Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler Camp #863, Conyers, Ga. Gen. Joe’s Dispatch Volume 15, Issue 5 September 2019 Camp Officers: Camp Cmdr: John Mark Camp Atlanta Revisionist History [email protected] By: Compatriot Lee Joyner 1st Lt. Cmdr: James C. Chappell marble shaft. The face of the 1st._ [email protected] Southern warrior was also de- faced. Thankfully it has now 2nd. Lt. Cmdr: Roy Thomas Cook been restored. 2nd_Lt. [email protected] Only legal challenges have pre- Camp Adjutant: Steve Camp vented the Dallas, Texas City Council from dismantling a size- [email protected] a b l e C o n f e d e r a t e m o n u m e n t i n Editor: J. H. Underwood the cemetery there. An equestri- an statue of Robert E. Lee has [email protected] already been removed and sold at auction. Coming Events Thankfully the State of Georgia Sept. 10, 2019 - 2019 Regular now has a law aimed at prevent- the prisoners was in fact a monu- Meeting of Maj. Gen. Joseph Oakland - They all perished over ing the removal and or desecra- Wheeler Camp 863 - Masonic ment to the Confederacy. Run- 150 years ago, many on battle- tion of monuments to soldiers of Lodge, Conyers, Ga. fields stretching from the woods ning roughshod over the objec- tions of the Landmarks Commis- any wars. It has at least stopped October 8, 2019 - 2019 Regu- and fields of Chickamauga to the politically correct Savannah, earthen defenses of Atlanta. sion the mayor ordered a forklift lar Meeting of Maj. Gen. to remove the marker from the Georgia politicians from altering Joseph Wheeler Camp 863 - Some succumbed to wounds in the Confederate monument at cemetery. Conjuring up images of Masonic Lodge, Conyers, Ga. numerous hospitals of the Gate Forsyth Park and relocating mistreated slaves Mayor Paul City, others the victims of deadly busts of Confederate leaders to a Soglin had an ax to grind with the October 19, 2019 - Olde Town diseases. Roughly 7,000 of them nearby cemetery. Fall Festival - Old Town are buried at Atlanta, Georgia’s U.D.C., an organization he la- Conyers, Georgia Oakland Cemetery and nearly beled as racist. After all the wom- At least temporarily sus- en of the U.D.C had the audacity half sleep in unknown graves. pending efforts to remove to solicit funds for the monument, The Lion of Atlanta guards their Confederate monuments in albeit at the behest of local Union Inside this issue: final resting place, but like their Atlanta and Decatur, politi- fellow Confederate comrades in army veterans. “Our Commanders Comments” 2 cally correct revisionist forc- arms in distant places of rest, By: Commander Mark Camp Recently, at a Screven County, es are on the march and are their battles are only just begin- Georgia cemetery near Augusta heavily armed for battle. “ John Davis carriage driver for 2 ning. Jefferson Davis” vandals literally demolished the With the blessings and sup- Shared By: Compatriot Dennis Ranney Consider Confederate Rest, a marble statue of a Confederate port of the Historic Oakland “Atlanta Revisionist History” 3 small section of the city ceme- soldier, leaving pieces of it scat- Foundation, The Atlanta By: Compatriot Lee Joyner tered on the ground. Sledge ham- History Center, The Atlanta (Continued from page 1.) tery at Madison, Wisconsin where several hundred former mers or similar tools were likely Mayor and City Council, the Confederate prisoners who died employed in the destruction of the Smithsonian Institution, “USS Cairo Vicksburg Military 3 effigy. A reward has been offered Park” of disease at nearby Camp Ran- Georgia College, and of From: Soldiers and Sailors website dall are buried. The town mayor, for information leading to the course, the Southern Pov- a former civil rights “activist” arrest of the culprits. erty Law Center a new tac- and outspoken critic of the In Rome, Georgia, operating un- tic is being employed. 4 U.D.C. and anything remotely “Atlanta Revisionist History” der the cover of darkness, vandals “Interpretive” markers are By: Compatriot Lee Joyner associated with the Confederacy, (Continued from page 3.) somehow reached the top of a tall being installed at Oakland recently convinced the city coun- Confederate monument in the city Cemetery, the Piedmont cil members that a nondescript cemetery and sawed off the hands Park Peace Monument, the marker containing the names of Peachtree Creek Battlefield of the soldier standing atop the Continued on page 3. 