Prattville Dragoons at the Alabama Division SCV Confederate Memorial Day Program

A great crowd assembled on the steps of the Alabama State capitol building to honor their Confederate forebears and enjoy a Celebration of Confederate Memorial Day hosted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans on Saturday April 20, 2024.  Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 members in attendance included Commander Waldo and his children, Quartermaster Myrick, Doug Butler who served in the reenactment color guard, and compatriots Larry Spears, Rob Schwartz and Tyrone Crowley; not shown are compatriots Mike Thomas and Thomas Griffith.  The program was called to order by AL Division Commander Mike McMurry who presented another check (annually donated) to the Alabama State Archives for their continued work for the preservation and conservation of artifacts from the War Between the States.  The reenactment color guard posted the colors and then the Division Chaplain provided an Invocation.  Greetings were offered by representatives from other heritage organizations including the UDC, Order of Confederate Rose, Mechanized Cavalry, Military Order of the Stars and Bars and the SCV Army of Tennessee.  Dragoons Commander Waldo's daughter who donned a beautiful period dress even gave an impromptu greetings from the Children of the Confederacy which she recently joined. The keynote speaker was former SCV Commander in Chief Kelly Barrow who gave a rousing speech imploring all to step up in the defense of the Cause especially in educating our youth and the next generations.   Everyone was then invited to state the name of one or more of their Confederate veteran ancestors and a bell was rung in their memory. The color guard as well as a barrage of cannons set up on Dexter Avenue then provided three rounds of a salute.  The boom and billowing smoke from the cannons was most impressive.  Taps was played by a bugler.  Everyone joined in singing Dixie and the chaplain then closed the program with a Benediction.  Following, a wreath was laid at the memorial monument on the side of the capitol building.  It was an impressive Confederate Memorial Day program enjoyed by all including a number of passers-by. 

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Chaplain’s Column- The Importance of Christ’s Resurrection in Our Lives

 

"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

He is not here, for he has risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where he lay'  (Matthew 28:5-6).

 

Easter has come and gone once again. I hope you had a great Lenten and Easter season. If you are like many, you marked the day by attending a wonderful Easter service, with family pictures in front of the Cross and then on to a festive celebration and a large supper full of family, friends, and way too much food. One of my favorite foods, ironically, is deviled eggs.

You no doubt (I hope) heard a sermon about the Resurrection and sang many songs about our risen Lord. Easter is indeed a day of celebration, of victory! Our team won! Jesus defeated sin and death- for us.

It is proper to celebrate on Sunday after marking the solemn night of Good Friday, the betrayal before, the torture and the crucifixion. My wife and I visited a local Methodist church who has a room dedicated to the "stations of the Cross." It is a very somber and reflective experience. You leave in tears. You wonder (marvel) that God would send his only son to do this for us. Then we celebrate with gladness and thanks on Sunday.

Then what? What happens on Monday and the days after? The United Kingdom offers the Monday after as a national holiday. Given what I have seen of the UK of late I doubt it's because they went to church too much on Sunday.

Statistically, here in America, the Sunday after Easter is the least- attended service of the year in most churches!

Did we exhaust ourselves for one day? Do we mark the crucifixion and resurrection every day in our lives or just when it fits into our schedule? Do we thank God frequently or just at Christmas and/ or Easter?

One pastor noted that "the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than an event to be celebrated, it's a power to be experienced daily" (Hodges). Another gave seven reasons why the resurrection is important to us.

The number one reason is that the resurrection is the basis of our spirituality, christianity. Without it, there would be no defeat of death. Other reasons include that the resurrection is the cure for our fear of death. The grave is not the end for believers!

Additionally, the resurrection helps us  suffer in a world of emptiness and deception. Look around and see the world where the devil runs wild. But we win in the end! The devil loses and is thrown into the lake of fire.

God sending his son, Jesus Christ means the veil has been torn and we will be with our loved ones one day in the New Jerusalem.

So don't mark the importance of the resurrection in your lives one day of the year. Do it every day! Go to the Lord in prayer with thanksgiving and praise!

 

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Commander's Column – The Assault on the Institution of the Traditional American Family

 

“Our enemies are a traditionless, homeless race.  From the days of Cromwell to the present day they have been the disturbers of the peace of the world….After what has happened the last two years, my only wonder is that we consented to live for so long a time in association with such miscreants.  Were it ever proposed to enter again into a Union with such a people, I could no more consent to do it than to trust myself in a den of thieves.”  (Jefferson Davis, Dec 16, 1861)  One of the established reasons for the secession of the Southern states was the recognition that the Southern and Northern peoples, cultures, and way of life were so disparate  that they were incompatible.  The Southern economy was based on agriculture while the North was developing more industry; Northern industry used many raw goods produced in the South and sought to retain the Southern populace as a captured market for their finished goods.  Much of the South was still rural and wilderness and required settling and land development.  Religion and mostly Protestantism was embedded deeply in Southern culture.  Southern culture adhered to a patriarchal model with the family unit working together important to the success of their farms.  The North was the center of most immigration in the 19th century which created a mottled society diluted from a sense of shared tradition gained from the founding colonists and nation’s fathers. 

