Announcements and statements from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. The SCV was founded in 1896 to honor and preserve the history and heritage of Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines.
The Georgia Department of Revenue sold nearly 500 Georgia license tags bearing the Confederate battle flag in March.
A newly designed plate by the Sons of Confederate Veterans became available in February after a national media frenzy over a new design that featured the “Southern Cross,” or the cross of St. Andrew, across the entire length of the plate.
“Some members of the media, as well as leaders of groups who oppose Southern heritage, attempted to dismiss the specialty plate back in February saying that it would not attain much success among Georgia drivers, especially considering the increased tag fees for specialty plates added by the state of Georgia in recent years,” the Sons of Confederate Veterans said in a statement.
The SCV said sales of its plate in February were up 175 percent over January, and March sales were double those in January. At the current rate, it is likely that more than 5,000 of the plates will be traveling on Georgia roads by the end of the year, SCV claims.
According to the SCV, the increased interest in the plate has even led to confrontations with county tag office employees in several counties around the state who temporarily refused to allow the purchase of the plate by individuals requesting it. The SCV says the tag honors the memory of their ancestors. Some civil rights groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, call it an offensive reminder of slavery and oppression. The flag has been appropriated by the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, making it offensive to many.
“Some tag office employees were reportedly telling those who requested it that they must be members of the organization in order to have the plate, which is not the case in Georgia,” the organization said in a statement. “Other tag office employees in at least one county told motorists that a ‘final’ decision on allowing the plate had not yet been made so they could not offer it.”
Georgia is one of nine states with SCV approved plates. The others are Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Black Confederate Soldier to be honored at ceremonyBy Michael Williams
H.K. Edgerton, a member of the Sons of Confederate veterans will be the keynote speaker at an event to dedicate a headstone for an African-American Confederate soldier.
The U.S. Civil War was one of the most misunderstood wars in U.S. history. Few Americans realize that African-Americans served with honor and distinction in both the U.S. Army and the Army of the Confederate States of America. One such African-American Confederate soldier will be honored by the United Sons of the Confederacy on June 7 in Elizabethton. The ceremony will be a dedication of a headstone for Confederate veteran Robert “Bob” Stover.
Stover was the slave of Samuel Murray Stover whose brother, Daniel, was the son-in-law of President Andrew Johnson. Robert Stover was born January 12, 1846 in Carter County, Tennessee.
Robert Stover accompanied his master when he went off to fight for southern independence. Bob served as a teamster. As Robert and Samuel were returning from Virginia, they were captured by the Union army at Fall Branch in March of 1865. They were released at the conclusion of the war a month later. Robert later received a pension from the state of Tennessee for his service to the Confederate Army.
Although they were brothers, Daniel and Samuel served in the opposing armies. Daniel became commanding officer of the 4th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) while his brother served in the Confederacy.
The military service of both Robert and Samuel will be saluted by Honor Guards of the 4th Tennessee Infantry, U.S.A. and Company F 59th Tennessee Mounted Infantry, C.S.A. following the dedication of Robert’s head stone.
The keynote speaker for the event is H. K. Edgerton, an African-American activist for Southern heritage and an African-American member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Edgerton is a former president of the Asheville, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), he is on the board of the Southern Legal Resource Center.
The dedication will be held at Drake Cemetery on the outskirts of Elizabethton on June 7 at 2 p.m. The ceremony is sponsored by the Lt. Robert J. Tipton Camp #2083, Sons of Confederate Veterans, of Elizabethton. The event is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Parking will be in a large field off Hwy 19E---across from Mills Greenhouse. The cemetery, from this location, can be easily accessed without any special assistance needed for handicapped. [For GPS, use Mills Greenhouse and Landscape, 2755 Hwy 19E, Elizabethton, TN]. The field is across the highway from this location. For additional information, contact Scott Bowers at 423-773-6374 or Bill Hicks at 423-542-6782.
The Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va., where archaeologists recently uncovered the unmarked remains of at least 80 Confederate soldiers.Ted Delaney
The Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va., where archaeologists recently uncovered the unmarked remains of at least 80 Confederate soldiers.Ted Delaney
The Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va., where archaeologists recently uncovered the unmarked remains of at least 80 Confederate soldiers.Ted Delaney
Their remains sat, unmarked, in shallow graves at the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va., for decades. Now, two centuries after the Civil War, the bodies of 40 Confederate soldiers discovered over the past two months will receive a proper memorial.
"It's been very meaningful to us to find these spots, identify these soldiers and bring closure to families," said Ted Delaney, the cemetery's assistant director, who, along with a team of archaeologists, uncovered the exact resting place of some 40 Confederate soldiers as well as the plots where Union soldiers were once buried and later exhumed.
Delaney told FoxNews.com that, beginning in April, the team dug a 45-by-10-foot trench within "Yankee Square" at the cemetery where they found a mix of red and orange squares, which they determined were Confederate soldiers' graves. He said 35 to 40 graves were found during this latest search and that 50 were uncovered in the same area last year.
