A Southern Black History Month Moment

By Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Speaker, Writer, author of book “When American Stood for God, Family and Country and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, www.scv.org.
cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net

The following story should be included during Black History Month.

A magazine article in 1989 caught my eye about a black child, a Confederate President's First Lady and the Southern Presidential Family. The story was written by Gulfport, Mississippi freelance writer Mrs. Peggy Robbins and is entitled, "Jim Limber Davis."

This is my summary of Mrs. Robbin's wonderful story.

On the morning of February 15, 1864, Mrs. Varina Davis, wife of Southern President Jefferson Davis, had concluded her errands and was driving her carriage down the streets of Richmond, Virginia on her way home. She heard screams from a distance and quickly went to the scene to see what was happening.

Varina saw a young black child being abused by an older man. She demanded that he stop striking the child and when this failed she shocked the man by forcibly taking the child away. She took the child to her carriage and with her to the Confederate White House.

Arriving home Mrs. Davis and maid 'Ellen' gave the young boy a bath, attended to his cuts and bruises and feed him. The only thing he would tell them is that his name was Jim Limber. He was happy to be rescued and was given some clothes of the Davis' son Joe.

The Davis family were visited the following evening by a friend of Varina's, noted Southern Diarist-Mary Boykin Chesnut, who saw Jim Limber and wrote later that she had seen the boy and that he was eager to show me his cuts and bruises. She also said, "the child is an orphan rescued yesterday from a brutal Negro Guardian." and "there are things in life that are too sickening, and such cruelty is one of them."

There were some children who addressed Jim as Jim Limber Davis for fun. This was fine with him because he felt he was indeed a member of the family. The Davis letters to friends are an indication of his acceptance as they were written that he was a member of their gang of children.

The Christmas of 1864, would be memorable for the Davis family and probably the best Christmas Jim Limber would ever have. A Christmas tree was set up in Saint Paul's Church, decorated and gifts placed beneath it. On Christmas evening orphans were brought to the church and were delighted with the presents they got. Jim was happy to help decorate the tree.

Mrs. Robbin's wrote, in her story, that Mrs. Jefferson Davis was a very good story teller who was able to make sounds of different animals in the stories about the critters. Jim was always eager to help.

The end of the War Between the States was coming and Richmond was being evacuated. Varina and the children left ahead of Jefferson Davis. The president and his staff left just hours before the occupation of Union troops.

Varina and the children were by the side of Jefferson Davis at his capture near Irwinville, Georgia and again the family was separated. Jefferson Davis was taken to Virginia to spend two years in prison.

Mrs. Davis and her children were taken to Macon, Georgia and later to Port Royal outside of Savannah. At Port Royal their Union escort, Captain Charles T. Hudson, made good at his earlier threats to take Jim Limber away.

As the Union soldiers came to forcibly take young Jim, he put up a great struggle and tried to hold onto his family as they to him. Jim and his family cried uncontrollably as the child was taken. His family would never again see him or know what happened to him. The Davis' tried in later years to locate Jim but were unsuccessful.

The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia is home to a portrait of Jim Limber Davis in the Eleanor S. Brookenbrough Library. I thank Mrs. Peggy Robbin's who wrote the Jim Limber Davis story in 1989 and the Southern Partisan Magazine for publishing her story in the second quarter Issue-Volume IX of 1989.

THE SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS OF EVIL

Dear SHNV Friends,

I just watched the History Channel's "Sherman's March: THE SHOCKING Campaign That Ended THE CIVIL WAR" that sought to deify the greatness of the U.S. military in breaking the back of the Confederate States of America. Sherman is affectionately called "Uncle Bill" throughout the propaganda piece and his exploits in making war on unarmed women and children and "niggers" is extolled as heroism worthy of making him the next President of the USA.

Even the most rank of the Godless wicked must suspend the remnants of whatever moral sensibility that remains in their tortured souls to lend any level credibility to this nonsense. It is the same level of wickedness that led FDR to call Joseph Stalin "Uncle Joe" that also led the men in the USA military to call William T. Sherman "Uncle Bill." And it is the same level of evil that causes Americans today to accept the presidency and "national leadership" of an openly communist Democrat Party. Americans no longer recognize morally evil monsters when they see one.

Add to this the incurably self-justifying nature of evil. Once a war commences the self-appointed guardians of our national soul immediately lose sight of its own moral culpability in starting a war and can only offer an effeminate whine over the greatest atrocities that naturally flow in the wake of self-righteous wickedness and evil. Rather than accepting responsibility for its own actions, its propaganda machine drolls on demonizing the “exceptional” wickedness of our targeted enemy. Of course, the more wicked our enemies the more righteous we must be! Such are the lies that the citizenry of the oppressor's are always all too ready to accept.

This is a mental illness of moral depravity and sickness of the most extreme gravity that has only grown worse amoung Americans through the decades. It has always been the heart of evil to assert and extoll itself as the righteous standard of a "righteous" nation. As Christianity has waned in the USA our citizens have lost the cognitive ability to recognize violent political monsters when they see one, and those who do recognize the evil of the day are considered bitter and unAmerican. Christians are among the first to excitedly proclaim "American Exceptionalism" and call that which is evil "good" and that which is good "evil."

