Patriot’s Periodical Upshur Co. Patriots Camp #2109 Sons of Confederate Veterans Gilmer, Texas ©Copyright 2021 January 2021 Happy New Year www.upshurpatriots.org along with South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana that have holidays remembering our Confederate soldiers. Confederate Heroes’ Day commemorates those who died fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Confederate Heroes “They served their country nobly and Day bravely, and many, of them never came home,”…“When these monuments are being Confederate Memorial Day (called taken down, these are United States Confederate Heroes Day in Texas and veteran memorials. Whether you Florida, and Confederate Decoration Day in understand the causes of the war or support Tennessee) is a cultural holiday observed in the war, you still need to honor the veterans several Southern U.S. states on various that were there.”--Marshall Davis, SCV dates since^ the end of the Civil War to remember the estimated 258,000 Confederate soldiers who died in military service. Confederate Heroes Day has been a state holiday since 1973, when Texas lawmakers voted to consolidate two state holidays: Confederate General Robert E. Lee's birthday on Jan. 19th and the June 3rd “Heroes never die. They will always live in birthday of Jefferson Davis, President of the the hearts of thousands of peoples that Confederacy. Texas is one of nine states loved them.” 1 Camp Leadership Upshur County Patriots Camp #2109 Commander Eugene Brown (903) 759-4230 [email protected] st 1 Lt. Commander Gregg Gipe The Guardian (903) 353-0670 [email protected] Discovering the burial location of your 2nd Lt. Commander ancestors is an important part of genealogy. Editor Knowing where the burial location is (and David Palmer visiting it, if possible) gives you a deeper (903) 237-8941 insight into your family in past generations, [email protected] gives you a place to go to honor your Adjutant ancestor, and puts you as close to them Don Loyd physically as you will ever be. Often, the (903) 797-6922 burial location^ is obvious, even if it’s not [email protected] marked. There will be spaces between the headstones of other ancestors, often with Deputy Adjutant Eddie Pricer indentations in the ground where the coffin (903) 692-3388 underneath has collapsed over the years. [email protected] Family lore may have handed down the location. It can be easy to find and often is. Chaplain However, you will sometimes come across James Eitson an ancestor whose burial location seems a (903) 592-4110 complete mystery. [email protected] Librarian Resources such as Find A Grave, County Brandon Pricer Clerk, City Clerk, or old newspapers can be (682) 552-5802 of help in locating a gravesite. [email protected] Consider being involved in honoring our Ancestors and take part in the SCV Guardian Program. Contact Program Chairman Phil Davis for information. [email protected] 2 OUR PLEDGES PLEDGE TO THE U.S. FLAG: Upshur Co.Patriots Guardians I pledge allegiance to the Flag Of the United States of America, And to the Name Guardian Number of republic for which it stands, One nation, Status Graves under God, indivisible, With liberty and Phil Davis Full 29 justice for all. Kim Duffey Full 3 Jamie Eitson Full/GPT 8 PLEDGE TO THE Chris Loyd Full 5 TEXAS FLAG: George Linton Full/W/GPT 46 T. Mitchell/G. Linton Full 5 Honor the Texas Flag; I pledge Eddie Pricer Full/GPT 40 allegiance to thee Texas, one state under Milt Ojeman Full/GPT 4 God, one and indivisible. David Palmer Full 1 Bill Palmer Full 10 SALUTE TO THE Tommy Ray Full/GPT 19 CONFEDERATE Bill Starnes Full/W/GPT 7 FLAG: Frank Smith Full 2 Mitch Tyson Full 3 I salute the Confederate Flag With affection, Gregg Gipe GPT 3 reverence, and Undying devotion to the cause For which it stands. W=Wilderness GPT=Guardian Pro Tem The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a non-profit, heritage organization whose mission is to preserve the history and legacy of Confederate Veterans. It is not associated with any anti-government or hate groups. Membership is open to any male descendant of a Confederate Veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces. 3 Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans “To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for crosswalk.com which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate The New Year can often bring a mixed bag soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his of emotions and memories for many of us. history, the emulation of his virtues, the Some may have just experienced the best perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those year ever and look forward to an even ideals which made him glorious and which greater one looming ahead. Others may you also cherish.” have just trudged through one deep struggle after another. The fresh calendar year brings desperate hope for things to be better, with an ache for the still-fresh wounds to slowly begin their process of “Remember, it is your duty to see that the healing. true history of the South is presented to Whether you’ve just walked through the future generations.” greatest year of your life, or are incredibly glad^ to see this one finally over, one truth still rings clear amidst it all. You are not alone. Not ever. Our God is a “with us" God. On the heels of the celebration of the birth of our King, that reminder has the power to carry us right into a fresh, new start. Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander United Confederate Veterans New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25, 1906 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all “The SCV’s Best Hope for Success is Knowledge of the Truth” your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Prov. 3:5-6 4 A statue of no room for celebrating the bigotry of the Confederate Gen. Confederacy in the Capitol or any other Robert E. Lee that has place of honor in our country.” represented Virginia in the U.S. Capitol for111years has been removed. COVID-19 in East Texas kltv.com AP Dec. 21, 2020 Upshur County A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee As of December 29 that has represented Virginia in the U.S. (212 cases, 31 deaths, 1456 recoveries) The state reported one new case and three Capitol for 111 years has been removed. recoveries on Dec. 28 Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement that workers removed the statue from the National Statuary Hall Collection early Monday morning. Northam had Historical requested the removal and a state Dates in commission^ decided that Lee was not a January fitting symbol for the state. January 4, 1790 - President George Washington delivered the first State of the The state commission has recommended Union address. replacing Lee’s statue with a statue of January 19, 1807 - Robert E. Lee was born. Barbara Johns. She protested conditions at her all-Black high school in the town of January 1861 - Six additional southern Farmville in 1951. Her court case became states secede from the Union. part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme January 3, 1862 - The Battle of Cockpit Court. Point, also known as Batteries at Evansport. Lee’s statue had stood with George January 19, 1862 – The Battle of Mill Washington’s statue since 1909 as Virginia’s Springs, Kentucky. representatives in the Capitol. Every state January 3, 1863 - The Battle of Stones River, gets two statues. (Texas has Sam Houston Tennessee. and Stephen F. Austin) January 15, 1865 - Assault and capture of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also hailed Fort Fisher, North Carolina. the removal, saying in a statement there “is 5 On April 9, 1865, Lee was forced to surrender his weary and depleted army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War. Lee returned home on parole and eventually became Robert Edward Lee the president of Birthday Washington College January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870 in Virginia (now known as Washington and battlefields.org Lee University). He remained in this position until his death on October 12, 1870 in Born to Revolutionary War hero Henry Lexington, Virginia. "Light-Horse Harry" Lee in Stratford Hall, Virginia, Robert Edward Lee seemed destined for military greatness. Despite financial hardship that caused his father to depart to the West Indies, young Robert secured an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated second in the class of 1829. Two years later, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, a descendant of George Washington's adopted son, John Battle of Mill Springs Parke Custis. Wikipedia.org From 1852 to 1855, Lee served as The Battle of Mill Springs, also known as the superintendent of West Point, and was Battle of Fishing Creek in Confederate therefore responsible for educating many of terminology, and the Battle of Logan's Cross the men who would later serve under him - Roads in Union terminology, was fought in and those who would oppose him - on the Wayne and Pulaski counties, near current battlefields^ of the Civil War. In 1855 he left Nancy, Kentucky, on January 19, 1862, as the academy to take a position in the part of the American Civil War. cavalry and in 1859 was called upon to put down abolitionist John Brown’s raid at In late 1861, Confederate Brig.