Black South Carolina man refuses to take down his Confederate Flag

This young man known as GoGreen58, from Bluffton, South Carolina says:

"My college has forced me to take down my Confederate Flag, because they said I was violating a "Racism Code". The flag has been up for the last 2 months and no problems were happening around me, but now they want to say I'm violating a code. They cannot do this to me, because this is a public college and i have my rights to freedom of speech. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are on my side and  I have an attorney. If the housing department does not allow me to put it back up, after the letter has been sent. Then a HUGE LAWSUIT will take place, because the housing department is violating my rights of Freedom of Speech. I'm Black NOT African American and I Don't see the Confederate Flag as a RACIST SYMBOL!!!

Follow this link for the story on CNN:  http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-709533

Southern Responses to South Carolina's Secession

HOW SECESSION IS REGARDED.; IN BALTIMORE. IN NEW-ORLEANS. IN MOBILE. IN MONTGOMERY. IN PENSACOLA. IN WILMINGTON. IN PORTSMOUTH. SECESSION IN MISSISSIPPI. MISSISSIPPI AND KENTUCKY. AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA.

The New York Times
Published December 22, 1860

BALTIMORE, Friday, Dec. 21.

South Carolina's secession produced not the slightest sensation here, one way or the other. People seemed relieved and cheerful, and the streets were gaily crowded and business was better. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that if the North now does right, and makes honorable, manly concessions, indicating an absolute determination to cultivate friendly feelings, and will repeal the obnoxious laws, the other Southern States will cheerfully meet them. W.

NEW-ORLEANS, Friday, Dec. 21.

A general demonstration of joy on the secession of South Carolina occurred here to-day. One hundred guns were fired and the Pelican flag unfurled. impromptu secession speeches were made by leading citizens, and the "Marsailles Hymn" and polkas were the only airs played. A bust of CALHOUN was exhibited decorated with a cockade.

An actor announced the secession of South Carolina last night from the stage of the Varieties. It was received with enthusiasm.

MOBILE, Thursday, Dec. 20.

The secession of South Carolina was celebrated here this afternoon by the firing of a hundred guns, the cheers of the people, and a military parade. There is great rejoicing.

The bells are now ringing merrily, and the people are out in the streets by hundreds, testifying their joy at the triumph of secession. Many impromptu speeches are being made, and the greatest excitement everywhere exists.


MOBILE, Friday, Dec. 21 -- P.M.

There is an immense secession meeting here to-night. The wildest enthusiasm is displayed. The oldest men are taking a prominent part in the proceedings.

Many places are illuminated in honor of South Carolina to-night.

MONTGOMERY, Ala., Thursday, Dec. 20.

Gov. MOORE has ordered one hundred guns to be fired at noon to-morrow, in honor of the secession of South Carolina.


PENSACOLA, Fla., Thursday, Dec. 20.

The secession of South Carolina is greeted with immense enthusiasm here. One hundred guns are being fired in honor of the event.

WILMINGTON, Friday, Dec. 21.

One hundred guns were to-day fired in honor of the secession of South Carolina.

PORTSMOUTH, Friday, Dec. 21.

Fifteen guns were fired to-day. The Palmetto flag was displayed at Norfolk.

WASHINGTON, Friday, Dec. 21.

A dispatch from the editor of the Mississippian and State Gazette, published at Jackson, to the Mississippi delegation in Congress, dated this, evening, states that Mississippi has elected Delegates to the State Convention in favor of separate State Secession by a very large majority -- say seventy in the Convention of one hundred delegates, and by a popular majority of 30,000 votes.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Friday, Dec. 21.

Hon. W.S. FEATHERSTONE, Commissioner from Mississippi, had an Interview with Gov. MAGOFFIN, at Frankfort, yesterday. The result of it is not yet known. He arrived here to-day.

NORFOLK, Va., Thursday, Dec. 20.

A large meeting of citizens was held at Ashland Hall last night. Resolutions were adopted recommending the holding of National and State Conventions; opposing coercion; favoring the arming of the State, and declaring against the opening of the African Slave-trade.


Here is a link to the above article in The New York Times Archive:  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A1FFD3859127A93C0AB1789D95F448684F9&scp=17&sq=secession,%20south%20carolina&st=cse

Hell No, We've Not Forgotten!



