1st Louisiana Native Guard Photo…Myth…and it is Busted!

Hat Tip to All Other Persons blog…

This is a great post and article on how some neo-confederates have distorted a picture of Black Union Soldiers with their white officer into a photo of “black confederates”.

Here we have the original photo…

A contemporary recruitment poster…

Here is the fake 1st Louisiana Native Guard photo…

And finally, the website that sells (or sold the photo…appears not to be for sale any longer) the photo…The Great War of the Confederacy’s Rebel Store. 

If you want to read about how this photo and its fake were discovered head on over to Retouching History for the complete scoop.

Flag that Began War of the Rebellion Found in Iowa (100th Post)

In the days leading to the Civil War, a battery of Citadel cadets on Morris Island fired at the supply ship Star of the West as it approached Fort Sumter, forcing the ship to turn around.  

A red palmetto flag flew over the cadets during the attack on Jan. 9, 1861, which marked a victory for them, and was a significant precursor to the war.

The war officially began on April 12, 1861, with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter. But some Citadel alumni and others consider the shots fired at Star of the West to be the first shots of the Civil War… Read the Rest of the Story.

Star of the West entering Charleston Harbor on Jan. 9, 1861

The Myth of American Exceptionalism | MIT World

more about “The Myth of American Exceptionalism |…“, posted with vodpod

 

The Story of American Freedom: 1776-2005 | MIT World

 

more about “The Story of American Freedom: 1776-2…“, posted with vodpod

 

 

 

A New Black Confederate Emerges…???

From the Columbia Star

Alice Gallman has fought for what she believes her whole life. This 87- year- old Columbia woman’s great uncle, a former slave and Confederate soldier, John Alex Sarter, had that same fighting spirit.

Gallman contacted Lt. Commander for S.C.’s Sons of Confederate Veterans and also the founder of radiofreedixie.com Don Gordon and asked him to investigate her great uncle’s history. Gordon found Sarter fought for the Confederacy first as a slave and later as a free man. His owner, William Sarter was appointed Captain of S.C.’s 18th Infantry Regiment, Company B on August of 1862. Sarter died the following September from his war wounds. But Alex Sarter chose to enlist after William died.

Sarter was later captured by Union soldiers and forced to help dig a tunnel the army filled with explosives. The Union army used the explosion to divide Confederate forces during the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia. The SCV gave an account of the battle in a DVD Gordon presented to Gallman on September 2, 2009. The footage chronicled a memorial service by the SCV at Sarter’s gravesite.

But Gallman remembers Sarter as her wise, old uncle. When she was a girl growing up in Union, the adults would sit around the fire in the winter and have what they called “fireside chats.” Gallman remembers sneaking up behind Sarter and eavesdropping on the adults’ conversations. She said she learned a lot from the older generations.

Gallman’s grandparents were sharecroppers. Gallman was her mother’s first bi- racial child. Her father was Jewish. She said her status made growing up difficult. “There were so many days I didn’t have a bite of bread,” she said. But humble up bringing didn’t stop Gallman from giving her time, energy, and skills to other people who needed help.

Gallman taught the poor to can vegetables, so they would have foodstuffs when times were lean. And when she was a teenager she taught people how to construct mattresses made of cotton instead of straw.

Gallman has fought for the poor and she was involved in helping African- American teachers receive adequate books instead of the damaged hand- me- downs used by white children.

Today, Gallman shares her stories and wisdom with younger generations. Gallman worked hard to send her daughter to Heathwood Hall Episcopal School. Her daughter later attended Yale University and went into the law profession. And her son worked at the Pentagon.

Alice Gallman, like her uncle, has been a fighter.

I did a quick search for William Sarter and then John Alex Sarter in the 18th South Carolina Infantry and only found William in the ranks.  Not one mention of John Alex anywhere which seems to be par for the course when it comes to black confederates/confederate slaves.  Maybe someone else how reads this post and has better access to SC archival material can do a search with more luck then I.  But my guess is…I doubt it.  This is more likely another tale similar to the one you can find over at Cenantua’s Blog.