Delaney said he is now tasked with identifying each soldier's grave and giving it the tribute it deserves. "Our goal is to put a marker at each grave space to identify the soldier and note when he died and his military unit," said Delaney, who is optimistic about the project because, "the undertaker's notes are so detailed and complete."
He said that when all is done, about 80 Confederate soldiers will be properly identified. He noted that the remains of Union soldiers were exhumed and removed from the plot of land in 1866.
"This has been an incredible process of discovery," he said. "It’s always been very frustrating for those descendents who come to us because they can't find their ancestor's grave. Now we can bring some of them closure."
The task to identify and maintain the graves of Civil War soldiers at the cemetery began in April 2013. Delaney and his team are receiving an annual $2,500 grant from the Virginia Department of Historic Records Work to document unknown graves within "Yankee Square," which was first intended as a burial site for Union soldiers and then came to include Confederate soldiers -- many of whom died from diseases such as small pox.
Delaney's crew is not the first to uncover unidentified Civil War graves in recent years.
Sam Ricks, who works as graves registrar for the Sons of Confederate Veterans' Pennsylvania Division, has long been on a quest to restore the graves of America's bravest. Ricks and his team are responsible for uncovering unmarked graves at Mount Moriah cemetery, an estimated 380-acre historic graveyard straddling Philadelphia and Yeadon, Pa., and the state's largest -- where 2,300 Navy service members and Marines dating from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 all the way to the Korean and Vietnam wars are buried.
In 2007, Ricks received an unusual request, which led him to a discovery that was "like finding a needle in a haystack."
Ricks was approached by a descendent of Nathan Tiernon Walton, a cadet from the Virginia Military Institute who, along with 294 other cadets, fought the Battle of New Market in Virginia for the Confederate Army on May 15, 1864. The battle is well-known to Civil War historians because the small Confederate Army, which consisted largely of the teenage cadets from VMI, defeated the Union soldiers and forced them out of the Shenandoah Valley.
Walton later became estranged from his family when he left his wife and daughter in Baltimore to find work in Atlanta and later Philadelphia, according to Ricks.
"He was a recluse," Ricks said, "And no one ever knew what became of him."
It was long believed by the family that Walton was buried in Baltimore, alongside his wife. But that theory was discounted when Walton's great-grandson, Bill Banks, visited Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore and found no evidence Walton was buried there.
Banks was on a quest that began 100 years ago with his grandmother, Walton's daughter, who handed down a large cast iron Southern Cross of Honor grave marker to be placed at her father's grave if it was ever found.
It was later discovered that Walton died in Philadelphia during the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, leading Ricks to eventually find his unmarked grave on Memorial Day in 2008 at Philadelphia Memorial Park in Frazer, Pa.
In November 2008, Ricks, as well as descendents of Walton, were finally able to mark his grave 90 years after his death with the cross passed down by his daughter."I'm reminded of this case every Memorial Day," Ricks said. "Walton's daughter had handed down to generations a marker to be placed at his grave should it ever be found. And then we actually did it. We fulfilled her wish."
May 2014 also marks the Sesquicentennial “150th Anniversary” of the first military burials conducted at Arlington National Cemetery.
On March 4, 1921, Congress approved the burial of an unidentified American soldier from World War I in the plaza of the new Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington and a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony is held at what has become known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Inscribed on the back of the Tomb are the words: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” Read more about Arlington at:
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/visitorinformation/TombofUnknowns.aspx
And since President Woodrow Wilson a wreath has also been sent to the Confederate section of Arlington where a beautiful Southern monument towers 32.5 feet with an inscription with the words “An Obedience To Duty As They Understood It; These Men Suffered All; Sacrificed All and Died!
The first Memorial Day may have taken place in the South where ladies groups cared for both Confederate and Union graves.
A hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead." Read more at: http://www.patriotledger.com/x1070017938/Iraq-Afghanistan-war-tribute-index
Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place for those who fought for the Confederacy and Union during the War Between the States. It is also the burial place for men and women who fought our nation's wars since the War Between the States.
There are over 245,000 Servicemen and Women, including their families, buried at Arlington.
The Union burial site at Arlington National Cemetery is located at (section 13). Also those buried at Arlington include: President John F. Kennedy, General Jonathan M. Wainwright, Actor-War Hero Audie Murphy and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
About the turn of the century 1900 the USA also honored the men who fought for the Confederacy. The burial site for Dixie's soldiers is located at Section 16.
Some people claim the Confederate monument at Arlington may have been the first to honor Black Confederates. Carved on this monument is the depiction of a Black Confederate who is marching with the white soldiers. In 1898, President William McKinley, a former Union soldier, spoke in Atlanta, Georgia and said, "In the spirit of Fraternity it was time for the North to share in the care of the graves of former Confederate soldiers.”
In consequence to his speech, by act of the United States Congress, a portion of Arlington National Cemetery was set aside for the burial of Confederate soldiers. At this time 267 Confederate remains from and near Washington, D.C. were removed and re-interred at this new site at Arlington.
In 1906, The United Daughters of the Confederacy asked for permission from William Howard Taft to erect a Confederate monument. Taft was at the time serving as the United States Secretary of War and was in charge of National Cemeteries.
