"The [Emancipation] proclamation has no constitutional or legal justification except as a war measure." A. Lincoln Letter to Sec. of Treas. Salmon P. Chase; 3 Sep 1863

Any informed scholar knows that it was a propaganda tool intended to (hopefully) cause widespread slave uprisings to drain Confederate soldiers to quell them (none occurred); to
create a "cause" around which the North would rally (200,000 Union soldiers immediately deserted); and to prevent seemingly-close diplomatic recognition by France and the British Empire (which would have meant fighting those navies to maintain the blockade). 

Since Lincoln knowingly excluded freeing a single slave in any area of the North and South controlled by the Union Army, it was a transparent lie.

NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS…

Lincoln offered the command of all Union forces to Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln's 1862 offer but on one condition, said Mr Petacco: that the war's objective be declared as the abolition of slavery. But at that stage Lincoln was unwilling to make such a statement lest he worsen an agricultural crisis. (Agricultural crisis my foot, he was concerned about more states seceding from the Union).

This just shows me how desperate Lincoln was for a field commander to counter Lee and his lack of respect for his own high command…It also proves again that slavery was NOT the principal issue of the war. 

Read more here: http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2000/feb/08/rorycarroll

SOUTHERN TEAM SIX……America’s secret weapon!

Before Seal Team 6, there was Southern Team Six. When the Taliban see their flag and hear the Rebel Yell, they just drop their guns and head for the hills. Ba ba ba ba ba BAD TO THE BONE...

Photo: Bringing confusion to the camp of the enemy.  HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY - GOD BLESS THE TROOPS!

THE RECONSTRUCTION MILITARY GOVERNOR HAD THREATENED TO SHOOT ANYONE WHO GATHERED TO MEMORIALIZE OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD IN 1866…and they wonder why resentment lingers 150 years later.

In North Carolina May 10th, the date of the death of Gen.Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, was originally named by the members of the Wake County Ladies' Memorial Association as the day of remembrance. 

On that first Confederate Memorial Day, the citizens of Wake County secretly made their way to Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery, since the Reconstruction military governor had threatened to shoot anyone who gathered for such a purpose. Nevertheless, Raleigh citizens assembled then, as they have every year since, to honor North Carolinians who wore the Confederate uniform.

Photo:  Using the bed of a flatbed truck for a stage...  

Sunrise Service~~During the winter of 1863 a "Great Revival" took place in the Army of Northern Virginia. Many believed after the Battle of Fredericksburg that the Lord had blessed the Southern cause with a great decisive victory, possibly changing the course of the war. As so often happens in times of war and great struggle, men turn toward their creator for understanding, insight, and guidance for their uncertain future. General Stonewall Jackson used the winter respite as an opportunity to increase the spirituality of his men. Jackson believed his army's religious character was an integral part of being successful on the battlefield.

The Stonewall Brigade built a number of log chapels around Fredericksburg to serve the men, while General Jackson endeavored to enlist as many chaplains as he could find. One of Jackson’s aides described one of the emotional services. “The crowded house, the flickering lights, the smoke that dimmed the light, the earnest preaching, the breathless attention, broken only by sobs of prayers…. made an occasion never to be forgotten.”

After Sunday afternoon services the leaders of the Army of Northern Virginia headed back through the snow draped countryside in a joyous mood. General Stuart’s close friend and horse-drawn artillery commander, Major John Pelham of Alabama, often accompanied the leaders. The idol of many southern belles, the gallant and dashing 24 year-old Pelham had proved his bravery at Fredericksburg and would fight in more than 60 engagements. His daring skill and ability to keep up with his commander’s fast moving cavalry raids refined the concept of flying artillery.

Leaders such as Lee, Jackson, and Stuart would call on many such men to sacrifice and give all for their country. It was also their hope and prayer that if the day came when they did not return to camp with their companions, the Lord would embrace them and say, “Well done my brave Christian Soldier."  Rex Shields

"Let us be certain that our children know that the war between the States was not a contest for the preservation of slavery, as some would have them to believe, but that it was a great struggle for the maintenance of Constitutional rights, and that men who fought were warriors tried and true, who bore the flags of a Nation's trust, and fell in a cause, though lost, still just, and died for me and you." J. Taylor Ellyson 

Photo: "The monument to the 'Unknown Confederate Dead' marks the final resting place of approximately 3,000 unknown Confederate soldiers who died during the Atlanta campaign in 1864. In 1869, the Atlanta Ladies Memorial Association had the 'battlefield dead' soldiers that had been buried in hastily-dug trenches near the battlefields brought to Oakland [cemetery] and independently reinterred in the square guarded by the Lion of Atlanta...

EVERYONE KNEW WHO WAS RUNNING THE SHOW…nothings changed.

Memorial Day is a tradition which has it's roots in the South beginning even as the war was still raging. Celebrations were organized and orators chosen by the ladies memorial associations delivered prayers and evocative speeches. Even though women selected men to serve as the featured guests and speakers, everyone understood that the Ladies ran the show—they selected the date, chose the orators, invited groups to participate in the procession, and even picked the musical selections.

FOREVER GRATEFUL TO OUR SOUTHERN LADIES...always faithful.

Memorial day is nice but, we don't need a special day to honor our heroes, we honor them every day...

In late April, 1862, enraged by a terse reply by which Stonewall Jackson dismissed an elaborate scheme of Ewell's, General Richard Ewell exploded to a fellow officer, "Did it ever occur to you that General Jackson is crazy? He is as crazy as a March hare!" 

