The Fort Brooke Record
December 2002
Volume 8, Issue 12
See Back Issues Subscribe
|
The Fort Brooke RecordDecember 2002
|
|
| The "Fort Brooke Record" (FBR) is the monthly newsletter of the Capt. John T. Lesley Camp 1282, Inc, a Camp of the Florida Division, SCV and of the International Sons of Confederate Veterans. The FBR is provided free of charge to members of the Camp. Editorial comments in this publication are the expressed opinion of the editorial writer and not of the Camp. Paid advertisements can in no way be considered an endorsement by this camp. Locally, for inquiries and information on coming to events, the camp maintains a full-time access phone at (813) 661-7045. |
|
PROGRAMME ARTICLE Confederate We have had several programs on leaders of the Confederacy. This is rightly so; no other people have such heroes, men of gallantry, men of honor, men so worthy of emulation. It is unusual that we have a program on heroes from the ranks of enlisted men. In part, this is due to the absence of special awards and honours; for a variety of reasons these were not generally bestowed through the Confederate Army. In one sense this is just; all shared in the danger and privation; all are deserving of special recognition for their service above and beyond the call of duty to their country and to their children. Yet, in very special cases, there were awards given. There are those who have been cited for special bravery. Dr. Crane will present the stories of a select few whose deeds have been recorded and who's bravery allow them to stand out. They are the bravest of the brave.J
Hope to see you on Tuesday, December 17th.
HK Edgerton's March Across Dixie HK Edgerton, the former head of the Asheville, NC NAACP and for the last 5 years, a defender of Confederate causes is a man on a mission. On Monday, October 14th, 2002, Mr. Edgerton, in Confederate uniform and carrying his Third National Flag of the Confederacy, began a 1,300 mile march from Asheville to Austin, Texas. The purpose of HK Edgerton's March Across Dixie is three fold. First, he wants to expand the awareness of the need to defend Southern heritage, history and the rightfulness of the Confederate cause here in the South and across the entire United States. Second, this is an educational effort to show that our Southern symbols are part of a proud heritage that should be defended not scorned, as many liberal politicians, media and special interests would have you believe. Third, he plans to raise money and support to build a permanent heritage defense fund to be split between the Southern Legal Resource Center and the Sons of Confederate Veterans to guarantee our heritage and history survives and prospers despite the current attacks. This is a tall order for a 55 year old Black man, to walk the breadth of the old Confederacy carrying a flag many respect and revere but some hate and despise. HK knows this is an uphill educational battle to educate millions of Southerners who have been taught in the public schools, by liberal politicians and the establishment media that everything Southern is evil, bad or racist. Still, the past slander and distortions by the liberal media, personal attacks by leftwing special interest groups and violent physical assault has not damped Mr. Edgertons love for all the people of Dixie, our symbols and our Confederate heritage. Visit the HK Edgerton March Across Dixie website at http://www.southerncaucus.org/hkedgerton.htm to follow his progress or make a contribution. BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
Because of the great interest, we are bringing back the LeMat Navy Model Caliber .44 revolver for the next drawing. Extremely well-made replica of the original model made for the Confederate Navy in France. 20 gauge shotgun barrel in the center. Cylinder holds 8 shots and one shot gun shell in the bottom. Drawing will be held in the Spring, check your mailbox for your tickets. MARKER DEDICATION IN HONOR OF Stonewall Jackson Camp #1381 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is hosting a gravemarker dedication ceremony for Captain James Roulhac Blount of Company F, 28th Battalion, Georgia Siege Artillery, CSA. Until recently, Captain Blount's grave had gone unmarked for 101 years after his death. The dedication is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 11, 2003, at the Clearwater Municipal Cemetery. The cemetery is located on the north side of the intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Lakeview Road. This observance is being held jointly with the Dixie Chapter and the Mary Custis Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, as well as the Clearwater Harbor Confederate Sentinels of the Children of the Confederacy. Please join us as we pay tribute to Captain Blount's honorable service in the Confederate States Army and the marking of his final resting place. After the ceremony, at 12:00 noon, the Mary Custis Lee Chapter is hosting their Confederate Heroes Luncheon in celebration of the birthdays of Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The special program presentation is "1860's Period Attire" by Kay F. Holley, Honorary President, Florida Division, UDC. The luncheon is being held at the Clearwater Beach Hotel, 500 Mandalay Avenue, Clearwater Beach, Florida. Reservations must be made by Wednesday, January 8, 2003. The luncheon price is $18. Mail payments to Dorris Folwell, Chapter Treasurer, 1704 Golf View Drive, Belleair, FL 33756-1542. For more information on the marker dedication, please contact Art Hays at (727) 781-2664 or at "CHRISTMAS FOR CHILLENS" Sgt. At Arms Mark Miller is organizing a toy drive for chronically ill children who are in and out of the hospital. In conjunction with Kiwanis Club , it will benefit young patients of Children's Medical Services in Tampa. Members have donated money to purchase Confederate Bears to be distributed at the Clinic at the children's party on Friday, December 20. If you didn't contribute for a bear, other toys are welcome. Please contact Mark Miller at 677-2808 to drop off your donations. Camp members in period attire are encouraged to turn out at the party at 10 a.m. (on the 20th) at Lowery Park. Mark reports the Camp's participation was welcomed with open arms as lagging donations was putting this worthwhile annual event in jeopardy. CAMP BUSINESS CAMP WISH LIST The "On Fire" Lesley Camp is constantly striving to fulfill our Charge. The following items are on our 'wish list'. If you can help or know someone who can...please contact any of the officers.
