CALCASIEU GREYS December 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

           Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will have its annual Confederate Christmas Party beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 2019 21st Street in Lake Charles. Tommy Curtis and his sister Phyllis will be our host and hostess. This will be our December meeting. There will be plenty of good holiday food and snacks and plenty of Christmas cheer. Please bring a covered dish. Susan Jones, violist, will present Christmas Carols, all written before 1865, and sung by our Confederate ancestors. Come enjoy great Southern hospitality, fellowship and good food.

CAMP NEWS

Lee-Jackson Banquet 2014

     Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will hold its annual Lee-Jackson Banquet 6 o’clock PM, Saturday, January 18, 2013 Pat’s of Henderson Steak and Seafood Restaurant, 1500 Siebarth Drive, Lake Charles, La.   The cost will be $30.00 per person as last year.  We will have the final menu in the January newsletter. We’ll also have the induction of the 2014 camp officers, honor General Robert E. Lee and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, as well as our moving candlelight tribute to our own Confederate ancestors. There will be door prizes. Our special guest speaker will be announced.

Editorial

Museum of the Confederacy

       It has been announced that the 123-years-old Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia will soon cease to exist as a separate entity and will merge with the American Civil War Center at the historic Iron Works Building in Richmond. The new entity will announce its new name, but it seems highly unlikely the word likely that the new name will include the words Confederate or Confederacy.

      You may recall that several years ago the American Civil War Center snubbed the Sons of Confederate Veterans by refusing to say how it would interpret a bronze statue of President Jefferson Davis and his son, Joseph Evan, and young ward, Jim Limber, the SCV had offered to donate. While snubbing the SCV’s donation, it did accept the bronze statue of Northern President Abe Lincoln and his son Thad.

     It was also announced the board of directors of the new entity will be made up of the current board members of the MOC and ACWC. The chairman of the new board will be Dr. Edward Ayers, Ph. D., president of the University of Richmond. Ayers was recently awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama at the White House. He also serves on the editorial board of the Abraham Lincoln Papers. The mission of the new, unnamed, entity will be to tell the story of “Union, Confederate, free and enslaved African Americans.”

      The MOC holds the largest collection of Confederate memorabilia in the world, including hundreds of original Confederate flags, photographs, uniforms, art, personnel possessions of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and many Confederate soldiers and civilians. What will happen to this priceless collection is unclear, and how it will be interpreted by the new entity remains to be seen.

     The items in the collection were donated by Confederate veterans and patriotic Southerners over the years. It is sad indeed to think of how their gifts will possibly be interpreted by the new unnamed entity.

    This tragedy shows the urgent need for the Sons of Confederate Veterans planned Confederate Museum at our International Headquarters at Elm Springs, Columbia, Tenn. Please consider donating to the SCV museum project (next story).

      Do we want the only entities telling the story of the Confederacy to be Northern-biased and politically correct sources? Or do we want to be able to tell of the heroic deeds of our Confederate ancestors, and their sacred and holy cause of Southern Independence from an unapologetically Southern viewpoint?

     Let us take all take a stand for the righteous cause of our noble Confederate ancestors!

-Editor

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.

Camp Chaplain Tommy Curtis, left,

       Mrs. Marilyn Thorn, and Camp Cmdr.-

       elect Andy Buckley are seen here at a recent

       flag presentation ceremony. Compatriots

       Curtis and Buckley presented a Confederate

       Flag to Mrs. Thorn in honor of the memory of

       Her late husband, Gerald,  who was a past

       Commander of Camp 1390 who died earlier this

       Year.

Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's original uniform hat, two of his swords and  his

spurs and sash were all on display at the annual seminar of Hood's Texas

Brigade Association Re-Activated Nov. 16, 2013 at Sam Houston Memorial

Museum Complex in Huntsville, Texas. The artifacts are from the Applewhite-

Clark Collection. (Photo by M.D. Jones)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Michael and Susan Jones of Camp 1390 were among the descendants and friends of Hood's Texas Brigade Association Re-Activated who heard topnotch historians give riveting talks on the famed Confederate unit Nov. 16, 2013 at the group's annual seminar in the Sam Houston Memorial Museum Complex.

       Martha Ann Hartzog, president, welcomed the gathering and noted the organization is made up of both descendants of the men of the brigade, and of associate members interested perpetuating their deeds of valor and memory. The original brigade included the 1st, 4th and 5th Texas volunteer infantry regiments, 3rd Arkansas Infantry, 18th Georgia Infantry, Hampton's South Carolina Legions infantry companies and Company D, 1st North Carolina Artillery Regiment (Rowan Artillery).

      Also at the reception, Dr. Susannah Ural of the University of Southern Mississippi, who was also one of the seminar speakers, signed copies of her new book, Don't Hurry Me Down to Hades.

      Other seminar speakers included Dr. Keith S. Bohannon of Pennsylvania State University; Dr. Charles D. Grear of Prairie View A&M University; and Phillip M. Sozansky, a history teacher at Cedar Park Middle School, Round Rock, Texas.

      Dr. Grear gave his talk on "Sam Houston & the Fate of Texas." He reviewed Houston's colorful life from an unsuccessful governor of Tennessee, as an adopted member of the Cherokee Nation, a Texas revolutionary, president of the Republic of Texas and U.S. Senator and Governor of the States of Texas. Grear noted that Houston was adamantly opposed to secession and when he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, was removed from office. When the war started, Grear said Houston came around to reluctantly supporting his state's war effort. His son, Sam Houston Jr., was a member of the 2nd Texas Infantry and severely wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. The senior Houston died at his home in Huntsville July 23, 1863 at age 70.