Clint Lacy, Brother & SCV Camp Misses a Teachable Moment

I’m sick and tired of people that should be in the Sons of Union Veterans joining and being involved in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. 

I was just reading the bi monthly magazine that SCV members receive; called the Confederate Veteran. 

This 17 year old kid writes a letter to the editor. In the letter he makes a comment that seems to reflect the majority of SCV membership: 

” To not fly the US flag alongside the Confederate Flag is not only an insult to our country, but also to the many sons of Confederate Veterans who have fought and died for it.” 

The pin head that wrote this is Mr. Seth Parks from the Ambrose Ransom Wright Camp in Evans GA. 

Mr. Parks seems to be well versed in the art of political correctness. He continues to puke his ignorance onto paper with the following statement: 

“Southerners have been fighting for America since the Revolution, and continue to fight for America. To not fly the flag that they served under is a disgrace. The SCV honors all the Sons of Confederate veterans, and thus has an obligation to fly the flags that they served under- whether it is the Stars and Stripes or the Stars and Bars.” 

I’m surprised that Mr. Parks was able to write this; I mean with his lips so firmly attached to Lincoln’s ass, I don’t know how he was able to pen a letter to the Confederate Veteran. 

Let me tell you something “Mr. Parks” you little maggot…………THE SCV IS ABOUT CONFEDERATE VETERANS! 

The SCV is not the VFW! Get through your head! The only flag that we need to fly is the Confederate Flag………..PERIOD 

It’s moron’s, like you, Parks that are the ‘disgrace’. You sell out our heritage and history by displaying a flag that has but one purpose……..TYRANNY 

The U.S. Flag is the symbol of the nation….including it’s government. A government that abuses it’s citizens and seeks to enslave them.  

A government that is hell bent on destroying Southerner’s, their symbols, their history and their way of life. In spite of all of this, you want to tell me that I have to fly the U.S. flag……….”Mr. Parks. 

You’re the insult…….you’re the disgrace; peddling your Yankee propaganda in the SCV! 

Colonel John T. Coffee Camp #1934

Advance Missouri

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This is a letter that appeared on the “Across Our Confederation”website the other day and is directed to a 17-year-old kid who wrote to the Confederate Veteran Magazine and is a member of both the SCV and SUVCW.  According to the author’s sage wisdom, Mr. Seth Parks (the 17-year-old kid) is a “little maggot” for even thinking that the SCV should at any time fly the American flag…along with the confederate flag. 

The author has missed a very good opportunity to teach Mr. Parks…and a fellow member of the SCV… a good lesson.  Mr. Parks does seem a bit confused in terms of who he is addressing.  It is quite possible that he is confusing the SCV for the VFW.  But I really doubt it.  What Mr. Parks is doing is expressing his concern for the SCV’s use or lack thereof of the American flag.  He is concerned that many members of the SCV have served under the American flag and have died for this country.  He is also expressing the idea that despite the fact that the Confederacy had fought a war against the United States, the United States is still a country where its former enemies and descendants can organize and remember their fallen’s deeds and actions.

A teachable moment has been lost and taken its place are the childish remarks of a grown man.  But then again, this comes from a group that wants to boycott a monument being dedicated by the SUVCW because it does not tell the “southern version” of the war and a history of the events told by the “winners” uses the term “pukites”

Thoughts on the Wildeness Wal-Mart

When someone looks at the map of the Wilderness Wal-Mart site from my earlier post on this, one may not see fully the impact that this tract of land will have on the battlefield.  But when you look at it in “real life” from Google Maps, you can see how fully the “empty” ground connects to  the land already part of the Wilderness Battlefield.

The more I sit and think about the Wilderness Wal-Mart, Kevin Levin’s ego, the past and future I am reminded of why I am so captured by history of places like the Wilderness.  I shall let Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain do the talking…

“In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream; And lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls.”

