CALCASIEU GREYS -- June, 2013

NEXT MEETING

      Then next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, at Amazen Seafood Restaurant, 339 Prien Lake Road, Lake Charles.

Our guest speaker will be former Texas Division SCV Commander Granvel Block, who will give us an update on the I-10 Confederate Memorial Plaza in Orange. Please make plans to attend this important and entertaining meeting.

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.

          Amazen Seafood Restaurant (Lake Charles) June 11, August 13, and October 8 (Nomination of officers).

           Pitt Grill (Sulphur) -  July 9, September 10, November 12 (elect officers).

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

Commander’s Comments

     Well we had another beautiful month in which to honor our ancestors. The good lord has surely blessed us all not with just the weather, but a wonderful organization to be a part of, all of our compatriots with like minds, and of course by giving us the brave men and women who fought for the ideal of equality, and to right the wrongs of a government run amok.
       We have several things happening this month, our celebration and re-dedication at our Confederate monument, and the most important part the placing of the flags on our heroes resting places. To me that is the least we can do these people who fought and died trying to preserve a way of life and freedom that they were entitled to. We have sent out a schedule of the activities and times for our Memorial Day festivities. We will need all the help we can get with the flags if you can be of any assistance please let me or Luke know so we can get the job done as quickly as possible.
    We also have the State convention this month I hope many of you can make it, It will be in Ruston this year, If you need more information it will be brought up at our next meeting. I was ask by Ted Brode if we could have the next one in the Lake Charles area, It would be a lot of work and will require everyone's help, but I think we could do it up nicely. This will be a topic for discussion at the next meeting.
   We had a cleanup day at Burr's Ferry this weekend many camps were there and when we left, the park looked really good. A big thanks to Al Cochran and Jim Ross, for their help
    Our next meeting will be at Amazen Seafood in Lake Charles on the 11th of June. The meeting will start at 6:30. I am hoping to have Granvel Block as our quest speaker, He is a Texas Commander and the one responsible for the flags to be put up in Orange along I-10.  Hope to see you at the placing of the flags
Best regards.

Archie Toombs, Cmdr. Camp 1390

CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL DAY

June 3

The schedule for decorating Confederate Veteran’s graves and the wreath dedication at our Confederate Monument, “The South’s Defenders,” at the courthouse, is as follows:

Friday, May 31 -    “west of the river” –   (beginning @ 7:30 a.m.)

(1) Big Woods Cemetery

(2) Antioch Cemetery (adjacent to Big Wood) (3) Nibletts Bluff Cemeter

(4) Farquar Cemetery

(5) Dutch Cove Cemetery

Saturday, June 1-     “east of the river”-(beginning @ 5:30 p.m.) - Dedication at the Monument, followed by placing flags at the following cemeteries:

(1) Orange Grove Cemetery

(2) Sallier Cemetery

(3) Catholic Cemetery

(4) Corporate Cemetery

(5) Bilbo Cemetery

Shelby Wolfe, center, received the first annual

Benjamin Warren Burns Scholarship at the 

May meeting of Capt. J. W. Bryan Camp 1390

At left is Charles Richardson and left, Andy

Buckley, members of the scholarship committee.

           FIRST BURNS SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED

          Shelby Wolfe of Grand Chenier was presented the first Benjamin Warren Burns Scholarship by Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390, Sons of Confederate Veterans  at its May meeting.

           The annual scholarship is for $500 per semester. Shelby is a history major at McNeese State University.

           The scholarship is named in honor of the late Benjamin Warren Burns of Lake Charles. He was a longtime member of Camp 1390

John Burleson, living historian, gave an excellent program on the Confederate Navy at the May Meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390.

A CONFEDERATE CATECHISM

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

What was the cause of secession in 1861?

