My family's experiences on the Day Lee surrendered, 143 years ago today

A Fateful Day for Many Southerners

by, Lewis Regenstein

Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomatox 143 years ago today,
and here is an article I did on my family's experiences on that day, as the War Between the States was ending.

My great grandfather and his four elder brothers were fighting for the South, so this was a momentous day for them as well as for our beloved Southland.

We must never forget the courage and honor of our ancestors.

I hope you will enjoy this article, posted today on the website LewRockwell.com.

Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Sincerely yours,

Lewis Regenstein

Article HERE

The Assault on Southern Heritage Heats Up

By CopperHead, Lady Val

From what I have read, it seems every two minutes or so, another column is written by someone somewhere which defines the Confederacy, its symbols, Southern history and traditional Southerners as hateful, racist and even as "Nazis". Nowhere are any dissenting voices heard to answer to these often abysmally ignorant diatribes except for those few responses from readers in "Letters to the Editor" or "comments" sections of newspapers and websites. In other words, only one side of this issue is being presented while, at the same time, there appears to be no attempt on the part of the publication to monitor the accuracy or even the intelligence of the "columnist" to whom that publication has provided a public forum.

There may be a reason for this sudden spurt of vicious propaganda and that is that as the South is over-run by illegals on the one hand and "Yankees" on the other, many Southerners have determined that it is time to speak up in defense of their heritage or go the way of the dinosaur, the dodo and the passenger pigeon. So Confederate symbols are suddenly appearing on things other than mud-flaps and tee-shirts. Normal, hard working, middle class men and women of the South are starting to demand that their proud heritage be treated as something other than a midden and that the symbols of their past be given the respect that the symbols of other cultures and sections are provided unconditionally in society whatever their past histories.

Of course, the response to this entirely just and understandable demand is a resurgence of the ongoing effort to deny, defame and destroy any and all such symbols and to put in place, once and for all, the "official" version of "Southern history" - as written by the North, of course. Anything else - however factually true - is simply unacceptable. The "lynchpin" of this effort, the club used by the anti-Southern movement against this expression of Southern pride, is, naturally, the institution of slavery. These people tend to translate that institution from the early and mid-19th century, to the 21st century, holding the men and woman of 150 years past to the same moral, ethical and cultural standards that we demand of the people of today. This, in and of itself is unjust and, frankly, silly. In law, one cannot be tried for committing a crime at a time in which the act was not illegal! This is the concept of ex post facto; that is, if it was legal when you did it and it is !!
illegal now, you cannot be tried "after the fact".

But, apparently, this is in fact what is happening - and no amount of information to the contrary regarding the issue of slavery vis a vie succession and the rise of a Southern nation makes any difference whatsoever. It is dismissed out of hand. No quote of Lincoln or Grant or other Northern leaders - civil or military - seems to make the slightest impression upon those who howl and bellow their rage and hate against white (and even some black) Southerners. There is nothing that these people will accept but that Southern heritage, history and symbols be consigned to oblivion to take their place in the dusty halls of old museums like a bas relief frieze from some Grecian temple.

Of course, when a Southerner or a Southern sympathizer wishes to display some Confederate symbol, out come the rhetorical knives to flay the offender, usually with ad hominem attacks absent any historical facts or even commonsense. And this goes on and on, building day by day in the media - print and electronic - until the enemies of the South hope the last vestige of "rebellion" has been buried (along with the First Amendment) beneath the weight of "public opinion" derived from a combination of ignorance, mendacity and political correctness.

Is there a solution to this problem? Yes. There are two possibilities. The first - and easiest - is to give in to what many consider to be the inevitable. This will certainly quiet the voices that have been raised against the South both past and present. Of course, that also means that the forces of political correctness and the enemies of individual liberty have triumphed. The second is to continue to soldier on against their wrath. There is no guarantee of success, only of battle. But then, as so many of our ancestors discovered in the past, there are some things worth fighting for. And, again to quote Ronald Reagan, "If not us, who? If not now, when?"

Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin

Article
HERE

Some Questions For You!

Where were you when they took down the Confederate Battle Flag from the capitol dome in South Carolina, changed the Georgia '56 flag, and changed the name of your street named after a Revolutionary War hero or Confederate general just because some complained or was "offended'? Were you at home surfing the internet?

Where were you when they changed the rebel mascot at your school, the name of your school, suspended your child for wearing a Confederate T-shirt, and took prayer out of your school? Were you out hunting or fishing?

Where were you when they banned the singing and playing of Dixie, took Christ out of Christmas, and took down the Ten Commandments? Were you home playing computer games?

Where were you when an estimated 30 million illegal aliens including terrorists, gangs, sex offenders, and other criminals came into OUR country and took over many of our cities, towns, and neighborhoods with another 100 million expected by 2050? Were you out cheering on your favorite sports team?

Do you believe what the "liberal news media" tells you? Have you seen 'Gods and Generals' or 'America: Freedom to Fascism'? Do you watch Glen Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Bill O'Riley or Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, and American Idol?

What do you know about the NAFTA Super Highway, the North American Union, the Patriot Act, and Eminent Domain? Do you know what they are doing to our country? Are you too busy to care?

Have you ever read 'The South Was Right', 'Why Not Freedom', 'Proclaiming Liberty', or 'The Death of the West'? Or do you sit at home and read some romantic or fantasy novel?

What are you going to do when your job is out sized to a foreign country, or 20 illegal aliens move into the house next door, or you go into the store and no one there speaks English, or drug gangs break into your house, rape your wife, molest your children, and steal every thing that you've worked hard for. It happens every day and will only get worse.

What are you going to do when the government shuts down your bank, there is no more gas for your vehicle, all the food is contaminated, this country goes bankrupt, and terrorists set off dirty bombs in all the major cities of this country? Do you really think that this all can't happen? Think again! What are you going to do?

A friend of mine recently told me that he thought he would live to see the break up of this country. Terrorists want to blow it up. Illegal aliens are over running it. Ignoring all of the problems are not going to make them go away. If you think our government and "current crop" of politicians are going to solve the problems, you're living in a fantasy world! What are you going to do?

Our Founding Fathers formed and through their blood, sweat, and tears made this country. They fought and died in all the wars to make it FREE. They would "turn over in their graves" if they could see what this country has become and where it's headed. We The People are this country. Not the politicians, special interest groups, or the corporate elites.

There are an estimated 70 million decedents of Confederate veterans in this country. Some are aware of their ancestors, but many are not. Many seem to be ashamed of their Southern/ Confederate Heritage and History and have "surrendered" their beliefs to the liberal/ socialists power of political correctness, diversity, and multiculturalism.

Its time for us in the Southern Heritage movement and all other Patriotic Americans, rich and poor, black and white, to stand up, just as our ancestors have done in the past. We need to organize, educate, recruit, and unite to save our Southland and this country. The upcoming 2008 elections may be our last opportunity to take back our country. Voting for the "lesser of two evils" is no longer an option. All the do nothing and corrupt politicians must be voted out of office. Terrorists and criminals must be arrested and incarcerated. Illegal aliens must be rounded up and deported. What are you going to do?

America is at a crossroads. The time is NOW, not next week or next year. If we don't fight there will be no country left as we know it and there may be no country period! You can do something and save it, or you can do nothing and lose it. It's your choice! You have the power, use it! What are you going to do?

The Southronman!

