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.

CALCASIEU GREYS - NOVEMBER 2013

NEXT MEETING

      Then next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, at Hollier’s Cajun Kitchen in Sulphur. Tommy Curtis will present our program for the meeting. We’ll also be having camp elections and voting on a camp flag design.

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.

           Hollier Cajun Kitchen (Sulphur) -  November 12 (elect officers).

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

 SPEAKERS NEEDED

      Kelly Thomas, the Activities Director at the Stonebridge Assisted Living Center in Sulphur is very interested in having a monthly speaker from the SCV. If interested in presenting a program to the Stonebridge residents on the War Between the States or the South, please call Kelly at 527-4433 to schedule a date. Dr. Andy Buckley, Judge Advocate spoke in September and reports the program was attended by sixteen senior adults who enthusiastically received the program. This represents another opportunity to present our cause to an attentive and interested audience in the community.

CAMP NEWS

 CAMP BALLOT:

Below is the official camp ballot for our 2013 officers who will be voted on at the November meeting. Nominations were taken at the October meeting.

  

CAMP TO PARTICIPATE IN  VETERANS DAY PARADE

      Capt. J.W. Bryan Camp 1390 voted at the last meeting to take part in the Veterans Day Parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, in Sulphur, Louisiana. Please contact Cmdr. Archie Toombs for information on when and where to meet for the line up of the parade. His email is  fxe74@hotmail.com or call him at 337-528-2218.

CAMP FLAG CONTEST

     Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 is announcing a contest for a camp flag. All Camp 1390 members in good standing may submit entries on a 8-inch  by 11 1/2-inch piece of paper. The flag design should have lettering with the camp’s name, number and Lake Charles, La. Entries may be submitted at the September, October and November meetings. A vote will be taken at the November meeting. The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate for our Quartermaster Store. Here are a couple of examples that were on display at the Vicksburg National Reunion.           Please feel free to submit other historic Confederate flag-types as the basis of your design, such as the First National, Richard Taylor-style, Van Dorn-style, etc.

Here is a good web site for Confederate flag types:

http://txscv.tripod.com/csa.htm

Here is a good book on the subject of Confederate flags.

The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History.

By Devereaux Cannon Jr. (Pelican Publishing, 1994)

128 pages; illustrations.

Heritage Violation

          Recently, a controversy has arisen regarding the appropriateness of the name of a professional sports team. While this is a matter for others to sort out and one which the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) has no reason to comment upon, we do feel compelled to speak to a peripheral issue that has occurred. In attempting to offer his opinion and enter into the debate, New York Daily News cartoonist Tom Stiglich has taken the opportunity to depict the logo of the team with a Nazi flag and the Confederate Battle Flag.

          Again, the primary debate is one that we have no interest in entering, but the implied similarity of the two flags is ridiculous and unconscionable. The outrageous social ideologies of Hitler and the well-known horrors of the Nazi regime, mass exterminations of ethnic groups and human eugenics, are completely incompatible with the foundations of the Confederacy and the South of 1861-1865.

            This is not the first time this contorted comparison has been offered, but it needs to be the last. Men of goodwill can often disagree and have healthy debates, but to simply superimpose "Nazi" and everything that goes with it over someone, some group or some philosophy with which you disagree is childish and beneath the dignity of Americans.

            The Confederacy did not practice "ethnic cleansing"; in fact, it attempted to practice political cleansing by reestablishing a Constitutional Republic. Judah P. Benjamin served as Secretary of War and then as Secretary of State. It would be almost a half-century until a US President would appoint a Jewish Cabinet member, when, in 1906 Theodore Roosevelt appointed Oscar S. Straus to the post of Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Additionally, untold numbers of blacks, many of them free, served in Confederate units. Also worthy of note is the record of General Stand Watie of the Cherokee Braves; he was the last Confederate general to surrender his troops. Mr. Stiglich owes the myriad Confederate descendants an apology. Shame on him and "Hail to the Cherokee Braves."