Just change the context of the war to today's level (and that of the past century) of violent warfare and we see Southerner's placing their hands of their hearts pledging their most heart-felt allegiance to be the servant of this continuing militant level of crimes against humanity; otherwise, they would never have joined the military of the same nation who perpetuated the evils committed against Atlanta, Vicksburg, Columbia, Charleston, Richmond, and hundreds more of the Confederacy's civilian populations. The USA has sown the whirlwind and not just the wind and I fear what we shall reap. I thank God for that small remnant that still can recognize evil when they see it.
--
Timothy D. Manning, M.Div
Executive Director
www.TheSouthernPartisan.com
160 Longbridge Drive
Kernersville, North Carolina 27284
Phone: (336) 420-5355
Email: tim@thesouthernpartisan.com

THE GREAT CONTRADICTION

Dear SHNV Friends,

Too many Southerners today support today's most radical forms of tyranny and political and military suppression and subjugation of themselves, their children and foreign sovereign nations for all the same reasons they "claim" their ancestors were opposed to tyranny under Abraham Lincoln during the 1860s. This is really amazing and contradictory. They suffer from a form of schizophrenia induced by the constant barrage of mind and soul-numbing propaganda proffered by 1) the government school systems at all levels, 2) the entertainment media, 3) the news media and 4) their lying “democratically” elected “representatives” while proudly asserting that they are “Unreconstructed.” While the claim by many may be ever so sincere and honest, their claim is obviously bogus even to the most casual observer.

Southerner's are a subjugated people who continue to willingly submit to their subjugation by the continuing use of the required and forced indoctrination of their children through government schools and by the use of the military or the threat of its use against them in their own States during the last century. They even assist the state in their subjugation and the brainwashing of their children by attending regular parent-teacher conferences. This lets their children know that they want them to comply with the schemes of the state brainwashing institutions. Then their children learn from them as they consistently support, vote for and elect those who represent a more tyrannical set government social engineering pogrom's than the government they claim they are proud that their relatives died to oppose during the 1860's.

Admiring pictures of Robert E. Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson, Nathan B. Forest and Southern plantation's hanging in their offices and homes may only amount to little more than a romanticized view of the past. When Southerner's vote in this corrupt system of government it shows them to be “enablers” of the very system that murdered their ancestors and that they claim to hate. Some speak of a revolution and the desirability of living to see the fall of the USA empire while proudly placing their right hand over their hearts and swearing/pledging their allegiance to this violent empire.

They should be attending conferences like the Stephen Dill Lee Institute, the Abbeville Institute, the Cape Fear Institute, the institutes of the Virginia and North Carolina Heritage Foundations, and the institutes conducted in our States by The League of the South and other worthy organizations. They should be joining and taking their children to meetings of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Order of the Confederate Rose, etc. AND they should be reading books of social, cultural and political substance along with materials about what battle was fought where, etc.

Being proud of their ancestors is one thing. Making their children proud of them is quite another thing. Most Southerners are simply NOT investing their time and money in a better future for their children and their families. The least they can and should do is to STOP being a part of the problem. There is a better way.
--
Timothy D. Manning, M.Div
Executive Director
www.TheSouthernPartisan.com
160 Longbridge Drive
Kernersville, North Carolina 27284
Phone: (336) 420-5355
Email: tim@thesouthernpartisan.com

Confederate Values, Now more than ever!

San Antonio, Texas
April 25, 2010

COMMANDER DON LAWRENCE,

LADIES OF THE UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY, AND THE TEXAS SOCIETY OF THE ORDER OF THE CONFEDERATE ROSE, GENTLEMEN OF THE TEXAS HOOD’S BRIGADE, THE TEXAS LONE STAR GRAYS, AND THE ALAMO CITY GUARDS, AND GUESTS

IT IS BOTH A GREAT HONOR AND WONDERFUL PLEASURE TO JOIN ALL OF YOU HERE AT CONFEDERATE CEMETERY, IN SAN ANTONIO TO HONOR OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD ON CONFEDERATE DECORATION DAY.

SAN ANTONIO, AS THE HOME OF THE ALAMO, IS OUTFITTED BY THE ALMIGHTY FATHER, AND OUR HISTORY AS UNIQUELY APPROPRIATE TO CELEBRATE THE SELF SACRIFICE, PATRIOTISM AND BRAVERY OF THOSE MEN WHO WORE THE GRAY. THE ALAMO STANDS ALONE IN THE ANNALS OF AMERICAN, SOUTHERN AND TEXAS HISTORY AS THE EPITOME OF AMERICAN DEFIANCE IN THE FACE OF OVERWHELMING ODDS. IT IS HERE, IN SAN ANTONIO THAT THE STANDARD FOR AMERICAN HEROISM WAS SET.
IT IS HERE IN SAN ANTONIO THAT CONFEDERATE COURAGE FOUND ITS BIRTH.

HERE IN SAN ANTONIO, AMERICANS, SOUTHERNERS ONCE AGAIN TOOK UP ARMS TO CONTINUE THE LEGACY PASSED TO THEM BY PATRICK HENRY AND THE SOUTHERN PATRIOTS WHO REVERSED THE DISMAL PERFORMANCE OF THEIR NORTHERN BRETHEN IN THE FIRST WAR FOR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

ONCE AGAIN MEN WOULD OBJECT TO OPPRESSION AND THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS, AND ONCE AGAIN, HERE IN SAN ANTONIO MEN WOULD OFFER THEMSELVES KNOWINGLY … AS THE SACRIFICE TO CREATE WHAT CAN ONLY BE EARNED THROUGH BLOOD, FREEDOM AND HUMAN DIGNITY, THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFTS OF OUR CREATOR.

IT IS HERE IN SAN ANTONIO THAT ALL SOUTHERNERS LEARNED THE TRUEST MEANING OF PATRIOTISM. HERE IN SAN ANTONIO SOUTHERN COURAGE WAS FORGED IN THE FIRES OF WAR.

HERE, MORE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN AMERICA, THE STANDARD WAS SET.