It was the fact that the Union consisted from the first two jarring nations having different interests, which were brought to the breaking point in 1861 by the intemperate agitation in the North against everything Southern. The breaking point was nearly reached in 1785 when the North sought to stop the development of the South by giving the Mississippi River to Spain, in 1801 when it attempted the immoral act of turning the presidential ticket upside down and making Aaron Burr President, and in 1833 went it imposed upon the South a high protective tariff for the benefit of Northern manufacturers. The breaking point was finally reached in 1861, when after unmitigated abuse of the South, a strictly Northern President was elected by strictly Northern votes upon a platform which repudiated the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States authorizing Southerners to carry their slaves into the territories. This decision gave no material advantage to slavery, as none of the remaining territorial domain was in any way fit for agriculture, but the Southerners resented the attitude of Lincoln and his party as a challenge to their constitutional rights and as a determination on the part of the North to govern the Union thereafter by virtue of a mere numerical majority. The literature of those times shows that such mutual and mortal hatred existed as, in the language if Jefferson, “to render separation preferable to eternal discord.” The choice was between remaining in such a Union of hate, and seceding. There was no real peace, and the South seceded because it wanted peace and not strife or war.

WHO WAS LYON GARDINER TYLER?

Lyon Gardiner Tyler (1853-1935), author of A Confederate Catechism,  was the son of President John Tyler and First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler, born at Sherwood Forest Plantation. He graduated in 1875 at the University of Virginia. From 1888 to 1919, he served as the 17th president of the College of William and Mary (W&M), and is widely credited for restoring the college's financial condition following the deterioration which took place in the wake of the War for Southern Independence. During his presidency, he opened the college to women, established it as a state-funded institution, and founded the William and Mary Quarterly, now a highly respected history journal. During his lifetime, he published a number of works documenting his family's history, supporting his father's administration, and promoting new interpretations of Virginia history during the Federal period. Tyler was a meticulous researcher and prolific author, using primary source materials to generate detailed portraits of history.

New Book

The Vicksburg 28^th/29^th Louisiana Infantry

The Vicksburg 28th/29th Louisiana Infantry Regiment was involved in the 1862-63 defense of the "Gibraltar of the Mississippi," Vicksburg, from the first attack by the Union fleet of Admiral Farragut, to the final siege by Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The regiment had its finest hour in the war during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Miss. on Dec. 28, 1862, when it was compared to the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae in Ancient Greece, for holding off an enemy force many times its size. The regiment was made up of men from throughout Louisiana who endured incredible hardships and danger for their sacred cause of Southern Independence. Included in the book is a roster of the regiment, photographs, maps, footnotes, bibliography and index. The author, Michael Dan Jones, is the former Commander of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390, Sons of Confederate Veterans of Lake Charles, Louisiana. His camp is named in honor of the senior captain of the regiment, who was also the first Mayor of Lake Charles, Louisiana. The book, $16.95, is available on CreateSpace.com, Amazon.com and other online booksellers.

VICKSBURG HOSTS

LINCOLN EXHIBIT

Beginning Saturday and Sunday, May 25 & 26, 2013, and as part of Vicksburg National Military Park's Sesquicentennial commemoration, the park will host the traveling exhibit "Lincoln and the Constitution." The exhibit will be housed at Pemberton Headquarters, located at 1018 Crawford Street in downtown Vicksburg, and be on display to the public from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm each day. Beginning June 1, 2013, the exhibit can be seen daily from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm running through July 2013.

The exhibit was developed by the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA, and has been circulating around the country under the sponsorship of the American Library Association. It depicts several themes including the Civil War as a constitutional crisis, secession, slavery, civil liberties, and Lincoln's legacy. Discussing the critical issues of the day, the exhibit highlights the ideals born from this conflict and how Lincoln sought to transmit these to future generations.

Admission to Pemberton Headquarters and the exhibit is free.  Admission to the Vicksburg National Military Park is $8.00 per personal vehicle, and all applicable Vicksburg and National Park Service annual passes are accepted. The park is open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm daily and information regarding entrance fees or programs can be found on the park's website at www.nps.gov/vick or calling 601-636-0583.