1 PAGE 2 GEN. JOE’S DISPATCH VOLUME 15, ISSUE 5 Our Commanders’ Comments By: Commander Mark Camp Southern Ladies, At last months meeting 2 nd Lt.Cmdr. Well, it’s getting to be that time of year. Tommy Cook shared with us about The Fall Festival in old town is just a and Fellow Compatriots, several of his ancestors and the battles month away, so we will be discussing they were in. Thank - You ! Tommy this event at the next meeting. Well, it’s Still hot ! but One last thing, it has been several you already know that. months since we’ve been to Middle- brooks, so I will be planning a workday there, and hopefully it will be the last time this year. At last months meeting we had 6 mem- bers present. I want to Thank those Also, Please!! members. If anyone knows of a Speaker that could come to the camp, Please!! Let me know. I have restarted the Mini - Program that Until then, Past - Commander John Maxey started during his last term. If anyone has For the Southern Cause, information on their Ancestor / Ances- Mark Camp, Commander tors and would like to share it with the camp, Please let me know. John Davis Carriage driver for Jefferson Davis Shared by: Compatriot Dennis Rainney John Davis, the carriage driver for Jefferson Davis, at least while he was in Georgia, waving the Confederate Battle Flag at the UDC dedication of the Jefferson Davis Marker at Gum Swamp bridge near Eastman, Georgia, marking where the President and Company stayed on May 8, 1865. Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10th The photograph is the courtesy of SCV Camp 2039 of Eastman, Georgia. 2 VOLUME 15, ISSUE 5 GEN. JOE’S DISPATCH PAGE 3 Atlanta Revisionist History By: Compatriot Lee Joyner (Continued from page 1.) and Jim Crow Laws. One might ar- was enacted. Their case for this period is weak gue that this organization is the veri- because comparatively few statues were assem- table “Pied Piper” leading academic bled at that time. Similarly, Jim Crow and voting liberals and their ilk to the sea. rights issues largely applied only to the second half of the period. Any article or organization that lends credence to any historically Many more statues were constructed during the related comment attributed to the second era from 1900 to 1920, which the SPLC SPLC is inherently flawed itself. The correlates to racial lynchings and a resurgent Smithsonian and The Atlanta Histo- KKK. In reality, lynchings were steadily declin- ry Center should know better but as ing during the entire period and the KKK was of late have become mouthpieces for not resurgent until after 1920. At the start of the 1920’s, the KKK had only a few thousand mem- the revisionist PC Police in their bers. Five years later, however, membership quest to remove as well as rewrite ranged from two to five million because it had history. become a national – not regional – organization. stone marker, and eventually the De- In a recent speech on Confederate Monu- Indiana had more members than any state. Ore- catur Confederate monument. ments, historian Phil Leigh puts the aims gon, Kansas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washing- ton, and Ohio were other strongholds outside the The cemetery visitor standing before of the Southern Poverty Law Center into its proper perspective. He writes, “The South. Nonetheless by the start of the 1930’s the the wounded Lion of Atlanta monu- SPLC wants Confederate statues removed. Klan’s numbers had dwindled to insignificance. ment is struck by the power and sim- Several years ago they published (a) chart plicity of the inscription beneath the In truth four factors that the SPLC evades caused depicting the dates when Confederate stat- lion, “Unknown Confederate Dead”, the building surge during the 1900 - 1920 interval. ues were erected. …they attempt to associ- First, since the old soldiers were dying - off, fami- surrounded as it is by numerous stone ate the construction of Confederate statues ly members wanted to honor them while they grave markers of the fallen soldiers. with three eras they claim correlate to were still around. A twenty - one - year - old who No further explanation is needed or white hostility toward blacks. The attempts went to war in 1861 was sixty years old in 1900 desired and certainly not the fabricat- are as phony as a football bat. ed historical mumblings of the South- and seventy - five in 1915. Second, the Civil ern Poverty Law Center, claiming The SPLC portrays the first twenty - years War’s semi - centennial commemoration was a major factor motivating statue construction. that Confederate Monuments were from 1880 to 1900 as a time when South- Nineteen - eleven marked the erected to enforce “white supremacy” ern blacks lost voting rights and Jim Crow Continued on page 4 U.S.S. Cairo Vicksburg National Military Park From; Soldiers & Sailors website The Cairo took part in the occupa- sissippi, the Cairo struck an underwater mine tions of Clarksville and Nashville detonated from shore. It sank in only twelve Tennessee in February 1862, and in minutes but with no loss of life.