DURING THE WAR FOR SOUTHERN INDEPENDENCE, ON BATTLEFIELDS FROM GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA TO PALMITTO RANCH ON THE RIO GRANDE, AND FROM GLORIETA PASS, NEW MEXICO TO FLORIDA, CONFEDERATE COURAGE WAS THE ONLY MILITARY ASSET WHICH THE SOUTH POSSESSED IN SUPERIORITY TO THEIR YANKEE FOE.

THE NORTH WENT TO WAR WITH A SUPERIORITY IN MANPOWER, AND TREMENDOUS ADVANTAGES IN MANUFACTURING MIGHT, AND FINANCIAL STRENGTH.

THE SOUTH PLACED ITS HOPE IN THE INTANGIBLES OF AN ESTABLISHED CHRISTIAN FAITH, SUPERIOR MILITARY LEADERSHIP, AND THE COURAGE AND CHARACTER OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN.

THE MEN BURIED IN THIS CEMETERY, INCLUDING SUCH NOTALBLES AS GENERALS WILLIAM HUGH YOUNG, HAMILTON BEE AND COL. RIP FORD PERFORMED THEIR DUTIES AND LIVED THEIR LIVES TO THE STANDARD OF THOSE WHO PRECEDED THEM AT THE ALAMO.

ONE MUST QUESTION, AS WE APPROACH THE SESQUICENTENNIAL, IS THERE SOME LESSON FROM THEIR BRAVERY FOR US IN THE OPENING DECADE OF THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY?

AS WE LOOK AROUND AMERICA TODAY, WE SEE THE CLOUDS OF DECLINE AS DESCRIBED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. WE LOOK AT A ONCE MIGHTY NATION, NAY A SEEMINGLY INVINCIBLE PEOPLE, NOW ON THE VERGE OF DECLINE. NO MORE DOES AMERICA APPEAR THAT SHINING CITY ON THE HILL. NOW WE MEEKLY RESIGN OURSELVES AND CHILDREN TO THE MEDIOCRITY WHICH ENGULFS THE REST OF THE WORLD.

WE SEE AN ECONOMY IN SHAMBLES, A PEOPLE DAZED AND CONFUSED. WE SEE ON TELEVISION A MENU OF MORAL FAILURE AND CHALLENGES WHICH ARE SEEMINGLY AS NUMEROUS AND AS UNSTOPPABLE AS THE YANKEE HORDES WHICH SWEPT OVER THE SOUTH IN THE LAST YEARS OF OUR WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.

THESE PROBLEMS, POVERTY, CRIME, SEXUAL IMMORALITY, AN INABILITY TO CONTROL OUR NATIONAL BORDERS, AND DRUG ABUSE SEEM AS POWERFUL AND AS INEVITABLE AS THE BLUE COLUMNS INVADING OUR SOUTH IN 1864 -1865. SOCIALISM CREEPS FORWARD CONSUMING HUMAN LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE AND ROBBING OUR POSTER-IETY OF THEIR AMERICAN INHERITANCE.

IT IS NOW MORE THAN EVER THAT WE NEED THE COURAGE, FORTITUDE AND DEDICATION OF THE MEN WHO REST IN THIS HALLOWED GROUND.
IT IS NOW MORE THAN EVER THAT OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH MUST BE OUR SHIELD TO ALL THE TEMPTATIONS BEING OFFERED BY SATAN AND ACCEPTED BY SO MANY NEIGHBORS.

IT IS NOW THAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND OUR PLACE AS INDIVIDUALS, AND AS ORGANIZATIONS IN THE CULTURE WAR FOR WHAT WILL BE AMERICA’S FUTURE.
AND SO THIS CEREMONY TAKES ON A NEW SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE. THESE ARE NOT CEREMONIES TO HONOR SOME PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS, BUT TO RALLY FOR THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY. THEY ARE NOT CEREMONIES TO SUSTAIN A CONNECTION WITH THE PAST, BUT RATHER ARE IMPORTANT MOMENTS WHEN WE STEEL OURSELVES FOR WHAT MUST BE DONE IN OUR OWN TIME, IN OUR FIGHT TO PASS ON THE AMERICAN LEGACY.

IT IS HERE ON THIS SACRED GROUND, CLOSE TO OUR GOD, AND WHERE WE WILL REST WITH OUR KINSMENTHAT WE COMMIT OURSELVES TO THE VALUES, TRADITIONS, AND HERITAGE LONG HELD BY OUR FAMILIES, AND OUR PEOPLE. IT IS HERE, INSPIRED BY THOSE WHO MADE HISTORY, WHO GAVE ALL, WHO DID NOT SHRINK FROM THE CHALLENGE THAT WE RECOMMIT OURSELVES TO BE THE CONFEDERATE HEROES OF OUR OWN TIME!

THANK YOU.

A speech I gave in San Antonio, April 2010. ~ Mark Vogl ~ johnyreb43@yahoo.com

SCV Member/Real Son Passes

James Brown Sr., 99, of Tellico Village, one of the last real sons of a Confederate veteran, died Thursday afternoon in a Farragut nursing home, his son, James Brown, said Saturday afternoon.

James Brown Sr.'s father, James H.H. Brown, served in the 8th Georgia Infantry's Company K and fought throughout the Civil War.

Mr. Brown would've turned 100 on Valentines's Day.

Norman Shaw, founder of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable, recalled meeting Mr. Brown.

"It is definitely a direct connection to the past when you can say this gentleman's father fought in the Civil War," he said. "We call them real sons and real daughters of Confederate veterans."

James Brown said his grandfather was 71 when his father, James Brown Sr., was born in 1912.

