CALCASIEU GREYS -- February, 2015

NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390
will be from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, at Logan’s Roadhouse,
3509 Gerstner Memorial Boulevard (Hwy. 14), Lake Charles, La.
Our guest speaker will be Richard H. Holloway, director of the
Forts Bulow and Randolph State Historic Site, Pineville, La. His
program will be "Louisiana Troops Serving Under Stonewall
Jackson", a talk he has given to SCV groups across Texas
and Louisiana.
Captain James W. Bryan was stationed at Fort Randolph in
the last year of the War for Southern Independence. Many of
our men from Lake Charles were in Captain Bryan’s unit,
Company I, “Calcasieu Tigers,” 28th (Thomas’) Louisiana
Infantry Regiment. Captain Bryan was often in command of the
regiment as the senior captain, throughout the war. They fought
at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, the Siege of Vicksburg, and
were stationed at Fort Randolph the last year of the war. See
Richard’s complete biography on page 2.

Finding Your Way Home

Commander’s Column February, 2015

Dr. Andy Buckley, 
camp commander

Did you know there are millions of “closet
Confederates” in the United States? I have met dozens of
them right here in Lake Charles during the past year.
These men do not display the Battle Flag or other
Confederate symbols. They may have never heard of the
SCV, but they do have a sympathy and love for the
Confederacy. Many have proudly stated they have
Confederate ancestors and consider themselves “Sons of
the South.”
      Most of the “closet Confederates” I have met are
open to hear about the existence of the SCV.
Most want to know who we are, what we do, and
what we stand for. They may join our ranks, but even if
they chose not to do so, most of these men are glad to
know an organization like the Sons of Confederate
Veterans is defending the Southern Cause and the honor
of our Confederate forefathers.
      For over a hundred an fifteen years, the Sons of
Confederate Veterans have upheld the honor of the
South and boldly proclaimed pride in our heritage. We
are not ashamed of our Confederate ancestors who
sacrificed so much to defend our home. To the contrary,
we are honored to be their descendants. Indeed, we are
privileged to be the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Here are some thoughts I have been pondering in the
days following our Lee-Jackson Banquet.
      First, I believe we should be sensitive when we stand
up to defend our Southern way of life and celebrate our
Confederate ancestors. If we are not careful our voices
will sound like "the hate speech of racists." There are no
hard core “racists” in our Captain James W. Bryan Camp
1390 therefore we should make every effort to minimize
this perception and make certain it never becomes reality.
Those who have sympathy for the Confederacy should
be attracted to our great cause, not repulsed. This is what our
ancestors would want.
Second, I do not suggest we change our core beliefs and
values. These principles are defined in our SCV charge and
are non-negotiable. I do believe we must adjust the way we
communicate our message. There is a way to present the
defense of our Southern way of life and the true history of
the War Between the States without sounding combative,
judgmental, condescending, or critical. It is not what we
defend, but our methodology and our attitude toward those
who fundamentally disagree with us.
Third, our treatment of other races and ethnic groups
reflects upon the character and values of our ancestors. Two
of my Confederate ancestors, John H. Drennan and J.
Thomas Garrett, had their funerals conducted in their
homes. Based upon newspaper reports, large numbers of
African American men and women stood outside during
their funerals to honor these former Confederate soldiers.
There was something in the character of my ancestors and
their treatment of their fellow man that was attractive to
people of color in Calvert, Texas. Because our ancestors
were true Christians, they treated people of color with
dignity, friendship, and respect. Can we afford to do any
less?
     Fourth, the future of the SCV depends upon reaching
younger adults, ages 20-39. Sadly, many of our SCV camps in
Louisiana are not gaining but losing ground. Three camps
disbanded this fall. Many would blame this decline on
revisionist history, secular culture, or political correctness. I
think our failure to grow is related to our failure to attract
younger members.
     About two-thirds (66%) of all Americans born before
1946 are practicing Christians. These are our parents and
grandparents. We call this generation, “The Greatest
Generation.” In contrast to the Greatest Generation, only
15% of the Millennial Generation, people born between
1980 and 2000, are practicing Christians. The Millennials
represent the largest generation in American History,
surpassing the Baby Boomers, who were born between 1946
and 1968. The Protestant Church in America has all but lost
the Millennial Generation. In 2015 both churches and our
SCV must reach younger people in order to survive.
We need to enlist for our Captain James W. Bryan Camp
1390 a record number of young adult men this year. We’ll
take the old ones too. See you Tuesday, February 10th at
Logan’s in Lake Charles.
     In the words of our distinguished Adjutant, Luke Dartez,
“I’m a Rebel. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.”
Yours in our Great Cause,
Dr. Andy Buckley
Commander

