Southern National Congress Statement on Just War and Defense

With the American Empire currently waging unnecessary, illegal and unconstitutional wars on three fronts:  Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, I am republishing the 2008 statement made by the Southern National Congress concerning Just War and Defense.

Remonstrance and Petition for a Redress of Grievances

Just War and Defense 

We, the Delegates of the Southern States, in Congress assembled, make the following Findings and Affirmations:

The Southern States and People of the nascent United States played a pivotal role in the War of Independence. Without their contribution and sacrifice, America’s freedom from England could not have been won. Thereafter, Southerners have faithfully served in every conflict, representing a disproportionate share of the enlisted ranks and officer corps of the U.S. Armed Services, and sadly, of the killed and wounded as well.

Although subjected to unjustified aggression in the War Between the States and cruel exploitation thereafter, the Southern People, at the urging of their former Confederate leaders, embraced the obligations of citizenship and have proven to be among the most loyal and patriotic Americans.

Southerners have won a reputation for courage, valor, and martial prowess in all the country’s conflicts. We have rallied to the colors whenever called with an intensity of devotion that has been an example to the rest of the country and cannot be doubted.

Regrettably, since the beginning of the twentieth century and most recently the so-called Global War on Terror, the United States Government has embarked on a path of imperialism and military adventurism that has not brought us greater security but has actually made us less secure. This policy of aggressive war abuses the willingness of Southerners—indeed, of all Americans—to risk our lives in defense of the country. Moreover, these endless wars are as staggering in their costs as they are tragically unnecessary, with an enormous human price in dead, maimed, and displaced; and in untold billions of dollars, contributing to the current economic crisis that threatens the very foundations of our society.

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants the exclusive power to declare war to the U.S. Congress. But the President and Executive Branch have usurped this power and levied aggressive war without just cause and through deceiving the People as to the threats, necessity, and costs of these conflicts. The Congress has failed in its Constitutional responsibility to check an imperial Executive, while improperly authorizing the use of force and appropriating funds for an unconstitutional, undeclared war.

The right of the People to petition the Government for a redress of grievances is recognized by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Therefore, we, the Delegates to the First Southern National Congress, remonstrate against unnecessary war and the use of armed force to establish American hegemony across the globe, and petition the Government of the United States to:

Refrain from the use of deception and fear to institute aggressive, unjustified, and undeclared military actions.

Restore the sovereign authority of the States and the People and obey the Constitution by levying war only with a proper declaration of war issued by the U.S. Congress.

Observe moral law and the long-established law of nations regarding just war, under which conflict is exercised with a just cause, right intention, probability of success, proportionality, and respect for the immunity of non-combatants.

______________________

Adopted 6 December 2008 by the First Southern National Congress at Hendersonville, North Carolina and ordered to be transmitted to the Delegations to the United States Congress of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia; to the President of the United States, and to the State Governments of these Southern States.

On Behalf of The Fourteen States, Officers, and Board of Governors of The Southern National Congress

Thomas Moore
CHAIRMAN

Learn more at the Southern National Congress website:  http://www.southernnationalcongress.org/

A Serendipitous Encounter in the Rain

This imposing Confederate monument, shaded by a Live Oak tree, stands beside the Cherokee County Courthouse in Rusk, Texas.


While I was taking the photo above, in a light rain, a man stopped and we chatted for a few minutes about the Confederacy and the War Between the States. He told me the story of his great, great grandfather, a Confederate soldier who was wounded during the War and was laying with several other wounded soldiers in a church which was being used as a hospital.  The Texan told of how a Yankee soldier had entered the church and coldly shot and killed all the wounded Confederates. His great, great, grandfather, the lone survivor who lived to tell the tale, was not shot again only because he pretended to be dead.

 I wish I had gotten name of the man who told me this story.  I'd like to recheck my facts with him and learn any more details he could share with me.  But alas, I was on a road trip, in a bit of a hurry, and it was raining.  If that gentleman should ever happen to see this post I trust he will email me through this blog.