With permission the Arlington Confederate Memorial Association was formed and the ladies of the UDC were given authority to oversee work on the monument.
An agreement and contract was made with Sir Moses J. Ezekiel who was a Jewish Confederate Veteran by the record of his service at the Battle of New Market while he was a cadet at Virginia Military Institute. Work started at his workshop in Italy in 1910, and upon his death in 1917, the great sculptor was brought back home and buried near the base of the Arlington Confederate Monument.
In 1914 the Arlington monument was unveiled to a crowd of thousands that included former Union and Confederate soldiers.
This memorial event was presided over by President Woodrow Wilson and the people applauded the stirring speeches given by: General Bennett H. Young, Commander In Chief of the United Confederate Veterans; General Washington Gardner, Commander In Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic; Colonel Robert E. Lee, grandson of General Robert E. Lee, and Mrs. Daisy McLaurin Stevens, President General of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The Arlington Confederate Monument unveiling was concluded by a 21-gun salute and the monument was officially given to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the UDC gave it back to the United States War Department for keeping and was accepted by President Woodrow Wilson who said:
"I am not so happy as PROUD to participate in this capacity on such an occasion---proud that I represent such a people."
Lest We Forget!
Johnson is a speaker, short story writer, author of book “When America stood for God, Family and Country” and Chairman of the National and Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans Confederate History and Heritage Month committee. http://www.facebook.com/ConfederateHeritageMonth. He lives in Kennesaw, GA, near Atlanta.
Our annual Chaplains’ Conference is planned for June 19 - 20, at Providence Baptist Church, 1441 Erickson Avenue, Harrisonburg, VA.
Our opening service is on Thursday evening, at 7:00 p.m. On Friday, we will have speakers throughout the day and times of fellowship.Friday’s noon meal will be served at the church.
For accommodations, we recommend The Village Inn, 4979 S, Pike, Harrisonburg, VA 22802
Every day Ernest Griffin raises four flags outside his funeral home on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive on Chicago's South Side. One is the American flag, one an African American flag, another a flag honoring prisoners of war.
The last is the flag of the old Confederacy.
It's a curious sight, this widely reviled Confederate symbol fluttering in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, along a boulevard named for a hero of the civil rights movement.
Why on earth is that flag there?
In the nearly four years the Confederate flag has flown next to the Griffin Funeral Home, people have occasionally straggled in to ask the question, but they never expressed anything more than troubled curiosity. Until last week. That's when the anonymous letter arrived.
"To whom it may concern:
This will be put as bluntly as possible. That Confederate flag must come down. We are totally disgusted that such a racist symbol could be displayed at a South Side institution. . . . Any African American who waves a Confederate flag is a Tom. "This is your initial warning. You have until March 1 to get that flag taken down. If by that time the flag is not removed, we will remove it ourselves."
Meanwhile, an identical letter had been sent to a small neighborhood newspaper called the South Street Journal, where it fell into the hands of Ron Carter, the 40-year-old publisher.
Like many people in the community, Carter had never noticed the flag. Now he was, in his words, "appalled." "I see the Confederate flag and I get stomachaches," says Carter.
He decided to demand an explanation from Griffin.
Griffin is 81 and, in case it's not clear, is black. And he will patiently and passionately explain his Confederate flag to anyone who asks, which he did for me on Tuesday, still dressed in the elegant gray suit and white French cuff shirt he had worn to that morning's funeral.
"Anyone who objects to this flag being here reveals that they are not knowledgeable about the history of the subject matter," he said.
Griffin's interest in the Civil War is rooted in an odd convergence of circumstances.
In 1978, more than a decade after buying an old china factory and converting it to a successful funeral home, he discovered that it sat on the site of the old Camp Douglas, which during the Civil War had been first a Union training center and then a prison camp for Confederate soldiers.
Griffin had never heard of Camp Douglas. Now he realized he had been born on the site, a few blocks from the funeral home. He also learned that it was here, at Camp Douglas, that his grandfather had enlisted in the U.S. Colored Infantry.
But what moved Griffin most was learning that 6,000 imprisoned Confederate soldiers had died on the site. "Thousands of men were crowded into this camp, in their cotton uniforms, in subzero weather," he said. "Little heat, bad food, filth, no running water for toilets. They contracted every conceivable disease. Typhus, smallpox, dysentery. And the idleness. There was nothing for them to do but sit and brood."
In 1990, at a ceremony attended by Mayor Richard Daley and other dignitaries, Griffin dedicated a Civil War memorial next to the funeral home parking lot. It was a tribute to his grandfather and to the men who died here.
The outdoor display includes miniature mounted flags of all the states that fought in the war, along with memorabilia from both sides. And there's the large Confederate flag, flown at half-staff.
"That flag is not a symbol of hate," he said. "It is a symbol of respect for a dead human being."
So that's what he told Ron Carter the other day when Carter came looking for an explanation. After four hours of conversation, Carter came away "swayed."