Richard Holloway, Feb. meeting guest speaker.

HOLLOWAY TO GIVE FEB. PROGRAM
     Our February program speaker is Richard
Holloway, Director of the Fort Randolph and
Buhlow State Historic Site in Pineville, Louisiana.
Richard is an accomplished War Between the States
historian and re-enactor as well as a longtime SCV
member. He will be speaking on the subject
"Louisiana Troops Serving Under Stonewall Jackson", a
talk he has given to SCV groups across Texas and
Louisiana.
     Richard H. Holloway is a native of Alexandria
and is a member of the Lieutenant Governor’s
Louisiana Sesquicentennial Civil War and
Reconstruction Task Force and currently serves as
2nd Vice President of the Louisiana Association of
Museums. He has been President of the Civil War
Round Table of Central Louisiana since 2008 and
also served as a founding Board of Director
member of the Confederate Memorial Hall of New
Orleans Foundation and the Republic of West
Florida Historical Society. Richard is also a member
of the Louisiana Historical Association and Team
Red, White, and Blue. In 2009, he represented the
State of Louisiana at the U.S. Capitol and Library of
Congress for a Civil War commemoration as a
guest of the United States Congress. He
participated in Governor Edwards’ trip to Paris in
1984 where he was introduced to French President
Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, mayor of
Paris. Richard was a founding member of the Jena
SCV camp and is currently rejoined as a member of
the Alexandria SCV camp.
      Richard has been a Civil War reenactor for 35 years
and has participated at events across the United States
and England. He has also reenacted at Spanish Colonial,
Revolutionary War, Seminole War, Mexican War and
World War II events. Most recently Richard was involved
in the Chalmette National Battlefield’s celebration of the
200th Anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, where
he also participated in 1815 era social functions at the US
Mint and the Cabildo.
       Richard’s first appearance onscreen was in
“Louisiane” with Margot Kidder in 1983 and has been in
over 20 movies, 15 documentaries, and two country
music video’s since then in various capacities. He has a
vast collection of Louisiana historical items which he
often loans to museums around the state.
Richard has received a Legion of Merit medal from
the Louisiana National Guard and was given the
Louisiana Museum Professional Award for 2014. He was
given the key to the parish in Jefferson Parish for his
work in genealogy. Richard has worked at the Louisiana
State Archives where he researched Louisiana’s history
and did all of the integral research for the state attorney
general’s $800 million dollar lawsuit pertaining to
asbestos. He gave tours in Liverpool, England pertaining
to the American Civil War there as well as serving as the
University Records Manager for The George Washington
University in Washington, DC. During his tenure at the
university, he trained over 400 office managers and
completely restructured the facility’s entire archives using
modern procedures. During this time, Richard was a
writer and co-editor for the Mid-Atlantic Regional
Archives Conference’s newsletter and was a member of
the prestigious Washington Rare Book Group, which met
in the Library of Congress. Before returning to Louisiana,
he worked for the Texas Society of Professional
Engineers and also was a campaign manager for a Texas
senator and worked with George W. Bush’s 1st
gubernatorial campaign. After a short stint as the director
of the Louisiana Cotton Museum at Lake Providence,
Richard moved back to Alexandria to became a land title
researcher for Chesapeake Oil Company. He worked
four years as an interpretive ranger at Fort Jesup State
Historic Site in Many until the long drive forced him to
find more local work. He was an archivist for the
Louisiana National Guard for almost a decade and during
that time he was director of Louisiana Native American
Library and Museum located at Camp Beauregard. As a
member of the Louisiana State Guard, he worked to
preserve the state’s military records and other emergency
services during Hurricanes Katrina and Gustave. He was
put in charge of the records recovered from Jackson
Barracks until they were removed back to New Orleans
which led to him reapplying with Louisiana State Parks
to work at their new Forts Randolph and Buhlow
facility.
      He has taught classes on Louisiana during the
American Civil War as an adjunct professor at
Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and LSU at
Alexandria.