About six weeks later he told the officer, "I take it all back... Old Jackson's no fool. He keeps his own counsel, and does curious things, but he has method in his madness." Grinning, he added, "He's disappointed me entirely!"  

"If i can stand out in public holding the Confederate Battle Flag, what's your excuse not to?" Karen Cooper

There is no excuse Karen...thanks for taking a stand for our heritage. You are living proof that not everyone is brainwashed by 150 years of lies concerning the conflict for Southern Independence. 

The American Indian And The "Great Emancipator"

Perhaps the veneer of lies and historical distortions that surround Abraham Lincoln are beginning to crack. In the movie, "Gangs of New York," we finally have a historically correct representation of the real Abraham Lincoln and his policies. Heretofore, many socialistic intellectuals, politicians and historians have whitewashed these policies in order to protect Lincoln's image because of their allegiance to the unconstitutional centralization of power he brought to our government. 

The false sainthood and adulation afforded Lincoln has its basis in the incorrect assumption he fought the war to free an enslaved people. To believe this propaganda one must ignore most everything Lincoln said about the Black race and his continued efforts at colonization. Lincoln's treatment of the American Indian has been very much ignored, though not exactly misrepresented. 

One would find it hard to refute that Abraham Lincoln's political idol was Henry Clay. Lincoln would say of Clay; "During my whole political life, I have loved and revered Henry Clay as a teacher and leader." Lincoln delivered the eulogy at the funeral for Clay. When elected President, Lincoln set about implementing Henry Clay's political philosophies. 

Throughout Clay's political life he was a strong believer in National Socialism and a complete racist in all references to the American Indian. As Secretary of State Clay would declare: "The Indians' disappearance from the human family will be no great loss to the world. I do not think them, as a race, worth preserving." 

This mentality lead to the forced walk of all Cherokees from the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia to Oklahoma during the winter of 1838. Over 20,000 Cherokees were dragged from their homes, which were then plundered and burned. They were force marched most of them barefooted to Oklahoma during the dead of winter with the sky for their blanket and the earth for their pillow. Over 4,000 Cherokees died on this march and it became known as the "Trail of Tears." 

Similar atrocities occurred all through the Lincoln Administration. In 1862, the Santee Sioux of Minnesota grew tired of waiting for the 1.4 million dollars they had been promised for the sale of 24 million acres of land to the federal government in 1851. Appeals to President Lincoln fell on deaf ears. What made this even more egregious to the Sioux was the invasion of this yet unpaid for land by thousands of white settlers. Then, with a very poor crop in august of 1862, many of the Indians were hungry and facing starvation with the upcoming winter. 

When Lincoln outright refused to pay the owed money, remember he had a war to finance the Indians revolted. Lincoln assigned General John Pope to quell the uprising and he announced at the beginning of his campaign: "It is my purpose to utterly exterminate the Sioux. They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties or compromise can be made." Lincoln certainly did not challenge this statement. 

The Indians were quickly defeated in October of 1862 and Pope herded all the Indians, men, women and children, into forts where military trials were immediately convened. None of the Indians tried were given any semblance of a defense. Their trials lasted approximately 10 minutes each. All adult males were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death with the only evidence against them being they had been present during a "war" which they themselves had declared against the government. 

The authorities in Minnesota asked Lincoln to order the immediate execution of all 303 males found guilty. Lincoln was concerned with how this would play with the Europeans, whom he was afraid were about to enter the war on the side of the South. He offered the following compromise to the politicians of Minnesota: They would pare the list of those to be hung down to 39. In return, Lincoln promised to kill or remove every Indian from the state and provide Minnesota with 2 million dollars in federal funds. Remember, he only owed the Sioux 1.4 million for the land. 

So, on December 26, 1862, the Great Emancipator ordered the largest mass execution in American History, where the guilt of those to be executed was entirely in doubt. Regardless of how Lincoln defenders seek to play this, it was nothing more than murder to obtain the land of the Santee Sioux and to appease his political cronies in Minnesota. 

Lincoln's western armies, using the tactics of murder, rape, burning and pillaging, simultaneously being used against Southern noncombatants by the eastern armies, turned their attention to the Navajos. 

In 1863-64, General Carleton and his subordinate, Colonel Kit Carson, invaded the Navajo land, especially those concentrated in the Canyon de Chelly area. Crops were burned, innocents were murdered, women were raped and general chaos was rained upon these noble people simply because, like the Santee Sioux, they demanded from Lincoln what they had been promised; their land and to be left alone. General Carleton, believing there was gold to be found in the area, stated: "This war, will be pursued against you if it takes years until you cease to exist or move." Again, there was no protest of this policy from Lincoln, his Commander in Chief. 

The Navajo were forced to march over 300 miles to Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico. Over 200 Navajos died on this march and, eventually, over 2,000 perished before a treaty was signed in 1868. While at Bosque Redondo, the Navajo suffered the vilest conditions; bitter water, no firewood and impossible growing conditions for crops. The soldiers and the Mexican guards subjected the women to rape and humiliating treatment. Children born at this "concentration camp" were lucky to survive their first few months of life. 

As our Founding Fathers did in our Declaration of Independence from the British, the Cherokee Nation listed its grievances with the Union when they declared their unification with the Confederate States on October 28th 1861. These brave people had already observed the atrocities of Lincoln's war criminals and saw through any so-called war for liberation. 