Fort Sumpter National Monument, Charleston, South Carolina


EDITOR's NOTE:  Even though I disagree with many of the Northern perspectives and false persumptions in this New York Times article, I do find it interesting to see what the Yankess are saying about us Southrons.

In the South, the Civil War has not been Forgotten.

 The New York Times
By Edward Rothstein

FORT SUMTER, S.C.

Stand atop the unexcavated mound of earth that covers part of this 19th-century fort and gaze northward over its half-disinterred ruins. Across the harbor, you can just make out the rooftops on which the inhabitants of Charleston stood 150 years ago this April, cheering as the fort — along with its some four score United States soldiers — was bombarded by the troops of the newly formed Confederate States of America. “A thrill went through the whole city,” wrote the aide de camp of the leader of the Confederate forces, Brig. Gen. Pierre Beauregard. “It was felt that the Rubicon was passed.”

It was the beginning of the Civil War. Or, as it is sometimes called here, the War Between the States. Or more provocatively: the War of Northern Aggression.

As commemorations of the war’s sesquicentennial begin this spring, with special exhibitions and symposia adding to the already extensive historical treatments that can be sampled at battlefields and museums reaching from Gettysburg to New Orleans, it might seem that the war’s heritage is relatively simple. As seen from a perch up North, the war’s purpose is morally and politically clear. Slavery’s abolition, like Lincoln’s powerful redefinition of the nation’s principles, set the United States on a path toward equality that it might have never found through antebellum thickets. The Civil War created contemporary America.


But spend some time in Southern museums, and it becomes clear that what seems evident up North is here clouded and contested. And if, in the North, the war seems part of a continuum of history, here it remains a cataclysm. The war was not a continuation of Southern history; it was a break in it. And that is still, for the South, the problem.

Even if Southern commemorations fully celebrate the Union that grew out of that war and readily repudiate slavery and its principles, disorientation is mixed with commemoration. The past is renounced, but not fully. The dead are remembered, but what about their cause? Nearly every war site and exhibition I have seen in the South wrestles with double perspectives and conflicting sentiments alien to the North.

There's more.  For the full article go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/arts/design/in-the-south-civil-war-has-not-been-forgotten.html?_r=1&src=me

The South Rises Again

National Post (Canada)
By Peter Goodspeed

They held a ball in Charleston South Carolina last week to celebrate the onset of the bloodiest war in U.S. history.

Men in frock coats and militia uniforms joined women in silk hoop skirts to sip mint juleps, as a band called “Unreconstructed” played “Dixie” and a squad of historical reenactors staged a replay of the Dec. 20, 1860 signing of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession, which severed ties with the Union and paved the way for the American Civil War.

The 150th anniversary of South Carolina’s secession is the first in a long list of Civil War memorials scheduled to be staged over the next four-and-a-half years that could end up re-opening old war wounds.

Festive and defiant, in character with the Old South, Charleston’s Secession Ball sparked a revival of an old debate about whether the most deadly conflict in U.S. history, which claimed a total of 620,000 lives, was fought over slavery or states’ rights.

It also has echoes of contemporary U.S. politics, where organizers of the ball — sounding like a collection of red state Republicans and Tea Party movement supporters, say it was “a way to honour the brave South Carolina men who stood up to an over-domineering federal government, high tariffs and northern states that wanted to take the country in an economic direction that was not best for the South.”

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/Civil+South+rises+again/4027610/story.html#ixzz19HIJC

Happy Secession Day!

The broadside shown below was published in Charleston, South Carolina 150 years ago - Dececember 20, 1860. It was an insert in the Charleston Mercury and measured 12" x 24". Printing began approximately 15 minutes after the secession ordinance passed, making South Carolina was the first state to secede from the United States of America.

Here is the text:

CHARLESTON MERCURY EXTRA:

Passed unanimously at 1.15 o'clock, P.M., December 20th, 1860

AN ORDINANCE

To dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled 'The Constitution of the United States of America.

We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained,

That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also, all acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'The United States of America,' is hereby dissolved.

THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!

Following the Money - getting rich during Sherman's March to the Sea

The letter below is from the Alderson, West Virginia Statesman, dated October 29, 1883. It was authenticated and republished in the Southern Historical Society Papers in March 1884.  I found a copy of this very revealing letter in the book “The Confederate Cause and Conduct in the War Between the States” by George L. Christian and Hunter McGuire, published in 1907.



