William E Hill Confederate

To whom it may concern,

I have been conducting reach on my family tree. And have con across my 3rd (great grand father William E. Hill his wife Sarah A Hill applies for A pension on 1889 Oct, 5th. Application #405835 certifacate # 387054 filed in Missouri.  It states William E. Hill was in , M2 polo  Cav. 

Any information regard William E Hill will be Greatly appreciated. 

3rd great grandfather

Birth 1829 in Henry, Tennessee

Death 1894 in Union, Tennessee, United States

Kind regards 

K Joe Hill
kjoehill@yahoo.com

Compatriot Ken Wilde of John T. Hughes Camp 614

Ken Wilde is a member of the John T. Hughes Camp 614 in Independence Missouri.  He is currently in North Kansas City Hospital.  He was T-boned the other night by a tandem dump truck that apparently ran a red light and smashed into Kens Ford Escape on the Drivers side.  He is in bad shape, but, he is coherent.  He has two busted ribs, busted collar bone and busted up vertebra's.  He is in North Kansas City Hospital.  Prayers are requested for Kens recovery, he is a good man and an outstanding member of Hughes Camp as he helps out at events when he can.

Jason-Nathaniel: coffman

Commander

B/G John T. Hughes Camp 614

Independence Missouri 

 

Copperhead Movie

Brothers & sisters,

I recently viewed the new war movie Copperhead.  I came away having understood its lessons loud and clear.  It is the very sober story of a small town in upper New York where imperfect Christians struggling to live peaceably with fellow neighbors find themselves deeply divided over the Civil War.  It is not your typical Hollywood action orgy with unbelievable heroes, ridiculous war action, and lurid romance scenes.  In fact, it is rather simple, plain, and for many likely boring . . . should they be addicted to unending violence and blarney.  There is not one battle scene in this movie . . . imagine that.   The characters are period accurate, ordinary, down to earth, and not unlike any of us, with a mixture of weaknesses and strengths, which makes the movie all the more real and for me riveting, as I could easily put myself in their shoes and relate to their struggles and heartaches.     

Here is an in depth write-up of the movie:  Copperhead, Ron Maxwell at his finest

I recommend you watch it, for I do not think that we a very far off from a similar scenario in our nation where neighbor will be divided against neighbor over major issues that will lead to confrontations of life changing magnitude.

Thomas McConnell

Fleming's book on the war

From: vaproto@optonline.net

To all:

An educated public is the best defense against tyranny:

A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War

Thomas Fleming (Author)

By the time John Brown hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harper's Ferry, Northern abolitionists had made him a "holy martyr" in their campaign against Southern slave owners. This Northern hatred for Southerners long predated their objections to slavery. They were convinced that New England, whose spokesmen had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern "slavocrats" like Thomas Jefferson. This malevolent envy exacerbated the South's greatest fear: a race war. Jefferson's cry, "We are truly to be pitied," summed up their dread. For decades, extremists in both regions flung insults and threats, creating intractable enmities. By 1861, only a civil war that would kill a million men could save the Union.

Further critique on the book: Thomas DiLorenzo

Historian and novelist Thomas Fleming is the author of more than fifty books, including two very good revisionist histories of the two world wars: The New Dealers' War, and The Illusion of Victory in World War I.  He has authored biographies of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, and has written extensively about the founding generation, including his best-selling book, Liberty!  As a regular on PBS and NPR he is as "mainstream" as it gets.  That is, he was, until he published his latest book, A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War.

I've ordered mine.

Val

NOW IS THE TIME TO RALLY THE BRAVE TO THE SLRC STANDARD!!!

Never before has the SLRC needed support as much as now, but never have we been more relevant to the cause of freedom than now. When people are hurting financially they tend to listen better. That's why the very costly expense process of appealing to the Supreme Court in the Candice Hardwick case is so important. We have been very, very busy preparing, researching and formatting the appeal and out of pocket costs are about $8,000. The higher up the legal food chain you get - the more expensive it gets. Our deadline was June 22 and Chief Trial Counsel Lyons made the decision to file the writ and put the bill on his own credit cards. It was either that or not file. WE have been building the Hardwick case since 2006 and it is important to finish what we start. So now, do we leave Lyons out to dry and pay the Hardwick bills, or do we pitch in and help him with as generous a donation as we can afford? Without more support we can't continue to do what we do here. We can't help the freedom loving people that call or write to us seeking our help without YOU! There are many smaller cases out there that need help and support just as much as the bigger ones but they simply don't have folks that will get behind them and send in a donation to help us help them.

In addition to the Hardwick case we have given important assistance to the General Forrest Park lawsuit in Memphis, we have donated our time to this effort.

Things are worse for every freedom loving citizen. Yes we in the Confederate community could tell our ignorant fellow-citizens "I told you so," because our ox has been gored for years by the same government abuse that everyone suffers from now. But like we said - people are listening now - this is a time of great opportunity for the Confederate community. We must continue to jump into the fight and continue to give to the cause of Confederate and American liberty. Are you up to it? This is no time to rest, no time to retire - And this is no time to neglect the SLRC - your faithful champion for Confederate liberty since 1995.

Faithfully,
 
Thomas Lee Willis, Executive Director and the SLRC staff

PS: We are investigating a very interesting case of a Black Confederate banned from a small Southern town because of his display of the Confederate Battle flag - stay tuned!

To Support the SLRC

Donate At slrc-csa.org
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to:
The Southern Legal Resource Center
Post Office Box 1235
Black Mountain, North Carolina 28711
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Confederate Monument at Fort Payne

Billy, Glenna is selling inscribed bricks for the Fort Payne UDC to cover the cost of  a professional cleaning of the            monument at Fort Payne. The brick will have the name of your ancestor and regiment and will be laid on the walkway leading up to the monument. Seems like a worthwhile endeavor to me. Contact Glenna and she will email you the form. Also ask if anyone else would want one. Deo Vindice, Hunter   Dedication is August 3rd so requests must be in before the end of July.

To buy a brick or donate email Glenna Caldwell at Glennaboydcaldwell@gmail.com Thank you for your support!

The South an Obstacle to Scientific History

Scientific historians of the new American Historical Association in the mid-1880s and beyond, the American South was one of the greatest obstacles in the way of changing the way Americans view history.  There were holdouts in the antebellum North as well as Washington Irving, for example, lived in the days when historians were self-taught and uncontaminated by the scientific method, yet still managed somehow to make significant contributions to knowledge and pen useful histories.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

The South an Obstacle to Scientific History

"On September 9 [1884], in the early afternoon, a small group of college presidents and professors of history met in . . . the United States Hotel to organize the new association [and] Dr. Herbert Baxter Adams of the Johns Hopkins University, moving spirit behind the organization, [was] to act as secretary.  Adams was already making plans to gain federal backing . . . and he hoped its headquarters would be the capital and its charter would come from Congress.

