CSA veteran graves honored
May 4, 2011
by Larry Clere
Theophilus West, M.D., Camp 1346, Washington Invincibles, Camp 1541 and Finley’s Brigade, Camp 1614 Sons of Confederate Veterans, Marianna, Chipley and Tallahassee, dedicated with ceremony, three Confederate veteran headstones at three different cemeteries in Jackson County on Saturday, April 30.
The headstones included: Lieutenant John Pryor Dozier, Mt. Olive in Bascom, Private John Andrew Byrd, Greenwood Baptist in Greenwood and Private Isaac B. Harrell, Dykes Cemetery in Sneads. Descendants of these veterans traveled from Illinois, Durham, North Carolina, Shalimar and Middleburg to honor their CSA ancestor.
John Pryor Dozier enlisted May 14, 1862, at China Grove, Pike County, Alabama, in Captain Head’s Company. He enlisted as 1st Sgt., Co. E, 3rd Battalion Hilliard’s Legion, muster roll at Montgomery, Alabama, on July 3, 1862. He took part in the Cumberland Gap Campaign, Fall 1862. For his bravery and skill he was brevetted 2nd Lt., Co. E at Knoxville, Tennessee, February 24, 1863. In April 1863, the 3rd Battalion was assigned to Gracie’s Brigade, Department of East Tennessee. The company was at Chickamauga, Georgia, on September 19-20, 1863. On November 25, 1863, Co. E, 3rd Alabama Battalion became Co. G, 60th Alabama Infantry Regiment and was assigned to Gracie’s Brigade, Buckner’s Division, Department of East Tennessee. The regiment took part in the Siege of Knoxville, November 29-December 4, 1863, and at Bean’s Station, December 14, 1863. John Pryor was promoted to 1st Lt., Co. G, 60th Alabama, on December 14, 1863. Company G was assigned to Gracie’s Brigade, Department of Richmond, during May-June 1864. During July-October 1864 the company was assigned to [Bushrod] Johnson’s Division, Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. From October 1864-April 1865 the company was assigned to Johnson’s Division, Army of Northern Virginia, where the company took part in the Battle of Drewry’s Bluff, on May 16, 1864. From July 9, 1864-March 14, 1865, John Pryor was in the trenches of Petersburg. He was admitted to Stuart Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, from March 8 to March 19, 1865, with “febris remittens”. John Pryor Dozier returned to his company and was captured at Sailor’s Creek April 6, 1865. He was imprisoned at Old Capitol Prison, Washington, D.C., April 14, 1865, & Johnson’s Island [Prison], Ohio, April 19-June 18, 1865. John Pryor was released on oath from Johnson’s Island June 18, 1865.
John Andrew Byrd was born 20 Dec 1822, in South Carolina. He enlisted as a private in Company A, 5th Battalion Florida Cavalry, on 1 Nov 1863. He was captured on St. Andrews Bay, Florida, 1 Dec 1864, and sent to New Orleans, Louisiana. He was admitted to the St. Louis Hospital at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 20 Mar 1865, with diarrhea. On 10 May 1865, he was paroled to return to Marianna, Florida. A little over a month later, on 28 Jun 1865, he died at home in Greenwood, Florida. [EGS DATABASE - ANCESTRY.COM - NARA PUB M251 REEL 16]
Isaac B. Harrell, son of Ransom Whitfield Harrell and Martha Aw Wa Dabbega (the daughter of Aw Wa Dabbega, Creek Indian) was born 1 May 1840, and died 22 Feb 1915. He enlisted in Company E, 8th Regiment Florida Infantry on 13 May 1862, at Marianna. Last record on file indicates he was in Receiving & Wayside Hospital (General Hospital # 9), Richmond, Virginia, during Oct & Nov 1863. [FLORIDA CONFEDERATE PENSION RECORD # A01367 – NARA PUB M251 REEL 83 Go-K – EGS DATABASE
http://chipleybugle.com/news/2011/05/04/confederate-veterans/
Friday, May 6, 2011
States' Rights the Issue
State's Rights Versus the Federal Government
Confederate Memorial Day
Alan Caruba Thursday, May 5, 2011
It seems odd, even to me, that a northerner, born and bred, should join in the celebration of Confederate Memorial Day on May 7th. Odder still because I saw the worst of the South with its Jim Crow laws that so cruelly oppressed the Blacks that lived there, but I spent enough years in the South to love its people, its music, its culture, and its history.
It is said that the winner of wars gets to write the history of those conflicts and that is true, but there is ample history of the Confederacy to gain a much-needed understanding of why, on February 4, 1861, the representatives of seven States, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, would meet to formally secede from the Union to form a new republic. On February 8, the convention announced the establishment of the Confederate States of America and declared itself its provisional Congress.
State’s Rights Versus the Federal Government
The Confederacy was always a paradox. The central issue for the South was states’ rights, not slavery, though slavery was the stain that shaped elements of the U.S. Constitution, an issue that the Founders had concluded must await the judgment of a later time.
It was about the South’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In his inaugural address, Jefferson Davis said, “The constitution formed by our fathers is the constitution of the (newly formed) Confederate States.” The Civil War was a war against the federal government in 1861 and the years leading up to it that had led the South to conclude it could no longer remain in the Union.
The Confederacy lasted from 1861 to 1885 and its history constituted the first modern war in which the awful technologies of war left the South with an estimated 94,000 battle deaths, and 164,000 dead from disease. Fully 258,000 men fought under its flag. The North lost a total of 360,222 to death and disease. Along with the Reconstruction, the South paid a fearsome price for its integrity and beliefs.
