Cleburn Statue to be Erected in Georgia

CAMERON McWHIRTER / cmcwhirter@ajc.com

The Patrick Cleburne statue will be placed in in Ringgold Gap.

The statue almost was not finished because for years organizers couldn’t scratch up the money to pay the sculptor. When it’s put on display next year, this North Georgia community of 2,500 will see whether the $120,000 price tag was worth it.

With the Civil War’s 150th anniversary in 2011, communities across the South are planning gatherings and spiffing up battlefields in hopes of drawing tourist dollars. Between Chattanooga and Atlanta, towns where blue and gray fought are trying to build things for people to see besides reading roadside markers. Ringgold is banking on one of the few new statues to a Confederate being built anywhere and a festival next fall to unveil it. In this little town, the Army of Tennessee general won his greatest victory.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/12/28/Cleburne_statue_ringgold.html

Historic Papers in Charleston, South Carolina

Sunday, Nov. 02, 2008
Confederate Relic Room: Long-lost papers shine a light on Confederacy’s financial crisis
By OTIS R. TAYLOR JR. - otaylor@thestate.com

On the verge of crisis 145 years ago, the Confederate States of America sought an economic rescue not unlike the one U.S. financial institutions recently got.
Confederate accounts were overdrawn, and credit from overseas investment firms was about to dry up because lenders weren’t confident the Southern states could repay their mounting debts.
So, in 1863, Alabama businessman Colin J. McRae was sent to Europe to orchestrate a bailout of the Confederacy.

http://www.thestate.com/sunday-life/story/574183.html

Atlanta's Cyclorama

Volunteers clean the scene at Atlanta’s Cyclorama
By BO EMERSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 30, 2008

Every year a team of volunteers arrives at the Cyclorama, Atlanta’s monumental, in-the-round Civil War painting and diorama, to eat a chicken dinner, take a narrated tour of the painting, then roll their sleeves up and start cleaning.
This year, on a chilly November Saturday, about 30 men and women (and a few children) brought plastic gloves, buckets, hand brooms, feather dusters, vacuum cleaners and “plein air” painting kits to the huge cylindrical gallery where the painting is displayed.

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/11/30/evcyclorama_1201_web.html

Battle of Whitehall Memorial

SEVEN SPRINGS -- A granite monument honoring the Confederate soldiers killed at the Battle of Whitehall in 1862 was dedicated Saturday on a piece of land less than a mile from the site of the original Civil War clash.

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans paid tribute to the fallen 13 soldiers during a ceremony off Lynch Road, on the north bank of the Neuse River, where Confederates held off Union attackers on a similarly chilly December day. The monument also pays tribute to the men who served as sailors aboard the CSS Neuse gunboat that was under construction at Whitehall, now Seven Springs, at the time of the battle. And it specifically honors eight Sutton brothers from the area who fought for the South, four of whom did not make it home.

The monument, made from a stone used as a floor support in the Marshall/Richmond Theater in Richmond, Va., was erected by the SCV on land donated by Dan and Wendy Boyette. The organization is dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the men who fought for the South.

http://www.newsargus.com/news/archives/2008/12/14/monument_to_whitehall_battle_is_dedicated_in_seven_springs/

SCV Dedicates Memorial in North Carolina

SCV dedicates memorial to Battle of Whitehall, CSS Neuse sailors

December 13, 2008 - 9:12 PM
David AndersonStaff Writer

LA GRANGE - An estimated 150 people gathered in Dan and Wendy Boyette's front yard Saturday to dedicate a monument to local Confederate soldiers and sailors. "I love you, for you are all my Christian brothers and sisters," Dan Boyette said from his wide front porch as he spoke to the assembled representatives of various Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy chapters.

The memorial, made of granite taken from the floor supports of the nearly 200-year-old Richmond Theatre in Richmond, Va., had inscribed on it the names of 13 Southern soldiers killed during the December 1862 Battle of Whitehall and the crewmembers of the CSS Ram Neuse. That historic battle took place near - and the ship was built near - the Boyettes' property.