Camp near Camden, S.C.,
February 26, 1865

My Dear Wife:

I have no time for particulars. We have had a glorious time in this State. Unrestricted license to burn and plunder was the order of the day. The chivalry have been stripped of most of their valuables. Gold watches, silver pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, &c., are as common in camp as blackberries.

The terms of plunder are as follows: Each company is required to exhibit the results of its operations at any given place. One-fifth and first choice falls to the share of the commander-in-chief [General Sherman] and staff; one-fifth to the corps commanders and staff; one-fifth to field officers of regiments, and two-fifths to the company. Officers are not allowed to join these expeditions unless disguised as privates. One of our corps commanders borrowed a suit of rough clothes from one of my men, and was successful in this place. He got a large quantity of silver (among other things an old milk pitcher) and a very fine gold watch from a Mrs DeSaussure, at this place (Columbia). DeSaussure is one of the F. F. V.’s of South Carolina, and was made to fork out liberally..

Officers over the rank of Captain are not made to put their plunder in the estimate for general distribution. This is very unfair, and for that reason, in order to protect themselves, subordinate officers and privates keep back every thing that they can carry about their persons, such as rings, earrings, breast pins, &c, &c. of which, if I live to get home, I have about a quart. I am not joking. I have at least a quart of jewelry for you and all the girls, and some No. 1 diamond rings and pins among them. General Sherman has silver and gold enough to start a bank. His share in gold watches alone at Columbia was two hundred and seventy-five.

But I said I could not go into particulars. All the general officers and many besides had valuables of every description, down to embroidered ladies' pocket handkerchiefs. I have my share of them, too. We took gold and silver enough from the damned rebels to have redeemed their infernal currency twice over. This, (the currency), whenever we came across it, we burned, as we considered it utterly worthless.

I wish all the jewelry this army has could be carried to the Old Bay State [Massachusetts]. It would deck her out in glorious style; but, alas! it will be scattered all over the North and Middle States.

The damned niggers, as a general thing, prefer to stay at home, particularly after they found out that we wanted only the able-bodied men, and to tell the truth, the youngest and best-looking women.

Sometimes we took off whole families and plantations of niggers, by way of repaying influential secessionists. But the useless part of these we soon managed to lose; sometimes in crossing rivers, sometimes in other ways. I shall write you again from Wilmington, Goldsboro, or some other place in North Carolina. The order to march has arrived, and I must close hurriedly.

Love to grandmother and Aunt Charlotte. Take care of yourself and children. Don't show this letter out of the family.

Your affectionate husband,
Thomas J. Myers,
Lieut. &c.

P.S. --I will send this by the first flag of truce to be mailed, unless I have an opportunity of sending it to Hilton Head. Tell Lottie I am saving a pearl bracelet and earrings for her. But Lambert got the necklace and breast pin of the same set. I am trying to trade him out of them. These were taken from the Misses Jamison, daughters of the President of the South Carolina Secession Convention. We found these on our trip through Georgia."

Addressed to Mrs. Thomas J. Myers, Boston, Massachusetts.

Secession Monument Proposed for South Carolina

By John McDermott
The Post and Courier

A group seeking to commemorate the 170 South Carolinians who signed the ordinance of secession nearly 150 years ago wants to place a monument to recognize the historic event on the grounds at Patriots Point.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans' South Carolina division is proposing to install an 11 1/2-foot-tall stone memorial as the centerpiece of a 40-foot by 40-foot landscaped plaza at the state-owned tourist attraction.

Designed by Pelion artist Ron Clamp, the rectangular structure would be made from blue Georgia granite and would measure 5 feet wide on each side. It would be lighted and surrounded with benches for visitors.

The group said Tuesday that it would take care of all the up-front costs and set up an endowment fund to cover future maintenance expenses. It asked that the Patriots Point Development Authority pay the electricity bill and have its security personnel include the proposed addition in their rounds to deter vandalism.

Representatives from the group pitched the idea to the authority this week, saying few public monuments exist recognizing the secession convention held in Columbia and Charleston on Dec. 17 and Dec. 20, 1860, helping ignite the Civil War.

The name of each of the signers and the wording of the secession document would be among the text and images engraved on each side of the monument.

Albert Jackson, chairman of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' monument committee, called the secession debate and the subsequent unanimous approval of the ordinance "a significant action" for South Carolina. Most people are not aware of the history behind it, he said.