But in spite of Adam's insistence on "a national association," the new organization was far from national in its membership. The West was represented by Charles Kendall Adams of Michigan, and the South by the men from Johns Hopkins, native New Englanders.  From the time of the founding of the Association in 1913 . . . Southerners made up a small percentage of the membership [only 6 percent of a total of 2,843].  Yet, Southern history and evidence of a concern for history in the South filled a relatively large number of pages in the Annual Reports and the American Historical Review.

In his position as organizer, prime mover and secretary . . . Adams set the policy . . . to promote the interests of history, but history as defined by a small group of academically trained historians.  Most of the members were not so trained, and some resented the control by the college men, as did the novelist–historian Edward Eggleston.

The task [of the Association] was not a simple one, because the college men were promoting an approach to history at variance with the main current of American historiography.  Most historians in the United States had recorded the past of their town or county, State or region, because it was their locality and they were interested in it and in seeing that its accomplishments did not go unnoticed.

[The new scientific historians] implied, and stated, that they had no interest in the past of a town, State or region for its own sake. They were only interested in that aspect of a locality's past that might throw light upon the general development of an institution, such as town government, the plantation system, or slavery.

It was no coincidence that the American Historical Association [AHA] was established under the wing of the Social Science Association. To the new historians history was a social science and, they insisted, the very foundation of all social science.  The mission, then, of the Association was to replace the traditional approach to history with the new scientific approach.

[Adam's saw the importance of gaining recognition for the Association and stated that] ". . . I have never begun to            realize until this year the importance of corporate influences, of associations of men and money."  But Adams continued relentlessly, aiming always for the time when trained historians would cover the country – when their standards would be the only standards for history and the [AHA] would be not only a truly national, but a truly professional organization.

But [the greatest] obstacle to the new history was the fact that the South already had a well-established historical tradition . . . [and] a rich historical literature.  The South not only lived in history, it lived on history. History served the Southern States as God served New England.  Every aristocratic Southerner knew his family tree . . . Most people of the South knew that American history started with the settlement of Virginia, not with the landing of the Pilgrims . . .

There was no dearth of history or of historical interest in the Southern States, but it was not the kind that the new            scholars could accept. This history emphasized the uniqueness of place and people, and its truth was sought not in musty-smelling manuscripts and dead documents, but in living tradition and vivid intuition.

The first meeting was dominated by men of the Northeast. In 1889 . . . at the sixth meeting . . . Southern history for the first time was recognized as a separate field of study for the new science.  The first session on Southern history convened Tuesday morning, December 31 [and the first of five papers was an] essay on Bacon's Rebellion.  It was not on Southern history.

The great mission of the new Southern scholars [of the AHA] was to cut loose from traditional history and examine the Southern past impartially, to discover its true role in national development.  None of the new scholars wrote as a native of a Southern State, but "from the point of view of an American who is at the same time a Southerner, proud enough of his own section to admit its faults, and yet to proclaim its essential greatness."

All professional practitioners denounced quackery in history through the medium of their Association, just as the doctors were doing through the American Medical Association.  The work of Southern [scientific] historians, [even though it undermined the traditional Northern interpretation of American history], was accepted because it was done with the new technique and the approach of the new history."

(The American Historical Association, David D. Van Tassel, Journal of Southern History, Volume XXIII, No. 4, November 1957, pp. 465-473, 481-482)

From: bernhard1848@att.net

A Doctrine Utterly Subversive of the Constitution

Former-Vice President and later Kentucky Senator John C. Breckinridge tried in vain to hold Congress to the Constitution and stop the Republican party's war upon the South in mid-1861.  Returning home after the mid-year            legislative session, he witnessed Federal officers assembling and training volunteers at Lexington, a forced political alignment with Lincoln's government, and his own imminent arrest by the Northern military.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
  

A Doctrine Utterly Subversive of the Constitution

"[In January 1860, John C. Breckinridge] . . . still had more than a year to serve as Vice President of the United States. Within the month past the General Assembly of Kentucky by an overwhelming majority had elected him to the Senate of the United States for the six years beginning March 4, 1861.

Neutrality caught the fancy of most Kentuckians, though the Southern Rights element was at first reluctant to accept it.  In succession, however, the House of Representatives on May 16 (1861), the governor on May 20, and finally the Senate [on May 24] . . . assented to that policy.

For himself, he took the position that he was making a record of protest against the unconstitutional measures with which the majority party was fighting and unconstitutional war.  Certain it is that had the Republicans accepted his criticisms as valid they would have been forced to abandon the conflict.

During the [legislative] session he made four principal speeches. On July 16 he spoke vigorously against the joint            resolution "to approve and confirm" various "acts, extraordinary proclamations and orders" performed or issued by            the President since March 4 "for suppressing insurrection and rebellion."  Breckinridge urged that if Congress had the "power to cure a breach of the Constitution or to indemnify the President against violations of the Constitution and the laws," it might in effect "alter the Constitution in a manner not provided by that instrument."

He attacked the specific acts of the President [as unconstitutional such as] the establishment of a blockade of Southern coasts, the authorization of the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus by various military commanders, the waging of war and raising armies without any act of Congress, arbitrary interference with freedom of the press, and the arbitrary imprisonment of private citizens.

Looking for a justification of the President's acts, Breckinridge assumed that it would be found in the necessities of the case. He denied indeed that there was any genuine necessity for the acts of which he complained, but, more fundamentally, he argued that the "doctrine [of necessity] is utterly subversive of the Constitution . . . [and] of all written limitations of government.  Thus he concluded that only the powers actually granted in the Constitution may be exercised by the government, whatever the emergency.

Expanding an argument which he had used at Frankfort on April 2, he predicted that unless current tendencies were checked, the result would be "to change radically our frame and character of Government" by establishing a centralized regime without any effective limitation upon its powers.  [He argued] that he and many other conservative men counted "the Union not an end, but a means – a means by which, under the terms of the Constitution, liberty may be maintained, property and personal rights protected, and general happiness secured."

When asked, near the end of the session, what he would do [with] a hostile [Southern] army encamped but a few miles from the national capital, Breckinridge declared flatly that he would abandon the war; that he did "not hold that constitutional liberty . . . is not bound up in this fratricidal, devastating and horrible contest. Upon the contrary, I fear it will find a grave in it . . . Sir, I would prefer to see these States all reunited upon true constitutional principles to any other object that could be offered me in life; . . . But I infinitely prefer to see a peaceful separation of these States, than to see endless, aimless, devastating war, at the end of which I see the grave of public liberty and of person freedom."   