"I had an overall awakening regarding the Confederate flag," Carter says. "Even though I believe there are people who fly the Confederate flag to be spiteful and to use it as a racial type of symbol, I see now there is a history to it as far as America is concerned."
Carter still intends to publish the threatening anti-flag letter in the South Street Journal, along with an article explaining Griffin's views. The letter-writer may not buy Griffin's explanation. But Griffin has resolved that if someone takes the flag down, he'll just put another up.
"When 6,000 people died on the site where you live and eat and earn your daily bread and butter," he said, "if you have any humility within your being, you have regard for the people who died."
Archaeologists Dig Into Chicago’s Grisliest History In Douglas Neighborhood
Archaeologists looking for Camp Douglas relics in the Pershing Magnet School yard near 33rd and Calumet. (jmogs)
The near South Side neighborhood of Douglas doesn’t get a lot of attention, and when it does, it’s usually for its gorgeous architecture—such as the early Frank Lloyd Wright rowhouse currently on the market. But urban archeologists have spent the weekend digging deeper into the neighborhood’s history…which is much less pretty.
In September 1861, the Army built a training facility on land largely owned by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the “Little Giant” of Lincoln-debating fame. But from 1862 through the end of the Civil War, it operated as an prisoner of war camp in the prairie just outside Chicago’s city limits. It was a frightful place.
Sitting roughly between 31st to 33rd Place and Cottage Grove to Giles Avenue, Camp Douglas at one point squeezed 12,000 men into its infrastructure-limited 80 acres. Disease and exposure to the elements took its toll.
In February 1863, 10 percent of the Camp’s inhabitants were lost, marking the deadliest month in any Civil War prison camp. More than 4,000 prisoners were known to have died on the site and the mortality rate for those passing through the camp may have been as high as 23 percent over the course of the war. Conditions were so horrid that the place seems to have given birth to the phrase “hell in a hand basket.”
And within six months of the end of the Civil War, it had been wiped away. A couple decades later it was hardly even a memory, replaced by a neighborhood that bore the same name, but looked far different, serving as a proving ground for some of Chicago’s greatest architects.
Today, an effort is afoot to revive and mark the memory of this unfortunate chapter in Chicago history. The Camp Douglas Restoration Fund has organized a series of archeological digs in search of remnants of the prison camp.
This weekend, orange fencing surrounded volunteers as they slowly dug into the grounds of the Pershing Magnet School in the 3200 block of South Calumet. With the help of archeologists from the Field Museum, as well as Loyola and DePaul Universities, the dig has unearthed bottles, buttons, glass shards, and perhaps footers to buildings in the midst of what would have been the prison barracks, though it remains to be seen if any of it is contemporaneous to the camp.
Eventually, the Camp Douglas Restoration Fund intends to reconstruct one of those forsaken buildings which would serve as a museum to tell the prison camp story, as well as highlight the African American Civil War experience. The project would serve as interesting connective tissue to an Obama Presidential Library if it was located on the former Michael Reese Hospital site just a few blocks away on 31st—connecting the Obama story with nearby Civil War and jazz era sites like the Stephen A, Douglas tomb and former Sunset Cafe, as well as the more distant Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield.
A cable documentary entitled “80 Acres of Hell” dramatized the grisly camp:
ULM's Jones Receives Bergeron Award for Civil War Studies
Dr. Terry Jones, professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, recently had another of his articles concerning the Civil War published in the New York Times. The article, titled 'Brothers in Arms,' tells the story of how a group of Louisiana Civil War soldiers known as the Louisiana Tigers fought hand-to-hand with a Union unit known as the 'Irish Brigade' at the Battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia, on July 1, 1862. / Courtesy ULM
Dr. Terry L. Jones, professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, has been awarded the Dr. Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr. Award by the Civil War Round Table of Central Louisiana for his contribution to the study of the Civil War in Louisiana.
According to the Civil War Roundtable, the award recognizes the work of people who preserve Louisiana’s Civil War history, and was named after the famed Civil War scholar.
“The late Art Bergeron was a nationally known Civil War scholar and a good personal friend,” Jones said. “For the Central Louisiana Civil War Round Table to consider me worthy of the award is quite an honor.”
Jones has contributed greatly to the study of Civil War History in Louisiana. Since 2011, Jones has had 22 articles published as part of the New York Times online “Disunion” series. The 22nd article — published earlier in May — titled “My Civil War,” examines Jones’ personal connection to the Civil War by recalling experiences he had growing up in Winn Parish and in his early professional career.
More than 100 readers posted comments on the story, making it one of the most discussed articles in the series.
Jones, a native of Winn Parish, has served ULM for nearly 22 years as a professor. Jones earned his Ph.D. in history from Texas A&M University.
Compatriots Beginning July 16th and running through July 19th, the 119th SCV National Reunion will be held at the North Charleston Convention Center, located in North Charleston, SC. The location is central to many of Charleston’s historical locations. The harbor sights, the gardens, maritime center and historic homes are but a few of the options available for visitors to Charleston. First and foremost, we the members of the this grand heritage of honor organization will meet in reunion to conduct business, elect new officers and continue paving the way for the future of the organization.
