The next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp
1390, Sons of Confederate Veterans, will be from 6-8 p.m.
Tuesday, July 14, at Joes Pizza and Pasta Restaurant at
1601 Ruth St. in Sulphur. The guest speaker will be
Compatriot Fred Adolphus, commander of Major Jesse M.
Cooper Camp 1665 in DeRidder. His topic will be “The
Equine Factor: Harnessing Horse Power for Southern Logistics.”
Please come and enjoy great Confederate fellowship and
good food.
Finding Your Way Home
Commander Column June, 2015
 |
| Camp Cmdr. Dr. Andy Buckley |
Despite torrential rains on Saturday, June 13th, the
100th anniversary of the South’s Defender’s Monument
on the grounds of the Calcasieu Parish Courthouse was
an event Southwest Louisiana will remember for many
years to come. Special thanks to Luke Dartez, Archie
Toombs, Mike Jones, Tommy Curtis, Nelson Fontenot,
Ed Sherwood, J.W. Helums, Scott Romero, Greg
Newton, Jan Craven, Michael Wayne Clanton, Rev. Ben
Lyons, Bob Couch, and Steven Lanier. All of these
members worked hard to make this event a success. Luke
Dartez assumed the largest part of the load in working to
bring together all the details of this event. The Captain
James W. Bryan Camp 1390 owes Luke a tremendous
debt of gratitude for all he did in coordinating the
logistics of this event.
At the conclusion of the commemoration Luke
counted 54 people in attendance. I believe this was a
good number considering the bad weather. Many of our
members were in attendance and we thank you for being
a part of this event. John Bridges did a great job in
promoting the commemoration through the Louisiana
Traveler on KPLC and we received good coverage in the
American Press. The ladies of the UDC provided
wonderful refreshments. Dr. James W. White, our
keynote speaker was absolutely incredible and made us all
proud. We are grateful for those who supported the
program with their financial gifts and presence. The only
thing I would have changed was the weather.
The next meeting of Captain J.W. Bryan Camp will
be from 6-8 p.m., Tuesday, July14 at Joe’s Pizza and
Pasta Restaurant, 1601 Ruth St. in Sulphur. We will be
inducting new members Gregg Holder, Charles
Greathouse, and Wendell Greathouse.
Fred Adolphus Commander of Sons of Confederate
Veterans Major Jesse M. Cooper Camp #1665 De Ridder
will present the program. He will speak on "The Equine Factor:
Harnessing Horse Power for Southern Logistics." Fred is the
Director of the Fort Polk Army Museum. Fred earned the
BA degree in History, Texas A&M University and the MA
degree in American Strategic Studies, LSU. Fred has
authored numerous publications about Confederate
uniforms which have been featured in the Confederate
Veteran magazine and the Military Collector and Historian
Journal.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your
commander. Please let me know if I can be of assistance to
you or a member of your immediate family. We are truly in
this together.
Yours in Our Great Cause,
Dr. Andy Buckley
Commander
Dr. Andy Buckley, camp commander, has appointed
Compatriot Mike Jones to fill the position of color sergeant
for the rest of the term of Compatriot Jonathan Buckley,
who has other commitments at this time.
Anyone who would like to serve in the camp’s
uniformed, Confederate color guard, please contact
Compatriot Jones at m4082jon@msn.com. Any type of
Confederate uniform will do.
MESSAGE FROM LA. DIV. CMDR.
I have been contacted by Division members and I'm sure
others have been contacted also. Past CIC McMichael was
interviewed on KSLA TV in Shreveport and handled their
questions with dignity and truth which is all we can do.
I was contacted by WDSU TV in New Orleans and
asked for a statement regarding Mayor Landrieu looking at
removing Confederate monuments from the city. I sent
them a statement and a fair portion of it was read on the
air. By the way, in a poll about removing the monuments the
TV station did it was 69 % no and 30 % yes to removal. No
politician wants to deal with those kind of negative numbers.
