MAIL CALL

Fort Blakeley Camp #1864

Sons of Confederate Veterans

Thomas B. Rhodes, III, LTC USA (Ret.)

Commander

Baldwin County, AL July 2017 Volume 17 Issue 07

Battle of Fort Blakely, April 1864

Dedicated to the memory of the Confederate soldier, the ideals for which he fought and those Southern Patriots who supported and sacrificed all for the Southern Cause.

MAIL CALL is the official newsletter of Camp 1864 and is published monthly by The Fort Blakeley Camp # 1864, Southwest Brigade, Alabama Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans

Isaac Brownlow III, EDITOR

Message from the Commander’s Tent: Well, we dodged a hit with Tropical Storm Cindy. However, we did get over 10” of rain over a three day period. Yes, we had some limbs down and a few trees uprooted but at least it was no worse. The fight is still going on against our Southern Confederate Heritage and our History. Thanks you all for helping make the Alabama Monuments Protection Bill is an ALABAMA LAW. You did your part for OUR SOUTHERN HERITAGE. Our featured speakers at our June meeting were Past AL Div Cdr Gary Carlyle and Kathy Carlyle – “The War through the Eyes of a Southern Citizen”. Their presentation was most entertaining. Gary sand and played his guitar while Kathy narrated the program. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their program. Now they are wondering when we can have them back for another outstanding program. We really appreciate Gary and Kathy traveling all the way from Henagar, AL to be with us. Of course they had some family with them and stated at the beach so I guess we were a side trip. Our July 11th meeting will feature Compatriot Robert Wisniewski - "Shiloh - Lessons Not Learned". His presentations are always most informative. I hope you can attend the meeting. Check out the new Alabama SCV Division website. It has the registration form for the upcoming AL Division Reunion in June. It will be held in Cullman this year. http://www.scv.org/new/ It Is not too late to register for the Reunion. If you are interested in serving on the cannon crew, please let your Commander know. Our Cannon (20# Parrot Rifled Cannon) has been completely repainted and looks better than it did when it was new. The cannon trailer is in the process of being repainted. Members will be kept informed as we progress. CAMP NOTES: The Ft. Blakeley Camp #1864 now has 37 AL Division Guardian Members. Thanks you Compatriot Richard Sheely for all your efforts. Four more are in the works. The camp also has seven National Guardian Members. The camp now has Life Memberships available. We have had camp Life Membership made and also have a nice Life Membership Certificate. Check out our camp website. http://www.fortblakeley1864.org/ Thank you Webmaster Chris your contribution to the camp.

CAMP LIBRARY:  Books are available for check-out at our Camp Library. Contact the Commander if you are interested.  If you have some books you would like to donate, please bring them to a meeting or the Commander and arrangements can be made to pick them up. All donations are appreciated. Remember, we are a 501-C-3 organization which means your donations are tax deductable. We can give you a letter documenting your donation for you to use for tax purposes.

“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory, destroy its books, its culture, its history, then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.” Milan Hubl, Czech Historian

SHOW YOUR COLORS! Ask Adjutant Doster about a Ft. Blakeley Camp 1864 Lapel Pin. Purchase one and wear it with pride. Camp Life Member Lapel Pins are also available.

CONFEDERATE FACT: During the evening just prior to the battle of Fredericksburg it was reported CSA musicians played “The Bonnie Blue Flag”. During the battle itself, Meagher's Irish Brigade was decimated as they attacked Marye’s Heights. A Confederate Irish Unit (possibly the 2nd Georgia) was opposing them. An officer in that unit was Willie Mitchell, who was the son of John Mitchell, General Meagher's friend, fellow prisoner in Australia and fellow Young Ireland member. Following the war, Mitchel was imprisoned with Jefferson Davis. Upon release he later edited a Pro- Southern newspaper in Richmond.

Northern Newspaper Quote: According to the New York World, any federal soldier near St. Louis was in mortal danger. The headlines on September 12, 1861 read, "Mrs. Willow and a free colored woman named Hanna Courtena were arrested yesterday for selling poisoned pies to the soldiers at Camp Benton."