"I Have a Dream"

Had I been Matin Luther King
HERE

Brother Hampton "Hamp."

Is America still the land of the free?

By Calvin E. Johnson, Jr.
cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net

If we are truly free, why is our song "Dixie" banned at many high schools and universities? Why, too, are young people taught diversity and sensitivity toward the heritage of some people but not others?

What happened to America's grand old song "Dixie?"

Autumn is an exciting time for high school and college football. School bands will play to lift the soul but students, teachers, parents and fans will not hear "Dixie." Many of our institutions of learning have stopped playing Dixie even thought this song is loved the world over.

What happened to "Dixie" that was the official band music of the Confederate and Union Armies? What happened to this song that Northern and Southern children sang from their schools standard song book?

In 1859 Dan Emmett, the author of Dixie, first introduced his song at a minstrel show before a delighted New York audience. It is also written that a African-American family, the Snowdens, may have encouraged Emmett in his writing.

As a young boy, I remember going to the Great Southeastern Fair, in Atlanta, Georgia, and hearing "Dixie" coming from the Carousel. I also remember my teacher closing the window as the Headland High School Band rehearsed outdoors to "Dixie."

Today, men and women serve overseas to free the oppressed people of Iraq....But school bands are no longer allowed to play "Dixie" and "Under God" is under attack in the pledge of allegiance.

Country music singer Lee Greenwood, who sang "God Bless the USA" and "Dixie" may have become politically incorrect. Yes, this Northern born American included "Dixie" on his "American Patriot" CD.

There was a time not long ago when high school bands played Dixie and public prayers asked for the safety of the football players and safety of the men and women of our United States Armed Forces.

Back when prayer started a school day, streets were safer and news was not filled with murder, rape and hatred.

Imagine for a moment that you are taken back to a high school football game of that time. The prayer had been prayed and the band begins to play Dixie. There is a huge cheer that builds as this tune is played. The people rise as one to cheer and sing this song that they love.

My late friend Eddie Page always said, "Know the truth and the truth will set you free!"

Eddie was a Black musician, soldier and historian. He loved the USA and the American South, where he was born. He knew American history that is no longer taught. On his grave marker are the words, "Look away, Dixieland!"

Please join me in praying for our nation and write your local high school and college sports director, asking them to include "Dixie" at all school events. Are we really free?

God Bless and Have a Dixie Day!!!

The Gallant Women of Kennesaw Mountain

14 young ladies, Gen. Evans and UDC Pres. Nesbitt, that are mentioned in the fourth paragraph from bottom of this article.


By: Calvin E. Johnson, Jr.
Kennesaw, Georgia 30152


Happy Birthday America!!!

Kennesaw is a name that comes from the Cherokee Indian "Gah-nee-sah" that means cemetery or burial ground.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007, will mark our nation's 231st birthday. This is a time for celebration and reflection of how we became a nation.

God bless the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who help keep this nation free. Please share this story with family, friends and those who help protect our freedom.

The good people of Chicago, Illinois helped raise funds to erect a monument at Oakwoods Cemetery to 6,000 Confederate soldiers who died from 1862-1865 at Camp Douglas Union Prison Camp in Chicago.

Southern women also cared for the graves of Union soldiers buried in Dixie.

Atop Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia you can see for miles in all directions. The mountain is the centre piece of the Kennesaw National Battlefield Park located near Marietta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists have come to Kennesaw, Georgia to hear the story of the battlefields and walk the many paths of history. When the north wind blows, you can almost see the soldiers of blue and gray and the summer thunder storms bring sounds much like the cannons of old. There are ghosts here with a story to tell. Do you have the time to listen?

People who visit Kennesaw, Georgia go back home with a deeper respect for America's history of those who fought for the Confederacy and Union. Their armies clashed on and around the mountain during June 1864. The deaths were many with 3,000 Union and 1,000 Confederate's killed in one day.

After the battle, the women of Kennesaw helped bury the dead as their sisters would later do in Atlanta. These women would form organizations to see that their loved ones were not forgotten. They made sure that the truth of the War Between the States was taught in public schools and that monuments were erected in memory of the brave soldiers.

Forty-four years later in 1908, America was at peace. The first Ford Model T came off the assembly line that year. Joel Chandler Harris, famed author of the Uncle Remus stories, died on July 3, 1908, in Atlanta, Georgia.

The USA was 132 years young on July 4, 1908. Three days later, on Tuesday, July 7, 1908, the Kennesaw Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Ladies Memorial Association, of Marietta, Georgia, unveiled a new Confederate Monument at the local cemetery. Marietta Confederate Cemetery, is the final resting place for 3,000 Southern soldiers from 14 Southern states.

Fourteen young girls were selected by the two ladies' groups to represent each state. They were selected from Marietta families who knew and appreciated their heritage. Emma Hedges was among those young ladies honored. She would become a loved and respected school teacher.

All businesses closed and people began to make their way to the cemetery on that hot July 7th afternoon. They came in horse drawn carriages which raised clouds of dust on those dry unpaved roads.

The men and women were attired in their Sunday best and many of the ex-Confederate soldiers wore their uniforms of gray. The Ladies of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the program which included the playing of patriotic tunes. The Gem City Band inspired the crowd by playing "Dixie."

Speeches were given by such notable people as Georgia's Governor Hoke Smith, and former Preacher and Confederate General Clement A. Evans.

The Marietta newspaper reported, "The white shaft reflecting the sun, the newly erected Confederate Monument represents an imposing spectacle and attracts the attention and admiration of all passersby. It is a beautiful piece of work, twenty feet high with a base of ten square feet, of the well known Elbert County granite."

Fourteen young ladies had their picture taken with General Clement A. Evans and Mrs. R.T. Nesbitt, President of the Kennesaw Chapter UDC. Their names were:

Aimee G. Glover for Maryland
Ruth McCulloch for South Carolina
Page Anderson for Louisiana
Julia Anderson for Florida
Emma Hedges for Virginia
Linda Anderson for Kentucky
Jeanette Black for Georgia
Carrie Phillips for Arkansas
Augusta Cohen for Texas
Cora Brown for Tennessee
Pauline Manning for North Carolina
Sue Green for Mississippi
Lois Gardner for Alabama and
Sara Patton for Missouri.

When the veil fell from the monument and it was revealed for the first time, the crowd became silent. You could hear the birds and a light whisper of leaves as the wind moved through the trees.

July 7, 2008, will mark the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the soldier's monument at Marietta, Ga. Confederate Cemetery. The United Daughters of the Confederacy still holds annual Memorial Day services for the gallant men buried here.

Walk the paths and teach your children the history of our nation!!!!

Frankly Speaking

BY:
Frank Gillispie

As I sit to write this I am filled with anger. My anger was directed to three events, two of which deserve it. The third event required that I read a story with an open mind to understand what the creator was saying. That is what makes anger so dangerous. It can lead you to very false opinions.

The three events have no connection other than my reaction to them. They are: the hypocrisy of the Don Imus critics, the cursing of the Confederate flag by the head coach of a major Southern university, and a very provocative art display in Atlanta.

I have never been a fan of Don Imus. I dislike his crudeness, his senseless insulting of everything and everybody. Nor am I unhappy that he is off the air. The problem I have is that his prime accusers, Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson have no standing to criticize Imus. These two race baters have made
insulting remarks racial remarks about other races, and are quick to defend any and all black racists. Both of them rushed to Duke to join in the attacks on the three falsely accused athletes simply because they came from wealthy white families.

