Prattville Dragoons July 2020 Camp Meeting Presentation on the Hampton VA Battle of Dam #1

SCV Camp 1524 compatriot Jason Altieri was the guest speaker for July 2020 at the camp meeting held at the Masonic Lodge in downtown Prattville.  He made a presentation on the Battle of Dam #1 complete with overheads extensively showing maps from the period illustrating the related geography and tactics. 

The Battle of Dam #1 was part of the Peninsula campaign.  Lincoln's plan was to split the Confederacy to disrupt supplies and reinforcements in an effort to force the Southern states to surrender.  Jefferson Davis' strategy was one to cordone, counter the Union attacks in a defense of the entire perimeter of the Southern states; this proved to be an unmanageable burden and failure leading to the South's ultimate defeat. 

Even by 1862 the War was becoming increasingly unpopular in the North with Copperhead Southern sympathizers and others suffering a worsening economy.  Lincoln sought a bold offensive.

General McClellan assumed command of the US Army and considered two plans; the first, march directly to Richmond which was just 70 miles south of Washington DC but river crossings would make this approach very difficult.  The second was to use the superior strength of the US Navy to move troops by sea down to the York and James Rivers and move inland from those landings to Petersburg and Richmond. 

Confederate General John Magruder serving under General Johnston was sent to build entrenchments across the peninsula below Yorktown to deter such a Union advance. On March 17, 1862 Union troops under Gen. William "Baldy" Smith landed at Fort Monroe and marched inland.  McClellan and Smith were using erroneous maps though which showed the position, orientation and flow of the region's rivers incorrectly. The Confederates lines were anchored along the river which varied between 10-60 feet wide.  The Union troops believed the river could be easily bridged but the Confederates had dammed the river to make it deeper and wider including at Dam #1. Dam #1 was approximately 1000 yards across including emplacements.  The Confederates also commanded a position along high ground on the north and west side of the river. They also built a gun fort overlooking the dam with a single 12 pound cannon as armament whereas the Union troops had more artillery - New York artillery units there possessed 10lb rifled parrott guns.  

The 2nd Vermont Regiment with a total force numbering around 3000 attacked the Confederate positions with storming parties supported by artillery fire from the east bank of the river. The Confederate defenders, mostly troops from North Carolina and Louisiana numbered approximately 1800 troops.  The Union forces sustained 198 fatalities while the Confederates lost 20 plus 41 wounded but, the Federals took the dam.  But ultimately, the delay there at the Battle of Dam #1 allowed Confederate General Johnston time to reinforce his defenses around Richmond which led to an eventual Confederate victory in the Peninsula campaign.  

Lessons learned from the Battle of Dam #1 included:

1) McClellan had poor intelligence including incorrect maps

2) Magruder made good use of terrain and deception including false timber cannon enplacements

3) Johnston was able to use delays to consolidate defensive units

4) This was the first battle of the war for many of the troops.

Prattville Dragoons at Forrest's 199th Birthday Party at Fort Dixie

Compatriots enjoyed another wonderful birthday party hosted by the Godwins at Fort Dixie the afternoon of Saturday July 25th.  Newly elected Sons of Confederate Veterans Lieutenant Commander Jason Boshers was in attendance and enjoyed the cannon volleys, the ice cold watermelon and the fellowship with the hundreds there to celebrate the life of the Confederacy's most brilliant cavalry officer.  Camp 1524 Commander Waldo and his son spent most of the afternoon between the watermelon patch and the mess tent where the catfish was being fried to a delicious golden brown.  Dragoons' Lieutenants Harold Grooms and Karl Wade and compatriot Tyrone Crowley found spots underneath canopies to watch the program which included music by the band Unreconstructed, an auction of Confederate prints, books and other items as well as doorprize drawings.  Pastor John Weaver was the guest speaker and he provided a glimpse into another side of Forrest, that of his Christian conversion after the War.  Dragoon Dave Thompson won the bidding for one of the auction items as he really enjoys that part of the program with proceeds benefiting the Friend of Forrest and the restoration of Confederate Circle at Selma's Old Live Oak cemetery.  The culmination of the afternoon's festivities is certainly the catfish supper served with corn on the cob, potatoes, tomatoes, slaw, hush puppies, mac n cheese and an assortment of homemade desserts.  It was another enjoyable day with friends from across the state and the southeast and even as far as Texas.  

Lt Commander Jason Boshers

Pastor John Weaver Speaks on Forrest

1st Lt Grooms and 2nd Lt Wade

Enjoying a Cart Ride at Fort Dixie

Tyrone Crowley

Unreconstructed 

Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 July Workday at Robinson Springs Cemetery

Six members of Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 continuing the SCV Guardian program helped mow, trim, and clean the Robinson Springs cemetery in Millbrook AL as part of their July workday.  Compatriot Connor Lee came the day prior and used his zero turn commercial mower to make quick work of the large expanse of grassy area.  Then on Saturday morning July 11th Commander Waldo, 1st Lt Grooms, Quartermaster Myrick, Adjutant Sutherland, Compatriot Jayson Altieri and new member Robert Schwartz arrived early in the morning to beat the heat and complete the work.  Myrick, Grooms and Waldo used their push mowers to mow around the tombstones and slabs and the fenceline while Sutherland and Schwartz used their weed trimmers to complete the grass cutting.  Altieri trimmed the shrubs around to grave sites so that the headstones were no longer obscured.    The cemetery looked very good after the mowing and trimming especially with the crepe myrtles in bloom.   Robinson Springs is the final resting place of many of the areas founding citizens and many veterans.