Thoughts about Heritage
They removed Dixie from Southern schools----- They took our Southern Flags down---------------
DAUGHTERS SUE VANDERBILT Excerpted from report by Past United Daughters of the Confederacy Historian General Nelma Crutcher
Ava Eaton, outgoing United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) Tennessee Division President reported on the status of the Vanderbilt matter at the November UDC General Convention. She reported on the anger and animosity exhibited towards the UDC at their meeting with the administration about their plans to change the name of Confederate Memorial Hall. She explained the Division's position - that the sacrifices of the ladies who scrimped and saved to raise funds for the construction of the hall during the Depression - would not be forgotten. If the University wants to change the name, they must pay damages to the UDC. She says attorneys have stepped up to take the case on contingency, but they want to build a war chest to cover expenses. The Tennessee Division of the UDC has filed suit asking either to retain the name OR to return the money, in today's dollars, in effect, they are suing for performance or $5,000,000 (5 million dollars). The Division has set up a defense fund - make checks out to Tennessee Division UDC, and ear marked for Confederate Memorial Hall can be send to: Mrs. Phyllis Dunham Any and all contributions are greatly appreciated. 2 very highly qualified (expensive) lawyers working on our project. Even though they are donating their time, up to a point, there will still be court cost and lots of hidden cost so I am sure it will require several dollars before win this battle. And we do intend to win.!!
|
|||||
|
A Time to Remember Ps 137:1-4: By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said , "sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? These of course were the words of the ancient Israelites that had been captured by the Babylonians and taken as prisoners . They were remembering their home, their land that had been destroyed, that had been invaded and taken away from them. Their lifestyle was no more and they longed for the land that they had loved and would no longer have as it was. I can imagine what my great Grandfather Nathan A. Martin and his brother John D. Martin and the rest of Thurmonds Partisan Rangers thought about their former home land, for when they had gone off to war to fight against an enemy that had invaded their land they were honorably defending their home state of Virginia. They were loyal to the state that they were born in and the state that they loved. The beautiful rolling hills and valleys, rivers and streams full of fish and wild game. A land that was rich in natural resources such as salt, coal, oil, cattle and water ways that led to the growing western part of this country. The Rangers had fought in the great war for Southern Independence, longer in service for their country than the more known Mosbey's Rangers of Northern Virginia. They were now back home trying to restore their farms and their families and getting on with their lives. But now they had come home to a state that they did not even have a say in, West Virginia. They and the other leaders of the then western part of Virginia did not get to vote as to whether they wanted to "susceed" from Virginia. Now they were back home in West Virginia. Some of them never did refer to themselves as West Virginians, but to their dying days they referred to themselves as Virginians. Despite the Rangers' paroles, the war continued in courtooms in southern West Virginia. Most of the Rangers faithfully kept their word to end hostilities. The Rangers' arch-enemies, Lorenzo Dow Garten's Home Guard, were now in control. Judge James Miller recalled that immediately after the war Garten and his Home Guard "proceeded throughout the county to gather up what was called Government property." Miller continued: The horses and material... the Southern soldiers had brought from home from the army, whether United States property or not, were taken charge of, turned over to the Federal authorities and sold. These soldiers [Union Home Guardsmen] have never received any pay for their services. Many of the Rangers' legal troubles had just begun. Unionists took men like Henderson Garten to court for theft, felonious assault and even murder. Monroe county's circuit judge, a former Confederate entrepreneur, speculator, and deserter, named Nathaniel Harrison, professed unyielding loyalty to the Union. As a result, Harrison obtained a judgeship in 1865. He refused to allow testimony from persons who had participated in the Confederate army or had sympathized with the Southern cause or supported it. Harrison therefore refused to hear anybody except Garten's Home Guard or their families or members of the regular Union forces who now lived in the region. His