Many of those who attended wore period civilian and military clothing. A color guard dressed in military uniforms held the various Confederate States of America national flags, including the controversial Confederate Battle Flag that many Americans see as a symbol of racism because of its adoption by white supremacist

groups. http://www.enctoday.com/news/confederate_51559_kfpress__article.html/boyette_scv.html

Georgia Honors Jewish Confederates

Sons of Confederate Veterans
Elm Springs, Columbia, TN
December 8, 2008

For Immediate Release

GEORGIA GOVERNOR HONORS JEWISH CONFEDERATES

A ceremony is planned for December 11th at the office of Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue which will observe a proclamation signed on November 6, 2008. The proclamation declares April 2009 as Confederate History Month and April 26, 2009, as Confederate Memorial Day.

The proclamation highlights the contributions of Georgia's Jewish community to the Confederate States of America. The Sons of Confederate Veterans will be joined by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, The Children of the Confederacy, the Georgia Civil War Commission and members of the Georgia House and Senate in the ceremony at the Georgia Capitol.

The proclamation emphasizes the contributions of Jewish citizens who saw action in the Confederate military and government. Two such individuals who made significant contributions to the state were Phoebe Yates Levy Pember of Cobb County and Charles Wessolowsky of Washington County.

Phoebe Pember was appointed Chief Matron of Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond which at the time was the the largest military hospital in the world.She dedicated herself to relieving the suffering of soldiers, administering medication, assisting surgeons in operation, patching wounds and caring for patients. Often she served as the final companion to the dying. She wrote a book called "A Southern Woman's Story".

Charles Wessolowsky came from Prussia to settle in Sandersville, Georgia. He served as Sergeant Major of Company E, 32nd Regiment, Georgia Infantry. After the war he moved to Albany where he served as city alderman, Clerk of the Superior Court, a term in the Georgia House and a term in the Georgia Senate. He was associate editor of "The Jewish Voice". He also served as Grand High Priest of the GeorgiaMasonic Order.

END
Contact Information:
J. A. Davis
Sons of Confederate Veterans PR & Media Committee.
770 297-4788

University closes doors to Confederate remembrance

University closes doors to Confederate remembrance
By Peter Sicher
Issue date: 12/4/08

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Every January for 20 years, Hopkins has rented a room in Shriver Hall to the Sons of Confederate Veterans for a reception after their celebration of Southern Civil War rebel leaders Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson in Wyman Park. This January, however, Hopkins is ending this practice.

Because Hopkins is a private institution, explained Dennis O'Shea, executive director of Communication and Public Affairs, "We are not obliged by law to allow any group on campus," and the University has ultimately decided that it does not want the confederate flag to be taken across its grounds.

The Colonel Harry W. Gilmor Camp precinct of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is outraged at Hopkins's decision, according to several members.

In an e-mail, Michael Williams, Commander of the group, said he believes that "the practices of Hopkins [against] the First Amendment Rights promised by the Constitution, including the rights of our group ... are near Stalinist."

http://www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2008/12/04/NewsFeatures/University.Closes.Doors.To.Confederate.Remembrance-3571307.shtml

Three charged with desecrating Confederate officer's grave

By Jena Passut | Tidewater News

Originally published 11:35 a.m., December 2, 2008
Updated 09:09 p.m., December 2, 2008

Kyle Burks

COURTLAND — Three men have been arrested and charged in connection with the June desecration of a Confederate grave at the Gillette family cemetery east of Courtland.

Southampton County lawmen have made arrests in last summer's desecration of a Confederate grave site.

Kyle Sinclair Burks, 21, Aaron Richard Howard, 20, and Justin Thomas Rainey, 23, were charged with one count each of violation of sepulcher and attempted grand larceny. Southampton County authorities who made the arrest would not speculate on the men's motive.

The three are accused of digging up the grave of Maj. Joseph Ezra Gillette, the man for whom the Urquhart-Gillette Camp 1471 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans was named.

Aaron Howard

Justin Rainey

Gillette served as a captain and then a major in the 13th Virginia Cavalry. He died at his family’s ancestral home, “Cedar Lawn,” on Nov. 1, 1863, from wounds he received at Brandy Station. He is buried in a small family cemetery that is maintained by the local SCV camp.

Detective Cpl. Richard Morris, a spokesman for the Southampton Sheriff’s Office, said after the incident that vandals had dug 4 feet into the grave and there was “nothing to indicate” that the vandals had reached Gillette’s remains.