Monthly Confederate Quote: "War loses a great deal of its romance after a soldier has seen his first battle. I have a more vivid recollection of the first than the last one I was in. It is a classical maxim that it is sweet and becoming to "die for one's country"; but, whoever has seen the horrors of a battlefield feels that it is far sweeter to live for it..." - John Singleton Mosby , > as quoted by Mosby in 1887 WBTS Q & A: Question - Who was the only Jewish member of the group that functioned as a cabinet for Confederate president Jefferson Davis? Answer – See below War of Northern Aggression Fact: Southern generals owned slaves but northern generals owned them as well. Gen. Ulysses Grant’s slaves had to wait for the Thirteenth Amendment for freedom. When asked why he didn’t free his slaves earlier, General Grant replied, “Good help is so hard to come by these days.” In February of 1865, Grant in fact ordered the capture of “all the Negro men ... before the enemy can put them in their ranks.” And Frederick Douglas warned President Lincoln that unless slaves were guaranteed freedom (those in Union controlled areas were still slaves) and land bounties, “They would take up arms for the rebels.” Alabama War of Southern Independence Fact: Old Cahawba, Dallas County, was a site of a Confederate Prison for Yankee POWs. Alabama SCV Division 1st Lieutenant Commander Carl Jones- “Want to see a Lincolnite go apoplectic? Ask them "if the South only seceded over slavery, then why did they not accept the Corwin Amendment as the North offered, rejoin the union and keep their slaves?" I've asked this question hundreds of times over the years and been subjected to diversions, name calling, spitting and sputtering, but I've yet to receive even an attempt at answering the question. Not One!” No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State “Lincoln in his first inaugural address said that he'd favor making this amendment "express and irrevocable" (Get that? If left to Lincoln slavery would STILL be constitutional!) All the seceded States had to do was rejoin the union and slavery would have been protected forever. No war, no subjugation. If it was all about slavery, then why did the South not simply accept this amendment and keep their slaves? A simple question that I've never once gotten an answer to.”

John and George Crittenden were brothers who were both generals during the war. John for the North and George for the South!

Southern Quote: Dr. Clyde N. Wilson, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History of the University of South Carolina and primary editor of the Papers of John C. Calhoun writes about my book: "Historians used to know - and it was not too long ago - that the War Between the States had more to do with economics than it did with slavery. The current obsession with slavery as the “cause” of the war rests not on evidence but on ideological considerations of the present day. Gene Kizer has provided us with the conclusive case that the invasion of the Southern States by Lincoln and his party (a minority of the American people) was due to an agenda of economic domination and not to some benevolent concern for slaves. This book is rich in evidence and telling quotations and ought to be on every Southern bookshelf." Damn Yankee Quote: I believe the practice of slavery in the South is the mildest and best regulated system of slavery in the world now or heretofore. -William Tecumseh Sherman, 1861 British Quote - “The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for economic control of the Southern states.” - Charles Dickens, 1862

Southern Quote: “The South is a land that has known sorrows; It is a land that has broken the ashen crust and moistened it with tears; A land scarred and riven by the plowshare of war and billowed with the graves of her dead; But a land of legend, a land of song, a land of hallowed and heroic memories. To that land every drop of my blood, every fibre of my being, every pulsation of my heart, is consecrated forever. I was born of her womb; I was nurtured at her breast; And when my last hour shall come, I pray God that I may be pillowed upon her bosom and rocked to sleep within her tender and encircling arms.” - Edward Ward Carmack (1858-1908), United States Representative, Tennessee Northern Quote: “If you bring these [Confederate] leaders to trial it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution secession is not rebellion. Lincoln wanted Davis to escape, and he was right. His capture was a mistake. His trial will be a greater one.” - Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, July 1867 (Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 3, p. 765) WBTS Q & A: Question – What Kentucky battle also has, as part of its landscape, a Bull Run? Answer – Perryville Another Southern Quote: Henrietta E. Lee's letter to Union General David Hunter on the burning of her home in the Shenandoah Valley was full of scorn towards Hunter's soldiers, and a vow for "infamy" on behalf of "thousands" of civilians was to come for "all time. “The curses of thousands, the scorn of the manly and upright, and the hatred of the true and honorable, will follow you and yours through all time, and brand your name infamy! infamy!” - Henrietta E. Lee in a letter to General David Hunter on the burning of her home in the Shenandoah Valley

Black Confederates: Why did so many Southern black men choose to wear Confederate gray? - Blacks fought for the very same reason as whites – to defend their homes and their families. Historical data can sometimes be a matter of interpretation and the facts can sometimes contradict themselves. But, one must remember that day and time and judge it accordingly, for a man of the 19th century should not be compared to a man of today’s world and evaluated by current standards. Regardless of how black Southerners participated, whether voluntary or involuntary, one thing is certain: the thousands of slaves and free persons of color in the South are the most forgotten group of the WBTS. They, too, should be remembered for the suffering, sacrifices and contributions they made.

Damn Yankee Fact: During the Civil war a person who had been drafted could hire a substitute. This bounty system was exploited by so called “bounty jumpers”. These men would hire out to more than one draftee and then make a hasty exit once they were paid. The record for bounty –jumping was held by John O’Connor. He admitted to hiring himself out 32 times before being caught. He received a 4 year prison term.

Confederate Quote: "We can attack and whip them here and we will do it!" - Confederate General John C. Breckinridge at the Battle of New Market Virginia, 15 May 1864. Damn Yankee Trivia: Approximately 130,000 freed slaves became Union soldiers during the war. Confederate Trivia: While Robbie Woodruff, another female Confederate spy and aide, was staying at Patterson’s home in Tennessee, a group of Union soldiers surrounded the house and threatened to burn it - perhaps because they suspected that the women were doing more than knitting socks for Southern troops. When Woodruff appealed to the men’s honor, the lieutenant in charge ordered them to stop. Then he fell head-over-heels in love with Woodruff, who unfortunately for him, did not reciprocate! In fact, she felt that he was repulsive and beneath her socially. Nevertheless, she encouraged his advances, endured his odious company, and extracted every bit of information possible from him. Even though he knew that she was using him and even threatened to have her hanged, he kept giving her information to insure that she would continue to see him. It is not known how long this love- hate relationship lasted, but it is certain that Woodruff married another man after the war.