Today the striking cultural differences between the red states and blue states are as glaring as in the antebellum period.  Texit is gaining momentum with Texans not identifying with the rest of the country’s direction including allowing unrestricted illegal immigration across the border there.  Many on social media share the same feelings as this poster on Twitter (X), “I find it really hard to even refer to them as “fellow Americans”. Leftists are furiously doing their best to destroy the future for our children and grandchildren. I have absolutely NOTHING in common with these people.”  I ran across an article “The Death of the Nuclear Family” on Business Insider (https://www.businessinsider.com/death-of-typical-american-nuclear-family-economic-crisis-marriage-divorce-2024-3) which stated,  “The 'typical American family' was always a blip. It's time to rethink it.  The nuclear family (is) officially over, the model is beginning to look more like a fringe lifestyle choice than the bedrock of American society.”  The family structure on which western civilization largely developed is fringe now.  “The demise has sparked no shortage of (often racist, sexist, and homophobic) political backlash.  Radical family-abolition scholars such as M.E. O'Brien, whose 2023 book "Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care" argues that the contained family structures "cannot carry the immense burden of work placed on them."  In an early 2020 cover story for The Atlantic, the conservative columnist David Brooks declared the nuclear family "a mistake."”  Family-abolitionist? 

Further along in this diatribe, “In white, middle-class families, men earned the wages that supported the family and their wives raised the children and ran the home. The nuclear family became a microcosm of capitalist self-sufficiency and the consumerism that came with it.”  Problem with this racist take is that it ignores the established fact that blacks in the 20th century embodied the nuclear family model and it was during this period that fewer black children were being raised by welfare mothers and destined for incarceration.  “The nuclear family became a microcosm of capitalist self-sufficiency and the consumerism that came with it.”  So, we’re beginning to see where this article is taking us, an embrace of LGBQT environmentalist socialism.  The author states that the nuclear family was unstable as evidenced by soaring divorce rates when no-fault divorce laws were implemented.  So now, was it the family unit that was the problem or liberal judges and legislators creating instability?  Further in this illustrative article, “The biggest fallout we see today is in the childcare crisis, where the self-reliance inherent to the nuclear-family model resulted in women bearing the burden of raising children. Although an overwhelming majority of women now work outside the home, they continue to shoulder the bulk of unpaid caregiving labor for children and aging relatives. They also end up doing more household chores — laundry, cleaning, and cooking are all primarily done by women.”  Oh the horror.  The burden of child rearing.  Of creating and nurturing a home. 

“The wealthiest "shareholders" in a capitalist economic system (can afford housekeepers and childcare), it isn't a particularly enticing deal for most Americans, Kristen Ghodsee, an ethnographer at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of "Everyday Utopia: In Praise of Radical Alternatives to the Traditional Family Home,” told me.  The nuclear family's guise of self-sufficiency only barely conceals its toxic codependence with the market economy.”  A guise, not an inherent foundation.   The article goes on to state that children are a “bad investment” and in an apparent contradiction, conservatives want to limit “reproductive freedoms” (read that the killing of babies), when one would assume capitalist conservatives would want more consumers.  The author conjectures “something better” as “polyamorous families, platonic coparenting, and "mommunes" becoming the next big thing.”  Fellow Americans?  These lunatics are doing their best to destroy the future for our children and grandchildren. I have absolutely NOTHING in common with these people.  As Sons of Confederate Veterans, we honor our ancestors, their sacrifices in building their families, their homes, their states, their culture. They fought the Second war for Independence with a tenacity to defend their homes and families and preserve their way of life, their Constitutional liberties and freedoms.  As our SCV initiation ceremony states, “They left us traditions of faith in God, honor, chivalry, and respect for womanhood; they left us a passionate belief in freedom for the individual. Our Confederate ancestors bequeathed to us a military tradition of valor, patriotism, devotion to duty, and a spirit of self-sacrifice. When our nation no longer admires and pays tribute to these traditions, we will no longer remain a free nation.”  It is Confederate History and Heritage month – make it a great one and a great year for the Cause.  Deo Vindice. 

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

 

 

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

 

Battle of Fort Harker Reenactment – April 6-7^th, Stevenson AL

 

Old Autauga Historical Society (OAHS) Quarterly Meeting and Picnic - Saturday, April 13, 2024, at 10am at CMP

 

Thunder on the Bay Reenactment – April 19-20^th, at Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, AL

 

AL Division Confederate Memorial Day – Saturday Apr 20^th, 9am Alabama State Capitol grounds

 

Living History and Skirmish – Saturday Apr 20^th, 9am at Confederate Memorial Park, Marbury AL

 

The Ladies' Memorial Association 158^th Confederate Memorial Program – 2pm on Friday April 26^th at Oakwood Cemetery

 

Dragoons’ Spring Picnic – Saturday April 27^th, starting at 10am at CMP, Marbury AL

 

Prattville Cityfest – Saturday May 11^th, 8am-3pm (Dragoons’ booth) Main St Prattville AL

 

AL Division Reunion – Friday May 31^st (Commander’s reception, Gift Horse) and Saturday June 1^st (Graham Creek, Foley)

 

Children of the Confederacy State Convention – Saturday June 8^th at CMP – contact Leigh Bearden 

 

SCV National Reunion – July 17-20^th at the Embassy Suites, North Charleston SC