It is a little known fact that there is a monument to the Confederate dead at Arlington National Cemetery. Its inscription says, “Not for fame or reward, Not for place or for rank, Not lured by ambition, Or goaded by necessity, But in Simple Obedience to Duty as they understood it, These men suffered all, Sacrificed all, Dared all—and died.”
Confederate Memorial Day will be celebrated throughout the South. On May 7th in North Carolina, the Sons of Confederate Veterans will gather at the Columbus County Courthouse and the Whiteville Memorial Cemetery.
Here’s where the past and present meet. The featured speaker will be H.K, Edgerton, a man who had spoken last year. “At times the audience was laughing, uproariously, and at others weeping. His presentation is knowledgeable, perceptive, sensitive, politically incorrect, historically correct, humor, and serious—all rolled into a professional presentation of Confederate history that will leave you wanting more.” Edgerton is a Black American of southern heritage, a former president of the NAACP’s Ashville, North Carolina branch.
He has said of his ancestors, they “went to war with their masters”, serving as cooks or farriers, even taking up arms. “There was a love that existed between black and white in the South that transcended the bonds of slavery. We were family.”
That’s something those raised in the North and other regions are not taught and do not understand. It would take, however, another hundred years for the wrongs of slavery to be fully set right in the era of the civil rights movement. It takes more than a Constitutional Amendment to change the human heart.
The sharp political divide that present-day America is experiencing is every bit related to the issue of state’s rights as any that preceded it.
The fear that the federal government has grown too large and is too intrusive in the affairs of the States and of all Americans is a legitimate one. The Union is being severely tested and it is an irony of history that the source of much of that fear and anger is the nation’s first Black President.
It is common parlance these days that “In 2008 we voted for Obama to prove we were not racists. In 2012 we must vote for someone else to prove we are not idiots.”
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/36182
Confederate Memorial Day
Alan Caruba Thursday, May 5, 2011
It seems odd, even to me, that a northerner, born and bred, should join in the celebration of Confederate Memorial Day on May 7th. Odder still because I saw the worst of the South with its Jim Crow laws that so cruelly oppressed the Blacks that lived there, but I spent enough years in the South to love its people, its music, its culture, and its history.
It is said that the winner of wars gets to write the history of those conflicts and that is true, but there is ample history of the Confederacy to gain a much-needed understanding of why, on February 4, 1861, the representatives of seven States, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, would meet to formally secede from the Union to form a new republic. On February 8, the convention announced the establishment of the Confederate States of America and declared itself its provisional Congress.
State’s Rights Versus the Federal Government
The Confederacy was always a paradox. The central issue for the South was states’ rights, not slavery, though slavery was the stain that shaped elements of the U.S. Constitution, an issue that the Founders had concluded must await the judgment of a later time.
It was about the South’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In his inaugural address, Jefferson Davis said, “The constitution formed by our fathers is the constitution of the (newly formed) Confederate States.” The Civil War was a war against the federal government in 1861 and the years leading up to it that had led the South to conclude it could no longer remain in the Union.
The Confederacy lasted from 1861 to 1885 and its history constituted the first modern war in which the awful technologies of war left the South with an estimated 94,000 battle deaths, and 164,000 dead from disease. Fully 258,000 men fought under its flag. The North lost a total of 360,222 to death and disease. Along with the Reconstruction, the South paid a fearsome price for its integrity and beliefs.
It is a little known fact that there is a monument to the Confederate dead at Arlington National Cemetery. Its inscription says, “Not for fame or reward, Not for place or for rank, Not lured by ambition, Or goaded by necessity, But in Simple Obedience to Duty as they understood it, These men suffered all, Sacrificed all, Dared all—and died.”
Confederate Memorial Day will be celebrated throughout the South. On May 7th in North Carolina, the Sons of Confederate Veterans will gather at the Columbus County Courthouse and the Whiteville Memorial Cemetery.
Here’s where the past and present meet. The featured speaker will be H.K, Edgerton, a man who had spoken last year. “At times the audience was laughing, uproariously, and at others weeping. His presentation is knowledgeable, perceptive, sensitive, politically incorrect, historically correct, humor, and serious—all rolled into a professional presentation of Confederate history that will leave you wanting more.” Edgerton is a Black American of southern heritage, a former president of the NAACP’s Ashville, North Carolina branch.
He has said of his ancestors, they “went to war with their masters”, serving as cooks or farriers, even taking up arms. “There was a love that existed between black and white in the South that transcended the bonds of slavery. We were family.”
That’s something those raised in the North and other regions are not taught and do not understand. It would take, however, another hundred years for the wrongs of slavery to be fully set right in the era of the civil rights movement. It takes more than a Constitutional Amendment to change the human heart.
The sharp political divide that present-day America is experiencing is every bit related to the issue of state’s rights as any that preceded it.
The fear that the federal government has grown too large and is too intrusive in the affairs of the States and of all Americans is a legitimate one. The Union is being severely tested and it is an irony of history that the source of much of that fear and anger is the nation’s first Black President.
It is common parlance these days that “In 2008 we voted for Obama to prove we were not racists. In 2012 we must vote for someone else to prove we are not idiots.”