True Slave Quote Note: In the U.S. during the Great Depression (1930s), more than 2,300 oral histories on life during slavery were collected by writers sponsored and published by the Works Progress Administration. The following quotes are from those actual interviews. Interesting Fact: 86% of the 2,300 former slaves that were interviewed in the 1930s had positive things to say about their masters and/or slavery.

True Slave Quote from the Slave Narratives: Sarah Virgil, Georgia- “Speaking of the Yankees, who came to Hawkinsville after the close of the war, the old woman "allowed": "I surely did hate them things."

True Slave Quote from the Slave Narratives: Amanda Styles, Georgia- The only event during slavery that impresssd itself on Mrs. Styles was the fact that when the Yanks came to their farm they carried off her mother and she was never heard of again.

True Slave Quote from the Slave Narratives: Josephine Ann Barnett, Arkansas- "The slaves hated the Yanksee. They treated them mean. They was having a big time. They didn't like the slaves. They steal from the slaves too. Some poor folks didn't have slaves.”

Damn Yankee Fact: There were more than 10,000 soldiers serving in the Union Army that were under the age of 18. Confederate Quote: "His sturdy visage assumed a melancholy appearance, and for a considerable time he sat on his horse and wept like a child." - Pvt. Bryan Bowers of Ferguson’s Alabama Artillery, describing Gen. Hood viewing the Confederate dead the morning after the Battle of Franklin WBTS Q & A: Question – What was the name of General Longstreet's horse? Answer – Hero

Damn Yankee Trivia – Black soldiers were paid $10 per month while serving in the Union army. This was $3 less than white soldiers.

WBTS Q & A: Question – What was the name of the man that was hanged after the war for his activity at Andersonville Prison? Answer – Captain Henry Wirz Black Confederates: The “Richmond Howitzers” were partially manned by black militiamen. They saw action at 1st Manassas (or 1st Battle of Bull Run) where they operated battery no. 2. In addition two black “regiments”, one free and one slave, participated in the battle on behalf of the South. “Many colored people were killed in the action”, recorded John Parker, a former slave. War Fact: Many of the Southern men already knew how to shoot a gun from hunting. The Northern men tended to work in factories and many didn't know how to fire a gun. Confederate Fact: The artillery barrage at the battle of Gettysburg during Pickett’s charge was heard over 100 miles away in Pittsburgh.

Alabama WBTS Trail: Trough Springs Trail: North Alabama History at its best! The Trough Springs Trail begins on Monte Sano State Park property and crosses the Burritt Museum property to The Land Trust's Trough Springs property. Hikers follow the trail to the site of the Civil War surrender of Lt. Col. Milus E. "Bushwacker" Johnston and the North Alabama Confederate troops. Begin at the Natural Well Trail head on Monte Sano Blvd., across the street from the entrance to Burritt Museum.

Black Confederates: At least one Black Confederate was a non-commissioned officer. James Washington, Co. D 34th Texas Cavalry, “Terrell’s Texas Cavalry” became it’s 3rd Sergeant.

Confederate Fact: Approximately 2,000 men served in the 26th North Carolina Regiment during the course of the Civil War. With Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox courthouse, there were only 131 men left to receive their paroles.

WBTS Fact: Besides the rifle and cannon, weapons consisted of revolvers, swords, cutlasses, hand grenades, Greek fire and land mines.

WBTS Q & A: Answer – Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of War.

Name Badge with Ancestor Bars- Order forms are available. Just ask. Honor your ancestors. Wear it with pride. Please remember to join us at our regular meeting on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at the Gift Horse Restaurant, 209 W. Laurel Ave, (US Hwy 98 W), Foley, Alabama. We hope you can make plans to join us. Guests are always welcome.

Please don’t forget the men and women serving in our armed forces. Keep them and their families in your prayers.

