MAIL CALL

Sons of Confederate Veterans

Fort Blakeley Camp 1864 Commanding

Fort Blakely Garrison Flag

Baldwin County, AL December 2015 Volume 16 Issue 12

Battle of Fort Blakely, April 1865

Dedicated to the memory of the Confederate soldier, the ideals for which he fought and those Southern Patriots

who supported and sacrificed all for the Southern Cause.

MAIL CALL is the official newsletter of Camp 1864 and is published monthly by The Fort Blakeley Camp 1864, Sons of Confederate Veterans

Don Lambert, EDITOR

Message from the Commander’s Tent:

Happy Holidays to everyone! That is not a politically correct salutation. IT is for our

holiday season which included Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years! It is not for

“Winter Holiday” and all the other BS names they have instead of the real ones. It’s

Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays or Warmest Holiday Wishes. It’s a Christmas

Tree, not a holiday tree. So, having said that, I wish you and your families a very

Merry Christmas, a Happy Holiday Season, and a Happy/ Healthy New Year!

“They” are still after our flag and our heritage. They want to change our history. WE need to stay true

to our cause and educate the public every chance we get. Remember, “If we begin to forget any of the veterans, we are not worth

to be remembered by our descendants after we are gone.”

“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory, destroy its books, its culture, its history, then have somebody write

new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.

The world around it will forget even faster.” Milan Hubl, Czech Historian

We had another great crowd at our November meeting. (47 attendees) It was great meeting some new recruits that expressed

an interest in joining the SCV.

Our own Compatriot Jake Pigott was our speaker at our November meeting. His topic was, "Patrick Cleburne Prophet of the

Confederacy". I must say, Jake presented one of the best talks we have ever had. He hit the nail on the head with what is going

on in our society today. It was most timely. General Cleburne was a prophet as he predicted what would take place after the

war. GREAT job Jake!!!

Our speaker for the December 8th meeting will be Dennie Spence, the Librarian/Archivist/Curator at Beauvoir. He will

present his program on the 15th Mississippi Infantry. I am sure it will be informative as well as interesting.

Don’t forget, books are available for check-out at our Camp Library. Contact Camp Librarian Judy Johnson if you are

interested. waterway28@centurytel.net Also, if you have some books you would like to donate to our library, please bring

them to a meeting or contact her of your Commander and we can make arrangements to pick them up. All donations are

appreciated.

Don’t forget, this meeting, we are accepting your donations for the camp to donate to the Jesus Saves Program. This program

touches hundreds of lives and brings Christmas to those less fortunate than us. We have already received some donations and

I thank those compatriots for their generosity.

Remember, we are a 501-2-3 so your donations are tax deductable. We can give you a letter documenting your donation for

you to use for tax purposes.

ATTENTION ALL! Our Annual Lee-Jackson Salute will be held on SATURDAY, January 9, 2016 at 6:00 pm

at the Gift Horse Restaurant in Foley. It is always a special occasion where we honor, not only our Generals

R. E. Lee and T. J. Jackson, but our own Confederate Ancestors at the candle light service during the

evening. Our Alabama SCV Division 1st Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Hill will join us as our guest speaker.

Mark your calendar. Guests are always welcome. Invite someone to attend with you. Bring the family.

Don’t forget about ordering a Ft. Blakeley Name Badge with your Confederate Ancestor bar/bars. Order forms are available

with the Adjutant or Commander. Order one and wear it with pride.

WBTS Q & A: Question – Why was Confederate General Earl Van Dorn shot dead in his headquarters

tent at Spring Hill? Answer – See below

Monthly Confederate Quote:“All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by

our forefathers, should be preserved, and that government as originally organized, should be administered

in truth and purity.” - General Robert E. Lee, CSA

http://www.50states.com/alabama.htm Alabama Department of Archives & History - Alabama marble

building. Oldest state-funded archives in U.S. Research government, private historical records and family

genealogy. Alabama Indian, 19th-century, military and Civil Rights exhibits. For children: Grandma's Attic in

hands-on gallery.

Another Monthly Confederate Quote: General Jubal Early often declared that the “Army of

Northern Virginia had been forced to surrender because it was exhausted from defeating the foe”.