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/36182
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Grant Request Deadlines
Compatriots,
At the Montgomery Convention the GEC will meet. Part of the business of the GEC will be to vote on request for grants for projects sponsored by the SCV. The deadline for submitting a funding request is June 8, 2011. The request must be at GHQ by June 8, 2011. Grant requests should be sent to Executive Director Ben Sewell ( exedir@scv.org ) and myself, at chuckrand3@gmail.com.
To be considered for a grant the requestor must, at a minimum, fill out the grant request form under Forms and Documents on scv.org. The form can be found at: http://www.scv.org/pdf/SCVFundRequests.pdf.
Is is prefered that grant requests be submitted by email with the funding request form and any other supporting documents attached to the message. If a requestor wishes to submit a request in hard copy format it must be received at GHQ by June 8, 2011. Requests sent by hard copy should also be mailed, besides to Executive Director Sewell and myself, to ANV Commander Frank Earnest, AOT Commander Tom Strain and ATM Commander Danny Honnoll at their mailing addresses as given on: http://scv.org/gec.php
The Budget and Finance Committee will meet to discuss the requests soon after they are received on June 8 and questions and needed clarifications about the requests will be addressed to those making requests. The Budget and Finance Committee will hold another meeting, at the Convention in Montgomery, AL, at a time to be announced at the Convention, to make is final recommendations on grant requests. Those requesting funds are encourage to attend this meeting to answer additional questions regarding their request. The Budget and Finance Committee will finalize its recommendations regarding grant requests at this meeting in Montgomery.
The Budget and Finance Committee will present its recommendations to the GEC at the Post Convention GEC meeting on Saturday, July 16. The GEC will vote on the grant requests at this time.
If you have any questions regarding making a grant request please contact me.
I look forward to seeing you at Montgomery.
Chuck Rand
Adjutant In Chief
318-387-3791
chuckrand3@gmail.com
At the Montgomery Convention the GEC will meet. Part of the business of the GEC will be to vote on request for grants for projects sponsored by the SCV. The deadline for submitting a funding request is June 8, 2011. The request must be at GHQ by June 8, 2011. Grant requests should be sent to Executive Director Ben Sewell ( exedir@scv.org ) and myself, at chuckrand3@gmail.com.
To be considered for a grant the requestor must, at a minimum, fill out the grant request form under Forms and Documents on scv.org. The form can be found at: http://www.scv.org/pdf/SCVFundRequests.pdf.
Is is prefered that grant requests be submitted by email with the funding request form and any other supporting documents attached to the message. If a requestor wishes to submit a request in hard copy format it must be received at GHQ by June 8, 2011. Requests sent by hard copy should also be mailed, besides to Executive Director Sewell and myself, to ANV Commander Frank Earnest, AOT Commander Tom Strain and ATM Commander Danny Honnoll at their mailing addresses as given on: http://scv.org/gec.php
The Budget and Finance Committee will meet to discuss the requests soon after they are received on June 8 and questions and needed clarifications about the requests will be addressed to those making requests. The Budget and Finance Committee will hold another meeting, at the Convention in Montgomery, AL, at a time to be announced at the Convention, to make is final recommendations on grant requests. Those requesting funds are encourage to attend this meeting to answer additional questions regarding their request. The Budget and Finance Committee will finalize its recommendations regarding grant requests at this meeting in Montgomery.
The Budget and Finance Committee will present its recommendations to the GEC at the Post Convention GEC meeting on Saturday, July 16. The GEC will vote on the grant requests at this time.
If you have any questions regarding making a grant request please contact me.
I look forward to seeing you at Montgomery.
Chuck Rand
Adjutant In Chief
318-387-3791
chuckrand3@gmail.com
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
SCV Counters NAACP and Other Hate Groups in Louisiana
KSLA News 12
Shreveport, Louisiana
May 03, 2011
Local NAACP protests Confederate flag outside Caddo CourthouseSHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) -By Tracy Clemons
A revitalized effort to get the confederate flag removed from in front of the Caddo Parish Courthouse is taking form. More than a dozen community leaders were on the lawn Tuesday to detail their latest effort.
"When this flag flies, there is no justice. There is no equality," says one supporter.
The group says it's hard to enforce equal justice with a Confederate flag outside the courthouse.
"This is where justice is made available to everybody. Yet we see in the 21st century, in the year 2011 there are still reminders of a vicious, ugly, degrading, racist, and incomprehensible past," says Professor Charles Ogletree.
He's the director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.
"That's not equal protection. That is offensive, derogatory, and demeaning to a whole generation of people," he says.
He refers to Carl Staples, who was in the pool of potential jurors in the 2009 murder trial of Felton Dorsey. Dorsey is a black man sentenced to death for killing a white firefighter.
"I'd known the flag was there all the while, and it really hit home when I had to partake in the justice system," Staples says.
Staples says he was dismissed when he voiced concern about the flag.
"I couldn't be a hypocrite to myself and partake in the justice system that doesn't believe in itself."
Chuck McMichael, with the Sons of Confederate Veterans says people who believe the flag represents racism are wrong.
"Some people have incorrectly used it that way. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy have denounced them over and over for doing it. If it was legal for us to do so, we would stop them from using our flag."
He says the monument and flag represent veterans.
"This is remembering men who answered the call of their state to protect their state from a hostile army."
The American Civil Liberties Union doesn't see it that way. It filed a brief with the Louisiana Supreme Court on behalf of Felton Dorsey. The case goes before the Court in Baton Rouge Monday.
