The Dragoons of SCV Camp 1524 held their monthly meeting for May 2021 on Thursday May 13th at the Prattville Masonic Lodge. About 24 compatriots were in attendance. The camp Chaplain opened the meeting with an Invocation followed by Color Sgt Dennis leading the pledges and salutes to the US, Alabama and Confederate flags. Commander Waldo then recited the Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Upcoming events including the state and national conventions and the bicentennial of General Nathan Bedford Forrest's birthday were highlighted along with other pertinent news for the camp. The program was presented by Dr. Robert Wieland of the First White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery.
Dr. Wieland noted we were meeting at the Masonic Lodge and said that he has found no proof that Jefferson Davis was a Mason although his background as a Jacksonian common man and Episcopalian faith could have perhaps led one to believe. Bob also noted the print of New York City on one wall there and said that Varina spent her later years in NY City. She was a cousin of Joseph Pulitzer and this certainly opened the door to social connections there. It should be noted though that NY City was full of Copperheads who opposed the War and there was also the 1863 riots there in opposition to the Union draft. There are volumes written on Lincoln's war with the North, most specifically those who opposed his policies.
Bob gave those in attendance an update on what had transpired at the First White House in 2020 and 2021 since the COVID pandemic struck. He was actually out in Texas attending UDC and SCV meetings in mid-March when he was forced to return home. The staff at the First White House used this time to do a thorough inventory of the artifacts and objects in the house. Then of course in mid-2020 attacks accelerated on Confederate monuments led by those in Virginia and North Carolina. The First White House has resisted the woke influence to date and interpretives in the house still refer to the War for Southern Independence. Bob reaffirmed his belief that the Confederacy of 1861-1865 was the greatest Republic in history.
While VA and NC were tearing down Monument Avenue and Silent Sam, renovations also were undertaken at the First White House with exterior wood and interior walls restored and an enhanced security system installed including gates and rooftop cameras. At one point in 2020 it appeared BLM might be targeting the First White House but security was dispatched for a period around the clock and the Montgomery mayor's office also assisted in defusing the situation and discouraging those groups from coming down from Birmingham. Things cooled down some since although the result of this environment and these movements saw the removal of the Lee statue from Montgomery's high school and a Rosa Park statue erected where a Confederate historic marker stood downtown.
Dr. Wieland expressed his desire that all monuments be left in place as instructive for future generations but while it could be viewed as a tragedy that General Lee's statue was removed from Lee HS, that school was no longer representative of the standards to which Lee should be associated and it is an appropriate new location in Lee County off I-85 there. Renovations were completed and displays including the relic room were reworked to include displays of Confederate currency and other items which were discovered in the inventory including photos and videos of former regents of the First White House and Lee's christening cup. Visitors to the First White House have been very receptive and appreciative of the historic house and the enhancements since it reopened in March 2021 with new hours 8am-3:30pm weekdays.
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