Memories Evoked by the Old South’s New Flag

Reconstruction

The Old South’s new flag represents all Confederates imprisoned or dead in Union prisons, all Confederate warriors and all civilians killed during and after the war. Some Southerners see this flag, also, as a poignant reminder of all that Reconstruction was, of all that Confederates lost and all the sufferings experienced by those captured civilians and x-military who were imprisoned, not in a formal prison, but in their own Southern state itself because of the Marxist-Republicans’ program of Reconstruction.

All true Southerners, white ones, brown ones, black ones, red ones—no matter their ages, were, definitely, imprisoned by the U.S. government when all folks in every Southern state became slaves under the total control of the U.S. government’s military leaders. Torture and death could be administered to Confederates during Reconstruction at any time on the slightest whim of any General assigned as the controller of a Southern district. Extortion of Southerners was almost routine. The U.S. Republican-controlled government taxed all true Southerners into poverty and destitution, thus virtually enslaving everyone with any connection with anyone who wore the gray. Even General Sherman and his Republican Senator brother profited economically from dirt cheap Southerners’ lands’ “taxed away by the victors.

The Holocaust

Via SHNV

Mark Twain: Staunch Confederate? Once Upon a Time, 150 Years Ago, Professor Says

When scholars sparred recently over one professor’s decision to ditch the “n-word” and replace it with “slave” in a revised edition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one issue was never in question: that Twain spurned racism.

But what scholars have overlooked is the bone — or rather, bones — Twain had to pick with the Union, despite his speeches celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s call for racial justice, said Dr. Joe B. Fulton, an award-winning professor of English at Baylor University, in a new book published during the sesquicentennial of the Civil War’s beginning.
What Twain witnessed during and after the Civil War turned him into a skeptic of “truth, justice and the American way” for the rest of his life, says Fulton in his latest book, The Reconstruction of Mark Twain: How a Confederate Bushwhacker Became the Lincoln of Our Literature.

“The war was the defeat of everything Twain had grown up believing,” Fulton said. “While he was growing up, he had learned from the pulpit that slavery was ‘right, righteous and sacred.’”

Twain, whose given name was Samuel Clemens, grew up in Missouri in a slave-holding family. He enlisted 150 years ago this month -- June -- in a Confederate militia, serving as a second lieutenant for two weeks. His desertion led many to describe his loyalty to the Confederate cause as halfhearted. However, Fulton noted the desertion may have been prompted by fear of hanging or confiscation of family property — a threat made to militia members by the Union, which controlled part of Missouri.

Via SHNV

Here Lies an American Hero

The first commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans, General John B. Gordon of Georgia, tried repeatedly to retire from his high office, “but his comrades would not consent.” Below, he spoke in 1890 of the necessity of maintaining unblemished the heroism, sacrifices, suffering and memory of the American soldiers in grey – and as noble defenders of the Founders’ Constitution.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
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Here Lies an American Hero:

“[The United Confederate Veterans] was created on high lines, and its first commander was the gallant soldier, General John B. Gordon, at the time governor of Georgia, and later was United States senator. General Gordon was continued as commander-in-chief until his death. The note…struck in the constitution of the United Confederate Veterans were reechoed in the opening speech of the first commander-in-chief. General Gordon, addressing the Veterans and the public, said:

“Comrades, no argument is needed to secure for those objects your enthusiastic endorsement. They have burdened your thoughts for many years. You have cherished them in sorrow, poverty and humiliation. In the face of misconstruction, you have held them in your hearts with the strength of religious convictions. No misjudgments can defeat your peaceful purposes for the future. Your aspirations have been lifted by the mere force and urgency of surrounding conditions to a plane far above the paltry considerations of partisan triumphs.

The honor of the American Government, the just powers of the Federal Government, the equal rights of States, the integrity of the Constitutional Union, the sanctions of law, and the enforcement of order have no class of defenders more true and devoted than the ex-soldiers of the South and their worthy descendants. But you realize the great truth that a people without the memories of heroic suffering or sacrifice are a people without history.

To cherish such memories and recall such a past, whether crowned with success or consecrated in defeat, is to idealize principle and strengthen character, intensify love of country, and convert defeat and disaster into pillars of support for future manhood and noble womanhood.

Whether the Southern people, under their changed conditions, may ever hope to witness another civilization which shall equal that which began with their Washington and ended with their Lee, it is certainly true that devotion to their glorious past is not only the surest guarantee of future progress and the holiest bond of unity, but is also the strongest claim they can present to the confidence and respect of the other sections of the Union.