"We will be arguing, along with Mr. Dorsey's attorneys on May 9 in the Louisiana Supreme Court that the flag presents an intolerable risk that African Americans may be intimidated to serve on juries, may be excluded from juries like Mr. Staples for having strong feelings about the flag," says ACLU Staff Attorney Anna Arceneaux.
From everything that was said at the news conference, our conversation with Chuck McMichael, and even the more than 100 Facebook comments we got about this story, one can surmise that a big issue at hand is tolerance.
McMichael says we need to have "maybe a little bit more tolerance of what other people wish to commemorate."
http://www.ksla.com/story/14566656/protestors-rally-against-confederate-flag-at-caddo-parish-courthouse#
Shreveport, Louisiana
May 03, 2011
Local NAACP protests Confederate flag outside Caddo CourthouseSHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) -By Tracy Clemons
A revitalized effort to get the confederate flag removed from in front of the Caddo Parish Courthouse is taking form. More than a dozen community leaders were on the lawn Tuesday to detail their latest effort.
"When this flag flies, there is no justice. There is no equality," says one supporter.
The group says it's hard to enforce equal justice with a Confederate flag outside the courthouse.
"This is where justice is made available to everybody. Yet we see in the 21st century, in the year 2011 there are still reminders of a vicious, ugly, degrading, racist, and incomprehensible past," says Professor Charles Ogletree.
He's the director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.
"That's not equal protection. That is offensive, derogatory, and demeaning to a whole generation of people," he says.
He refers to Carl Staples, who was in the pool of potential jurors in the 2009 murder trial of Felton Dorsey. Dorsey is a black man sentenced to death for killing a white firefighter.
"I'd known the flag was there all the while, and it really hit home when I had to partake in the justice system," Staples says.
Staples says he was dismissed when he voiced concern about the flag.
"I couldn't be a hypocrite to myself and partake in the justice system that doesn't believe in itself."
Chuck McMichael, with the Sons of Confederate Veterans says people who believe the flag represents racism are wrong.
"Some people have incorrectly used it that way. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy have denounced them over and over for doing it. If it was legal for us to do so, we would stop them from using our flag."
He says the monument and flag represent veterans.
"This is remembering men who answered the call of their state to protect their state from a hostile army."
The American Civil Liberties Union doesn't see it that way. It filed a brief with the Louisiana Supreme Court on behalf of Felton Dorsey. The case goes before the Court in Baton Rouge Monday.
"We will be arguing, along with Mr. Dorsey's attorneys on May 9 in the Louisiana Supreme Court that the flag presents an intolerable risk that African Americans may be intimidated to serve on juries, may be excluded from juries like Mr. Staples for having strong feelings about the flag," says ACLU Staff Attorney Anna Arceneaux.
From everything that was said at the news conference, our conversation with Chuck McMichael, and even the more than 100 Facebook comments we got about this story, one can surmise that a big issue at hand is tolerance.
McMichael says we need to have "maybe a little bit more tolerance of what other people wish to commemorate."
http://www.ksla.com/story/14566656/protestors-rally-against-confederate-flag-at-caddo-parish-courthouse#
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Hate Group (NAACP) Supports Convicted Murderer of Firefigher
Local NAACP protests Confederate flag outside Caddo Courthouse
May 3, 2011
By Tracy Clemons
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Leaders of the Shreveport branch of the NAACP gathered outside the Caddo Parish Courthouse Tuesday morning to protest the presence of the Confederate flag that files there on the front lawn.
The organization is working with the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the ACLU to address alleged race discrimination in death penalty trials.
Last week, the ACLU Capital Punishment Project filed an amicus brief in connection with the May 2009 death penalty case of Felton Dorsey, supporting a complaint to the Louisiana Supreme Court that the flag "represents and perpetuates the discriminatory nature of the death penalty in Shreveport."
Dorsey, charged with the first degree murder of retired firefighter Joe Prock, was found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty.
The ACLU will argue the amicus brief before the Louisiana Supreme Court, Royal St, New Orleans, at 2pm on May 9, 2011.
http://www.ksla.com/story/14563571/local-naacp-protests-confederate
May 3, 2011
By Tracy Clemons
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Leaders of the Shreveport branch of the NAACP gathered outside the Caddo Parish Courthouse Tuesday morning to protest the presence of the Confederate flag that files there on the front lawn.
The organization is working with the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the ACLU to address alleged race discrimination in death penalty trials.
Last week, the ACLU Capital Punishment Project filed an amicus brief in connection with the May 2009 death penalty case of Felton Dorsey, supporting a complaint to the Louisiana Supreme Court that the flag "represents and perpetuates the discriminatory nature of the death penalty in Shreveport."
Dorsey, charged with the first degree murder of retired firefighter Joe Prock, was found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty.
The ACLU will argue the amicus brief before the Louisiana Supreme Court, Royal St, New Orleans, at 2pm on May 9, 2011.
http://www.ksla.com/story/14563571/local-naacp-protests-confederate
Monday, May 2, 2011
Marietta Georgia Remembers Confederate Veterans
Bill Kinney: Times have changed, but city still honors Confederate Memorial Day
by Bill Kinney
Columnist The Marietta Daily Journal
May 01, 2011
Back when this columnist was a boy growing up in Marietta in the late 1920s and early ’30s, Confederate Memorial Day was one of the biggest holidays of the year each April. We schoolchildren and our teachers would process from the old Waterman Street School down Waterman Street toward the Confederate Cemetery on Powder Springs Street. There would be a big ceremony, sometimes a parade, with speeches and a band. Wreaths were laid on the thousands of graves there, most of whom hold soldiers who were buried as “unknowns.”