So I was not in a good mood when I saw the video of the University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier cursing our beloved Confederate flag. I did not think it possible that someone in that position would try to blame a scrap of cloth for his failure as a coach. Yet that is exactly what he did. I watched the clip from his talk and you could probably seen the steam from my ears.

Here is the problem. It is very easy to let anger take control. The frequency with which people try to blame the South and its icons for their problems is astounding. They attack all things Southern with great anger, and anger begets anger.

So when a story from the Atlanta newspaper crossed my computer about an artist who displayed U.S. Flags with the slogan “Politically its OK to hate the white man" my own anger jumped another level. I was about to write a column lambasting the fool who would make such a statement.

Well, I sensed that I was in danger of letting my anger get the best of me so I did as I was taught as a child and counted backwards from 10 to 0 to calm myself down. And it is a good thing that I did, I forced myself to read the entire article. By doing so, I found that the artist, a young man named Alvaro Alvillar, was not saying that he considered it OK to hate whites, he was simply drawing attention to a current truth.

It is OK to hate white men in today’s society, especially Southern white men. Say something bad about any other group and you will be roundly criticized. Insult anything white, and you will likely be praised for your words. Had I let my anger get the better of me and not finished the article I would have been guilty of the very thing I was so angry about. So I will try to make it a part of my life to control my own anger.

But it is hard to do. Today’s Atlanta’s newspapers announced that Cynthia Tucker has been given a Pulitzer prize. That same woman who never misses a chance to attack all things Southern was handed that great prize. How could anyone think she deserved such an honor. That makes me very mad. Gurrrr.

Black History Month, and the forgotten!

Well, another February, Black History Month, has come and gone. There were plenty of opportunities during this shortest month of the year to hear all about the civil rights movement, and “Roots”, and “Glory”, and “buffalo soldiers”. But, somehow that other side – that embarrassing Confederate side – didn’t get shown. One recent book took 290 pages to discuss Union black troops but a mere 4 to discuss Confederate blacks.

We heard all about slave states of the Confederacy, with “loyal” Kentucky and Maryland and Missouri carefully excluded. Also excluded were the northern slave states, New Jersey and Delaware, whose slaves remained slaves until ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. According to the 1860 Census, there were 240,747 free blacks in the slave states, but only 225,224 in the free states. Somehow I missed the discussion of the Corwin Amendment, the proposed Thirteenth Amendment, which would have guaranteed slavery in the United States forever.

We heard all about slavery in the South, about the ownership of people, but you didn’t hear about blacks owning blacks. You didn’t hear about one of the largest plantations in Louisiana being black-owned, complete with slaves. You didn’t hear about the delegates to the Democratic National Convention of 1860 staying at black-owned hotels in Charleston, hotels where the servants were also owned by the hotel owner.

We also didn’t hear about Indians owning slaves. Indians supporting the Confederacy owned more than 8000 slaves. The Seminoles, who welcomed escaped slaves into their encampments, had “several of the most prominent chiefs, the most distinguished in war and council [who] were full-blood negroes. These Indians were in alliance with the late Confederate States,” according to T. J. Mackey, a former Confederate officer. What was one of the arguments showing the Cherokees were civilized when they appealed their removal? Cherokees were slaveowners, a point made by Chief Justice John Marshall.

We heard all about the former Senator from Illinois, Carole Moseley-Brown, and her fight to keep such “racist” trademarks as the UDC logo from the American public’s sight, but we didn’t hear how Illinois – home to Abraham Lincoln – was one of the worst of the racist Northern states. Illinois didn’t want to exclude slaves - it wanted to exclude any black person. In 1853 the Illinois legislature enacted a law that prohibited black immigration. Every black person entering the state with intent to settle was subjected to a heavy fine. The penalty for not paying the fine was to be sold at public auction to the person bidding the shortest period of servitude in exchange for payment of the fine. As late as 1863 – after the Emancipation Proclamation – eight blacks were convicted of entering the state illegally and seven were sold into slavery to pay their fines.

In Chapter 10 of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America he notes: “The prejudice rejecting the Negroes seems to increase in proportion to their emancipation, and inequality cuts deep into mores as it is effaced from the laws.... In the United States people abolish slavery for the sake not of the Negroes but of the white men.” De Tocqueville continues: “Race prejudice seems stronger in those states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists, and nowhere is it more intolerant than in those states where slavery was never known.... In the North the white man no longer clearly sees the barrier that separates him from the degraded race, and he keeps the Negro at a distance all the more carefully because he fears lest one day they be confounded together.” [Emphasis added.]

We heard all about that great antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriett Beecher Stowe (Henry Ward Beecher’s sister) and the horrors of slavery. She herself knew only second- and third-hand about slavery, having never been in the South, but most people have never read the novel and don’t know the truth or the characters. The cruel slavemaster, Simon Legree, is a Yankee, not a Southerner. Ophelia, yet another New Englander, rails against mistreatment of “Negroes” but, true to her liberal heart, wants nothing to do with them herself.

We heard all about the 54th Massachusetts and the movie Glory, but few people will learn that the movie recruitment of former slaves did not happen. In fact, a good deal of the members of the 54th was second- and third-generation free blacks, not ex-slaves. We didn’t hear about Yankee contempt of blacks, or how some Union units threatened to go home if the War were being fought to free the slaves. And you probably didn’t hear of Sherman’s contempt of black soldiers, whose units he put in the rear of his army on the march, where they persisted in giving their rations to burned-out Southerners. (Units at the rear of an army on the march awoke and prepared with all the other troops, but they were last to leave the old camp, the last to arrive at waterholes along the march, the last to march through dust or mud, the last to arrive at camp where they got the worst positions and worst firewood, and the last to pull guard duty. In case of a battle, they had to “double time” to the front, sometimes miles away.)

Ignored, of course, were Confederate blacks, who seem to be perpetually ignored. “Almost fifty years before the [Civil] War,” writes Lt. Col. [Ret] Michael Lee Lanning in The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, “the South was already enlisting and utilizing Black manpower, including Black commissioned officers, for the defense of their respective states. Therefore, the fact that Free and slave Black Southerners served and fought for their states in the Confederacy cannot be considered an unusual instance, rather continuation of an established practice with verifiable historical precedence.”

Black Union soldier Christian A. Fleetwood wrote after the War that “it seems a little singular that in the tremendous struggle between the States in 1861-1865, the South should have been the first to take steps toward the enlistment of Negroes. Yet such is the fact. . . . The immense addition to their fighting forces, the quick recognition of them by Great Britain, to which slavery was the greatest bar, and the fact that the heart of the Negro was with the South but for slavery, and [what would have happened] stands clear.”

Old Southern enemy Horace Greeley, writing after the War in The American Conflict, Vol. II, p. 725, offered this observation: “Had [the Confederates] met Lincoln’s first Proclamation of Freedom to such slaves (only) as were not then within his jurisdiction, by an unqualified liberation of every slave in the South and a proffer of a homestead to each of them who would shoulder his musket and help achieve the independence of the Confederacy, it is by no means unlikely that their daring would have been crowned with success; since the passion of their adherents had, by this time, been so thoroughly aroused that they would have welcomed any resort that promised a triumph over the detested ‘Yankees’; while the Blacks must have realized that Emancipation, immediate and absolute, at the hands of those who had power not only to decree but to enforce, was preferable to the limited, contingent, as yet insubstantial freedom promised by the Federal Executive.”

