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.

CALCASIEU GREYS - August 2013

NEXT MEETING

      Then next meeting of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13, at Logan’s Road House on Highway 14 in Lake Charles. Andy and Jonathan Buckley will present the program on the Alf Johnson Spy Company. See the story below for more details. Come enjoy a good program and great Confederate fellowship.

Historical Marker Alf Johnson Spy Company near St Charles, Arkansas on the White River: the location of a spy company 

August 13 Program

Logan’s Road House

Dr. Andy Buckley and Jonathan Buckley will present the program entitled

“The Exploits of the Alf Johnson Spy Company, Parson’s Texas Calvary in Arkansas.”

Spy companies in CSA cavalry regiments were the long range reconnaissance patrollers and were quite effective in gathering information and destroying enemy patrols and garrisons. The Alf Johnson Spy Company was organized at McKinney, Texas, and deployed from September 1862-January of 1863 in Arkansas to keep the enemy out of Texas. Many of the members of the Alf Johnson Company were captured at Arkansas Post in January 1863. The enlisted prisoners were sent to Camp Douglas in Chicago where many died and bodies sold to the adjacent Medical School. The prisoners were exchanged at Richmond, Virginia the following May and sent to Cleburne’s Division, Granbury's Texas Brigade, General Bragg's Army of Tennessee then near Tullahoma. Those of the Texas Spy Company served the remainder of the war with the Army of Tennessee and surrendered in North Carolina. They participated in all the momentous battles from May 1863 till the end of the war.

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).

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

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

CAMP NEWS

      NEXT GUN Show

      The next gun show to be held in Lake Charles will be August 31 and September 1 at Lake Charles Civic Center. These gun shows are prime opportunities for our camp to get our pro-Confederate message out to the public and to recruit new members. Please think about helping man the table for whatever time you may be able to spare that weekend. Thanks.

150^th Anniversary of the Battle of Sabine Pass       Free parking and shuttle service at Sabine Pass High School Stadium.
Saturday 9-7-13 
9:00 Gates open to the public 
10:00 Court Martial & Execution
11:00 150th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony
2:00 Battle: Union Attack & Occupation of Sabine City 
3:00 Jed Marum in Concert
Sunday 9-8-13 
9:00 Gates open to the public 
9:00 Church Service
10:00 Court Martial & Execution
11:00 Jed Marum in Concert
2:00 Battle: Union attack on the Garrison at Sabine City

Membership Renewal Notices       

The MRS notices were delayed this year but have now been sent out. As directed, please send the dues directly to our camp adjutant, Luke Dartez. His address and the return envelope are included. Keep the top section for your records and the Dues Notice and  Optional Giving go with the return envelope to Luke. Please get your dues paid as soon as possible.

This is a recent picture of the  Sons of Confederate Veterans Confederate Flag Memorial being built just off I-10 in Orange, Texas. Granvel Block, project director, reports that good progress is being made in spite of some local governmental opposition. The display will educate the public on the wide variety of historical Confederate flags there are. (Photo by Compatriot Al Cochran of Camp 1390)

118^th Sons of Confederate Veterans Reunion

Vicksburg, Mississippi

            VICKSBURG, Miss—Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 was represented at the 118^th annual Reunion of the Sons of Confederate Veterans by compatriots Mike Bergeron and Mike Jones. After the opening ceremony, SCV Executive Director Ben C. Sewell, III, reported that national membership in the organization stands at over 29,000, as of the Reunion. The Convention also adopted a budget for Fiscal Year 2013, totaling $1,118,000. The budget is balanced.

            R. Michael Givens, commander-in-chief, gave an opening address outlining Vision 2016, a new program now being unwrapped and put into place that has of goal of 50,000 members of the organization by the year 2016. He said the program involves each level of the organization, the local camps, to state division to the National Headquarters. He said it is a scientifically planned program that has worked for many organizations, businesses and even governments. Mark Simpson of South Carolina gave additional details. He said the program has worked for his family business and is proven to work when followed. Simpson said it will put the SCV on the road to sustained growth, trained leadership and will proclaim to the world the truth of our Confederate Heritage.

            Former Commander-In-Chief Chuck McMichael of Shreveport gave an update on the Confederate Museum planned for the SCV National Headquarters at Elm Springs, Columbia, Tennessee. He encouraged all compatriots to give to this project since no other museum can be relied on to tell the truth of the Confederate soldier and the War for Southern Independence. He pointed out the SCV will be in total control over how our story is told. He said a new fund raising drive is ready to raise the funds needed to begin construction on the museum.

            Commander Givens also unveiled a new advertisement that will tell the truth about General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who has been slandered by various modern political groups and politicians, especially in Memphis, Tennessee where the city council illegally tried to change the name of Forrest Park.