The Civil War and Reconstruction were still fresh memories in these parts back then, of course. It had only been about 65 years since the war had ended, and there were still a handful of old men in town who had worn the gray uniform in that war. When this Old Scribbler was a boy, people looked up to the soldiers of that war much the same way that people now look up to WWII vets.
Let’s not forget that one of the war’s bigger battles took place just two miles from downtown Marietta at Kennesaw Mountain. Boys of my generation spent their after school hours prowling its slopes for battle relics, which were still easy to find. And none of us had ever heard of metal detectors.
Interest in the war was overshadowed during the WWII era and after, then surged again during the Civil War Centennial years 1961-65. After a few slow years, it began building again in the early 1990s, when the annual parade to the Confederate Cemetery began to take place again each spring.
This year’s ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. today and is sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans will cut the ribbon for the new walkway constructed through the cemetery, according to former Marietta Councilwoman Betty Hunter.
Georgians began the tradition of decorating graves each April 26 in the years immediately after the war. And in 1874 the state Legislature established April 26 as a public holiday, noting that it was already known as “Memorial Day.” Some say the tradition began in Columbus in 1866.
April 26 was also the date on which Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston, commander of the South’s last major army, the Army of Tennessee, surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham, N.C., in the spring of 1865. The same two armies under the same two commanders had fought the summer before at Kennesaw Mountain.
But with changing times, it has become less politically correct to honor the Confederacy in any way. Unfortunately, too many Southerners for too long let the bigots take control of the meaning of the Confederacy and the display of its symbols, such as its well-known battle flag. Today, it’s difficult to honor those who fought in gray without opening yourself to suspicions of harboring ugly, old-fashioned opinions.
But you can be sure that those kind of views will not be on display at Sunday’s event in Marietta.
The Georgia General Assembly updated its list of public holidays back in 1984 and did away with Confederate Memorial Day. The new list tracks the federal list, which for obvious reasons does not include Confederate Memorial Day, Robert E. Lee’s birthday or Jeff Davis’ birthday as holidays.
But the Legislature returned to the issue in 2009, establishing each April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. Here’s what that law says:
(a) The General Assembly hereby finds and determines that tourism is a great economic resource in Georgia; and historical, heritage, and cultural inheritance are among the tourism industry’s most popular attractions. Georgia’s Confederate heritage, physical artifacts and battle sites, and historic events and persons not only attract visitors, they are potentially of even greater importance and benefit to our state’s economy. Increased development of our state’s Confederate history and heritage as part of the tourism industry will be enhanced through recognizing, celebrating, and advertising that heritage and history.
(b) The month of April of each year is hereby designated as Confederate History and Heritage Month and shall be set aside to honor, observe, and celebrate the Confederate States of America, its history, those who served in its armed forces and government, and all those millions of its citizens of various races and ethnic groups and religions who contributed in sundry and myriad ways to the cause which they held so dear from its founding on February 4, 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, until the Confederate ship CSS Shenandoah sailed into Liverpool Harbor and surrendered to British authorities on November 6, 1865.
(c) Officials and departments of state, county, and municipal governments, boards of education, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, businesses, and all citizens are encouraged to participate in programs, displays, and activities that commemorate and honor our shared history and cultural inheritance throughout each April during Confederate History and Heritage Month.
Today’s ceremony at the Confederate Cemetery always attracts a big crowd. If you haven’t been before, you should go.
Bill Kinney is Associate Editor for the Marietta Daily Journal.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Bill Kinney Times have changed but city still honors Confederate Memorial Day
by Bill Kinney
Columnist The Marietta Daily Journal
May 01, 2011
Back when this columnist was a boy growing up in Marietta in the late 1920s and early ’30s, Confederate Memorial Day was one of the biggest holidays of the year each April. We schoolchildren and our teachers would process from the old Waterman Street School down Waterman Street toward the Confederate Cemetery on Powder Springs Street. There would be a big ceremony, sometimes a parade, with speeches and a band. Wreaths were laid on the thousands of graves there, most of whom hold soldiers who were buried as “unknowns.”
The Civil War and Reconstruction were still fresh memories in these parts back then, of course. It had only been about 65 years since the war had ended, and there were still a handful of old men in town who had worn the gray uniform in that war. When this Old Scribbler was a boy, people looked up to the soldiers of that war much the same way that people now look up to WWII vets.
Let’s not forget that one of the war’s bigger battles took place just two miles from downtown Marietta at Kennesaw Mountain. Boys of my generation spent their after school hours prowling its slopes for battle relics, which were still easy to find. And none of us had ever heard of metal detectors.
Interest in the war was overshadowed during the WWII era and after, then surged again during the Civil War Centennial years 1961-65. After a few slow years, it began building again in the early 1990s, when the annual parade to the Confederate Cemetery began to take place again each spring.
This year’s ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. today and is sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans will cut the ribbon for the new walkway constructed through the cemetery, according to former Marietta Councilwoman Betty Hunter.
Georgians began the tradition of decorating graves each April 26 in the years immediately after the war. And in 1874 the state Legislature established April 26 as a public holiday, noting that it was already known as “Memorial Day.” Some say the tradition began in Columbus in 1866.
April 26 was also the date on which Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston, commander of the South’s last major army, the Army of Tennessee, surrendered to Union Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham, N.C., in the spring of 1865. The same two armies under the same two commanders had fought the summer before at Kennesaw Mountain.