Michael Givens, SCV cmdr.-in-chief

   A CONFEDERATE CATECHISM

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

16. Were the Southerners “rebels” in seceding from the Union?

The term “rebel” had no application to the Southern people, however much it applied to the American colonists. The latter called themselves “Patriots” not rebels. Both Southerners in 1861 and Americans in 1776 acted under the authority of their state governments. But while the colonies were mere departments of the British Union, the American States were creators of the Federal Union. The Federal government was the agent of the states for the purposes expressed in the Constitution, and it is absurd to say that the principal can rebel against the agent. President Jackson threatened war with South Carolina in 1833, but admitted that in such an event South Carolinians taken prisoners would not be “rebels” but prisoners of war. The Freesoilers in Kansas and John Brown at Harpers Ferry were undoubtedly “rebels” for they acted without any lawful authority whatever in using force against the Federal Government, and Lincoln and the Republican Party, in approving a platform which sympathized with the Freesoilers and bitterly denounced the Federal Government, were rebels and traitors at heart.

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.

 150-years-ago

THE BATTLE OF BUZZARD’S PRAIRIE

By Mike Jones

           The Battle of Buzzard's Prairie occurred on October 15, 1863 on the grounds  of Chretien Point Plantation near modern day Sunset, Louisiana. It was part of the Great Texas Overland Expedition in the fall of that year when the occupying Federal Army in New Orleans was trying to invade Texas across the Cajun prairies and bayous of Southwest Louisiana.

The Battle of Buzzard's Prairie, La. Oct. 15, 1863

(Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper)

that year when the occupying Federal Army in New Orleans was trying to invade Texas across the Cajun prairies and bayous of Southwest Louisiana.

          The expedition force in this battle was made up of part of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Bank's Army of the Gulf and led in the field by Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin. Opposing the invaders was the Confederate cavalry division of Brig. Gen. Thomas Green.         

           Green's Cavalry Division included the 1st Cavalry Brigade of Col. Arthur P. Bagby, including the 4th, 5th and 7th Texas Cavalry regiments; 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Arizona brigade); 13th Texas "Horse" Battalion; 2nd Louisiana Cavalry and the Valverde Battery. Also in the division was the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of Col. John P. Major, made up of the  1st Regiment (Lane's) Partisan Rangers; 3rd Regiment (Arizona brigade) Partisan Rangers; 6th Regiment (Stone's) Partisan Rangers; and Capt. Oliver Semmes' 1st Confederate Battery.

         The battlefield was an open prairie in front of the Chretien plantation, near Bayou Bourbeau, and the road from Opelousas to Vermilionville (modern day Lafayette). The Federals had been camped the previous night, stretched across the road and along Bayou Carencro. Green had moved up the previous day and camped his division behind Bayou Bourbeau and along the plantation road. Early in the morning of the 15th of October, Green advanced the 4th, 5th and 7th Texas cavalry regiments to a plantation fence bordering the prairie. He placed Semmes' Battery on the left and the Valverde Battery on the right. Col. William Polk "Gotch" Hardeman of the 4th Texas, led a contingent of skirmisher, made up of one company from each regiment, out onto the prairie to lure the Federals into attacking the strong Confederate position. General Franklin took the bait and ordered out Weitzel's Division to attack across the open prairie, supported by artillery batteries.
           Advancing in full battle order with flags flying, the Federals crossed the prairie and easily pushed the Confederate skirmishers back to the fence line.
       The horse soldiers of the 4th, 5th and 7th Texas cavalry regiments then made a wild dash with full-throated "Rebel Yell" on the right of Weitzel's line.  The soldiers from New York and Massachusetts became panic-stricken and the  Yankee right collapsed. Coming to the rescue for the Federals was Lt. William Marland of Nim's Battery who stopped the rout and drove the Confederates back with grape and cannister, as well as exploding an ammunition chest of Semmes' Battery.
       The battle then settled into an exchange of musket and cannon fire that lasted several hours. While the Federals had overwhelming numbers, Franklin didn't order another full strength attack until about 10 o'clock that morning, led by the Mid-Westerners of Burbridge's Brigade. The Confederates withdrew behind Bayou Bourbeau while Hardeman had the 7th Texas Cavalry slow down the Yankees from concealed positions, around the Chretien Plantation. The 7th then withdrew across the bayou and the 4th and 5th Texas began skirmishing with the Mid-Westerners to slow their advance. Green's men were driven off, but he accomplished his goal of taking the measure of the Federal Army's strength.
 