"My Dad and I are so lucky to be alive," James Brown recalled.

James H.H. Brown joined the Confederate army at the beginning of the Civil War and fought in 19 major battles, including Manassas, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Campbell Station and Fort Sanders.

"He made it to the end at Appomattox with the surrender of Lee and then he walked back home," James Brown said. "He was wounded twice and, back then with the medical situation, he could've had a leg lopped off and bled to death."

James Brown said his father was 11 when James H.H. Brown died. He said his grandfather wasn't bitter with former Union soldiers.

"I always remember about my grandfather telling my dad he had nothing against Yankees," James Brown said. "They were good men and he was a good man. It was just something they had to do."

Brown Sr. also had a daughter by a second wife. Mr. Brown lived in Tucson, Ariz., for 19 years and was close to his daughter's family, his son said.

Mr. Brown had lung cancer two years ago and had treatment. His son said Mr. Brown's health began to deteriorate quickly in the past few weeks.

"At 100, everything starts to wear out. He went very quietly. He went in peace, comfortable without pain," his son said. "He had a ton of friends who came down to see him the last couple days. He was a popular man, a real country gentleman. He enjoyed people and they enjoyed him."

A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. Feb. 14 at Tellico Village Community Church. Click Funeral Home in Lenoir City is in charge of arrangements.

Atlanta Television Channel Launched by Ray McBerry Enterprises, Inc.

(Atlanta - January 25, 2012) After working in the radio and television industry for more than a decade, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ray McBerry announced today that his company, Ray McBerry Enterprises, Inc. will be launching a new local television channel in the Atlanta market on March 5, 2012.

KBN Television will broadcast on the Charter Cable Network, one of the two largest cable providers in Georgia. The channel will initially broadcast as KBN - TV22 in Henry County and surrounding areas south of Atlanta, reaching approximately a quarter million viewers. Plans have already been made to expand the coverage area to include more of the Atlanta market and rural Georgia within the next two years.

The goal of KBN Television is to provide quality, family-friendly programming to the fastest growing region in the southeast. The anchor program of KBN Television will be the "Georgia First" show hosted by Ray McBerry. "Georgia First" will be a political and current issues "hot topic" show featuring guests and topics in the news but always from a traditional, constitutional viewpoint. Ray's former campaign for governor featured the theme "Georgia First," and the concept of state sovereignty and local self-government will continue to be the theme of this new show. Having hosted another weekly political talk show on another channel for the last five years, Ray brings a great deal of experience and information to the new show, which promises an interesting format for viewers.

Ray McBerry previously served as the sales manager and, later, as an independent contractor for SBN Television, the former local television channel originating in Henry County. When SBN Television ceased broadcasting on Charter in November of 2011, a number of friends and supporters suggested that this was the perfect time for Ray to launch his own local television channel - hence the name Kairos Broadcasting Network. "Kairos" is a Greek word which means the precisely best moment in time to do something; in Christian terms it also represents the fact that Christ came into the world at precisely the right time to fulfill His promise to redeem mankind. "Kairos" embodies the business, political, philosophical, and Christian views of president and founder Ray McBerry.

More information about KBN Television may be found on the website www.KBNtelevision.com. A contact form is provided there.

Georgia Secession Rooted in Lincoln’s Election

Georgia somewhat reluctantly joined other Southern states in seceding from the Union 151 years ago on January 19, 1861.

Carlton Fletcher
carlton.fletcher@albanyherald.com

ALBANY — For the better part of 150 years, history has proclaimed that Georgia leaders' decision on this date in 1861 to secede from the United States was about its citizens' right to own slaves.

Certainly the millions of dollars invested in slave labor was a crucial economic factor for all 11 of the official Confederate States of America that chose the path of secession, but the continued study of historical documents from that era — particularly by Southern scholars — shows that such reasoning discounts factors far removed from the slavery/anti-slavery cause and effect.

"The key to understanding secession is to look at the mindset of the people of that era, not what anyone in the year 2012 might think," Bernhard Thuersam, a native of Niagara Falls, N.Y., and the chairman of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission, said. "By looking at diaries, letters, post-war recollections — historical documents from just before, during and just after the war — you see things through the eyes of the people of that era.

"Then you start to get a true perspective. And it's clear that the South — and Georgia — did not secede merely over the issue of slavery."

When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 with only slightly more than 39 percent of the popular vote but with an overwhelming Electoral College majority, the dominoes of secession started falling. South Carolina was first to break from the Union on Dec. 20, 1860, and Mississippi followed on Jan. 9, 1861.

The next day, Florida followed suit when its governor, Madison Starke Perry, declared, “Florida may be unwilling to subject herself to the charge of temerity or immodesty by leading off but will most assuredly cooperate with or follow the lead of any single Cotton State which may secede."

Alabama was the next Confederate state to withdraw from the Union , voting to secede on Jan. 11. Although Georgia followed suit on the 19th, it was clear by the 89 "no" votes of its delegates that the Peach State was not as anxious to pull out of the Union as some of its sister states.

"Georgia actually tended to vote more with the New England states that, with Lincoln, essentially pulled off an illegal military coup in America," former professor and current Executive Director of the Virginia Heritage Foundation Timothy Manning said. "There were influential Georgians like Alexander Stephens (later the vice president of the Confederacy), Herschel Johnson and Benjamin Hill who were opposed to secession, but the election of Lincoln was a crucial factor in the Southern states' decision (to secede)."

Indeed, secessionist Robert Toombs boldly told Georgia delegates in a fiery speech at the state's convention "Give me the sword! But if you do not place it in my hands, before God I will take it!"

