SCV Camp 1524 Provide Pizzas for 2022 Law Enforcement Appreciation Week to Prattville PD and Autauga County Sheriff's Offices

Tuesday morning May 17th,  Dragoons Lt Commander Rob Schwartz and 2nd Lt Karl Wade representing Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 delivered 35 pepperoni and cheese pizzas and 6 party size packages of "Chips Ahoy" cookies to the Autauga County Sheriff's and Prattville Police department offices.  This was to honor their service for Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and Week.  The Dragoons believe this is a very worthwhile opportunity to recognize the service of our local police officers and sheriff's deputies.  

Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 at the Prattville Cityfest

Members of the Dragoons manned a booth at the Prattville Cityfest on Saturday May 14th.  The camp has attended the festival for many years and are always located near the east entrance under the shade of a magnolia tree lining Main Street there.   The booth was setup early Saturday morning by Commander Waldo, 1st Lt Schwartz and compatriot Larry Spears and consisted of a canopy with tables on which camp stores were shown for sale along with mini-Battle flags, SCV coins and literature as free material to festivals passers-by.  Historic Confederate flags and the camp banner were draped over the table and canopy facing Main Street.  1st Lt Schwartz manned the booth the entire day from setup thru taking down the canopy and packing back up remaining stores; he had also taken charge of recruiting helpers to man the booth throughout the day.  It was a very hot day made even more so with the sun radiating off the asphalt there on Main Street.  A number of members of the Camp 1524 came by to help with the effort throughout the morning and afternoon including Color Sgt John Dennis and compatriots Larry Spears, Tyler Suttle, Darrell Haywood, Michael Thomas and new member Thomas Griffith.  The most popular item were the Confederate ball caps which sold out but many flags and car tags and coffee mugs were also sold from the camp stores to Cityfest patrons.   Hundreds of mini-Battle flags and SCV coins and Confederate heritage stickers were given out also.  There was a tremendous crowd of festival-goers and a number stopped by the Dragoons booth to get information about the SCV and the camp and to express support for our being there carrying forth the Confederate colors.  A great opportunity for the Camp 1524 to meet and greet their Prattville friends and neighbors and advance the SCV Charge.  

Prattville Dragoons Camp Meeting for May 2022

The Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 held their monthly camp meeting on Thursday evening May 12th at the Masonic Lodge in downtown Prattville.  It was a good crowd of 27 folks enjoying the fellowship and the program.   In the absence of Commander Waldo, newly installed 1st Lt Rob Schwartz led the meeting and did an outstanding job including playing music on his guitar in the hour leading up to the program.  Rob called on Chaplain Brantley for prayers to open and close the meeting and Color Sgt Dennis led everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags.   Compatriot Tyrone Crowley gave a summary of last month's Confederate Memorial Day services he attended with his wife including that in Montgomery and in Selma.  Harold Grooms and John Dennis gave updates on the status of the cemetery grounds maintenance which the camp undertakes.  A special occasion was the swearing in of compatriot Thomas Griffith who was very happy being presented with his certificate having been framed by his wife for the ceremony and display.  Thomas had his sister and brother-in-law in attendance. 

Calvin Chapelle, Site Director of Confederate Memorial Park of the Alabama Historical Commission, was the guest presenter and gave a slideshow presentation concerning the rotating exhibits at the museum and a new climate controlled display case they are getting. He was very proud to have an engraved wallet from a Prattville Dragoon that fought in the  war of Northern aggression and it will be put on display soon. He related that having school children come to CMP is the best part of his job, educating them about the true history of Alabama and the Confederacy.   He spoke of the recent reenactment events and live history presentations and  noted there will be more of them in the future.  Calvin complimented the Dragoons for setting all the flags on the graves at the cemeteries at CMP for April, Confederate History and Heritage month. They are also rebuilding the pavilion at the park that was destroyed a few years ago.  Calvin provided the facts on the proposed legislation concerning state park funding and did not endorse either position for voting but did confirm that Confederate Memorial Park has its own stream of income for park maintenance.  Alabama House Representative Will Dismukes popped in soon after the meeting started and provided an update on the status of current bills affecting heritage defense in the state.   

