Saturday, February 14, 2015

The Greatness of North Carolina's General Robert F. Hoke


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During the 1961-1965 Centennial of the War Between the States, a North Carolina History school textbook featured “the likeness of Hoke flanked by those of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.”  This gives us today an idea of how prominent a man and leader this man was, though he is not as well known as other Southern generals of that period.

A Lincoln County, North Carolina native born in 1837, Robert F. Hoke was the son of Michael and Frances Hoke -- the father a North Carolina legislator and Trustee of the University of North Carolina.  Four other future Confederate generals were born in Lincoln County.    

Robert F. Hoke began the war as a twenty-three year-old second lieutenant -- not a West Point graduate -- and in the first fight at Bethel Church in Virginia in June 1861.  He led his men in through most of the major battles of the Eastern Theater, and in less than three years he had been promoted to major-general, the youngest major-general in the Confederate army.  It was said that Hoke was Lee’s choice to lead the Army of Northern Virginia should he be disabled.

While a brigadier-general in early 1864, President Jefferson Davis and Lee detached Hoke from the Virginia theatre with orders to liberate the eastern North Carolina town of Plymouth from enemy occupation. 

Hoke not only forced the surrender of that enemy-fortified town, its garrison and plentiful supplies, but came very close to doing the same with nearby enemy-occupied New Bern.

In late December 1864 and Fort Fisher the anticipated target of enemy attack, Hoke was detached again from Lee’s command to reinforce and support the fort’s garrison. Arriving at Christmas, Hoke was unable to counter-attack due to numerous enemy gunboats close to shore that would enfilade his assault force.  

Withdrawing to the Forks Road position a few miles south of Wilmington, he effectively stopped the enemy advance, then withdrew through Wilmington after nearby Fort Anderson fell and its garrison later routed at the Town Creek battle.

After the enemy advance across the river forced Hoke to withdraw from Forks Road, he and his men followed the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad northward, stopping at the north bank of Rockfish Creek, one mile south of Duplin Crossroads, today’s Wallace.  There Hoke established defensive works flanking the railroad trestle at Rockfish Creek;  Hoke had wisely taken all rolling stock in Wilmington with him which rendered the line virtually unusable to the enemy.

Remaining at Duplin Roads until March 5th, Hoke was ordered to Kinston to stop an enemy advance from New Bern, and there his men saw battle at Wyse’s Forks on March 8thHoke’s men nearly destroyed an enemy regiment there, captured three artillery pieces and 1500 enemy soldiers.

After continued fighting against a steadily increasing enemy army, Hoke was ordered to Smithfield on March 11th along with “the beardless boys of the NC Junior Reserves.” 

They were all utilized in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s strategic trap set at nearby Bentonville which awaited the 65,000-man enemy army approaching from Averasborough.

Here Gen. Hoke’s men distinguished themselves on the 19 and 20th despite suffering high casualties
the first day; 

the second day Hoke repulsed the enemy’s repeated attacks “and offered a deadly hailstorm of bullets. Their ranks were mowed down like wheat before the scythe . . . .”  Gen. Johnston, after hearing of the attack on Hoke’s line said, “I know of no brigade in the Southern army I would sooner they attack.”  

It is said that the enemy was driven back so completely that Hoke’s medical personnel brought in enemy wounded to be cared for.

Though not the grand victory hoped for, Johnston’s 20,000-man army at Bentonville – 4000 of them Hoke’s men -- had battled to a stalemate against a total enemy force of over 60,000. 

At Smithfield on April 4th, Hoke’s men joined the rest of Johnston’s army in grand review and attended by many of the area’s civilians.  Young Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Clark of the Junior Reserves, a future North Carolina Supreme Court judge, wrote his mother of the patriotism still evident: “I intend to stand by the cause while a banner floats to tell where Freedom and freedom’s sons still support her cause.”

 After the capitulation by Johnston near Greensboro, Hoke addressed a farewell to his men on May 1st.

“Soldiers, your past is full of glory! Treasure it in your hearts, remember each gory battlefield, each day of victory, each bleeding comrade.  You have yielded to overwhelming numbers, not superior valor. 

You are paroled prisoners, not slaves. The love of liberty, which led you into this contest, burns as brightly in your hearts as ever. Cherish it.  Associate it with the history of your past. Transmit it to your children.  

