Prattville Dragoons Commander's Column for April 2018: Honoring Confederate Veteran's Contributions

Commander's Column: Honoring Confederate Veteran’s Contributions

Alabama Governor Key Ivey signed a proclamation declaring April to be Confederate History and Heritage month, honoring the sacrifice of the Confederate veterans who helped shape our state’s history during and after the War for Southern Independence.  Camp 1524 initiated Confederate History and Heritage month by placing Battle flags on the Confederate veteran graves at Oak Hill Cemetery in downtown Prattville on Saturday March 31st.   I regretted being unable to join our compatriots in this annual observance but as many are aware, I was in Augusta Georgia with my family as my little daughter was competing on a national stage in a golf tournament there just prior to the Masters golf tournament.  I got a paper on Tuesday morning there and noticed a story with a lead in the front page banner, “Augusta’s Monument Man”.  The photograph was clearly that of a Confederate soldier.  I had gotten the paper to check the stories of the professional golfers gathering at Augusta for the Masters golf tournament but I had to check this story first.  The article told the story of Barry Benson who was the model for the soldier atop a 70 foot monument on Broad Street in Augusta.  The story stated, “It was what he did after the war that was much more remarkable” than what he did as a Confederate private.  He “impressed people (as) hardworking, earnest and very clever. He became a cotton broker then an accountant.  He invented a new method for checking complex accounts with a system that would be adopted nationally.  On a challenge he solved a famous secret French code and offered to help the federal War Department (code ciphering). He wrote poetry.  During a (local) textile strike, he served as an arbitrator in ending the confrontation. He experimented with mushrooms to find an inexpensive food supply for the poor families (during Reconstruction).”  He helped to persuade the governor of Georgia to commute the death sentence of Leo Frank in Atlanta citing discrepancies in the prosecution’s case which has been recognized as one of the country’s most notorious cases of anti-Semitism.  During World War I he adopted five French orphans and helped place another one hundred in American homes. He even led a Boy Scout troop in his 80s.  “It was as if Barry Benson was placed on that marble pedestal in 1878 and spent the next half century showing he deserved it.” (Augusta Chronicle, March 31, 2018)

Barry Benson was not alone as an exemplary citizen following his service in the Confederate Army.  This year’s Alabama Division educational poster provides the story of John Stith Pemberton who served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 12th Georgia Infantry in the defense of Columbus Ga notably at the very end of the WBTS.  After the War, Pemberton “studied medicine and pharmacy” and invented a syrup which was carbonated and “formed a company in 1886 to market his “most pleasing” drink to consumers”, a soda we know today as Coca Cola.  Joseph Wheeler served as a cavalry general in the Army of Tennessee, having 16 horses shot out from underneath him while serving thru the entire conflict, enlisting as a First Lieutenant and rising to the rank of Lieutenant General, battling Sherman’s marauding army thru 1864-1865 and even protecting President Davis in his attempt to escape from Richmond in April 1865 at War’s end.  He was a lawyer and U.S. Congressman for nine terms afterwards before he volunteered to serve in the Spanish American War, being appointed as Major General and leading U.S. forces in Cuba before also serving in the Philippine-American War.  He was the only Confederate General to subsequently serve as a general in the U.S. Army and is one of just a few Confederate veterans buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  Of course, Robert E. Lee after his brilliant service commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, served as President of Washington College, now Washington Lee University.  Stephen Dill Lee, following his service as a Lieutenant General in the Army of Tennessee at the conclusion of the War, served as the first President of the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Mississippi, now Mississippi State University.  Many veterans following their noble and honorable service in the Confederate Army went on to have remarkable careers making valuable contributions to their states and our nation in government, military and civilian capacities.  It is fitting that we again honor these great Americans, these Confederate veterans in special observances throughout the month of April but also in carrying forward the charge which S.D. Lee committed to us as Sons of our Confederate veteran ancestors.   They are certainly deserved of their monuments and worthy of our remembrance.