Damn Yankee Quote by Lt. Gen. U. S. Grant: Mosby’s successful disruption of supply lines, attrition

of Union couriers, and disappearance in the disguise of civilians caused Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to tell Maj.

Gen, Philip Sheridan: “The families of Mosby’s men are known and can be collected. I think they should be

taken and kept at Ft. McHenry pr some secure place as hostages for good conduct of Mosby and his men.

When any of them are caught with nothing to designate what they are, hang them without trial.” (Cdr’s

note- Speaks highly of Grant wouldn’t you say?)

Confederate Question: What was the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi never conquered

by Union troops? Answer: Tallahassee, FL

Damn Yankee Quote – “I begin to regard the death and mangling of corpses of thousand men as a

small affair, a kind of morning dash.” – Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman in a letter he wrote to his wife in July

while he was in northern Georgia

(Note- Cdr. To me a man’s own words speaks loads about his character. What say you?)

Another Damn Yankee Quote by that Damn Yankee Sherman – “Next year their lands will be taken,

for in war we can take them, and rightfully too, and another year they will beg in vain for their lives. A

people who will preserve in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many many

people, with less pertinacity than the South, have been wiped out of national existence. To those who

submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent

secessionist, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better.” – Maj. Gen.William T.

Sherman, Native St. Louisan, and brother - in - law to General Thomas Ewing (Order #11) Cdr’s Note- (Yet

they try to make our Confederate ancestors out as the bad guys.) Remember what President Jefferson

Davis said, "All we ask is to be left alone." And we are still asking that.

WBTS Trivia- Roughly 2% of the population, an estimated 620, 000 men, lost their lives in the line of

duty. Taken as a percentage of today’s population, the toll would have risen as high as 6 million souls.

Damn Yankee Trivia: During Sherman's March to the Sea, the Union soldiers would heat up rail road

ties and then bend them around tree trunks. They were nicknamed "Sherman's neckties".

WBTS Fact: The Union Army of 2,100,000 soldiers was nearly twice the size of the Confederate Army

of 1,064,000.

True Slave Quote Note: In the U.S. during the Great Depression (1930s), more than 2,300 oral histories

on life during slavery were collected by writers sponsored and published by the Works Progress

Administration. The following quotes are from those actual interviews. Interesting Fact: 86% of the 2,300

former slaves that were interviewed in the 1930s had positive things to say about their masters and/or

slavery.

True Slave Quote from the Slave Narratives: Robert Farmer, Arkansas - “The Yankees used to come in

blue uniforms and come right on in without asking anything. They would take your horse and ask nothing.

They would go into the smokehouse and take out shoulders, home, and side meat, and they would take all

the wine and brandy that was there.”

True Slave Quote from the Slave Narratives: Elmira Hill, Arkansas - "When we heard the Yankees was

comin' we went out at night and hid the silver spoons and silver in the toilet and buried the meat. After the

war was over and the Yankees had gone home and the jayhawkers had went in - then we got the silver and

the meat. Yes, honey, we seed a time - we seed a time. I ain't grumblin' - I tell em I'm havin' a wusser time

now than I ever had.” … "Yankees used to call me a 'know nothin' cause I wouldn't tell where things was

hid.”

True Slave Quote from the Slave Narratives: William H. Harrison, Arkansas – (Captured Body Servant) -

(The son was Gummal L. Harrison) ” I went with him to war. I was his servant in the battle-field till we

fought at Gettysburg and Manassas Gap. Then I was captured at Bulls Gap and brought to Knoxville,

Tennessee and made a soldier. I was in the War three and one half years… ..."I was with my young master

till my capture. That was my part in freedom. I was forced to fight by the Yankees then in the Union army.”

Damn Yankee Trivia – Clara Barton was a famous nurse to the Union Troops. She was called the

"Angel of the Battlefields" and founded the American Red Cross.

WBTS Q & A: Question – What was the "Swamp Angel" in the WBTS? Answer – A 200-pounder (8-inch)

PARROTT Gun which blew up firing the 36th round.

Confederate Tidbit Question: Answer to last month’s question: The nickname

of Brig. Gen. James A Walker, CSA, of Old Virginia was “Stonewall Jim”.

Confederate Tidbit Question: What was the nickname of Maj. Gen. William Mahone, CSA?