God Save the South,

Thomas B. Rhodes, III, LTC (USA Retired) Commander

Alabama State Motto- "Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere" (We Dare Defend Our Rights)

Upcoming Events Tuesday, 11 Jul 2017 – Ft. Blakeley Camp 1864 Meeting, Gift Horse, Foley, AL Saturday, 15 Jul 2017 – Bedford’s Birthday Party, Ft, Dixie, Selma, AL Sat. & Sun, 15, 16 Jul 2017 – Baldwin County Gun Show- Camp Recruiting Tables Thursday-Saturday, 20-22 July 2017 – 2017 National SCV Reunion, Memphis, TN Tuesday, 8 Aug 2017 – Ft. Blakeley Camp 1864 Meeting, Gift Horse, Foley, AL Tuesday, 12 Sep 2017 – Ft. Blakeley Camp 1864 Meeting, Gift Horse, Foley, AL

From the Chaplain’s Corner

“Tried and Purified” Job 23:1-12

There are days and seasons of life when each one of us feel that trying to balance our lives between, work, family, marriage and our spiritual walk with the Lord seems almost impossible. It is during this time we often feel we are being taken through a season of refining, almost like God is taking us through a crushing process. Job was such a man. He was overwhelmed after losing his livelihood, his health, and his family. Worse still, although Job had been a daily worshiper of God, he felt that the Lord was ignoring his pleas for help. God seemed absent from the landscape of his life. Job claimed he could not see God whether he looked to the north, south, east, or west. In the middle of the despair, Job had a moment of clarity. His faith flickered to life like a candle in a dark room. He said, “(God) knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10) Christians are tried and purified when God uses difficulty to burn away our self-reliance, pride, and earthly wisdom. If it seems as if God is silent during this process and He is not answering our cries for help, He may be giving us an opportunity to grow stronger in our faith. Jennifer Benson Schuldt says: “Pain and problems can produce the shining, rock-solid character that comes from trusting God when life is hard.” May this short prayer be the song of your heart even in the hardest of circumstances! “Dear Lord, help me to believe that You are with me, even when I cannot see You working in my life. I surrender myself to Your purpose for any suffering I may endure. Amen.”

SCV Ft. Blakeley Camp #1864 Minutes June 13, 2017

Opening Welcome – Commander Tommy Rhodes Invocation – Assistant Chaplain Wayne Gilley Meal – Seafood Buffet Open Meeting: Call to Order  Flag Pledge and Salute – Color Sergeant Richard Washburn  Introduction of Guests – Adjutant Herman Doster  Program: Past AL Div Cdr Gary Carlyle and Kathy Carlyle – “The War through the Eyes of a Southern Citizen”  Chaplain’s Report: - Chaplain Bill Morgan  Call for report on illness, etc. Prayer List - David Mader, Tom Ball, Helen Myers, Richard Ridle, and Raphael Waldburg Member Induction Ceremony:  Heritage Guard Induction:  Associate Membership:  SCV Supplemental Certificates –  Reinstatements and Transfers- Commander’s Report:  Thank Camp Musician Crag Bruce for Dinner Music  SCV and Camp Logos, Embroidery/Monogramming- Sew So Cute, 200 W. Orange Ave/Alston St., 251-978-7910 Hrs 8:30-2:30 Christine Gaar, [email protected]  Camp Membership Pins are available.  Camp Life Member Pin and Certificate presented to Compatriot Joe Pye Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Herman Doster  Treasurer’s Report 1st Lieutenant Commander’s Report: 1st Lt. Cdr. Tony Shoemaker  Upcoming programs o Jul 11th – Robert Wisniewski - "Shiloh - Lessons Not Learned" o Aug 8th – Paula Webb- "Life in a City Under Siege: How Mobilian's Survived after the Battle of Mobile Bay." o Sep 12th – Compatriot Clay Springer- “Major General John Brown Gordon of Georgia” o Oct 10th – H. F. "Tighe" Marston- "Death is Not funny...But!" o Nov 14th – TBD o Dec 12th – TBD o Jan 6th – Lee-Jackson Salute- SCV Commander-in-Chief Tom Strain o Feb 13th – Gayle Underwood- TBA Adjutant’s Report: Adjutant Herman Doster  Membership Status – 111 Total Members – (Life Members- Nat 22, AL Div 11, Camp-16) 4 Cadet Members 9 Associate Members 11 Heritage Guard Members Total- 135 Graves and Monuments Chair Report: Compatriot Richard Sheely  Monuments/VA Markers Report  Guardian Program Report o 38 AL Division Guardian Members- (One pending) (Number in progress _3_) o Seven National Guardian Members Old Business:  SCV Name Badges  AL SCV Car Tags and SCV Motorcycle Tags  Heritage Guard Applications  Recruit- Family members, friends, co-workers, church members, etc… Invite them to come to a meeting with you. Pick them up and bring them. New Business:  Camp Color Guard- Isaac Brownlow, III  Camp Cannon- Compatriot Larry Nelson  Jeff Davis Birthday Party Social, 3 Jun 2017 at Wolf Bay Lodge, 31 Attendees  AL Div Reunion (9-10 Jun 2017) Delegates? 5 attendees  Abbie Beitler received a $1,500 Scholarship Upcoming Events Thurs-Sat, 20--22 Jul 2017- SCV National Reunion, Memphis, Tennessee Tuesday, 8 Aug 2017 - Ft. Blakeley Camp 1864 Meeting, Gift Horse Restaurant, Foley, AL Saturday and Sunday, 26-27 Aug 2017 – Ft. Mims Reenactment, Tensaw, AL Door Prizes: Treasurer Herman Doster and HG Lisa Norton Announcements: Next Meeting- Tuesday, 6:00 PM, 11 July 2017 Benediction: Assistant Chaplain Wayne Gilley Commander Recites: The SCV Charge Commander Recites: The SCV Closing Dixie: Camp Musician Craig Bruce - “Dixie”.