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.

CONFEDERATE OF THE MONTH

Pvt. Albert Martin
3rd Company, Washington Artillery of
New Orleans. (Liljenquist Family Collection,
Library of Congress)

CALCASIEU GREYS / OCTOBER 2013

NEXT MEETING

      Then next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Logan’s Roadhouse Restaurant, (see story in Camp News Column).

        

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) October 8 (Nomination of officers).

           Hollier Cajun Kitchen (Sulphur) -  November 12 (elect officers).

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

CAMP NEWS        

Dwayne Clemens on 150 Gettysburg Anniversary and the Nominations for 2014 Officers

Capt. J. W. Bryan Camp 1390, Sons of the Confederate Veterans, will meet at Logan’s Road House, HWY 14 Lake Charles at 6 p.m. Tuesday, October 8. Dwayne Clemens, a Social Studies History teacher at Episcopal Day School, SCV member, and War Between the States Re-enactor, will present the program on the 150th anniversary and re-enactment of Gettysburg. Dwayne and his wife actually participated in the Gettysburg re-enactment.

At our last meeting our membership provided the following feed-back regarding our experience at Logan’s (August 13th) Dr. Andy Buckley, our Judge Advocate met with Logan’s manager Daniel on September 18th and personally addressed the concerns of the membership.

1. The air conditioning was not turned on until members began to arrive at 5:45 and therefore the room was too hot, especially for those sitting against the west windows. The room should be cool when we arrive at 5:45.

2. The orders were all delivered at the same time, between 7:20-7:30 pm, with most of our members waiting 1 hour and 15 minutes. It is imperative the food be delivered before the business meeting begins at 7:00 pm. The Camp requests orders be taken and processed as member arrive and several waiters be assigned the meeting.

3. Many members complained of cold food and most did not even have their drinks refilled.

4. At our September meeting in Sulphur the overwhelming response of our membership was negative about further meetings at Logan’s after Tuesday, October 8th. We agreed to address these concerns with the management and requested they make every effort to deal with the

 issues listed above.

CAMP FLAG CONTEST

          Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 is announcing a contest for a camp flag. All Camp 1390 members in good standing may submit entries on a 8-inch  by 11 1/2-inch piece of paper. The flag design should have lettering with the camp’s name, number and Lake Charles, La. Entries may be submitted at the September, October and November meetings. A vote will be taken at the November meeting. The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate for our Quartermaster Store. Here are a couple of examples that were on display at the Vicksburg National Reunion.

           Please feel free to submit other historic Confederate flag-types as the basis of your design, such as the First National, Richard Taylor-style, Van Dorn-style, etc.

Here is a good web site for Confederate flag types:

http://txscv.tripod.com/csa.htm

            Here is a good book on the subject of Confederate flags.

The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History.

By Devereaux Cannon Jr. (Pelican Publishing, 1994)

128 pages; illustrations.

           Please feel free to submit other historic Confederate flag-types as the basis of your design, such as the First National, Richard Taylor-style, Van Dorn-style, etc.

Here is a good web site for Confederate flag types:

http://txscv.tripod.com/csa.htm

            Here is a good book on the subject of Confederate flags.

The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History.

By Devereaux Cannon Jr. (Pelican Publishing, 1994)

128 pages; illustrations.

150-years-ago

The Battle of Chickamauga, Ga.