judgments invariably were for Unionist plaintiffs. Harrison's judgments were usually in large sums of money that the defendants were unable to pay. This often forced former Confederates into bankruptcy and few ever paid these claims. Harrison went to Philadelphia shortly after the end of the war and recruited Cyrus Newlin, an educated and wealthy attorney to move to southern West Virginia. Newlin and Harrison collaborated with Unionists to make a small fortune suing southern West Virginia's Partisan leaders. Harrison's personal take in 1865 was over $20,000 from his kickbacks. In 1866, the Republican-dominated West Virginia Legislature impeached and removed Harrison from office for corruption. When he left the bench, Harrison was more hated by everyone than were the Thurmond brothers by Unionists at the height of their activities. Fayette County, home of the Thurmond brothers, was occupied by few families during the war. Immediately following the war, Northern soldiers returned with money to exploit expansive mineral riches that lay just beneath the surface. These Northern carpetbaggers came in and offered the hard pressed residents a few dollars for the mineral rights to their lands. The allure of a few dollars was more than most could stand; the mountaineers sold the rights to the coal beneath them to these Northern speculators. Soon, with rights in pocket, the coal barons came. With the barons came railroads and men to open the earth to feed the growing industrial consumption in the north. With the mines and the railroads came the outlanders. Capt. Bill Thurmond was one of the few natives of the region who maintained his dignity and prospered. Bill Thurmond built a town, which he named after himself, Thurmond, West Virginia. This town became notorious throughout the country. The southern part of West Virginia had forever changed and many of the old soldiers would long for the old days of southwestern Virginia, or 'Ol Virginny as many used to call it. This type of activity took place all over the old south and the carpetbaggers came in and forever destroyed what was left of the old South. But my ancestors and yours bequethed to us the sacred duty of never forgetting the old South and the way of life that they lived. And it is our duty to educate people as to what really happened and the real reason it happened, not what some modern day politically correct professor says happened. As the ancient Israelites would remember their former country so too do we remember our former country, The Confederate States of America. Yes I'm proud to be an American and I'll defend her 'till death but I am a southern American and very proud of it. After all, my family has been here in the south longer than the founding of this here United States of America, they were here in the early 1700's, of Scotch-Irish origin, some of the first settlers in western Virginia. Hope you didn't mind me using my family for this article, but it is something that I can say with all factuality was correct. I want you all to remember to have a wonderful Christmas this year and a Happy Hanukkah to the Siegels, especially Bart. I am yours in the service of the Lord, Jesus Christ and the service of the
From the Adjutants Desk: The John T. Lesley Camp 1282, Sons of Confederate Veterans Muster Roll for the month of December, 2002 registers 174 true Compatriots, 22 loyal Legionnaires and two faithful Associates. The Camp Adjutant takes pleasure in announcing three new members into our midst. J. Edward Sitton a member of Military Order of the Purple Heart, his Confederate Army Ancestor was Private Frank L. Sitton, Co. "B" South Carolina Palmetto Sharpshooters. Ronald C. Cochran, his CSA forefather was Pvt. William Cockerham of Co. "K" 51st Virginia Inf. Capt. James Taylor, USAF has transferred into our Camp from the Major Fontaine Earle Camp # 1453 of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Jonathan F. Busch has reinstated his membership in the SCV. Donation tickets are on sale for the LeMat Navy Model Caliber .44 revolver. These donation tickets are available from Commander Marion Lambert @ 813-839-5153. NOTICE The recent mailing that was sent out by CWO James B. Hayward, (U.S. Army Retired), our Camp Exec. Off., was paid for at his expense. No Camp office supplies including envelopes, printer toner, labels, printing or postage were used in the composition of that mailing! In an effort to cut down on the cost of postage please remit your 2003 SCV Dues to the Camp Adjutant promptly. This will prevent sending a second dues notice. If you have any questions concerning camp business or to process membership paperwork, please do not hesitate in contacting me. Due to special circumstances it is requested that all telephoning be conducted between the hours of 10 AM and 9 PM Monday through Saturday. Col. Dwight Tetrick, Adjutant |