Louisiana voted for secession on Jan. 26, and while Texas ' convention delegates voted to secede from the Union on Feb. 1, the Lone Star State held a referendum on Feb. 23 and its populace voted by a 76 percent margin to approve the action of its leaders.

Shortly after Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina , and the new president's response was to send 75,000 troops to "suppress the insurrection." His actions led Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina to secede from the Union , and the American Civil War that had been brewing inevitably followed.

The "Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," or OR, notes: "The people of Georgia , having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America , present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last 10 years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slaveholding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic.

"This hostile policy of our confederates has been pursued with every circumstance of aggravation which could arouse the passions and excite the hatred of our people, and has placed the two sections of the Union for many years past in the condition of virtual civil war. Our people, still attached to the Union from habit and national traditions, and averse to change, hoped that time, reason, and argument would bring, if not redress, at least exemption from further insults, injuries and dangers. Recent events have fully dissipated all such hopes and demonstrated the necessity of separation. Our Northern confederates, after a full and calm hearing of all the facts, after a fair warning of our purpose not to submit to the rule of the authors of all these wrongs and injuries, have by a large majority committed the Government of the United States into their hands. The people of Georgia , after an equally full and fair and deliberate hearing of the case, have declared with equal firmness that they shall not rule over them."

Manning, who was educated in Michigan, served as a minister in Ohio and taught at colleges in Washington, D.C., contends the accepted delineation of "North vs. South" that has emerged in historical accounts of the war are inaccurate.

"If you look at primary sources, and in particular the OR, you find lots of inaccuracies in that Northern states versus Southern states line of thinking," he said. "You see that there were actually 20 states — the 11 official Confederate states, the four border states that Lincoln invaded early to head off secession, West Virginia, Delaware, the Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona territories — that opposed the Union Army.

"What's not so well known is that seven Democratic northern states, including New York , Pennsylvania , Indiana , Ohio , Michigan , Illinois and Wisconsin , actively opposed Lincoln and took up arms against the Union . The OR shows two significant facts: That 80 percent of the warfare of the Union Army was carried out against civilians — including torture, which is never talked about — to demoralize the South, and that 50 percent of the Union’s troops were dispatched to fight northern citizens who'd taken up arms against the North."

James King, the commander of the Albany Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp, said in a recent article that while "New England greed, New England radicals, New England fanatics, New England zealots and New England hypocrites" were the human elements responsible for the Civil War, his research points to a number of root causes that led to secession.

"In actuality, if you look at the causes of the war, it's a simple matter," King said. "The North wanted the goods it got from the South for pennies on the dollar, and the South simply fought against an invading army.

"But there were some very clear reasons Georgia and other Southern states seceded."

King's list of the 10 primary causes of secession includes excessive tariffs, centralization vs. states' rights, Christianity vs. secular humanism, cultural differences, control of western territories, Northern industrialists' desire for southern resources, slander of the South by Northern newspapers, attempts by New Englanders to instigate slave rebellion, slavery and northern aggression.

"What many don't realize is that a majority of Northern politicians supported acts of terrorism; 68 of 117 actually signed a document advocating terroristic activity against Southern citizens," King said. "Most educated Southerners of that time favored gradual emancipation of slaves and knew the institution of slavery would soon be dead.

"But what they could not abide was the unconstitutional acts carried out by Lincoln and the New Englanders who treated the South as an agricultural colony with the intent to bleed it dry. Their acts were not only immoral, they went against the very constitution upon which the Union was founded."

Thuersam, the native New Yorker who jokingly refers to himself as "Dances with Wolves" in that he grew to not only understand but agree with the Southern perspective on the Civil War after serving at Army bases in Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia, said many of the accepted factors surrounding the Civil War that are being called into question by current historians come from a refusal — particularly by Northerners — to "look at that era, warts and all."

"Surely the South invested millions of dollars in slave labor," he said, "but many seem to overlook the fact that most of the slave ships were outfitted and financed by northern traders. The North has done a good job over the years of covering its footsteps in the slave trade.

"Many influential Georgia leaders of that era — Toombs, Hill, (Henry) Benning, Stephens, Johnson, (Howell) Cobb, (Joseph) Brown — were opposed to secession, but what they saw was only intense sectional hostility; what they didn't see were practical and peaceful solutions from abolitionists to end the slavery controversy without bloodshed. Those Georgia leaders wanted peaceful settlement of the question, but got nothing but hatred, the inciting of slave insurrection and murder instead. They did what any sane person would do: sever ties with the fanatics to the North who threatened the peace and form their own political union, as proclaimed in Jefferson 's Declaration, with those they had something in common with.

"A more perfect union is what they were after, and with the consent of the governed."

Remembering John B. Gordon’s 180th Birthday

By Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., American-Historical Writer, Speaker, Author of book ‘When America Stood for God, Family and Country’ and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. http://www.scv.org
cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net

Stephen D. Lee, Commander-in-Chief, United Confederate Veterans, said of John B. Gordon:

‘He was a devout and humble Christian Gentlemen. I know of no man more beloved in the South, and he was probably the most popular Southern man among the people of the North.’

February is Black History Month. It is also the birthday month of George Washington, our first president. And it is the birthday month of John Brown Gordon of Georgia.

John B. Gordon, born February 6, 1832, was an orator, lawyer, statesman, soldier, publisher and governor of the state of Georgia. He is best known as one of General Robert E. Lee's generals. At Appomattox, his corps' encounter with the Union soldiers under Joshua Chamberlain is a classic story that began the healing of America.

Carter G. Woodson, father of Black History Week, has much in common with Gordon. Both believed that accurate American history should be taught in our schools. Woodson believed the study of Black history should include those African-Americans who fought on both sides of the War Between the States.

