CALCASIEU GREYS - August 2013

NEXT MEETING

      Then next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13, at Logan’s Road House on Highway 14 in Lake Charles. Andy and Jonathan Buckley will present the program on the Alf Johnson Spy Company. See the story below for more details. Come enjoy a good program and great Confederate fellowship.

Historical Marker Alf Johnson Spy Company near St Charles, Arkansas on the White River: the location of a spy company 

August 13 Program

Logan’s Road House

Dr. Andy Buckley and Jonathan Buckley will present the program entitled

“The Exploits of the Alf Johnson Spy Company, Parson’s Texas Calvary in Arkansas.”

Spy companies in CSA cavalry regiments were the long range reconnaissance patrollers and were quite effective in gathering information and destroying enemy patrols and garrisons. The Alf Johnson Spy Company was organized at McKinney, Texas, and deployed from September 1862-January of 1863 in Arkansas to keep the enemy out of Texas. Many of the members of the Alf Johnson Company were captured at Arkansas Post in January 1863. The enlisted prisoners were sent to Camp Douglas in Chicago where many died and bodies sold to the adjacent Medical School. The prisoners were exchanged at Richmond, Virginia the following May and sent to Cleburne’s Division, Granbury's Texas Brigade, General Bragg's Army of Tennessee then near Tullahoma. Those of the Texas Spy Company served the remainder of the war with the Army of Tennessee and surrendered in North Carolina. They participated in all the momentous battles from May 1863 till the end of the war.

CAMP MEETING SCHEDULE FOR 2013

          Please see the list below for meeting dates and places for 2013. The restaurants have been contacted and their calendars marked accordingly. Meetings last from 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

         Logan’s Road House (Lake Charles) August 13, and October 8 (Nomination of officers).

         Pitt Grill (Sulphur) -  September 10, November 12 (elect officers).

         The camp Christmas party date would be December 10 with the location to be determined.

CAMP NEWS

      NEXT GUN Show

      The next gun show to be held in Lake Charles will be August 31 and September 1 at Lake Charles Civic Center. These gun shows are prime opportunities for our camp to get our pro-Confederate message out to the public and to recruit new members. Please think about helping man the table for whatever time you may be able to spare that weekend. Thanks.

150^th Anniversary of the Battle of Sabine Pass       Free parking and shuttle service at Sabine Pass High School Stadium.
Saturday 9-7-13 
9:00 Gates open to the public 
10:00 Court Martial & Execution
11:00 150th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony
2:00 Battle: Union Attack & Occupation of Sabine City 
3:00 Jed Marum in Concert
Sunday 9-8-13 
9:00 Gates open to the public 
9:00 Church Service
10:00 Court Martial & Execution
11:00 Jed Marum in Concert
2:00 Battle: Union attack on the Garrison at Sabine City

Membership Renewal Notices       

The MRS notices were delayed this year but have now been sent out. As directed, please send the dues directly to our camp adjutant, Luke Dartez. His address and the return envelope are included. Keep the top section for your records and the Dues Notice and  Optional Giving go with the return envelope to Luke. Please get your dues paid as soon as possible.

This is a recent picture of the  Sons of Confederate Veterans Confederate Flag Memorial being built just off I-10 in Orange, Texas. Granvel Block, project director, reports that good progress is being made in spite of some local governmental opposition. The display will educate the public on the wide variety of historical Confederate flags there are. (Photo by Compatriot Al Cochran of Camp 1390)

118^th Sons of Confederate Veterans Reunion

Vicksburg, Mississippi

            VICKSBURG, Miss—Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 was represented at the 118^th annual Reunion of the Sons of Confederate Veterans by compatriots Mike Bergeron and Mike Jones. After the opening ceremony, SCV Executive Director Ben C. Sewell, III, reported that national membership in the organization stands at over 29,000, as of the Reunion. The Convention also adopted a budget for Fiscal Year 2013, totaling $1,118,000. The budget is balanced.

