The True South Through My Eyes, HK Edgerton

HK Edgerton, a black Confederate advocate, tells of his fondness for the South, the Confederacy, the distinction between the original Klan and another formed forty years later for totally different purposes, and the rarely told truth about Nathan Bedford Forrest.

A Critique of Topsy Turvy

Part 1

By Joan Hough

An advertisement of Anya Jabour’s Topsy Turvy (1) led me to believe that her book actually told, as presented under its title on the cover, “How the Civil War turned the World Upside Down for Southern Children.“ On the back of the book’s cover I read “Sweeping from the late antebellum period to the aftermath of the war, with balanced coverage of both white and black children from across the South, Jabour’s volume is wonderful social history that deepens our understanding of the trauma and positive consequences of the conflicts. It is filled with apt quotations and sharp insights. Anyone interested in the history of women, gender, family, and slavery---much less the Civil War----should read this book.” These words were those of John B. Boles, author of The South Through Time.

The cover of Jabour’s “history book” captures a drawing from a novel by the imaginative female novelist who penned Uncle Tom's Cabin. That, in itself, reveals the bias of Jabour.

I have now concluded another few hours of dealing with Jabour’s “same old, same old—same song, millioneth verse,” echo of all that politically correct historians have spewed forth since Lincoln, his Marxist buddies, and their newly imported, non-English speaking or reading foreigners destroyed the heart and brain of America.

Jabour does sprinkle a few historical facts about on the pages of her "historical novel," but for the most part she writes a twisted saga designed to enthrall the liberated, beguiled, bothered and bewildered women in her "women gender" history classes. These students are programmed to appreciate her digs at white Southern children and their wicked, prejudiced, slave-beating parents. Jabour does not reveal that she is aware that northerners owned white slaves and black ones and were exceedingly harsh owners, but then, books reporting hideous treatment of the north’s slaves by northerners neither sell nor earn academic distinctions for their authors.

Jabour contends that white daughters of Confederate mothers merely reflected their parents’ perverted views. Children can absorb parental beliefs-- what an earth-shaking revelation! Jabour must conclude, then, that daughters of the morally superior northerners mirror the beliefs of their parents. (Do hold that thought in mind for later consideration—perhaps when you learn that General Sherman, who had children of his own, believed children, should be killed if they were Southerners. Must we accept that Sherman’s children, including the one who became a Catholic priest, agreed with their papa? Radical Republicans such as Republican Senator Benjamin Wade insisted that hideous forms of torture should be applied to helpless Confederate prisoners. He had the U.S. Senate issue the demand for such and that practice was initiated in every Union prison for Confederates. Surely Jabour has concluded that Wade’s children, James F. Wade and Henry P. Wade, mirrored their father’s beliefs.

Certainly it is a fact that white families in the North did own and did cruelly mistreat slaves. Many of those slaves were black and many were white.(2) One can only wonder why Jabour deigns not to mention the treatment of the Grant family’s black slaves by General Grant’s white wife and white daughter or that the good general, the Radical Republican’s darling, was elected to the Presidency despite the truth that the Grants kept slavery alive in their home long after the end of the so-called “War to End Slavery.”

Jabour, like Republicans back then, proves, quite obviously by ignoring truth, that she considers slave owners evil only if they were Southerners.

Readers will not learn the real facts from a Jabour convinced that the War was fought by noble Northerners to free Southern slaves; she cannot tell what she has yet to learn. She is uninformed about the presence of a multitude of Marxists generals and Colonels in the Union’s army and the plan of European Communists to take over the U.S. She is unaware that Southerners could have stopped the war at any time and kept slaves forever by paying Lincoln and his Republicans the humongous tariffs. We now suspect that despite impoverishing Southerners, the payments would have forced the Radical Marxist- Republicans to gain their ends via other machinations. Jabour has no idea why the Union and its Marxists were determined to eliminate Confederates. She is oblivious to the fact that the Union’s chief propagandist, a second generation American Socialist, was also a Marxist.

The Marxists fought their War of Northern Aggression for the purpose of continuing their failed Socialist European Revolution of 1848.(3) Their plan for a new world order depended on the establishment of an all-powerful central government. Adhering to the ‘goals” delineated in The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, they played “footsies” with crazed New England abolitionists and started the Republican Party. Hochbruck in his article mentions “Republican Party” activities, of the Communist/Socialist Germans he lauds.(3) Walter Kennedy and Al Benson, Jr. in their Red Republicans and Lincoln’s Marxists: Marxism in the Civil War give us all the details concerning the Communist affiliations of these same Germans.

The Marxists' plans insured that Christian beliefs would lose all influence in the U.S. government. Southerners had to be destroyed for many reasons—one of them, religion. Communists loathe religions and people who believe that man’s rights come from God and NOT from government. All persons resisting government’s assumption of the role of God must be destroyed. (So everyone believing in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution must die.)

In the middle of the war when Lincoln was losing it and his citizens were refusing to fight any longer, men in the north had to be hired at $1000 each if they were to fight in Mr. Lincoln’s army. American Marxists came to the rescue of the U.S. They imported many thousands of Germans and other Europeans eager for loot and ‘get out of a European jail free cards. ” They filled the U.S. army with non-English speaking soldiers. They prevailed on Lincoln to “emancipate” slaves—but only in places where he had no power, so slavery remained intact in those areas controlled by the Union.

To motivate northern citizens to continue the war, a great flurry of anti-South Socialist reports was created by a member of the Fourier Communist Society, the master propagandist-gifted journalist, Charles A. Dana. He became Lincoln’s Assistant Secretary of War. Dana’s journalistic expertise enabled Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, to promulgate thousands of pages of vile, vicious, anti-South propaganda, painting Southerners as repulsive, slave-raping monsters. This propaganda won back Northern supporters and guaranteed that the South’s slaves would not be freed as had slaves elsewhere in the world --gradually after training, without the necessity of the loss of a single life. It also made sure that the U.S. government or northern slave merchants would not be forced to buy back slaves and free them.

White Southerners were painted in hues of decadence and shades of sadism so revolting those gullible northerners and their men of God came to believe Southern men, women and children deserved annihilation. U.S. generals declared extermination of Southerners was their goal. Cultural genocide in the South became “a must.” The Southern Holocaust became a reality.