Ever sine the 1860's, thousands of stories such as this one have been passed down - repeated by untold numbers of Southern families. It's no wonder that many folks in the Southern States still refer to their occupiers as "Damned Yankees!"

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.

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

Union Army Code of Conduct for Civil War

By Lewis Regenstein

UNION ARMY CODE OF CONDUCT

WAR OF THE REBELLION

1861-1865

TREATMENT OF CIVILIANS

1. Be Humane to civilians. After shelling cities, but before burning them, try to give the surviving women & children time to escape if this does not interfere with your schedule of advance. Allow them to take their most treasured possessions; this will facilitate subsequent requisitioning of valuables.

2. Do not be overly hasty in burning the homes of enemy civilians. Try to take time to first remove the silver, gold, jewelry and other transportable booty of war.

3. Any officer who permits or commits atrocities against civilians can expect to have his promotion to general held up until after his court martial is completed.

4. Show compassion when occupying enemy cities. When raping women, separate them from their children first; never rape a woman and her daughter in the same room.

5. If you have to shoot a father or husband trying to protect a woman with whom you are forcibly having sexual relations, try to refrain from openly laughing about it in her presence, as this might cause additional and unnecessary stress. However, afterwards, as a morale booster, you may want to prop up the dead body in a comical position for the amusement of your comrades.

6. Be kind to animals. Shooting enemy livestock, horses, & pets between the eyes provides the quickest & most humane death, unless you are short on ammunition. If you nail a pet dog to a family's front door, first make sure the beast is dead, or at least dying. This display of a beloved pet could be considered gruesome by sensitive individuals, and may result in temporarily upsetting enemy civilians. But remember the importance of boosting the morale of your troops through whatever spontaneous recreational opportunities may arise.

7. Restrictions on the shooting of civilians and on firing indiscriminately into crowds of rowdy people do not apply to draft riots and other civil disturbances in cities in the United States of America, especially if they involve newly-arrived immigrants.

8. Reassure your religiously and morally observant soldiers not to be dismayed by the utter destruction we are inflicting on the South and its civilian population. After the War, we will institute a major "Reconstruction" program.

POLICY ON INDIANS

9. If you have men under your command who are especially skilled at and delight in openly and wantonly killing women & children, immediately have them transferred to the West, where they are needed in our war against the Indians.

10. There are extra opportunities available for troops who have excelled at warfare against civilians and who are desirous of engaging in post-War genocide in the cause of Freedom and Union. They may be eligible to apply to generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, or Custer for extensions of their tours of duty and eventual transfer to the Western Theater’s Indian Wars, which these officers will be leading. Experience in killing helpless women and children preferred.

11. By using Colored Troops ("Buffalo Soldiers"), whenever possible, to wipe out the Indians, you can accomplish your objectives while avoiding the appearance of "racism" and "imperialism."

RESTRICTIONS ON LOOTING

12. Anyone observing a Union soldier engaging secretly in the looting of valuables shall report to his superior officer the name and unit of the perpetrator and the types and number of valuables being taken. This will allow a proper distribution and sharing of the goods that are appropriated.

13. Be ethical when appropriating silver & other valuables from homes. Try to minimize the anguish of the family involved. For example, if silver service is being requisitioned, promise to return it after it is used for that evening’s meal. Remember to treat these valuables with care and respect, and that they must be shared with your commander and other officers.

14. Do not requisition or remove hard-to-transport valuables such as paintings, books, historical documents, family Bibles, furniture, or large antiques. These categories are generally not to be looted, but should be burned instead. In the case of bales of cotton, check with your quartermaster.

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

15. Treat your Confederate POW’s with respect. After they surrender, shooting just a few prisoners should suffice to intimidate the rest. It may not be necessary, in most circumstances, to shoot them all, even though they are guilty of the capital offense of treason. Such restraint will also aid in the conservation of ammunition.

16. POW’s can be useful in maintaining the morale of your troops under difficult circumstances. Be creative in utilizing such entertainment for your men. Consider the fact that a large number of your Rebel POW’s will be hungry, shoeless, and in tattered uniforms, and many will be young boys and old men. Calling attention to the plight of the Rebels in a scornful and derisive manner can elevate the self-esteem of your men. This may also provide important recreational opportunities for your troops, such as engaging in humiliation and derision of your prisoners and their quaint devotion to "honor" and ‘country."