Teach them the rights of freedom, and teach them to maintain them.

Teach them the proudest day in all your proud career was that on which you enlisted as Southern soldiers, entering that holy brotherhood whose ties are now sealed by the blood of your compatriots who have fallen.

But it is all over now. Yet, the sad, dark veil of defeat is over us, fear not the future, but meet it with manly hearts. You carry to your homes the heartfelt wishes of your General for your prosperity. 

My comrades, farewell.

R.F. Hoke, Major-General” 

 North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
“Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty”
www.ncwbts150.com

NC: Museum of Waxhaws remembers Colored Confederates

Via Carl

 A2


Whitehall Memorial Park Dedication Service


*****************************************************

The Museum of the Waxhaws will offer an interesting and thought-provoking program 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 21.

In conjunction with Black History Month, the museum will present insights and perspectives on African-Americans who fought in the Civil War – on the Confederate side.

Regular museum admission applies.

The documentary “Colored Confederates” will be shown at 10 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m.
Earl Ijames, curator of community and black history at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, will introduce the film and be available to answer questions and moderate discussion.
Ijames wrote and produced the film.


Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/02/13/5513456/museum-of-waxhaws-remembers-ex.html?fb_action_ids=10153181467454274&fb_action_types=og.comments#storylink=cpy

Turning Points

Via Jonathan

 https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/000-0218090818-Lincoln.gifhttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQmX0x6g9F_ND6WV1jYcJEBCvK6r5c3bnv8kXCdtuEE-u7-qbgs6cQ6reKpd12XYrd5ELCQKJJvYs2Wy7tKwx6HJkzByr0ol2Thah_so3VykVwYx-089E-tjIxON4PQn3Sw32Cz1ybTNrU/s640/U.S.+Grant+Butcher.png

During the drive on Washington city in July 1863, Confederate sharpshooters were unknowingly presented with a particularly high-value target. Captain Robert E. Park wrote: ‘The sharpshooters and the Fifth Alabama, which supported them, were hotly engaged; some of this enemy, seen behind their breastworks, were dressed in civilians’ clothes, and a few had on linen coats. I suppose they were “Home Guards” composed of Treasury, Post Office and other Department clerks.’ Park’s ‘Home Guards’ were in fact President Abraham Lincoln and his retinue, who had left the White House to inspect the defences around Washington. A doctor standing a few feet away from Lincoln was hit, and only prompt action by a nearby Union officer in throwing the president to the ground prevented a sudden and dramatic change in the course of Civil War history.
— John Anderson Morrow, The Confederate Whitworth Sharpshooters, 2002
[After the Battle of Belmont,] Grant went into a cabin and lay down on a sofa to rest, but he was there only a moment. He got up almost immediately to see what was happening on deck. As he rose a musket ball cut cleanly through the boat’s wooden side and splintered the head of the sofa where he had been lying. And still we waste ink and paper in trying to prove that there is no such thing as luck!
— W.E. Woodward, Meet General Grant, 1928

Map Shows How Much Each State Spends on Welfare

Via Cousin Joel

welfare spending per state budgets 

Transgender Navy Seal To Run For Congress

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The first SEAL to come out as transgendered may also become the first transgendered member of Congress.

Former U.S. Navy SEAL Kirstin Beck, who transitioned from male to female in 2013, has announced that she’s running in the Maryland primaries to unseat U.S. Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving Maryland representative and House Minority Whip.

According to The Hill, Beck filed the appropriate paperwork Monday, which now shows up on the Board of Elections website for Maryland. Beck was part of SEAL Team 6, the Navy’s elite counter-terrorism unit, and retired in 2011 after a 20-year career. Now, Beck says she’s ready to serve her country elsewhere by starting out in the Democratic primary for the House.

Denmark on edge as 2nd shooting within hours rocks capital

Via Billy

Denmark Shots

Police say one of three people shot outside a synagogue in Copenhagen has died in the second of two shootings within hours that rocked the Danish capital.

Police spokesman Allan Wadsworth-Hansen says it's still not clear whether that shooting is linked to an earlier shooting that killed one person and wounded three police officers in a suspected terror attack on a free speech event.

More @ AP

Muslim crying wolf

Via LH

http://pamelageller.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/drawmuhammadfinal700.jpg

A UT-Arlington student who claimed she was threatened at gunpoint on campus this week admitted Friday that she’d lied, a university spokeswoman said.