"When circumstances beyond their control compel one people to sever the ties which have long existed between them and another state or confederacy, and to contract new alliances and establish new relations for the security of their rights and liberties, it is fit that they should publicly declare the reasons by which their action is justified. 

The Cherokee people had its origin in the South; its institutions are similar to those of the Southern States, and their interests identical with theirs. Long since it accepted the protection of the United States of America, contracted with them treaties of alliance and friendship, and allowed themselves to be to a great extent governed by their laws. 

In peace and war, they have been faithful to their engagements with the United States. With much hardship and injustice to complain of, they resorted to no other means than solicitation and argument to obtain redress. Loyal and obedient to the laws and the stipulations of the treaties, they served under the flag of the United States, shared the common dangers, and were entitled to a share in the common glory, to gain which their blood was freely shed on the battlefield. 

When the dissentions between the Southern and Northern States culminated in a separation of State after State from the Union, they watched the progress of events with anxiety and consternation. While their institutions and the contiguity of their territory to the states of Arkansas, Texas and Missouri made the cause of the seceding States necessarily their own cause, their treaties had been made with the United States, and they felt the utmost reluctance even in appearance to violate their engagements or set at naught the obligations of good faith. 

But Providence rules the destinies of nations, and events, by inexorable necessity, overrule human resolutions. The number of the Confederate States increased to eleven, and their government is firmly established and consolidated. Maintaining in the field an army of two hundred thousand men, the war became for them but a succession of victories. Disclaiming any intention to invade the Northern States, they sought only to repel invaders from their own soil and to secure the right of governing themselves. 

They claimed only the privilege asserted by the Declaration of American Independence, and on which the right of the Northern States themselves to self-government is formed, of altering their form of government when it became no longer tolerable and establishing new forms for the security of their liberties. 

Throughout the Confederate States, we saw this great revolution effected without violence or suspension of the laws or the closing of the courts, The military power was nowhere placed above the civil authorities. None were seized and imprisoned at the mandate of arbitrary power. All division among the people disappeared, and the determination became unanimous that there should never again be any union with the Northern States. Almost as one man, all who were able to bear arms rushed to the defense of an invaded country, and nowhere has it been found necessary to compel men TO SERVE, or to enlist mercenaries by the offer of extraordinary bounties. 

But, in the Northern States, the Cherokee people saw with alarm a violated constitution, all civil liberty put in peril, and all rules of civilized warfare and the dictates of common humanity and decency unhesitatingly disregarded. In states which still adhered to the Union, a military despotism had displaced the civil power and the laws became silent amid arms. Free speech and almost free thought became a crime. The right of the writ of habeas corpus, guaranteed by the constitution, disappeared at the nod of a Secretary of State or a general of the lowest grade. The mandate of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was at naught by the military power, and this outrage on common right, approved by a President sworn to support the constitution. War on the largest scale was waged, and the immense bodies of troops called into the field in the absence of any law warranting it under the pretense of suppressing unlawful combination of men. 

The humanities of war, which even barbarians respect, were no longer thought worthy to be observed. Foreign mercenaries and the scum of the cities and the inmates of prisons were enlisted and organized into brigades and sent into Southern States to aid in subjugating a people struggling for freedom, to burn, to plunder, and to commit the basest of outrages on the women. 

While the heels of armed tyranny trod upon the necks of Maryland and Missouri, and men of the highest character and position were incarcerated upon suspicion and without process of law, in jails, in forts, and prison ships, and even women were imprisoned by the arbitrary order of a President and Cabinet Ministers; while the press ceased to be free, and the publication of newspapers was suspended and their issues seized and destroyed. 

The officers and men taken prisoners in the battles were allowed to remain in captivity by the refusal of the Government to consent to an exchange of prisoners; as they had left their dead on more than one field of battle that had witnessed their defeat, to be buried and their wounded to be cared for by southern hands" 

Lincoln's armies, after decimating and destroying the South in the War for Southern Independence, turned its war criminals loose on the Indians of the Great Plains and the Southwest. The tactics of murder, rape and pillaging, perfected in such places as Atlanta, the March to the Sea and the Shenandoah Valley, were repeated in places with names like Sand Creek and Wounded Knee. 

Small wonder one of Lincoln's favorite Generals was William T. Sherman, who wrote to his wife in 1862 that his goal was the "extermination, not of soldiers alone, that is the least of the trouble, but the people of the South." He said while campaigning against the Indians: "The only good Indian I ever saw was dead," and lamented to his son shortly before his death that he had been unable to kill all of the "Red Sob's." 

Abraham Lincoln's "American System," adopted from Henry Clay, brought about the necessity for the removal of the Indians from the west. This concept of government had been vetoed as unconstitutional by virtually every president, beginning with James Madison. 

The system called for the subsidizing of the railroads with stolen taxpayer money. Lincoln had long been the primary attorney representing the railroads before being elected President. For the railroads to complete their lines into the west, the Indian had to be either "neutralized" or eliminated. Thus, Lincoln left his fingerprints on the campaign against the Indian well into the 19th century. 

Lincoln's policies of taxpayer-supported railroads would lead, not only to the attempted annihilation of the Indian, but to tremendous scandals in the administration of another of Lincoln's war criminals, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant, like Lincoln, handed out his "political plum" appointments of Indian Agent to cronies who proceeded to gain tremendous wealth by selling supplies and stealing money that should have gone to the Indians. 

