Ohio Bicentennial Marker dedicated to Confederate General

From the Mount Vernon News
Mount Vernon, Ohio

CENTERBURG, OHIO — A little bit of “Dixie” was on hand in Centerburg, Saturday, Nov. 12, as the Ohio Historical Society marker honoring Centerburg native Brig. Gen. Daniel Harris Reynolds, C.S.A., was unveiled in the village park at the corner of Main and Clayton streets.

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Roswell S. Ripley Camp 1535, the group that sponsored the marker, were joined by members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Civil War re-enactors, and many members of the community. Also present were several members of the Reynolds family.

The marker honoring Reynolds is the fourth sponsored by the local SCV group and the third to honor one of the six Ohio-born generals that served the Southern cause during the Civil War, or as is known in the South, “The War for Southern Independence.” Other markers sponsored by the group include one marking the escape of Gen. John Hunt Morgan from the Ohio Penitentiary, located in Columbus’ arena district; one honoring Gen. Roswell S. Ripley, located in Worthington; and in Malta, a marker honors Gen. Otho Strahl, who was also a close friend of Gen. Reynolds.


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An Ohio School Teacher, a Black Freeman, and the Battle of Fort Blair

Here at Historic Fort Blair, Baxter Springs, Kansas, Confederate troops lead by a former school teacher from Dover, Ohio and a free man of color from Missouri, were victorious in a battle against the Union army during the War Between the States.

On October 6, 1863, a Confederate cavalry unit of about 400 men, lead by Captain William Clarke Quantrill, a former Ohio school teacher, traveled along the Texas Road near the Missouri-Kansas border. Helping lead the way was Quantrill’s primary scout John Noland, a free man of African descent, who had joined the Confederate army because his family in Missouri was severely abused by Union soldiers. At least two other black men, John Lobb and Henry Wilson, and Cherokee Indian Adam Wilson were also members of the integrated Confederate company.

Upon approaching Fort Blair, Quantrill divided his force into two columns, one under him and the other commanded by a subordinate, David Poole. Poole and his men proceeded down the Texas Road, where they encountered Union soldiers. They chased the Union troops, killing some of them before they reached the earth and log fort.

Poole's column then attacked Fort Blair, but the garrison fought them off with the aid of a howitzer. Quantrill's column moved on the post from another direction where they encountered a Union detachment escorting Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt who was in the process of moving his command headquarters from Fort Scott to Fort Smith.

Most of this detachment, including the military band, Maj. Henry Z. Curtis (son of Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis), and Johnny Fry (first official westbound rider of the Pony Express) was killed.  Blunt and a few mounted men escaped and returned to Fort Scott. Blunt was removed from command by his superiors for failing to protect his column.  However, he was later restored.

The Union troops took such heavy losses in the Battle of Fort Blair that, to this day, some people tout the Confederate victory as a massacre. They did not call it a massacre earlier when Union soliders committed numerous acts of genocide against innocent Missouri civilians simply because they were suspected of sympathising with the Confederate quest for freedom from an out of control centrailzed government.  It was these Northern attrocities that caused the Confederates to take up arms and defend themselves.

In the spring of 1865, Quantrill rode into a Union ambush near Taylorsville, Kentucky. There, on May 10, he received a gunshot wound to the chest, leading to his death in a Louisville hospital on June 6 at the age of 27.

After the war, when veterans would hold reunions, Captain Quantrill’s troops came to be known as "Quantrill's Raiders." Historic Photographs of the reunions prominently show John Noland, the African-American Confederate scout, with his comrades in the group. At the reunions, Noland enjoyed recounting the story of how the Federals once offered him $10,000 (an enormous sum at that time) to betray the Confederates.  Being a man of honor and integrity, Noland scorned the Yankee bribe.  Other soldiers reminisced that when they were in battle Noland was a true leader, shouting commands than any other of Quantrill's men.

Some Northern apologists have tried to villify Quantrill and his men as blood thirsty, opportunistic outlaws. Those who have come to Quantrill’s defense include none other than a former president of the United States from Missouri, Harry S. Truman. He said, “But Quantrill and his men were no more bandits than the men on the other side. I’ve been to reunions of Quantrill’s men two or three times. All they were trying to do was protect the property on the Missouri side of the line.”

In truth, that’s what Confederates were doing everywhere that they fought in the War for Southern Independence – defending themselves, their families, and their property against a hostile, invading Union Army.