Prattville Dragoons Camp 1524 Donate Bust of General Nathan Bedford Forrest for Sons of Confederate Veterans National Confederate Museum

The Prattville Dragoons commissioned a beautiful bronze bust of General Nathan Bedford Forrest thru Monuments Across Dixie and had been awaiting the completion of the SCV National Museum at historic Elm Springs in Columbia TN to donate the bust for display there.  As part of the recent Pilgrimage and Confederate Memorial Service at Elm Springs on May 7, 2022, the bust was delivered to SCV Executive Director Adam Southern and placed in a display case in the exhibit hall of the museum along with a print and map of the Battle of Fallen Timbers of April 8, 1862 where Forrest, acting as a rearguard for General Breckenridge, charged the forces of Union General Sherman causing them to flee and allowing the Confederate forces to escape.  The display includes a vest worn by General Forrest.  This bust and the Forrest Battle of Fallen Timbers case is a part of many educational displays at the 18500 sq ft museum dedicated to providing the true history of the War Between the States, the War for Southern Independence.  

Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 Groundskeeping at Robinson Springs Cemetery

Members and friends of the Prattville Dragoons met on Saturday morning May 7th to mow the grass and weed trim and do some hedge clipping at the historic Robinson Springs cemetery in Millbrook AL.  It was a beautiful brisk morning with low humidity making the work much more comfortable.  Camp Commander Waldo, 1st Lt Rob Schwartz, compatriots Larry Spears and Thomas Griffith participated.  But a wonderful addition was compatriot Hubert Champion, a friend of Rob's and prospective camp member who brought  his trailer with a zero turn mower, push mower, weed trimmer and blower to help with the effort.  The work was completed in short order and made the grounds beautiful for Mother's Day the following day.  The maintenance of this historic cemetery, the final resting place for many area settlers and Robinson Springs community founders as well as US and Confederate armed forces veterans, is part of the Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Guardian program to care for these historic cemeteries.  

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Chaplain's Column May 2022 - Humbling Afflictions

 

"... therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." - 2 Corinthians 12:7

 

  Over the last month, I have inherited a "guest" on my neck. Many of you noticed it at the Dragoon picnic in April. At first it started out as a small knot, but quickly grew large and irritated. Last week, it, well, it opened. I won't share what is coming out of it, but it will have to opened and removed. It's called a Carbuncle. I had never heard of it before. I pray nobody reading this ever gets one.

  I share this because, at the same time I have been studying "Paul's Letters." In 2 Corinthians Paul speaks of a "thorn in my flesh." According to Paul, it was placed there by Satan or of his minions. But what he meant for evil, once again God turned into good.

  Many theologians and scholars have debated whether Paul was speaking of a literal thorn in the side, or was meaning figuratively, even, spiritually. Paul did have a severe eye affliction, meaning many of his epistles were dictated and transcribed by others. This did cause frustration on his part.

  Paul even "pleaded" with the Lord three times (!) to remove his affliction. But the Lord told him no, that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (v.9)."

  God had blessed Paul with showing him the glory of heaven. But he gave Paul an agony that was commensurate to the previous glory. Why? To humble Paul.

  We all have "thorns" in our life. Though we are blessed with the saving grace of God, the Lord shows us His strength when we are laid low and must rely on his grace. Confess your "thorn(s)" to the Almighty and seek his everlasting grace.

  I encourage you in times of weakness, to do as Paul did. He reminded us that, for "...Christ's sake...to delight in weakness...in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (v.10).

 

Amen!

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Commander's Column May 2022 - A Potential Return to States Rights and Sovereignty

The biggest domestic news this week was the leak of the draft decision of the US Supreme Court regarding the reversal of the Roe vs Wade decision.  The draft by Justice Alito is being hailed by pro-life supporters as well as by states-rights advocates as the draft document lays out the premise for returning this decision to individual states’ legislation.  The draft states, “For the first 185 years after the adoption of the Constitution, each State was permitted to address this issue in accordance with the views of its citizens. Then, in 1973, this Court decided Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113. Even though the Constitution makes no mention of abortion, the Court held that it confers a broad right to obtain one. It did not claim that American law or the common law had ever recognized such a right, and its survey of history ranged from the constitutionally irrelevant to the plainly incorrect.  After cataloguing a wealth of other information having no bearing on the meaning of the Constitution, the opinion concluded with a numbered set of rules much like those that might be found in a statute enacted by a legislature.”  It appears the five most conservative justices are basing the opinion on the constitutionality of the original decision as the Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  Brion McClanahan’s recent blogpost (https://mailchi.mp/88bafa592e35/is-federalism-making-a-comeback) asks the question as to whether we are in the midst of a revival of federalism and empowerment of states’ rights. 