Today, as we Southerners protest the conversion of the Battlefields of the National Park Service into "the beginnings of reparations for slavery," by Marxist politicians and journalists, and challenge the erection of a statue of Lincoln in Richmond, we might ask ourselves as the Indian has done for years: Why, in the most sacred land of the Sioux, is there a monument carved into the granite mountain, a figure of Lincoln, who promised the annihilation of a band of the Sioux to please his political cronies? 

To continue to idolize Lincoln is to refute history and intellectual thought and to worship at the foot of Marxist government. Perhaps, in the not too distant future, Americans will be able to see the Lincoln Administration and its legacy of how we are governed today in the light of truth. We may even be able to see its consequences as clearly as the Cherokee Nation saw them in 1861! By Michael Gaddy 

THE POMPUS YANK WAS QUICKLY SPANKED AND SENT BACK WEST...

In 1862 when he took command of the Union Army of Virginia, Union General John Pope boasted to the troops, "I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemy." 

When he heard the statement, Richard Ewell joked "Pope would not want to see the backs of my men. Their pantaloons are out at the rear!" 

Stonewall Jackson was more grim, "They say this new general claims my attention. Well, please God, he shall have it!" (And he did!) 

“The real issue involved in the relations between the North and the South of the American States, is the great principle of self-government. Shall a dominant party of the North rule the South, or shall the people of the South rule themselves. This is the great matter in controversy.”
Robert Barnwell Rhett (Montgomery, Alabama, 1860)

 “Our poor country has fallen a prey to the conqueror. The noblest cause ever defended by the sword is lost. The noble dead that sleep in their shallow though honored graves are far more fortunate than their survivors. I thought I had sounded the profoundest depth of human feeling, but this is the bitterest hour of my life.”  Colonel John Singleton Mosby

Oh how the revisionists like to quote Fredrick Douglas…bet you won’t hear this one.

"…Rising above vulgar prejudice, the slaveholding rebel accepts the aid of the black man as readily as that of any other. 

If a bad cause can do this, why should a good cause be less wisely conducted? We insist upon it, that one black regiment in such a war as this is, without being any more brave and orderly, would be worth to the Government more than two of any other; and that, while the Government continues to refuse the aid of colored men, thus alienating them from the national cause, and giving the rebels the advantage of them, it will not deserve better fortunes than it has thus far experienced. 

Men in earnest don't fight with one hand, when they might fight with two, and a man drowning would not refuse to be saved even by a colored hand." (Foner, Volume 3, pages 151-154) FREDRICK DOUGLAS 

Lincoln never wanted to use black troops until forced to by political pressure and the Federal Army, unlike the Confederate Army remained segregated until 1950 during the Korean War.

PVT Benjamin Dekalb Kelley, quite a story...

When the War erupted in 1861, Ben and his brothers Esom, James, Philemon, and John joined the independent cavalry company that was being formed of men who could furnish their own mounts and tack. The brothers enlisted in "Hubbard's Company of Alabama Rangers" in September of 1861, and after brief, but intense training, were sent into western and middle Tennessee where they helped Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman with the defense of Fort Henry.

In 1864, 20-year-old Ben was detailed by Captain Kelley to go to Athens, Alabama, and pick up the body of their brother, James, and take it home for burial. It was a dangerous assignment as union patrols were everywhere and travel at night was somewhat safer than during the day. Upon arrival at Athens, Ben hitched both of their horses to a wagon and placed the body inside for the sad trip home. 

Somewhere down the road, the wagon broke down and Ben had to place the body over the pommel of James' own horse and lead it on home. Ben later said that he made better time that way, and he was lucky that he had thought to put the saddles in the wagon in case something like this happened. He got the body home and buried it in a place on the family property that later became the Old Kelley/Tucker Cemetery.

Ben was also captured in early 1865 at the Black Warrior River while scouting union positions. He was not imprisoned though and Ben was heard to have said that "my uniform was so threadbare that they (union soldiers) could not tell if I was a soldier or a beggar and let me go". Ben served honorably in Company K until the end of the war. 

When Ben and his two other surviving brothers returned home after the war, they found their home in deplorable condition. As if this and losing the war were not bad enough, Ben and his brothers found out that their younger brother, Tolbert, had gone to a local mill to have some corn ground into meal when a group of northern sympathizers, known as "Tories", under the command of a man by the name of John Stough, tied him to a horse and dragged him to death. 

They avenged their brothers death by killing the man and his dogs under the age-old law of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a death for a death.” Benjamin died on September 12, 1926, at the age of 83.

Battle of Champion's Hill 

On May 16, 1863, at Champion’s Hill, Mississippi, Tilghman had a force of only 1,550 men, which was being forced back by six to eight thousand men of Grant’s army. Tilghman dismounted and took command of a section of field artillery of the 1st Mississippi Light Artillery. He was in the act of sighting a howitzer when he was struck in the hip by a cannonball from the Chicago Mercantile Battery’s number two gun. 

General Tilghman lived about three hours after he was wounded and was carried to a peach tree where he died in the arms of General Powhattan Ellis. On July 4, 1863 Vicksburg, Mississippi fell to Grant’s forces after a prolonged siege. The surrender of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two. The Key to the Confederate Heartland was now in in the hands of the enemy. 

Unfortunately two months after Tilghman’s death, his son Lt. Lloyd Tilghman, Jr. was thrown from his horse, hit his head on a piece of rail iron and died instantly.

Tilghman must be commended for his bravery, his unwavering sense of loyalty and duty to his country, and to the Confederate cause.  