It is political in no sense, except so far as the word “political” is a synonym for the word “patriotic.” [It will] cherish the past glories of the dead Confederacy and transmute them into living inspirations for future service to the living Republic; of truth, because it will seek to gather and preserve, as witness to history, the unimpeachable facts which shall doom falsehood to die that truth may live; of justice, because it will cultivate…that broader and higher and nobler sentiment which would write on the grave of every soldier who fell on our side, “Here lies an American hero, a martyr to the right as his conscience conceived it.”

(The Photographic History of The Civil War, Vol. 5, Robert S. Lanier, editor, Blue & Grey Press, 1987, pp. 298-299)
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Here Lies an American Hero
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THE LAST HOURS/DEATH & FUNERAL OF GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON

The Attack On Fort Stedman, And (My Great Grandfather)

Better late than never

I just saw this as I have been away at my reunion since last week.

Joel died yesterday.

Oleg Volk

Black Slaves in Blue and Under Fire

The author below relates that black soldiers were intended for labor duty in the Northern armies rather than fighting for emancipation. If used for offensive operations at all, black soldiers were most often assigned to suicidal assaults which would spare the lives of white Northerners who viewed the futility safely from the rear. At the February, 1865 Forks Road battle near Wilmington, and out of range of supporting gunboat fire, the 6th US Colored Infantry was hurled three times against Gen. Robert F. Hoke’s entrenched North Carolinians, never once getting closer than 150 yards of the breastworks. The Northern commander would have to await Hoke’s withdrawal before advancing.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
=========
Black Slaves in Blue and Under Fire:

“About 43 percent of the 6th [US Colored Infantry] Regiment had volunteered for military service. Another 31 percent were drafted, and over one-quarter of the regiment were listed as “substitute.” A conscriptee could avoid military service if he furnished an able-bodied substitute to take his place. Most substitutes in this regiment were young, usually in their twenties. A youth might well agree to be a substitute; he might likely be drafted anyway; better to join and accept a substantial cash payment for taking someone’s place.

The soldiers hailed from twenty-three different States, both North and South, as well as the District of Columbia. The most common State of birth was Pennsylvania. Of those whose birthplace is listed, over 36 percent of the men of the 6th Regiment claimed Pennsylvania as their birth place. Delaware and Maryland claimed 16 and 15 percent respectively, and Virginia, another 12 percent. Canada, providing twenty-two soldiers, stood as the most frequent birthplace of any foreign nation. Like most black units, the 6th Regiment would be assigned to an unusually high amount of physical labor particularly at building fortifications.

From the time blacks had first been recruited it generally had been understood that they were to serve as laborers, and they were used disproportionately often in that role. Their work at Dutch Gap [in Virginia] would have been physically demanding under the best of circumstances, but this assignment included a complication that made it especially difficult and dangerous – they would have to do the [canal digging] work within range of Confederate artillery.

They burrowed into the steep walls of the canal to make caves for shelter [but the] mortar shells were deadly. They were fired high into the air “and then fell by their own weight, with no warning scream, and, dropping in the midst of busy groups, burst into raged fragments of iron, which maimed and killed.”

Union artillery was brought in to silence those mortars, but its task was nearly impossible….[as] they would try to direct their fire at [mortar positions]…Confederate sharpshooters stationed in hiding near the riverbank would open fire on the artillery crews and distract them from their task.”

(Strike the Blow for Freedom, The 6th US Colored Infantry in the Civil War, James M. Paradis, White Mane Books, 1998, pp. 34-35, 61-64)
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Black Slaves in Blue and Under Fire

Millions for Bounties, But Not Compensated Emancipation

The system of raising Northern armies with generous enlistment bounties is one that needs far more light shed upon it, as well as the Homestead Acts that lured Europeans here with a promise of cheap land. Met by recruiting agents at the dock, most ended up in blue uniforms. A conclusion drawn from R.L. Dabney's writing below is this; if the Northern States were so willing to lavish money on mercenaries to subdue the American South, why didn’t they advance a peaceful, compensated emancipation plan to free the slaves -- assuming that emancipation was the desired result?

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
========
Millions for Bounties, But Not Compensated Emancipation:

"It is very well known that the Northern people were so averse to military service that enlistments were, in most cases, procured by high bounties. When the Central Government began to draw imperative requisitions of men on the States, the local authorities, instead of simply drafting the required numbers from among their own militia, almost universally made arrangements for purchasing mercenaries to supply their "quotas;" thus relieving their own citizens from the dreaded service.