Please remember if you are asked by any media to
respond to the hubbub about Confederate symbols or
monuments to respond politely and positively. It doesn't do
any of us any good to get angry and spout off. To
paraphrase Past Commander Brode, "Respond like General
Lee would want you to."
Thank you, gentlemen, for what you do. Keep the faith
and keep the skeer on 'em.
Thomas E. Taylor
Commander, Louisiana Division, SCV
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CIC
Compatriots: I am certain I do not need to tell
you that we are facing a crisis. In fact, we are facing
the greatest threat to our heritage in modern times.
The forces arrayed against us are formidable. Their
first declared goal is to remove the Confederate
Battle flag which flies beside the Confederate
Soldier’s monument in Columbia, South Carolina.
It was put there in 2000 as part of a political
compromise. But do not be fooled into thinking
they will stop there. The radical leftists who are
driving this crisis are committed to the complete
eradication of all things Confederate.
I will not belabor the point with a long list of
examples; suffice it to say that if it’s Confederate,
they are after it. One liberal group is already
cataloging every Confederate monument, street
name, and memorial in America. If you have any
doubts about the seriousness of this just turn on
the news. And don’t think these folks will be
satisfied with just Confederate memorials. Many of
these same ideologues have just as negative a view
of our Revolutionary War heroes and the United
States flag. Make no mistake, WE ARE IN A
WAR TO SAVE AMERICAN CULTURE. I
don’t know how else to say it and we don’t have
much time. From what we know, the S.C. General
Assembly will meet July 6 to vote on this issue, we
must move quickly.
Charles Kelly Barrow, Commander-in-Chief
Firing a salute at the South's Defenders centennial.
(Photo by Al Cochran)
SHANE KASTLER BLOG
Compatriot Shane Kastler has an excellent blog site
on which he has written some enlightening articles
on the Confederate flag. His web site is at
http://shanekastler.typepad.com/. Check it out.
SOUTH’S DEFENDERS HISTORY
[Here is the short history of the South’s Defenders Memorial
Monument given by Compatriot Mike Jones at the centennial
ceremony June 13, 2015]
The green Confederate soldier on top of the ornate
marble pedestal on the front lawn of the Old Calcasieu
Parish Courthouse in Lake Charles, Louisiana, has been a
part of the local landscape for a century now. It is a
dignified, stately symbol of the area's history and heritage
of defending home and family in the most perilous of
times.
The statue and monument honor the soldiers from
Southwest Louisiana who marched off to war in 1861
and died in bloody battle, or of camp diseases, in defense
of the Southland. Those who survived returned home in
1865 beaten, but determined to rebuild their lives and the
prosperity of their community.
Those young Confederate soldiers of 1861 who
survived, became the farmers, businessmen and political
leaders who worked hard to make Southwest Louisiana
the thriving, growing region it had become by the end of
the 19th Century. Their wives, children and grateful
members of the population of the area raised the funds
for the monument and dedicated it to those old veterans
in 1915, who they really saw as "The South's Defenders."
The theme of peace and reconciliation between North
and South came at a critical time for the U.S. just prior to
World War I.
Not only is it a tribute to those soldiers of long ago,
but an inspirational work of art and beauty that is one of
the crown jewels of Calcasieu Parish. The base and
pedestal are finely made of Southern marble from the
Columbus Marble Works in Columbus, Mississippi.
The bronze statue of the soldier atop the memorial is
an extraordinary and exceptional example of sculpting
that was crafted in the same ancient method as the Statue
of Liberty in New York Harbor. Like the youth carrying
a banner through a dangerous mountain pass in
Longfellow’s immortal poem “Excelsior!” The young
soldier is marching with his flag held high, showing the
courage and determination of the youth to achieve a goal
that seems impossible, but he continues on, no matter
the hardships.
Enjoy this magnificent gift from a past generation of
100 years ago; cherish it; preserve it and pass it on to the
next generation so they too can learn to appreciate and
honor their own history and heritage. Thank you.