17. Every prison administrator and guard should familiarize himself with and closely adhere to the rules governing the care and treatment of POW’s, which should meet or exceed "Point Lookout" standards. For example, it is strictly required that one blanket be issued for every sixteen prisoners. No more than forty prisoners may be placed in Sibley tents designed to hold 16 men.

18. It is our duty to ensure that prisoner deaths from starvation, malnutrition, disease, and shootings not exceed 25%, and incidences of diarrhea and malaria be held to under 50%. If the prison is located on a swamp or shoreline, be alert for possibilities to supplement prisoners’ diet with dead seagulls and rotting fish on the beach. And while infestations of lice and rodents may be considered by some to be a nuisance, it can also be an important source of protein when other nourishment is scarce or unavailable. .

19. Proceeds from the sale of food and clothing diverted from POW’s must be properly accounted for and shared with superior officers.

20. Keep in mind that the high incidence of malnutrition and disease among POW’s, while regrettable in some respects, serves to weaken the prisoners, lessen the chances of escape, and ultimately mean fewer mouths to feed.

21. The aforementioned rules on POW’s do not apply to The Indian Wars, as we do not take Indians prisoner. Policy in this regard is governed by General Philip Sheridan’s dictum, "A good Indian is a dead Indian."

MILITARY TACTICS

22. When burning cities, libraries, courthouses, hospitals, churches, and other such institutions and structures in the South, always blame retreating Confederates.

23. Do not worry that burning crops & farms will deny food to Union POW's held by the South; starving Union prisoners will provide us with good propaganda, and after the War, an excuse for war crimes trials. .

24. Do not be too eager to attack the enemy; remember that our manpower reserves are virtually unlimited. Wait for your reinforcements & until you outnumber the enemy 5 to 1, or even better, 10 to 1. Consider having your units of Colored Troops lead the charge and take most of the casualties.

25. When shooting retreating US Colored Troops, try to place the blame on the Confederates for such "massacres."

POLICY ON SLAVES AND SLAVERY

26. If you or some of your men, or your families, own slaves, do not be concerned about The Emancipation Proclamation, it does not apply to you, only to the States in Rebellion.

27. If your unit is being followed and bothered by liberated slaves, the best way to get rid of this nuisance is to cross a river and burn the bridge. Do not delay your advance by trying to save freed slaves who appear to be drowning while trying to cross the river. They may just be exuberantly enjoying a dip in the water. In any event, our mission is to free the Southern slaves, not feed and take care of them.

28. Do not worry about the temporary state of lawlessness and chaos among freed slaves. President Lincoln has promised to send most of them back to Africa ("Colonization": "Send them to Liberia, their own native land"), and has assured that those who remain will never be treated as the equal of Whites.

29. The lynching of uncooperative freed slaves is discouraged when done openly, except when helpful to morale or to set an example for others, or when a slave refuses to leave his home and remains loyal to his or her former owners.

30. In order to expedite our War being fought for Human Rights and against the oppression of the Negro, all military units are to be kept strictly segregated, and salaries for U.S. Colored Troops are to be calculated at approximately 50% those of whites.

MAINTAINING MORALE OF THE TROOPS

31. Orders to "Live off the land" when conducting operations in enemy territory shall be liberally interpreted, as a virtually unlimited right to loot, pillage, burn, rape, and destroy.

32. Always remember, we are fighting for freedom and liberty. That is why it is necessary to close any Northern newspaper and jail anyone that opposes our cause; to shoot antiwar demonstrators in New York; to starve and burn the cities of enemy civilians; to expel "Jews as a class" from conquered territories; and to extirpate the Native Americans from their homelands.

33. Troop morale can often be improved by permitting limited and appropriate interaction with Rebel POW’s. This can also benefit the prisoners by providing opportunities for exercise and play. Some recommended activities (which have been successfully employed at Point Lookout) include: having prisoners kneel and pray for President Lincoln, and carry prison guards around on their backs. However, care must be observed in such interactions as many if not most prisoners suffer from diarrhea, typhoid fever, malaria, and other diseases.

