Confederate Avenue and a Confederate Victory at the Battle of New Hope Church

Paulding County Courthouse

While passing through the town of Dallas, Georgia recently I was  very interested to notice that the main intersection of town is Confederate Avenue and Main Street.  Dallas is the county seat of Paulding County, which is in the  Atlanta metro area and one of the fastest growing counties in the United States.

Here in Paulding County during the War Between the States, Union General William T. Sherman's invading troops were soundly defeated by the Confederates, May 26-27, 1864, at the battle of New Hope Church.  The Yankees suffered 1,600 casualties at the hands of Confederate defenders under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston.  I'm proud to say that among the Confederates who mauled the Yankee hoards in Paulding County was one of my great, great uncles, Pvt. John Thomas Conn.  Unfortunately, Uncle John Thomas was the only one of four Conn brothers from Georgia who survived the War.  The Yankees had already killed three of his brothers - two of my uncles and my great, great grandfather. 

My Conn ancestors lived in Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), Georgia.   The town was called Big Shanty because it consisted of just a big cluster of shanties occupied by poor tenent farmers and railroad workers along the tracks where it skirts Kennesaw Mountain.  The only crime of the people of Big Shanty was that they dared to defend their homes (shanties) and their families against a brutal and merciless invading Union army.  After Sherman and his men murdered all the people they could in Big Shanty, they burned the town, leaving the survivors (women, children and feeble old men) destitute and homeless.

This Confederate Flag, now surrounded by the urban sprawl of Metropolitan Atlanta, still waves proudly. and defiantly, over the graves of Confederate dead at the New Hope Cemetery in Paulding County.

They Died in Defense of Constitutional Liberty

Kentucky's First Confederate Memorial, Cynthiana, Kentucky

Battle Grove Cemetery in Cynthiana, Kentucky was dedicated November 4, 1868 to honor those who fell there June 12, 1864 during the second Battle of Cynthiana.  The battle ensued when Union troops invaded Kentucky during the War to prevent Southern Independence (1861-1865).

In the following spring, on May 27, 1869, Battle Grove Cemetery became the site of the first of dozens of Confederate memorials in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and it is widely believed to be the second oldest Confederate monument in the nation. 

The memorial consists of a granite shaft, beside which flys the First National Flag of the Confederacy.  Surrounding the shaft and flag is a circle of headstones of Confederate dead, most of them unknown.  And why did these brave men die?  The monument makes the answer clear with the inscription:  They died in defense of Constitutional Liberty. 

In the spirit of American Revolution of 1776, the Confederates made the ultimate sacrifice in a war for freedom from an out of control federal government.  The North, under the despotic dictatorship of Abraham Lincoln, trampled the Constitution in a grab for money and centralized governmental control over the previously sovereign states. 

Chiseled in stone on front of the monument are these words:

ERECTED 

MAY 27, 1869

BY THE

CYNTHIANA CONFEDERATE

MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION

IN MEMORY OF

THE CONFEDERATE DEAD WHO

FELL IN DEFENSE OF

CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY 

The other side of the monument contains this verse:

THEIR NAMES SHALL NEVER BE FORGOT

WHILE FAME THEIR RECORD KEEPS.

AND GLORY GUARDS THE HALLOW'D SPOT 

WHERE VALOR PROUDLY SLEEPS.

Pickett's Mill: A Battle Sherman wanted to Forget

Four weeks into his Atlanta Campaign, during the War to Prevent Southern Independence, General William T. Sherman ordered an attack on Confederate defenders in the environs of Dallas, Georgia, northwest if Atlanta,  Yet, although Sherman instigated what became known as the Battle of Pickett's Mill, he  omitted any mention of it in his memoirs.  Perhaps Sherman wanted to forget Pickett's Mill - a humiliating defeat and a setback in Abraham Lincoln's War of Northern Aggression.

Sherman's omission in recording this battle is just another example of how northern generals and state historians have worked to slant and shape history in ways that cast the Union in the most favorable light possible - historical accuracy be damned.