Despite Jabour's impressions, the war of Lincoln and his crew of Radical Republicans, demonic Democrats, and maniacal Marxists was not begun to free slaves, nor was the north’s invasion resisted by Southerners so that a small percentage of slave owners could own slaves and continue furnishing northern factory owners with cotton. Jabour would have us believe that Southerners were stupid enough to die so a few folks could be slave masters. She seems to think that northerners had the only claim to the belief that slaves should be free. Jabour is either ignorant of the truth or deliberately ignores it, for never does she mention that Southern slave owners had been freeing slaves in large numbers for many years before the war. Louisiana, for example, was full of free black men and women who were educated and prepared for freedom. Not only were they free, but they were prosperous, religious, and joyful. Before the north’s invasion, “the good times rolled” in New Orleans and Louisiana. (What was common knowledge to Louisianans must have shocked the Germans and others under command of Beast Butler, and the multitude of foreigners in Mr. Sherman’s ranks, so of course it was found unbelievable by the Union’s black troops posted in Louisiana’s during the twelve years of Reconstruction’s military reign there.

Jabour states: “Children of all backgrounds agreed that the central issue of the war was slavery.” With these words, this female historian joins the ranks of Radical Republicans and Marxist mythmakers.

Who can believe that Jabour or anyone else polled Confederate children of all backgrounds? Certainly there is plenty of proof that adult Southerners, prior to public school Civil War brainwash, did not believe slavery the cause of the war, although they feared Yankee-designed slave uprising ending in white slaughter. Southern kids, as intelligent as any in the world, took lessons from the invaders, and learned justifiable hatred for them once they watched Yankee soldiers torture Southern mothers, tear off the lobes of the mother’s ears to obtain earrings, break fingers to steal wedding rings, destroy all the food in the house, steal the children’s toys, the baby’s clothes, and even their mother’s dresses, take the linens from their beds, choke and or rape their black friends and their white friends, stomp live chickens, dig up their dead grandfather, defecate in their piano, and chop off heads of puppies and kittens, destroy Bibles, family portraits, furniture, every speck of food—leaving nothing for hungry children, chop up and/ or burn the home and the church, etc., etc., etc. Southern children, both black and white ones, were witnesses to genocide and a holocaust. How could they ever forget? Some did not. Their descendants today testify to this truth.

Although Southern children were well aware of the horrors facing them, their mothers, their grandparents and their friends and neighbors at the hands of Union troops and well knew “freeing slaves” was not the reason for such, Jabour seems totally brainwashed into believing something else. Obviously Professor Jabour is not cognizant of the findings of Dr. Donald Livingston, a professor of Philosophy at Emory University. Dr. Livingston completed a study of the twelve years of U.S. military occupancy of the South. He found 800,000 to 1,200,000 black Southerners killed by Mr. Lincoln’s soldiers and 1,000,000 whites killed. He was interested in the official statements in the U.S. War Department’s records which stated that 80 percent of the USA war was against the South’s civilians—women, children and the elderly. Other researchers have noted Union approval for destruction of the South’s churches and for genocide and extermination of Southern people (Timothy D. Manning, Southern Heritage News and Views, “Re U.S.A. Genocide Against the Christian South” October 25, 2011).

Slavery, as the cause of the war, was not even something believed by the soldiers who invaded the South before the new European recruits arrived. (David C. Edmonds, ed. The Conduct of Federal Troops in Louisiana During the Invasions of 1863 and 1864: Compiled From Sworn Testimony).

Most Southerners knew the war was about shredding the U.S. Constitution—plundering the South’s riches, transforming the Republic into a type of all powerful government controlled by an oligarchy which would appropriate and redistribute even the fertile earth around little farm houses. Most Southerners were not planters-- they were farmers! And they owned no slaves. Without the Constitutionally-protected States’ Rights, the South’s beautiful forests, its deep water ports, its gold, and even the amazing climate which gave life to plants unable to thrive in the north--all would be taken over by the Republican Radicals. Hunger and poverty would reign supreme throughout the once richest, most productive part of America. Most Southerners were aware that another important goal of the enemies was to eliminate the very type of Southern mentality that had inspired that first secession—the one from Great Britain –the one that engendered the creation and acceptance of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution.

Various goals delineated in the Communist Manifesto were achieved by the victors of the deadliest war in America’s history. Although Southerners and many northerners were unaware that Marxism even existed, Marxist seeds were well planted in America’s soil in the middle of the 1800’s. They grew well, bloomed and continue today to produce noxious fumes easily detected by anyone not a complete idiot, or completely brainwashed by government-controlled education. The fulfillment of the goals was enabled by genocidal murders of thousands upon thousands of helpless Southern women, children and imprisoned Confederate soldiers. Murders, rapes, and tortures of civilians occurred more often than the politically correct historians [such as Jabour] can even imagine but are, finally, being called to the attention of Americans by historians such as Edmonds. (David C. Edmonds, The Conduct of Federal Troops in Louisiana. During the Invasions of 1863 and 1864: Official Report of the Teche Campaigns and the burning of Alexandria –Compiled from Sworn Testimony Under direction of Governor Henry Watkins Allen). Even black children and their mothers were raped, tortured, and deliberately killed by the invaders. It was not unusual that the Yankee soldiers would even shoot and kill black men and young boys who refused to go away with them ( Walter Brian Cisco. War Crimes against Southern Civilians, p.174).

Jabour fails to mention a single atrocity committed by northerners against Southern Women and their babies. She seems only to embellish rather silly interactions which make the blacks look mistreated, their psyches/self concepts bruised by white children and women. She cites as factual one case wherein a mentally ill woman causes a candy stealing black girl to be injured. (This case may be no more real than the famous one of “Sybil” which was so believed by the psychiatric profession that a Hollywood movie resulted from it. Only recently did the lady called “Sybil” announce that the entire thing was faked.)

Because Jabour ignores the relationships of the South’s black women plantation owners and their daughters with hundreds of black slaves, one must conclude that Jabour believes only white folks living in the South owned slaves.

If Ms Jabour studied the servant classes elsewhere in the world, she would find Southern blacks during the antebellum period were, customarily, better treated than most. Certainly Southern slaves were better treated even than the north’s white factory workers then--far better than those white children put to work throughout the United Kingdom as chimney sweeps. America’s northerners certainly mistreated the poor little Irish children and Scottish ones sold by the English to Northerners as "bondsmen”. Southern blacks had food in their stomachs, clothing, roofs over their heads, plenty of sunshine, warmth in winter, health care and some happy holidays. They were not kicked out to die when they grew old. Their lot in life beat the heck out of that of the north’s white “factory slaves who were worked to death or spent their lives, hungry and shivering in dark factories.