[National Park Service]

Brig. Gen. Preston Smith

After the Tullahoma Campaign, Rosecrans renewed his offensive, aiming to force the Confederates out of Chattanooga. The three army corps comprising Rosecrans’ s army split and set out for Chattanooga by separate routes. In early September, Rosecrans consolidated his forces scattered in Tennessee and Georgia and forced Bragg’s army out of Chattanooga, heading south. The Union troops followed it and brushed with it at Davis’ Cross Roads. Bragg was determined to reoccupy Chattanooga and decided to meet a part of Rosecrans’s army, defeat them, and then move back into the city. On the 17th he headed north, intending to meet and beat the XXI Army Corps. As Bragg marched north on the 18th, his cavalry and infantry fought with Union cavalry and mounted infantry which were armed with Spencer repeating rifles. Fighting began in earnest on the morning of the 19th, and Bragg’s men hammered but did not break the Union line. The next day, Bragg continued his assault on the Union line on the left, and in late morning, Rosecrans was informed that he had a gap in his line. In moving units to shore up the supposed gap, Rosecrans created one, and James Longstreet’s men promptly exploited it, driving one-third of the Union army, including Rosecrans himself, from the field. George H. Thomas took over command and began consolidating forces on Horseshoe Ridge and Snodgrass Hill. Although the Rebels launched determined assaults on these forces, they held until after dark. Thomas then led these men from the field leaving it to the Confederates. The Union retired to Chattanooga while the Rebels occupied the surrounding heights.

A CONFEDERATE CATECHISM

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

13. Could Lincoln have “saved” the Union by some other method than war?

Yes. If he had given his influence to the resolutions offered in the Senate by John Jay Crittenden, the difficulties in 1861 would have been peaceably settled. These resolutions extended the line of the Missouri Compromise through the territories, but gave nothing to the South, save the abstract right to carry slaves to New Mexico. But New Mexico was too barren for agriculture, and not ten slaves had been carried there in ten years. The resolutions received the approval of the Southern Senators and, had they been submitted to the people, would have received their approval both North and South. Slavery in a short time would have met a peaceful and natural death with the development of machinery consequent upon Cyrus H. McCormick’s great invention of the reaper. The question in 1861 with the South as to the territories was one of wounded pride rather than any material advantage. It was the intemperate, arrogant and self righteous attitude of Lincoln and his party that made any peaceable constructive solution of the territorial question impossible. In rejecting the Crittenden resolutions, Lincoln, a minority president, and the Republicans, a minority party, placed themselves on record as virtually preferring the slaughter of 400,000 men of the flower of the land and the sacrifice of  billions of dollars of property to a compromise involving a mere abstraction, and they intrigued an unwilling North into the war. Some historians have actually boasted of the trickery.

14. Does any present or future prosperity of the South justify the War of 1861-1865?

No. No present or future prosperity can make a past wrong right, for the end can never justify the means. The war was a colossal crime, and the most astounding case of self stultification on the part of any government recorded in history.

15. Had the South gained its independence, would it have proved a failure?

No. General Grant has said in his Memoirs that it would have established “a real and respected nation.” The states of the South would have been bound together by fear of the great Northern Republic and by a similarity of economic conditions. They would have had laws suited to their own circumstances, and developed accordingly. They would not have lived under Northern laws and had to conform their policy to them, and they have been compelled to do. A low tariff would have attracted the trade of the world to the South, and its cities would have become great and important centers of commerce. A fear of this prosperity induced Lincoln to make war upon the South. The Southern Confederacy, instead of being a failure, would have been a great outstanding figure in the affairs of the world.

150-years-ago

Lt. R.W. Dowling

The Battle of Sabine Pass

           About 6:00 am on the morning of September 8, 1863, a Union flotilla of four gunboats and seven troop transports steamed into Sabine Pass and up the Sabine River with the intention of reducing Fort Griffin and landing troops to begin occupying Texas. As the gunboats approached Fort Griffin, they came under accurate fire from six cannons. The Confederate gunners at Fort Griffin had been sent there as a punishment. To break the day-to-day monotony, the gunners practiced firing artillery at range markers placed in the river. Their practice paid off. Fort Griffin’s small force of 44 men, under command of Lt. Richard W. Dowling, forced the Union flotilla to retire and captured the gunboat Clifton and about 200 prisoners. Further Union operations in the area ceased for about a month. The heroics at Fort Griffin—44 men stopping a Union expedition—inspired other Confederate soldiers.