Jeff Antley, who is in charge of finding a location for the memorial, said organizers want to put the monument at Patriots Points but that they need a firm commitment for a site before they raise the rest of the money for the estimated $160,000 project.

"We believe it belongs out here," Antley said, noting that the waterfront visitor attraction is now a key "gateway to Fort Sumter," where the first shots of the War Between the States were fired in April 1861.

For the complete story go to: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/jan/21/sons-of-confederate-vets-pose-secession-monument/

Photo by Tom Spain

Big Confederate Gun Goes Home

 
By Brian Hicks
The Post and Courier
Charleston, South Carolina

MOBILE, ALABAMA - The Confederate sloop of war Alabama traveled the world during the Civil War, making life miserable for many mariners, but the feared raider never actually made it to the state from which it took its name.

But now, thanks to the efforts of Hunley project conservators, Mobile has one of the Alabama's big guns.

Scientists at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center this week sent one of the ship's cannons to the Alabama port city after a six-year restoration project. The 1862 gun, made in Liverpool, has been restored to look almost new, which was no easy feat.

Paul Mardikian, senior conservator on the Clemson-sponsored project, found human remains and 19th-century paint on the cannon as his crew worked to rehabilitate the weapon, which was pulled off the Alabama wreck in the English Channel.

"This is a beautiful gun with an incredible history. We are lucky it survived," Mardikian said. "When you look at this, and find the inscription that says, 'Liverpool, 1862,' and realize this gun was responsible for sinking battleships, it's what really makes this job incredible."

The ship was built in 1862 in England under an assumed name -- the British did not particularly want their alliance with the Confederacy known. Shortly after it was launched with Capt. Raphael Semmes at the helm, the Alabama became the most fearsome ship on the high seas. In two years, it claimed 60 ships worth more than $6 million combined.

Then it was caught by the American sloop of war Kearsarge coming out of Cherbourg, France, where it had stopped for repairs. The Union vessel sank the famous ship in about an hour. A French Navy mine hunter found the wreck in 1984.

See the complete story here: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/feb/06/big-gun-goes-home/

Secession Hill - Birthplace of the Confederacy

These simple monuments mark "Secession Hill,"  at the corner of Secession Avenue and Magazine Street in Abbeville, South Carolina.  It was here, on November 22, 1860, that the first meeting was held to launch South Carolina's secession from the United States of America. One month later, the state of South Carolina became the first state to secede.

Abbeville is also the birthplace John C. Calhoun, former Vice President of the United States and a noted states rights advocate.

The inscription on one pillar reads: 

THIS MEMORIAL

Was erected by

Abbeville Chapter,

United Daughters of the Confederacy

To commemorate the first organized meeting advocating the right of a state to secede from the Union.

This meeting was presided over by Thomas C. Perrin, with Judge D. L. Wardlaw, John A. Calhoun, Dr. J. W. Hearst, John Brownlee, Dr. J. H. Logan and J. Foster Marshall. Vice Presidents; James C. Calhoun and G. McDuffie Miller, Secretaries; A. M. Smith, W. M. Rogers and J. F. Livingston, Marshals of the day.

After prayer by Rev. North, Addresses were made by Hon. Thomas C. Perrin, Hon. A. C. McGrath, Gen. Milledge L. Bonham, Samuel McGowan, James N. Cochran and William C. Davis.

Edward Noble introduced resolutions of secession, which were advocated by Thomas Thompson and unanimously passed.

Thomas C. Perrin, Edward Noble, John A. Calhoun, Thomas Thomson, John H. Wilson, D. L. Wardlaw were nominated to represent the district at the convention called by the legislature.

November 22, 1860          November 22, 1927

"WE HAVE KEPT THE FAITH."

The second inscription reads: 

"LORD GOD OF HOSTS, BE WITH US YET,

LEST WE FORGET, LEST WE FORGET.

On this hillside in the rear of this memorial on November 22, 1860, the first organized secession meeting was held.

On that day the Ancient Artillery Company, the Southern Rights Dragoons, and companies of Minutemen from Abbeville, Greenwood, Cokesbury, Nineyt-Six, Bradley, Due West, Donalds, Wickliffe and Caohouns Mill marched in line together with an immense concourse of loyal citizens: Repairing to the grove. They there announced their intention of defending their sovereign rights guaranteed them in the Constitution of the United States.

Resolutions demanding the immediate withdrawal of the state from the Union were unanimously passed, and representatives to the convention called by the Legislature were nominated.