WBTS Quote: "What passes as standard American history is really Yankee history written by

New Englanders or their puppets to glorify Yankee heroes and ideals." --- Dr. Grady McWhiney

Damn Yankee Q & A? – Question – What Union General's Headquarters were described as "Bar

room and Brothel"? Answer – Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. (Note- I bet you guessed that one.)

WBTS Trivia: Sixty six percent of the deaths in the war were due to disease.

http://www.50states.com/alabama.htm Depot museums in Huntsville, Selma and Stevenson offer

glimpses into the lives of Confederate and Union soldiers, and excellent examples of Civil War weaponry

and equipment are on display at Anniston's Berman Museum, Decatur's Blue and Gray Museum and the

Bessemer Hall of History.

After the WBTS Fact- For the former Confederate states, readmission to the Union called for

some hoop jumping, and that took time. Tennessee was first on July 24, 1866; Georgia was last on July 15,

1870

Another Damn Yankee Quote – "a damned old goggled-eyed snapping turtle" - Subordinate officers

so described Union Maj. Gen. George Meade

http://www.50states.com/alabama.htm WBTS Quote: "...They tried to make my uncle Harrison into an

informer, but he wouldn't do it. He was only a boy... They tried to hang him, time and again they tried it,

'stretching his neck', they called it, but he didn't say anything. I think he'd have died before he'd said

anything. He's the one I'm named after, and I'm happy to say that there were people...around at the time

who said I took after him." --- President Harry S. Truman speaking about what the Kansas "Red Legs" did to

his uncle, at age thirteen during the War Between The States.

WBTS Q & A: Answer – He was killed for messing around with another man’s wife.

SHOW YOUR COLORS! Ask Adjutant Doster about a Ft. Blakeley Camp 1864 Lapel Pin. Purchase one

and wear it with pride.

Please remember to join us at our regular meeting on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at the Gift Horse

Restaurant, 209 W. Laurel Ave, (US Hwy 98 W), Foley, Alabama. We hope you can make plans to join us.

Guests are always welcome.

Please don’t forget the men and women serving in our armed forces. Keep them and their families in your

prayers.

Deo Vindice,

Thomas B. Rhodes, III, LTC (USA Retired) Commander

Alabama State Motto- "Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere" (We Dare Defend Our Rights)

Falsifying History on Behalf of Agendas. “US Civil War was about Money not

Slavery” By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Global Research, July 26, 2015

In an article on April 13, 2015, I used the so-called Civil War and the myths with which court historians have

encumbered that war to show how history is falsified in order to serve agendas. I pointed out that it was a

war of secession, not a civil war as the South was not fighting the North for control of the government in

Washington. As for the matter of slavery, all of Lincoln’s statements prove that he was neither for the blacks

nor against slavery.

Yet he has been turned into a civil rights hero, and a war of northern aggression, whose purpose Lincoln

stated over and over was “to preserve the union” (the empire), has been converted into a war to free the

slaves.

As for the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln said it was “a practical war measure” that would help in

defeating the South and would convince Europe, which was considering recognizing the Confederacy, that

Washington was motivated by “something more than ambition.” The proclamation only freed slaves in the

Confederacy, not in the Union. As Lincoln’s Secretary of State put it: “we emancipated slaves where we

cannot reach them and hold them in bondage where we can set them free.”

A few readers took exception to the truth and misconstrued a statement of historical facts as a racist

defense of slavery. In the article below, the well-known African-American, Walter Williams, points out that

the war was about money, not slavery. Just as Jews who tell the truth about Israel’s policies are called “self-

hating Jews,” will Walter Williams be called a “self-hating black?” Invective is used as a defense against

truth.

Racist explanations can be very misleading. For example, it is now a given that the police are racists because

they kill without cause black Americans and almost always get away with it. Here is a case of a true fact

being dangerously misconstrued. In actual fact, the police kill more whites than blacks, and they get away

with these murders also. So how is race the explanation?

The real explanation is that the police have been militarized and trained to view the public as enemy who

must first be subdued with force and then questioned. This is the reason that so many innocent people, of

every race, are brutalized and killed. No doubt some police are racists, but overall their attitude toward the

public is a brutal attitude toward all races, genders, and ages. The police are a danger to everyone, not only

to blacks.