On May 24, 1864, the Federal invaders were already stinging, having been stopped in their advance on Atlanta two days earlier by the Battle of New Hope Church.  Now, under Sherman's orders, some 14,000 Federal troops, led by General Oliver Howard, marched on Pickett's Mill.  There, a smaller contingency of 10,000 Confederate troops were assembled under the command of General Patrick Cleburne. 

The Yankee assault at Pickett's Mill began at 5 p.m. and continued into the night.  When the sun rose the next morning the outnumbered, but not outfought, Confederates were still in possession of the field.  The Yankee invaders had lost 1,600 men compared to the Confederate loss of 500.

This Confederate victory resulted in a one-week delay for Sherman and his invading hoard as they killed, burned, raped and plundered their way across Georgia.

Today Pickett's Mill Battlefield State Historic Site is one of the best preserved battlefields of the War Between the States.  On a recent visit there I contemplated the battle as I walked on the same roads used by both Federal and Confederate troops, saw earthworks constructed by these men, and explored the peaceful ravine through which Little Pumpkinvine Creek flows, where hundreds of men died, all to satisfy Sherman's insanity and Abraham Lincoln's lust for money and power.

The Ravine and Little Pumpkinvine Creek at Pickett's Mill

Story and photos by J. Stephen Conn

Killing and Plundering in Port Gibson, Mississippi

Directly across from the Claiborne County Courthouse, Port Gibson, Mississippi, is this very imposing Confederate Monument. It honors the soldiers from Claiborne County who fought to defend their homeland against Northern invaders during the War Between the States. The monument was dedicated Oct. 26, 1907 in a fitting ceremony led by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.


Claiborne County was the scene of two important battles of the War. The Battle of Grand Gulf, April 29, 1863, on the banks of the Mississippi River, was counted as a Confederate victory although it allowed Union General U.S. Grant to move his troops past the fortifications and land them at Bruinsburg. This helped set the stage for the infamous Siege of Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi for the invading Yankees. The former town of Grand Gulf is now Grand Gulf Military Park with a museum, historic buildings, hiking trails and an observation tower with an outstanding view of the Mississippi River.

The Battle of Port Gibson was started by Northern aggressors near the A. K. Shaifer house, May 1, 1863. A Union victory, the battle resulted in 1,648 casualties, all of them American - 861 Union, 787 Confederate.   Three of my great uncles, two from Alabama and one from Georgia, were among the Confederate soldiers who survived the battle.  All three were later captured in Vicksburg.  They were the lucky ones.  Others of my kin had already been killed in Mr. Lincoln's War.

A portion of the Port Gibson battlefield is now preserved within the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Below is an eye-witness account of the aftermath of the Battle of Port Gibson, written by two Union Soldiers:

“Early next morning, May 2d, we advanced with a strong skirmish-line in front, and entered Port Gibson at 9 A. M., where we found the public and private buildings crowded with rebel wounded. The Regiment stacked arms on the side-walk, under the shade-trees. The enemy had retreated over the south fork of Piere River, destroying the bridge after them. The following morning we crossed the river on a pontoon bridge, marched all day, and crossed the north fork at Grindstone Ford in the evening, and camped near the stream.

"The provisions that we started with had lasted up to this time, but we had cut loose from our base, which prevented us from getting another supply. Orders were therefore issued to subsist on the products of the country through which we marched; and from that time forward until the siege of Vicksburg, foraging parties, or perhaps better known as "bummers," were sent out daily, to procure all the provisions and forage that was required for the army. They left camp every morning, in advance of the infantry, and a curious sight they were to behold, as they galloped by at full speed, mounted on such "critters" as they could gather up on their expeditions. They were dressed in such clothes as suited their fancy - the Union blue, the rebel gray and butternut, with a considerable number in citizens' attire.