AND THUS SECESSION HAD ITS BIRTH.

"Ah! realm of tombs but let her bear

his blazon to the last of times,

No nation rose so white and fair,

Or fell so pure of crimes."

***

Four and one half years later, during the closing days of the War Between the States, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Richmond, Virginia and headed south, stopping for a night in Abbeville at the home of his friend Armistead Burt. There, on May 2, 1865, in the front parlor of what is now known as the Burt-Stark Mansion, Davis met for the last time with his cabinet and Council of War. There they officially acknowledged the futility of continuing to fight for Southern Independence and decided to disolve the Confederate government.

Thus, Abbeville lays claim to being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the Confederacy.

Deathbed of the Confederacy

It was here in the Burt-Stark Mansion, also known as the Armistead Burt House, Abbeville, South Carolina, that President Jefferson Davis met with his cabinet for the last Council of  War for the Confederate States of America, May 2, 1865.

Just three weeks earlier, on April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General William T. Sherman at Appomattox Courthouse. Many people regard Lee's surrender as the end of the War Between the States, but actually only a portion of the Confederate Army surrendered at that time.

On April 26, 1869, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston followed Lee by surrendering his Army of Tennessee, also to General Sherman, near Greensboro, North Carolina. One of my great uncles, John Tomas Conn, was among those who surrendered with Johnston.

However, when the last Confederate Council of War met, there were still other very determined Confederate armies fighting in the field, including the Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana Department, the Trans-Mississippi (Texas) Department, and others. President Davis wanted to continue the struggle for Southern Independence. However, despite the righteousness of the Confederate cause, the Council persuaded Davis that to continue fighting against such overwhelming odds was futile and that the government should be.

Just two days later, May 4, 1865, Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, son of former U.S. president Zachary Taylor, surrendered the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, with some 12,000 troops.

The last land fight of the War occurred May 12--13 May at Palmito Ranch, Texas, where 350 Confederates of the Trans-Mississippi Department were victorious over 800 invading Federals. Afterwards, upon learning that Richmond had fallen that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered, the Trans-Mississippi Confederates gave up their fight for Independence Most of the soldiers simply went home, but some 2000 of them fled into Mexico, alone or in scattered groups.

Last of the Confederate Generals to surrender was Brigadier General Stand Waite of Oklahoma. Stand Waite was also a Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Fighting until the bitter end, General Waite finally surrendered his battalion of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, and Osage Indians on June 23. 1865.

There was never a formal surrender by the Confederate States of America. No peace treaty or armistice was ever signed, and it could be argued that the Confederate States of America is still an occupied nation.

A week after that fateful last Council of War in Abbeville, President Davis and a large entourage traveling with him, was captured in Irwinsville, Georgia, by the Fourth Michigan Calvary during the early morning hours of May 10, 1865.

The Burt-Stark Mansion was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992 because of its importance as the last meeting place of the leadership of the Confederate nation.

***

Incidentally, Abbeville, South Carolina lays claim to being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the Confederacy. I'll tell more of Abbeville as the birthplace in a future post.

Niece of Black Confederate Veteran tells her Story

Lt. Commander for S.C. Sons of Confederate Veterans hands Alice Gallman a DVD about her great uncle John Alex Sarter, a soldier in the Confederate army who fought first as a slave and later as a free man.

From the Columbia Star

By Jessica Cross

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - Alice Gallman has fought for what she believes her whole life. This 87- year- old Columbia woman's great uncle, a former slave and Confederate soldier, John Alex Sarter, had that same fighting spirit.

Gallman contacted Lt. Commander for S.C.'s Sons of Confederate Veterans and also the founder of radiofreedixie.com Don Gordon and asked him to investigate her great uncle's history. Gordon found Sarter fought for the Confederacy first as a slave and later as a free man. His owner, William Sarter was appointed Captain of S.C.'s 18th Infantry Regiment, Company B on August of 1862. Sarter died the following September from his war wounds. But Alex Sarter chose to enlist after William died.

Sarter was later captured by Union soldiers and forced to help dig a tunnel the army filled with explosives. The Union army used the explosion to divide Confederate forces during the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia. The SCV gave an account of the battle in a DVD Gordon presented to Gallman on September 2, 2009. The footage chronicled a memorial service by the SCV at Sarter's gravesite.