We are requesting that camps bring their colors to the opening ceremonies for a grand procession into the convention hall. Please bring a single base to post you camp colors.
The reunion committee would like to pass on to you that there are spots available for all meals and tours. The window is closing for registering for events at the convention. The reunion committee will soon be sending numbers the caterers. The Meet and Greet Harbor Tour will have heavy hors d'oeuvres to eat on the trip through the historic Charleston harbor past the sights where the War for Southern Independence began. The preservation luncheon is honored to have Allen Roberson, Director of the SC Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum as the speaker. Mr Roberson will be bringing flags from the SC Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum. These original Confederate flags have been preserved with the help of the SC Division SCV. Mr. Roberson will be giving presentation on preserving these artifacts of our heritage.
The Heritage Dinner presents the opportunity to hear Ben Jones. You may remember Mr. Jones as Cooter Davenport in the original and real show the Dukes of Hazard. Mr. Jones is a life member of the SCV and staunch defender of our Confederate Heritage. The Hunley Tour and Fort Tour will provide and insight to the defenses of Charleston. Eighteen debutantes will be presented at the grand ball. There is still time to register for the convention, tours and other events. Every registered member will get a reunion medal, convention program and an opportunity to see your Confederate brethren from around the country. Registration information can be found on the reunion website given below.
Many have no doubt heard of the valor of the Cherokee warriors under the command of Brigadier General Stand Watie in the West and of Thomas' famous North Carolina Legion in the East during the War for Southern Independence from 1861 to 1865. But why did the Cherokees and their brethren, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws determine to make common cause with the Confederate South against the Northern Union?
To know their reasons is very instructive as to the issues underlying that tragic war. Most Americans have been propagandized rather than educated in the causes of the war, all this to justify the perpetrators and victors. Considering the Cherokee view uncovers much truth buried by decades of politically correct propaganda and allows a broader and truer perspective.
On August 21, 1861, the Cherokee Nation by a General Convention at Tahlequah (in Oklahoma) declared its common cause with the Confederate States against the Northern Union. A treaty was concluded on October 7th between the Confederate States and the Cherokee Nation, and on October 9th, John Ross, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation called into session the Cherokee National Committee and National Council to approve and implement that treaty and a future course of action.
The Cherokees had at first considerable consternation over the growing conflict and desired to remain neutral. They had much common economy and contact with their Confederate neighbors, but their treaties were with the government of the United States.
The Northern conduct of the war against their neighbors, strong repression of Northern political dissent, and the roughshod trampling of the U. S Constitution under the new regime and political powers in Washington soon changed their thinking.
The Cherokee were perhaps the best educated and literate of the American Indian Tribes. They were also among the most Christian. Learning and wisdom were highly esteemed. They revered the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution as particularly important guarantors of their rights and freedoms. It is not surprising then that on October 28, 1861, the National Council issued a Declaration by the People of the Cherokee Nation of the Causes Which Have Impelled them to Unite Their Fortunes With Those of the Confederate States of America.
The introductory words of this declaration strongly resembled the 1776 Declaration of Independence:
"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."
In the next paragraphs of their declaration the Cherokee Council noted their faithful adherence to their treaties with the United States in the past and how they had faithfully attempted neutrality until the present. But the seventh paragraph begins to delineate their alarm with Northern aggression and sympathy with the South:
"But Providence rules the destinies of nations, and events, by inexorable necessity, overrule human resolutions."
Comparing the relatively limited objectives and defensive nature of the Southern cause in contrast to the aggressive actions of the North they remarked of the Confederate States:
"Disclaiming any intention to invade the Northern States, they sought only to repel the invaders from their own soil and to secure the right of governing themselves. They claimed only the privilege asserted in the Declaration of American Independence, and on which the right of Northern States themselves to self-government is formed, and altering their form of government when it became no longer tolerable and establishing new forms for the security of their liberties."
The next paragraph noted the orderly and democratic process by which each of the Confederate States seceded. This was without violence or coercion and nowhere were liberties abridged or civilian courts and authorities made subordinate to the military. Also noted was the growing unity and success of the South against Northern aggression. The following or ninth paragraph contrasts this with ruthless and totalitarian trends in the North:
"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 the states which still adhered to the Union a military despotism had displaced civilian power and the laws became silent with arms. Free speech and almost free thought became a crime. The right 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 warranting it under the pretense of suppressing unlawful combination of men."
The tenth paragraph continues the indictment of the Northern political party in power and the conduct of the Union Armies:
"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 without process of law, in jails, 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."
The eleventh paragraph of the Cherokee declaration is a fairly concise summary of their grievances against the political powers now presiding over a new U. S. Government:
"Whatever causes the Cherokee people may have had in the past to complain of some of the southern states, they cannot but feel that their interests and destiny are inseparably connected to those of the south. The war now waging is a war of Northern cupidity and fanaticism against the institution of African servitude; against the commercial freedom of the south, and against the political freedom of the states, and its objects are to annihilate the sovereignty of those states and utterly change the nature of the general government."