34. In some cases, it has been found that shooting prisoners randomly at night while they sleep has effectively raised morale among guards while providing increased discipline among the POW’s.

35. Since our troops have been indoctrinated with the view that the enemy consists of evil racists and traitors fighting for slavery , be prepared for your men to become confused when they encounter among enemy soldiers large numbers of Native Americans, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, poor Irish and Italian immigrants, even black Confederates, and almost no owners of slaves – all of whom think they are fighting against an invasion from the North.

36. Respond to inquiries from your troops who wonder what they are doing in the South by repeatedly emphasizing that "the War is being fought to end slavery and free the slaves." If asked about the slaves owned by General Grant and other Northerners, deny they exist.

37. It is strictly forbidden to call The Commander in Chief, even jokingly, a "tyrant," a "dictator,’ a "warmonger," "mentally ill," or more commonly, "an ape." President Lincoln is rather to be referred to as "The Great Emancipator," "The Great Conciliator," or in other such laudatory terms. He is unaware of and not responsible for any atrocities that have occurred (such as the burning of cities), even if he ordered them.

38. President Lincoln is to be portrayed in all writings as "wise", "kind," "compassionate," "a healer," and pictured whenever possible with his arm around his young son, Tad. Southern leaders, including Robert E. Lee, are to be described as cruel and evil, and fighting to defend not their homeland but slavery, even if they oppose the institution.

IN CONCLUSION

39. To summarize, the honor of the Union soldier and the vindication of our cause, as reflected in this Code of Conduct, are of paramount concern in our waging of this War. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the story of this conflict be properly and accurately recorded.

40. That is why any erroneous accounts – those that contradict our version of events – should be eliminated or discredited, through the burning or other destruction of cities, libraries, homes, courthouses, and any other Confederate repositories of historical documents and records.

History, as we write it, will be our judge.

The Truth – as we tell it – shall prevail.

(These rules of conduct, unwritten until now, were compiled, satirically, based on actual, documented policies, behavior, incidents, and activities undertaken by the United States Army and government during, and for a few years after, The War Between the States. Some were based on the recorded experiences of members of my family (about three dozen of whom fought for the Confederacy), who were subjected to death in battle, execution, imprisonment, and occupation of their home by the Yankees. This document can be reprinted and posted with permission and only in its entirety, as long as the copyright and credit at end are included.)

Lewis Regenstein, a Native of Atlanta, Georgia, is a writer and author.

Copyright © 2009 Lewis Regenstein

Rosalie Mansion: Where Yankee War Crimes were Plotted and Approved

The stately, antebellum Rosalie Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, witnessed the conception of some of the worst atrocities and war crimes in American history. It was here, in 1863, that General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the invading Union forces, set up temporary headquarters after his Union troops occupied Natchez during the War Between the States. According to a docent at Rosilie Mansion, a table in one of the upstairs rooms is where Grant signed and sent his consent to General William Tecumseh "War is Hell" Sherman to wage "total war" against Southern civilians, ultimately leading to Sherman's diabolical March to the Sea.

Grant and Sherman, along with Abraham Lincoln, who eagerly gave them his blessings, are responsible for the burning, destruction and plunder of countless undefended homes, fields, farms and towns, as well as the rape and murder of countless undefended women, children and old men, both black and white, slave and free. Their despicable deeds, which have never been redressed by the United States government, are a blight on the good name and honor of our nation. Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and others of their ilk are highly praised by sanitized history books and revisionist television documentaries. Their evil is either overlooked or excused by those who say that the South lost the war and Southerners like myself should "just get over it."

Am I still fighting the War Between the States? No, but I am upholding the good name of my ancestors, many of whom died while defending their homes against an invading foreign army from the North. A conflict is never really over until the truth is told.

***

Today, Rosalie Mansion, standing high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River is a National Historic Landmark near the center of Natchez, Mississippi. The Mansion was a private residence for more than 100 years. Since 1938 the house and gardens have been owned by the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and are open for tours year round. Visitors may see the actual furniture, clothing, household possessions, garden plantings and family traditions of the family that long called Rosalie home.