Current Events

I-22 Flag, Cordova, Alabama May 13, 2017 On the way up The Flag made her first full wave as if to say "I am Alive and Well!" and the crowd cheered! A GREAT DAY in DIXIE!!!

Heritage Guard Taffy Zadnichek made a presentation to the camp at the Jeff Davis Birthday Party on June 3, 2017. She presented the camp with a donation of $100.00 to purchase black powder for our new cannon. Her only request was that when we fire our first shot, we point if towards New Orleans, LA.

Were Confederate Generals Traitors? Of course not, says Walter Williams. 28 Jun 2017

My “Rewriting American History” column of a fortnight ago, about the dismantling of Confederate monuments, generated considerable mail. Some argued there should not be statues honoring traitors such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, who fought against the Union. Victors of wars get to write the history, and the history they write often does not reflect the facts. Let’s look at some of the facts and ask: Did the South have a right to secede from the Union? If it did, we can’t label Confederate generals as traitors. Article 1 of the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the war between the Colonies and Great Britain, held “New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States.” Representatives of these states came together in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a constitution and form a union. During the ratification debates, Virginia’s delegates said, “The powers granted under the Constitution being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression.” The ratification documents of New York and Rhode Island expressed similar sentiments. At the Constitutional Convention, a proposal was made to allow the federal government to suppress a seceding state. James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” rejected it. The minutes from the debate paraphrased his opinion: “A union of the states containing such an ingredient (would) provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a state would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound.” America’s first secessionist movement started in New England after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Many were infuriated by what they saw as an unconstitutional act by President Thomas Jefferson. The movement was led by Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, George Washington’s secretary of war and secretary of state. He later became a congressman and senator. “The principles of our Revolution point to the remedy — a separation,” Pickering wrote to George Cabot in 1803, for “the people of the East cannot reconcile their habits, views, and interests with those of the South and West.” His Senate colleague James Hillhouse of Connecticut agreed, saying, “The Eastern states must and will dissolve the union and form a separate government.” This call for secession was shared by other prominent Americans, such as John Quincy Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Fisher Ames, Josiah Quincy III and Joseph Story. The call failed to garner support at the 1814-15 Hartford Convention. The U.S. Constitution would have never been ratified — and a union never created — if the people of those 13 “free sovereign and Independent States” did not believe that they had the right to secede. Even on the eve of the War of 1861, unionist politicians saw secession as a right that states had. Rep. Jacob M. Kunkel of Maryland said, “Any attempt to preserve the union between the states of this Confederacy by force would be impractical and destructive of republican liberty.” The Northern Democratic and Republican parties favored allowing the South to secede in peace. Northern newspapers editorialized in favor of the South’s right to secede. New-York Tribune (Feb. 5, 1860): “If tyranny and despotism justified the Revolution of 1776, then we do not see why it would not justify the secession of Five Millions of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861.” The Detroit Free Press (Feb. 19, 1861): “An attempt to subjugate the seceded States, even if successful, could produce nothing but evil — evil unmitigated in character and appalling in extent.” The New-York Times (March 21, 1861): “There is a growing sentiment throughout the North in favor of letting the Gulf States go.” Confederate generals were fighting for independence from the Union just as George Washington and other generals fought for independence from Great Britain. Those who’d label Gen. Robert E. Lee as a traitor might also label George Washington as a traitor. I’m sure Great Britain’s King George III would have agreed.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — A woman is facing charges after police say she tore a Confederate flag "tag" off a truck and then backed into the truck's owner. According to a release from Charleston police, 43-year-old Lee Ann Walters is charged with vandalism and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. They said Walters stopped her car at Murray Boulevard and East Battery around 11 a.m. Saturday. They said she removed a "Confederate tag" off the front of the victim’s pick-up by tearing it off. They said she then backed into the truck's owner as he was trying to get her license plate number. The victim, who suffered a minor knee injury and was seen by EMS, told police Walters hit him by accident. Police found Walters at her home using the plate number the victim gave them.

Confederate Stories

BLOCKADE RUNNING TO CONFEDERATE AMERICA, PART VI © BY DAVID MADER

The CSS FLORIDA remained in Mobile Bay for four months. By 1 January 1863 the work to repair the damage done to the FLORIDA by the ships of the Yankee blockading squadron was complete. Captain Maffitt with his crew, now at full complement, were ready to run the blockade back out of Mobile and fulfill the intended role of being a highly successful Confederate commerce raider. During this long period of time the officers and crew had ample opportunities to practice and drill for their duties at sea. Whitewash and lampblack was daubed over the FLORIDA to make her harder to see at night.

