Summer Vacation Overnight in Pikeville TN

Following the recent suggestion mentioned in the Dragoons Commander's column for June to look for Confederate historical sites while on summer vacation travels, we recently spent a night in Pikeville TN.  Pikeville is just northwest of Chattanooga on US Hwy 127.  We stayed at a wonderful airbnb there which was just a couple blocks from the downtown Main Street area which has been renovated with brick sidewalks, fencing and lanterns along the shopping district which includes a couple quaint sandwich and ice cream restaurants and a Framer's Market.  There is a beautiful Bledsoe County Veterans Park there with monuments and a fountain.  The courthouse sits in the town square there also.  There was a skirmish in the town of Pikeville in June of 1862 where Confederate defenders of the town were routed by a Union cavalry force which subsequently ransacked the town and burned down the hotel which was on the town square here.  The original courthouse on the grounds was used by Confederate General Braxton Bragg as a hospital in the summer of 1862.  The historic John Bridgman house dating from 1830 sits across the square.  It was occupied by Federal troops during the Christmas season of 1863.  Interesting bit of War Between the States history in the quiet little town of Pikeville TN which during the War apparently was anything but.  

Prattville Dragoons Camp 1524 Attendees at the Alabama Division Sons of Confederate Veterans 2022 Reunion

Eight members of camp 1524 attended the AL Division Reunion on Saturday June 11th which was held at the old Coca Cola Bottling Plant Event Center in Opelika.  Commander Waldo, 1st Lt Commander Schwartz, Adjutant Sutherland, Chaplain Brantley, outgoing Brigade Commander Stover, and compatriots Harold Groom, Tyrone Crowley, and Darrell Haywood went to the event hosted by the SCV Lee Camp 16.  A very nice breakfast buffet was provided including Conecuh pigs-in-a-blanket, muffins and fruit.  The salute to the Confederate flag, an Invocation and the recitation of the SCV Charge opened the convention proceedings.  Greetings were brought from the Mechanized Cavalry by Chaplain Atkins.  Representatives from the UDC and Order of the Confederate Rose also brought greetings.  The business session followed which included the (re)election of all the Division officers.  A discussion of the awards available to students, of discretionary funds for camps and projects, and of the cemetery Guardian program followed.   At lunch the unveiling of the recently repaired and renovated General Lee statue was made which was removed from Lee High School in Montgomery; plans are being made for a new location and public display.  The artist who performed the statue refurbishment gave a detailed account of the repair process.  Most of the Dragoons left the premises to have lunch at an outstanding nearby BBQ restaurant, the Butcher Paper which included pork and brisket and smoked mac-n-cheese.  Following lunch, Brigade meetings were held and Camp 1524 former 1st Lt Harold Grooms was elected as Southwest Central Brigade Commander.  Dragoons placed bids on a number of items offered by silent auction by the Lee Camp including a cannonball, books and a portrait of Lee with a couple winning their items.  It was a wonderful reunion and opportunity to fellowship with compatriots from throughout the state and learn of the latest news and happenings.  

Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 Meeting for June 2022

Members, friends and wives of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 met on Thursday evening June 22 at the Prattville Masonic Lodge for their monthly meeting.  !st Lt Commander Rob Schwartz provided some wonderful guitar playing and singing in the half hour before the meeting started.  He then led everyone in an Invocation to start the meeting followed by Color Sgt John Dennis leading everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags.  Commander Waldo then recited the SCV Charge and highlighted upcoming events and announcements including the annual state and national conventions and the camp's annual fundraiser.  

The guest speaker for the meeting was retired Colonel and Law Professor John Eidsmoe who spoke of the role of the native American tribes during the War for Southern Independence.  Col. Eidsmoe grew up in Sioux City South Dakota so he was interested in Indian tribes from a young age.  As a youth in grade school, he read a textbook about the War wherein Daniel Webster declared "the Union should endure forever".  But after reading the opposing viewpoint of John C. Calhoun espousing states' rights, he appreciated the latter even at a young age and a Confederate was born.  Col. Eidsmoe is of German descent but growing up in Lakota territory in South Dakota he was exposed to much Indian history.  He recalled one of his teachers reading the book "Rifles for Waite" about Gen. Stand Waite, a Cherokee who fought for the Confederacy and this peaked his interest in the CSA.  