One of the first companies organized in Virginia was a company of free blacks, complete with Confederate national flag. When the 3rd and 4th Georgia paraded through Augusta, Georgia, the parade included a company of free blacks from Nashville, Tennessee. In Petersburg, Virginia, a group of blacks volunteered to work on the fortifications. Their spokesman, Charles Tinsley, a bricklayer, accepted a Confederate flag and responded, “We are willing to aid Virginia’s cause to the utmost of our ability . . . and we promise unhesitating obedience to all orders that may be given us.”

Percentage-wise free blacks volunteered for the war effort moreso than whites, which was a constant embarrassment to white politicians. W. S. Turner, an Arkansas planter, offered an armed regiment of blacks, consisting of slaves from his own and neighbors’ plantations, in July 1861. Some of his neighbors were black plantation owners. As late as April 1865 a call for volunteers in Virginia to fight the Yankees produced 100 citizens, 40 of them free blacks. At Jackson Hospital in Richmond a call for volunteers to go into the trenches to fight the Yankees in April 1865 found 60 of the 72 hired slaves volunteering.
Also ignored will be two black regiments in Louisiana who offered their services to the Confederate States “to take arms at a moment’s notice and fight shoulder to shoulder with other citizens.” In Texas and Arkansas there were almost 5000 blacks fighting in Confederate cavalry units. Surgeon James B. McCaw, commandant of Chimborazo Hospital, stated “it was utterly impossible to continue to operate Chimborazo without the 256 Negro nurses and cooks employed to take care of nearly 4000 sick and wounded.” Some were even formed into a military unit and fought in April 1865. Professor Edward Smith, Director of American Studies at American University, says Stonewall Jackson had 3,000 fully equipped black troops scattered throughout his corps at Antietam. In fact, Smith has calculated that between 60,000 and 93,000 blacks served the Confederacy in some capacity.

Most ignored of all, though, is the Confederate black responsible for the death of the first Union officer to die in battle. This black man was a crack shot, and his owner, a member of the Wythe Rifles, bet him he couldn’t kill the white major leading the charging Yankees at Big Bethel. Major Theodore Winthrop was killed with one shot. It is ironic, for all Yankees, that the officer was an abolitionist from Massachusetts.

And what if Southerners seek to honor these blacks who fought for Southern independence, as the SCV recently did in Nottoway, Virginia? They were denounced by the local NAACP leader, Dr. Melvin Austin, a Yankee. “Maybe there were a handful of blacks who fought against the freedom of their brother,” he said, “but if they did, you don’t honor that. That’s a disgrace.” Yet throughout the South exist monuments “to the faithful slaves who, loyal to a sacred trust, toiled for the support of the Army with matchless devotion [and] guarded Our Confederate States of America.”

We heard all about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, but not about how it freed no one. Its effect in the South was nil because the Union did not control those “areas in rebellion”, but in the North had no effect since it did not purport to free Northern slaves. And, if those States in rebellion returned to the United States, no penalties would be enforced. In his State of the Union report in December 1862, Lincoln offered gradual compensated emancipation with slavery lasting until 1900. Gen. U. S. Grant stated in 1862 that “If I thought this war was to abolish Slavery, I would resign my commission, and offer my sword to the other side.” And he kept his three slaves until the 13th Amendment went into effect. In areas where the Union armies held sway – the coasts of South Carolina and Louisiana – blacks were relegated to their usual slave duties so cotton could be produced for Republican cotton speculators who flocked around the armies.

We heard about Lincoln freeing the slaves during his birth month, but not about how Lincoln felt about the slaves. “I will say, then, 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.... [T]here 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.... Send them to Liberia, to their own native land. But free them and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit this.” Roy Basler, editor, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Rutgers University Press, 1953. Lerone Bennett, Jr., an award-winning author on various black history topics and editor of Ebony magazine, wrote Abraham Lincoln: Forced Into Glory in which he exposed the Lincoln his contemporaries knew: a virulent racist whose vision included genocide of the Native Peoples (American Indians) and the forced exportation and colonization of all black Americans, free or slave. Bennett’s book was buried by politically correct reviewers.
We heard all about how blacks couldn’t wait to leave the plantation and go into Union lines, yet the contemporary records state otherwise. Early in the war Union officers regularly returned escaping blacks to their owners, especially in “loyal” areas. But the vast majority of blacks stayed on the plantations, and, according to a witness before a Congressional committee after the War, “there was no resistance to discipline and authority at home. That was so much the case that a single woman on a plantation with a hundred slaves carried on the place as before without trouble.” All during the War, according to E. Merton Coulter, “it became a custom for slaves to hold balls and concerts and give the money . . . to aid soldiers’ families and to other patriotic causes.”

“To the Confederate army goes the distinction of having the first black to minister to white troops,” reads an article in the Religious Herald, Richmond, VA, September 10, 1863. “A correspondent of the Soldier’s Friend mentions a Tennessee regiment which has no chaplain; but an old negro, Uncle Lewis, preaches two or three times a week at night. He is heard with respectful attention – and for earnestness, zeal and sincerity, can be surpassed by none. Two or three revivals have followed his preaching in the regiment. What will the wise Christian patriots out of the army, who denounce those who wish to see competent negroes allowed to preach, as tainted with anti-slaveryism, say with regard to the true Southern feeling of that regiment, which has fought unflinchingly from Shiloh to Murfreesboro?’”

We heard all about black units in the West after the War, called the “buffalo soldiers”, and how they’re finally getting respect today. But we didn’t hear about the discrimination faced by Confederate blacks after the War. At the reunion at Gettysburg, the United States Government had thoughtfully divided up the available camping areas into white Yankees, black Yankees, and white Confederates. When a group of black Confederates showed up, the organizers were unsure what to do with them and quartered them in a barn. Finally, a Confederate group from Tennessee, hearing of this, brought the black Confederates into their camping area, set aside a tent for them, and entertained them as their guests until the ceremonies were over.

Two names unheard in February are Amos Rucker and Bill Yopp. Amos Rucker, you’ll remember, was a black Confederate who called himself “the biggest chicken thief in the Confederacy” – but his Confederate boys never went hungry. He called the roll at his UCV camp from memory, stopping to note when one member had passed on over – quite a feat since Amos was illiterate. When he died, even the Governor of Georgia was a pallbearer. At his funeral was recited the then-famous poem, “When Amos Called The Roll”.

Bill Yopp – known as “Ten Cent Bill” to his Confederate comrades – became successful after the War. Every Christmas he made sure his boys at the Confederate Soldiers Home had money for presents – $10 each. That’s about $50 now. When he finally got too old to work, he too lived with his boys at the Home. He is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, the bugler leading the boys down the hill and into town.

There is a backlash afoot, however. This time black conservatives are at the forefront. One black radio commentator in Colorado, identifying himself as a Kennedy Democrat, asked on NBC’s Today show why blacks can’t be allowed to fail.

And Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., another Kennedy Democrat, in a recent interview, stated, “If some kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan wanted to devise an educational curriculum for the specific purpose of handicapping and disabling blacks, he would not be likely to come up with anything more diabolically effective than Afrocentrism. It is designed not to enable blacks to enter the larger mainstream of American life, but to keep them in the ghetto. . . . Self-esteem is a consequence – not the cause – of achievement. Will it increase their self-esteem when black children grow up and learn that many of the things Afrocentrists taught them are not true?”