New Members to be voted forSCV Membership February 10th

     Ed Sherwood, has attended our meetings for the
past 3 years so by now he should know what he’s
getting in to. Ed is a native of Port Arthur Texas and
earned the MA in History from Lamar University. For
the past 7 years Ed has taught U.S. History at McNeese
and SOWEA Technical Community College. His
Confederate ancestor is Private Alfred Sherwood,
Company C, 8th Texas Calvary.
     Robert Couch retired after a career in the U.S.
military. Robert’s ancestor is James Nichols Brashear,
Company B, 13th Kentucky Calvary. His ancestor’s
family was brutalized by Union soldiers and were
therefore forced to resist the abuse of power by an
invading force. Robert has been researching the War
Between the States for over 25 years and is ready to go
to work in our camp.
     Brittian Daniel Briggs works for Halliburton
Corporation in Galveston, Texas and lives in Victoria.
His Confederate ancestor is Lt. W.C. Easterwood, 27th
Texas Infantry 1st Regiment Company B from Milam
County, Texas. Easterwood also served in 4th Texas
State Calvary Company B and is Brigg’s Great
Grandfather’s adoptive father.
     Wayne Prouse has transferred into the Bryan
Camp as an associate member. Wayne continues to
serve as the chairman of the SCV Confederate Grave
Registry in Texas and as the Assistant to the Texas
Congressman in Beaumont.

2015 Capt. J. W. Bryan Meeting 
Dates & Location

Feb. 10 – Logan’s Roadhouse – Lake Charles
Mar. 10 –Joe’s Italian Restaurant – Sulphur
Apr. 14 --Logan’s Roadhouse – Lake Charles
May 12 --Joe’s Italian Restaurant – Sulphur
June 9 --Logan’s Roadhouse – Lake Charle
July 14 --Joe’s Italian Restaurant – Sulphur
Aug. 11--Logan’s Roadhouse – Lake Charles
Sept. 8 --Joe’s Italian Restaurant – Sulphur
Oct. 13 -Logan’s Roadhouse – Lake Charles
Nov.10 -Joe’s Italian Restaurant – Sulphur
Dec. 8- Annual Christmas Party (TBA)

Confederate Medal Changes

     The media company requires purchase of 100 two
inch medals at $5.34 per medal. We originally voted to
purchase 25 medals, so this will have to be presented to
the camp in the February meeting. This would put our
final price at $534.00 which includes the grey/red ribbon.
The medals will be solid bronze with no color. Adding
color would increase the price to $10.00 per medal
($1534.00 total), which is cost prohibitive. The company
could not deliver full color medals until the summer
anyway, due to overseas manufacturing.