The South's Defenders War Memorial
Monument (Photo by Mike Jones)
ORIGINAL SPEECH BY H.C. GILL
June 3, 1915.
[Here is the original speech given by Hardy C. Gill,
Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court and Confederate
veteran given at the unveiling of the monument. He
served as a second lieutenant in Co. B, 1st. Louisiana
Infantry. He fought at the battles of Malvern Hill,
Chantilly, Harper’s Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville (severely wounded), Winchester,
Gettysburg, Payne’s Farm, Wilderness (severely
wounded), Shepherdstown, Smithfield, Winchester
(captured). Tommy Curtis read his speech at the
centennial ceremony]:
Mr. Chairman, R.E. Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the
Confederacy, Comrades, Ladies and my Fellow Citizens:
The Daughters of the Confederacy, having charge of
these dedicatory ceremonies, have placed the
responsibility upon me of responding on behalf of the
veterans, and having closed all avenues of retreat there
was nothing left me to do but capitulate.
Back in the eighties, when our western frontiers were
infested and dominated by a restless, reckless, desperate,
lawless, wild and woolly element of daredevil cowboys and
rustlers, on one of their carnival occasions at the end of a
gun play one of the gang quit the trail and they laid him in
the little village cemetery. His friends erected a little modest
memorial over his grave. Strolling through the little
cemetery, and coming to the plain marble slab, I found this
simple inscription: “Bill Boone,” and underneath this unique
epitaph, “Bill always done his derndest.” Catching the
inspiration of the thought that brought out that inscription I
pulled off my hat to that epitaph, and my hat is off to it still.
Search the literature and classics of the world, could you
find five words and group them that would give a higher or
loftier encomium to human endeavor? If the drapery should
be removed from that statue and there should be anything
lacking to make it complete and I were called upon to supply
it, I would say copy the epitaph in the little village cemetery,
and write on that shaft “They always done their derndest.”
And now to this splendid band of women, the R.E. Lee
Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, who have
been so faithful and worked so hard, consistently,
persistently and successfully to this end, and to every donor
to the fund that has made this splendid memorial possible,
on behalf of these veterans and on behalf of our fallen
comrades, whose graves lie in the green bosom of every
battlefield from the Rio Grande, and the Round Tops of
Gettysburg, I sincerely, reverently and affectionately extend
our thanks.
These veterans assembled here have all reached their
three score years and ten and better, and in a few more
years, at best, will be the lost generation. Their faces are
turned toward the sunset of life, and as they move across the
stage of action, with warped frames and halting gait, and
whitening crowns and visions growing dim, you may catch
the faint echo of their receding steps, as they enter upon
their last campaign the thin gray line growing shorter and
thinner and thinner and thinner as the years go by until they
reach the border land and, as the rear guard of the heavy
battalions straggle over the line, taps will be sounded, lights
extinguished and the thin gray line will fade forever into a
memory. The rear guard will cross over the river and
mingling with the spirits of their comrades, who have gone
on before, together they will lie down to rest under the
shade of the trees, on “Fame’s eternal camping ground, the
bivouac of the dead.”
2nd Lt. H.C. Gill, 1st La. Inf.
SCV is Anti-KKK
Press Release from CiC Kelly Barrow
concerning the position of the SCV towards the
Hate Group KKK. The SCV has a strict Hate
Policy.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans IS NOT a
hate group and the South Carolina Division, SCV
DOES NOT knowingly allow anyone with ties to
racial hate groups to join. The SCV has removed
and will remove any member who expresses racist
sentiments. Specifically, the following is not
allowed and will be grounds for immediate
dismissal:
*Membership in or attempting to recruit SCV
members for racist organizations such as the Ku
Klux Klan, American Nazi Party or National
Alliance
*Disseminating racist literature to fellow SCV
members by mail or in person
*Membership in any organization promoting the
violent overthrow of the United States government