Walter Williams, a black professor of economics at George Mason University in Virginia, recently stated: “Though it’s not politically correct for our history books to report, black slaves and free blacks were among the men who fought and died heroically for the cause of the Confederacy. They fought because their homeland was attacked and fought in the hope that the future would be better and they’d be rewarded for their patriotism. If the NAACP leadership just has to commit resources to issues surrounding the Confederacy, I’d like to see them make an effort to see to it that black Confederate soldiers are memorialized and honored.”

We heard all about politically correct black heroes, but little about the real black heroes of the South’s past. Imagine, black people actually wanting to fight their “emancipators”, actually loving the area and the people where they grew up, actually being loyal to their families and neighbors. Imagine a black Confederate telling his Union captors, “I had as much right to fight for my native State as you had to fight for your’n, and a blame sight more right than your furiners, what’s got no homes.” Imagine a black Confederate refusing a Union parole, even after his master had accepted one, saying, “Massa has no principles.” They’re just too embarrassing to the politically correct crowd.

And today – 2007 – where is slavery still alive and well? Africa. The U.S. Department of State recently issued a report stating, “As unimaginable as it seems, slavery and bondage still persist in the early 21st century. Millions of people around the world still suffer in silence in slave-like situations. . . . Trafficking in persons is one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time.” Children in Africa as young as 11 are kidnapped and forced to become soldiers. One 13-year-old former soldier from Liberia tells in the State Department report how he was kept under control with drugs. The National Geographic Magazine recently published a major article on one African boy who was kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Drugs, slavery, black-on-black crime, inner city slums, unmarried teen pregnancy, child abuse, school dropouts – what do we hear from the self-styled black leaders about these problems in their communities? Deafening silence. But about black Confederates and the Confederate battle flag? They’re vocal and always offended.

If there is one thing we should have learned in the 140+ years since the end of the War, it is that discrimination is reprehensible.

It’s doubly so when it’s being done by your own race.

grayraider@military.com

"Why are we putting up with it?"

By, Jim Welch

Our Southern Forefathers believed in the Right and/or duty to rebel against a government that becomes oppressive. That belief was founded in the words of the Founders of the nation in the Declaration of Independence when they wroted, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

This concept of the Rights of the Individual and The People as a whole possessing the Power for self determination in government was first presented in 1690 by John Locke (1632-1704) who was an English philosopher and political theorist. In his, Second Treatise of Civil Government he said, "... whenever the Legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience ... [Power then] devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty, and, by the Establishment of a new Legislative (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own Safety and Security, which is the end for which they are in Society."

This philosophy was deeply shared by the Founders and was the basis for much of their political beliefs that shaped the creation of united States of America. They infused those beliefs in the Constitution with a fervent hope the people would keep the Ceberian creature of Government chained with the Constitution and guard their Liberties. They knew the truth that layed in the words written in The Spirit of the Laws, 1748 which stated, "The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded."

America’s deterioration began in 1861 when this most fundamental Right of self government was usurped by the invasion of the South by a central government determined to force it’s dictates at the end of a gun barrel and a bayonet. This government confirmed it’s absolute power to govern regardless of the will of the People, and regardless of how "destructive" it may be to the "Life, Liberty. and Happiness" of the People.

In 1831, long before the War between the States, South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun said, "Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail." The War Against Southern Independence answered that question and produced the foundation for the kind of government we have today: consolidated and absolute, based on the unrestrained will of the majority, with force, threats, and intimidation being the order of the day.

The central government’s usurpation and centralization of Power has continued unabated since 1861. The acceleration of the destruction of the Liberties and Freedoms of the People has now reached a critical point which may well signal the birth of a tyrannical state whose control over the People has never before been imagined. Please do not think it cannot happen here in America. Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past.

One of the most vile of governments of all time was the Nazi Government that controlled Germany from the mid 1930’s to it’s defeat and destruction in 1945. It brought death and torture of unparalleled proportions to millions of people.

In the early 1930's Germany was a Republic, and just like America it had a Constitution. However, legislative acts created the horror which followed, and the responsibility of those horrors can be laid squarely at the feet of the People who kept quiet as their Liberties were seized by their central Government under the ruse of "being a necessity".

A major building in Berlin - the Reichstag (Germany’s equivalent of Congress) - was attacked and burned. This attack was used as the basis for the issuance of emergency powers which (among other things) suspended civil liberties and habeas corpus rights.

On March 21, 1933 Adolph Hitler got President Hindenburg to sign a decree allowing for the arrest of anyone suspected of maliciously criticizing the government and the Nazi party. Another decree allowed for the establishment of special courts to try political offenders. These courts were conducted in the military style of a court-martial without a jury and usually with no counsel for the defense.

On March 23, the newly elected Reichstag - the German Congress - met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler’s Enabling Act. It was officially called the "Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich." The Act enabled Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his cabinet to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag. This in effect negated the role of the people’s representatives in creating legislation and established the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.

Before the vote, Hitler made a speech in which he promised, "The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures ... The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one." His plea was that it was absolutely necessary so the Government would have the powers to protect the People.

Hitler silenced opposition to his Government’s actions in 1933 with "The Emergency Decree" which stated: "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."

Armed with legislative permission the German Government began it’s 12 year reign of terror. Now, let us see what has happened in this Constitutional Republic - America.

On September 11, 2001 September 11, 2001 the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington were attacked and burned. This attack was used as the basis for initiating "The War on Terrorism" and issuance of emergency powers which (among other things) has suspended civil liberties and habeas corpus rights of the American Citizen.

Rather than veto laws passed by Congress, Bush has been using "signing statements" to effectively nullify legislation as they relate to the Executive branch. These statements, for him, function as directives to Executive branch departments and agencies as to how they are to implement the relevant law.

President Bush’s unprecedented use of "signing statements" to quietly assert his right to ignore legislation passed by Congress – including its ban on torture – was reported in April 2006 by the Boston Globe. The article reported the astonishing discovery that Bush has claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws in all since he took office. That figure now totals over 800.

The American Bar Association recently declared that Bush’s signing statements are "contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional separation of powers." The Congressional Research Service reported in September 2006 that Bush is using such statements as part of his "comprehensive strategy to ... expand executive power."

Apparently, the government is no longer obliged to obey any law that Bush does not personally approve. At a June 2006 congressional hearing, Justice Department lawyer Michelle Boardman was asked for a list of all the laws that Bush has declared will no longer be enforced. Boardman replied, "I cannot give you that list."

How can we know which laws Bush approves of? It’s a secret. Bush’s personal thoughts thus become the ultimate law of the land. No one can know whether the government is violating the "law" because Bush has not publicly declared what the law is.

Last month, on October 17, 2006, Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (HR5122) (2), was signed by President Bush. It was signed in a PRIVATE Oval Office ceremony with little or no press coverage. This legislation effectively repeals The Posse Comitatus Act and sets the stage for dictatorial executive power to be employed against the Citizens of this nation at the whim of the President. It allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America. It also allows him to take control of all state based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

Can you, the Citizen, expect the Government or any of it’s representatives to tell you the truth? No, today the central government has the power to lie to the American Citizen. (courts have established that "right", but if the Citizen lies to the Government the Citizen can be imprisoned).