Rosalie was built from 1820-1823 by Peter Little who came to Natchez as a young man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Peter developed the Steam Circular saw which was the beginning of the lumber industry in the area. He established the first sawmill in the Natchez Territory and made his fortune from the vast tracts of woodlands in the Mississippi River Valley.

Before the War Between the States, Natchez is said to have been the wealthiest town in America. Both Natchez and Mississippi have never fully recovered from the destruction of Mr. Lincoln's War to prevent Southern Independence.

Photo and story by J. Stephen Conn

War Crimes of Lincoln, Grant and Sherman

By Murray N. Rothbard

Sherman’s infamous March through Georgia was one of the great war crimes, and crimes against humanity, of the past century-and-a-half. Because by targeting and butchering civilians, Lincoln and Grant and Sherman paved the way for all the genocidal honors of the monstrous 20th century.

There has been a lot of talk in recent years about memory, about never forgetting about history as retroactive punishment for crimes of war and mass murder. As Lord Acton, the great libertarian historian, put it, the historian, in the last analysis, must be a moral judge. The muse of the historian, he wrote, is not Clio, but Rhadamanthus, the legendary avenger of innocent blood. In that spirit, we must always remember, we must never forget, we must put in the dock and hang higher than Haman, those who, in modern times, opened the Pandora’s Box of genocide and the extermination of civilians: Sherman, Grant, and Lincoln.

Perhaps, some day, their statues, like Lenin’s in Russia, will be toppled and melted down; their insignias and battle flags will be desecrated, their war songs tossed into the fire. And then Davis and Lee and Jackson and Forrest, and all the heroes of the South, "Dixie" and the Stars and Bars, will once again be truly honored and remembered. The classic comment on that meretricious TV series The Civil War was made by that marvelous and feisty Southern writer Florence King. Asked her views on the series, she replied: "I didn’t have time to watch The Civil War. I’m too busy getting ready for the next one." In that spirit, I am sure that one day, aided and abetted by Northerners like myself in the glorious "copperhead" tradition, the South shall rise again.

Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995), was the founder of modern libertarianism and the dean of the Austrian School of economics.

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.

Remembering Abraham Lincoln's Reign of Terror

Today in History: August 25, 1861...

Commencement of the Reign of Terror throughout the Northern States. Men and women arrested and imprisoned for sympathizing with the Southern cause. Newspapers friendly to the South suppressed by order of the Federal Government. Citizens compelled to take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government.

The above entry is taken from the Confederate States Almanac, and Repository of Useful Knowledge, 1862. It is listed under the chapter heading: "Chronicle of Events and Diary of the Present Revolution." The Almanac was compiled and published in December, 1862 by H. C. Clark, Vicksburg, Mississippi and was "for sale by all booksellers in the Confederacy."

Union Armies and the Rape of Confederate Women

This item comes from the New York Times Blog, August 21, 2009:

Were rape and the threat of sexual violence used as weapons in the Civil War? A historian explores evidence from the Union occupation of New Orleans.

When the topic is sexual violence in wartime, the horrors of the Balkans and Rwanda typically come to mind — not the American Civil War. But in the academic journal Daedalus, Crystal N. Feimster begs to differ with historians who “have accepted without question the idea that Union soldiers rarely raped southern women, black or white, and have argued that sexual violence was rare during the Civil War.”

In fact, the University of North Carolina historian writes, “hundreds, perhaps thousands of women suffered rape” during the war, with many assaults likely unreported. But her focus is less rape itself than the threat of sexual predation by northern troops. Did reality match the fear of assault felt by Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind”? Feimster explores an 1862 order by the Union Gen. Benjamin Butler, decreeing that any New Orleans woman showing contempt for his occupying troops “shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation” — i.e., the city’s outspokenly Confederate belles were to be treated as prostitutes. Feimster sifts evidence that the order was a green light for Union soldiers to threaten sexual violence if not commit rape itself.