Prattville Dragoons Commander's Column for July 2020 - Recognizing Race and Racial Tolerance

Commander's Column –  Recognizing Race and Racial Tolerance                

Elsewhere in this newsletter, compatriot Tyrone Crowley provides a history of the term racist and the evolution of its connotation.    I recalled that it was fashionable just a short time ago by the PC progressives in an effort to break down socially constructed barriers to maintain that there is no such thing as race.  This article (https://www.sapiens.org/body/is-race-real/) attempts to minimize a racial construct as a “tenuous flexible” assumptive exercise, using anthropological double speak like “local populations” to discount any notion of the logical clarity of race.  They use outlier exceptions as the grounds for discounting the fact that due to geographic and cultural factors, races have developed over the millenniums such that not just outward appearance lends itself to the grouping of racial populations but for example sciences such as forensic musculoskeletal  and cardiovascular differences between the races can be used to place race discounting any recognition of outward markers.   It is simply humorous delusional fantasy to disregard and ignore the inherent differences between the races akin to placing credence in one’s ability to ”self-identify” as a different race or sex and be granted such recognition.  

So if the notion of races is a social construct then why do recent studies by the University of Toronto “indicate that racial bias may arise in babies as young as six to nine months of age”? (https://www.utoronto.ca/news/racial-bias-may-begin-babies-six-months-u-t-research-reveals)  Without any supporting evidence except limited sample populations in their own studies, the researchers said “that lack of exposure to other races may be the cause.”  The research correlated babies happiness and learning as enhanced when exposed to their own races placing this entirely on familiarity with their own and not on negative experiences with other races.  The study seems to draw this conclusion without substantiating evidence and ignores other possibilities such as instinctual causation such as is observed within species in the greater animal kingdom.   But, even so, should the importance of the child’s consistent ethnic cultural factors be discounted or minimized in their thriving, their happiness and learning?   Do the Japanese or Chinese or Korean or Indian or Nigerian people believe that diversity is an imperative to make their societies stronger, better, more successful or fulfilling for their citizens?

We were watching the television recently in the wake of this Black Lives Matters pandemic and noted an opinion piece presented as an advertisement where a black woman wanted “us” to not see her by the color of her skin and in the same breath wanted us to appreciate her black culture and embrace their “African-American” experience.  (An aside, please check out this post by the Hodge Twins regarding the use of thee term African-American - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxC7IpgJNe8 .)  The entire American corporate industrial complex bent over backwards patronizing the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the death of the drugged career criminal in Minneapolis.  The virtue signaling white guilt pandering reached a sickening crescendo as exemplified by the CEO of Chick fil A in deference shining his black television host rappers’ shoes in repentance for the shame of the country’s systemic racism.   (The Hodge Twins have something to say about the farce of “systemic racism” in America too.)  But if race does not exist, why is it suddenly taboo to proclaim that All Lives Matter and not just those trumpeting the anti-establishment (socialist anti-capitalist), anti-law enforcement Marxist LGBQT agenda of the Black Lives Matter peaceful demonstrators?  Why does this Time article (https://time.com/5846072/black-people-protesting-white-people-responsible-what-happens-next/) condemn “whiteness” as THE source of “racial pain” and instituting an American culture built on oppressive white supremacy if races do not even exist?  

Recently got a call from a member of the camp and he said in our conversation that while his work and daily life brings him in touch with black folks routinely, he doesn’t know of any who are demanding the removal of Confederate flags and monuments.  In my experience with the SCV at community festivals and parades, it is heartening when black passers-by take the time to stop and see what the SCV is about and our camp’s involvement in community service and revealing to see black children approach us for Battle flags.   Our camp member in our phone conversation said he was near the Rosa Parks statue recently and didn’t feel the proclivity to rip it down from its foundation as BLM and Antifa rioters have done to historic Confederate memorial monuments across the country.  Therein lies the point of these ramblings.  It is imperative that we all appreciate each other’s cultures and foundational heritages and the good work we do within our respective neighborhoods and communities. That does not entail pandering racial cultural appropriation kneeling down on congressional steps in African garb.  Nor disrespecting the veterans who have fought and died defending our country, its founding principles, and its freedoms by kneeling during the national anthem or desecrating the flag in some misplaced protest over racial injustice.   It also doesn’t mean militantly scouring the landscape for symbols of American history to destroy labeling those as morally bankrupt in the light of 21st century woke enlightenment.   It is permissible to enjoy the company and fellowship of those with whom you share a common heritage, like minds in terms of political and moral philosophy.  It’s okay to enjoy breaking bread with those who embrace a love of familial Soul food or Cajun food or Lowcountry  or Appalachian food– Southern foods all.  Southern cultures all.  Neighborhood churches.  This is a worthwhile diversity.  Not quite the  ugly “subconscious, pernicious, and insidious racial biases” that are supposedly instilled in us as babies.   It is time to be a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Prattville Dragoons Chaplains Column for July 2020 - Welcomed, Not Condemned

Chaplain’s Column  - Welcomed, not Condemned

I hope everyone is doing well and safe.