Pvt. William Kniep,
Creuzbaur’s Battery, 5th Texas Light
Artillery, killed in the battle of Calcasieu
Pass and buried on Monkey
Island, Cameron Parish. The site
of the battlefield cemetery may
be endangered by a major
construction project. (Photo
courtesy of Kniep family)

CALCASIEU PASS BATTLEFIELD
CEMETERY TO BE PROTECTED

      State Archaeologist Charles “Chip” McGimsey,
recently told the Lake Charles American Press that state law
requires that the Calcasieu Pass battlefield cemetery, on
the former LeBoeuf property, must be protected during
an LNG plant project being built on Monkey Island in
Cameron Parish, where the battle was fought May 8, 1864.
He was quoted as saying, “I had a conversation with
[SCT&E] on Wednesday [Jan. 29] and explained to them
the new situation.” McGimsey added, “If this is in an area
where they have no plans to develop it and they commit
to leaving it as green space, then it’s not an issue.”
      The final site for the SCT&E [Southern California
Telephone & Energy] has yet to be determined.
After Hurricane Rita, representatives from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency visited Monkey Island
and researched the state’s land purchase records for the
area, McGimsey said. In an 1859 Track Book, he added,
FEMA agents discovered the approximate location of the
LeBoeuf property in the northwest section of the island.
“It very clearly shows that their tract of land and
presumably their house is in the northwestern half of the
island,” McGimsey said. “They could be off by 15 to 25
feet, but it’s clearly going to show that the LeBoeuf’s
property and farmhouse, and thus the cemetery, are in the
western half of the island and pretty close to the Calcasieu
River, too.”
     The LNG plant is being built on 230 acres and is so
large it would take up about a third of the island.
A site sketch map the American Press obtained from
McGimsey’s office shows the LeBoeuf property in the
northwest section of the island, as delineated in the 1859
Trac Book. The LeBoeuf “Farmstead and Cemetery” is
also shown at that site on an 1898 nautical chart. The
farmhouse appears to have stood just north of where
SCT&E’s mock ups show the LNG plant’s line of six
liquefaction trains.
      Desecrating a historic cemetery in Louisiana is a
crime and state law provides for both fines and
imprisonment upon conviction.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
also has regulations safeguarding historic cemeteries
such as the one at Calcasieu Pass. Richard
McGuire, FERC’s acting director of its Division of
Gas—Environment and Engineering, said if
SCT&E moves ahead with its proposal, it will have
to go through the commission’s pre-filing process.
As part of that process, SCT&E will be required to
hire independent archaeologists to conduct land
surveys on Monkey Island in the “area of potential
effect.”
     He added that FERC’s first priority is to get
applicants to avoid cemeteries completely.
McGimsey said the cemetery is not something
that will stop the project. He added, however, that
if human remains are unearthed at any time during
construction, his office will shut down the
immediate area. Work can then continue outside
the discovery site.
If approved by federal officials, SCT&E’s
estimated $9.2 billion facility seeks to export up to
12 million metric tons of LNG each year to
countries worldwide. The project is expected to
create up to 2,000 construction jobs during peak
times. The original press story was by Frank
DiCesare.

THE BATTLEFIELD DEAD

      The following sailors and soldiers were killed at
the Battle of Calcasieu Pass on May 6, 1864,
according to a monument in front of the Cameron
Parish Courthouse:
U.S. Navy sailors:
Quartermaster John W. Tindall; Seaman Joseph
Johnson; Ensign Henry Jackson; Ensign S.R.
Tyrrel; Seaman John Scott; Quartermaster John
Jacobs; Ord. Seaman William Hayden; Ensign A.
H. Berry.
Confederate States soldiers:
Pvt. William Kneip; Cpl. Ferdinand Fahrrenthold;
Pvt. John Lynch; Pvt. Henry Foestermann; Pvt.
Aaron Russell; Pvt. J. d. Lancaster; Sgt. R. M. Jones;
Pvt. A. Scrinkle; Pvt. W. A. Jackson; Pvt. P.
Whittenberg; Pvt. N. Yvarro; Pvt. Jackson J.
Risinger; Pvt. William Ingle; Pvt. William Guehrs.
Guehrs was posthumously awarded the
Confederate Medal of Honor for his self-sacrificing
gallantry at the Battle of Calcasieu Pass. The medal
is on display at the Imperial Calcasieu Museum.