The student told police she hadn’t even been at the school the day she said the incident occurred.
UT-Arlington had been investigating the complaint with Arlington, Denton and University of North Texas police, school spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said.

Officials have not released the student’s name, and it was unclear Friday night whether she would be charged with filing a false police report.

'Top teacher' winner quits due to Common Core: Announced to stunned audience: 'I can’t do it anymore'

Via Terry

Stacie Starr

Honored as the “Top Teacher” by ABC’s “Live with Kelly and Michael” show, Stacie Starr was speaking at an education forum earlier this week when she dropped a bombshell.

The veteran teacher at Elyria High School in Elyria, Ohio, told a stunned audience Monday she will resign at the end of the school year because of the new federal Common Core system of standards and assessments adopted by her state, reported the local Chronicle-Telegram newspaper.

At the forum, which sought to help parents navigate the complex standardized testing system, Starr was talking about how special education has suffered under Common Core.

As she fought back tears, she disclosed she is leaving traditional education and plans ‘to teach in a different way.”

“I can’t do it anymore, not in this ‘drill ‘em and kill ‘em’ atmosphere,” she said. “I don’t think anyone understands that in this environment if your child cannot quickly grasp material, study like a robot and pass all of these tests, they will not survive.”

Her announcement was met with gasps of disbelief, the paper reported.

More @ WND

ISIS seizes town of Al-Baghdadi a few miles from an air base housing U.S. military personnel


DHS Confirms Obama's Amnesty Isn't Temporary


The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday that thousands of illegal immigrants granted temporary amnesty through President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will also get permanent U.S. citizenship thanks to how DHS is administering the program.
When Obama first announced his DACA program back in June 2012, he told the American people, "Now, let's be clear — this is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship."

However, as the Center for Immigration Studies pointed out just months after Obama's announcement, a loophole in immigration law created the possibility that DHS could use the DACA program to put thousands of DACA recipients on a path to citizenship.

Here is how the loophole works: Once an illegal immigrant has been given deferred action status through Obama's DACA program, he or she can then apply for "advance parole" status, a status normally given to lawful immigrants who have a pending green card application but can also show a pressing need to travel abroad that "serves the public interest."

More @ Townhall

Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!

Via Red

 http://www.entrepreneur.com/dbimages/slideshow/robert-e-lee.jpg

".......... the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it.......The South has contended only for the supremacy of the Constitution, and the just administration of the laws made in pursuance to it."
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When the interventionist proclaims that the U.S. "must do something" to intervene in some crisis, the conservative response should be to "just say no."

As a long time non-interventionist veteran of the intra-conservative battle over foreign policy, I often find myself dealing with the default assumption by American interventionists that America just has to “do something” about whatever the foreign crisis of the day is. They are reminiscent of the harried work supervisor who exclaims to a slack employee, “Don’t just stand there, do something.”
So when there is a civil war in Syria, we hear “What are we going to do about Syria?” In the ongoing issue of whether or not Iran is seeking to manufacture a nuclear warhead we hear, “How are we going to keep Iran from getting nukes?” Since Ukraine is currently one of the most prominent flashpoints, “What are we going to do about Ukraine?” is a commonly expressed sentiment these days, as is “What are we going to do about ISIS?”

Obama Adviser Podesta's Main Regret: Not Disclosing the UFO Files

1. Finally, my biggest failure of 2014: Once again not securing the of the UFO files. cc: @NYTimesDowd

Outgoing Obama adviser John Podesta says he has one major regret about the past year: not telling Americans the truth about UFOs.

In a tweet on Friday, Podesta, whose fascination with UFOs and government investigations has been well-documented for years, named his regret over the secrecy his "number one" issue, reports Yahoo News

 More @ Newsmax

BATFE To Ban Common AR-15 Ammo

Via comment by Anonymous on Shooters Open Fire, Hit Three Police in Attack in ...

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In a move clearly intended by the Obama Administration to suppress the acquisition, ownership and use of AR-15s and other .223 caliber general purpose rifles, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives unexpectedly announced today that it intends to ban commonplace M855 ball ammunition as “armor piercing ammunition.” The decision continues Obama’s use of his executive authority to impose gun control restrictions and bypass Congress.