Now the question was whether or not Captain Maffitt would again be able to perform his own special, and almost magical seamanship as he had so many times in the past. The run out was considered to be a suicidal undertaking by many observers. Yankee newspapers bragged of the FLORIDA being trapped in Mobile Bay like a “straightjacketed prisoner.” The job of the FLORIDA was not to go out to fight the blockaders, but to burn, sink, and destroy enemy merchantmen wherever found. She was armed, but only for defense, not for combat. Her weapon was the torch, to burn and sink as much of the Yankee merchant fleet as possible. So she could not afford to make a straight dead on fighting run against the blockaders. Once again she must rely on the stealth and cunning of her captain.

On 11 January, the FLORIDA steamed to a point just inside the bay, off Fort Morgan to wait and give Captain Maffitt a chance to decide what to do next and when. Upon going ashore, Maffitt walked the parapet of the fort and observed the blockading ships clustered offshore. It almost appeared that the whole United States Navy was there waiting to welcome him out of Mobile Bay and to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. As Maffitt wrote in a letter to his daughter Florie - “thirteen so plainly in sight that I knew I could not pass without having sixty guns fired at me, and we would no doubt be lost.”

Maffitt and the FLORIDA remained moored near Fort Morgan for four days, waiting for the right combination of weather conditions in order to be able to escape undetected. On 15 January Maffitt was rewarded for his patience with the gale force winds of a “norther” blowing offshore in bitterly cold gusts. The dark, cold waters of the Gulf of Mexico was blown and agitated into foam with spume flying half-mast high. At 2:20 AM orders were passed to the crew of the FLORIDA to make the necessary preparations for getting underway. Maffitt deftly conned his ship, threading in and out of the oblivious blockader ships, one by one, until five Yankee ships had been passed.

Once again Maffitt decided to pass between two of the blockaders lying at anchor. The USS CUYLER and the flagship USS SUSQUEHANNA lay on each beam and with barely three hundred feet to spare on each side of the FLORIDA. Unbelievably, so far the FLORIDA was unseen, and undetected by the Yankee ships. The luck of Captain John Maffitt was still holding favorably.

The FLORIDA was abreast of the CUYLER and the SUSQUEHANNA when a bright flash of burning coal dust streaked out of the funnels of the FLORIDA. This was all the signal that the Yankees needed. They were fully alert now, raising the alarm, signaling one another, and attempting to get underway to give chase.

Maffitt ordered every sail unfurled to gain every possible bit of speed to add to what the engine was already doing. With both sail and steam, the FLORIDA flew through the water at fourteen knots (about sixteen miles per hour). Yankee guns opened up on the FLORIDA but with no effect, for she was much faster than any except the CUYLER, also capable of fourteen knots. It took an unbelievable thirty minutes for the CUYLER to get underway. The FLORIDA sped away unharmed from the blockading squadron at top speed and the only ship to give serious chase was the CUYLER. At one point during the following day the CUYLER was within three miles of the FLORIDA. Maffitt utilized a blockade running ruse by shortening the sails, stopping the engines and turning end on toward the CUYLER. This trick was mastered by Maffitt when he ran the blockade into Wilmington, North Carolina and it worked very well. The CUYLER was completely fooled into a relentless chase of a ship which was no longer in the lead.

The CSS FLORIDA was now clear of the blockading squadron at Mobile and free to begin her duty of Yankee commerce raiding in earnest. Perhaps the Richmond newspaper DISPATCH said it best with congratulations for Yankee shipowners on “the bright prospect that lies ahead for their merchantmen

THE LOST CAUSE Major A. L. Jonas, CSA

In March 1865, Major A. L. Jonas, CSA and another officer were fed by a sympathetic woman. He wrote the following poem, The Lost Cause, on the back of a Confederate note and gave it to the woman. It has since been printed on the back of many 1864 notes.

Representing nothing on God’s earth now And naught in the waters below it. As the pledge of a nation that’s dead and gone, Keep it, dear friend, and show it. Show it to those who will lend an ear To the tale that this paper can tell Of liberty born of the patriot’s dream, Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.

Too poor to possess the precious ores, And too much of a stranger to borrow, We issued to-day our promise to pay, And hoped to redeem on the morrow. But days flew by, weeks became years, Our coffers were empty still; Coin was so scarce our treasury’d quake If a dollar would drop in the till.

We knew it had scarcely a value in gold, Yet as gold the soldiers received it; It looked in our eyes a promise to pay, And each patriot believed it. But the faith that was in us was strong indeed, And our poverty well we discerned; And these little checks represented the pay That our suffering veterans earned.

But our boys thought little of prize or pay, Or of bills that were over due; We knew if it bought us our daily bread to-day T’was the best our poor country could do. Keep it, it tells our history over From the birth of the dream to the last; Modest and born of the Angel Hope, Like our hope of success it passed.