Not only can the government lie to you, but it may even kill you. Federal law enforcement agencies enjoy impunity in the exercise of lethal force. In June, 2000, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi could not be charged by the State of Idaho with manslaughter for killing Vicki Weaver, who was struck in the head by a round from Horiuchi’s rifle during the Ruby Ridge standoff. In its decision, the court cited "Supremacy Clause immunity" as its rationale for dismissing the charges against the FBI sniper.

Vicki’s husband, Randy Weaver and his son were awarded 3.5 million dollars in a wrongful death suit by a separate court, but no one served any time or was even tried for the crime of killing his unarmed wife. Government agents may kill with no fear of prosecution.

In the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill the Republican controlled Congress included funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to purchase ten (10) A-10 Warthogs. These are specifically designed for only one purpose - they are ground attack aircraft. Since the BATF is only a DOMESTIC taxing and enforcement agency these planes can only be meant to be used when needed on the people of this nation. In case you forgot, this is the same agency that initiated the attack on the Davidians at Waco. If interested, you can study documents and photos the mainstream media has never told you about at:
http://www.public-action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum/
The central government has the right to enter your home, search it, and plant any electronic listening device it wants and monitor your activities in what you thought was the privacy of your own home. (Patriot Act)

In December 2005 the GOP-controlled Congress reauthorized the controversial Patriot Act. The Patriot Act violates our constitutional standard of probable cause for search and seizure. Section 215 allows the federal government to seize library records and records of firearms sales. That shatters your Fourth Amendment protections. This power grab gives the government the right to sneak into your house, look through all your personal papers and any item they find and not tell you about it for weeks on a secret rubber stamp warrant. Yes, they can look at your medical records and library selections. Yes, they can pass along any information they find without probable cause for purposes of prosecution.

Also, it makes changes to the criminal statutes administered by the Secret Service and could seriously damage the free speech rights of all Americans. The Secret Service already has broad authority to stifle dissent at events where high-ranking public officials appear. Now, express a dissenting opinion by holding a sign or saying the ‘wrong’ words to a politician you don’t like, and you could be committing a felony punishable by one year in prison.

Additional police powers given in that legislation permit the FBI to access a huge array of extremely private records of innocent Americans without having to demonstrate a connection between the records sought and a suspected foreign terrorist or terrorist organization.

Now, with the Military Commissions Act codified into Law a Citizen who voices disagreement with our government can be designated as a "enemy combatant". The most basic of Freedoms - the Right to Free Speech - is now threatened. As former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, speaking for the President, warned Americans, ". . . they need to watch what they say, watch what they do."

The Military Commissions Act also provides that a Citizen can be seized without warrants, held indefinitely without charges, tortured, sent to other countries, tried without juries on evidence we are not allowed to see and with witnesses we cannot hear or, even know about, then sentenced to death. All without our families and friends ever being told what has happened to us. Additionally, the Citizen has no right to appeal to a civil court and the great Writ of Liberty - the Writ of Habeas Corpus - has been vanquished to the rubble pile of history.

A Citizen’s right to mobility and free travel has been restricted. The REAL ID Act of 2005 mandates federal requirements for state driver’s licenses turning them into de facto national ID cards by the year 2008. Without that "I.D. card" a Citizen won’t be able to board an airplane, open a bank account, or satisfying any other federally regulated use. A Citizen’s information will be placed in a database and linked to other databases maintained by the government.

One such link will certainly be the database known as the "National Directory of New Hires." In here is everyone with a job, a social security number, a driver's license, a bank account, a telephone; anyone for which there is a source of information. You can now be located where ever you are, and the government will know in great detail what you do, where you do it, when you do it, and how you do it. Every repressive regime in the history of the world could only dream of such a system. Can you say, "Big Brother is watching."

Effective January 14, 2007 citizens will need clearance from the Department of Homeland Security to leave or enter their own country, regardless of whether or not they possess valid passports. American Citizens will increasingly hear, "Your papers, please."

The New York Times reported on February 3, 2006 the Republican controlled Government awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root.
"KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space, company executives said.. . . "

There has been no "roundup of illegals" to put in these "detention centers" which are built with guard towers and barb wire (they look similar to Nazi concentration camps), nor has there been any indication there will be a roundup. It is the "new programs that require additional detention space" that concerns me.

Lofty dreams of Liberty in America today are nothing but pipe dreams. More than ever I respect my Southern Forefathers for standing against the oppression of the central Government, and more than ever I wish they had succeeded.

The continued theft of the Liberties and Freedoms of the American People and the centralization of Power by the central Government by various legislative acts by the Republican and Democrat politicians in Washington goes unabated as "a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, . . . . "

The difference today is the attack on our Liberties is being mounted against ALL the Citizens in every region of the country by a central government expanding it's Power and control over all aspects of our personal and private lives.

America has fought 2 world wars without surrendering our Liberties. The Citizens of this Nation are not the enemy of the central Government. Why are we being treated as such?

An even bigger question is, "Why are we putting up with it?"

Have the people become gelded and what Aldous Huxley described in his book, Brave New World - "A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude."

Jim Welch
Boling, Texas

Words of warning

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Words of warning
by Rick Uhlig

The statement by Martin Niemolle (1892-1984) about the persecution of the Nazi's should burn into the mind of every Southern patriot who is wondering what to do to support the cause.

Although there are a few variations out there this is believed to be the original sequence of events.

When the Nazis arrested the Communists,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist.
When they locked up the Social Democrats,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat.
When they arrested the trade unionists,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist.
When they arrested the Jews, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Jew.
When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest.

Now imagine the world WE live in.

When the NAACP demanded it's removal from the dome in South Carolina,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a South Carolinian.
When the SPLC had it banned from our schools,
I did nothing; after all, I was not a school kid.
When the NCAA blackmailed Southern universities,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a college student.
When the Governor changed it without a fair vote in Georgia,
I said nothing; after all, I was not a Georgian.
When the Boy Scouts changed their troop name in VA,
I said nothing; after all, I didn’t scout.
When they came for it before the Mississippi flag vote,
I said nothing; after all, I was not able to vote in MS.
When they removed Maurice's BBQ sauce from Wall Mart,
I said nothing; after all, they never had it here anyway.
When they desecrated the hallowed ground of our battlefields with PC history,
I did nothing; after all, I was not a re-enactor.
When they demonized it in movies and the evening news,
I did nothing; after all, I had no voice there.
When they came for mine, there was no longer anyone who could protest.

No matter where the fight is, it is in ALL our backyards. Support the South and our brother/sister organizations who dare to defend our rights in any way possible. Be it in Georgia, Florida, Missouri or behind enemy lines in Ill-annoy we have to unite. No matter if your an SCV member in Arkansas or a L.O.S member in Virginia it's our duty to watch each others backs. It makes no difference if you write letters to editors from your computer in Louisiana or stage a school protest in Alabama we have to get on the same page. And I don't care if you are standing our ground against the KKK in Gettysburg or a Confederate T-shirt selling vendor in West Texas we need to communicate. Push for legislation that defends our history by e mails, calls and getting right in the face of those who profess to be our representatives. Demand equal respect for our children in public schools by actually going there and talking to school officials about essay projects, living history presentations and class show and tell. Get off your couch on a weekend and go document some burial sites or clean up some old broken markers or graves. Spend some money with Southern friendly merchants and try to donate to the SLRC, H.K Edgerton, battlefield preservation projects, Project Wave, SHNV or any of the other Southern friendly entrepreneurs. Weed out those who bring shame and hate. We have no time or reason to drag that albatross with us into battle. Put to the rear those who support better from the safety there and let the warriors get to the business of fighting.