"Our parson is not afraid of Yankee bullets, and I tell you he preaches like hell." Colonel Grigsby of the Stonewall Brigade concerning Robert L. Dabney

True to the Constitution and its doctrine of the Sovereignty of States, he enlisted in the Confederate Army as chaplain, and became General “Stonewall” Jackson’s Chief of Staff. More than once he distinguished himself for coolness and courage, and near Port Republic in the Valley campaign his prompt action averted disaster from the army, for which his modesty alone prevented him from receiving the credit he deserved.”

"It is only the atheist who adopts success as the criterion of right." — Robert Lewis Dabney

General Sedgwick fell at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9, 1864. His corps was probing skirmish lines ahead of the left flank of Confederate defenses and he was directing artillery placements. Confederate sharpshooters were about 1,000 yards (900 m) away and their shots caused members of his staff and artillerymen to duck for cover. 

Sedgwick strode around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he repeated, "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Just seconds later he fell forward with a bullet hole below his left eye. 

Sedgwick was the highest ranking Union casualty in the War. Although James B. McPherson was in command of an army at the time of his death and Sedgwick of a corps, Sedgwick had the most senior rank by date of all major generals killed. Upon hearing of his death, Grant, flabbergasted by the news, repeatedly asked, "Is he really dead?"

Lee vigorously opposed slavery and as early as 1856 made this statement: "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil." 

Lee also knew that the use of slaves was coming to an end. Cyrus McCormick’s 1831 invention of the mule-drawn mechanical reaper sounded the death knell for the use of slave labor. Before the War began, 250,000 slaves had already been freed. 

All that inventive genius was sidetracked into the war effort in 1861. Instead of focusing on machinery that could have prompted the end of slavery, the focus was now on building war machines like iron clads, submarines, sea mines, hand grenades etc., all products of Southern inventiveness. 

LAST BATTLE OF THE WAR...May 12 and 13th 1865 

John Salmon Ford, better known as “Rip” Ford, the last victorious Confederate commander of the War. Ford served as colonel of the 2nd Texas Cavalry based in the Rio Grande district, and was assigned to protect trade routes with Mexico. 

Ford’s greatest military exploit was the Battle of Palmito Ranch on May 12-13, 1865, when he defeated attacking Union forces under Colonel Theodore H. Barrett. Barrett had attempted to surprise Confederate forces at Fort Brown, outside Brownsville, but was repulsed by Ford’s daring frontal attack. The battle was considered a Confederate victory, with Union troops retreating and suffering 118 casualties. 

Ford’s men had an estimated six killed, wounded or missing. Unfortunately for Ford, all Confederate forces in Texas surrendered two weeks later. Making the Battle of Palmito Ranch the last battle of the war. 

After the war, Ford continued his interests in politics and newspaper editing, serving as a delegate to the Democratic convention in 1868, and working on the Brownsville Sentinel. He would become the mayor of Brownsville in 1874, and serve again in the Texas Senate from 1876 to 1879.

***HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!*** 

To all the wonderful mothers out there past present and future, we wish you a spectacular day, none of us would be here without you. Thank you for enriching our lives…

United Daughters of the Confederacy 1900 Jackson Tennessee. Is it just me or is that stairway in the shape of a St. Andrews Cross?

"They had for us all the glamour of Robin Hood and his merry men, all the courage and bravery of the ancient crusaders, the unexpectedness of benevolent pirates and the stealth of Indians."  Thus wrote Sam Moore, a young man from Berryville, of the fascination held by the people of western Virginia for Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby's Partisan Rangers (43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry).  With such a reputation, it is no wonder that Mosby found it easy to attract recruits.  

The life of a Ranger, the changing scenes, the danger, and wild adventure lured many men to the battalion.  Officers in other units gave up their commissions to enlist as privates.  Old soldiers and those who had been discharged as unfit for further service also joined.  Some recruits to the unit were too young to enlist in the regular Army, while others had been foreign soldiers of fortune.  Among the Battalion's youngest members was a 16-year-old Scottsville boy named Henry G. Harris.

Via John Cofield…THE UNIVERSITY GREYS… 11th Mississippi.

The State of Mississippi seceded from the Union on January 9, 1861. On May 4th, nearly the entire student body and many of the professors at the University of Mississippi formed ranks on the grounds in front of the Lyceum, left school and enlisted in the Confederate Army. Only four students reported for classes in fall 1861, so few that the university closed temporarily.

The Greys, as Company A of the 11th Mississippi and the Army of Northern Virginia, served in many of the most famous and bloody battles of the war. The most famous engagement of the University Greys was at Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg, when the Confederates made a desperate frontal assault on the Union entrenchments atop Cemetery Ridge. The Greys penetrated further into the Union position than any other unit, but at the terrible cost of sustaining 100% casualties—every soldier was either killed or wounded.

Historians agree that the Rebel charge by the boys from Mississippi was the high water mark of the Confederacy. During the height of the July 3rd cannonade preceding Pickett’s Charge, a stretcher was carried into a Confederate aid station somewhere behind the fighting. Surgeon LeGrand Wilson of the 42nd Mississippi, saw a head raised and recognized University of Mississippi student Jerry Gage. The following is the surgeon’s writing and J.S Gage’s letter home. (see Photo)

http://www.hottytoddy.com/the-university-greys/

  NEWMAN HAYNES "OLD MAN" CLANTON, PRIVATE, TEXAS HOME GUARD. PATRIARCH OF THE CLANTON FAMILY, WHO FOUGHT THE EARPS AT THE OK CORRAL (THE EARPS WERE YANKS, AND ONE EARP BROTHER WAS A UNION VETERAN).   