But with changing times, it has become less politically correct to honor the Confederacy in any way. Unfortunately, too many Southerners for too long let the bigots take control of the meaning of the Confederacy and the display of its symbols, such as its well-known battle flag. Today, it’s difficult to honor those who fought in gray without opening yourself to suspicions of harboring ugly, old-fashioned opinions.
But you can be sure that those kind of views will not be on display at Sunday’s event in Marietta.
The Georgia General Assembly updated its list of public holidays back in 1984 and did away with Confederate Memorial Day. The new list tracks the federal list, which for obvious reasons does not include Confederate Memorial Day, Robert E. Lee’s birthday or Jeff Davis’ birthday as holidays.
But the Legislature returned to the issue in 2009, establishing each April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. Here’s what that law says:
(a) The General Assembly hereby finds and determines that tourism is a great economic resource in Georgia; and historical, heritage, and cultural inheritance are among the tourism industry’s most popular attractions. Georgia’s Confederate heritage, physical artifacts and battle sites, and historic events and persons not only attract visitors, they are potentially of even greater importance and benefit to our state’s economy. Increased development of our state’s Confederate history and heritage as part of the tourism industry will be enhanced through recognizing, celebrating, and advertising that heritage and history.
(b) The month of April of each year is hereby designated as Confederate History and Heritage Month and shall be set aside to honor, observe, and celebrate the Confederate States of America, its history, those who served in its armed forces and government, and all those millions of its citizens of various races and ethnic groups and religions who contributed in sundry and myriad ways to the cause which they held so dear from its founding on February 4, 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, until the Confederate ship CSS Shenandoah sailed into Liverpool Harbor and surrendered to British authorities on November 6, 1865.
(c) Officials and departments of state, county, and municipal governments, boards of education, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, businesses, and all citizens are encouraged to participate in programs, displays, and activities that commemorate and honor our shared history and cultural inheritance throughout each April during Confederate History and Heritage Month.
Today’s ceremony at the Confederate Cemetery always attracts a big crowd. If you haven’t been before, you should go.
Bill Kinney is Associate Editor for the Marietta Daily Journal.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Bill Kinney Times have changed but city still honors Confederate Memorial Day
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Jeff Davis Serves As SCV PR Committee Chairman
Civil War at 150: Jefferson Davis descendant keeps fighting spirit alive
81-year-old is chairman of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Media/Public Relations Committee
By Jeff Gill; jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
May 1, 2011
President Jefferson Davis biography
Personal: Born in Fairview, Ky., June 3, 1808.
Education, military career: Graduated from U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1828; served in the Black Hawk War in 1832; promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the First Dragoons in 1833, and served until 1835, when he resigned.
Political career: Elected as Democratic representative from Mississippi, 1845-1846, resigned to lead regiment in Mexican War. Appointed to U.S. Senate to fill vacancy caused by the death of Jesse Speight. Elected to the seat and served from 1847 to 1851 when he resigned to run for governor of Mississippi, an election he lost. Appointed Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857. Re-elected to the Senate in 1857 and served until 1861 when Mississippi seceded from the Union.
After secession: Commissioned major general of the Mississippi state militia, January 1861; chosen president of the Confederacy by the Provisional Congress and inaugurated in Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 18, 1861; elected president for a term of six years and inaugurated in Richmond, Va., Feb. 22, 1862.
Postwar: Captured by Union troops in Irwinsville, May 10, 1865; imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, indicted for treason, and was paroled in the custody of the court in 1867. Returned to Mississippi and spent the remaining years of his life writing; died in New Orleans, La., Dec. 6, 1889. Now buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.
Davis facts: Three of Davis' brothers served in the War of 1812; badly wounded while leading troops in the Mexican War; originally buried in New Orleans, but later re-interred in Richmond; married Sallie Knox Taylor, daughter of President Zachary Taylor, in 1835 but she died a few months later; he re-married in 1845; owned a cotton plantation and many slaves.
Source: U.S. Congress biographical website, civilwarhome.com, answers.com
This Week in the Civil War
At the outset of May, the Union is starting to recruit and arm volunteers in earnest. Though President Abraham Lincoln had called April 19 for 75,000 volunteers for three months' duty, it is becoming clear this would not be enough. On May 3, Lincoln appeals for 42,000 three-year volunteers.
The general-in-chief of the Army, Winfield Scott, writes May 3 that Lincoln's recently announced blockade of Southern ports - the "Anaconda" plan to strangle supply lines - is seen as key to ending the conflict "with less bloodshed than by any other plan."
Dispatches to Associated Press the first week of May speak of a growing rush and din to mobilize troops with one report from Fredericksburg, Md., noting: "The Union men here have quit their passive attitude, and are beginning to show vitality." Yet another dated May 3 to the AP speaks of Southerners running short on basic foodstuffs amid rising war fears.
"A gentleman from eastern Virginia states that great discontent exists because of the prospect of war being waged on her soil," one correspondent reports.
This series marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War draws primarily from wartime dispatches credited to The Associated Press or other accounts distributed through the AP.
Story below about Jeff Davis, SCV PR Committee Chairman:
Nearly eight years ago, Gainesville's Jeff Davis strongly advocated letting voters decide whether they wanted to keep the contentious 1956 Georgia flag, which featured the rebel emblem.
These days, as chairman of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' Media/Public Relations Committee, he is battling what he deems as attacks against Southern heritage, an attitude he likens to "cultural Marxism."