(Breckinridge in the Crisis of 1860-1861, Frank H. Heck, Journal of Southern History, Volume XXII, Number 3, August, 1955, pp. 338-341)

From: bernhard1848@att.net

Sons at War and Refugeeing Daughters -- The NC WBTS Sesquicentennial

"Sons at War and Refugeeing Daughters"

"For Mary Allan Wright [of Wilmington] the war clouds must have appeared especially dark. She lost her eyesight in 1856 and her beloved husband in 1861. Her four surviving sons all took part in the Civil War.  Adam Empie Wright survived it unscathed. Joshua Grainger Wright was wounded. James Allan was killed on June 26, 1862. Charles Thomas died May 26, 1864. 

After the war, his brother, Joshua Grainger wrote [to aunt, Julia Wear]: 

"Our youngest brother Charles Thomas, aged seventeen, received his death wound at the Battle of the Wilderness, while acting as adjutant. Although so young, it was impossible to keep him from what he deemed the path of duty.  Nothing but the most implicit faith and submission to God's will enabled my dear mother to bear the heavy trials of such distressing times. Those only who have been afflicted as we have been, know what it is like to lose such dear and noble sons…..As you are living in the country we hope you are spared the mortification   of seeing Yankee Officers….and trust the day may not be far distant when we will be rid of [them]." 

Young Joshua wrote from Fayetteville where the female members of his family had refugeed the last three years of the war. [The Wright women had] doubtless . . . heard stories of Yankee atrocities, such as the ones Melinda Ray of Fayetteville told.


"Gentlemen were hung up and shot at to extort from them where their imaginary treasure was concealed. (One man) was hung up twice, shot at once, and finally his house was burnt. (The Yankees] behaved as bummers or wretches, feeling no delicacy in helping themselves to silver, books, or any other particle they particularly fancied; and acting in the most disagreeable manner.  Blair, a Yankee General, boasted while here that he had all the silver belonging to Colonel McFarlane of Cheraw, South Carolina in his possession."

(The Wrights of Wilmington, Susan Taylor Block, Wilmington Printing Company, 1992, pp. 78-79)

The North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial

"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage, and Devotion to Liberty"

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission"

From: bernhard1848@att.net

Confederate Christmas Lunch

The Shelby camp is thinking about having a Confederate Christmas lunch? I was woundering if any of the camps have anything lined up because we are looking at inviting the whole division. Some of you that will get this E-mail are not commanders of your camp but can you let your commander know for me.

I would like feed back asap because I would like to see the whole division support like we do for the lee-jackson, convention and secession dinner. The Shelby camp will plan this event.

My opinion I think we should eventually make this a division event. Southerners getting together for the Christmas spirit!!

Confederatly yours,

Paul Lawrence Maj. Gen. J. O. Shelby camp #191 Commander

Occupied Memphis Benefits the Confederacy

From: bernhard1848@att.net

In a report to Lincoln's Secretary of War Stanton in late January 1863, Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana wrote: "The mania for sudden fortunes made in cotton, raging is a vast population of Jews and Yankees scattered throughout this whole country, and in this town [Memphis], almost exceeding the . . . regular residents, has to an alarming extent corrupted and demoralized the army. Every colonel, captain or quartermaster is in secret partnership with some operator in cotton; every soldier dreams of adding a bale to his monthly pay. I had no conception of the extent of this evil until I came and saw for myself." 

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Occupied Memphis Benefits the Confederacy:

"Memphis has been of more value to the Southern Confederacy since it fell into Federal hands than Nassau," declared General Cadwallader C. Washburn on May 10, 1864.  This statement is so paradoxical as to surprise the general reader of Civil War history, and the conditions which prompted it are worthy of more detailed study.

At the beginning of the war the Union government, in deference to the position in which the States of the upper Mississippi Valley found themselves, took no steps to interrupt trade with the Confederacy.  Immediate severance of ante-bellum trade connections between that section and the Lower South, it was feared, might result in the secession of the border States.

The Confederacy, likewise, was cognizant of the importance of the commercial ties with the upper valley, and sought to safeguard and strengthen them by exempting from duty practically everything produced in that section.

The great demand for cotton in the North and the liberal trade policy of the Confederacy resulted in large shipments of the staple up the Mississippi and thence to eastern manufacturing centers.   While that specie and military supplies which could be secured in exchange were badly needed in the South, Confederate leaders soon realized that to permit cotton to fall into the hands of the Union was to furnish the very means for waging successful war on the South.

At the beginning of the war, Memphis was one of the most important trade centers of the Confederacy.  [The] Confederate defeat at Shiloh on April 7, 1862 left west Tennessee open to attack . . . Memphis fell into Federal hands on June 6, 1862 [and] from that date until the close of the war the city was under military rule.  In expectation of an early capture of the city, "a fleet of [Northern] trading boats were anchored behind the ironclad flotilla weeks before the fall of Memphis."

Down the river from Cincinnati and other Midwestern cities came flour, coffee, meat, and salt in large quantities. The loyalty of the newcomers was a foregone conclusion, and old merchants who desired to reopen their stores might take the oath or buy one from corrupt Treasury officials at prices ranging from $500 downward.  Many undoubtedly took the oath with the sole purpose of violating it by becoming mediums through which essential supplies could be transferred to the Confederate forces.

Sherman took command of the city on July 21, 1862. [Though travel was] limited to five designated roads and to daylight hours . . . A well-placed bribe could cause almost any [Northern] guard to be unsuspecting when carts loaded with contraband rumbled past the point of inspection. "Both civilians and a few military officers were equally devoted to patriotism and commerce."

Obliging speculators poured [gold] specie into the city in large amounts and equally obliging "go-betweens" passed it on into the hands of the Confederates who used it for the purchase of war supplies in northern cities and abroad. A Negro woman was caught with a five-gallon demijohn of brandy beneath a loose-fitting calico dress and suspected from a girdle at the waist.  On at least one occasion the hearse of a funeral procession bore a coffin filled with medicine for General Earl Van Dorn's army.

Bribery and negligence explained why the large body of [Northern] troops stationed in Memphis were unable [to] effectively . . . patrol the roads leading out of the city.  [After the] fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson early in July, 1863 . . . A flood of goods immediately began to pour into Memphis and just as promptly large quantities poured out of the city into the waiting arms of Confederates and guerrillas."  

(A Confederate Trade Center Under Federal Occupation: Memphis, 1862 to 1865, Joseph H. Parks, Journal of Southern History, Volume VII, Number 3, August, 1941, pp. 289-295; 299; 303)

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial

www.ncwbts150.com

"Official Website of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission"

"The Dead of North-Carolina" -- Governor John W. Ellis

The following is excerpted from a memorial address by Governor John W. Ellis, probably in 1859, extolling the patriotic virtue of those who had given their lives in defense of the Old North State, and whose precious legacy was defended with the call to arms in May of 1861. 

"They have reared to themselves a monument that mocks the regal splendor of marble, and the durability of perennial brass.