The Cherokees felt they had been faithful and loyal to their treaties with the United States, but now perceived that the relationship was not reciprocal and that their very existence as a people was threatened. They had also witnessed the recent exploitation of the properties and rights of Indian tribes in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oregon, and feared that they, too, might soon become victims of Northern rapacity. Therefore, they were compelled to abrogate those treaties in defense of their people, lands, and rights. They felt the Union had already made war on them by their actions.
Finally, appealing to their inalienable right to self-defense and self-determination as a free people, they concluded their declaration with the following words:
"Obeying the dictates of prudence and providing for the general safety and welfare, confident of the rectitude of their intentions and true to their obligations to duty and honor, they accept the issue thus forced upon them, unite their fortunes now and forever with the Confederate States, and take up arms for the common cause, and with entire confidence of the justice of that cause and with a firm reliance upon Divine Providence, will resolutely abide the consequences.
The Cherokees were true to their words. The last shot fired in the war east of the Mississippi was May 6, 1865. This was in an engagement at White Sulphur Springs, near Waynesville, North Carolina, of part of Thomas' Legion against Kirk's infamous Union raiders that had wreaked a murderous terrorism and destruction on the civilian population of Western North Carolina. Col. William H. Thomas' Legion was originally predominantly Cherokee, but had also accrued a large number of North Carolina mountain men. On June 23, 1865, in what was the last land battle of the war, Confederate Brigadier General and Cherokee Chief, Stand Watie, finally surrendered his predominantly Cherokee, Oklahoma Indian force to the Union.
The issues as the Cherokees saw them were 1) self-defense against Northern aggression, both for themselves and their fellow Confederates, 2) the right of self-determination by a free people, 3) protection of their heritage, 4) preservation of their political rights under a constitutional government of law 5) a strong desire to retain the principles of limited government and decentralized power guaranteed by the Constitution, 6) protection of their economic rights and welfare, 7) dismay at the despotism of the party and leaders now in command of the U. S. Government, 8) dismay at the ruthless disregard of commonly accepted rules of warfare by the Union, especially their treatment of civilians and non-combatants, 9) a fear of economic exploitation by corrupt politicians and their supporters based on observed past experience, and 10) alarm at the self-righteous and extreme, punitive, and vengeful pronouncements on the slavery issue voiced by the radical abolitionists and supported by many Northern politicians, journalists, social, and religious (mostly Unitarian) leaders. It should be noted here that some of the Cherokees owned slaves, but the practice was not extensive.
The Cherokee Declaration of October 1861 uncovers a far more complex set of "Civil War" issues than most Americans have been taught. Rediscovered truth is not always welcome. Indeed some of the issues here are so distressing that the general academic, media, and public reaction is to rebury them or shout them down as politically incorrect.
The notion that slavery was the only real or even principal cause of the war is very politically correct and widely held, but historically ignorant. It has served, however, as a convenient ex post facto justification for the war and its conduct. Slavery was an issue, and it was related to many other issues, but it was by no means the only issue, or even the most important underlying issue. It was not even an issue in the way most people think of it. Only about 25% of Southern households owned slaves. For most people, North and South, the slavery issue was not so much whether to keep it or not, but how to phase it out without causing economic and social disruption and disaster. Unfortunately the Southern and Cherokee fear of the radical abolitionists turned out to be well founded.
After the Reconstruction Act was passed in 1867 the radical abolitionists and radical Republicans were able to issue in a shameful era of politically punitive and economically exploitive oppression in the South, the results of which lasted many years, and even today are not yet completely erased.
The Cherokee were and are a remarkable people who have impacted the American heritage far beyond their numbers. We can be especially grateful that they made a well thought out and articulate declaration for supporting and joining the Confederate cause in 1861.
PRINCIPAL REFERENCES:
Emmett Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians, published by the Warden Company, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1921. Reprinted by Kraus Reprint Company, Millwood, New York, 1977.
A monumental honor: Giving Confederate soldiers their due
Brice Stump, SBY ,May 12, 2014
GEORGETOWN – With the passing of almost 150 years since the end of the Civil War, there has been only one Confederate memorial in Delaware. A granite memorial, almost 14 feet tall, was placed on the grounds of the Nutter B. Marvel Museum in Georgetown in 2007.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans "Delaware Grays" Camp No. 2068 in Seaford, the United Daughters of the Confederacy "Caleb Ross" Chapter No. 2635 and the Georgetown Historical Society sponsored the construction of the monument. The cost of the memorial was underwritten by private organizations and donations, with no public or governmental sponsorship. "Up until the Delaware Confederate Monument was placed here, there was not a single Confederate memorial in Delaware," said camp adjutant John Zoch. "The only mention of a Confederate serving from Delaware is on a monument in Gettysburg." "We did this to honor the brave Delaware Confederates that left their homes and state to serve and fight for the South," said Jeff Plummer, camp commander. "We have researched names of individuals from Delaware who served, and their names are inscribed on the monument.
"Though Delaware was a border state historically, New Castle County was pro-North and Kent and Sussex counties were pro-South. Obviously there were split loyalties within the state. Delaware was a slave state, and the majority of slaves were in Sussex County, a county tied to the economy of the rural South."