            R. Michael Givens, commander-in-chief, gave an opening address outlining Vision 2016, a new program now being unwrapped and put into place that has of goal of 50,000 members of the organization by the year 2016. He said the program involves each level of the organization, the local camps, to state division to the National Headquarters. He said it is a scientifically planned program that has worked for many organizations, businesses and even governments. Mark Simpson of South Carolina gave additional details. He said the program has worked for his family business and is proven to work when followed. Simpson said it will put the SCV on the road to sustained growth, trained leadership and will proclaim to the world the truth of our Confederate Heritage.

            Former Commander-In-Chief Chuck McMichael of Shreveport gave an update on the Confederate Museum planned for the SCV National Headquarters at Elm Springs, Columbia, Tennessee. He encouraged all compatriots to give to this project since no other museum can be relied on to tell the truth of the Confederate soldier and the War for Southern Independence. He pointed out the SCV will be in total control over how our story is told. He said a new fund raising drive is ready to raise the funds needed to begin construction on the museum.

            Commander Givens also unveiled a new advertisement that will tell the truth about General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who has been slandered by various modern political groups and politicians, especially in Memphis, Tennessee where the city council illegally tried to change the name of Forrest Park.

            At the Army of the Trans-Mississippi meeting, former Texas Division Commander Granvel Block gave an update on the Confederate Flag Memorial in Orange, Texas. He said that progress is being made in spite of harassment from the Orange city government. Block noted the concrete base has been poured, the grass mowed and flag poles are being installed. He said they are now looking for a contractor for an 18 space parking lot.

            The 118^th Reunion was harmonious, encouraging and a great success.

A CONFEDERATE CATECHISM

[The following was excerpted from A Confederate Catechism by Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Third Edition, Nov. 21, 1929.]

Did the South fight for the overthrow of the United States Government?No. The South fought to establish its own government. Secession did not destroy the Union, but merely reduced its territorial extent. The United States existed when there were only thirteen states, and it would have existed when there were twenty states left. The charge brought by Lincoln that the aim of the Southerners was to overthrow the government was no more true than if King George III had said that the secession of the American colonies from Great Britain had in view the destruction of the British Government. The government of Great Britain was not destroyed by the success of the American States in 1783. Nor would the government of the United States have been destroyed if the Southern states had succeeded in repelling the attacks of the North in 1861-1865What did the South fight for?IT FOUGHT TO REPEL INVASION AND FOR SELF GOVERNMENT, JUST AS THE FATHERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAD DONE. Lincoln himself confessed at first that he had no constitutional right to make war against a state, so he resorted to the subterfuge of calling for troops to suppress “combinations” of persons in the Southern States “too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary” processes. It is impossible to understand how the Southern States could have proceeded in a more regular and formal manner than they did to show they acted a states and not as mere “combinations.” It shows the lack of principle that characterized Lincoln when later he referred to the Southern States as “insurrectionary States.”
Did the South in firing on Fort Sumter begin the war? No. Lincoln began the war by secretly attempting to land troops at Fort Pickens in Florida in violation of a truce existing between the Federals and the Confederates at that place. This was long before Fort Sumter was fired on, and Fort Sumter was fired on only after Lincoln had sent an armed squadron to supply and strengthen that Fort. Even supposing that the action of the Confederates in firing on the Fort was unjustifiable, Lincoln was not bound to treat it as a gauge of battle. He knew that all the Confederates wanted was a fort that commanded the Metropolitan city of Charleston – a fort which had been erected for the defense of that city. He knew that they had no desire to engage in a war with the United States. Not every hostile act justifies war, and in the World War this country submitted to having its flag filled full of holes and scores of its citizens destroyed before it went to war. Lincoln, without any violation of its views of government, had an obvious alternative in putting the question of war up to Congress, where it belonged under the Constitution. But he did not do it and assumed the powers of Congress in making laws and enforcing them as an executive. By his mere authority, he enormously increased the Federal army, blockaded Southern ports, and declared Southern privateersmen to be pirates.