To be continued

(1) (Don Jordan and Michael Walsh. White Cargo: The Forgotten history of Britain’s White Slaves in America).

(2) Wolfgang Hochbruck. “Achtundvierziger” in den Armeen der Union: Eine voriaufige Liste” –“Forty-Eighters in the Union Armies: A Preliminary Checklist.”- found on free pages of Ancestry.com

(3) (David C. Edmonds, ed. The Conduct of Federal Troops in Louisiana During the Invasions of 1863 and 1864: Compiled From Sworn Testimony Official Report of the Teche Campaigns and the burning of Alexandria –Compiled from Sworn Testimony Under direction of Governor Henry Watkins Allen).

( 4) Walter Brian Cisco. War Crimes against Southern Civilians, p.174).

Old Jubilee's Near Miss

By Bob Hurst

Those of you who are regular readers of this series will possibly recall that the October 2010 article was about a missed opportunity by the Confederacy to capture Washington after routing the Federal Army at the Battle of First Manassas. That situation involved General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's desire to follow the fleeing yankees into the practically undefended city and capture the northern capital and possibly Abraham Lincoln himself. This possibly would have brought a quick end to the War. That action did not come to fruition, though, as President Jefferson Davis would not allow General Jackson to go on the offensive by launching an attack on the capital since the Confederate president was committed to the Confederacy taking the high road and maintaining only a defensive strategy for the War.

This column will be about another narrow miss by the Confederates in capturing Washington which occurred much later in the War and involved another of my favorite generals of the Confederacy, Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early. Before we look at the missed opportunity, let me first tell you a bit about General Early, or "Old Jubilee" as he was frequently called.

Jubal Anderson Early was born into a fine Virginia family of Franklin County. He graduated high in his class at West Point (Class of 1837) and, after a brief stint in the military returned to his home county to begin a practice in law. He served as a member of the Virginia Secession Convention and was actually opposed to secession. He immediately offered his services to his State, however, when Virginia voted to secede. He joined the Confederate Army and was recognized as someone with great potential by Robert E. Lee and was given the rank of colonel. He rose quickly through the ranks because of his command skills and was promoted to brigadier general from July 1861, major general from January 1863 and lieutenant general from May 1864.

General Early was considered outspoken and of strong opinion. He was recognized as an expert strategist and one of the outstanding combat commanders of the Confederate Army. Altogether he was an accomplished person and military commander. One of the things I have always admired about Jubal Early came after the War had ended. He served as the first president of the Southern Historical Society and maintained a solid and well-reasoned defense of the Confederate effort and especially of Robert E. Lee during a period when many were trying to attack both. Jubal Early lived for almost thirty years after the War ended and remained unreconstructed until the day he died - truly a man that I can admire.

Now that we've discussed a bit about this outstanding Southerner, let'e look at how he came so close to taking Washington and bagging Abraham Lincoln in the process.

This episode in the history of the War began in mid-June 1864 when General Robert E. Lee sent a dispatch to General Early concerning a rather ambitious plan for summer action. At this time Jubal Early was commander of the Army of Northern Virginia's Second Corps which was known as "The Army of the Valley".

In this plan General Lee wanted General Early to first take Lynchburg and then make a sweep through the Shenandoah Valley to the northern extremities of Virginia before turning south through Maryland and eventually end by making an assault on Washington . Two other elements of this ambitious plan, in addition to overthrowing Union garrisons along the way, were to destroy telegraph and railroad lines in the vicinity of Washington and Baltimore and also have part of the force make a lightning strike into southern Maryland to free the Confederate prisoners being held at the infamous Point Lookout prison.

The plan was extremely ambitious but General Lee knew that the South was running out of time and it would take something daring to turn the tide on the scourge in blue which had a vastly larger supply of soldiers to extend the War, money to finance the War and supplies to support its army. Plus, Lee had always been a risk-taker and in General Early he felt he had the most capable commander to successfully execute such a daring plan since the death of the redoubtable "Stonewall". Another element of this bold plan was to hopefully draw the armies of Grant and Meade away from the Richmond/Petersburg theater when they realized an attack was being made on Washington. This would offer some relief to General Lee's army.

General Early's sweep northward through the Shenandoah Valley began well with a resounding defeat of the blue coats at Lynchburg on June 18 and 19. This victory was especially gratifying since the yankee commander was General David Hunter, one of that group of reprobate northern commanders who delighted in attacking Southern civilian targets a la Sherman and Sheridan.

By early July General Early's forces had reached as far north as Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg where federal garrisons were taken by the boys in gray. Early, at this point, slowed down the approach to Washington to allow his weary troops to rest and relax for awhile and enjoy the feasts intended for the yankee troops at the captured garrisons. General Early also spent time in this area ransoming some of the neighboring towns to make the northern sympathizers pay for the destruction done to the Shenandoah Valley by the likes of Hunter and Sheridan. This delay in the advance on Washington, however, created problems as we shall soon see.

A major hurdle on the advance toward Washington occurred at Monocacy. Under the outstanding leadership of Early and generals John B. Gordon, John C. Breckenridge, Stephen Ramseur, John McCausland and Robert Rodes the Confederates inflicted massive casualties on the federals (more than 20% of the federal troop count) and the victory opened the way to Washington but the battle proved more difficult than anticipated and caused another delay in the approach to the capital by the weary troops. [ An interesting sidenote to the battle is that the Union commander, General Lew Wallace, after the War authored the marvelous book BEN HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST which was many years later made into an Oscar-winning motion picture. That picture to this day remains one of the all-time favorites of a certain fellow who first saw it as a young boy growing up in Alabama. OK, I'll admit that some yankees did accomplish some things worthy of recognition.]

By July of 1864 the city of Washington resembled a fortress. Since the beginning of theWar, some 60 forts had been built around the city in addition to 37 miles of earthworks containing sites for artillery. More than 31,000 troops were available for the defense of the city but few of these were regular troops or battle-hardened veterans. Many were troops in training and even government workers and few had the ability to capably handle artillery duties. All of this was known to General Early since Washington was filled with Confederate spies.

By July 10 General Early was ready to make the final approach to Washington. Unfortunately the Confederate troops, wearied by month-long campaigning over long distances in the stifling heat, were near exhaustion. On the afternoon of July 11 it was reported to General Early that it likely was possible to breech the defenses at Fort Stevens, one of the chain of forts surrounding the city. As the Confederates advanced, however, they were being met by Federal reinforcements of regular troops that had begun arriving that morning. General Early and his officers decided to not force the issue that day but to give the men another day of rest and survey the situation the next morning.