Speaking at the dedication of the Monument to the 20th Maine
October 3, 1889, Gettysburg, PA

Well, let us hope that when (dare I say IF) the Wilderness Wal-Mart is built that we can still ponder and dream about the brave deeds committed on that ground despite the sound of “jobs, tax revenues and cheap shopping” buzzing all around us.

Wilderness Lost

Orange County Supervisors Approve Wal-Mart Superstore on Wilderness Battlefield

County rejects national and local voices urging protection of battleground and National Park

(Orange, Va.) – The Orange County Board of Supervisors today approved a proposal to build 240,000-square feet of big box retail on the Wilderness Battlefield. James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), issued the following statement in the wake of the vote:

“I am deeply disappointed by today’s vote. The Orange County Board of Supervisors had an opportunity to protect the battlefield by embracing a reasonable compromise approach to the Wal-Mart superstore proposal. Instead, they ignored rational voices on the national, state and local level encouraging them to work with the preservation community and local landowners to find a more suitable alternative location.

“Today’s vote is not just a setback for preservationists. Orange County residents are losers as well. If the county had embraced the preservation planning process first proposed by the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition in January, there would have been an opportunity to mitigate the transportation and development impacts of the proposal. Instead, the board voted to repeat the mistakes made by other localities, who are now struggling to address the problems created by similar piecemeal development and rampant sprawl.

“The ball is now in Wal-Mart’s court. Wal-Mart better understands the nationwide anger generated by its proposal to build on the doorstep of a National Park. It is in the corporation’s best interests to work with the preservation community to find an alternative site. After all, building a big box superstore on the Wilderness Battlefield would belie recent attempts to portray Wal-Mart as environmentally sensitive. We are optimistic that company officials will see the wisdom of moving elsewhere.

“The Civil War Preservation Trust and the other member groups of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition will now carefully weigh options for continued opposition of this misguided proposal. This battle is not over yet.”

Among those who urged Orange County to chose another location for the proposed Wal-Mart were Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.); Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D) and House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell (R); actors Robert Duvall, Richard Dreyfuss and Ben Stein; and more than 250 historians, including Pulitzer prize-winning authors David McCullough and James McPherson and acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns.

Since a Wal-Mart superstore on the Wilderness Battlefield was first publicly announced in June 2008, CWPT has been one of the leading voices against the proposal. Earlier this year, the organization identified the Wilderness Battlefield as one of the most endangered battlefields in the nation because of the Wal-Mart plan. CWPT is a member of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition.

Too bad…the all-mighty-dollar over something that cannot be replaced.

Levin, Casteel, Williams…Oh My!

In a recent series of post on both Kevin Levin’s Civil War Memory and Richard Williams’ Old Virginia Blog there as been a great deal discussed and argued over the Casteel statue called “Brothers“.  I will not go into a detailed discussion here, for you can follow the links and read it for yourself, but I must make comments on Williams’ latest post about reconcilation at Gettysburg.  Here is another picture from the same reunion…

It is a picture of blacks whose job it was to pass out blankets to White veterans North and South.  They were not included in the discussion of the war as if the war had nothing to do with their ancestors or their ancestors bondage.  I think Kevin is saying that we have enough memorials or statues to this type of interpretation…we get it…now lets move beyond the typical understanding of the war…one that is in the vacuum of race.  Let us add race into the picture and then we will have a fuller understanding of why there was a Gettysburg and why there was a reunion.

Conundrum: New Confederate Monument or Save Endagered Battlefields?

 

My “good friend” Clint Lacy has posted pictures of the recent dedication of the JO Shelby monument in Shelby’s hometown of  Waverly, Mo.  Now the SCV or anyone else has the right to spend their hard earned cash however they want, but I cannot help but think of how much that bronze statue cost and to what real historical end.  On the other hand, the thousands of dollars could have gone to save a real battlefield where men died for what they believed in…whether right or wrong.

But I am sure this Shelby monument has it purpose of pushing the SCV/Neo-Confederate Movement in a new or profound direction under the guise of southern heritage.

Billy