It seems that, despite health problems slowing his pace, Davis hasn't lost the fighting spirit of his Confederate ancestors — including the most famous one, distant cousin Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.
In a recent interview at his apartment off Thompson Bridge Road, the 81-year-old retired broadcaster talked about his extensive forays into politics and service organizations, as well as his keen interest in Civil War history.
He also talked about the North-South conflict's sesquicentennial, a commemoration of Civil War events that began with shots fired on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter, S.C.
"Political correctness has really worked on the Sons of Confederate Veterans something terrible," Davis said.
"There have been a lot of terrible untruths. I have wanted to find a way, without being hostile, to correct a lot of the images that have taken place throughout the country."
Images, he believes, that began in the 1970s, years after the Civil War's centennial, when there was more of national movement to remember the "tragic event" that led to more than 625,000 war deaths.
These days, Davis believes, the accepted notion is that the South's refusal to budge from slavery triggered the war.
"The biggest thing is to say the South was the leading advocate of slavery in the entire world, that the war was fought over slavery and nothing else," he said. "That's the biggest lie that has been pushed."
The SCV doesn't deny slavery wasn't an issue, but there is so much more to the story, he said.
"Anybody who looks at the first two years of the war and what (President Abraham) Lincoln and his cabinet said — they all said ‘South, come back into the country. We don't want to disrupt slavery. That's not our purpose.
Our purpose is to preserve the Union.'"
Also, slavery began as an enterprise of Northern entrepreneurs.
"Slavery was a terrible thing, for all of us, and we all should ought share our responsibilities for whatever it was we did, but don't lay it all on the South, because we didn't start it," Davis said.
With his name well-known among Confederacy buffs, Davis also has spent much of his life researching his heritage.
The West Virginia native, born John Albert Davis, earned the nickname "Jeff" from friends and then his mother, making it stick for good. He'd go on to become "something of an expert" on his ancestor, including picking up on lesser-known facts, such as Davis adopting a black boy during his days leading the Confederacy.
Also, Jefferson Davis "was probably the best military mind in the country at the time the war was approaching," he said.
He was secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce between terms in Congress.
"He kind of did himself in, modernizing the U.S. Army in the 1850s," said Davis, whose grandfather also served in the prestigious "Stonewall Brigade," a group of raw recruits turned into a fighting machine by Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
Davis attended Gordon Military College in Barnesville before moving into a career that included journalism and politics.
In the 1950s, he befriended Vice President Richard Nixon, who later tapped him to lead his Georgia presidential campaign against the Democratic candidate and eventual victor, John Kennedy.
Active in civic affairs, Davis would go on to head the Georgia Jaycees and then serve as vice president at the Jaycees' national and world levels.
In 2003, he helped form the Georgia Heritage Council "to pursue reform" of state government. The group came out advocating "strict enforcement of existing illegal immigration laws by state agencies" and opposition to "ethnic cleansing" of America's religious heritage.
One of the most polarizing issues at the time, however, was Georgia's flag, which had been changed in 2001 to incorporate a smaller design of the former flag that featured the battle flag of the Confederacy.
In a 2004 referendum, voters were given a choice between the 2001 flag and a new design that excluded the Confederate emblem. At the time, as today, many decried the rebel flag as a symbol of hate and racism.
The Georgia Heritage Council pushed for the 1956 flag, which featured the emblem, to be included on the state referendum.
"Southern Heritage is an integral part of both our country's and Georgia's Heritage," Davis said in a Sept. 30, 2003, news release.
Davis does believe there has been some respect given the Confederacy in recent times.
Last Memorial Day, President Barack Obama sent a wreath to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
"He was asked not to by a number of leading Americans," Davis said.
Also, "there is no more hospitable and cordial relationship between two organizations" than the one that exists between the Sons of the Union Veterans and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.
"It is something (they have) in common: Their forebears did what they thought what was right and they were part of Americana, whether they were North or South," he said.
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/49823/
81-year-old is chairman of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Media/Public Relations Committee
By Jeff Gill; jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
May 1, 2011
President Jefferson Davis biography
Personal: Born in Fairview, Ky., June 3, 1808.
Education, military career: Graduated from U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1828; served in the Black Hawk War in 1832; promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the First Dragoons in 1833, and served until 1835, when he resigned.
Political career: Elected as Democratic representative from Mississippi, 1845-1846, resigned to lead regiment in Mexican War. Appointed to U.S. Senate to fill vacancy caused by the death of Jesse Speight. Elected to the seat and served from 1847 to 1851 when he resigned to run for governor of Mississippi, an election he lost. Appointed Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857. Re-elected to the Senate in 1857 and served until 1861 when Mississippi seceded from the Union.
After secession: Commissioned major general of the Mississippi state militia, January 1861; chosen president of the Confederacy by the Provisional Congress and inaugurated in Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 18, 1861; elected president for a term of six years and inaugurated in Richmond, Va., Feb. 22, 1862.
Postwar: Captured by Union troops in Irwinsville, May 10, 1865; imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, indicted for treason, and was paroled in the custody of the court in 1867. Returned to Mississippi and spent the remaining years of his life writing; died in New Orleans, La., Dec. 6, 1889. Now buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.
Davis facts: Three of Davis' brothers served in the War of 1812; badly wounded while leading troops in the Mexican War; originally buried in New Orleans, but later re-interred in Richmond; married Sallie Knox Taylor, daughter of President Zachary Taylor, in 1835 but she died a few months later; he re-married in 1845; owned a cotton plantation and many slaves.