That monument is the soil that gave us birth, and the liberties that surround our lives; the political privileges we enjoy,

and this edifice to God, at whose altars we are permitted to bow with freedom of conscience and devotion. 

It rises from the earth round and about us, till its summit is lost in the heavens; and there it will stand till the reign of reason is debased and overthrown, and the slaves grovels where now the freeman stands.

To whom can I appeal with more propriety than the freemen of Mecklenburgh, to know when, if ever, that day shall come? 

Truly, standing here as I do, at the end of seventy-three years of experience, -- when I see rising star after star in rapid succession,

and increasing brilliancy, in that sky of my country's glory, where once it was all dark, -- when I look upon this assembly,

advancing in all the virtues that adorn a Christian people, and see them preserving the original gifts of liberty with the freshness or morning, I am prompted to exclaim, Never! Never shall that hour come!  No!  

Not until the bountiful heavens shall melt from above our heads, and the earth pass from under our feet; till nature gives signs of decay, and the "sun shall slumber in the clouds, forgetful of the voice of the morning."

"When earth's cities have no sound or tread,

And ships are drifting with the dead, 

To shores where all is dumb."

Till when, ever as our own Yadkin and Catawba roll their currents to the mighty ocean, the rippling song of their waters

will be blended with the anthems of freemen, swelling with the praises of the past, the blessings of the present,

and the prospects of the future!"  

(North Carolina Reader, Number III, C.H. Wiley, A.S. Barnes & Burr, 1860, pp 280-281)
(Read more at: http://www.ncwbts150.com/MemorialstoNorthCarolinasDefenders.php)

Save 12 Acres at Gettysburg!

On the evening of July 2, 1863, a combined assault by Louisiana and North Carolina troops upon Ohio positions at the base of Cemetery Hill devolved into ferocious hand-to-hand combat. Whoever controlled the crest of this hill controlled the Gettysburg battlefield. For the second time during the battle's 150th anniversary year, the Civil War Trust has the chance to preserve land at Gettysburg. These 12 acres include the site of the struggle between the Louisiana Tigers and 25th and 75th Ohio on Cemetery Hill. Help save this key piece of American heritage! Donate Today »

Confederates on the Crest »

Photos: Gettysburg »

Battle Map »

Gettysburg 360 »

Civilwar.org

Supreme Court Removed as a Factor

In all his Supreme Court appointments Lincoln was cautious to appoint men to the Court who were fully sympathetic with the measures his administration devised to win the war, and who gave no indication that they would oppose the policies, often clearly unconstitutional, which Lincoln considered necessary.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

The Supreme Court Removed as a Factor

"The [Lincoln] administration would await no debacle, no breath-taking defeat at the hands of the Supreme Court. It could ill-afford such a calamity. It would move to make such a defeat less likely [and] it would be folly to permit Supreme Court decisions to add to the travail.

President Lincoln and the Republicans were now to decide, concerning the size of the Supreme Court, that the number "ten" was much more convenient than the number "nine." Under the leadership of Representative James F. Wilson the committee on the judiciary reported to the house a bill to create a tenth circuit . . . [meaning] a tenth Justice. It was prudence that dictated a packed Court in order to strengthen the position of those Justices who would view with favor the acts that the administration deemed necessary.

Admittedly this was a moderate packing of the Court, but the tenth Justice in addition to the three other Lincoln appointees and other friendly Justices on the bench would provide an adequate margin of safety. So it was in the same days that the Prize Cases were being considered by the Court that Congress went about the task of creating . . . a tenth Justice. The Court could not fail to see the implications.

To pack it just at this time was a sharp warning that its size, its powers, and its role rested upon the will of the Congress and the President.  There was no delay [in the appointment]. The Senate, deeming that swift action was necessary, passed the bill the same day that it took up consideration of it.

Keep[ing] the power of the Court "right." That was the strongest motivation for adding a tenth justice . . . during the Civil War. Senator Garrett Davis of Kentucky stated on the floor of the Senate on January 14, 1868, that the Radicals forced the creation of the tenth justiceship.

The power of the government to defend itself would be questioned again before the Supreme Court, and a tenth Justice would at least make certain "that questions of the power of  government to suppress rebellion would not come before a Court too hopelessly weighted on the side of the old-line Democratic view of public policy."  The Supreme Court had to be removed as a factor potentially dangerous to the Union.  A Congress and a President that had experience the debacles of 1862 would not stand idly by to experience disaster at the hands of the Supreme Court."  

(Lincoln's Supreme Court, David M. Silver, University of Illinois Press, 1998, pp. 84-88)

From: bernhard1848@att.net

Arson and Treason in Milledgeville

Webster's Dictionary of 1828 defined a traitor as one who "betrays his allegiance to his country" and "who aids an enemy in conquering his country." Lt. Snelling (below) could not live among his own people in the postwar period, and his Northern friends would treat him as a suspicious and easily-bought alien if he lived among them.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Arson and Treason at Milledgeville 

"Sunday, November 20, 1864 was a day of unprecedented excitement in the capital of Georgia. Members of the legislature had already departed in haste for their homes. The governor and Statehouse officers were in flight, and many citizens of the town were following the example set by them.  In the afternoon distant cannon fire was heard in the direction of Macon, some thirty miles away.

Just before sunset a small group of blue-coated cavalrymen were seen lingering on the outskirts of the town . . . They cut telegraph wires, seized a few horses, and then made a hurried exit.  They were the first of more than thirty thousand enemy soldiers who were to enter Milledgeville within the next four days.

With flags unfurled, the band at the head of the column playing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and other martial airs . . . [the enemy army occupied the town and Sherman] learned that he was occupying a plantation belonging to General Howell Cobb and forthwith issued orders for its complete destruction.

On the same evening he ordered a special guard to protect the property of Andrew J. Banks whose farmhouse stood a short distance away. Banks, a North Carolinian by birth, was known to be of strong Unionist sentiment.

It is doubtful if Sherman's intelligence channels had ever been more effective than on this particular occasion.  His knowledge of the country which he had entered, and of the varying sentiments of the inhabitants, he owed largely to David R. Snelling, the twenty-six year-old cavalry lieutenant who commanded his escort.  Snelling had been born a few miles from Cobb's plantation and, until the war began, had always lived in the community to which he was now returning as a conquering enemy.

He had left the county early in 1862 as a member of Captain Richard Bonner's company of the 57th Georgia Regiment.  Never an enthusiastic rebel, he deserted at Bridgeport, Alabama, in July.  Later he became a member of a Unionist regiment made up of defecting Southerners.  He was now a first lieutenant in the 1st Alabama (Union) Cavalry and assigned to Sherman's personal escort where his knowledge of the people and of the country through which they were marching made his services invaluable to the commanding general who kept him close by his side.