The final advance on Washington began in the morning of July 12. By this time Federal reinforcements had flowed into the city - by some estimates as many as 20,000 troops. The 14,000 Confederates engaged the Federals for most of the day and there were numerous skirmishes and some artillery fire but Washington was not going to fall that day.

The most interesting event of the day, however, involved Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and his entourage had traveled out to Fort Stevens in the afternoon to watch the battle. Lincoln's group was standing on the parapet of the fort viewing the action when a Confederate sharpshooter stationed almost 1000 yards from the fort noticed a tall man wearing a top hat standing among a group atop the fort. The sharpshooter took aim and fired and saw someone go down. It was impossible, though, to determine exactly which person he had hit because of the distance and the haze created by the extreme heat of the day.

The individual who was killed by the shot was a physician named Cornelius Crawford. Crawford had been standing beside Abraham Lincoln. When the group realized how close Lincoln had come to being killed they quickly rushed him down from the parapet. As Lincoln removed himself from his position of vulnerability, he issued an order authorizing artillery bombardment of the area harboring the sharpshooters. This included the civilian homes in the area.

At the end of the day of skirmishes, General Early ordered his troops to withdraw back to Virginia.

In his dispatch to General Early, General Lee had indicated that he wanted Early to "threaten Washington". This could be interpreted as meaning General Lee never envisioned the capital being taken but merely threatened to the point that forces under Grant and Meade would be pulled from the Richmond/Petersburg theater, thus taking pressure off Lee's army, to rush to the defense of Washington.

Hindsight indicates that had Jubal Early been able to get his troops to Washington just a day or two earlier then it is entirely likely the city could have been taken. The overall plan was so ambitious, though, that it exhausted the Confederates trying to cover such a great distance and accomplish so much. The battle at Monocacy also played a major role in delaying the Confederate forces in reaching Washington before reinforcements arrived and likely saved the city from being captured.

It seems certain that if Early could have taken Washington or if the sharpshooter's bullet had found Lincoln then things would have been changed drastically in the summer of '64. It's even possible that the Federals would have called a cease-fire since losing their capital would have certainly created a damaging psychological blow to the North. The War never was very popular among the civilian population of the North.

As it stands, though, it is just another "what if". Of course, you cannot change history. I truly wish that General Early and the boys in gray could have gotten to Washington just two days earlier. Ah, well, as Whittier so wisely wrote: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these: it might have been!"

DEO VINDICE

Note: CONFEDERATE JOURNAL articles from 2005 through 2009 are now available in book form. Book 1 contains articles from 2005-2007 and can be ordered online at http://createspace.com/3540609. Book 2 contains articles from
2008-2009 and can be ordered online at http://createspace.com3543269.

Bob Hurst is a Southern Patriot who has strong interests in the Confederacy and the anrebellum architecture of the South. He is Commander of Col. David Lang Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans, in Tallahassee and is also 2nd Lieutenant Commander of the Florida Division, SCV. Contact information is confederatedad1@yahoo.com or 850-878-7010.

Lexington Lee-Jackson Day

ATTENTION FLAGGERS

ESPECIALLY IN DEEP SOUTH !!!!
Most all of us are well aware of the MAJOR Heritage Violation that has taken place at Plant Wansley in Heard County earlier this month, and most everyone has heeded the call and have shot off angry communications to people in Plant Wansley, Georgia Power, and Southern Company. This is what caused Ga Power to replace the Flags. -THIS NEEDS TO CONTINUE!

But there comes a time where all we do is reach the same people and they become a blocking filter to all other personel and it keeps exposure to a minimum.

I call upon ALL FLAGGERS, and those angry at the CRIMES that were committed by Ga Power against our Confederate ancestors to pick your targets in the 1st ever Multi-State Flagging. Instead of having Flaggers travel to Plant Wansley gates, who are very much aware of the situation, You have in your local communities a Georgia Power office, an Alabama Power office, or a Mississippi Power office, as well as maintainance barns - all of which fall under the umbrella of Southern Company. (if any are aware of other related businesses, include them)

Travel to one or more of these local places in your community and set up shop.

This will increase the public's as well as employees knowledge (how many real Southerners work for this conglomerate?) and may end up in your local media as well.

To refresh your mind on the events read these links, and make copies of the applicable laws that were violated. While the flags are back on a 'temp' basis, this is not any kind of permanent solution, PLUS the CRIMES are still unresolved and need to be prosecuted. GRAB y'all's flags and make your signs - show up outside a Southern Company interest, (Uniforms are a PLUS) and give 'em double canister!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TURN UP THE HEAT - KEEP UP THE SKEER !!

SCV Replace Flags on Graves

Confederate Flags at Old Yellow Dirt Cemetery

Confederate Veterans are United States Veterans

Victory Battle Flags Rrestored

Georgia Power Returns Stolen Confederate Flags

Flags Returned to Graves

Georgia Power dragging their feet

Confederate Flag Controversy Continues

VICTORY!!! Battle flags restored!

Plant Wansley surrenders, Battle flags restored!

The news broke at approximately 3:20pm on October 18th, 2011, that just an hour earlier the Confederate Battle flags that had been stolen from the graves of 7 Confederate Veterans in the Yellow Dirt Cemetery located inside Georgia Power's Plant Wansley only 6 days earlier - with blessing of management -
Have Been Restored!!!!!!!

[><] Yes, Praise God - SWEET VICTORY! [><]
The mounting pressures from unrelenting forces finally woke up the "Southern" Company folks that they had not stepped, but jumped head first into a horrible situation by desecrating the final resting places of 7 Confederate Veterans violating numerous Georgia laws, then attempted to cover it up with denial and obfuscation -
at one point attempting to forbid visitors into the cemetery itself.

From the initial response to replacing the original missing 7 Confederate Battle flags on October 8th by the Haralson Invincibles Camp # 673, when called upon by descendants of one of the Confederate Veterans thru the heartbreaking and very damning media reports from Heard Citizen, News-Banner, Times-Journal and Carroll Star alerting us the flags have been removed again on October 12th, right on thru to those who answered the call to arms from such groups as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and people like Tommy PoP Aaron and his blog support, Charles Demastus for his ever diligent Southern Heritage News and Views, the excellent YouTube video by Chad Smith and the Facebook protest page and web support from Susan Hathaway, strong local efforts from Billy Bearden and Ernie Blevins as well as everyone reading this press release who helped make this moment possible

On this announcement
Thank Y'all very much - YOU HAVE BEEN HEARD AND OBEYED!