But Gallman remembers Sarter as her wise, old uncle. When she was a girl growing up in Union, the adults would sit around the fire in the winter and have what they called "fireside chats." Gallman remembers sneaking up behind Sarter and eavesdropping on the adults' conversations. She said she learned a lot from the older generations.

Gallman's grandparents were sharecroppers. Gallman was her mother's first bi- racial child. Her father was Jewish. She said her status made growing up difficult. "There were so many days I didn't have a bite of bread," she said. But humble up bringing didn't stop Gallman from giving her time, energy, and skills to other people who needed help.

Gallman taught the poor to can vegetables, so they would have foodstuffs when times were lean. And when she was a teenager she taught people how to construct mattresses made of cotton instead of straw.

Gallman has fought for the poor and she was involved in helping African- American teachers receive adequate books instead of the damaged hand- me- downs used by white children.

Today, Gallman shares her stories and wisdom with younger generations. Gallman worked hard to send her daughter to Heathwood Hall Episcopal School. Her daughter later attended Yale University and went into the law profession. And her son worked at the Pentagon.

Alice Gallman, like her uncle, has been a fighter.

-

-

Reprinted with permission from the Columbia Star. For the original article click here: http://www.thecolumbiastar.com/news/2009/0911/society/041.html

The Confederacy Compared to Nazi Germany

By Lewis Regenstein

To the editor, Greenville, (NC) East Carolinian

Peter Kalajian's article comparing the Confederacy to Nazi Germany and its battle flag to the swastika is highly offensive, especially to those of us who are Jewish, & shows he knows little about either the Confederacy or the Nazis.

Some 3,500 to 5,000 Jews fought honorably and loyally for the Confederacy, including its Secretary of War & later State, Judah Benjamin. My great grandfather also served, as did his four brothers, their uncle, his three sons, and some two-dozen other members of my Mother's extended family (The Moses’ of South Carolina and Georgia). Half a dozen of them fell in battle, largely teenagers, including the first and last Confederate Jews to die in battle.

We know first hand, from their letters, diaries, and memoirs, that they were not fighting for slavery, but rather to defend themselves and their comrades, their families, homes, and country from an invading army that was trying to kill them, burn their homes and cities, and destroy everything they had.

If you want to talk about Nazi-like behavior, consider the actions of the leading Union commander, General Ulysses S. Grant, whose war crimes included the following actions:
Ordering the expulsion on 24 hours notice of all Jews "as a class" from the territory under his control (General Order # 11, 17 December, 1862), and forbidding Jews to travel on trains (November, 1862);

Ordering the destruction of an entire agricultural area to deny the enemy support (the Shenandoah Valley, 5 August, 1864).

Leading the mass murder, a virtual genocide, of Native People, mainly helpless old men, women, and children in their villages, to make land available for the western railroads (the eradication of the Plains Indians, 1865–66). What we euphemistically call "the Indian Wars" was carried out by many of the same Union officers who led the war against the South – Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, Custer, and other leading commanders.

Overseeing the complete destruction of defenseless Southern cities, and conducting such warfare against unarmed women and children (e.g., the razing of Meridian, and other cities in Mississippi, spring, 1863).

Contrast these well-documented atrocities (and many others too numerous to list) with the gentlemanly policies and behavior of the Confederate forces. My ancestor Major Raphael Moses, General James Longstreet’s chief commissary officer, was forbidden by General Robert E. Lee from even entering private homes in their raids into the North, such as the famous incursion into Pennsylvania. Moses was forced to obtain his supplies from businesses and farms, and he always paid for what he requisitioned, albeit in Confederate tender.

Moses always endured in good humor the harsh verbal abuse he received from the local women, who, he noted, always insisted on receiving in the end the exact amount owed.

Moses and his Confederate colleagues never engaged in the type of warfare waged by the Union forces, especially that of General William T. Sherman on his infamous "March to the Sea" through Georgia and the Carolinas, in which his troops routinely burned, looted, and destroyed libraries, courthouses, churches, homes, and cities full of defenseless civilians, including my hometown of Atlanta.

It was not the South but rather our enemies that engaged in genocide. While our ancestors may have lost the War, they never lost their honor, or engaged in anything that could justify their being compared to Nazi’s. It was the other side that did that.

Sincerely yours,

Lewis Regenstein

Atlanta, GA

This letter is reprinted with the permission of Lewis Regenstein, a writer and author from Atlanta, Georgia. You may contact him at regenstein@mindspring.com .