I don’t know about you, but lately I haven’t felt very welcome.

As a matter of fact, watching the news and social media the last few weeks, I feel like I and my Southern Brethren are constantly being condemned.

And for what? For loving and cherishing our ancestors.

But not by God! Thanks to the gift of  the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are not condemned, but loved and cherished.

Isaiah 61:7 tells us that, “instead of your shame, you shall have double honor.” 

The Bible also reminds us that “…there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

We obviously cannot ignore the world we live in, but we will continue to honor our “Godly Heritage” and we can have solace and hope in the fact that we are loved by God and that He has conquered the world.

May God continue to watch over you and your families and protect you all.

And may God save the South!

Remember those on our prayer list. 

History of the Words Racist and Racism

From Dragoons Compatriot Tyrone Crowley

Introduction

       At the recent Alabama Division Reunion in Foley, Alabama Division Commander Carl Jones noted that if we are going to be attacked politically, we won’t be able to avoid getting political ourselves and discussing these topics which are used by the media to attack our heritage.  Two words that are aimed at the SCV continually are racist and racism.  I would like to offer the following information so that we can understand how these words came into the American language, and why.

Etymology of the words

Let's understand first the origin of the word race [derived probably from Latin ratio, ‘reckoning, account’].  The Oxford English Dictionary dates the word from the 1500s, making it about 500 years old.  Originally race was applied to a man and his descendants (as in the "race of Abraham"), then a tribe or clan, and finally the modern sense we understand today (each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics).  Race, then, has been with us for half a millenium.  The next words, which are derived from it, have been in use for less than a century.

Racism, Racist – These words were first used about 1933  per Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (one source says communist leader Leon Trotsky was first to use it, to label Russians who wanted to reject international communism and keep their national traditions and culture).  The term does not appear in U.S. dictionaries until after World War II.  It was first brought into use in this country by communists/socialists who came here from Eastern Europe in the last half of the nineteenth century and saw the Anglo-Saxon majority as a threat to continued immigration of their own stock into this country (cf. the Frankfurt School); hence their use of it against the Anglo-Saxon majority beginning in the 1950s.

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From an article written by Mike Tuggle of South Carolina:

       The term is entirely modern, and of purebred Marxist stock. The Soviets, who were the first Marxists in power, invented it as a condemnation of those ethnic groups who stubbornly refused to surrender their traditions and submit to the enlightened rule of the commissars. Like many other propaganda terms, it was not so much a philosophical concept as it was a loaded phrase designed to intimidate and silence critics. Then as now, the term "racist" is a cluster bomb that implies both backwardness and xenophobia. The first usage of the term "racist" in print appeared in Leon Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution, in which he characterized Russian patriotism as "the messianism of backwardism" and dismissed as "Racists" those who explained conflicts in nationalistic terms:

       Therefore, loyalty to one's cultural traditions, from the way you talk to the faith you profess, is a manifestation of a fear of progress, and progress, as we all know, is the inevitable movement toward globalism and universalism that Marxism promised. Love of one's own people, then, is not love, but hatred of others.

       That is, if you accept the premises of Marxism.

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"Racist" statements by two well-known American figures

Following are two quotations, both from two notable figures in American history.  At the time they were made, they were accepted as truth by most all Americans.  The fact that they now would be seen as "hateful and racist" is proof of the fact that that label is a product of the late twentieth century.

Thomas Jefferson quote, only the first part of which was placed on his monument in Washington.

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.  --Thomas Jefferson, July 27, 1821

Abraham Lincoln on the subject of race

In a debate with Stephen Douglas in Charleston, Illinois, on 18 September 1858, Lincoln said:

       "I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.  And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."  He also added:  “I am not in favor of Negro citizenship.”

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Conclusion

       So, for true Americans, "racism" is a made-up word used by the enemies of our culture, and should always be put within quotes, to show it for what it is:  an invention to be used against those who oppose socialism and globalism, both enemies of the American tradition.  More recent terms in this category are "sexist", "xenophobe" (or any variety of "phobes"), and "neo-Confederate".

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

Prattville Dragoons July Camp Meeting - Thursday July 9th, 6pm, Prattville Masonic Lodge

Gen. Forrest’s Birthday Celebration - Saturday, July 11th, 2pm, Parkers Crossroads Battlefield TN - Postponed (COVID)

Ol’ Forrest's 199th Birthday Party - Saturday, July 25th, 3pm at the Godwin's Fort Dixie  

SCV National Reunion - Wed-Sat, July 15-18, 2020, St. Augustine, FL