Source: U.S. Congress biographical website, civilwarhome.com, answers.com
This Week in the Civil War
At the outset of May, the Union is starting to recruit and arm volunteers in earnest. Though President Abraham Lincoln had called April 19 for 75,000 volunteers for three months' duty, it is becoming clear this would not be enough. On May 3, Lincoln appeals for 42,000 three-year volunteers.
The general-in-chief of the Army, Winfield Scott, writes May 3 that Lincoln's recently announced blockade of Southern ports - the "Anaconda" plan to strangle supply lines - is seen as key to ending the conflict "with less bloodshed than by any other plan."
Dispatches to Associated Press the first week of May speak of a growing rush and din to mobilize troops with one report from Fredericksburg, Md., noting: "The Union men here have quit their passive attitude, and are beginning to show vitality." Yet another dated May 3 to the AP speaks of Southerners running short on basic foodstuffs amid rising war fears.
"A gentleman from eastern Virginia states that great discontent exists because of the prospect of war being waged on her soil," one correspondent reports.
This series marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War draws primarily from wartime dispatches credited to The Associated Press or other accounts distributed through the AP.
Story below about Jeff Davis, SCV PR Committee Chairman:
Nearly eight years ago, Gainesville's Jeff Davis strongly advocated letting voters decide whether they wanted to keep the contentious 1956 Georgia flag, which featured the rebel emblem.
These days, as chairman of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' Media/Public Relations Committee, he is battling what he deems as attacks against Southern heritage, an attitude he likens to "cultural Marxism."
It seems that, despite health problems slowing his pace, Davis hasn't lost the fighting spirit of his Confederate ancestors — including the most famous one, distant cousin Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.
In a recent interview at his apartment off Thompson Bridge Road, the 81-year-old retired broadcaster talked about his extensive forays into politics and service organizations, as well as his keen interest in Civil War history.
He also talked about the North-South conflict's sesquicentennial, a commemoration of Civil War events that began with shots fired on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter, S.C.
"Political correctness has really worked on the Sons of Confederate Veterans something terrible," Davis said.
"There have been a lot of terrible untruths. I have wanted to find a way, without being hostile, to correct a lot of the images that have taken place throughout the country."
Images, he believes, that began in the 1970s, years after the Civil War's centennial, when there was more of national movement to remember the "tragic event" that led to more than 625,000 war deaths.
These days, Davis believes, the accepted notion is that the South's refusal to budge from slavery triggered the war.
"The biggest thing is to say the South was the leading advocate of slavery in the entire world, that the war was fought over slavery and nothing else," he said. "That's the biggest lie that has been pushed."
The SCV doesn't deny slavery wasn't an issue, but there is so much more to the story, he said.
"Anybody who looks at the first two years of the war and what (President Abraham) Lincoln and his cabinet said — they all said ‘South, come back into the country. We don't want to disrupt slavery. That's not our purpose.
Our purpose is to preserve the Union.'"
Also, slavery began as an enterprise of Northern entrepreneurs.
"Slavery was a terrible thing, for all of us, and we all should ought share our responsibilities for whatever it was we did, but don't lay it all on the South, because we didn't start it," Davis said.
With his name well-known among Confederacy buffs, Davis also has spent much of his life researching his heritage.
The West Virginia native, born John Albert Davis, earned the nickname "Jeff" from friends and then his mother, making it stick for good. He'd go on to become "something of an expert" on his ancestor, including picking up on lesser-known facts, such as Davis adopting a black boy during his days leading the Confederacy.
Also, Jefferson Davis "was probably the best military mind in the country at the time the war was approaching," he said.
He was secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce between terms in Congress.
"He kind of did himself in, modernizing the U.S. Army in the 1850s," said Davis, whose grandfather also served in the prestigious "Stonewall Brigade," a group of raw recruits turned into a fighting machine by Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
Davis attended Gordon Military College in Barnesville before moving into a career that included journalism and politics.
In the 1950s, he befriended Vice President Richard Nixon, who later tapped him to lead his Georgia presidential campaign against the Democratic candidate and eventual victor, John Kennedy.
Active in civic affairs, Davis would go on to head the Georgia Jaycees and then serve as vice president at the Jaycees' national and world levels.
In 2003, he helped form the Georgia Heritage Council "to pursue reform" of state government. The group came out advocating "strict enforcement of existing illegal immigration laws by state agencies" and opposition to "ethnic cleansing" of America's religious heritage.
One of the most polarizing issues at the time, however, was Georgia's flag, which had been changed in 2001 to incorporate a smaller design of the former flag that featured the battle flag of the Confederacy.
In a 2004 referendum, voters were given a choice between the 2001 flag and a new design that excluded the Confederate emblem. At the time, as today, many decried the rebel flag as a symbol of hate and racism.
The Georgia Heritage Council pushed for the 1956 flag, which featured the emblem, to be included on the state referendum.
"Southern Heritage is an integral part of both our country's and Georgia's Heritage," Davis said in a Sept. 30, 2003, news release.
Davis does believe there has been some respect given the Confederacy in recent times.
Last Memorial Day, President Barack Obama sent a wreath to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
"He was asked not to by a number of leading Americans," Davis said.
Also, "there is no more hospitable and cordial relationship between two organizations" than the one that exists between the Sons of the Union Veterans and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.
"It is something (they have) in common: Their forebears did what they thought what was right and they were part of Americana, whether they were North or South," he said.
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/49823/
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