I know it's all been said before in one way or another and I don’t want to leave anyone out but we are getting down to the wire folks. If we don’t get our infantry, cavalry and artillery on the same field there won’t be anyone left to protest.

To all, for one and one for all,

Rick Uhlig

Jimmy's, Just My Opinion

Just My Opinion


Jimmy Sutherland

The Confederate Battle Flag is viewed so many different ways by folks, that there is hardly any common ground in any group no matter where you are. I was raised in South Carolina and have seen most sides of this issue, The Klan in my opinion are one of the groups that do us more harm than good, I have seen them run rampant through town with our Great Battle Flag tied across the hoods of their cars inviting the "White Public Only" to their rallies and have always thought why is it right for these people to be able to degrade a race of people under a symbol as great as our Confederate Battle Flag. In my opinion the race they are actually degrading would be the White race because they are choosing to separate them from the rest. The Klan, NAACP, SPLC, Aryans, White Supremacists, etc in my mind are all in one group, they do no more than harm the ones they are claiming to help and make themselves look foolish at the same time.

I met a man in Memphis who is black and had issue with the Confederate Battle Flag, to make a long story short I ended up letting him know that he wasn't wrong for believing what he had been taught, that there is another side to the issue, and that all people with the Battle Flag are not there to wave it in his face in a hateful manner. I understand that hate towards our flag is what he has been taught but I think now he may at least see that some of us do have a strong belief that the Confederate symbols represent Southern Heritage Not Hate. We can't ignore the fact that our symbols cause pain for some folks, we can't ignore the fact that some idiots use our symbols to inflict pain on the ones already hurting, and we surely cant ignore the fact that we have to be compassionate with everyone while speaking to them about our Confederate Heritage or we will come off as those who are inflicting the pain. It is not our purpose to change any ones way of thinking, we simply must teach that there is another side of the story and let them make up their own mind.

I have no problem with anyone due to where they are from or what race they are, I have good friends from all over and of many different races. I do have a problem with people treating each other badly for no reason or just because they want to. I'm not right all the time but I hope to always be respectful and compassionate of others feelings no matter who they are. We cant live in denial, we have to do the same we are asking anyone else to do, look at the others perspective before addressing the issue and for heavens sake don't talk down to them because when we do we are our own worst enemy.

Stand strong in your beliefs and teachings, you can have a civil debate with most folks. Continue to preserve our Southern Heritage and Confederate Flag with all of the energy you always have but remember your Southern manners because if you don't, you will only lower yourself to their level. Listen to their side as you want them to hear yours and remember they were taught different than you were. After it's all over by the Grace of God hopefully they will at least know the History books aint always right.

When I see the Colours Fly

When I see the Colours Fly
T Warren

On a quiet Sunday mornin' here at Mole Church, and on a day that I have set aside for only family and heritage work, I have decided to start here.

It doesn't take a PhD, Masters, Bachelors, Associate, or even a high school diploma for that matter, to know the real fight in the Southron trenches is over our colours.

I think it safe to say, it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 85 to 90% of the content of the posts on this and countless other Southern cyber sites. I would also say it is like 99.9% of the mainstream media coverage. Upon asking myself
"Why is that?", I came to the simple conclusion that Confederate Colours mean different things to different folk. I would not dream of attempting to speculate what they mean to anyone else. I am however most willin' to express what they mean to me!

When I see the Colours fly, be it on the flags here at Mole Church, or on a T shirt, or a bumper sticker for that matter, my first thought is always the same, pride and honour. If I think on it a bit harder, it transfers to stories told to me by my grandparents under big ole oak and willow trees on hot summer days, or around coal fired stoves in the middle of miserable illannoy winters.
The sight of the Colours brings back fond memories of seein' it fly atop the drillin' rig when I was working derricks and my daddy was either the driller or tool pusher on the rig. That flag flew whether the rig was set up in Bama, MS. ,Ohio , IN. , OK. or any other of the countless states where we worked our tail ends off searchin' for black gold. My daddy has been gone thirty one years, but the memories of working under "that flag" along side him, God willin' will NEVER leave my memory banks.

In recent times "That flag" reminds me of the twenty plus thousand dollar position I lost for my belief in it, just four years back. It also reminds me of when I nearly got ran over by "Back Door Bob Holden's" limo (former Gov. of MO) when I stepped off the curb in zero weather after flaggin' for 6 hours with my MO. SCV brothers in Jeff Town. Fonder memories of my first GA. flaggin in Rome, when Pam , Mayme , and I just happened to be passing through there on vacation when the GA boyz were goin' after "King Roy Barnes" (former Gov of Ga.) also come to mind. Even fonder memories come to mind when we participated in the "March on Hellanta" from Turner Field to the Gold Dome, when Cmdr. Sam Lyons, Billy Bearden, and myself got tossed from the "Peoples' House" for refusing to surrender our Colours, while my good friend, brother and musician Bobby Mountain fiddled "Dixie" on the steps of the Courthouse lol. Lawd what a day that was.

I remember Pam, and I standing in the cold rain outside "Vanderbilt University" early on in the UDC/SCV fight to retain the name on Confederate Hall.

When I see "That flag" I think of the more than 100 we placed in this county for free, through contributions from good people all over, and out of our own pocket, even if it meant eating beans and cornbread for days on end to supply the seemingly never ending requests from Copperheads up here.

So, I guess this post can be summed up like this ...."The Colours" mean everything from sadness to jubilation to me and mine; and I give thanks unto the Lord that my ancestors fought for it, and that other ancestors taught me of it, allowing me to carry on that tradition to my three daughters who will in turn pass it on to their children ! "The Colours" mean life, and a hope for a day and time when truth prevails, and all those that have shamed her, refused to stand up for her ("well knowing they should have") but were too intimidated by PC to do so, get what they deserve. I believe with all my heart that day will come, I have to believe that way, for if I didn't I'd never rise from my bed in the mornin' .

God Bless the South and her symbols, for they are the last bastion of truth in this country.

T Warren
Bridgeport illannoy flag flyer ( and mighty proud of it)
Heritage Officer Capt. James Knox camp 2022 Ga. Div SCV

NO DEFENSE NECESSARY, NO APOLOGIES OFFERED

It is only natural that we defend our ancestors and ourselves against ridiculous charges made by uninformed or misinformed detractors. Unfortunately most of these slanders and charges are made by people who are not amenable to facts or reason; their minds are made up and they don't wish to be confused by facts.

Why should we feel it necessary to defend ourselves against these charges when the facts are simple and require no defense?

Any student of American history should have been immediately struck by the parallels between the American Revolutionary War and the War for Southern Independence. Many of us have ancestors who fought in the Revolution and whose grandsons fought in the Second American Revolution, the War for Southern Independence. My ancestors who fought, and died, for The Confederacy sincerely believed that they fought for the same principals and causes. They fought to defend their freedom, their homeland and their honor.