HOWEVER, no VICTORY is ever permanent and careful vigilance is always needed to ensure the vanquished do not rise up and repeat their evil deeds. Please do not consider this anything but temporary and we must be on full alert - especially during the next month for any possible corporate maneuvers.

Respecting the 30 day alert status, the time will be used to prepare a defense and strategy should any "permanent plan" not be to the satisfaction of the descendants or the SCV. We know they are using the time as well for their planning.

Guards are posted to ensure the proposed "truce" is honored.

This is a case where the descendants, who not current members of the SCV but planning to join, did much of the work as they had the most ability to claim direct harm, but without support from members of the SCV and many others they could have easily been minimized and run over by the Wansley Plant and Georgia Power.

Again, the descendants of those buried in the Yellow Dirt Church say "Thank y'all, it is truly a Blessing for all you have done for our Confederate ancestors here and throughout America"

STORY

The Confederate Battle Flag With The "St Andrews Cross"

OK Virginians

Virginians, Are you ready to take a stand?

OK Virginians, here's a chance to to defend the Honour of Old Virginian and Her heroes!

See
Virginia Belle needs HELP!

Virginians are rising up, and taking action against the Heritage Haters and those suffering from Confederaphobia in the streets of the Old Dominion. Are you ready to take a stand? Join us Friday, October 28th as we take to the streets of Richmond in a mass flagging protest of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and their forced removal of Confederate battle flags from the portico of the Pelham Chapel/Confederate War Memorial.

For more information, please contact Susan Hathaway



Virginia Flagger
Susan Frise Hathaway

Video, Georgia Power Removes Confederate Flags From Graves

By OneWayRawk
He's a devoted Southron with many great videos on the Southern movement:

See them HERE

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141st Anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s death

By Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Speaker, Writer, Author of Book ‘When America Stood for God, Family and Country” looking to re-publish and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net

Do Americans know more about Fidel Castro and Che Guevara then they do about George Washington and Robert E. Lee? I have been told that some college students wear Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung tee shirts but are not allowed to wear American History shirts depicting Robert E. Lee, George Washington, the United States flag or Confederate Battle flag.

Are young folks still taught about America’s past?

Every year, the Lee Chapel, at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, presents a lecture and special events commemorating the Washington College presidency of Robert E. Lee on the anniversary of his death. The 2011 program, featuring Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr., is scheduled for Monday, October 10. Dr. Robertson will give his address entitled “Lee and the Mobilization of Virginia Forces 1861” and is free and open to the public, in the Chapel Auditorium at 12:15pm. Robertson is a War Between the States Historian, Scholar and Author. See more information at.

http://chapelapps.wlu.edu/tertiary.asp?ID=40&Parent=43&NavOrder=1

The headline from a Richmond newspaper read, quote

"News of the death of Robert E. Lee, beloved chieftain of the Southern army, whose strategy mainly was responsible for the surprising fight staged by the Confederacy, brought a two-day halt to Richmond's business activities." unquote

General Lee died at his home at Lexington, Virginia at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, October 12, 1870. His last great deed came after the War Between the States when he accepted the presidency of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University. He saved the financially troubled college and helped many young folks further their education.

Some write that Robert E. Lee suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on September 28, 1870, but was thought to greatly improve until October 12th, when he took a turn for the worse. His condition seemed more hopeless when his doctor told him, "General you must make haste and get well---Traveller---has been standing too long in his stable and needs exercise."

Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Cadet William Nalle said in a letter home to his mother, dated October 16, 1870, quote "I suppose of course that you have all read full accounts of Gen Lee's death in the papers. He died on the morning of the 12th at about half past nine. All business was suspended at once all over the country and town, and all duties, military and academic suspended at the Institute, and all the black crape and all similar black material in Lexington, was used up at once, and they had to send on to Lynchburg for more. Every cadet had black crape issued to him, and an order was published at once requiring us to wear it as a badge of mourning for six months." unquote

Read entire letter on Virginia Military Institute website at: www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=5517

The rains and flooding were the worst in Virginia's history on the day General Lee died. On Wednesday, October 12, 1870, in the presence of his family, Lee quietly passed away.

The church bells rang as the sad news passed through Washington College, Virginia Military Institute, the town of Lexington and the nation. Cadets from VMI College carried the remains of the old soldier to Lee Chapel where he laid in state.

Memorial meetings were held throughout the South and as far North as New York. At Washington College in Lexington eulogies were delivered by: Reverend Pemberton, Reverend W.S. White--Stonewall Jackson's Pastor and Reverend J. William Jones. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis brought the eulogy in Richmond, Virginia. Lee was also eulogized in Great Britain.

Many thousands witnessed Lee's funeral procession marching through the town of Lexington, Virginia, with muffled drums and the artillery firing as the hearse was driven to the school's chapel where he was laid to rest.

Booker T. Washington, America’s great Black-American Educator wrote in 1910, quote “The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.” Unquote

The Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans joins the nation in commemorating the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States. See more information at: www.150wbts.org

FSU didn't take kindly to my stickers

Click images to enlarge:





From: Richard Estes
Date: Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Subject: Hello sir
To: hk.edgerton@gmail.com

Hello there Mr. Edgerton, I hope this letter finds you doing well. My name is Richard O'cell Estes and I wanna say I appreciate everything you do for the cause. You're a good man for it and I wish I did more myself. I wonder if I might have a moment of your time. I write to you sir because I'd read something you'd written about folks who have undergone hardships for their beliefs. Now, I haven't suffered like those you've written about, not even close. But I have been harassed and even come to financial ruin for my beliefs. I've had people try to fire me from some jobs, and in the case of this last job, I was fired. Why? Because my car is a mobile Southern defense billboard. I will enclose relevant pictures. I was most recently a contractor for a company that works at Florida State University dealing with cleaning their air conditioner coils. The president of the company is a yankee from Indiana and I believe his vice president is cut from the same cloth. They did not like my often expressed opinions. Apparently the good students at FSU didn't take kindly to my stickers either. As one day the foreman (a man I greatly respect) said word had come down that I have to back my car in if I was to continue to park on campus. Well at first I did not. But then I thought myself clever (doesn't mean that I am) and decided to back it in horizontally. Thereby satisfying their cowardly carpetbagging request, as well as soothing my honour, since my stickers were still rather visible. Even still I feel like a coward for my actions. I feel I let my ancestors down. They died for their beliefs and I can't even park a car? I was so enraged that day that everyone else in the four man crew was trying to calm me down, plus the foreman. They're all good men. I believe it was the 22nd of September when I was fired with a vague "it's not working out." I come to find out from the foreman afterward that it was because of my displays of pride and that they thought I made the company look bad. If you knew the man that ran this company, you'd be struck by the hilarity of that statement. As I do not believe him to be a good man and none of his employees do either. I found out he actually went to church and said something my momma would've, "surprised his skin wasn't burnin'". Well sir I've talked your ear off long enough. Just wanted to let you know it's happening all around. Can't wait to get out of Florida and go somewhere I'm appreciated. Maybe the two places I grew up, GA or SC. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a good one.


