Finley’s Brigade
Camp 1614
Gadsden County Florida
August 2005
Camp meeting time and place; On August 9, 2005 we will be meeting at the Old South
located at 1238 Capital Circle SE. The meeting starts at 7:00 PM but the eating starts at
6:00 PM. Come on out and bring your ideas. It is time to start planning our Lee-Jackson
banquet and other fun things.
Just a reminder that August is the month that our annual membership fees are due.
Everyone needs to remember that headquarters has shorten the grace period for late
payment. We don’t want to lose anyone because of unpaid dues. Unless you are a life
member you need to get your dues to Adjutant Avery as soon as possible. Let’s be the
first camp in Florida to send a check to Elm Springs. This would also be a good time to
think about becoming a life member. You can pay for it at one hundred dollars per year
plus twenty dollars for the current year until paid up. I realize this it is a lot of money,
but hey, you have a lot of life.
We salute compatriot Quinton Paul and his able assistant R.L. Massey and crew for their
ongoing efforts to clean and repair the historic cemeteries of Gadsden County. They
have been faithfully working every Saturday for quit some time now. They are currently
at Eastern Cemetery in Quincy where other Finley Brigade members have joined them to
assist in restoring Confederate graves. In July new grave stone foundations were made
for Capt. Abner Smith of the 8th Florida and Owen Willis Pittman of the Home Guard.
Both stones had fallen over but by good fortune neither had broken.
Work day schedule: Several camp members have expressed a desire to help with the
various projects that are preformed by our camp. There has seemed to be a problem in
scheduling and advance notice that keeps us from being as productive as we could be.
This was discussed at the July camp meeting and hopefully we have a workable solution.
The second Saturday of every month, with exceptions for holidays and weather, has been
selected as our camp work day. A description of the project, its location, time, etc. will
be announced in the preceding Camp Cresset along with the name and number of the
project manager for you to call so that he will know what help he has to assist in his
planning. Let me ask that you be there if you volunteer for a day. Changing your mind
at the last minute puts an added burden on the other guys. There is much that needs our
attention and I hope some of it will interest you. Lt. M. Carroll
Reports from the National Convention were very encouraging. By all indications our
organization has resolved many problems of the past and is now on solid ground for the
future. One of the important resolutions passed was to change the Sons of Confederate
Veterans from a Mississippi Corporation to a Texas Corporation. This will align the
corporation more closely with the intent of our SCV constitution and allow us to
restructure as needed for the coming years.
Another good move was to prorate membership dues. This should be beneficial to
recruiting as new members will no longer be charged full dues for a partial year.
Jack Bridwell of Georgia was elected as Commander of the Army of Tennessee filling a
vacancy of that position. Jack is dedicated to the cause and should make us a fine
commander. Jack is the guy seen wearing kilts on many occasions.
This month in history: August 1862, President Jefferson Davis announces that he is
recommending the promotion of Edmund Kirby Smith and William W. Loring of Florida
to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate Army. Florida a hundred years ago.
Southern quote: “The Army of Northern Virginia was never defeated; it just wore its
self out whipping the enemy.” General Jubal Anderson Early. General Early never
surrender or took the oath. He evaded capture until pardoned by President Johnson in
1868.
“Fiddle dee dee. War, war, war. This war talk is spoiling all the fun at every party this
spring. I get so bored I could scream.” Scarlett O’Hara
Epitaphs for the most part are a Bible verse or something short because of space and
maybe cost. This does not seem to be the case in the one for A.D. Love who has a
marker in the Old Philadelphia Church Cemetery in Gadsden County. Confederate Love
died at the battle of Chancellorsville May 3, 1863 at the age of twenty seven.
“He died for the South and his loss we deplore, yet we feel he has come to that blessed
heavenly shore where no sorrow can come and the wicked shall cease from oppressing
the right and the weary find rest. In the day of his youth he remembered his God and trod
in the path which his father had trod and the laurel shall flourish and wave over the lamb
of the patriot soldier who died for his home.”