1901 Quantrill Raider's Reunion, Blue Springs, Missouri

Confederates at an Ohio County Fair

Sons of Confederate Veterans Booth at the Highland County Fair, Hillsboro, Ohio

On the afternoon of September 9, 2009, I visited the Highland County Fair in Hillsboro, Ohio and was delighted to find a booth sponsored by the Cincinnati Camp #1536 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It is being operated by Bud and Lisa Strausbaugh of Hillsboro. Bud's Confederate ancestors were from North Carolina and Lisa's from Kentucky. They were enthusiastic about their cause and seemed to be having a good week in answering questions about the Confederacy, selling Confederate souvenir items, and recruiting new members to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

It should be no real surprise that a Confederate heritage organization has such a visible presence in a Northern state. After all, a large number of people from Ohio sided with the Confederate States during the War for Southern Independence, including no less than six Confederate generals who were originally from the Buckeye State. In addition, many thousands of Southerners have moved north of the Ohio River over the years. Ohio currently has seven chapters or camps of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Both the number of camps and the membership in those camps is growing, and becoming more active.

I had a good visit with Bud and Lisa at the SCV booth. They shared with me several encouraging stories of their activities - speaking in schools, operating Confederate booths, holding memorial services, marching in parades, etc. Recently, the Sons of Confederate Veterans was awarded first place prize in a parade in northern Ohio, near the shores of Lake Erie.

Bud and Lisa Strausbaugh in the SCV Booth, Hillsboro County Fair

Sons of Confederate Veterans is a heritage organization founded in 1896, in Richmond, Virginia. For well over a century they have continued to serve as a historical, patriotic, and non-political fraternity dedicated to sharing and preserving the true history of the Confederate States of America and the War of 1861-1865.

Click here to learn more about the Sons of Confederate Veterans: http://www.scv.org/ .

William T. Sherman: Mad General - Mass Murderer

The kindest thing that could possibly be said about General William T. Sherman is that he was stark, raving mad. If he was insane - as many contemporary newspapers alleged and as he actually once claimed to be - then it might offer the only lame defense for the dastardly deeds of the United States’ most infamous war criminal.

Commanding General of the United States Army during the War Between the States, William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, and this statue to him stands in Zane Square Park, in downtown Lancaster. According to Lancaster's official travel guide: "Due to strong southern sentiment, more than 100 years passed before a Sherman statue was unveiled on July 2, 2000 during Lancaster's bicentennial celebration."

Sherman, with the blessing and enthusiastic approval of General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln, waged "Total War" against defenseless civilians throughout the Confederate States of America, 1861 - 1865. It was truly a "War of Northern Aggression" against a people who only wanted to be left alone.

General Sherman was personally responsible for the pillaging, plundering and burning of countless undefended cities, towns and homes. He and his barbaric Union troops brought wrought total destruction on farms, livestock and civilian food supplies. They turned thousands of women and children out into the winter cold, leaving them to fend for themselves with no food and no shelter. He and his troops hauled thousands of wagon loads of stolen Southern goods back to the North. They gang raped both black and white women and slaughtered thousands of innocent Americans, including old men, women, and children of all races.

Sherman had no shame. Here are some of his own words that illustrate his maniacal lust for blood. In a letter to his wife he said of the southern secessionists: “why death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better . . . . Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless to occupy it, but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources"

In an order to one of his generals, Thomas Ewing (Order #11) Sherman said “There is a class of people (in the South), men women and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order.”

And again to his wife he wrote from north Georgia, “I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash.”

Sherman once declared, "The Government of the United States has in North Alabama any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war – to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything . . . . war is simply power unrestrained by constitution or compact.... We will . . . take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper,"

Sherman's own words condemn him.

Some of the people who were exterminated by Sherman's army in both Georgia and Alabama were my own kin, including my great, great grandfather and two of his brothers, uncles on both sides of my family, plus several cousins. Not a one of them was a slave owner. They were poor farmers whose only crime was that they were defending their homes and families from a hostile, invading, foreign army.

It is beyond my comprehension to understand why some people today think of Sherman as a great war hero when to me was the personification of evil - a shameful dark stain on the history of the United States.

The people of Lancaster, Ohio honor this mad man with a historical marker that spins the memory of Sherman’s despicable deeds by calling him: “a four star military genius … a brilliant commander and grand strategist who revolutionized war by incorporating psychological and economic warfare into his military tactics.”

After his atrocities against the people of the Confederate States, Sherman continued his maniacal murders by overseeing the genocide of the Native American population in the West in Indian Wars. Of the Plains Indians he said, "It is one of those irreconcilable conflicts that will end only in one way, one or the other must be exterminated . . . . We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to the extermination, men, women and children" ... "The more Indians we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed next year," wrote Sherman. "They all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers."