Black History Week became Black History Month in the 1960s.

Woodson, eleven years after the first Black History Week, founded the Negro History Bulletin for teachers, students and the public.

Gordon also stressed the need to tell the true story of those who fought for the Confederacy.

John B. Gordon believed in the South's Constitutional right to secession, but after the war, he worked to unite the nation and helped white and black Southerners the war made poor.

The 1st Annual General John B. Gordon birthday celebration in Atlanta, Georgia was held on Saturday, February 6, 1993, in front of the state capitol. An estimated one thousand people came to remember Gordon on a beautiful warm day.

When the band played ‘Dixie,’ the people stood up straight and proudly sang the words.

Many speakers praised Gordon. One man turned to the statue of Gordon and asked "General Gordon what do you say about those who would change American History?" Gordon, the Confederate, the Southerner might have answered firmly, "Take your history and teach it or others will teach their history!" He set up a publishing company after the war to help teach young folks Southern history.

In 1995, the weather was cold and snowy but hundreds still came out. That year a young African-American man joined the list of speakers. Eddie Page was a true friend and defender of the heritage of America and the South.

John B. Gordon was born in Upson County, Georgia. He was the fourth of twelve children of Zachariah and Malinda Cox Gordon. Young John was an excellent student at the University of Georgia.

He left the university before graduating and came to Atlanta to study law. There he met and married Rebecca Haralson and their union was long and happy.

September 17, 1862, is known was the bloodiest day in American history. Confederate General Gordon was there, defending a position called the sunken road. Wave upon wave of Union troops attacked Gordon's men. The casualties were beyond today's understanding. Gordon was struck by Yankee bullets four times, but continued to lead his men. Then, a fifth bullet tore through his right jaw and out of his left cheek. He fell with his face in his hat and would have drowned in his own blood except for a hole in his hat. Though Gordon survived these wounds, the last one left him permanently scarred. That is why in later photographs of him you see him only from the right side.

For years the John B. Gordon celebration, in Atlanta, Georgia, was concluded by a mile long march down Martin Luther King Drive to historic Oakland Cemetery where the general is buried. Not since past Confederate Memorial days has there been a scene on this street of soldiers in Confederate gray and women and children of black mourning dress.

The spirits of Carter Woodson and John Gordon were there with us on those February days when Confederate gray marched through the black neighborhood. Though 130 years separated today from yesterday there was a spirit that transcended time and color.

When John B. Gordon died in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt said of him, ‘A more gallant, generous, and fearless gentlemen and soldier has not been seen in this country.’

Woodson and Gordon are still with us---in spirit and, if you listen, they are saying: ‘Teach your children the whole story of America.’

The War Between the States Sesquicentennial, 150th Anniversary, runs 2011 through 2015. The Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans joins the nation in remembering this historic time in our nation’s history. See information at: http://www.150wbts.org/

THE RIGHT ARM OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE

He has fallen, he has fallen, he has fallen they say.
Fallen the great leader of the Stonewall Brigade.
Oh say it isn’t, oh say it isn’t, oh say it is not so!
Not felled by the enemy, but by one of our own!
By what strange circumstance did this calamity befall?
The day’s fighting was ended, they had sounded recall.

When General Lee had learned of his subordinate’s perilous condition,
For Jackson’s recovery, to his Maker, he made his entreating petition.
And to Jackson he sent his sincere salutation.
Each of them had suffered loss, but by Lee’s calculation,
The one who had lost most was most certainly he,
Lost was Jackson’s left, but he was the right arm of General Robert E. Lee

Through hell they’d have marched if he had but asked them to,
Now in stunned disbelief, the brigade cannot believe that his fighting is through.
For he’s crossed o’er the river to rest in the shade ‘neath the trees.
Gone is the right arm of General Robert E. Lee.

He would not know defeat when the Lord gave His call.
No yankee had toppled our beloved Stonewall.
They had feared, they had hated this great Christian warrior,
Never understanding ‘twas by faith that he battled with unswerving fervor.
He knew no harm could ever befall him without his Savior’s consent.
Thus in battle never wavering, as a babe in arms, he had stood quite content.
And his faith was rewarded, no yankee battle prize he,
When fell the right arm of General Robert E. Lee.

Now he’s traversed the river back to this small valley town;
Carried back to his beloved Lexington, he is now laid down.
And here he’ll rest in the shade ‘neath the trees
‘Til the Lord’s trumpet calls forth the right arm of General Robert E. Lee.

©Constance Lee Coffey Dorsey
1/8/2009

(my tribute to our unequaled generals)

RAFFLE - Sterling Silver Hand Made CSA Money Clip

David and Ann Reif make beautiful jewelry and travel the country selling it at craft fairs. They have donated to Southern Heritage News & Views and The Southern War Room a contemporary design hammer engraved sterling silver money clip with durable nickle alloy clasp. The face is 18ga sterling silver with a hand buffed mirror finish. It has a quality mark, hallmark, and is signed and dated. I will raffle it to bring in funds for SHNV & SWR.

Dave gave the following explanation for engraving it as he did: "Hammer engraving is the proper term but the technique is also called soldier engraving or trench art engraving. Look up "Vietnam Zippos" for a recent example. In the long hours with little to do sometimes soldiers would get a nail and a piece of metal and hammer or punch the metal into patterns, designs, or the name of their sweetheart. Instead of doing a fine-line engraving on the clip I decided to use this technique which is much closer to what our boys might have done."

Raffle tickets are $1.00 and can be sent by PayPal or check. Email me at demastus@aol.com for mailing address.