Museum of the Confederacy's future threatened
by de-consolidation plans

The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond holds the world's finest collection of Confederate art and artifacts; its future is in serious doubt. If rumored changes come to pass the MOC's collection as well as the historic White House of the Confederacy which it owns and manages, may simply cease to exist.  Right now, some in the MOC leadership have cooked up a plan to distribute the MOC's incredible collection among several different Richmond-area groups. Included in that list are the Virginia Historical Society and the historic site at Tredegar Iron Works. Neither of these can be considered Confederate-friendly. The Museum of the Confederacy holds an important trust as the repository of the world's finest collection of Confederate memorabilia. Recent reports from well-informed sources indicate that the museum's leadership is rapidly moving forward with a plan which, in addition to dispersing the collection, will also sell its building in downtown Richmond.  Once the collection is relocated and the building sold, the now-nearby White House of the Confederacy will be isolated in an urban canyon surrounded by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and virtually lost to tourist traffic. To think that it will be able to sustain itself financially in that condition is difficult to imagine.  I'm writing to you because we need to act quickly.  The SCV strongly opposes this plan and is actively urging the Museum of the Confederacy board to reconsider. While no doubt well-intentioned, this course of action will seriously jeopardize the integrity of this collection which is so important to our Southern heritage.  Generations of Southerners, including many of the veterans themselves, contributed a king's ransom to the Museum of the Confederacy in the form of priceless antiques, family heirlooms, and relics of the Confederate cause of incalculable value. They made these contributions with the express intent that these antiquities would be carefully preserved and honorably displayed. That's how the Museum of the Confederacy's collection grew to be the trustee of the single largest collection of the treasures of the late Confederacy. To scatter these precious treasures across several venues and organizations will permanently diminish its importance.  The Museum of the Confederacy is technically owned by the Confederate Memorial & Literary Society and is a private organization. They are under no obligation to listen to the SCV or to take advice from anyone. But, we believe they are reasonable people who by and large want to do the best they can under the circumstances.

BE A MUSEUM FOUNDER

The truth about the South's struggle to form a new nation is under attack as never before. The National Battlefield Parks have been taken over by the “it's all about slavery” provocateurs. Museums have changed their collections and interpretations to present what they call the cultural history of the War for Southern Independence. In reality this new perspective is nothing more than South bashing. The forces of political correctness have gone into high gear. They attempt to ban any and all things Confederate through their ideological fascism. Even what was once a highly respected museum now claims proudly they are not a museum for the Confederacy, merely about it.

      There needs to be at least one place where the people of the South and others can go to learn an accurate account of why so many struggled so long in their attempt to reassert government by the consent of the governed in America!

       The General Executive Council of the Sons of Confederate Veterans  made the commitment in October of 2008 to start the process to erect a new building that will have two purposes. One of the uses of this new building will be to give us office space and return Elm Springs to its original grandeur. However the main function is to house The Confederate Museum. We are planning a museum that will tell the truth about what motivated the Southern people to struggle for many years to form a new nation.  At the SCV Reunion in July of 2009 the GEC set up a building fund for this purpose. One of the goals is to provide an accurate portrayal of the common Confederate soldier, something that is currently absent in most museums and in the media.

You are invited to make your stand for the future by contributing to this fund.

Send checks to:

Sons of Confederate Veterans

c/o TCM Building Fund

P.O. Box 59

Columbia, TN 38402

Or you can call 1-800-MY-DIXIE to pay by credit card.

Future generations will thank you for your efforts in erecting The Confederate Museum

CONFEDERATE OF THE MONTH

Pvt. Wesley Culp, 2nd Virginia Infantry
Kiled in Action at the Battle of
Gettysburg, Pa. July 3, 1863.