While [Sherman and Snelling] were seated around the [evening] fire, a Negro slave . . . recognized Snelling and greeted him as "Massa Dave."  According to [an observer], the slave fell on the floor, hugged the lieutenant around his knees, and expressed mixed feelings and astonishment and thankfulness at seeing his former master in the uniform of the invading army.  The slave who greeted him had belonged [to David Lester, Snelling's] uncle, in whose home the lieutenant had lived as an orphan since boyhood.

That evening Sherman granted . . . Snelling's request to ride six miles ahead to visit his relatives at the Lester plantation. In his memoirs, the general noted that Snelling returned that night on a fresh horse from his uncle's stable [and that the visit had been] social in nature. The David Lester plantation book, however, indicates that Snelling was accompanied on his visit by a squad of Federal cavalrymen and the group conducted a raid on the plantation, burned the ginhouse, and pillaged the premises. 

Whether Snelling's unusual conduct was an attempt to prove his loyalty to the Union army or the result of an old grudge he bore against his affluent uncle perhaps may never be determined."

(Sherman at Milledgeville in 1864, James C. Bonner, Journal of Southern History, Volume XXII, Number 3, August, 1956, pp. 273, 275-277)

From: bernhard1848@att.net

Southern patriotism is NOT a reenactor thang!

To the men of Liberty:

For most of my life I have thought that fields of war are the most tragic things in life.  Thousands of men dead and dying, whole men torn to pieces, life's blood adding colors to a landscape once beautiful.

But I never knew what it looked like when a nation died.  I had never conceived of it in the case of America, and so could not know the heart ache and disappointment.  When I was born the republic was still on the rise, and though the Yankees had done their damndest to crush the spirit of Liberty when they occupied the South,  they had failed.  Liberty was blossoming not only in the South, but the plains states, and even unto California. 

There is no question the field had shifted in America, but for the most part, people still believed in God, not in government.  But with every new "bene,"  every new bribe another America was seduced to materialism and away from God.  Slowly at first, but then in bigger chunks the powers of the states were assumed by the federal government.  The states lost control of the Guard, lost control of welfare policies, lost control of their lands.   The creation of the U.S. Department of Education should be seen as a landmark in the decline of the states as independent partners in the union.

I am writing this letter in an attempt to make those in the "history and heritage" preservation organizations, and those who reenact understand that the battle is at hand.  It is not in the past, it is not on battlefields we know, but on battlefields of today and now.

I am writing to advise you that some of us are working to create a new political party, one to replace the Republicans.  Fittingly we are presently calling it the Dixiecrat party.  To find it on the internet go to  https://www.facebook.com/NewDixiecratParty.

As it says on the page, our party is not a purely Southern party, many Heartland states are more like those of the old South than say much of Florida and Virginia.  Our party's foundations are clear and easily identified; Belief  in a Christian God and the Bible, belief in the original Constitution and the republic form of national governance, opposition to the New World order, belief in national capitalism, but not open borders to cheap foreign goods.

It is my belief that southern heritage organizations like the SCV have been infiltrated by social liberals who know that the Charge of the SCV is anathema to every thing going on in America today.  It is my belief that if you read and support the Confederate Constitution just about every federal program in existence today is contrary to it, and to the original Constitution.  It is my belief that threats of "they will take our not for profit tax status away" combined with pointing to the corrupted organizational constitution has pretty much made the SCV impotent in "defending heritage and history."  The SCV has become nothing more than a big reenactor group, and southern tea party get together. 

The SCV is NOT vindicating the Cause.

The fight for the very life of liberty is at hand.  Every minute you waste in Confederate gray is a minute you have given the most ardent opponents of God and the South.

The Cause is more important now, more precious now, more needed now than in any time in the nation's brief history.  It can't be a Cause clothed in slavery or racism.  It has to be a Cause clothed in Christ.  The Southern Cause was, in most respects, the best that God has offered man.  It deserves to be actuated, lived now, not preserved like a fruit in jar in a pantry.  For me the Confederate battle flag is not a beautiful symbol of some bygone day, but the colors I am most proudest of right now for today.

For those of you who are the liberal infestations, the grannies, talk bad about me all you want.  I am not the issue, the issue is the future of liberty and the Cause.

God Bless the South,

Mark Vogl, Black sheep

johnyreb43@yahoo.com

UPCOMING EVENTS

July 17-20, 2013 - SESQUICENTENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS
Vicksburg, Mississippi
http://2013scvreunion.homestead.com/Index.html

Aug. 7 - Battle of Sharpsburg Camp #1582, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Wednesday, August 7th, 2013, 7:00 P.M., Rose Hill Cemetery Parking Lot, 600 South Potomac Street, Hagerstown, MD  21740.  Local historian and author Mr. Stephen Bockmiller will be giving a tour of Rose Hill Cemetery and the many grave sites of important veterans of many wars buried there.  The tour is free and is open to the public, but donations are graciously accepted.  For more information, please contact Camp Commander Michael Wasiljov at mike24745@aol.com or 301-992-3122-C.

Aug. 9 & 10 - THE 19th ANNUAL SOUTHERN HERITAGE CONFERENCE AND 13TH ANNUAL CEILEDH WILL BE AUGUST, 9 & 10
Southern Heritage News & Views
http://shnv.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-19th-annual-southern-heritage.html

September 14th, 2013 - 33rd Annual Fall Civil War Mosby Bus Tour
Please arrive at 8a.m. to sign in. The bus will leave Truro Parish (10520 Main Street, Fairfax City) promptly at 8:30a.m. We will be driving through Fairfax, Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, with a special visit at Welbourne and much more! We hope to arrive back  around 5:30p.m.
Tour Leaders will be Don Hakenson, Eric buckland & Gregg Dudding
Special Guest will be noted Mosby Historian Tom Evans.
Price:  $65 for members of the Stuart-Mosby Historical Society or $75 for non-members.
To Sign-up for the tour please contact:
Don Hakenson – Phone:  703-971-4984 or email:  dhakenson@cox.net.
Or send a check made payable to:
Don Hakenson, 4708 Lillian Drive, Alexandria, Virginia 22310
Sorry, no refunds after September 1st, 2013. Also, we will be stopping for lunch at noon, but lunch is not a part of the fee.
Lastly, make sure you check out www.stuart-mosby.com

Southern Event Calendar
http://my.calendars.net/shnvcal/

Burying the Dead but Not the Past: Ladies' Memorial Associations and the Lost Cause

By Caroline E. Janney

List Price:  $37.50
SHNV/SWR Price:  $30.87
http://astore.amazon.com/souhernewvie-20/detail/080783176X

Immediately after the Civil War(sic) white women across the South organized to retrieve and rebury the remains of Confederate soldiers scattered throughout the region. In Virginia alone, these Ladies' Memorial Associations (LMAs) relocated and reinterred the remains of more than 72,000 soldiers, nearly 28 percent of the 260,000 Confederate soldiers who perished in the war. Challenging the notion that southern white women were peripheral to the Lost Cause movement until the 1890s, Caroline Janney restores these women's place in the historical narrative by exploring their role as the creators and purveyors of Confederate tradition between 1865 and 1915.