Virginia, June 2, 1865

From : Comprehensive Catalog of Confederate Paper Money Grover C. Criswell with Douglas B. Ball Ph.D and Hugh Shull; Fred Schwan, Publisher BNR PRESS, 132 East Second Street, Port Clinton, Ohio 43452-1115

Short Takes, #7 © By David Mader

THE DEADLIEST WEAPON

What weapon was the deadliest killer of men during The War Between The States, both Confederate and Union? Can you venture a guess? What do you think it was? According to CIVIL WAR TIMES ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE, October 1999 issue, the deadliest weapon of the entire war was the Minie ball fired from the widely distributed rifled musket. Employed by both sides, this firearm/projectile combination was at virtually every battle and skirmish (nearly 10,500) of the entire war. The Minie (pronounced Min-Yay) ball was the predominant rifle bullet and was the cause of an astounding ‘ninety percent of all soldier casualties.’ By comparison, artillery accounts for less than nine percent, while bayonets and swords, are at less than one percent. Some 94,000 Confederates were killed and another 194,000 wounded. On the Union side, 110,000 were killed with 275,000 wounded. United States Department of Defense studies completed in the 1960’s revealed that the rifled musket-Minie ball combination was three times more lethal than any previous weapon to that point in history. As with many inventions or discoveries throughout history, the Minie ball was the culmination of research and experimentation of basic projectile designs by numerous experimenters and want-to-be inventors, who dabbled in firearm tinkering in both Britain and France. However, three French Army officers, Captain Henri-Gustave Delvigne, Colonel Louis-Etienne de Thouvenin, and Captain Claude-Etienne Minie, are given credit for the design which would become the Minie ball, which is not actually a ball, but a conical shaped bullet. The French Army never adopted this round, but the British Army paid 20,000 pounds to Minie to use his patent in the new 1851 Enfield rifle. In the early 1850’s, an American armorer, James Burton, of the US arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, made the final design refinements which produced the bullet we saw used during TWBTS. The Minie ball and the rifled musket together ushered in a new and more deadly era of warfare. They were the ancestors of even more efficient and effective weapons of the future, and heralded the end of Napoleonic war tactics. Frontal assaults became very fatal and foolish. Remember Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg and Hood’s poor decision at Franklin? Both were a stupid waste of the lives of good men for naught. New tactics had to be developed to utilize and also to counter new battle implements as they evolved. An unfortunate truth of life in this old world is that mankind appears to be never more clever and crafty as when he is inventing, designing and creating new and better ways to kill other men. God forgive us!

Dabney on why the South went to war

“It is simply incredible, that a people so shrewd and practical as those of the United States, should expect us to have discarded, through the logic of the sword merely, the convictions of a lifetime; or that they could be deceived by us, should we be base enough to assert it of ourselves. They know that the people of the South were conquered, and not convinced; and that the authority of the United States was accepted by us of necessity, and not from preference……The people of the South went to war because they sincerely believed (what their political fathers had taught them, with one voice, for two generations) that the doctrine of the state-sovereignty for which they fought, was absolutely essential as the bulwark of the liberties of the people.”

Robert Louis Dabney

Staff- Lt. Gen. TJ Jackson

Troop engagements in July

1862

July Evelington Heights, Virginia (near Confederate cavalry from Army of Northern none[76] 3 Harrison's Landing) Virginia, Union Army of the Potomac July Confederate cavalry, Union Army of the Confederate 272, Cache River, Arkansas 7 Southwest Union 63[77] July Confederate 150,

Murfreesboro, Tennessee Confederate cavalry, Union garrison 13 Union 1,200[70] July Apache Pass, New Mexico Apaches, Union California Column unknown[78] 15 Territory (modern-day Arizona)

1864

Confederate Army of the Valley District, Union Confederate 700–900,

July 9 Monocacy, Maryland Middle Department Union 1,294[80] July Fort Stevens, District Confederate Army of the Valley, Union Department of Confederate 500, Union [81] 11–12 of Columbia Washington 373 Bartram's Shop, Confederate Forrest's Cavalry Corps, Union XVI Confederate unknown, July 18 Mississippi Corps Union 36[82] July Confederate Department of Mississippi, Alabama, and Confederate 1,326,

Tupelo, Mississippi 14–15 East Tennessee, Union XVI Corps Union 674.[83] July Confederate Army of the Valley District, Union Army Confederate 397, Union

Cool Spring, Virginia 17–18 of West Virginia 422[84] Rutherford's Farm, Confederate detachment from Army of the Valley, Confederate 500, Union July 20 [85] Virginia Union cavalry division from Army of West Virginia 242 Peachtree Creek, Confederate Army of Tennessee, Union Army of the Confederate 4,796, July 20 [86] Georgia Cumberland Union 1,710 Confederate Army of Tennessee, Union Army of the Confederate 8,499,

July 22 Atlanta, Georgia Tennessee Union 3,641[87] Second Kernstown, Confederate Army of the Valley, Union Army of West Confederate 600, Union July 24 [88] Virginia Virginia 1,185 July First Deep Bottom, Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Union II 1,000 total[89]

27–29 Virginia Corps and cavalry from Army of the Potomac Confederate 4,642,

July 28 Ezra Church, Georgia Confederate Army of Tennessee, Union XV Corps Union 700[90] July Killdeer Mountain, Union Department of the Northwest, Lakota and Union 15, Dakotas and [91] 28–29 Dakota Territory Dakota Sioux tribes Lakotas 31 Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Union Army Confederate 1,491, July 30 The Crater, Virginia of the Potomac Union 3,798[92]

Alabama General Officers Series, C.S.A.