NEWMAN CLANTON SETTLED IN ARIZONA IN 1873, ATTEMPTING WITHOUT SUCCESS TO FORM A NEW TOWN CALLED "CLANTONVILLE" NEAR CAMP GOODWIN IN THE GILA VALLEY.  AFTER PROVING UNABLE TO ATTRACT SETTLERS TO THE NEW TOWN, CLANTON MOVED IN 1877 TO THE SAN PEDRO VALLEY, BUILDING A RANCH NEAR LEWIS SPRINGS (ABOUT 5 MILES SOUTH OF CHARLESTON). WHEN THE SILVER BOOM CAME TO THE NEARBY TOWN OF TOMBSTONE, LEADING TO TREMENDOUS POPULATION GROWTH, CLANTON GREW RICH SUPPLYING MEAT AND CATTLE THROUGHOUT THE TERRITORY. 

HE CREATED THE BIGGEST CATTLE EMPIRE IN ARIZONA TERRITORY, AND FOUND HIMSELF INVOLVED IN CONTROVERSY AS A RESULT...CLANTON CLAIMED HIS CATTLE WERE LEGITIMATELY ACQUIRED, BUT HE WAS ACCUSED OF ALSO RUSTLING CATTLE FROM MEXICO WHEN NECESSARY TO FILL HIS CUSTOMER’S DEMANDS FOR MEAT.  AS A RESULT OF THESE QUESTIONABLE ACTIVITIES, CLANTON, HIS SONS, AND HIS RANCH HANDS BECAME KNOWN COLLECTIVELY AS "THE CLANTON GANG," BY WHICH NAME THEY HAVE GONE DOWN IN WESTERN HISTORY AND FOLKLORE.

THIS PROSTHETIC LEG SERVED IN BOTH THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES 

When Confederate Captain John Newton Ballard of Mosby’s Rangers lost his leg in battle in 1863 (see post earlier today), like many of his fellow officers, he didn’t waste time fretting over his amputated limb. Instead, he acquired a second hand artificial leg and got back to war. Unfortunately, he was left literally without a leg to stand on near Halltown, Virginia, when his horse collided with a Union cavalry soldier’s mount and his prosthetic was crushed, making him the only Civil War soldier to lose the same leg twice. 

However, he was about to have a stroke of luck. In March 1864, Union Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was killed near Richmond, Virginia, during a cavalry raid. He, too, had lost a leg in 1863 (in fact, the severed leg was given a military funeral and is still sealed within the wall of Building 28 in the Washington Navy Yard). Dahlgren’s body was found by 13 year old Confederate, who took his wooden artificial limb as a souvenir. The Yankee prosthetic made its way to John Ballard, who wore it in active service to the end of the war.

This epitomizes Southern grit and determination...

John Ballard was born January 1, 1839 in Albemarle County, Va. He joined up with the"Col" Mosby mid month of May, 1863. John was shot in the leg on the morning of June 22nd, 1863, on the eastern slope of the Bull Run Mountains, near Dr. Ewell's farm. Ballard's leg was crushed by the ball, and the rough riding back to the mountains made the fracture worse. (His horse had an eye shot out which became unmanageable). 

He was taken to the home of Robert Whiteacre, near the top of the mountain, where his leg was amputated. He was nursed back to health until he could be taken to Bennevue, the home of Mr. William Ayre. The following winter he was again in the saddle and with his command, but had his artificial leg crushed in a charge with Capt. A. E. Richards, on a Federal camp near Halltown. He afterwards came in possession of the leg of U.S. Colonel Ulric Dahlgren (killed in an ill fated raid on Richmond), with which he was fitted with, and able to continue in active service until the end of the war.

Attended 1895 reunion of the 43rd Va. Cav. in Marshall, the 1897 reunion in Baltimore, Md and the 1905 reunion in Fredericksburg. 

Campbell County resident Thomas Cock joined his hometown unit, the Red House Volunteers, at the beginning of the war. His Confederate service was as a member of Co. A, 21st Virginia Infantry. Service was hard under Jackson, Lee and Early, and he barely survived the destruction of the Stonewall Brigade at Spotsylvania in 1864. At some point he was given, perhaps through the efforts of army chaplains or General Jackson himself, this pocket testament which was printed in Atlanta in 1862. 

His luck ran out in July, 1864, at Monocacy Junction, Maryland. 

Unable to write well due to the nature of his wound, Ward Master H.S. Shepherd of West's Hospital, Baltmore, gently assisted Private Cock when he inscribed the following passages in the Testament:

Cover: "Thomas Cox / Morris Church / Carroll County, Va. / Co. A / 21 Va." (Morris Church was actually in eastern Campbell County, near its border with Charlotte County).
"The ball that struck this book entered my left breast and came out of right -- it saved instant death & will be the means of saving my soul. Thomas Cox. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."

"I was with Thos. Cox when he died...he was willing...& appear ready to leave this world for a better one to come. H.S. Shepherd, w.m. West's Hospital Baltimore."

Private Cock never left Maryland. He was buried in Loudoun Cemetery in Baltimore. His testament and a ring from his finger was carefully sent by Shepherd to Cock's widow in Southside Virginia.

TIPS FOR YANKEES VISITING OUR BELOVED SOUTHLAND…

Don't order filet mignon or pasta primavera at Waffle House. It's just a diner. They serve breakfast 24 hours a day. Let them cook something they know. If you confuse them, they'll kick your butt.