The price usually paid, towards the end for the human cattle for Confederate shambles, was not less than fifteen hundred dollars each. A sorry commentary by the way, upon the courage and patriotism of that people, that so large a bribe was needed to persuade them to "save the nation." But thus it came to pass that not only the States, but cities, counties, country towns, and even the rural subdivisions called, among the people, townships, raised loans. Laws were passed to authorize them to make such loans, and to levy taxes necessary to provide for their interest.

The aggregate of these bounty-debts cannot be estimated by us from any evidences in our reach; but some data will be given to enable the reader to approximate it. The city of Philadelphia alone, it is believed, owes a debt of forty-four millions ($44,000,000) chiefly for bounties. It was a very "loyal" city. It claims about six hundred thousand (600,000) souls. The State of New York admits a bounty-debt of its own of $26 millions. But cities, counties and townships, within the State have also their own little debts for this and similar objects in addition.

A few other items may aid in our approximation. The federal Secretary of War informs us that in the latter part of the war there were 136,000 re-enlistments of the veterans honorably discharged. It is well known that these usually received the highest bounties. If we place them at fifteen hundred dollars ($1500) each, these cost the Northern people two hundred four millions ($204,000,000).

The system of bounties was general from May 1863 until the end of the war. The government itself fixed the minimum price of a man at $300 by appointing that sum as the cost of an exemption from the draft. But it is well known that few substitutes were purchased at so cheap a rate. The Secretary of War informs us that after May 1, 1863, there were one million six hundred thirty four thousand (1,634,000) enlistments. Placing the cost of each of these enlistments at three hundred dollars ($300), which is far below the average bounty, somebody had to pay for them four hundred ninety millions ($490,000,000). The "bounty jumpers" as it is well known perpetrated immense frauds; and the number of bounties paid to them was far larger than that of the enlistments.

The interest and principal of it (the debt) must be paid by the same people who have the federal debt to pay. If the policy pursued by the Government as to the local obligations incurred in the war of the Revolution is again to prevail, all these bounty-debts should be assumed and funded by the United States. Already this claim is heard in many quarters.

The recognized State and federal debts as we have seen, amount to three billion, four hundred forty three million dollars ($3,443,195,000). It is most manifest, that the total mass of public debt now resting on the American people (nearly the whole incurred in the late war) for the payment of which provision must be made by taxation, must be at least four billions of dollars ($4,000,000,000). Mr. Andrew Johnson, late president of the United States and an ardent advocate for the war, always affirmed constantly that the total cost of the war to the taxpayers would prove to be five billions ($5,000,000,000). He, of course, is good authority. And the interest on this debt is from 5 to 7 and one-fifth per centum!"

(Robert L. Dabney, Discussions, Volume IV, Secular, C.R. Vaughn, editor, Sprinkle Publications, 1897/1994, pp. 143-145)
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Millions for Bounties, But Not Compensated Emancipation

Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
========
Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule:

“Grim scenes abounded as the homeward-bound North Carolinians rode South. One event in particular must have made [General Bryan] Grimes wonder what was in store for him as a defeated soldier without the means to fight back. According to Grimes’ astute traveling companion, Thomas Devereux:

“A few miles from the forks of the road we came to an old man, Loftin Terrel, his house was on the roadside and he was knee-deep in feathers where [Sherman’s] bummers had ripped open the beds, a yearling and a mule colt were lying dead in the lot; they had been wantonly shot.

Old man Terrel was sitting on his door step, he said there was not a thing left in the house and every bundle of fodder and grain of corn had been carried off; that he had been stripped of everything he owned and he had not a mouthful to eat. They had even killed his dog which was lying dead near the house.”

Grimes dealt with his illness and the “grief of the surrender” amid constant rumors of pending retribution at the hands of the Yankee governors. “There was a report that they would hang all officers above the rank of captain and all their property would be confiscated,” [wife] Charlotte recalled. “We were living in a “Reign of Terror.” They were also living with Charlotte’s parents in Raleigh during the summer of 1865, with the former enemy visible everywhere. Charlotte remembered “a Yankee camp just across the street from my father’s front gate by which he [Grimes] would have to pass…I would see them watch him and hear them say, “there goes the rebel, Gen. Grimes.”

Lee’s Last Major General, Bryan Grimes of North Carolina, T. Harrell Allen, pp. 258-261. Read more “Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule”
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Aftermath: Destruction and Military Rule