SCV Saves Tilghman House in Kentucky

Sons of Confederate Veterans saves Tilghman House

http://www.paducahsun.com/articles/stories/members_only/200812/03/9zzx_news.html

Group owns properties throughout the South, hopes to offer Paducah
By C.D. Bradley

Three years after local groups teamed up to save the Lloyd Tilghman House and Civil War Museum, a deal struck Monday appears to offer a stable foundation for the museum to continue operating.The Tennessee-based Sons of Confederate Veterans bought the former home of Confederate Gen. Lloyd Tilghman from the Market House Museum, with each group paying half of the nearly $150,000 mortgage. The museum’s board stepped in, along with the city and the Paducah-McCracken County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, when financial woes threatened to shutter the home in 2005.“It’s part of fulfilling our mission of education and preservation,” said B.J. Summers, president of the Market House Museum board. “We hated to see a museum fail. Three years ago, we put together a package to allow them to operate, and today we fulfilled that package.”

The home at 631 Kentucky Ave. was built for Tilghman in 1852, and he lived there until 1861. Tilghman commanded the Confederate garrison at Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and went on to lead troops in the Vicksburg campaign, where he died in 1863.

Ben Sewell III, SCV executive director, said the group owns half a dozen properties throughout the South and was pleased to help keep the Tilghman House open.“It’s obviously a nice piece of property,” Sewell said. “We hope the people of Paducah and western Kentucky will continue to enjoy it as the wonderful historic home that it is.”Sewell credited John Weaver, former chairman of the Tilghman Heritage Center board and a member of the SCV’s local Lloyd Tilghman Camp 1495, for helping put the package together. Weaver and other 1495 members will organize the volunteers that will keep the center operating, Sewell said.“It’s a unique piece of history, and now it’s on solid footing,” Weaver said. He said Monday’s deal makes the house mortgage-free for the first time in a decade, relieving the pressure on the nonprofit group to make monthly payments.“Now we just need to make enough to keep the doors open,” he said.

For now, the group plans to maintain its March to November schedule, with the house open from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Weaver said he hopes for enough visitors and volunteers to open more days a week, for longer hours and perhaps eventually year-round. The house schedules appointments for school and group tours.For more information or to volunteer: Call Weaver or Bill Baxter, the house’s volunteer director, 575-5477.

C.D. Bradley can be contacted at 575-8617.

The Death of Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis: Death of American Patriot and Southern Hero
Calvin Johnson
November 21, 2008

What will Historians say about the Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan?

We should never forget the hateful treatment some people showed our brave Servicemen and women as they returned home from Vietnam in the 1970s. And, now, some people would malign the honorable name of the Confederate soldier and his ´blood stained´ battle flag. Isn´t it about time we to speak-out for our American Veterans, living and dead, and to proclaim that disrespecting some Veterans is dishonoring all Veterans?

There was a time when Union and Confederate Veterans were honored by the American people and the world. Before the invention of radio and television, parents told their children stories about their American ancestors. The history of those men and women, who fought under the United States and Confederate flags, was also taught in public schools.

Saturday, December 6th, 2008, is the 119th anniversary of the death of Jefferson Davis.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/82135

Virginia Battlefield Preserved

Saving a Civil War legacy in Shenandoah Valley
By Nick Miroff
Washington Post
November 23, 2008

Virginia family's sale of 209 acres preserves history

A $3.35 million land sale will preserve 209 acres of woods and hayfields on one of Northern Virginia's most significant battle sites, where Yankee and Rebel forces waged brutal hand-to-hand combat for control of the Shenandoah Valley.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/11/23/saving_a_civil_war_legacy_in_shenandoah_valley/

WASHINGTON - In 1762, the Huntsberry family settled the land along Redbud Run, outside Winchester, with a deed from Lord Fairfax. Eight generations later, Bob Huntsberry spent his summers there as a child, finding old minie balls that had been fired from the muskets of Civil War soldiers. He grew up steeped in elders' stories of the day, late in the summer of 1864, when Union General Philip Sheridan and 39,000 troops came marching in.

Leonidas Polk Remembered

Leonidas Polk was 'fighting bishop of Louisiana'
Jim Bradshaw • jbradshaw@ theadvertiser.com
November 23, 2008

http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081123/NEWS01/811230306

Leonidas K. Polk wore a number of hats, most unusually both that of a Confederate general and an Episcopal bishop, both at the same time.

He consecrated the Church of the Epiphany in New Iberia in 1858, just in time to see it used as a field hospital during the war in which he commanded troops.

He was a native of North Carolina and apparently entertained the idea of a military career as a young man. He entered West Point in 1823, with that in mind, but there met Charles Petit McIlvaine, later Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, but then chaplain to the cadet corps.