COL. E. W. TAYLORSONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS #1777

NEWSLETTERNEWSLETTERBedford, Texas.....................January 2012

JANUARY MEETING-JAN. 26, 2012Catfish and Company

900 Airport Freeway #110Hurst, Texas 817-581-3912Eat at 6:15 Meeting at 7:00

The December 1 joint meeting with the UDC,OCR, SCV, and C of C at Arlington’s RollingHills Country Club was a huge success. Ourcamp members attending included (lowerleft then clockwise) Bob and Dana Gresham,and JaAnn and James Alderman. Seatedwith them were our friends Louann and BobRubel. James, at right, presented the“Moment in History” during the program.

760 Jim Wright Freeway, N., Fort Worth, Texas 76108-1222817-246-2323

Our apologies are in order if you’ve been having troubledownloading the newsletter because it’s been too large. Yourhumble newsletter editor knows as much about computers asYou-Know-Who in the White House knows about U. S. geography.I promise no more dumb mistakes until the next one.

Saturday, January 7, 2012 from 10:00am-4:00pm

Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 10:00am-4:00pm

The Buttermilk Junction String Band will performin the gallery at the Texas Civil War Museum on twodates in January:

817-246-2323

IS THERE REALLY ANY RUSH TOGET HISTORICAL

PRESERVATION DONE?DEFINITELY.

2004

2011Your newsletter editor spends alot of his time (and his wife’s)documenting our local CSA vets.Here’s the difference made inMadison Booth’s headstone byacid rain in only SEVEN years!!!If you’ve been meaning to takesome photos, get busy. BirdvilleCemetery.

HOW TO GET A “FREE”MARKER FROM THE V. A.

Obtaining a grave marker fora veteran from the V. A. issurprisingly easy. You send inonly one form, along with somedocumentation, and the stone isdelivered to your door in prettyshort order. You and I are payingfor it, of course, with our taxdollars .

The grave must be unmarked,and you must get the signatureof a cemetery official or next-of-of a cemetery official or next-of-kin of the vet. You must signalso, agreeing to install it.

The form is available onlineat: http://www.va.gov/vaforms/va/ pdf/VA40-1330.pdf

Realistically, this program isone of those which may have tobe discontinued for old-timeveterans in the not-too-distantfuture. As Americans, we all aregoing to have to learn to get bywith much less from ourgovernment.

It’s been a wonderfulprogram, though, and hundredsof thousands of veterans, fromthe Revolutionary War throughthe war in Afghanistan, havebeen honored because of it.

Grapevine Cemetery

JUST IN CASE YOUHAVEN’T HEARD…...one of the best memoirs of aConfederate veteran in existence wasdictated by one of Fort Worth’sfounders, Khleber M. Van Zandt(1836-1930). His amazing childhoodincluded trips to Washington D. C.with his diplomat-father, Republic ofTexas official Isaac Van Zandt. K. M.Van Zandt served as Captain of Co.D, 7th Texas Infantry, and rose to therank of major. He was everywherethat mattered in the building of FortWorth, and even served a term in theWorth, and even served a term in theTexas legislature. Always an advocateof Confederate veterans, he wasNational Commander of the UCV in1918-1921. He was married threetimes and had fourteen children wholived to adulthood.

Near the end of his life he spentpart of each day in his office, that ofPresident of the Fort Worth NationalBank (a post he held for 56 years),dictating his remarkable life story.

Force Without Fanfare is a great,enjoyable read, with lots of familyphotos. It’s widely available fromseveral booksellers on the internet.

…And in case you’ve always wondered aboutthat little cemetery sitting right alongsideHighway 183 in Irving as you’re driving east…

Those of you who are eagle-eyed have probably noticedtwo Confederate headstones in the southwest corner of theplot. One of them’s a CSA vet, the other stone is his wife’s,made to match. This is their family cemetery. The vet buriedhere is Isaac S. Tompkins (1828-1897) who lived for severalyears in Tarrant County before moving just across the lineinto Dallas. He served in a local unit, Co. A, 9th TexasCavalry, from September 1861 until May 1865.

TIME TO BE A 2012 PATRIOTTIME TO BE A 2012 PATRIOT

If your ancestors served the Confederacy, theirgreat-grandfathers were probably in the ContinentalArmy. America’s future hung in the balance in the1770’s, and our kinsmen were ready.

America needs us to be aware and involved in theshaping of our Country when it’s time to vote inNovember. Vigilance kept our country free then,and it will again. The stakes have never been higher.

“…One of the best ways to get yourself areputation as a dangerous citizen these days isto go about repeating the very phrases whichour founding fathers used in the great strugglefor independence.”

Charles Austin Beard (1874-1948)

"Among the many misdeeds of the Britishrule in India, history will look upon theact of depriving a whole nation of arms,as the blackest."

-- Mahatma Gandhi

“To you, Sons of ConfederateVeterans, we will commit thevindication of the Cause for whichwe fought. To your strength willbe given the defense of the Con-federate soldier's good name, theguardianship of his history, theemulation of his virtues, theperpetuation of those principleswhich he loved and which youlove also, and those ideals whichmade him glorious and which youalso cherish. Remember, it is yourduty to see that the true history ofthe South is presented to futuregenerations.” Lt. Gen. Stephen E. Lee,Commander-in-Chief, United Confederate Veterans, 1906

NEVER FORGET

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