I won't send out tickets but will put your name on a spread sheet, once for each dollar, and cut them out and draw names in about a month.

Thanks for your support.

Chuck & PoP

AN ADVENTURE AND A CAUSE

By Bob Hurst
confederatedad1@yahoo.com

Everyone has a place, or places, that they especially wish to visit someday. Often these places are vacation destinations, famous cities or even venues for certain events ( I, for instance, would someday love to attend The Masters and the Kentucky Derby). Generally, these destinations are sites that would be appealing or of interest to a great number of people. At an entirely different and more visceral level is that particular place that calls to us for more emotional reasons which reach to the very core of our being. That place for me has long been the small town of Lexington, Virginia.

My fascination for Virginia began at an early age. When I was just a young lad, not even nine years old, I started studying American history. My first heroes were the American presidents and my favorites were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe, all Virginians. It was not long after this that the wonderful librarian in my hometown of Talladega, Miss Willie Welch, introduced me to the Confederacy and then there were two more larger-than-life figures in my life and they, too, were Virginians. These two giants were Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.

Reinforcing this feeling for Virginia was the fact that I had an aunt and uncle who lived in Warrenton, Virginia and their visits to Talladega were always much-anticipated by the entire family. She was an extremely intelligent woman and such a free spirit and he was a scientist with a research firm located in northern Virginia just across the Potomac from Washington. Their visits to Talladega were always a very special time and I learned a lot about Southern and Confederate history from talking with them. Uncle Paul, in fact, was the person who taught me the correct pronunciation of the word "Shenandoah". This precocious young boy had mispronounced the word while rattling on about all I knew of the War Between the States.

Now, fast forward about nine years to my freshman year in college at Auburn University. I had entered the summer of 1964 right out of high school and had gone out for "Rush" that Fall. I went to Auburn wanting to be a Sigma Nu because of the number of outstanding men in my hometown who belonged to that fine organization. I was privileged to receive a bid from Sigma Nu and committed early during Rush Week.

It was during my pledge period that Lexington, Virginia, began to become that special place that I simply had to visit someday. It was while studying my pledge manual (which I still have, by the way) that I learned that the national headquarters of my fraternity is located in Lexington. I also learned that Sigma Nu was founded as an honor fraternity at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), which is also located in Lexington, by three cadets at that venerable institution. VMI is the very school where General Jackson was an instructor (although he was not a general yet) before he marched into immortality as the remarkable "Stonewall".

The pledge manual had fine pen-and-ink drawings of Jackson and the impressive military-style buildings at VMI. It also contained drawings of Robert E. Lee and the beautiful architecture of Washington and Lee University (W&L) which adjoins VMI. The manual explained how, after the War, Robert E. Lee had sought a place of culture and refinement where he could use his talents to build a better world. He found it in Lexington as president of a small college (then called "Washington College") . That institution now bears his name and the name of this country's first president and is one of the outstanding institutions of higher learning in this country. Those words, "culture" and "refinement" , came to exemplify Lexington to me. Since Sigma Nu was founded as an honor fraternity and the word appeared frequently in the pledge manual, the mystique of Lexington, for me, continued to grow. Learning later that both Lee and Jackson are buried in Lexington just fueled my desire to visit this historic town.

I almost visited Lexington the summer of 1966 when I spent two and a half months visiting my relatives in Warrenton. I was able to get a job for the summer so I would have spending money but it reduced drastically the time I had for travel and sightseeing. Also, I was given a summer membership in the Fauquier Springs Swim & Tennis Club in exchange for playing on the club team in the Blue Ridge Tennis League and teaching tennis lessons one day a week (I was playing for Auburn at the time). This further reduced travel time. Since I was already into photographing beautiful, old Greek Revival homes (my favorite style of architecture) I spent most of my roadtime in northern Virginia capturing images of wonderful structures such as Carter Hall (Berryville), Oatlands (Leesburg), Oak Hill (Loudoun County) and Montpelier (Orange County). This didn't include the entire day I spent in Charlottesville with my Aunt Sara visiting Monticello and UVA. Lexington was just a bit too far away.

The years after graduation from Auburn included work, marriage, work, graduate school, work, childrearing and work and there was just never time to get to Lexington although the desire still remained.

Then, this past Fall, I read that the city council of Lexington had passed an ordinance prohibiting the flying of any Confederate flag on the lampposts downtown (or any other public place) at any time including the annual parade through town on Lee-Jackson Day. It seems that some of the always complaining people had complained that they were "offended" by the flags and, of course, the mavens of political correctness on the city council naturally caved to the complainers. I knew then that this would be the year that I finally got to Lexington.

I and many other Southerners are sick and tired of history being revised and old traditions done away with so that ignorant people won't be "offended". I knew it was now time to ride to the sound of the guns just as our Confederate ancestors had done so many times in their quest for Southern independence. I also knew that Southerners from all over the South and beyond would be riding to the sound of those guns in Lexington. Thus began the adventure.

It is 726 miles from my house in Tallahassee to downtown Lexington. Even though I no longer wear the clothes of a young man and that mileage indicated a trip of more than twelve hours, I felt certain that Lee, Jackson, Stuart, Ashby, Mosby, Pelham, Hill, Early and so many more would be riding right along side me so it should be a piece of cake - and it was until I turned north at Charlotte onto I-77. By the time I reached the mountains the bottom had fallen out and the sky had turned dark and ominous.

The next few hours on I-77 and then I-81 can only be described as "harrowing". Many times I thought to myself,"What have I gotten into" but then remembered that the generals and all were riding with me and Jedediah Hotchkiss was planning the route so I plunged ahead. I reached Lexington sometime after 9PM (I had left Tallahassee at 7:30AM). It had been 71 degrees when I left Tallahassee Thursday morning - it wasn't when I arrived in Lexington.

