: “I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution has passed Congress (March 2, 1861), to the effect that the federal government shall nev­er interfere with the domestic institutions of the states, in­cluding that of persons held to service. Holding such a provi­sion to now be implied consti­tutional law, I have no objec­tion to its being made express and irrevocable.” (Paragraph 32) Lincoln declared in his first message to the U.S. Congress (July 4, 1861): “My policy sought only to hold the public places and property (Four federal tax collection forts like Sumter) not already wrested from the government and to collect the revenue (taxes).” (Paragraph 5) 

Dragoons to Participate in the City of Prattville 4th of July Parade

The city of Prattville will once again hold their annual 4th of July parade on Thursday July 4th starting at 9am, rain or shine.  The parade will start at the Autauga County Courthouse and proceed down Main Street, right on Northington Street with the parade ending at Stanley Jensen Stadium.  There will be reserved spots at the front of the parade for the Grand Marshals and elected officials.   This year's parade honors our Vietnam-era Veterans.  The Dragoons plan to have a nice entry of two golf carts for riders as well as a camp Sons of Confederate Veterans banner carried by marchers. There will be some in period dress but all the Dragoons and their family's will have candy for parade spectators along the route as well as SCV coins and Battle Flags to hand out.  Come on out to the parade to start your 4th of July festivities and cheer on the Dragoons contingent.

Alabama Division Reunion June 8, 2013 - Part 4

Following the Business Meeting of the Division Reunion and the Luncheon, a Memorial Service was held at Confederate Rest in Point Clear, AL.  Confederate Rest is in the Eastern Shore Memorial Cemetery near the Grand Hotel in Point Clear and is a beautiful resting spot underneath some grand oak trees and actually within a stone's throw of the Robert Trent Jones Lakewood Golf Course.  The Memorial Service began with the posting of the colors while there were many small Confederate flags around the grounds and a large one on a flagpole in the Confederate portion of the cemetery. The program began with a welcome from Blakeley Camp Commander Tommy Rhodes and an invocation by camp Chaplain Jerry Rowley.  Then the pledges to the United States, Alabama State and Confederate flags were made.  A memorial wreath was placed by UDC members Mrs. Mary Beth Majesty and Mrs. Barbara Alphin followed by the first of three rifle and cannon volley salutes.  The Roll Call of Honor included recently deceased SCV member Price Legg of the Ft. Blakeley Camp and Mrs. Barbara Jenkins of the UDC Chapter 2390.  Another volley salute followed.  Alabama Division Commander Gary Carlyle provided a Memorial Address dressed very dapper in a light blue Seersucker suit and a straw hat. He also led everyone in singing some good ol' Southern heritage songs playing his guitar and at the conclusion of the program he joined in the music accompaniment for the singing of Dixie.  Chaplain Rowley provided the Benediction which was followed by Taps played by bugler Tom Robinson.  A final triple volley rifle and cannon salute and the retiring of the colors brought the program to a close. 

Memorial Wreath Placed Near the Cannon in Confederate Rest Cemetery

Roll Call of Honor Under the Oaks of Confederate Rest

Rifle Volley Salute

Division Commander Gary Carlyle's MemorialAddress

Commander Carlyle and the Rifle Squadron

The Musicians Play Dixie

Confederate Rest Historical Marker

Alabama Division Reunion June 8, 2013 - Part 3

The Division Reunion business meeting concluded with the reports from the Commander and Lieutenants and the votes on the proposed Amendment and Resolutions.   2nd Lt Carl Jones provided news from the Cadet Muster where despite a disappointing turnout of cadets, over fifty people from the general public attended the event at the Cullman museum including many children.  The annual budget allocation for the educational heritage posters but that emphasises the popularity and it was decided to move up the publication of the posters so that they will be available soon after the start of the school year instead of in the spring.  Lt. Jones concluded saying that when we want to promote our heritage as badly as we want to breathe, we will be unstoppable.

1st Lt Jimmy Hill announced the one joint Division Brigade workshop held thus far with the goal of three this year.  He also encouraged more applications for the Wheeler Scholarship as the only two applicants were awarded the stipend.  Jimmy spoke about the Streights Raid memorial service where the Forrest monument was rededicated at Cedar Bluff AL where despite adverse weather, twenty men of the Mechanized Cavalry attended.  Jimmy also petitioned for submittals for the Division newsletter. 

Commander Carlyle began his speech to the convention by reminding everyone that General Nathan Bedford Forrest had 28 horses shot out from underneath him demonstrating his persistence, fortitude, leadership and bravery.  Forrest recruited all his soldiers and Commander Carlyle reminded us that if we want to ride with Forrest, we need to recruit like him for new SCV members. The Hunley awards were endorsed as a great way to promote the SCV at schools as the JROTC award is held in high esteem by recipients, teachers and administrators.  The educational posters and issues of the Alabama Confederate should be provided to schools to reverse the propaganda.  It is our duty to educate ourselves and the public that the SCV is a virtuous organization whose ideals can help save our society.  The SCV National website forms and documents section provides an SCV graves resource and the Joe Wheeler camp website maintains a list of Alabama Confederate veterans to assist in genealogical research for memberships.

