I Have Been Asked Many Times, “Why Are You Interested in the American
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American Civil War Round Table Queensland September/October Issue # 14 2008 Newsletter of the American Civil War Round Table Queensland Editor Robert Taylor QSM. Email: bob-anne@aapt.net.au Of Buffalos, Plains Indians, Bushrangers and Politicians Robert Taylor QSM I have often been asked, “Why are you interested in the American Civil War and why the South, weren‟t they all racists?” Long have I pondered the complex aspects raised by these commonly asked questions. They do of course display a terrible ignorance of the period but that is understandable, given the incredible amount of effort there has been over the past 150 years to colour the world’s perception of the war and paint the South as evil villains. “Why?” It’s a very good question and one good question deserves another, perhaps my interest simply grew up with me. As a boy I was in awe when my father related the story of seeing Buffalo Bill in his Wild West Show in London. This would have been shortly before the frontiersman’s death from kidney failure in 1917. It is incredible that within one generation and living memory there was a person, my father, who saw William F Cody up close and personal, they actually met the stars after the show. This makes the era a lot closer in my mind than many would have it and Buffalo Bill, as much as I detest his slaughter of American Bison and plains Indians, was never-the-less a knowledgeable plainsman who very well understood the way of American Indians. William F Cody during war Significantly, he also fought in the War Between the States, as I prefer to call it, although on the side of the Union. Considered too young to enlist, he was first a scout in campaigns against the Kiowa and Comanche, then in 1863 enlisted with the 7th Kansas cavalry to fight in bloody Missouri and Tennessee. Cody’s father believed Kansas should be a free state but many of its fellow settlers were pro-slavery. The family fell foul of extremists in the State and forced to flee for their lives. Cody, then a mere 11 grew up with his father’s beliefs. Buffalo Bill dime novels of Ned Buntline and Prentiss Ingraham enjoyed enormous success into the 1900’s but the real William Cody transformed the literary stage character into a phenomenon that was Buffalo Bill‟s Wild West Show. B orn in 1846 in a log cabin in Iowa, Cody grew up on the cutting edge of the Wild West, being part of every key moment from westward expansion, gold rush, Pony Express, stagecoach, railroads, cattle herds and Civil War. But it was Custer’s demise at Little Big Horn that thrust William Cody into the ranks of legends. Cody began re-enacting Custer’s last stand in his shows, even playing the stalwart Custer. In reality much of the Custer legend is myth, the show was classic and by today’s standards, very corny melodrama. In its early days, the show featured Annie Oakley (Annie Get Your Gun Fame) real name Phoebe Ann Moses. She joined the show as “Little Sure Shot” in 1884 with Frank Butler. Annie was a terrific shot and an American marksman recently proved you could actually shoot through a hangman’s noose at distance and matched her famed routine of shooting over her shoulder through a small makeup mirror. Annie Oakley I literally grew up on a diet of Buffalo…Buffalo Bill that is. My Uncle Bob, who was Dad’s older brother and who had even more vivid memories of that famed Wild West Show, regularly sent Buffalo Bill annuals and comics to me from London. While the show my father saw had no such luminaries as Annie Oakley or Sitting Bull, the aging Buffalo Bill was enough of an attraction in what was then a pretty gloomy London, desperately seeking escapism and the dreaded thoughts of World War 1 with Germany. M y focus, particularly on the South, springs I believe from a latent appreciation of all things refined, artistic and noble, which is how I see Southern culture as it was at the time but now, reputedly Gone With The Wind. I have always had Page 1 of 13 American Civil War Round Table Queensland September/October Issue # 14 2008 affection for any underdog who, in standing up for what is believed to be right, takes it on the chin. Being a non- conformist, I appreciate the South wanting to do their own thing in their own way. Surely that’s what true independence and freedom is about isn’t it? That they were challenged in their rights actually challenges American Independence and the whole concept of liberty. L ater I was to formulate an opinion based more on substantial fact and research than emotion, as I was drawn more into the secession/slavery topic. I began