After President Abraham Lincoln ignored calls to rescind the order and it was applied beyond the city, she concludes, its geographical reach “ensured that the threat of sexual violence and the fear of rape were common to southern women and central to how they experienced the Civil War.”

Read the New York Times blog here: http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/rape-and-the-civil-war/

The Rape of Athens, Alabama

When the sacking and plundering of southern towns, homes and farms of civilians during the War Between the States is mentioned, it is the atrocities of better known generals such as Sheridan and Sherman which get the attention. Actually, the despicable war crimes of Union soldiers against Confederate civilians was much,much more widespread. The north's policy of "total war" against the South, without mercy for women, children, the elderly, black or white, was sanctioned by the despot Abraham Lincoln and carried out by a large number of his Union officers.

Athens Alabama is one case in point. Most Americans have never read about it in their sugar coated, northern written, history books, yet Athens is only one of of countless towns that experienced the "war is hell" tactics of the invading Yankee hoards. The people of Athens have not forgotten, as the historical marker in front of the Limestone County courthouse attests.

"On May 2, 1862, Union troops of 19th and 24th Illinois and the 37th Indiana Regiments commanded by Col. John Basil Turchin went on a rampage through the town. They looted and plundered stores and homes, stealing clothing, jewelry and anything of value, destroying what they didn't want. For months afterward the soldiers stabled their horses in some of the town's churches, burned the pews for firewood and destroyed the interiors...."

The Athens business district was laid waste. Union troops broke into the drugstore of William S. Allen and destroyed surgical and dental instruments as well as his medical library. The wanton soldiers even took parts of human skeletons from the medical office. They reduced to ruins the interior of Peterson Tanner and Sons Dry Goods and stole $3,000 worth of goods from Madison Thompson's grocery store. After reducing the business district to ruins, the Federal invaders sacked and plundered the private homes of defenseless civilians. Numerous rapes were reported, many of the victims being young black girls.

Colonel Turchin, born Ivan Vasillevitch Turchinoff in Russia, was scheduled to be court-martialed in Huntsville for encouraging these disgusting war crimes. However, when word of the impending trial reached the ears of President Abraham Lincoln, he halted the court-martial one day before it was to be held and promoted the offending Colonel to the rank of Brigadier General. Lincoln's rewarding of such war crimes had the desired effect of increasing violence and hostilities by the Yankee armies against southern civilians, which escalated throughout the War.

The American Lenin

By L. Neil Smith
http://www.lneilsmith.org/abelenin.html

It's harder and harder these days to tell a liberal from a conservative -- given the former category's increasingly blatant hostility toward the First Amendment, and the latter's prissy new disdain for the Second Amendment -- but it's still easy to tell a liberal from a libertarian.
Just ask about either Amendment.

If what you get back is a spirited defense of the ideas of this country's Founding Fathers, what you've got is a libertarian. By shameful default, libertarians have become America's last and only reliable stewards of the Bill of Rights.

But if -- and this usually seems a bit more difficult to most people -- you'd like to know whether an individual is a libertarian or a conservative, ask about Abraham Lincoln.

Suppose a woman -- with plenty of personal faults herself, let that be stipulated -- desired to leave her husband: partly because he made a regular practice, in order to go out and get drunk, of stealing money she had earned herself by raising chickens or taking in laundry; and partly because he'd already demonstrated a proclivity for domestic violence the first time she'd complained about his stealing.

Now, when he stood in the doorway and beat her to a bloody pulp to keep her home, would we memorialize him as a hero? Or would we treat him like a dangerous lunatic who should be locked up, if for no other reason, then for trying to maintain the appearance of a relationship where there wasn't a relationship any more? What value, we would ask, does he find in continuing to possess her in an involuntary association, when her heart and mind had left him long ago?

History tells us that Lincoln was a politically ambitious lawyer who eagerly prostituted himself to northern industrialists who were unwilling to pay world prices for their raw materials and who, rather than practice real capitalism, enlisted brute government force -- "sell to us at our price or pay a fine that'll put you out of business" -- for dealing with uncooperative southern suppliers. That's what a tariff's all about. In support of this "noble principle", when southerners demonstrated what amounted to no more than token resistance, Lincoln permitted an internal war to begin that butchered more Americans than all of this country's foreign wars -- before or afterward -- rolled into one.