North and South share cemeteries
The Seaford-based camp had initially requested the monument be placed on the grounds of the Gov. William H. Ross Mansion and Plantation in Seaford. The historical group there said the monument was not in keeping with the rural character of the site. Ross, whose name is among the 140 names presently cut into the stone, aided the Confederacy, and his son, Caleb, died while in Confederate service.
As for the granite, it was mandated that it come from a quarry in the South. Samuel "S.J." Disharoon of Salisbury Monument said he personally made the 1,320-mile round trip to the quarry in Georgia to get the gray stone. According to Disharoon, the custom-cut stone memorial weighs about 28,000 pounds.
Plummer and Zoch wanted something more to honor Delaware Confederates than a tombstone ornament. Tombstones of Confederate soldiers often do not even note their war service. "When the soldiers came back to Delaware, their families did not want an indication that their loved ones were in the Confederacy. The war was over and people didn't want to talk about it," Zoch said. "That may have kept some of their tombstones from being destroyed. All veterans should be honored, regardless of which side they were on."
"You would think that a graveyard is a scared place, that you could go in and honor those buried there. But for families of Confederate veterans, that's getting harder and harder to do," Plummer said. "In Jacksonville, Texas, there is a cemetery where both soldiers from the North and South are buried. Marine contingent, each year, would go to the cemetery and put out Federal and Confederate flags on the graves on Memorial Day. The town of Jacksonville told the Marines they did not want them to honor the Confederate soldiers buried there, that they could only place Federal flags. So the Marines said if they couldn't honor both, they wouldn't honor just one. So if you put up a Confederate monument or tombstone, they can become the focus of (political) attacks and destruction.
"Cemeteries, monuments and grave sites are being desecrated with vandalism and removal of Confederate flags and plaques — even whole monuments to the memory of the Confederate soldiers' good names. We have to do what we can to save our history — 'If not I, then who?' " he continued.
"In your heart"
"Our camp formed in 2004 out of the necessity to save as much of our local Confederate and Civil War history as possible," Zoch said. He said the camp is one of 3,000 SCV groups throughout the nation, with about 33,000 members. To be a SCV member, a candidate must prove an ancestral link to a soldier in the Confederacy. The Delaware Grays have about 40 members.
"As a descendent of a Confederate soldier, I am proud to carry the torch. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are the stewards of the Confederate soldiers' good name. The Delaware Grays Camp No. 2068 participates in living history programs at schools in Seaford, Georgetown and Lewes, as well as festivals, such as Bridgeville's Apple Scrapple, the annual Punkin Chunkin' and the fair to benefit Milford Memorial Hospital. We participate in processions and memorial programs in Richmond, Va., Franklin, Tenn., Charleston, S.C., Gettysburg, Pa., Baltimore, as well as towns all over Delaware," Plummer said.
"When you don the uniform of the Confederate soldier, there is a feeling of pride that cannot be equaled. It is 'in your heart,' as we say. You are preserving for future generations history of the sacrifices and valor for the cause, the memory and the pride of the gallant Southern dead. We remember the Confederate soldiers because we are descended from them, they are members of our families, we are their flesh and blood," Plummer said. "I stand up at the playing of Dixie. I well-up at the scene of Pickett's Charge in the movie 'Gettysburg.' I am committed to honoring my ancestors, and will defend ferociously their good name and deeds."
Plummer, his son, Jeff, and Zoch participated in the 2004 memorial and funeral services for Joseph F. Ridgaway in Charleston, S.C. Ridgaway, of Easton, was second in command on the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which sank after sinking the Housatonic, a Federal blockade warship in Charleston Harbor. All eight crewmen of the Hunley died in February 1864.
"We were part of the Honor Guard for Joseph Ridgaway. It was truly a special moment. Being a part of the Hunley memorial service was one of the most powerful and moving events in my life. Tears ran down my face at the Hunley burial," Plummer said.
Preserving and sharing heritage
Plummer said the camp has a mission: to present history as it was and not as it has been rewritten.
"At each meeting and event, we read this quote from a speech Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, United Confederate Veterans, gave in New Orleans, La., in 1906: 'To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations.' "
To preserve and share their heritage, the Delaware Grays and the United Daughters of the Confederacy No. 2635 will host an open house event from noon to 2 p.m. April 26 at the Marvel Museum at 501 South Bedford St. in Georgetown. Authentic artifacts will be on display, and re-enactors will greet guests in authentic period dress.
Of particular interest will be the salute fired from a full-size Richmond Howitzer cannon like those used in the Civil War. Owned by Debbie Jones of Georgetown, the cannon was also featured in the memorial service for the crewman of the H.L. Hunley in Charleston in 2004.
The event is one of the largest camp presentations of the year on the Eastern Shore. Information about the camp and the event is online at
http://descv.org/
.