[National Park Service]

Museum Closed, Reopens Oct. 15

NEW ORLEANS – Confederate Memorial Hall will be closed the entire month of September and part of October due to a major construction project. Aside from repairs to the building being completed, when it reopens in October, it will have several new exhibits. Website gift shop will remain open for online purchases. The museum is tentatively scheduled to reopen October 15, 2013. Memorial Hall exists solely through admissions and your generous contributions, receiving NO state or Federal funding. The Memorial Hall Foundation was founded in 1984 in order to create an endowment and help support Memorial Hall by making an annual contribution to the museum to help offset the costs of exhibit restoration, building repairs, preservation materials and operational expenses. Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Please send donations  to Memorial Hall Foundation, 929 Camp St., New Orleans, La.  70130.

CONFEDERATE OF THE MONTH

  

                                                        2^nd Lt. Pryor L. Bryan, Co. F,

5^th Texas Infantry Regiment.

He was born in Calcasieu Parish

In 1832 and died May 28, 1862 in Virginia.

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.

CALCASIEU GREYS September 2013 Lake Charles, La.

NEXT MEETING

      Then next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Hollier Cajun Kitchen, 1709 Ruth St., Sulphur, La. Compatriot Mike Jones will present the program on the 150^th Anniversary of the Battle of Sabine Pass. Please come and enjoy great food and Confederate fellowship.

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).

           Hollier Cajun Kitchen (Sulphur) -  September 10, November 12 (elect officers).

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

CAMP NEWS

Proposed Changes to By-Laws of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390

[Proposed Changes are in brackets & boldface]

ARTICLE VI - Meetings:

Section 2. The regular meetings of the Camp shall be on the second (2nd) Tuesday of each month at [6:30] o'clock P.M.; except for the December Christmas Party and the January "Lee-Jackson Banquet" at which times and places will be voted on by the general membership.

ARTICLE VIII – Officers

Section 1. The officers of the Camp, at a minimum, shall be Commander, First Lieutenant Commander, Adjutant/Treasurer, Historian/Editor, Chaplain, [Quartermaster], and an Executive Committee. Nominations for officers will be held at the regular October meeting. All officers, except those of the Executive Committee, shall be elected by a majority vote by ballot at the annual meeting of the Camp. They shall hold office for one year or until their successors are elected. Officers elected at the annual meeting shall take office at the "Lee-Jackson Banquet" conclusion.
Section 2. No Change
The Executive Committee shall be composed of the Commander, First Lieutenant Commander, Historian/Editor, Adjutant/Treasurer, and the Past Commander. No Past Commander shall be eligible who has failed to maintain good standing in the Camp.
ARTICLE XVI – Amendments
Section 1. Any proposed amendment to these by-laws may be introduced by any member of the Camp at any regular meeting, or special meeting called for that purpose. A vote may be taken upon the proposed amendment, provided a copy of the intended amendment has been sent to each member in good standing, by United States Mail, [Camp Newsletter, or E-mail] at least ten days prior to the meeting.] A two-thirds vote of the members present, by secret ballot, will be necessary to pass any proposed amendment to, or revision of, the Camp By-Laws.

ARTICLE VII - Elections/Eligibility:

Section 1. No member shall be eligible to hold any office in the Camp which also comprises the Executive Committee until he has been a member in good standing for a minimum of one full year.

Section 2. No member who has been considered suspended or expelled from the Camp; may vote upon reinstatement until he has been a member in good standing for a minimum of one full year.

Section 3. The Executive Committee, as per their listed duties, will promptly check the eligibility of all nominees for Camp office.

Section 3A. The Executive Committee will immediately notify any nominee that it deems ineligible. The nominee will have ten (10) days to present evidence to refute its finding. If satisfactory proof of eligibility is not presented on time, the nominee's name will be removed from consideration.