For perspective, Col. Eidsmoe spoke of the impressive history of the American Indians including the Aztecs and Mayas of South America, civilizations which developed in pre-history, architecture and temples, astronomy including observatories, writing systems (both pictorial and phonetic), schools, governments with judiciaries as well as institutions of slavery and ceremonial human sacrifices.  In North America, the Indians were more decentralized tribes, a structure more aligned with that of the Confederate States of America.  But, there were advanced civilizations such as the Iroquois which had a balance of power between the integral tribes, a governmental structure with "Nations" with laws/rules akin to that described by our 10th Amendment with much power at the local level.  Some Northern tribes practiced slavery, often getting slaves thru conquests of neighboring tribes.  He cited the book "American Indian as Slave Holder and Secessionist" in providing a statistic that around 2-4% of Indians  in the American South owned black slaves, a figure roughly in line with white slave owners.  This certainly in contrast with the PC narrative regarding the institution of slavery in the antebellum period and that all minorities are disadvantaged.  (Of course, there were also many black slave owners in the antebellum period.)

So the Indian perspective on slavery may have influenced their support for the Confederate States of America in their War for Independence.  The native American Indians throughout history have had to figure out who to support to guard their interests from the Revolutionary period, often at the local tribe level.  It is estimated that around 18000-20000 Indians fought in the War Between the States and that around 12000-13000 fought for the Confederacy.  Col. Eidsmoe provided five reasons which may be considered as justification for the Indians supporting the CSA:

1) many of the Indian tribes had very decentralized government structures and were against a strong central federal government which was obviously Lincoln's viewpoint

2) the oppression of the Indians especially in the sad story of the Trail of Tears was largely blamed on the federal government of the North

3) Seward of the Lincoln administration favored settling westward including Oklahoma which was viewed as violating treaties

4) among the five civilized tribes, there were many who were slave holding so they wanted the western territories to allow for slaveholding in these Indian lands

5) Jefferson Davis saw great value in the native Indians - as a young Lieutenant, Davis was assigned to escort Chief Blackhawk to Fort Monroe and he came to know and respect him and attempted to gain him preferential treatment as a prince when providing him to the authorities at the fort; as Confederate President, Davis appointed a Secretary of Indian Relations who also did much to align the CSA with the native American Indians.  

The Indians who fought for the Confederacy often fought with bow and arrow and even tomahawks but many also had rifles.  Stand Waite was appointed Brigadier General and was the last Confederate officer to cease hostilities during the War for Southern Independence, two months after Lee's surrender. Waite said he never surrendered, he just agreed to stop fighting.  Confederate General Joseph Wheeler said of Waite he never met a braver man.  Of course, after the War, the fears of the western Indians were confirmed with the decimation by Union Generals Sherman and Sheridan of the tribes and the bison on which they depended.  

SCV Camp 1524 Chaplain's Column for June 2022 - A Practical Manual for Life

“I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging (for) bread.”  Psalm 37:25

Psalm 37 is a powerful and practical manual for life. Just within it’s first 8 verses there are rich insights for finding joy and ridding yourself of negative thinking. Things like “don’t fret,” and “trust in the Lord and do good,” just to name two. Be grateful for each day given you is another.

The Psalm gives us “do-not” commands as well. Do not worry or be envious (verse 1). Do not be angry or vindictive in life (verse 8). Forgive as you have been forgiven, practice gentleness and self- control.

Psalm 37 also gives us positive actions we need to bring us in to line with God’s plan for living joyfully. You

1.            Trust in the Lord (verse 3). Whatever bothers you, trust God to be able to handle it better than you.

2.            Delight yourself in the Lord (verse 4). Fall in love (again) with Jesus. Take time every day to sit quietly in his presence. Learn to delight in Him.

3.            Do Good.  (verse 3). Life is about choices. Know that God will honor you when you do the right thing.

4.            Commit your way to the Lord (verse 5). Trust all you do, every day, all your life, to God; for he is able to handle it best.

5.            Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. (verse 7). This does not mean to do nothing. Rather, it means after you have done all you can, you should relax in the knowledge that God will take care of the rest.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that this is a Psalm of David. David was an old man at the time of this writing, and like many of us had more years behind him than ahead of him. He had sinned and repented and served the Lord. See the righteous upheld and the wicked struck down. Also like us he had seen the opposite. He had seen bad thing happen to good people and wicked people prosper. He had perspective.