Lincoln saw the introduction of total war on the American continent -- indiscriminate mass slaughter and destruction without regard to age, gender, or combat status of the victims -- and oversaw the systematic shelling and burning of entire cities for strategic and tactical purposes. For the same purposes, Lincoln declared, rather late in the war, that black slaves were now free in the south -- where he had no effective jurisdiction -- while declaring at the same time, somewhat more quietly but for the record nonetheless, that if maintaining slavery could have won his war for him, he'd have done that, instead.

The fact is, Lincoln didn't abolish slavery at all, he nationalized it, imposing income taxation and military conscription upon what had been a free country before he took over -- income taxation and military conscription to which newly "freed" blacks soon found themselves subjected right alongside newly-enslaved whites. If the civil war was truly fought against slavery -- a dubious, "politically correct" assertion with no historical evidence to back it up -- then clearly, slavery won.

Lincoln brought secret police to America, along with the traditional midnight "knock on the door", illegally suspending the Bill of Rights and, like the Latin America dictators he anticipated, "disappearing" thousands in the north whose only crime was that they disagreed with him. To finance his crimes against humanity, Lincoln allowed the printing of worthless paper money in unprecedented volumes, ultimately plunging America into a long, grim depression -- in the south, it lasted half a century -- he didn't have to live through, himself.

In the end, Lincoln didn't unite this country -- that can't be done by force -- he divided it along lines of an unspeakably ugly hatred and resentment that continue to exist almost a century and a half after they were drawn. If Lincoln could have been put on trial in Nuremburg for war crimes, he'd have received the same sentence as the highest-ranking Nazis.

If libertarians ran things, they'd melt all the Lincoln pennies, shred all the Lincoln fives, take a wrecking ball to the Lincoln Memorial, and consider erecting monuments to John Wilkes Booth. Libertarians know Lincoln as the worst President America has ever had to suffer, with Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson running a distant second, third, and fourth.

Conservatives, on the other hand, adore Lincoln, publicly admire his methods, and revere him as the best President America ever had. One wonders: is this because they'd like to do, all over again, all of the things Lincoln did to the American people? Judging from their taste for executions as a substitute for individual self-defense, their penchant for putting people behind bars -- more than any other country in the world, per capita, no matter how poorly it works to reduce crime -- and the bitter distaste they display for Constitutional "technicalities" like the exclusionary rule, which are all that keep America from becoming the world's largest banana republic, one is well-justified in wondering.

The troubling truth is that, more than anybody else's, Abraham Lincoln's career resembles and foreshadows that of V.I. Lenin, who, with somewhat better technology at his disposal, slaughtered millions of innocents -- rather than mere hundreds of thousands -- to enforce an impossibly stupid idea which, in the end, like forced association, was proven by history to be a resounding failure. Abraham Lincoln was America's Lenin, and when America has finally absorbed that painful but illuminating truth, it will finally have begun to recover from the War between the States.

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

The Confederate Blanket and the Chandelier

The Historic Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Litchfield, Minnesota, is the only one of its kind remaining in the state and one of only three in the United States. The Grand Army of the Republic was an organization of men who were veterans of the Union army who fought in the War Between the States, 1861-1865.

Today the old hall still stands much as it did well over a century ago. It is now used as a museum to preserve relics and records of America's tragic and unnecessary conflict, often misnamed the Civil War. Being a history buff, and a descendent of several Confederate veterans, I have long had a special interest in the War Between the States, so I enjoyed visiting this historic old hall and exploring many of the exhibits.

When the nice lady at the GAR Museum learned that I was of Confederate descent, she took me over to see their small case with a display of Confederate items. In it was obsolete Confederate currency, a saber which was like those used by both Union and Confederate soldiers, and a very interesting wool Confederate Blanket.