Although not considered "political" or "public actors," upper- and middle-class white women carried out deeply political acts by preparing elaborate burials and holding Memorial Days in a region still occupied by northern soldiers. Janney argues that in identifying themselves as mothers and daughters in mourning, LMA members crafted a sympathetic Confederate position that Republicans, northerners, and, in some cases, southern African Americans could find palatable. Long before national groups such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the United Daughters of the Confederacy were established, Janney shows, local LMAs were earning sympathy for lost Confederates. Janney's exploration introduces new ways in which gender played a vital role in shaping the politics, culture, and society of the late nineteenth-century South.

UPCOMING EVENTS

July 17-20, 2013 - SESQUICENTENNIAL NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS

Vicksburg, Mississippi
http://2013scvreunion.homestead.com/Index.html

Aug. 7 - Battle of Sharpsburg Camp #1582, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Wednesday, August 7th, 2013, 7:00 P.M., Rose Hill Cemetery Parking Lot, 600 South Potomac Street, Hagerstown, MD  21740.  Local historian and author Mr. Stephen Bockmiller will be giving a tour of Rose Hill Cemetery and the many grave sites of important veterans of many wars buried there.  The tour is free and is open to the public, but donations are graciously accepted.  For more information, please contact Camp Commander Michael Wasiljov at mike24745@aol.com or 301-992-3122-C.

September 14th, 2013 - 33rd Annual Fall Civil War Mosby Bus Tour

Please arrive at 8a.m. to sign in. The bus will leave Truro Parish (10520 Main Street, Fairfax City) promptly at 8:30a.m. We will be driving through Fairfax, Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, with a special visit at Welbourne and much more! We hope to arrive back  around 5:30p.m.

Tour Leaders will be Don Hakenson, Eric buckland & Gregg Dudding

Special Guest will be noted Mosby Historian Tom Evans.

Price:  $65 for members of the Stuart-Mosby Historical Society or $75 for non-members.

To Sign-up for the tour please contact:

Don Hakenson – Phone:  703-971-4984 or email:  dhakenson@cox.net.

Or send a check made payable to:

Don Hakenson, 4708 Lillian Drive, Alexandria, Virginia 22310

Sorry, no refunds after September 1st, 2013. Also, we will be stopping for lunch at noon, but lunch is not a part of the fee.

Lastly, make sure you check out www.stuart-mosby.com

Point Lookout

From: swharrisii@earthlink.net

The PLPOW / DOPL observance of the horrors of the P.O.W. camp and the perseverance and determination of our ancestors that were there and lived through it or died is this coming weekend at Point Lookout Maryland. This is the largest P.O.W. camp the northern scum had. You probably had an ancestor there. We gather to honor our ancestors, the most important people in our family history. We do not, nor do we pretend to follow some modern person that quit this most sacred and worthy cause and is no longer worthy of the honor that would have accompanied their observance and participation in this event. Our allegiance is with the cause that our valiant ancestors fought and not with the modern turn-tails we observe every day!  We WILL honor our ancestors this Friday and Saturday! Please join us! If you are eligible but are not members, please consider joining us. www.plpow.com

William Lowndes Yancey's Prophetic Insight

Born at Ogeechee Falls, Georgia in 1814, educated at academies in New York and New England, South Carolina and later Alabama editor, William Lowndes Yancey prophetically predicted the rise of the consolidationist Republican party.  He foresaw the States becoming "but tributaries to the powers of the General Government," and their sovereignty enfeebled.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

William Lowndes Yancey's Prophetic Insight

". . . Yancey had been an unconditional Unionist . . . But in 1838 disturbing reports, which led him to pause, study the Constitution, and consider the nature of the Union, began to reach his desk. His indignation and fears seem to have been first aroused by the abolitionist petitions which were agitating Congress and the country, and in one of his editorials declared:

"The Vermont resolutions have afforded those deluded fanatics – the Abolitionists – another opportunity for abusing our citizens, and endeavoring to throw firebrands into the South, to gratify a malevolent spirit.  They well know that they have no right to . . . meddle with our rights, secured to us by the Constitution; but to gratify the worst of feelings, while at the same time and in many instances, the endanger our safety, they press upon Congress the consideration of this subject."

This editorial went on to express a fear that there was "a settled determination, on the part of those fanatics, to form themselves into a small band of partisans," and thereby to gain the balance of power and determine elections.

Yancey's fears of despotism under the cloak of the Federal Union were intensified by the election of the friends of the United States Bank.  He reported a series of resolutions condemning the bank, supporting the President [Jackson] in his fight on it, and approving "well conducted State Banks." The second resolution [declared]:

"We deem the struggle now going on between the people, and the United States Bank partisans, to be a struggle for pre-eminence between the State-Rights principles of 1798, and Federalism in its rankest state; and that in the triumph of the Bank, if destined to triumph, we would mournfully witness the destruction of the barriers and safeguards of our Liberties."

In the spring of 1839 Yancey and his brother bought and consolidated the Wetumpka (Alabama) Commercial Advertiser and the Wetumpka Argus.  The next spring when Yancey took personal charge of the newspaper, he announced that it would support a policy of strict construction in national politics and a State policy of reform in banking, internal improvements, and public education within reach of every child.

[With the] opening of the presidential campaign of 1840, [Yancey] believed the issue between State rights and consolidation to have been clearly drawn.  Twelve years of Jacksonian democracy had destroyed the bank, provided for the extinction of the protective features of the tariff, and checked internal improvements at federal expense.  Therefore, if the friends of the bank, the protective tariff, and internal improvements expected to enjoy the beneficence of a paternalistic government, they must gain control of the administration at Washington, and consolidate its powers.  Thus to them the selection of a Whig candidate for the presidency was an important question, and from their point of view Henry Clay seemed to be the logical choice.

[Yancey editorialized] to show that the abolitionists, having defeated [Henry] Clay in the convention, now contemplated using their power to defeat Martin Van Buren in the election, disrupt the Democratic party, and absorb the Whigs.  To Yancey it seemed clear that [a] coalition of Whigs and abolitionists would put the South in a minority position . . . that the minority position of the South demanded "of its citizens a strict adherence to the States Rights Creed."

He declared:

"Once let the will of the majority become the rule of [Constitutional] construction, and hard-featured self-interest will become the presiding genius in our national councils – the riches of our favored lands offering but the greater incentive to political rapacity."

Furthermore, he foresaw with inexorable logic that once the general government was permitted to exercise powers, not expressly given to it, for subsidies to industry and for the building of roads and canals, it was as reasonable to claim constitutional authority for subsidies for agriculture and labor.