In my study of American history I am always saddened by what I consider to be a great mistake made by our forefathers. After we had won our independence from England and were in the process of forming a new nation it became apparent during the Constitutional Convention that the northern and southern states were not in agreement; that they differed on the basic premises of how this new nation should be governed. That split is epitomized by the Jefferson-Hamilton schism and illustrated in the Federalist Papers. It was suggested at the time that our new nation, with it's seemingly irreconcilable differences, be formed as TWO NEW NATIONS who would be bound by a mutual defense and trade pact but would govern themselves by their separate philosophies and principles. This course of action was rejected in favor of an attempt by both regions to compromise and reconcile their basic differences.

Inevitably this attempt at unity was not successful and the basic disagreements festered unresolved for about 80 years. Fortunately, once it became obvious to all that for whatever reasons the regions could never agree, the solution was simple. Foreseeing this potential problem, when the several states had joined the union they had agreed that if the attempt at union failed any state could remedy the situation by resigning or seceding. During the War of 1812 the New England states threatened secession and probably would have seceded had the war not ended when it did. None at the time, especially the President, questioned their right to secede; in fact many states, when joining the union, specifically reserved, in writing, the right to secede and this right was recognized and accepted by the Union. The State of Virginia still has, in writing, the right to secede and Dr. Walter E. Williams suggested, a few years ago, that they exercise it.

The facts are plain clear.

During the Revolutionary War, technically and LEGALLY, our forefathers were
traitors. They did not have a the LEGAL right to declare independence from England.

The southern states, like their patriot grandfathers, were very dissatisfied, for many of the same reasons, but their reasons do not matter.

WHATEVER THEIR REASONS, they had the legal right, and many felt the duty, to secede from a government which they felt oppressed them.

They legally and rightfully seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy, with a constitution that was an improvement on the original United States constitution in many ways and which forbade slave trade, something that the U. S. Constitution had never done and, had the 13th amendment been ratified by the southern states, agreed never to do.

After the formation of the Confederacy, Fort Sumter became a fort on sovereign Confederate soil occupied by a foreign nation and we respectfully requested the northern government to remove its' troops from our soil. Lincoln refused and ordered the fort to be re-supplied and reinforced. This was a blatant act of aggression and war. When the Confederacy acted, legally, to remove foreign troops from its' soil, Lincoln ordered the attack and invasion of the Confederate States. Lincoln forced the south to defend itself against foreign invasion.

We can argue the causes of secession forever, but to me they are immaterial. The south had the legal right to secede and the duty to defend itself. This was dramatically illustrated after the defeat and surrender of the South when the Radical Republicans imprisoned President Davis and sought to try him, along with Gen. Lee and other leading southerners, for treason. Even the then yankee government had to agree that the south's position was legal and that southerners WERE NOT TRAITORS.

It is a sad pass that a hateful segment of the U. S. population has always sought revenge (for what?) and has always tended to consider Confederates and their descendants as traitors and the descendants of traitors and I become very weary of the necessity of defending us against this hateful, ignorant assertion. I regret every day that Lincoln did not allow the south to secede and to go in peace. Slavery was, aside from being wrong, an economic disaster and no war was necessary (or was fought) to end it. It ended throughout the western hemisphere without war being necessary in any other country and
would have also ended peacefully, and perhaps without all of the rancor and hatred, in the south (see The Real Lincoln; A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, by Prof. Thomas J. DiLorenzo and the foreword by Dr. Walter E. Williams).

We exercised our legal rights, were invaded, valiantly and tenaciously defended ourselves, and were finally overwhelmed and defeated by far greater numbers and materiel.. We were then subjugated and abused by a foreign occupying force.

Much of the abuse continues. And some still don't understand that we will not allow our rights trampled or our heritage abused? And there are southerners? who side with them? I'm sure that I feel much like my Confederate ancestors; if they can't even win gracefully and can't learn or be taught good manners, I don't give a damn how many there are or how much more equipment they have, let's fight the bastards again! And let the southerners? who disavow or are ashamed of their heritage, the enemies in our midst, be the first we confront!

EXSURGEMUS!

Rick Boswell

Just My Opinion, Being a Southerner

Jimmy Sutherland


Being a Southerner and raised with teachings of God, Family, and the Truth of the Confederacy we tend to Offend quite a few of "those people" daily. Do we go out and try to offend anyone? No but it seems to happen. Sometimes just the sound of that good old Southern accent gets them going or the site of the Confederate Battle Flag on our shirts or hats brings out the race card in their hand and simply just ruins their whole day. Now have we really offended them or did we run into someone looking to be offended?

Sometimes all we have to do is show up, sometimes all our kids have to do is go to school and be proud of who they are by wearing the "wrong" clothes. Now do we need to change what we are doing? I don't think so. We need to continue teaching our kids and anyone who will listen to the Truth as we have been taught. We have to stay the course as we have with the truth. Continue discussing our Southern Heritage and never back down by changing what you are wearing or saying, we have to keep our manners in check but that is simply what we have learned. Ticking off one of "those people" daily, as PoP does or writing excellent "Articles on Forums Like Bill" is the way we need to continue.

Be proud of who you are and where you come from.Never be ashamed of your Confederate ancestors and remember Never give our Noble Confederate Forefathers reason to be ashamed of you.

Deo Vindice
Jimmy Sutherland
Rebel With A Clue

THE 10 CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES

Historians have long debated the causes of the war and the Southern perspective differs greatly from the Northern perspective. Based upon the study of original documents of the

War Between The States (Civil War) era and facts and information published by Confederate Veterans, Confederate Chaplains, Southern writers and Southern Historians before, during, and after the war, I present the facts, opinions, and conclusions stated in the following article.

I respectfully disagree with those who claim that the War Between the States was fought over slavery or that the abolition of slavery in the Revolutionary Era or early Federal period would have prevented war. It is my opinion that war was inevitable between the North and South due to complex political and personal differences. The famous Englishman Winston Churchill stated that the war between the North and South was one of the most unpreventable wars in history. The Cause that the Confederate States of America fought for (1861-1865) was Southern Independence from the United States of America. Many parallels exist between the War for American Independence ( 1775-1783 ) and the War for Southern Independence.

There were 10 political causes of the war ---one of which was slavery-- which was a scapegoat for all the differences that existed between the North and South. The Northern industrialists had wanted a war since about 1830 to get the South's resources ( land-cotton-coal-timber-minerals ) for pennies on the dollar. All wars are economic and are always between centralists and decentralists. The North would have found an excuse to invade the South even if slavery had never existed.

A war almost occurred during 1828-1832 over the tariff when South Carolina passed nullification laws. The U.S. congress had increased the tariff rate on imported products to 40% ( known as the tariff of abominations in Southern States ). This crisis had nothing to do with slavery. If slavery had never existed --period--or had been eliminated at the time the Declaration of Independence was written in 1776 or anytime prior to 1860 it is my opinion that there would still have been a war sooner or later.

On a human level there were 4 causes of the war--New England Greed--New England Fanatics--New England Zealots--and New England Hypocrites. During "So Called Reconstruction" (1865-1877) the New England Industrialists got what they had really wanted for 40 years--THE SOUTH'S RESOURCES FOR PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR. It was a political coalition between the New England economic interests and the New England fanatics and zealots that caused Southern secession to be necessary for economic survival and safety of the population.

1. TARIFF--Prior to the war about 75% of the money to operate the Federal Government was derived from the Southern States via an unfair