Confederately,
Richard O'cell Estes

Flags removed from cemetery

Group that visited the Yellow Dirt Baptist Church cemetery on Saturday, October 8, 2011 to place roses and replace small Confederate flags that had been removed by unknown person(s). This cemetery is surrounded by the grounds of Plant Wansley near Whitesburg. In the first row are James and Pam Tolbert. From left to right in the second row are Larry Lyle, Eric Tolbert, Billy Bearden, and Ernie Blevins.

UP-DATE!!!

Flags removed from cemetery
Group that visited the Yellow Dirt Baptist Church cemetery on Saturday, October 8, 2011 to place roses and replace small Confederate flags that had been removed by unknown person(s). This cemetery is surrounded by the grounds of Plant Wansley near Whitesburg. In the first row are James and Pam Tolbert. From left to right in the second row are Larry Lyle, Eric Tolbert, Billy Bearden, and Ernie Blevins.

Georgia Power steals replaced Confederate Flags!!!!!!!!!!!

SINCE this article has been written, Georgia Power thought it funny to STEAL these new flags as well, between Wednesday and Thursday this past week.

Georgia Power Plant Wansley is GUILTY OF CRIMINAL TRESPASSING, THEFT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY, VANDALISM, GRAVE DESECRATION, and most importantly of all - SPITTING ON THE GRAVES OF AND DISHONORING AMERICAN VETERANS.

SHAME on them!
With the moving Viet Nam Wall coming to Coweta County to HONOR our Veterans, Georgia Power Plant Wansley is urinating on our Veterans.
SHAME!!!

Confederate Veterans ARE United States Veterans under the eyes of US LAW:

U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958

(US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134)

The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States

U.S. Code Title 38 – Veterans’ Benefits, Part II – General Benefits, Chapter 15 – Pension for Non-Service-Connected Disability or Death or for Service, Subchapter I – General, § 1501. Definitions: (3) The term “Civil War veteran” includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term “active military or naval service” includes active service in those forces

Confederate Flags ARE protected under Georgia Law:

GEORGIA CODE 50-3-1(4) It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation, or other entity acting without authority to mutilate, deface, defile, abuse contemptuously, relocate, remove, conceal, or obscure any privately owned monument, plaque, marker, or memorial which is dedicated to, honors, or recounts the military service of any past or present military personnel of this state, the United States of America or the several states thereof, or the Confederate States of America or the several states thereof. Any person or entity who suffers injury or damages as a result of a violation of this paragraph may bring an action individually or in a representative capacity against the person or persons committing such violations to seek injunctive relief and to recover general and exemplary damages sustained as a result of such person or persons unlawful actions.

50-3-9. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to mutilate, deface, defile, or abuse contemptuously the flag of the United States, the flag, coat of arms, or emblem of the State of Georgia, or the flag or emblem of the Confederate States of America by any act whatever.

50-3-10. Nothing in this article shall be construed to prevent the use of the flag of the United States or any flag, standard, color, shield, ensign, or other insignia of the State of Georgia or of the Confederate States of America for decorative or patriotic purposes, either inside or outside of any residence, store, place of business, public building, or school building.

50-3-11. Any person, firm, or corporation who violates any provision of Code Section 50-3-8 or 50-3-9 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Confederate Veteran Graves ARE protected under Georgia Law:

GEORGIA CODE O.C.G.A. 16-7-26 (2010)
16-7-26. Vandalism to a place of worship

(a) A person commits the offense of vandalism to a place of worship when he maliciously defaces or desecrates a church, synagogue, or other place of public religious worship.

(b) A person convicted of the offense of vandalism to a place of worship shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years.

O.C.G.A. 16-8-2 (2010)
16-8-2. Theft by taking

A person commits the offense of theft by taking when he unlawfully takes or, being in lawful possession thereof, unlawfully appropriates any property of another with the intention of depriving him of the property, regardless of the manner in which the property is taken or appropriated.

O.C.G.A. 16-7-21 (2010)
16-7-21. Criminal trespass

(3) (e) A person commits the offense of criminal trespass when he or she intentionally defaces, mutilates, or defiles any grave marker, monument, or memorial to one or more deceased persons who served in the military service of this state, the United States of America or any of the states thereof, or the Confederate States of America or any of the states thereof, or a monument, plaque, marker, or memorial which is dedicated to, honors, or recounts the military service of any past or present military personnel of this state, the United States of America or any of the states thereof, or the Confederate States of America or any of the states thereof if such grave marker, monument, memorial, plaque, or marker is privately owned or located on land which is privately owned.

I call upon Heard County Sheriff to become involved, to investigate these crimes, to charge the guilty, and to prosectue them as the HATE CRIMES they are.

I call upon Georgia Power to WRITE UP then FIRE everyone involved in the GRAVE ROBBING SCHEME, to make known publically all names of this illicit cadre of thieves and anti-American Veterans, to pay restitution to the Webbs for the STOLEN FLAGS, and to set up a webcam so that anyone can click on and monitor the gravesite, as Georgia Power Plant Wansley security CANNOT BE TRUSTED.

SHAME ON GEORGIA POWER!!!

Thanks and God Bless
Billy Bearden

Contact Georgia Power
HERE

Virginia Belle needs HELP!

We have a young lady who has taken up some serious Flagging.

Here name is Susan Frise Hathaway, and has been making some noise in Richmond and Lexington Virginia.

Right now we need to get some real men and other ladies out there with her and support her with actual deeds, not just kind words on a facebook page.

Her page
HERE

Contact this courageous VA Belle HERE and join the fight!

So far the men seem to be fine allowing her to go it alone in downtown Richmond.

Can y'all help and join this Lady Flagger of Old Virginia?????

Thanks and God Bless,

Billy

IN HER WORDS


For me, it all started with the Save Our Flags Rally in Lexington. Billy was instrumental in helping me get started with an online petition and we worked to spread the word online, mostly through FaceBook. Estimated 300+ attended. Billy and CC Lesters got there early and flagged locations through the town, and stopped in Reidsville to flag the spot where the Confederate Statue was removed on their way home. I came after work and attended the rally…


…and spoke at the Council meeting.