When I stepped out of my motel room Friday morning there were snowflakes falling outside and the wind was blowing at what at first appeared to be gale force. I had arisen early as my plan was to first go to Stonewall Jackson Cemetery before people started arriving so that I could spend some quiet time with the general and take some pictures sans people. There is a wonderful statue of General Jackson at his gravesite and as I gazed at that visage in that beautiful cemetery where almost 150 Confederates sleep eternally under the gaze of the surrounding mountains I was deeply touched and felt so close to and proud of my Southern heritage. Yes, I did tear up a bit but it was a warm and good feeling. I also took some beautiful pictures and plan to enlarge and frame some.

After leaving the cemetery I spent some time riding around exploring Lexington and just enjoying the beautiful architecture. I won't try to describe the town, I will merely say that the town has been there since the 1700's when there was much great architecture created in Virginia and there is an abundance of significant architecture in Lexington. The streets downtown are narrow (many are one-way) and some of the shops still have stoops. Wonderful!

I had located Sigma Nu National Headquarters during my exploring and made a point to be there by 9AM. The structure sits atop a hill with a winding drive going up to the front entrance and it is simply stunning. The main two-story central section was once one of the finer homes in Lexington and to this has been added curved one-story wings which beautifully complement the main section. It would fit nicely among the fine old mansions in the Tidewater. I was treated like royalty by everyone I met and was given a complete tour by a fine, young Southern gentlemen named Todd Denson which I truly enjoyed. I also felt honored when a copy of each of my books was accepted for placement in the alumni portion of the headquarters library. This is where books written by Sigma Nu alums are kept and after perusing the shelves I was hoping my two small books would be placed alongside the two shelves of books written by the legendary Zane Grey who was a Sigma Nu at the University of Pennsylvania. Actually, I will be happy with a corner location on a bottom shelf.

Friday afternoon was taken up by a five-hour symposium featuring a number of speakers ranging from university professors to the commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. After this we were prepared for the centerpiece of the weekend celebration - the parade through downtown and the other events planned for Lee-Jackson Day on Saturday. And thankfully, when Saturday came it was a good bit warmer than Friday. Still cold, just not as cold.

Everything began Saturday with a dignified ceremony at the grave of Stonewall Jackson. It was a marvelous sight with hundreds of men in Confederate uniforms and period clothing and hundreds of Southern ladies in period clothing, mourning clothes and other suitable attire. And there were flags; oh, were there flags! There were several hundred flags with the preponderance, of course, being Confederate Battle Flags.

I had taken two flags to the event - a CBF and a Lee Headquarters Flag. Fortuitously, earlier that morning I had met a father and daughter from Conway, South Carolina who had, as had I, gone to Lee Chapel on the W&L campus to take photographs. Actually, it turned out that I had previously met the dad, Tony Anderson, at the 2011 SCV National Reunion in Montgomery, Alabama. I mentioned that I had an extra flag and asked if they would like to walk alongside me in the parade and carry a flag. I have got to say that the Battle Flag never looked finer than when it was carried through the streets of Lexington by a pretty 15-year old named Chelsea.

The parade procession received a great reception from the crowd in town and eventually ended at the VMI drillfield. From there most everyone made their way back to W&L (it's just a few hundred feet) to Lee Chapel for a service there. It is an overwhelming feeling to sit in the very chapel where the immortal Robert E. Lee had worshiped during the last years of his splendid life. It is also overwhelming to gaze upon the Edward Valentine sculpture of a reclining Robert E. Lee, in uniform, which is placed directly behind the pulpit and directly over his tomb in the lower level of the chapel.

The service essentially brought to an end the official festivities. There was a luncheon and later an evening banquet at the Virginia Horse Center just a few miles out of town. After the luncheon I returned to the VMI campus and took photographs of the beautiful buildings there. While photographing the statue of General Jackson that stands in front of one of the oldest buildings on campus, a professor who was jogging by stopped and offered to take pictures of me in front of the statue. He was a truly nice man and we had about a 10-minute conversation which again brought to mind the words "culture" and "refinement" as the proper descriptive terms for Lexington.

I hated to leave and delayed my departure until 10 o'clock Sunday morning. I took some more pictures, of course, as I was leaving and then buckled down for the , what proved to be, 14-hour trip back to Tallahassee.

I had finally been to Lexington and it was an experience I will never forget. Not only did it make me prouder than ever of my two fraternities - Sigma Nu and the Sons of Confederate Veterans - but it gave me an even greater admiration for Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan Jackson and the Cause for which they fought and the remarkable lives that they lived. It also gave me a warm feeling to know that so many Southerners would ride to the sound of the guns and from such distances. I spoke with attendees from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and, of course, Virginia from the Confederate states. I also met compatriots from Illinois and Indiana who might not live in the South but certainly have the South in their hearts. It gave me great hope for the future of our Cause and the veneration of our Confederate ancestors.

GOD BLESS THE SOUTH!

DEO VINDICE

Note: CONFEDERATE JOURNAL in book form is now available online. Volume 1, 2005-2007 can be ordered at http://createspace.com/3540609 and Volume 2, 2008-2009 can be ordered at http://createspace.com/3543269

Bob Hurst is a Southern Patriot who has special interests in the Confederacy and the antebellum architecture of the South. He is Commander of Col. David Lang Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans in Tallahassee and is 2nd Lieutenant Commander of the Florida Division, SCV. He can be contacted at confederatedad1@yahoo.com or 850-878-7010.