Yancey foretold with prophetic insight the consequences of the application of the consolidationists creed. He said it would result in a "national system of politics, which makes the members of the confederacy but tributaries to the powers of the General Government – enfeebling the sovereign powers of the States – in fact forming us into a great consolidated nation, receiving all its impulses from the Federal Capitol."

And in strikingly modern language he warned the people that, if the tendencies toward consolidation continued, the Constitution would "have its plainly marked lines obliterated, and its meaning . . .left to be interpreted by interested majorities – thus assembling every hungry and greedy speculator around the Capitol, making the President a King in all but name – and Washington a "St. Petersburg," – the center of a vast, consolidated domain."

(William L. Yancey's Transition from Unionism to State Rights, Austin L. Venable, Journal of Southern History, Volume X, Number 1, February 1944, pp. 336-342)

From: bernhard1848@att.net

Hurrying Down to Destruction

Southerners reacted to abolitionist tirades with arguments of the civilizing aspects of African slavery, as well as reminding them that their own fathers had shipped the Africans in chains to the West Indies and North America.  The invention of Massachusetts inventor Eli Whitney along with the hungry cotton mills of that State, perpetuated slavery, and new plantation expansion into the Louisiana territory was fueled by Manhattan lenders – all of whom could have helped end African slavery in North America.  The following is excerpted from the introduction of "Cotton is King," E.N. Elliott, editor (1860), and from "Liberty and Slavery," Albert Taylor Bledsoe.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

www.ncwbts150.com

"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Hurrying Down to Swift Destruction

"Geographical partisan government and legislation . . . had its origin in the Missouri [Compromise] contest, and is now beginning to produce its legitimate fruits: witness the growing distrust with which the people of the North and South begin to regard each other; the diminution of Southern travel, either for business or pleasure, in the Northern States; the efforts of each section to develop its own resources, so as to render it independent of the other; the enactment of "unfriendly legislation," in several of the States, toward other States of the Union, or their citizens; the contest for the exclusive possession of the territories, the common property of the States; the anarchy and bloodshed in Kansas; the exasperation of parties throughout the Union; the attempt to nullify, by popular clamor, the decision of the supreme tribunal of our country; the existence of . . . a party in the North organized for the express purpose of robbing the citizens of the Southern States of their property; . . . the flooding of the whole country with the most false and malicious misrepresentations of the state of society in the [Southern] States; the attempt to produce division among us, and to array one portion of our citizens in deadly array to the other; and finally, the recent attempt to incite, at Harper's Ferry, and throughout the South, an insurrection, and a civil and servile war, with all its attendant horrors.

All these facts go to prove that there is a great wrong somewhere, and that a part, or the whole, of the American people are demented, and hurrying down to swift destruction.

The present slave States had little or no agency in the first introduction of Africans into this country; this was achieved by the Northern commercial States and by Great Britain.  Wherever the climate suited the Negro constitution, slavery was profitable and flourished; where the climate was unsuitable, slavery was unprofitable, and died out.  Most of the slaves in the Northern States were sent southward to a more congenial clime.

Upon the introduction into Congress of the first abolition discussions, by John Quincy Adams, and Joshua Giddings, Southern men altogether refused to engage in debate, or even to receive petitions on the subject. They averred that no good could grow out of it, but only unmitigated evil."

(The South: A Documentary History, Ina Woestemeyer Van Noppen, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1958, pp. 265-266)
From: bernhard1848@att.net

FLAG RALLY AT FORREST PARK

July 14 - Memphis, Tennessee

Southern Heritage News & Views

http://shnv.blogspot.com/2013/06/flag-rally-at-forrest-park.html

BRANDY STATION & KELLY'S FORD: ON THE HALLOWED GROUND

BOTH SIDES TOUR XI

Civil War Sesquicentennial Event

The Both Sides Tour will visit and explore two sites where Union cavalry showed it was finally worthy of doing battle with their Confederate counterparts in 1863. The first stop will be at Kelly's Ford, where on March 17, 1863, the Union cavalry fought toe-to-toe with Fitzhugh Lee's Confederates. This is also the site of the mortal wounding of the "Gallant Pelham," Stuart's horse artillery commander and a significant loss to the Southern cause. We'll next visit the "Graffiti House" near the depot at Brandy Station, where the walls are covered with names, drawings and inscriptions left by soldiers from both armies. After lunch at Country Cookin' in Culpeper, we'll return to the ground at Brandy Station, where a surprise attack by Alfred Pleasanton's Union cavalry nearly handed J.E.B. Stuart his first major loss of the war on June 9, 1863. We'll visit Beverly's Ford and Fleetwood Hill (Stuart's HQ site), among other areas of the battlefield.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Sponsored by the Franconia Museum

Start the day at 8 a.m. with coffee and donuts at the Franconia Museum, 6121 Franconia Road. Board a comfortable rest-room equipped motor coach for the trip to Culpeper County. Along the way, we'll discuss the leaders and how the Confederate cavalry had dominated its Union foes in the first two years of the war, but now the tide would turn. We'll also discuss how the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers played significant roles in the movements of both armies, and you'll learn about recent preservation efforts that have resulted in Fleetwood Hill being saved!  Hear vignettes along the way

COST: $100.00 Each. Includes Bus Ride, Buffet Lunch (including gratuity) and a Snack Card to spend on the way home, as well as all entrance fees.

Jeb Stuart



Coming in Spring 2014: The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse

Both Sides Tour October 26, 2013 Registration Form

Contact Don Hakenson at 703-971-4984 or dhakenson@cox.net

Carl Sell at 703-971-4716 or sellcarl@aol.com

Ben Trittipoe at 703-530-0829 or btrittipoe@verizon.net  

Name_____________________________________________________
Address__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Phone_____________________________________________________
E-Mail____________________________________________________



Cost: $100.00. Cost includes bus, lunch, and a fast-food value card on the way home. Entrance fees to the historic sites and a contribution to the Franconia Museum. Bottled water will be provided on the bus. No cancellations after October 10, 2013.  Tour Held Rain or Shine.  Leave from Franconia Museum at Franconia Governmental Center, 6121 Franconia Road. Free parking. Arrive at 8:00 a.m. for tour of museum, coffee and donuts. Bus leaves at 8:15 a.m. sharp!

Make checks payable to Don Hakenson.



Mail to:

Both Sides Tour

4708 Lillian Drive

Franconia, VA22310

Coming in Spring 2014: The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse

"Jim Crow" Law Origins

Though the author below cites Tennessee's 1881 legislation as the first of the "Jim Crow" type, New York in 1821            enfranchised all adult white male citizens, but kept black men in a politically subordinate caste with a $250 property-holding requirement for voting.  Leading this initiative was future president Martin Van Buren who argued that "democracy only made sense with racial exclusion."  Van Buren ran for president again in 1848 on the Free Soil party ticket, which desired white racial exclusivity in the western territories.