Madame Mayor, Council Members, Lexington residents, and guests. I wish to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to address you all on the subject of the proposed ordinance that would ban the flying of Confederate flags from city light poles in celebration of Lee-Jackson day in Lexington.

My name is Susan Hathaway. I am not a Lexington resident. I drove from Richmond after work today to humbly represent those of us who, although we do not call Lexington home, consider it “our” town, as well. My father brought me here as a child, to pay honor to the memory of two of the greatest Virginians that ever lived. We visited their graves, and he taught my brother, my sister, and I, the importance of honoring our history and remembering the brave men who answered the call of duty in defense of Virginia. Years later, I brought my own children here, as well, aspiring to teach them the same valuable lessons.

I understand that the proposed ordinance is a result of the complaints of approx. 300 people who claimed they were offended by the flags that flew during the week leading up to Lee-Jackson Day this past January. With your permission, I would like to present a petition opposing this ordinance, signed by over 1600 individuals…FIVE times as many as the original petition that led to this ordinance…people like me…potential tourists, eager to visit the final resting place of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. My daughter and I attended the Lee-Jackson Day services in January. We stayed at the Lexington Inn, spent time and money in your shops and enjoyed dining in several local restaurants. By my receipts, we spent over $500, money that went directly into the pockets of Lexington merchants.

I know others have made, and will make the arguments about how ridiculous it is to let the rants of a few misinformed, prejudiced people make policy for a town that owes its very existence to these two men, so I will just say this… Those of us who, without malice toward any race, creed, or nationality, choose to honor our Confederate Ancestors and the sacrifice they made, are no longer willing to sit by quietly and allow their honor and memory to be denigrated!

If this ordinance is passed, I will use my sphere of influence and personally spearhead a boycott of Lexington. We will still gather to honor and celebrate these great men, but I will do everything in my power to make sure that everyone from New York to Florida with any interest in the War Between the States is made aware that the town that once accepted the sacred duty as the honored caretakers of our the final resting places of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, now despises the association and does not welcome us or our “tainted” money.

I lost my father a few months ago, after an extended illness. He was an amazing example to me of a Christian gentleman in every aspect of his life, and one of the most important things he taught me was to ALWAYS stand firm for what I know is right. It is in his memory, and the memory of so many others who have gone before him, that I stand before you today and respectfully request that if you came to this meeting determined to cast a vote in favor of this ordinance, that you reconsider, ignore the political pressures that you may be facing, and do the RIGHT thing…speak for those who no longer have a voice, and stand for those long buried, who…at least as long as I have breath,…will NOT be forgotten!


Both experiences were life changing for me…

Top 10 things I learned in Lexington last night…

10) Michael Lucas is a tall drink of water, Kelly Hinson is even prettier in person, Jamie Funkhouser and C.C. Lesters are two of the nicest young men I have met, Billy Bearden is not nearly as vociferous as he claims to be, and if your FB profile pic is over 10 years old, you might want to update it, so we will recognize you!

9) If you are going to be out in public with one of our flags, make it an historical one and educate yourself on what you are carrying and why so when people ask you are ready to answer…politely and accurately.

8) If I’m going to take up this flagging thing, I need to find an outfit with shoulder pads! Battle scars after only a few hours of toting a flag…SHEEEESH!

7) The men of the Lexington Police and Fire are some of the nicest folks I have ever met.

6) The meaning of the word Hegemony: : the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group…(see Timothy Manning, I did go look it up.)

5) The people of Lexington need a WHOLE LOT of education about the flags of the Confederacy and what they represent.

4) Those who are supposedly on the same side of an issue should get together and make sure their talking points are at least similar. The City attorney spent an awful lot of time explaining how the ordinance was specifically designed to eliminate the possibility of the SCV flying their flags from city light poles, in spite of the fact that the Mayor and City Manager had been telling the press for weeks that the ordinance was NOT specifically designed to ban the Confederate flag from city light poles.

3) NEVER trust a Lexingtonian who starts off their speech by “claiming” their Confederate ancestors…because… mark my words… there is a “BUT” or “HOWEVER” coming pretty soon thereafter…

2) If you are going to be herded into an overcrowded building and have to stand for several hours, packed together like sardines and sweating like a sinner on judgment day, there are no better people to be surrounded by than the ones I was with in Lexington last night.

...and the number one thing I learned...

1) Regardless of how much the deck is stacked against you, how much the outcome is predetermined, or how inconvenient it may seem at the time, it is ALWAYS the right thing to stand up and speak out for what is right.


When I got home, Billy and I continued to talk, e-mail, plan (well, mostly just me bugging the heck out of him with a million questions), and organize, starting with some of those who had attended the rally. Within the week, we had organized a group, Virginia Flaggers, and Brandon Dorsey of the Stonewall Brigade began a weekly flagging of Lexington, each Thursday at Noon.

Last week was the fourth consecutive week and it looks like his numbers are growing each week.



Last Saturday, (October 1st) I finally had everything I needed together and did my first flagging here in Richmond, at the Pelham Chapel/Confederate War Memorial, against the VMFA’s removal of the battle flags off of the portico.

Twenty years after Gen. Robert E. Lee rode into Appomattox and surrendered his tattered army, ending the War Between the States, a memorial chapel was built in Richmond in memory of the 260,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the conflict.. The Pelham Chapel – Confederate War Memorial is designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S., and has been granted the status of Confederate Monument by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The organ in the chapel was donated by a group of Union veterans from Lynn, Mass. One of the contributors to the soldiers' home that surrounded the chapel was Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. And a Union private from Massachusetts donated his annual pension to support the home.

A pair of Confederate flags had flown over the Confederate Memorial Chapel in Richmond since 1887. Those two flags did not trouble the Union soldiers who donated the organ to the chapel; nor did they trouble Ulysses S. Grant. They were placed there by Confederate Veterans, to memorialize the Confederate dead, and honor the living.