to see the obnoxious issue of slavery in a different light. There are countless stories indicating how quickly the slavery system was crumbling around America. Although the North also had slaves throughout the war nothing is told of this, or how and why African Americans quickly joined with the South to fight an aggressor and invader…the North. It is the shame of history that these brave patriots and Southern loyalists, some former slaves, should pay the highest price for their rights and yet receive not even lip service but the melodrama of history, much like William Cody offered long suffering Indians, compelled by circumstance to portray themselves as evil villains in his Wild West Shows. A ppalled at the numbers of runaway slaves lured by the promise of affluence and so called freedom in the North on the streets of New York, Abraham Lincoln secretly hosted a plot to deport them to Liberia. He needed war to subjugate Southerners, many of whom had developed a fond attachment to their slaves and they to them. This fondness was returned as African Americans stood shoulder to shoulder with Southern white families to protect what they saw as their homelands. The truth is a lie, constructed to cover heroic deeds of African Americans because they didn’t fit intentionally created myths of the war; that it was to free slaves. Yet even today where is that freedom? Where is their true and full emancipation? Why are ghettos still filled with so called „freed‟ African Americans? I first joined The Confederate High Command International in 1970 under the excellent command of a man well known to Australian re-enactors, Col. John Couzens. There I rose to the rank of sergeant in the 13th Georgia cavalry. Like Cody, my interest has always been from a cavalry perspective, from the horse up. A keen horseman, having been brought up with horses on New Zealand farms I have found many a good and true friend in horses. Later, on a trip to the United Kingdom, I met up with John Chalkley, commander of the UK division of CHC. John, amazed that I was merely a sergeant promoted me to Captain. On my return to New Zealand in 1972, I established the CHC under the guidance of founder, General Donald A Ramsey, of Nashville Tennessee. We were later given Cheatham‟s Division 1st Tennessee to memorialise; I was promoted to major, colonel and eventually Brigadier General. John Couzens T he State of Tennessee, Department of Archives, holds papers relating to the establishment and performance of the Civil War Centennial Commission 1961-1965. Donald Ramsey is featured on a list of the most active contributors. The various papers and letters document the relationship between the Commission and government officials in Tennessee; they also contain bulletins, minutes, news releases and published material related to the war. Tennessee supplied more soldiers than any other southern state to both the Federal and Confederate armies and was itself the scene of 774 battles, far exceeding all other states except Virginia. G eneral Ramsey always maintained that Tennessee was the first army onto the field at Gettysburg and the last to leave it. He long grieved that there was no Tennessee marker or memorial at Gettysburg and it was his life’s ambition to have designed and erected an appropriate monument. General and Mrs Ramsey, seen above, are accompanied by Lt Burton Heagy of the Indian Cavalry Division 1st Cherokee Regiment in full Indian regalia. It was October 16th 1974 and they are at the Gettysburg site scene of the first engagement by Tennessee. General and Mrs Ramsey with Lt. Burton Heagy O n this day a ceremony was held to mark the future site of the Tennessee monument, its designer Felix de Welden, who sculpted the famous Iwo Jima monument, spoke eloquently about the deeds of Tennessee soldiers in that tragic battle. Roy Acuff Page 2 of 13 American Civil War Round Table Queensland September/October Issue # 14 2008 It was to be many years before the project was completed, with the New Zealand CHC branch providing considerable funds after lengthy local fundraising activities. Sadly the original grand concept was reduced to a modest affair and a mere engraving of the original design but at least it is there, in its rightful place, where the Tennessee boys so proudly stood, although not until many years after the centenary and that historic day with Felix de Welden. A long playing record entitled The Little Town that Cried (See cover above) was produced as a fundraiser and featured broadcaster/historian Colonel Robert Terry. The LP re-enacted the battle of Gettysburg with all its tragic sounds and Terry’s brilliant narration told the story with passion and pride.