Vol. 6 No. 7 Copyright 2020 July 2020 Winner of the Texas Division Best Newsletter Award, 2017 & 2018 Winner of the SCV National Best Newsletter Award, 2016, 2017 & 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS Even the Monument on the Square here in Mount Please has came under attack. They had one Commander’s Corner ......................................... 1 protest on June 20th, and I look for more. There Upcoming Events ............................................... 1 are several petitions to keep the Monument going DavidRReynolds.org .......................................... 2 around on Facebook, and at least one in person, Our Charge ......................................................... 2 if you can please sign as many as you can. A Blast from the Past ......................................... 2 Our Schools ........................................................ 5 We need to make sure that our elected officials Confederate Cemetery Memorial ....................... 5 know that we will never support or reelect anyone Bledsoe’s Silver Gun ......................................... 6 who caves in under this pressure of these groups. Battles Fought During the Month ...................... 6 I have no problem with peaceful protest on what Save our Monument Petition Signing ................ 7 has happened to George Floyd, but when they After the Pandemic ............................................. 7 start trying to remove history, they have gone too Birthdays & Anniversaries ................................. 7 far. National News .................................................... 8 Guardian News ................................................... 9 By now you should have received your dues statement letter from the SCV. And, you can either mail you payment in or you can bring your COMMANDER’S CORNER payment to the Camp meeting on Monday night, the 20th to save yourself a stamp. Your annual by Larry “Joe” Reynolds dues payments are due by July 31st 2020, as per Well another month has past, and the Texas Division Adjutant, Allen Hearrean. it has been full of destruction and heartbreak for our beloved South! We have If for some reason you do not have the money, or watched on TV and the Internet as statue after will not have it by then, please let me know. If statue have been pulled down, vandalized, you still wish to remain a member of this camp, removed, or destroyed. The BLM and Antifa we can work something out. movement is attempting to destroy everything that we hold dear and cherish. UPCOMING EVENTS Like you I never imagined we’d be seeing the Monday, July 20th, 7:00 p.m. mass destruction of our heritage and culture at the Refreshments at 6:30 p.m. hands of socialists and terrorist groups like BLM Old Union Community Center or Antifa. It’s just amazing how much damage Hwy 67E, Mount Pleasant, Texas has been done and how quickly we have lost our 2020 NATIONAL CONVENTION monuments and markers across the south. I July 10th – 13th, 2019 realize now, more than ever the importance of the Renaissance Resort SCV. 500 Legacy Park St. Augustine, Florida V Vol. 6 No. 7 Copyright 2020 Page 2 DAVIDRREYNOLDS.ORG A BLAST FROM THE PAST (Taken from the July 1920 Edition of the This month the following changes have been made Confederate Veteran - 100 Years Ago) to our web site: http://www.davidrreynolds.org THE RAID INTO PENNSYLVANIA • I’ve updated our Calendar of Events. ARMORED TRAIN. -THE FIRST • I’ve updated our Events page to include all known events by the Camp and its members. BY THE LATE ROBERT R. EELL, OF BIRMINGHAM, ALA. Please let me know when you do anything for the SCV, this includes attending other camp In June, 1864, General Early was ordered by General meeting, public speaking, or even putting Lee to move his corps to the Valley of Virginia from flags on graves. the eastern part of the State. At this time Col. Bradley Johnson was promoted to brigadier general and I’m still looking for biographies of your Confederate assigned to command the brigade of cavalry Ancestor. Please try to come up with a short bio that previously commanded by Gen. William E. Jones, we can put on-line. who had been killed at New Hope. Va. At this time If you have any suggestions, recommendations or also Harry Gilmor, colonel of the 2d Maryland comments you can send me an email to: Cavalry, was ordered to report to General Johnson [email protected] and I promise to and assume command of the 1st and 2d Maryland give it my full consideration. Cavalry Regiments. For some time General Lee had contemplated sending an expedition of cavalry to release the Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout, Md. a Federal prison located on a point in Southern Maryland at the mouth of the Potomac River below Washington City, where they had large pens full of Our Charge… Confederates. General Early instructed