“They were a jolly, mischievous set, eager and ready for any adventure. No sooner were they beyond the lines than they began their work. They slaughtered the pigs in the pens; the cattle and horses were driven from the fields; smokehouses and cellars were ransacked for flour, meal and bacon; the chickens and turkeys were captured in the yard; the mules were hitched to the family carriage, and the provisions stowed away in it, when it was driven to the next plantation, where the same ceremony was repeated. Toward evening the foragers returned to camp, driving the cattle before them, followed by a long line of vehicles of every description, loaded with all kinds of provisions, which was equally distributed among the different regiments.”

--Maj. John A. Bering & Capt. Thomas Montgomery, 1880, in History of the Forty-eighth Ohio Vet. Vol. Inf.

The invaders saw themselves as "... a jolly, mischievous set, eager and ready for any adventure.” In truth, they were a brutal force of murderers, marauders and plunderers. When the Yankees arrived at Port Gibson they found a beautiful, prosperous and peaceful town. Two days later they went on their "jolly" way, the Yanks left behind hundreds of dead and wounded. The innocent, civilian surviviors – including old men, women and children, both black and white – were left destitute and hungry.

Port Gibson, the third oldest town in Mississippi, is still a lovely place. However, in many ways it has never fully recovered from the devastation of the War to Prevent Southern Independence.

1845 Claiborne County Courthouse, Port Gibson, Mississippi

Photos and Story by J. Stephen Conn

Confederates are Victorious at the Battle of Poison Spring, Arkansas

In the spring of 1864, invading Union troops, led by Major General Fred Steele, occupied the town of Camden, Arkansas. Upon learning that the Confederates had stores of corn about twenty miles up the Prairie D’Ane-Camden Road on White Oak Creek, General Steel sent a “foraging party” to take the food supplies from the Southerners. The foragers, 600 strong, took four cannon and 198 wagons with them. Led by Colonel James M. Williams, they sacked and plundered Confederate provisions they found on farms and plantations.

With their wagons groaning under 5000 bushels of corn, plus other contraband they had stolen, the Union raiders regrouped at White Oak Creek. Early the next day they were joined by a 501-man relief force of infantry, cavalry and two additional artillery pieces. But even with reinforcements, the Yankee thieves would prove to be no match for the defending Southerners.

On the morning of April 18, the despoilers were stopped by a roadblock near Poison Spring. There they faced Confederate Brigadier General John Sappington Marmaduke with 3,600 cavalrymen with twelve cannon. The horsemen were from Arkansas, Missouri and Texas, as well as Colonel Tandy Walker’s Choctaw Brigade from the Indian Territory – now Oklahoma.

The entire Yankee force was put to flight, being chased for two and a half miles before the Confederates stopped their pursuit.

The Union lost all of their 198 wagons; the Confederates got back all of their corn. Northern casualties were 301 men killed, wounded and missing. Confederate losses were estimated at 114.

Some the captured Yankee Infantrymen from Kansas did not make it back due to revenge killings by Confederates from the border regions and scalpings by Native Americans in Confederate service whose homes in the Indian Territory had been raided by the Kansas troops.

According to Civil War Historian Dale Cox, "One Confederate participant wrote after the battle that he saw black Union soldiers being killed by Choctaw warriors fighting with the 1st and 2nd Choctaw Regiments of the 2nd Indian Brigade. These warriors were outraged over raids carried out by Union soldiers from Fort Smith, Arkansas, into the Choctaw Nation earlier that year. Homes had been burned, crops destroyed, family possessions looted, women and children harmed or left homeless and men killed...."

Reports of other eyewitnesses of the Battle at Poison Spring tell of Union soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored desperately clinging to their weapons as they fled the battlefield. These men would still have been considered armed combatants, not prisoners of war. This is reminiscent of reports from Fort Pillow, Tennessee, where black Union POWs were allegedly killed by Confederate troops.

Today, Poison Spring Historic Battlefield near Bragg City, Ouachita County, Arkansas, preserves a small portion of the site.