            At the Army of the Trans-Mississippi meeting, former Texas Division Commander Granvel Block gave an update on the Confederate Flag Memorial in Orange, Texas. He said that progress is being made in spite of harassment from the Orange city government. Block noted the concrete base has been poured, the grass mowed and flag poles are being installed. He said they are now looking for a contractor for an 18 space parking lot.

            The 118^th Reunion was harmonious, encouraging and a great success.

A CONFEDERATE CATECHISM

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

Did the South fight for the overthrow of the United States Government?No. The South fought to establish its own government. Secession did not destroy the Union, but merely reduced its territorial extent. The United States existed when there were only thirteen states, and it would have existed when there were twenty states left. The charge brought by Lincoln that the aim of the Southerners was to overthrow the government was no more true than if King George III had said that the secession of the American colonies from Great Britain had in view the destruction of the British Government. The government of Great Britain was not destroyed by the success of the American States in 1783. Nor would the government of the United States have been destroyed if the Southern states had succeeded in repelling the attacks of the North in 1861-1865What did the South fight for?IT FOUGHT TO REPEL INVASION AND FOR SELF GOVERNMENT, JUST AS THE FATHERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAD DONE. Lincoln himself confessed at first that he had no constitutional right to make war against a state, so he resorted to the subterfuge of calling for troops to suppress “combinations” of persons in the Southern States “too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary” processes. It is impossible to understand how the Southern States could have proceeded in a more regular and formal manner than they did to show they acted a states and not as mere “combinations.” It shows the lack of principle that characterized Lincoln when later he referred to the Southern States as “insurrectionary States.”
Did the South in firing on Fort Sumter begin the war? No. Lincoln began the war by secretly attempting to land troops at Fort Pickens in Florida in violation of a truce existing between the Federals and the Confederates at that place. This was long before Fort Sumter was fired on, and Fort Sumter was fired on only after Lincoln had sent an armed squadron to supply and strengthen that Fort. Even supposing that the action of the Confederates in firing on the Fort was unjustifiable, Lincoln was not bound to treat it as a gauge of battle. He knew that all the Confederates wanted was a fort that commanded the Metropolitan city of Charleston – a fort which had been erected for the defense of that city. He knew that they had no desire to engage in a war with the United States. Not every hostile act justifies war, and in the World War this country submitted to having its flag filled full of holes and scores of its citizens destroyed before it went to war. Lincoln, without any violation of its views of government, had an obvious alternative in putting the question of war up to Congress, where it belonged under the Constitution. But he did not do it and assumed the powers of Congress in making laws and enforcing them as an executive. By his mere authority, he enormously increased the Federal army, blockaded Southern ports, and declared Southern privateersmen to be pirates.

Museum of the Confederacy's future threatened
by de-consolidation plans

The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond holds the world's finest collection of Confederate art and artifacts; its future is in serious doubt. If rumored changes come to pass the MOC's collection as well as the historic White House of the Confederacy which it owns and manages, may simply cease to exist.  Right now, some in the MOC leadership have cooked up a plan to distribute the MOC's incredible collection among several different Richmond-area groups. Included in that list are the Virginia Historical Society and the historic site at Tredegar Iron Works. Neither of these can be considered Confederate-friendly. The Museum of the Confederacy holds an important trust as the repository of the world's finest collection of Confederate memorabilia. Recent reports from well-informed sources indicate that the museum's leadership is rapidly moving forward with a plan which, in addition to dispersing the collection, will also sell its building in downtown Richmond.  Once the collection is relocated and the building sold, the now-nearby White House of the Confederacy will be isolated in an urban canyon surrounded by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and virtually lost to tourist traffic. To think that it will be able to sustain itself financially in that condition is difficult to imagine.  I'm writing to you because we need to act quickly.  The SCV strongly opposes this plan and is actively urging the Museum of the Confederacy board to reconsider. While no doubt well-intentioned, this course of action will seriously jeopardize the integrity of this collection which is so important to our Southern heritage.  Generations of Southerners, including many of the veterans themselves, contributed a king's ransom to the Museum of the Confederacy in the form of priceless antiques, family heirlooms, and relics of the Confederate cause of incalculable value. They made these contributions with the express intent that these antiquities would be carefully preserved and honorably displayed. That's how the Museum of the Confederacy's collection grew to be the trustee of the single largest collection of the treasures of the late Confederacy. To scatter these precious treasures across several venues and organizations will permanently diminish its importance.  The Museum of the Confederacy is technically owned by the Confederate Memorial & Literary Society and is a private organization. They are under no obligation to listen to the SCV or to take advice from anyone. But, we believe they are reasonable people who by and large want to do the best they can under the circumstances.

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

CONFEDERATE OF THE MONTH

Pvt. Wesley Culp, 2nd Virginia Infantry
Kiled in Action at the Battle of
Gettysburg, Pa. July 3, 1863.