Section 3B. The Executive Committee, or their designee, will promptly draw up a ballot containing all nominees names deemed eligible for each contested Camp office. There will be one ballot made per member in good standing, eligible to vote, as determined by the Executive Committee. Each ballot shall contain an original signature of the Adjutant, the official Camp stamp, or both. [A copy of the ballot will sent to each member in good standing via the Camp Newsletter.]

Section 4. The Executive Committee, as per their listed duties, will also promptly check the eligibility of members to vote.

Section 4A. The Executive Committee will immediately notify any member that it deems ineligible. The member will have ten (10) days to present evidence to refute its finding. If satisfactory proof of eligibility is not presented on time, nominee will be removed from the approved list and any consideration of voting in the election in question.

Section 4B. The Executive Committee, or its designee, will promptly mail out to each eligible voter/member an official signed/stamped ballot containing all approved nominees names for each contested office.

[Section 4B. The election of officers will be held at the regular November membership meeting of the Camp. All members in good standing attending the meeting will be eligible to vote. In the event of a contested office, the election will be by secret ballot. The ballot will be prepared as described in Section 3B of Article VII. All ballots will turned over to an election committee appointed by the Commander and counted. If no Camp offices are contested, the officers may be elected by acclamation or unanimous consent of the members, in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order.]

Section 4C. The members receiving ballots may return them, after voting, by U.S. mail to the Camp Adjutant, or bring them in person to the annual meeting. Ballots should be sealed in a plain, unmarked envelope. All ballots will be turned over to an election committee appointed by the Commander and counted. Any ballot not received by thirty (30) minutes after the official start of the meeting by the Camp Commander will be deemed void and will not be opened or counted.

Note: The proposed changes were approved by the Camp Executive Committee on August 12, 2013 for presentation to the membership at the August 13, 2013 general meeting.

CAMP FLAG CONTEST

     Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 is announcing a contest for a camp flag. All Camp 1390 members in good standing may submit entries on a 8-inch  by 11^1/2-inch piece of paper. The flag design should have lettering with the camp’s name, number and Lake Charles, La. Entries may be submitted at the September, October and November meetings. A vote will be taken at the November meeting. The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate for our Quartermaster Store. Here are a couple of examples that were on display at the Vicksburg National Reunion.

         Please feel free to submit other historic Confederate flag-types as the basis of your design, such as the First National, Richard Taylor-style, Van Dorn-style, etc.

Here is a good web site for Confederate flag types:

http://txscv.tripod.com/csa.htm

Here is a good book on the subject of Confederate flags.

The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History.

By Devereaux Cannon Jr. (Pelican Publishing, 1994)

128 pages; illustrations.

A CONFEDERATE CATECHISM

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

10. Why did Lincoln break the truce at Fort Pickens and precipitate the war by sending troops to Fort Sumter?

Lincoln did not think that war would result by sending troops to Fort Pickens, and it would give him the appearance of asserting the national authority. But he knew that hostilities would certainly ensue if he attempted to reinforce Fort Sumter. He was therefore at first in favor of withdrawing the troops from that Fort, and allowed assurances to that effect to be given out by Seward, his Secretary of State. But the deciding factor with him was the tariff question. In three separate interviews, he asked what would become of his revenue if he allowed the government at Montgomery to go on with their tem percent tariff. Final action was taken when nine Governors of high tariff states waited upon Lincoln and offered him men and supplies. The protective tariff had almost driven the country to war in 1833; it is not surprising that it brought war in 1861. Indeed, this spirit of spoliation was so apparent from the beginning that at the very first Congress, Grayson, one of our two first Virginia Senators, predicted that the fate reserved to the South was to be “the milk cow of the Union.” The New York Times, after having on March 21, 1861, declared for separation, took the ground nine days later that the material interest of the North would not allow of an independent South!

11. Did Lincoln carry on the war for the purpose of freeing the slaves?

 No. He frequently denied that this was his purpose in waging war. He claimed that he fought the South in order to preserve the Union. Before the war, Lincoln declared himself in favor of enforcement of the fugitive slave act, and he once figured as an attorney to drag back a runaway Negro into slavery. When he became President he professed himself in his inaugural willing to support an amendment guaranteeing slavery in the states where it existed. Wendell Phillips, the abolitionist, called him a “slave hound.”