Bernhard Thuersam, Director

Cape Fear Historical Institute

"Documenting Cape Fear People, Places and History"

www.cfhi.net

"Jim Crow" Law Origins:

"The practice of requiring by legislative enactment that Negroes use railroad coaches or compartments separate from this for whites, commonly referred to as "Jim Crow" legislation, did not become general in the South until the            closing decade of the nineteenth century.

Earlier, however, in 1881, the legislature of Tennessee enacted a law requiring railroads to provide separate cars or compartments for the use of Negroes.  By this abortive statute – for so it proved to be – Tennessee acquired a somewhat undeserved notoriety, at least in one college textbook, as the originator of "Jim Crow" legislation.

Moreover, the purpose of this law and the circumstances surrounding its enactment were strikingly different from what is generally believed to be the origin of this type of discriminatory legislation.  It is often assumed that prior to the passage of the "Jim Crow" laws no effective racial discrimination existed on railroad trains.

The alleged "Jim Crow" law of 1881 was enacted by a legislature in which one house was controlled by the Republican party and which included four Negro members. Only two Negro members voted against the measure; the other two did not vote.

The bill was signed without hesitation by the first Republican governor of the State elected after the overthrow of the Radical [Republican] regime.  The apparent anomaly of Republican support is explained by the fact that the bill was considered by white [legislature] members to be a concession to Negroes – a consolation prize designed to assuage somewhat the sting caused by the failure of the four Negro legislators to secure the repeal of a more seriously discriminatory statute passed in 1875.

[An 1880 Federal circuit court reviewed a case involving] a Negro woman, alleged to have been a "notorious and public courtesan, addicted to the use of profane language and offensive conduct in public places." She had been forced to move from the ladies' car to the smoking car, which was crowded with passengers, mostly immigrants traveling on cheap rates. [The railroad company] based its case on the reputation rather than the color of the plaintiff.

With regard to trains carrying three or more passenger cars it appears that the railroads attempted, at least, to pay lip service to the Tennessee law…..they usually provided what was called the "colored" first class car, to which Negroes of both sexes with first class tickets were assigned but which was also available for the use of white persons.. [Though] not exclusively for the use of Negroes, they were sometimes referred to as "Jim Crow" cars.

The innovation of the modern "Jim Crow" car was not the result of the Tennessee law of 1881 but of Supreme Court approval of a Mississippi statute of March 2, 1888 [requiring separate but equal facilities].  [The Court held the Mississippi law as constitutional, with Kentuckian and Justice] John M. Harlan dissenting, on March 3, 1890 . . . [deciding] that the opinion of the Mississippi Supreme Court that the law applied only to intrastate commerce must be accepted as conclusive.  It also held that the law was no more a burden on interstate commerce than requiring certain accommodations at depots or enforcing stops at street crossings.

(The Origin of the First "Jim Crow" Law, Stanley J. Folmsbee, Journal of Southern History, Volume XV, Number 2, May, 1949, pp. 235-237; 243-244)

From: bernhard1848@att.net

Hughes Camp Meeting Tonight July 11th 2013

Hughes camp meeting tonight at 7:00.  Bring your Hughes camp name tags if possible, we have new ones for everyone that are more bold and beautiful for a lack of a better term.  I will have new camp merchandise for all to purchase if need be.  Boyd chapter has a raffle going for an 1851 Navy revolver.  See you all there.

Jason-Nathaniel: coffman

Commander

hughescamp.org

Members and Friends of the South –

As you know, for the last several months our heritage has been placed under assault by some terribly misguided people in leadership positions in the city of Memphis, particularly where it relates to Confederate themed Parks, Memorials, and other places of Confederate historic significance. I was inspired and encouraged this weekend by  the talk among both participants and guests at the excellent Hernando reenactment (which drew some 3000 spectators over 2 days), and in listening to the leadership of various reenactment groups insisting that each man be there, and hearing from other groups in attendance that they planned to be here. Many were from Mississippi and Arkansas, some from East of Memphis and middle Tennessee, some actually from Memphis. All plan to be there. Good PR is part of the way we will win this fight, and what better PR is there than to have the largest crowd EVER attend the Gen. Forrest Birthday celebration at Forrest Park on Sunday, July 14 at 2:00 PM?

I know, I know. It seems to always be on the hottest day of the year. Tell that to the Honor Guard, and the Color Guard, and the other living historians who will be there in uniform with full accoutrement – many of whom will have traveled a long distance to be here for a comparatively short ceremony, standing in ranks sweating their brains out while waiting their turn to pass honors. Tell it  to the ladies and gentlemen in attendance in period dress or to the volunteer crew that gets there hours beforehand to set up for the event and stays after to break it down. Volunteers from Citizens to Save Our Parks will no doubt be there with petitions to sign and taking donations to cover our costs relating to the lawsuit against the City, which by the way WE WILL WIN. Besides, the ceremony only lasts an hour or so, and there's watermelon and cold water to keep you cooled off. The AC will likely still work in your car when we're done, too, and there's nothing like that "whoosh" when it first cranks up on a hot day. Yeah, I know, it's always on a Sunday. Well, yes it is, but church is out at most places long before start time, there are no conflicting holidays or 3-day weekends (although there should be), and the NFL is still only thinking about training camp, so Sunday shouldn't really be much of an issue either. In reality, if you are a member of the SCV or UDC, a reenactor, or other living historian, or just somebody who loves history - unless you are working, have prepaid out of town plans, a family emergency, or are physically unable to attend, there is no reason not to be there and not to bring somebody with you, especially considering the circumstances this year. This is historical preservation after all, and historical preservation is what we do.

So, while I am not really a leader in this organization,  I am personally challenging each of you to be there, regardless as to whatever else may be going on. I'm getting this out to you almost a month ahead of time, so if you put it on your calendar today, July 14th shouldn't fill up with something else. If you know or come into contact with other like-minded individuals, please invite them to also attend.

This is an opportunity. This is the time. We've been to the meetings, we've written and spoken to various council members, the mayor, the media, the naming committee, the Parks Commission, State Representatives and other leaders. This is the time for all of us to come out and stand up for and celebrate what we believe in and the history we love and to honor our ancestors and what they fought and died for by making this the largest Forrest Birthday celebration on record if possible, and if not then let's make it the largest in recent memory. This is the time to show those that would try to attack, erase, and remove those historic places that we love and cherish that we will NOT go quietly into the night and let them do what they will, that these places ARE important and DO matter, and that their names are Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, Confederate Park, and Jefferson Davis Park. And the best opportunity to do that in the immediate future is this event. So show up. Bring your family. Bring your friends. Bring everybody you can, and let's make this one the biggest, best and most significant ever. See you there.                                                                                      

Deo Vindice!

-Mike