South Carolina Confederate Monument

This Confederate Monument stands prominently in front of the South Carolina State Capitol and beside it flies a Confederate Battle Flag. The inscription reads:

This monument perpetuates the memory
of those who true to the instincts of their birth,
faithful to the teachings of their fathers,
constant in the love for the state,
died in the performance of their duty...
who have glorified a fallen cause
by the simple manhood of their lives,
the patient endurance of suffering,
and the heroism of death...
and who in the dark hours of imprisonment,
in the hopelessness of the hospital,
in the short sharp agony of the field,
found support and consolation in the belief
that at home they would not be forgotten."

written by S.C. diplomat and historian, William Henry Trescot

Black Senator Proposes Confederate Holiday

South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford - Associated Press Photo

By Carmen Dixon

Black Voices

A South Carolina state senator has proposed making mandatory a state holiday honoring Confederate war dead. Sen. Robert Ford, who is black, believes that such a holiday would help improve race relations by inspiring a fuller understanding of history. Here's what's going on:

Ford's bill won initial approval from a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. It would force county and municipal governments to follow the schedule of holidays used by the state, which gives workers 12 paid days off, including May 10th to honor Confederate war dead. Mississippi and Alabama also recognize Confederate Memorial Day.

Years ago, Ford said he pushed a bill to make both that day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day paid holidays. He considered it an effort to help people understand the history of both the civil rights movement and the Confederacy in a state where the Orders of Secession are engraved in marble in the statehouse lobby, portraits of Confederate generals look down on legislators in their chambers and the Confederate flag flies outside.

"Every municipality and every citizen of South Carolina should be, well, forced to respect these two days and learn what they can about those two particular parts of our history," Ford said Tuesday.

I understand Ford's point, but I also think that a Confederate day only matters if people are ready to engage in honest, informed, sometimes heart-pulling dialogue about everything, from secession and states' rights to the gangrene of slavery in our nation's past.

In a state steeped in a segregationist past, "there's no love in this state between black and white basically," he said. That's not apparent at the statehouse, where black and white legislators get along, "but if you go out there in real South Carolina, it's hatred, and I think we can bring our people together."

Lonnie Randolph, president of the state conference of NAACP branches, objected to that reasoning."Here Senator Ford is talking about the importance of race relations by forcing recognition of people who did everything they could to destroy another race -- particularly those that look like I do," Randolph said. "You can't make dishonor honorable. It's impossible."

Ron Dorgay, a Sons of Confederate Veterans member from Elgin, said race relations have moved far from hatred, but he hopes Ford's bill brings more understanding of the state's past."

Even in school systems, they don't teach the correct history," Dorgay said.

Once again, this debate looks like it may all come down to one color: green!

Large and small counties say they'll have put up more cash to cover holidays they don't now recognize, largely for law enforcement and emergency worker overtime, municipal and county association lobbyists said.

Ford says the cost is not the key issue here, and maybe he can convince his colleagues that he's right.

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See the source article here: http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2009/02/06/black-senator-wants-proposes-confederate-holiday/

Cannons from Confederate Raider CSS Alabama Preserved

Associated Press
From the Ledger-Enquirer.com

CHARLESTON, S.C. --After more than eight years of work, scientists say two cannons from the Confederate raider CSS Alabama have been preserved at the same lab conserving another Civil War artifact, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.

Workers scraped away hardened sediment on the 32-pound, smooth bore cannons each weighing about 5 tons. The cannons were also soaked in chemicals to leech out sea salts.
In appreciation for the work, the Navy, which owns the cannons, may allow one to be displayed at a museum which will one day display the hand-cranked Hunley, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Friday.

"It will be a great addition to the Hunley museum because we want it to be a full Southern Maritime museum," said Randy Burbage, a member of the South Carolina Hunley Commission.
The Alabama was built in Liverpool, England, for the Confederacy.

During the 22 months it sailed, its crew boarded 447 vessels including 65 Union merchant vessels and took 2,000 prisoners, according to the CSS Alabama Association.

The Alabama was finally caught by the USS Kearsage and sank on June 11, 1864, following a battle in the English Channel off Cherbourg, France, where the Alabama was awaiting repairs.

The wreck of the Alabama was found in 1984 and the two cannons were raised in 2000. On one cannon scientists found fragments of human jawbone, thought to be from a crewman.

There's more. For the full story go to: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/251/story/564566.html