We see that in our day. It seems that evil people are prospering and those that do right are suffering. Are the wicked winning? In Psalm 37 David reminds us that time will test all out. The wicked will be punished for what they have done. In verses 16 and 17 he writes that “better the little the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. “

Psalm 37 is a great place to go in times of conflict, pain, and when it seems the world has gone mad.     Remember, we live in a world where advice blares from the television, radio and phone, streams from a blogging site; where friends and sometimes even strangers are eager to offer opinions about your life. So, it’s good to know that the Bible is still relevant, reliable, and true!

 

Remember those on our prayer list. 

SCV Camp 1524 Commander's Column for June 2022 - Southern Heritage in Summer Vacation Travels

Just took the family over to Mississippi on an annual trip which starts our summer calendar.  We stayed at the Thompson House in Leland Mississippi.  Beautiful home dating from the early 20th century with stately massive Colonial Revival columns supporting the front porch.  Wonderful wood floors and interior features.  I had wondered if it was a restored antebellum house but learned it was built by Joseph Wood Thompson who was born in 1871 in Mississippi and moved to Leland in 1891 where he married and built/renovated the home as it stands today in 1920 having prospered from banking and business ventures including farming, planting cotton which interestingly had a resurgence as “King Cotton” in that period around the turn of the century.  It was interesting to learn of the parallels with the antebellum period with the grand homes and profitable cotton plantations.  It caused me to pause and appreciate the history all around us there.

One of the funnier things I saw which was of an historical nature was a sign recognizing Dodge’s Store and Fried Chicken as having apparently just celebrated the sesquicentennial of its founding in 1872.  150 years of fried chicken.  That Dodge’s Store is certainly far different today as it stands as a convenience store on US Hwy-82 just west of Leland.  Probably the most famous footnote in the history of Leland Mississippi is in being the birthplace and hometown of Jim Henson who created the Muppets and most famously, Kermit the Frog.  There is a quaint museum there on Hwy 82 on the banks of the slow muddy waters of Deer Creek, the Birthplace of Kermit the Frog Museum, just across the creek and down from the Thompson House. 

Leland is known also for its Hwy 61 Blues Museum, part of the Mississippi Blues Trail.  Leland was Johnny Winter’s boyhood home.   The BB King Museum is just east in Indianola, his hometown and just west of his birthplace in Itta Bena.  The Leland area was occupied by the Choctaw Indians and “was fought over by the US government during the Civil War (sic) on which the Choctaw sided with the Confederacy in order to fight the Union for the return of their land.” (Leland MS, Wikepedia)   Settlers first came to the area in 1834 and plantations were established there.   As was the case for many following the War for Southern Independence, during Reconstruction, the owners  of these plantations were forced to quit claim the land for release from mortgages to banks.  In 1876, former Confederate “Captain James Alexander Ventress Feltus bought the 900 acres of land for $12000 (from the Bank of Kentucky).” (Wikepedia)  Captain Feltus established Leland by deeding land for homes, stores and the streets for the town which he named after a friend’s mother.  A very interesting history in a small town on Hwy 82 in Mississippi, including a bit of Confederate heritage.  When travelling with your family this summer, take time to look around and learn of the amazing history everywhere.  If more did so, we would have a greater appreciation for Southern heritage and American including Confederate history. 

Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Robinson Springs Cemetery Lawn Maintenance

Over the course of four days around the first weekend of June, the Prattville Dragoons have once again mowed, weeded, and blew off all the graves at Robinson Springs Cemetery in Millbrook AL.  Douglas Beir Butler and Harold Grooms started before the weekend with their riding mowers and got all the large areas done. On Tuesday morning June 7th, at 7 am, 1st Lieutenant Commander Rob Schwartz, quartermaster Bill Myrick, and Thomas Griffith finished up the efforts with push mowers, weedeaters, and blowers. This is part of the Guardian Program services that we, the Sons Of Confederate Veterans do as a service to our community.

Dragoon Places Flag at Monument in Prattville's Oak Hill Cemetery

Dragoon Tyrone Crowley placed a Confederate Battle Flag at the Monument to Soldiers of All Wars in Prattville's historic Oak Hill cemetery on Wednesday June 1, 2022.  A US flag was already there, placed during recent Memorial Day observances.  These two flags remained in front of this monument for many weeks when placed there last year.  The monument is located on the northeast side of the cemetery near the railroad tracks which border the grounds.