Don't laugh at our Southern names (Merleen, Bodie, Ovine, LutherRay, Tammy Lynn, Darla Beth, Inez, Billy Joe, Sissy, Clovis,etc.). Or we will just HAVE to kick your butt.

Don't order a bottle of pop or a can of soda. Down here it's called Coke. Nobody gives a flying damn whether it's Pepsi, RC, Dr. Pepper, 7-Up or whatever -- it's still just a Coke. Accept it. Doing otherwise can lead to an butt kicking.

We know our heritage. Most of us are more literate than you e.g., Welty, Williams, Faulkner. We are also better educated and generally a lot nicer. Don't refer to us as a bunch of hillbillies, or we'll kick your butt.

Don't tell us the war is over, get over it, you will surely get your butt kicked...

We have plenty of business sense (e.g., Fred Smith of Fed Ex, Turner Broadcasting, MCI WorldCom, MTV, Netscape). Naturally we do, sometimes, have small lapses in judgment e.g., Carter, Edwards, Duke, Barnes, Clinton). We don't care if you think we are dumb. We are not dumb enough to let someone move to our state in order to run for the Senate. If someone tried to do that, we would kick their butt.

Don't laugh at our Civil War monuments. If Lee had listened to Longstreet and flanked Meade at Gettysburg instead of sending Pickett up the middle, you'd be paying taxes to Richmond instead of Washington. If you visit Stone Mountain and complain about the carving, we'll kick your butt.

We are fully aware of how high the humidity is, so shut the heck up. Just spend your money and get the heck out of here, or we'll kick your butt.

Don't order wheat toast at Cracker Barrel. Everyone will instantly know that you're a Yankee. Eat your biscuits like God intended -- with gravy. And don't put sugar on your grits, or we'll kick your butt.

Don't fake a Southern accent. This will incite a riot, and you will get your butt kicked.

Don't talk about how much better things are at home because we know better. Many of us have visited Northern holes like Detroit, Chicago, and DC, and we have the scars to prove it. If you don't like it here, Delta is ready when you are. Move your butt on home before it gets kicked.

Yes, we know how to speak proper English. We talk this way because we don't want to sound like you. We don't care if you don't understand what we are saying. All other Southerners understand what we are saying, and that's all that matters. Now, go away and leave us alone, or we'll kick your butt.

Don't complain that the South is dirty and polluted. None of OUR lakes or rivers have caught fire recently. If you whine about OUR scenic beauty, we'll kick your butt all the way back to Boston Harbor.

Don't ridicule our Southern manners. We say sir and ma'am. We hold doors open for others. We offer our seats to old folks because such things are expected of civilized people. Behave yourselves around our sweet little gray-haired grandmothers or they'll kick some manners into your butt just like they did ours.

So you think we're quaint or losers because most of us live in the countryside? That's because we have enough sense not to live in filthy, smelly, crime-infested cesspools like New York or Newark. Make fun of our fresh air, and we'll kick your butt.

Last, but not least, DON'T DARE come down here and tell us how to cook barbecue. This will get your ass shot (right after it is kicked). You're lucky we let you snowbirds come down here at all. Criticize our barbeque, and you will go home in a pine box -- minus your butt.

Via Confederate American Pride…  

Saddam Hussein was condemned during the golf war for using US troops as human shields…Not so for the Union Commanders that did the same to Southern soldiers… Glory Glory Hallelujah? 

Lt. David Harris Terrell of the Concord Rangers

Harris was one of the “Immortal 600” who were sent to Morris Island outside of Charleston. They were placed in a small stockade in front of the Union cannon batteries (Exposed to Confederate artillery fire). Under the hot Low Country sun, they endured wretched conditions, starvation rations, and constant shelling from Confederate artillery. 

Many of the officers died before they were finally sent back to Fort Delaware in March 1865. On June 16, 1865, Lt. Harris took an oath of allegiance to the Union and was finally released. He began a long walk home to Georgia and a new beginning. 

David and Lithy Harris had nine children after the war. They lived in Dahlonega and later in Hall County. David Harris was a businessman and part-owner of a gold mine. Lt. Harris died in 1912 and is buried in Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville.  

The Official Big Lie (a war to end slavery) 

In December of 1860 and January of 1861, many newspapers across the North and Midwest simply wanted to “let the South go in peace.” But the bankers, railroads and shippers soon informed the press of the financial implications of Southern independence.

The editorial tune changed dramatically in February and March of 1861 to “No, we must NOT let the South go,” and “what about our shipping?” and “what about our revenue?” As the New York Times noted on March 30th,“We were divided and confused until our pockets were touched.” [ See Northern Editorials on Secession, Howard C. Perkins, ed., 1965]

The North prevented southern independence because it threatened their financial interests. The South wanted independence for its own best interests, in the tradition of the American Founders. 

It sought peaceful separation, but fought in self-defense when invaded and blockaded.
The Official Big Lie (a war to end slavery) was created and maintained to obscure the overthrow of the Founding Principles, and the true motivations that resulted in tragic and unnecessary death on an epic scale.