Brigadier General James Deshler James Deshler was born in February 18, 1833 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Deshler went to West Point and graduated in 1854. He graduated ranking above James Ewell Brown Stuart, William Dorsey Pender and Stephen Dill Lee. After graduating, James was commissioned as a in the . His first military experience was an assignment to California after graduation.[6] He was then transferred and promoted to first lieutenant United States Army in 1858 and joined a regiment to fight in the Utah War expedition. After the expedition Deshler was assigned to Fort Wise, where he remained until 1861. In 1861 Deshler resigned his post and joined the Confederate States Army. After his resignation from the army, Deshler enlisted as a captain in the artillery. In September 1861 he was an assistant to Brigadier General Henry R. Jackson during the Battle of Cheat Mountain. Deshler was wounded at the Battle of Allegheny Mountain when he was shot through the thighs.[7] After his recovery from his wounds he was promoted to colonel and assigned to the staff of Maj. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes. In 1862 he was given his first command, which consisted of four regiments of Texas infantry and cavalry, the Tenth Texas Infantry regiment, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Texas Dismounted Cavalry regiments. On January 11, 1863, Deshler was captured when the Confederates surrendered at the Battle of Fort Hindman. After being exchanged he was promoted to brigadier general on July 28, 1863. On the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, 1863, while inspecting his brigade before an attack, Deshler was killed instantly by a Union artillery shell when it exploded in front of him, tearing his heart from his body. Command of his brigade was taken over by the future Senator Roger Mills, and the Confederacy won the battle. After the fighting ended, a family friend buried Deshler's body on the battlefield. Later the friend brought Deshler's father to the gravesite. They disinterred Deshler and subsequently reburied him in Oakwood Cemetery in his hometown of Tuscumbia, Alabama. Mills remarked after Deshler's death: “I may pause here and pay a passing tribute to the memory of our fallen chief. He was brave, generous and kind, even to a fault. Ever watchful and careful for the safety of any member of his command, he was ever ready to peril his own...He poured out his own blood upon the spot watered by the best blood of the brigade. Amongst the host of brave hearts that were offered the altar of sacrifice for their country on that beautiful Sabbath, there perished not one, noble, braver, or better than his. He lived beloved, and fell lamented and mourned by every officer and man of his command.”

Deshler High School, Tuscumbia, AL, was named for him. June Meeting and the AL Division Reunion

Commander and Adjutant at the Alabama Division Reunion

Alabama Division Scholarship recipients including our own Abbie Beitler

Crooked Creek Confederate Museum, Cullman, Alabama

Speaker Mrs. Kathy Carlyle

Past AL Division Commander Gary Carlyle

Mr. Carlyle’s Audience

Camp Officers 2017

Commander Tommy (251) 979-2938 [email protected] Rhodes Adjutant Herman (251) 971-2508 [email protected] Doster 1st Lt Cdr Tony (251) 626-9903 [email protected] Shoemaker 2nd Lt Cdr Bob Ridle (251) 241-8463 [email protected] Treasurer Herman (251) 971-2508 [email protected] Doster Color Sgt Richard (513) 314-1360 [email protected] Washburn Sgt-at-Arms Craig Stoffle (251) 421-0167 [email protected] Asst Color Sgt Vacant Quartermaster Vacant Historian Bob Ridle (251) 241-8463 [email protected] Genealogist Marvin [email protected] Rhodes Graves Officer Richard (251) 979-3261 [email protected] Sheely Judge Advocate Tim Garner (251) 968-5540 [email protected] Camp Surgeon Wilson (251) 625-0422 [email protected] Wilhite, M.D. MC Editor Isaac (251) 550-6075 [email protected] Brownlow III Special Projects David Myers (251) 948-3066 [email protected] Heritage Guard Lt Judy Johnson (251) 504-8039 [email protected] Education Officer Judy Johnson (251) 504-8039 [email protected] Commisary Vacant Officer Chaplain Bill Morgan (251) 610-9218 [email protected] Asst Chaplain Vacant Camp Musician Craig Bruce (251) 422-1471 [email protected] Webmaster Chris Rice (251) 786-5705 [email protected] Camp Website http://www.fortblakeley1864.org

FORT BLAKELEY CAMP #1864

BALDWIN COUNTY, ALABAMA

SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS

2003, 2011, 2012 ALABAMA DIVISION CAMP OF THE YEAR

Newsletter of the Year- AL Div - 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010. National – 2009

AL SCV DIVISION DISTINGUISHED CAMP DESIGNATION- 2016

AL SCV DIVISION CLEMENT C. CLAY NEWSLETTER AWARD- 2016