Fast forward 150 years…on the eve of the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the War Between the States, June 1st, 2010, these two Confederate Battle Flags were forcibly removed from the Memorial by a restriction in the lease renewal, at the insistence of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

This is in direct violation of Virginia law, which clearly states: “it shall be unlawful for the authorities of the locality, or any other person or persons, to disturb or interfere with any monuments or memorials so erected, or to prevent its citizens from taking proper measures and exercising proper means for the protection, preservation and care of same. For purposes of this section, "disturb or interfere with" includes removal of, damaging or defacing monuments or memorials, or, in the case of the War Between the States, the placement of Union markings or monuments on previously designated Confederate memorials or the placement of Confederate markings or monuments on previously designated Union memorials.” (§ 15.2-1812)
As citizens of Virginia and descendants of Confederate soldiers who gallantly answered Virginia’s call to defend her, we demand that the VMFA remove these blatantly prejudicial restrictions and allow the Confederate Battle Flags to once again fly on the Confederate War Memorial.

The following Monday (October 3rd) , the group got word that Steven Spielberg was coming to the Executive Mansion and a who’s who of Virginia’s finest was coming to celebrate the Richmond location for the upcoming “Lincoln” movie. We scrambled and had a contingency at the event. Two flagged the perimeter…


And two of us greeted guests as they arrived…

(That's former Governor Wilder in the Benz)

Saturday, (October 8th) I went back to the Chapel.

BEAUTIFUL day in the Capital of the Confederacy, as you can see in this pic from earlier this afternoon. It was the only photo I got with my blackberry today, as I was flying solo with no one to take photos. Had many gre...at conversations. Most were receptive to hear what I had to say and many agreed with the point of the protest.

There were a few obscenities screamed... out of car windows or from bike riders (I am learning that the favorite word of the uneducated starts with an F and rhymes with truck), but they were the exception to the rule. Most were friendly waves, honks, or shouts of support.

I gave out about two dozen flyers and spoke with about 25 people total. Best conversation was with a black man who asked to take my picture. We ended up talking in depth about use of flag during civil rights, days, etc… He was pretty defensive to start, but by the end of the convo, took my email and said he would send me pic. The worst was a couple who tried to hurry past. Not going to happen on my watch…I smile and say “good afternoon”. She turns on her heels (never stops walking) and starts shouting “Why are you doing this? You are a creepy (female dog)! The war is over you loser” “I’d love to discuss it with you” I say when she takes a breath. “In your dreams (female dog)” she shouts, jumps in car, slams door and pulls out like bat outta hell. As they pull away, I check the tags on the BMW and it all makes sense…NEW YORK!

Other highlights are the kids…when they walk up and ask about the flag, I don’t go into all the details, just tell them “because my Great-Great Grandaddy was a soldier and fought for this flag and for Virginia and I am very proud of him”. “Cool!” they usually shout (or something like that) and run off.

For the last several days, Mr. Beters has been pestering me for an explanation of why I am a flagger. Walking and talking today, I realized that although I could write a three page essay on the subject, I can sum it up best this way…

As the direct descendant of 4 Confederate Soldiers, I feel it is my duty to speak for those who do not have a voice, my honor to stand up for those long buried who cannot defend themselves, and I truly believe that God has placed me in this moment and given me the knowledge, gifts, talents and courage that allow a chance to make a difference…for such a time as this.

That’s where you find us. Thanks to Billy's encouragement, mentorship and inspiration, we currently have 15 people in the “group.” …and I am confident that as word spreads, more people will join.

A Hispanic Month Tribute to Moses Ezekiel

By Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Speaker, Writer, Author of book “When America Stood for God, Family and Country” looking to re-publish and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net

September 15th -October 15th is Hispanic History Month and the Educational Committee of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a national-historical and educational organization, has included an informative Hispanic History Month fact sheet about those who served in the Confederate and Union Armies at: http://www.scv.org/documents/edpapers/hispanichistory.pdf


"The death of Moses Ezekiel, the distinguished and greatly loved American sculptor, who lived in Rome for more than forty years, caused universal regret here"
----1921, The New York Times Dispatch from Rome.

Do your children know who Sir Moses J. Ezekiel was?

Arlington National Cemetery is located in the shadow of the Custis- Lee Mansion (Arlington House) that was home to General Robert E. Lee and his family until 1861, and the beginning of the War Between the States. This cemetery was first used in 1864, for the burial of Union soldiers.

Tours, through this famous burial place of President Kennedy, General Wainwright and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, are conducted daily. I have been told that another part of this cemetery (section 16) may sometimes be overlooked. It is, however, an important part of our nation's history and should be a part of your guided tour through Arlington.

On June 4, 1914, the President of the U.S., Woodrow Wilson spoke at the dedication of a new Confederate memorial at section 16. The monument, to those Confederate soldiers who were re-interred there in 1900, has been called by some people as both striking and unique. This monument was trusted into safe keeping to the U.S. War Department by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1914. It was a tradition of American presidents to place a wreathe and some even spoke there on Memorial Day. What has happened to this wonderful tradition?

Dr. Edward Smith, a Professor of History at American University, has described this monument as probably the first to honor the Black Confederate soldiers. This monument includes a depiction of a Black Confederate marching in step with the white soldiers.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned a Jewish- Confederate Veteran, Sir Moses J. Ezekiel, to do the work on this monument. Some people say that he might have been the first Jewish- American to do this type of sculpture. It is written that the UDC was pleased with his work which depicts the multi-cultural makeup of the late Confederate States of America.

Moses J. Ezekiel was born on October 28, 1844, in Richmond, Va. He was one of fourteen children born to Jacob and Catherine de Castro Ezekiel. He was born in a house on "Old Market Street" that is said to have been in the poorer side of town. His grandparents came to America from Holland in 1808, and were of Jewish-Spanish Heritage.

Ezekiel talked his parents into letting him attend Virginia Military Institute and he did enroll on September 17, 1862. Some people say, he was the first Jewish-American to enter there at this the school of General Stonewall Jackson.

After three years at VMI, Ezekiel saw military service during the War Between the States. The Cadets, of Virginia Military Institute, were called to support Confederate General John C. Breckenridge at the Battle of New Market, Virginia. Ezekiel joined his fellow cadets in the charge upon the Union lines.

Ezekiel would travel to Italy to study and work as an artist and would become known worldwide. He was honored by King Emmanuel who knighted him and gave him the distinction of "Sir Moses Jacob Ezekiel."

It was Ezekiel's wish to return to his native Virginia but World War I kept him for doing so. He spent his final days in Italy where he died in 1917. His remains were not brought back to the states until 1921.

Among his many great works are: "Christ Bound for the Cross", "The Martyr", and "David Singing his Song of Glory."

His funeral service was held at the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery. Cadets, of the Virginia Military Institute, stood by his casket that was draped with a flag of the United States. Ezekiel was buried at the base of the Confederate monument. Also buried around the monument are 450 Confederate soldiers, wives and civilians.