 12. Did Lincoln, by his conquest of the South, save the Union?

No. The old Union was a union based on consent. The present Union is a great Northern nation based on force and controlled by Northern majorities, to which the South, as a conquered province, has had to conform all its policies and ideals. The Federal authority is only Northern authority. Today the Executive, the Cabinet, the Supreme Court, (with one exception), the Ministers at foreign courts are all Northern men. The South has as little share in the government and as little chance of furnishing a President as Norway or Switzerland.

Brandy Station Battlefield

(Brandy Station, Va.) – The Civil War Trust, America’s largest nonprofit battlefield preservation group, today announced that it has successfully completed a $3.6 million national fundraising campaign to preserve 56 acres of historic Fleetwood Hill on the Brandy Station Battlefield in Culpeper County, Va., site of the largest cavalry battle ever fought on the North American continent.  In celebrating the success of this project, one of five most ambitious in the organization’s history, Civil War Trust president James Lighthizer issued the following statement: “This is a day that those of us in the preservation community have long dreamt of, the day we can finally say that Fleetwood Hill is protected forever. Prior to this, the Trust and its partners had protected some 1,800 acres at Brandy Station, but without those crowning heights set aside for future generations, no visitor could gain a full and definitive understanding of this critical action. Now that we have raised the full purchase price and closed on this property, the heart and soul of the Brandy Station Battlefield, we have turned a preservation success story into a triumph. “This achievement simply would not have been possible without the cooperation of the entire battlefield preservation community — particularly the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground and the Brandy Station Foundation, whose assistance, both advisory and financial, has been indispensable. Moreover, the enthusiastic support of the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Civil War Sites Preservation Fund has meant the difference between dream and reality. Without the vital matching grants supplied by these two programs, an undertaking of this scale would have been all but insurmountable. “I also offer my heartfelt thanks to each individual who contributed to this effort. The outpouring of support that the Trust received toward this project, illustrating the number of Americans who firmly believe in the respect and protection of our shared history, has been inspirational. Much work remains on this tract, as we lay the groundwork to remove modern structures and restore the land to its wartime appearance, but I know that all of our members and allies join me today in celebrating this tremendous achievement.” The Battle of Brandy Station is considered by historians as the beginning of the momentous Gettysburg Campaign.  Union cavalry, long considered inferior to their Confederate counter parts, launched a bold crossing of the Rappahannock River in the early hours of June 9, 1863.  They initially surprised the Southern horsemen, with charge and countercharge raging across the landscape for much of the day before the Federals retired back across the river.  All told, more than 20,000 cavalrymen fought at Brandy Station.  The epicenter of the fighting was Fleetwood Hill, which overlooked much of the battlefield and served as headquarters for Confederate chieftain, General James Ewell Brown “J.E.B.” Stuart. Historian and preservation advocate Clark “Bud” Hall calls Fleetwood Hill “without question the most fought over, camped upon and marched over real estate in the entire United States. Cumulatively, the Civil War Trust has protected more than 1,850 acres at Brandy Station and maintains a public interpretive trail across the battlefield. 

JONES PRESENTS LIBRARY  PROGRAM

      Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 Editor Mike Jones presented the Tidbits of History program September 3 at the SWLA Genealogical and Historical Library at 411 Pujo St. in Lake Charles. He was also interviewed by Channel 7 TV Station.

     Jones’ topic was “The Calcasieu Tigers at the Siege of Vicksburg.” He pointed out that the Calcasieu Tigers was a volunteer military company for the Confederate  Army organized at the Calcasieu Parish Courthouse on March 7, 1862 by our camp namesake, James W. Bryan, who was elected captain and commanding officer, The unit went on to fight at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Dec. 28, 29, 1862, and the Siege of Vicksburg of 1863.

      The presentation was based on his new book, The Vicksburg 28^th Louisiana Infantry (Createspace.com, 2013).

CONFEDERATE OF THE MONTH

Lt. Col. Elijah V. White

35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry

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.