General Johnson to prepare his men for the work of releasing "To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we these 25.000 to 30.000 Confederate prisoners. will commit the vindication of the cause for Johnson's Brigade was composed of both Virginia which we fought. To your strength will be and Maryland regiments of cavalry and the given the defense of the Confederate soldier's Baltimore Light Artillery. good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of About the 6th of July, 1864, General Early crossed those principles which he loved and which you the Potomac River into Maryland and moved toward love also, and those ideals which made him the Monocacy River. Johnson, having been glorious and which you also cherish." instructed to cover Early's left flank, proceeded to Remember, it is your duty to see that the true Frederick, Md.' from which point he was to ride history of the South is presented to future around Baltimore and on to Point Lookout, Md. generations! When he received the order to make this raid he told Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, General Early he would try to carry out his orders, United Confederate Veterans, but that his horses were not in condition to make a New Orleans, Louisiana April 25, 1906 400-mile ride. Nevertheless, he started from V Vol. 6 No. 7 Copyright 2020 Page 3 Frederick City (his old home in Maryland) at toward Chambersburg. which we reached at about daylight on the morning of July 9 and covered Early's five o'clock in the morning. We were skirmishing all left in the battle of the Monocacy, where Early night with the enemy, who fired one shell at us on the whipped Lew Wallace to a finish. Johnson then outskirts of the town, which we captured at daylight. struck out for Cockeysville. Md., where he burned The 21st Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Colonel the bridge on the Northern Central Railroad between Peters, occupied the town, the rest of the command Baltimore and Harrisburg, Pa. He sent Colonel stopping outside. Capt. George Emack, of the 1st Gilmor with the Maryland regiments to burn the Maryland Cavalry, and I were the first two bridge over the Gunpowder River between Baltimore Confederates to ride into Chambersburg. General and Philadelphia on the "Phil., Wil.," and Baltimore McCausland made a demand for the payment of the Railroad, all of which was done, thus cutting of if the $100,000, or he would burn the town. After Federals from sending troops from the North. In the remaining there about three hours and the payment meantime, Early was pushing on to Washington to being refused, we proceeded to burn it. The town was attract the Federals' attention so Johnson could have fired in a number of places, after which we withdrew a free hand to take Point Lookout. General Grant, and proceeded toward McConnellsburg, Pa., which having been notified that Early was threatening place we reached at 5 p.m. and went into camp. The Washington, sent two corps from his army to that Maryland Brigade had been in the advance up to this city. Upon learning this Early ordered Johnson to time. Next morning (Sunday) at sunrise we saddled abandon the raid to Point Lookout. up and marched toward Hancock, Md., the Maryland Brigade in the rear. I mention the position of the Johnson returned to Early's command at Rockville, Marylanders because General McCausland gave the Md., near Washington, and they re-crossed into Marylanders all the fighting to do during this raid. Virginia. In the meantime, General Lee issued orders to General McCausland to join with Johnson's We were now in constant contact with the enemy, Brigade in a raid into Maryland and Pennsylvania who harassed our rear continuously. We learned and to levy on the town of Chambersburg. Pa., for a from several prisoners we captured that General hundred thousand dollars in gold in retaliation for the Averill, with a division of cavalry and battery of destruction done by General Hunter in the Valley of artillery, was after us with instructions to destroy us Virginia. McCausland's Brigade of Virginia Cavalry, before we could re-cross the Potomac River into with Johnson's Brigade, made a force of not over Virginia. fifteen hundred men. It was after Johnson had We were now moving rapidly in close order, as our returned from his trip with Early that I joined the 1st scouts reported a second body of cavalry moving Maryland Cavalry and was appointed a courier on toward us from Cumberland, Md. We arrived in Johnson's staff. Hancock at noon of the 31st, and General We started on this raid and crossed the Potomac McCausland ordered General Johnson to levy on the River at McCoy's Ferry, near Clear Spring, Md., on town for $30,000 and 5,000 rations. To this the July 29, 1864, and arrived at Chambersburg on the Marylanders made serious objection and refused to 30th of July.