From an article by Steve Scroggins

How can any American deny the right of secession and at the same time celebrate Independence Day and the principle it embodies? As Greeley put it in his editorial in the New York Tribune December 17th, 1860:

If the Declaration of Independence justified the secession of 3,000,000 colonists in 1776, I do not see why the Constitution ratified by the same men should not justify the secession of 5,000,000 of the Southerners from the Federal Union in 1861…

We have repeatedly said, and we once more insist that the great principle embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence that government derives its power from the consent of the governed is sound and just, then if the Cotton States, the Gulf States or any other States choose to form an independent nation they have a clear right to do it…

And when a section of our Union resolves to go out, we shall resist any coercive acts to keep it in. We hope never to live in a Republic where one section is pinned to the other section by bayonets.” —Horace Greeley, NewYork Tribune, Dec. 17, 1860.

From an article by Steve Scroggins

Though she married into one of the richest families in the world, she was buried with a Confederate flag...quite a lady!

I'm a Virginian. Virginians are the most conceited people on earth. There's nothing higher you can aspire to. Lady Nancy Astor 

(Nancy Langhorne (Astor) came into the world on May 19, 1879 in Danville Virginia, one of 11 children )

At the age of 18, Nancy married Robert Gould Shaw, the nephew of Robert Gould Shaw who commanded the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. After divorcing the adulterous Shaw she married the son of William Waldorf Astor (cousin of Titanic victim John Jacob Astor IV)

Nancy died on May 2, 1964 just before her 85th birthday, a confederate flag was buried with her.

J.E.B Stuart was a cousin to the Langhorne family. 

“Our women gave their carpets to make blankets, their dresses to be made into shirts for the soldiers, and their linen to furnish lint for their wounds, and then, clad in home-spun, they gave themselves.”

The Reverend John Levi Underwood in his book, The Women of the Confederacy, published in 1906, gives testimony to Southern womanhood. He wrote of defiance when he recited two stories:


Union General Milroy had declared Marshal Law within his theater of operations restricting all movement of civilians from their homes. A local farmer, John Allen, had a milk cow that the family depended upon. His daughter, a spry 13 years old, went to see General Milroy to gain a pass to move the cow to pasture. General Milroy tartly replied, “I can’t do anything for you rebels and I will not let you pass. The rebellion has got to be crushed.” Little Miss Allen, not to be rebuffed, retorted, “Well, if you think you can crush the rebellion by starving John Allen’s cow, just crush away.”

In another instance he cited a note written by Sherman responding as to why he was making the wives and mothers of Confederate soldiers leave occupied Savannah, “You women are the toughest set I ever knew. The men would have given up long ago but for you. I believe you would keep this war up for thirty years.”

And perhaps it was a young Southern girl much like Chloe that inspired Underwood to write, “Gentle, but brave; modest, but independent. Seeking no recognition, the true Southern woman found it already won by her worth; courting no attention, at every turn it met her, to do willing homage to her native grace and genuine womanhood.”

So I have to say, thank you Shellman, and especially Chloe, for a moment of dreamtime. A dreamtime when the men and women of a new nation stood against a giant and suffered, as one, the humiliation of defeat. Though subjugated and with the banner furled, we must never forget.

Editor’s note: Ray Davidson is a syndicated columnist. He can be reached at rayd45@aol.com.

In July, 1891, when the impressive statue of Stonewall Jackson was dedicated over his grave, 30,000 people gathered in Lexington, Virginia. On the day before the dedication, survivors of the Stonewall Brigade, dressed in faded and tattered gray uniforms, were the center of attention in the town. 

That night when citizens of the town wanted to ensure the old soldiers comfortable lodging, a diligent search of homes and hotels yielded not one of the men. Near midnight the Brigade was found, huddled in blankets around Jackson's statue in the cemetery. Urged to leave the damp ground and partake of the town's hospitality, none of the men stirred. Finally one said, "Thank you sirs, but we've slept around him many a night on the battlefield, and we want to bivouac once more with Old Jack." 

And they did. The next day, 21 July, was the thirtieth anniversary of the memorable battle where Thomas Jonathan Jackson became forever "Stonewall". The day began with a procession featuring a brand-new Confederate battle flag made especially for the occasion. When the graveside ceremonies ended, the Stonewall Brigade fell into ranks and marched slowly to the cemetery gate. 

There one of the veterans paused and gazed around at the land he had defended with the general. When his eyes reached Jackson's grave, he removed his hat and shouted in a choking voice, "Goodbye, old man, goodbye! We've done all we can for you!"

Why don't we get this kind of turn out to honor our ancestors anymore?

Some historians are fond of saying the South is better off for having lost the war. Louisiana was the 2nd richest state in the Union before the war and became the second poorest state in the Union after the war. I don’t see the logic. 

If the truth be known…

New Orleans had the largest population of free blacks in the country, often educated, middle class and property owners…

Oh and the largest slave market in the country...was in Washington DC. 

The Army of Northern Virginia’s greatest victory, out numbered 2-1, came at a great price…

Lee risked dividing his forces 'retaining two divisions to focus Hooker's attention, while Stonewall Jackson marched the bulk of the Confederate army west across the front of the Federal line to a position opposite its exposed right flank. Jackson executed this daring and dangerous maneuver throughout the morning and afternoon of May 2. Striking two hours before dusk, Jackson's men routed the astonished Federals in their camps. In the gathering darkness, amid the brambles of the Wilderness, the Confederate line became confused and halted at 9 p.m. to regroup. 

Riding in front of the lines to reconnoiter, Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot and seriously wounded by his own men. Later that night, his left arm was amputated just below the shoulder. 

The Confederates suffered 14,000 casualties, while inflicting 17,000. But the most damaging loss to the Confederacy was the death of Lee's "right arm," Stonewall Jackson, who died of pneumonia on May 10 while recuperating from his wounds.