Also in April, which is Confederate History Month, members of the Salisbury-based Maj. Gen. Arnold Elzey Camp No. 1940 Sons of Confederate Veterans will host a Civil War Living History Camp and Open House. Held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 5 at American Legion Post No. 64 in Salisbury, visitors will see rifle firing demonstration, elements of camp life and "soldier schooling," as well as demonstrations by members of the 2nd Maryland Infantry companies A, G and H, and the Chesapeake Signals.
"Of special interest will be a display of Civil War medical items and swords and sabers," said Elaine Patterson, spokeswoman for the event. "This really is a family-oriented event, and we are having members available to teach visitors how they can begin doing their own family history research for Union and Confederate ancestors.
"Representatives of the Lower Eastern Shore Genealogical Society will be joining us, as well as members of the Maryland Eastern Shore Stamp Club, the North/South Skirmish Association and local authors. Patricia Kaufmann will share information about the history of the Confederate Post Office. "We encourage folks to bring their Civil War artifacts and documents to the event for discussion and review."
Eric Dummer, commander of the local Sons of Union Veterans, will share information about the 1st Eastern Shore Federal Unit. A bluegrass music program will be presented, and food and beverages will also be available.
Patterson is also a member of the 2nd Maryland Infantry Co. A. She and other members of the group often interact with other Confederate groups to present living history programs.
Admission and parking are free. For additional information, contact Dale Foxwell at 410-621-6220.
Members of the Elzey camp also participate in re-enactment programs and are now placing bronze crosses at Confederate graves. Members are working to create a registry of cemeteries where Confederate soldiers are buried and are available for special gravesite memorial ceremonies.
On Virginia's Eastern Shore, brothers Bob and Bill Savage of near Painter are active in the 46th Va. Infantry Co. F, "Eastern Shore Refugees," which they organized in 1996. "My brother, Bill, and I have ancestral ties to the original 46th," Savage said. "We have about 15 members and we are a re-enacting group, as opposed to being a camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. We are the only Civil War re-enacting group on Virginia's Eastern Shore, but we do interact with Maryland and Delaware groups in presenting living history and heritage programs."
The group has had as many as 30 members, but the weak economy during the past few years has taken a toll on membership. "It really did hurt us, because it can cost as much as $1,000 for a musket for a new member. By the time you figure in a uniform and equipment to outfit a private, it can cost as much as $2,000," said Savage, who is the company commander.
"We do Civil War re-enactment battles, and units like ours are participating in the 150th anniversary programs of the Civil War," Savage said. "We do volunteer educational program work for the National Park Service's living history projects and show folks how life was for a soldier in a camp and how they handled their arms. We also do programs for the Park Service in Gettysburg. We've even participated in the making of documentaries, especially one about the Manassas Battlefield, and locally do educational lectures."
For more information on the group and details on how to join, visit their website at www.46thvirginia.org.
The Civil War split many families and Gov. Jay Nixon’s family was one of them.
His great-great grandfather was Lt. Col. James Oscar Nixon, second in command of the Confederate 1st Louisiana Cavalry. Lt. Col. Nixon’s brother was U.S. Rep. John T. Nixon, a Republican who represented New Jersey from 1859 to 1863.
Lt. Col. James O. Nixon, 1st Louisiana Cavalry
U.S. Rep. James T. Nixon of New Jersey
Lt. Col. James O. Nixon, 1st Louisiana Cavalry
U.S. Rep. James T. Nixon of New Jersey
During a news conference yesterday, I reminded Nixon about those ancestors as I asked him about Ashley Jost’s story from Sunday about the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their hopes to see the Confederate battle flag flying above the state historic site at Higginsville. While Nixon clearly enjoyed the family history lesson – he chuckled and said he hadn’t seen either at the family Easter celebration – he also expressed no desire to raise the rebel battle flag. "I think we should continue the policy we have at Higginsville,” Nixon said.
Lt. Col. James O. Nixon moved from his hometown of Cedarville, N.J., as a teenager to open a branch of the family clothing business in New Orleans. In 1854, at age 32, he purchased the New Orleans Crescent, a pro-slavery newspaper once edited by poet Walt Whitman.
When the war began, James Nixon became a Confederate officer, fighting with his regiment at the 1862 Battle of Richmond, Ky., one of the most complete Confederate victories of the war, and the Battle of Chickamauga, also a major Southern victory. Accounts are incomplete, but at some point Lt. Col. Nixon was captured and paroled to live with his brother in Cedarville, N.J., their hometown.
The battle flag first became an issue in 2003, when Gov. Bob Holden ordered it taken down at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site and the Fort Davidson State Historic Site. The Confederate veterans home and cemetery are at Higginsville.
At Fort Davidson, an outnumbered Union force held off 12,000 men under Maj. Gen. Sterling Price for a day during his 1864 invasion of Missouri, costing Price 1,500 casualties and making him think twice about attempting to seize St. Louis.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans recently purchased a billboard near the Higginsville exit on Interstate 70 calling for the flag to be raised for the first time since 2003. Leaders of the Southern heritage group met Saturday with state lawmakers, who were also cool to the idea of flying the flag.
Confederate Memorial Day will be celebrated June 7 at the historic site in Higginsville.
