Pennsylvania Supreme Court Judge Jeremiah S. Black speaking of the murder of Mrs. Surratt says:
“In 1865, months after the peace, at the political capital of the nation in full sight of the Executive mansion, the Capitol and the city hall, where the courts were in session, a perfectly innocent and most respectable woman was lawlessly dragged from family and brutally put to death, without judge or jury, upon the mere order of certain military officers convoked for that purpose.
It was, take it all in all, as foul a murder as ever blackened the face of God’s sky. But it was done in the strict accordance with Higher Law, and the Law Department of the United States approved it.”
"Little Powell," as he was sometimes called, was Robert E. Lee's most trusted lieutenant, best known for leading his Light Division in headlong charges but just as effective when making stubborn defensive stands.
Though usually reserved and courteous, he also was notoriously short-tempered. An argument with Longstreet almost led to a duel, while a dispute with Jackson put Hill under arrest as his division entered Maryland in 1862. Still, he fought hard and well at Sharpsburg (1862) and Chancellorsville (1863), and after Jackson's death he took over the army's new Third Corps.
Exactly a week before Lee's surrender at Appomattox, he was killed outside Petersburg.
On October 13th 1864 In Northwest Texas near Fort Belknap Confederate cavalrymen of Col. James G. Bourland’s “Border Regiment” begin a fierce two-day engagement with several hundred Comanche and Kiowa Indians.
In pre war years Fort Belknap was home to future Civil War generals including William Joseph Hardy, George H. Thomas, John Bell Hood, Earl Van Dorn and Edmund Kirby Smith, who would conduct the final surrender of Confederate Territory.
President Jefferson Davis and his army commanders, Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, top the list.
I personally had several ancestors in the Texas Frontier Cavalry CSA who quite possibly could have been part in this event. My GG Grandfather, John Ward Sellers lived not far from where the battle took place. Tough times, the Comanche and Kiowa were fierce opponents.
Photo: Captain George W. Chilton 3rd Texas Cavalry CSA
So far as slavery being the cause of secession, the fact is many men in the South including Jefferson Davis knew that secession would be the doom of slavery.
Slavery could not be economically viable or legally enforceable where freedom was just a river away.
They had pushed the North so hard to enforce the Fugitive Slave Laws for just this reason. Alexander Stephens was among those who judged "slavery much more secure IN THE UNION THAN OUT OF IT."
A Heritage of Honor…
Honor their valor; emulate the devotion with which they gave themselves to the service of their country. Never let it be said that their sons in the Southern States have forgotten their noble example.
~Robert~
Ya just never know where our beloved flag is gonna show up...Keep it flyin.
On August 4, 1863, W.T.Sherman in Camp on Big Black River, Mississippi, wrote to Grant at Vicksburg, "the Amount of burning, stealing and plundering done by our army makes me ashamed of it.
I would rather quit the service if I could, because I fear that we are drifting to the worst sort of vandalism....You and I and every commander must go through the war, justly charged with crimes at which we blush."
Federal Official Records ( O.R.) vol. XXIV, pt. III 574 3/12