The blanket was brought back to Minnesota after the war by a Union Soldier, Sargent Marty, who was in the First Minnesota Volunteers. As Sargent Marty lay wounded on the battlefield at Gettysburg, an unknown Southern soldier came and covered the enemy soldier with his own blanket. Marty survived the War and brought the blanket back to Minnesota, where it was preserved for generations by his family, before being donated to the museum.

Another very interesting artifact in the Grand Army of the Republic Museum is the ornate chandelier which hangs over the old meeting hall.

There are two stories of the origin of the chandelier. One is that it was originally from a bordello in New Orleans, Louisiana. The other is that it was brought back to Minnesota from the South as a part of the "spoils of war." Perhaps both stories are true.

The War Between the States, was fought mostly on Southern soil by Northern aggressors. When Union soldiers captured a town or even a farm in the Confederate states it was very common for them to steal every item of value and destroy that which they could not carry away. Such plunder was clearly criminal according to the established rules of war, and a vile and evil act according to every standard of human decency. Yet the rape of the south was overlooked or even encouraged by Northern generals such as Sheridan, Sherman and Grant. Because the North won the war, such despicable actions were never punished.

Here is but one quote from a Union invader of Louisiana from the "Official Records: War of the Rebellion" published by the United States Government after their subjugation of the South: "No squad of men ... can live anywhere we have been. The people have neither seed, corn, nor bread, or mills to grind the corn if they had it, as I burned them wherever found.... I have taken from these people the mules with which they would raise a crop the coming year, and burned every surplus grain of corn...."

General William T. Sherman wrote from Vicksburg on January 31, 1864: "The Government of the United States has ... any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war - to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything ...."

The chandelier, which is a symbol of these heinious atrocities against innocent civilians, hangs in the GAR museum in Litchfield to their shame, and they don't even seem to realize it.

Story and photos by J. Stephen Conn

Cotton Raid is an example of how the Union plundered the South during Lincoln's War

Avoyelles Parish Courthouse, Marksville, Louisiana

Photo by J. Stephen Conn

thetowntalk.com
By Warren Hayes

The City of Marksville held one of its 200th birthday celebration events that featured dead Union and Confederate soldiers and stolen cotton, Saturday afternoon.

The event was a Civil War re-enactment of the 1864 Marksville Cotton Raid.

In 1864, sailors from the United States Navy passed through Cocoville and Marksville, taking all the cotton bales they could find, bringing it back to their gunboats at Fort DeRussy.

Four hundred bales were taken from the basement of the old Voinché Store in Marksville, which still stands behind the city's courthouse square.

Union troops threatened to burn Marksville to the ground, if the cotton wasn't given to them.
The Union troops consisted of the 32nd Iowa Infantry and Confederate troops: the 19th Texas Infantry.

In front of Piazza Law Office Friday night, troops slept in tents, to get a feel of how former troops lived.

Marksville Judge Angelo Piazza portrayed a private soldier in the Union Army, and said the re-enactment consisted of 45 soldiers.

The cotton was given to northern textile mills, Piazza said.

"I believe this event will help residents learn more about the cotton raid, because they can see it, rather than reading about it," Piazza said. "People need to learn and be proud of their history and not repeat the same mistakes. I believe the war should've been settled in a court system."

Eugene Goddard, a Mesquite, Texas, resident, played the role of first lieutenant in the Confederate Army, and said the 19th Infantry fought in many battles in Louisiana.

"The 19th Infantry was in the Battle of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill," Goddard said. "A lot of Louisiana troops were in the east at that time. You get a better feeling and understanding for things when you see them first-hand."

Smoke from a .58-caliber muskets filled the air, as troops held a gun salute out side of where the old Confederate Hospital use to be, located on Monroe Street. The salute honored the dead and wounded soldiers.

The re-enactment of the cotton taking didn't occur at Voinché Store, but the courthouse square.
Piazza said the location was changed for safety reasons. Confederate troops waited in front of the court house, waiving a Confederate flag.

A loud boom rang through the streets with a Confederate boy running and yelling: "the Yankees are coming."

Several yards away, drum patterns could be heard, as Union troops began their march for the cotton.

There's more. For the full story go here: http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20090208/NEWS01/902080325/1001/NEWS