      The next speaker, Dr. Ural, gave her presentation on "To See the Boys from Texas" during which she showed slides of soldiers of the regiment and read from their letters, diaries and memoirs. She noted that after rough fighting and heavy casualties in 1863, including Gettysburg and Chickamauga, and the court martial of their commander, Brig. Gen. J.B. Robertson, the morale of the Texans was low. However they recovered when they returned to General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the Spring of 1864. She said the Texans had a strong sense of Confederate nationalism that they maintained throughout the war.

      Sozansky gave his talk on "Hood's Texans: Frontier Warriors." He said the Texans were able to keep their combat effectiveness through four years of war and heavy casualties because of their background of living a rugged frontier life, their leaders who had much combat experience in the War for Texas Independence, fighting hostile Indians, and in the Mexican War. 

      Dr. Bohannon gave a history of "Hood's Texas Brigade & Chickamauga." The Texans and Arkansans were deeply involved in the fighting on both September 19 and 20 at the Battle of Chickamauga. He noted they suffered heavy casualties on both days. He said on the second day of the battle, the Texas Brigade participated in Longstreet's famous routing of the Federal Army, but was ambushed by the enemy and had to retreat to a woodline. Bohannon said that was when General Hood suffered his severe leg wound that resulted in amputation. 

       For more information about Hood's Texas Brigade Association Re-Activated, click here for here for their web site.

A CONFEDERATE CATECHISM

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

17. Did the South, as alleged by Lincoln in his messages and in his Gettysburg address, fight to destroy popular government throughout the world?

No. This charge was absurd. Had the South succeeded, the United States would still have enjoyed all its liberties, and so would Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and all other peoples. The danger to popular government came from Lincoln himself. In conducting the war, Lincoln talked about “democracy” and “the plain people,” but adopted the rules of despotism and autocracy, and under the fiction of “war powers” virtually abrogated the Constitution, which he had sworn to support.

18. Was Lincoln’s proclamation freeing the slaves worthy of the praise which it has received?

No. His proclamation was a war measure merely. He had no humanitarian purpose in view, and only ten days before its issuance he declared that “the possible consequences of insurrection and massacre in the Southern States” would not deter him from its use, whenever he should deem it necessary for military purposes. (Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, II, p.235) In his second inaugural message, while professing “malice to none and charity to all,” he slandered the South by describing the slave owner as an incarnate demon, who did nothing but lash his slaves, without giving the least requital for their service of 250 years!

 19. Would Lincoln have saved the South from the horrors of Reconstruction if he had survived the war?

No. Lincoln had shown no kindness to the South while he lived, and there is no reason to suppose that he would have done so had he survived the war. His war violated every law of humanity, and instead of offering pardon to everyone who would submit, as the British General Howe had done in his amnesty proclamation of November 30, 1776, Lincoln in his amnesty proclamation of December 8, 1863, excepted from the benefits of his proclamation everybody in the South of any leading intelligence. It is absurd to ascribe Andrew Johnson’s policy of Reconstruction to Lincoln, for Lincoln in his proclamation of July 8, 1864, professed that he was not bound up to any fixed plan whatever. The closest companion of Lincoln and the mastermind of this Cabinet was Edwin M. Stanton, who hated the South and all that concerned it. President Johnson, to his credit, drove him from his Cabinet. Lincoln’s reputation for kindness is based upon a number of trivial incidents and on his knack of juggling with words and using rhetoric to cover his absurd and often times outrageous statements by a jingle of sentences. He repeatedly backed down before his cabinet and had little of the backbone of his successor, Andrew Johnson.

New Way to Raise Funds for SCV

Greetings Compatriots,

As you may know, for several years the SCV has had an agreement with We-Care.com for  

fund raising through on-line shopping. That has changed! We now have a much better site

with a lot more features and opportunities. It is called the Dailygood and the main function is called GoodSearch. http://www.goodsearch.com/

      Go to "select your cause" and type in "Sons of Confederate Veterans." Once you have picked the SCV as your cause, every time you do an internet search the SCV gets 1 cent. This might not sound like much, but imagine if 500 people did 10 searches a day. That is $50 dollars a day or $18,250 a year! It will work even better if simply make their page your homepage which will ensure that you remember to use this search engine. But even better is to download the search toolbar. This works just like a Google or Yahoo toolbar (in fact it is Yahoo).  It will be displayed across the top of your browser window. Here is the link: http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/mode/

      But there is more! It is also for online shopping! They have thousands of the most popular stores, and every time you make an order through GoodShop the SCV gets a percentage!

 http://www.goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx

      Another way to raise money is to register yourself and your personal credit card/debit card with Goodswipe. If you do not want to through their webpage and make purchases on line, you can use your registered card at participating retailers which will create a donation for the SCV: 

https://goodsearch.plink.com/index.cfm?aid=1413&eid=ac4121a5e8eca203

      Now every time you go to a store that is in the program, your purchase automatically makes the donation! It also will show coupons available, possibly "free shipping."

There are many more ways to earn money for the SCV on this site e.g. playing games, watching ads, taking surveys etc. To read more about this great opportunity for the SCV you can read about it here http://www.goodsearch.com/about

      Also, family members or anyone can sign on, they do not have to be a member.

Confederate of the Month

Brig. Gen. William Scurry

Killed in action at the Battle of

                                                      Jenkin’s Ferry, Ark. April 30, 1864.