Photos and story by J. Stephen Conn

Why My Confederate Uncles Fought at Perryville

In my last post, I shared the #1 most interesing photo out of more than 15,000 travel pictures I have on Flickr.com. Today I am posting the #2 favorite, along with the description I give on Flicker. It is especially interesting to me that both of these top favorites - as determined by the amount of views from the general public - are on Confederate themes, when 98% of my Flickr travel pics have absolutely nothing to do with the Confederacy. This is an indication of the intense worldwide interest people have in America's War Between the States.



This is the final photo in a set in which I share the tragic story of two of my great uncles, Confederate soldiers from Georgia, who fought to defend their homeland against an invading Northern army in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky.

In war the victors write the history, and the politically correct version of America's un-Civil War heard most often today is that the North fought to free the slaves in the South. Virtually no serious historian believes that, but many average citizens do.

The Conn family, like the vast majority of Southerners, owned no slaves. My Conn ancestors came to America as indentured servants from Ireland. Some of my other ancestors were Cherokee - Native Americans. There were more abolitionists, anti-slavery societies and free blacks in the South than in the North. More than 60,000 blacks, both slave and free, were in the Confederate army.

The Southern commander, General Robert E. Lee, called slavery "a moral and political evil" years before the war. When Lee inherited slaves, through his wife's family, he freed them. General Ulysses S. Grant, the Union commander, was a slave owner who refused to give up his slaves even after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Slavery would have soon ended in the South without war, and the needless slaughter of 620,000 men and tens of thousands of innocent Southern civilians, including blacks, whites women and children. Slavery would have ended peacefully in the South just as it did in Massachusetts (Which had slaves for decades before Georgia did), New York (The largest of the slave trading states - all of them in the North), and in scores of other countries, all without war.

The battle of Perryville, where two of my great uncles fought, took place during the second year of the War, and it was not until the beginning of the following year that Abraham Lincoln made his Emancipation Proclamation in an effort to change the course of his war for power and empire. Lincoln called his proclamation a "war measure." It was rhetoric that did not free a single slave, including slaves in several northern states. Freedom didn't come until the ratification of the 13th Amendment, months after the war was over.

At the Perryville Visitors Center are many quotes from soldiers who fought there. Among them I did not see a single mention of slavery. In their own words, the Southern men fought to defend their homes and families. They felt that America should remain a confederacy of sovereign states with a limited federal government, as outlined by our founding fathers in the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln and the North fought to squash states rights and institute an all powerful, centralized empire. Before the war America was always called "these" United States. Now it is "the" United States.

There are many good books that tell the truth about the War Between the States, but you won't find many of them in Federally funded public schools.

***

You may see the entire story on my Flickr site by clicking here: http://flickr.com/photos/jstephenconn/2886700867/in/set-72157607484183354/

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Photo and Article by J. Stephen Conn

New Confederate Monument to mark Battle of Richmond, Kentucky

Lexington Herald-Leader

RICHMOND, Ky. -- A Texas historical group plans a monument to mark the central Kentucky site of a decisive Confederate victory of the Civil War. Madison County Historic Properties Director Phillip Seyfrit says the Texas Historical Commission will dedicate the monument in Madison County's Battlefield Park on May 23.

The monument will be made of sunset-red granite and stand 8 feet tall, Seyfrit says. On it, will be lists of the Texas units involved in the August 1862 battle along with an explanation of their roles in the fight.

"We are gratified to have Texas erect the first state-sponsored memorial on the Richmond Battlefield," Seyfrit told the Richmond Register.

Seyfrit says the monument will be placed by a paved pathway in the park, near the ravine from which Confederate troops emerged to charge the Union's right, causing the Union line to fall back. An interpretive sign already stands near the site.

Other Civil War battlefields, such as Perryville in Boyle County, are dotted with monuments commemorating the action of troops from various states, according to Seyfrit.

"Because Texas troops figured so prominently in the Battle of Richmond, it is fitting that Texas be the first state outside Kentucky to erect a monument to its troops here," he observed.

There's More. For the full article go to: http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/645574.html

The photo above is of the 2007 reenactment of the Battle of Richmond and may be found here: http://encyclopedia.vbxml.net/Battle_of_Richmond