Army of Tennessee Commander Tom Strain presented Amendment changes clarifying committee responsibilities.  Lt. Hill submitted that the 2009 Awards guidelines were never placed in the standing orders so that was rectified.  The Grant Request Guidelines amendment was also put in the standing orders, passing unanimously.  These guidelines specify that the committee must get grant requests 30 days in advance of the EC meeting so the request proposal can be sufficiently investigated as to qualifications and the project planning. Commander Strain also presented the resolution whereby the Alabama Division and the delegates of the convention submitted that the board room at the Confederate Memorial Park library be named after Leonard Wilson and a plaque hung on the wall so proclaiming.  Another resolution was passed honoring Connie Morrie as a long time Alabama Division vendor who will be retiring from this capacity.

The Division EC meeting will be held August 24th at Confederate Memorial Park and the 2014 reunion will be held May 2-3 in Athens.

Commander Gary Carlyle

1st Lt Jimmy Hill

Army Commander Tom Strain

Alabama Division Reunion June 8, 2013 - Part 2

The Business Meeting of the 2013 Alabama Division Reunion was a fast paced efficiently directed meeting which concluded before the scheduled luncheon.  Division Commander Gary Carlyle moved the Brigade Commander presentations up in the agenda to the first item.  Dragoon Bill Myrick was among the eight Brigade Commanders to make reports.  Bill brought great news that a new camp in Lownesboro is forming.  He also mentioned the great camp meeting at Marion where H.K. Edgerton visited - see the related blog here.  Bill also mentioned the Selma camp and their recruiting booth at the Battle of Selma reenactment and the good turnout they had for their annual Lee-Jackson banquet in January. Of course the activities of his home Prattville camp were also highlighted.  The SW Brigade Commander (where Foley AL is located) spoke about a Beauvoir donation and renovations for Confederate Rest Cemetery in Point Clear.  Beatle Bailey provided information regarding an October reenactment at and benefiting Beauvoir. 

Mike Williams, Adjutant for the Division, reported that we have 1802 members, an increase of 103 members over the past year!  He mentioned the renewal system as a possible contributing help to this statistic.  He also mentioned that every camp was assigned an email address for communications from the Division such as EC meeting minutes. 

Tyrone Crowley provided the Confederate Memorial Park Library report.  The library was established by Leonard Wilson and with his passing, there appears to be a void in the direction and mission and ownership for the library.  The library contains over 2000 volumes.  From Dec 2012 thru June 2013 the library was opened by volunteers 83 days and saw 174 visitors.  It was recognized that the library is a Division treasure but that with the paucity of visitors and difficulty scheduling volunteers, the days the library is actively open should be reduced to Friday thru Sunday and the proposal was accepted.

Commander Carlyle summarized the last EC minutes from the meeting in Prattville.  There are 1600 SCV car tags issued in the state of Alabama which funds the I-65 flag project.  This number of tags represents almost 90% of the 1800 SCV members in the Division.

Division Chaplain Dr. Baker provided the Chaplains report beginning by saying he will pray the library will continue operating.  The Chaplains Handbook was among the volumes he had available and said it was a must for each camp Chaplain.  He also spoke of the Morning Exercises, a set of devotionals by Rev. Jay from Bath, England and The Perfect Lion, a biography of John Pelham, the great artillery commander praised by General Lee and his staff.  He encouraged everyone to email hrrumbrg41@gmail.com to subscribe to Dr. Rumberg's Chaplain's Chronicles. Dr. Baker has been a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans since 1980 serving as Division Chaplain for numerous years and also as Commander. He mourned the passing this past year of Mitchell Denny on March 6th at the age of 91 who was the last documented Real Son in the Division and also of course the passing of past Commander Leonard Wilson at whose funeral he preached.

Just prior to the morning break, the Treasurer's Report was presented.  The Alabama Confederate magazine is a primary expense for the Division but the new glossy page format was commended.  The Forrest Monument project at Cedar Bluff went slightly over budget but the renovation project was completed this year with the help of seventeen volunteers whereas prolonging the completion would have resulted in greater additional expense.  The monument site includes three informational kiosks, walls to focus attention to the monument and an 8" thick sidewalk.  The monument was rededicated with attendance including the Mechanized Cavalry.  Two Wheeler Scholarships were awarded this past year but applications are further encouraged by eligible students.

The reports from the remainder of the staff officers as well as the presentation of and voting on amendments and resolutions concluded the business session and will be summarized in our next blog.

Brigade Commander Myrick Presents his Report

Dragoon Tyrone Crowley Reads his Library Recommendations Letter

Dr. Baker Addresses the Reunion