It isn’t even the third week of February, and the BATFE has already taken three major executive actions on gun control. First, it was a major change to what activities constitute regulated “manufacturing” of firearms. Next, BATFE reversed a less than year old position on firing a shouldered “pistol.” Now, BATFE has released a “Framework for Determining Whether Certain Projectiles are ‘Primarily Intended for Sporting Purposes’ Within the Meaning of 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(17)(c)”, which would eliminate M855’s exemption to the armor piercing ammunition prohibition and make future exemptions nearly impossible.     

More @ NRA

Cornell students erupt over health care fee

Via Joe

Dear Cornell students: welcome to socialism.
 
 (Dingdong, if you don't like socialism then why are you attending Cornell?) 
 
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Students at vaunted Cornell University are plenty smart enough to know they should not have to pay a penalty for not buying the school's health insurance if they already have coverage, but that's exactly what a new policy at the Ivy League school requires.

The $350 "health fee" for opting out of the school’s insurance plan was announced in a memo school President David Skorton posted on Cornell’s website last week, according to higher education blog The College Fix. But it is just setting in with the student body, and many attending the Ithaca, N.Y., school are not pleased. Under the Affordable Care Act, students must have insurance, but making those already covered pay an extra fee to skip the school's plan is not sitting well.

More with video @ Fox

Shooters Open Fire, Hit Three Police in Attack in Denmark on Cartoonist Who Drew Muhammad as a Dog

Via Joe


UPDATE: Danish police have confirmed that one person, a 40-year-old man, was killed in a shooting of a free speech event in Copenhagen Saturday morning.

The shooters, who escaped in a dark Volkswagen Polo, are being sought, police said.

Gunmen opened fire in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday and shot three police officers at a free speech event being attended by high-profile government officials and a cartoonist who had drawn the Prophet Muhammad, Danish newspaper Berlingske reported.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has sparked Islamist criticism for drawing the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, was reportedly in the room but was not shot.

Local TV reported that as many as 40 shots were fired, and that Vilks was the target of the attack.

More @ The Blaze

Putin On The World Order: New Rules or a Game without Rules.

Via WRSA


Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, friends, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the XI meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

It was mentioned already that the club has new co-organisers this year. They include Russian non-governmental organisations, expert groups and leading universities. The idea was also raised of broadening the discussions to include not just issues related to Russia itself but also global politics and the economy.

I hope that these changes in organisation and content will bolster the club’s influence as a leading discussion and expert forum. At the same time, I hope the ‘Valdai spirit’ will remain - this free and open atmosphere and chance to express all manner of very different and frank opinions.  

Let me say in this respect that I will also not let you down and will speak directly and frankly. Some of what I say might seem a bit too harsh, but if we do not speak directly and honestly about what we really think, then there is little point in even meeting in this way. It would be better in that case just to keep to diplomatic get-togethers, where no one says anything of real sense and, recalling the words of one famous diplomat, you realise that diplomats have tongues so as not to speak the truth.

We get together for other reasons. We get together so as to talk frankly with each other. We need to be direct and blunt today not so as to trade barbs, but so as to attempt to get to the bottom of what is actually happening in the world, try to understand why the world is becoming less safe and more unpredictable, and why the risks are increasing everywhere around us.

Today’s discussion took place under the theme: New Rules or a Game without Rules. I think that this formula accurately describes the historic turning point we have reached today and the choice we all face. There is nothing new of course in the idea that the world is changing very fast. I know this is something you have spoken about at the discussions today. It is certainly hard not to notice the dramatic transformations in global politics and the economy, public life, and in industry, information and social technologies.

Let me ask you right now to forgive me if I end up repeating what some of the discussion’s participants have already said. It’s practically impossible to avoid. You have already held detailed discussions, but I will set out my point of view. It will coincide with other participants’ views on some points and differ on others.
"The world is full of contradictions today. We need to be frank in asking each other if we have a reliable safety net in place. Sadly, there is no guarantee and no certainty that the current system of global and regional security is able to protect us from upheavals. The international and regional political, economic, and cultural cooperation organisations are also going through difficult times."
As we analyse today’s situation, let us not forget history’s lessons. First of all, changes in the world order – and what we are seeing today are events on this scale – have usually been accompanied by if not global war and conflict, then by chains of intensive local-level conflicts. Second, global politics is above all about economic leadership, issues of war and peace, and the humanitarian dimension, including human rights.

More @ Kremlin