William T. Sherman wrote his own epitaph - “Faithful and Honorable.” A more fitting epitaph would be “Insane and Conscienceless.”

As a current resident of the state of Ohio I can only hang my head in shame.

Confederate Cemetery to get Major Cleanup

Antique Postcard of Camp Chase Confederate Monument & Cemetery - Columbus, Ohio

Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, about five miles east of downtown Columbus, Ohio, is slated for a major cleanup.

This cemetery, which was the site of a Confederate prisoner of war camp during the War Between the States, is the final resting place of 2,260 men in gray who perished while being held in captivity north of the Mason Dixon line, or in this case, north of the Ohio River. Their only crime was defending their homeland against an invading foreign army.

Camp Chase was named for Salmon Chase of Ohio, Abraham Lincoln's treasury secretary. The United States government, which owns the property, is funding the cleanup. Workers will be straightening and washing tombstones and planting grass at the graveyard. Work is slated to be completed by early November of this year. I'm planning to visit Camp Chase to take a few post cleanup photos. Watch for a report here on Confederate Digest.

Monument to a War Criminal - General Philip H. Sheridan

This imposing monument to Union General Philip Henry Sheridan stands in the traffic circle in the center of downtown Somerset, Ohio, Sheridan's home town.

By every civilized standard, General Sheridan was a war criminal of the worst sort who brought shame and disgrace upon the United States of America. Yet, he was highly praised by President Abraham Lincoln and was actually promoted for his unconscionable crimes against innocent, defenseless civilians.

General Philip Sheridan is a celebrated "war hero" in Ohio and in the history books written by the northern victors in the War to Prevent Southern Independence, aka the War Between the States and the American Civil War.

In the autumn of 1864, after the retreating Confederate army had evacuated Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Sheridan and his 35,000 infantry troops utterly destroyed the once peaceful valley. Sheridan described his atrocities in a letter to commanding General Ulysses S. Grant. In the first few days he of his occupation Sheridan boasted that he "destroyed over 2200 barns . . . over 70 mills . . . have driven in front of the army over 4000 head of stock, and have killed . . . not less than 3000 sheep. . . . Tomorrow I will continue the destruction."

Sheridan's troops told of the wanton attack in their letters home, calling themselves "barn burners" and "destroyers of homes." One soldier wrote to his family that he had personally set 60 private homes on fire and opined that "it was a hard looking sight to see the women and children turned out of doors at this season of the year" (winter). A Sergeant William T. Patterson wrote that "the whole country around is wrapped in flames, the heavens are aglow with the light thereof . . . such mourning, such lamentations, such crying and pleading for mercy [by defenseless women]... I never saw or want to see again."

The innocent victims who lived in the Shenandoah were left utterly destitute - without shelter, without food, and without any means of growing new crops or livestock with which to feed themselves. The area was so completely sacked and devastated that Sheridan boasted "'... a crow flying over must carry it's own provisions."

Instead of being reprimanded for his horrific deeds, President Abraham Lincoln personally conveyed to Sheridan "the thanks of the Nation."

After having his fill of slaughtering Confederates, Sheridan turned his evil lust for blood toward America's western frontier. He was appointed as overseer of the Indian Territory where he supervised the genocide of Native Americans and coined the phrase, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

As an American, and a citizen of the State of Ohio, I hang my head in shame and weep for the America that might have been.

Story and photo by J. Stephen Conn

Lessons from an Ohio Monument to the War of the Rebellion

This very impressive monument stands in front of the old Wilson Childrens Home in West Union, Ohio. It was erected by the Honorable John T. Wilson as a tribute to the soldiers of Adams County, Ohio, who were killed or died during their invasion of the Confederate States of America during the War to Prevent Southern Independence.

It is interesting to note that the monument refers to the "War of the Late Rebellion." Apparently Mr. Wilson knew what many Americans today do not know - that our country did not have a "Civil War" in 1861-1865. The United States has never had a civil war - which is when two or more factions within a single country fight for control of the government. Instead, there was a peaceful and legal secession by several southern states over a complex variety of reasons, centering around States Rights and unfair taxation of the under-represented Southern planters.

To the Confederate States, that secession was a bid for independence from an out of control central government which had overstepped its Constitutional authority. "The North, which had become dependent upon heavy and unjust taxation of Southern agricultural production, mislabeled the secession as "Rebellion." When most of President Lincoln's advisers and hundreds of Northern newspapers argued that the South should be allowed to secede in peace, Lincoln replied, "If the South goes, who will pay for the government?"