Alabama’s state motto “We dare defend our rights” reflects the very basis for the secession of the Southern states in defense of their sovereignty.  The MSM and neo-historians will claim, as has been the mantra in the government sponsored educational system for the past 150 years, that the states’ rights declared by the Southern states in their secession ordinances was simply a disguise for and synonymous with a singular focus on the perpetuation of the institution of slavery.  But the Southern states had every reason for concern with the lack of federal enforcement of the constitutionally codified laws of the land and espoused platform of the Republican party which sought to curtail Southern interests and influence.  This article by the American Battlefield Trust I believe does a fair job of explaining the antebellum sectional issues and origins (before and at the founding of our nation) of state’s rights - https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/states-rights. 

Lord Acton wrote to Robert E. Lee following the War, “I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy. The institutions of your Republic have not exercised on the old world the salutary and liberating influence which ought to have belonged to them, by reason of those defects and abuses of principle which the Confederate Constitution was expressly and wisely calculated to remedy. I believed that the example of that great Reform would have blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom purged of the native dangers and disorders of Republics. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization.”  This article does an outstanding job of summarizing Acton’s (as should be all of our own) concerns with an omnipotent centralized federal government - https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/lord-acton-confederate-sympathizer .  “There is no denying America’s ever-increasing “reliance on the State as an instrument to mould as well as to control society.” Academic conformity and tech censorship, along with migrant mania and the transgender bathroom wars suggest that unconditional egalitarianism is indeed the order of the day, just as the case can be made that dogmatic hatred of aristocracy has given us both a disingenuous, hypocritical elite and a vulgar, uniform culture purged of chivalry, class, and magnanimity.”

The article on Lord Acton was written in 2019 and since that time we have had an even worsening shift with critical race theory in education, an announcement of the Biden Department of Homeland Security’s dystopian Disinformation Governance Board aka an Orwellian Ministry of Truth, transgenders not just in the bathroom but competing in sanctioned athletics and a general devaluation of achievement in favor of socialist equitable outcomes as espoused in corporate and governmental Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs and training.  But there is a growing resistance and offensives mounted.  Elon Musk purchased Twitter which was accused of aiding the Biden election by stifling the Hunter Biden laptop and quid pro quo information from the electorate on the social media platform as well as alternative viewpoints on the covid origins and vaccination mandates and efficacy.  Musk has said he espouses freedom of speech against tech censorship.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have stood in the breach against federal vaccination mandates, immigration inaction, and CRT education initiatives.  And now the US Supreme Court stands on the brink of returning to the individual states the constitutional responsibility for legislating the restrictions and regulation of abortions within their respective states.   We may be on the verge of a resurgence in states rights and at least a measure of validation of our Confederate ancestors fight for independence and sovereignty. 

Prattville Dragoons Attend Confederate Memorial Day Observance at Selma's Confederate Memorial Circle in Old Live Oak Cemetery

Members of Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 attended a Confederate Memorial Day Observance on Tuesday April 26th at the Confederate Memorial Circle in Selma's historic Old Live Oak Cemetery.  Dragoons 1st Lt Rob Schwartz along with compatriots Crowley, Altieri and Quartermaster Myrick attended the event hosted by the local UDC chapter.  Following a welcome by Pat Godwin, President of the UDC Selma Chapter 53 and an Invocation by the SCV Division Chaplain, the most recent Dallas County Proclamation for Confederate Heritage and History month was read.  The salute to the Confederate Flag and a special rendition of "Dixie" by Dr. Gerald Anderson of the local SCV  Camp 62 followed.  The keynote speaker was Constitutional attorney Col. John Eidsmoe.  A Roll Call of Honor was performed for those to call out the names of their Confederate veteran forebears where a bell was rung for each name.  The hymn Amazing Grace" was sung by all assembled and "Taps" was played in remembrance of the Confederate veterans who died in a valiant struggle for independence and in defense of their homes and families.  There was also a rifle salute as well as a cannon salute as part of the inspiring program to honor our Confederate ancestors.