The Honorable John T. Wilson, a wealthy business and civic leader from Adams County, spent $5,000 to erect the 50-foot monument in 1893 - almost three decades after the war had ended. By putting his name and bust at the base of the monument, it seems to me that Mr. Wilson was as interested in memorializing himself as he was in honoring the Union soldiers, but who am I to judge. Mr. Wilson lost his only son in the war - a fact which is not mentioned on the monument.

I also find it most interesting that this monument - like scores of others from the same era -gives no pretext that The War was about freeing the slaves. That politically correct "spin" did not become widely believed until later. John T. Wilson's son, like the other young men from Adams County, fought for no such just cause. Instead, they were pawns in the heavy hands of a federal government set on conquest and empire. Perhaps the average soldier was motivated by a misguided patriotism, but in reality they fought and died to satisfy the lust for power and greed of Abraham Lincoln and his minions.

Story and Photos by J. Stephen Conn

Robert E. Lee Monument on Ohio's Dixie Highway

This monument on Dixie Highway, Franklin, Ohio, is said to be the only monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee north of the Ohio River.

The huge stone and bronze plaque is on the south side of Franklin at the crest of Cemetery Hill, at the intersection of the Old Dixie Highway and Hamilton-Middletown Road.

The monument honors the Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Army during the War Between the States. A Franklin businessman, Barry Brown, was instrumental in establishing this memorial to General Lee in 1927. Brown's family was from the South and he was proud of the fact that Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, the parents of Abraham Lincoln, were married in a cabin owned by his mother's family.

Barry Brown had deep respect for General Lee, as did many others in the North. Lee was known as a "Gentleman's Gentleman" and did much to heal the wounds left after the Union's invasion of the Confederate States of America during the War for Southern Independence.

The plate on front of the monument has an etching of General Lee on his horse, Traveller. The inscription reads:

Erected and Dedicated by the

United Daughters of the Confederacy

and Friends

In Loving Memory of Robert E. Lee

and to Mark the Route of the

Dixie Highway

"The shaft memorial and highway straight attest his worth -- he cometh to his own."--Littlefield.

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Photo and Article by J. Stephen Conn

Naming the War of 1861 - 1865

In front of the Highland County Courthouse in downtown Hillsboro, Ohio, you will see this monument to the Highland County soldiers and sailors who fought for the Union (North) in America's War Between the States. I found it interesting that the monument refers to the conflict as the "War of the Rebellion." That's what the British might have called the American Revolution if the Colonies had lost in their struggle for independence.

America's war of 1861-1865 was not a true civil war, as it is commonly called. A civil war is one in which a segment of the population rises up in an effort to overthrow the government. The South had no such desire. They simply wanted to peacefully leave the Union, in a day when many people held a higher allegiance to their home state than they did to the nation. Some southerners still call the conflict the "War against Northern Aggression," which is an accurate name since it was the South which was in the defensive position.

The War also has many other names. Some of these include:

The War for Constitutional Liberty
The War for Southern Independence
The Second American Revolution
The War for States' Rights
Mr. Lincoln's War
The Southern Rebellion
The War for Southern Rights
The War of the Southern Planters
The Second War for Independence
The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance
The Brothers' War
The War of Secession
The Great Rebellion
The War for Nationality
The War for Southern Nationality
The War of the Sixties
The Yankee Invasion
The War for Separation
The War for the Union
The Confederate War
The War of the Southrons
The War for Southern Freedom
The War of the North and South
The Lost Cause
The War to Prevent Southern Independence

In doing a Google search for these names I found that the three most widely used are:

1. Civil War
2. War of the Rebellion
3. War Between the States

Of these three I prefer the third: War Between the States. By the very definition of the term it was not a civil war. Also, it was not a war of rebellion because the so called "Rebels" did not start the war and they only fought defensively. The Confederate states simply wanted to remain free and sovereign states as outlined by the United States Constitution. Probably the most accurate of all the names in the first list is "The War to Prevent Southern Independence."

The original historical accounts attest to the fact that America's war of 1861-1865 was definitely "Mr. Lincoln's War." Mr. Lincoln alone is responsible for starting the war. He could easily have let the South go in peace, as most of his advisers and hundreds of northern newspapers recommended. Abraham Lincoln started and executed the illegal and unnecessary war, resulting in more than 620,000 deaths and the almost total destruction of the South, for only one reason - to prevent Southern Independence. He didn't want to lose the southern tariffs which provided more than 87% of the Federal budget - money which was spent primarily in the northern states. Mr. Lincoln's War to Prevent Southern independence was a war motivated by greed and the lust for power.

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Photo and Article by J. Stephen Conn