We see the same kind of mistake made with the Confederate Battle Flag. Reading some of the accounts of

the recent Charleston church shootings, I got the impression that the Confederate Battle Flag, not Dylann

Roof, was responsible for the murders. Those declaring the flag to be a “symbol of hate” might be correct.

Possibly it is a symbol of their hatred of the “white South,” a hatred that dates from the mischaracterization

of what is called the “Civil War.” As one commentator pointed out, if flying over slavery for four years

makes the Confederate flag a symbol of hate, what does that make the U.S. flag, which flew over slavery for

88 years?

Flags on a battlefield are information devices to show soldiers where their lines are. In the days of black

powder, battles produced enormous clouds of smoke that obscured the line between opposing forces. In

the first battle of Bull Run confusion resulted from the similarity of the flags. Thus, the Confederate Battle

Flag was born. It had nothing to do with hate.

Americans born into the centralized state are unaware that their forebears regarded themselves principally

as residents of states, and not as Americans. Their loyalty was to their state. When Robert E. Lee was

offered command in the Union Army, he declined on the grounds that he was a Virginian and could not go

to war against his native country of Virginia.

A nonsensical myth has been created that Southerners made blacks into slaves because Southerners are

racist. The fact of the matter is that slaves were brought to the new world as a labor force for large scale

agriculture. The first slaves were whites sentenced to slavery under European penal codes. Encyclopedia

Virginia reports that “convict laborers could be purchased for a lower price than indentured white or

enslaved African laborers, and because they already existed outside society’s rules, they could be more

easily exploited.”

White slavery also took the form of indentured servants in which whites served under contract as slaves for

a limited time. Native Indians were enslaved. But whites and native Indians proved to be unsatisfactory

labor forces for large scale agriculture. The whites had no resistance to malaria and yellow fever. It was

discovered that some Africans did, and Africans were also accustomed to hot climates. Favored by superior

survivability, Africans became the labor force of choice.

Slaves were more prominent in the Southern colonies than in the north, because the land in the South was

more suitable for large scale agriculture. By the time of the American Revolution, the South was specialized

in agriculture, and slavery was an inherited institution that long pre-dated both the United States and the

Confederate States of America. The percentage of slave owners in the population was very small, because

slavery was associated with large land holdings that produced export crops.

The motive behind slavery was to have a labor force in order to exploit the land. Those with large land

holdings wanted labor and did not care about its color. Trial and error revealed that some Africans had

superior survivability to malaria, and thus Africans became the labor force of choice. There was no free

labor market. The expanding frontier offered poor whites land of their own, which they preferred to wages

as agricultural workers.

A racist explanation of slavery and the Confederacy satisfies some agendas, but it is ahistorical.

Explanations are not justifications. Every institution, every vice, every virtue, and language itself has roots.

Every institution and every cause has vested interests defending them. There have been a few efforts, such

as the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution, to remake the world in a day by casting off all

existing institutions, but these attempts came a cropper.

Constant charges of racism can both create and perpetuate racism, just as the constant propaganda out of

Washington is creating Islamophobia and Russophobia in the American population. We should be careful

about the words we use and reject agenda-driven explanations.

Readers are forever asking me, “what can we do.” The answer is always the same. We can’t do anything

unless we are informed.

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SCV F T. B LAKELEY CA MP #1864

MINUTES

NOVEMB ER 10, 2014

Opening Welcome – Commander Tommy Rhodes

Invocation – Chaplain Jerry Rowley

Meal – Seafood Buffet

Open Meeting: Call to Order

• Flag Pledge and Salute – Color Sergeant Craig Stoffle

• Introduction of Guest – Adjutant Herman Doster

• Program: Compatriot Jake Pigott- "Patrick Cleburne Prophet of the Confederacy"

Chaplain’s Report: - Chaplain Jerry Rowley

• Call for report on illness, etc.

Prayer List- David Mader, Judy Doster, Chaplain Jerry Rowley, Trudy Rowley, Tom Ball, Judy Dove and Ron

Dove, Helen Myers, Raphael Waldburg, Bill Rowe, HG Judy Johnson, Ed Underhill, Sr.

Member Induction Ceremony- Compatriots Richard Kozik, Bill McInnis, Rick Byrd, and Joe Taliaferro

New Members pending- Chris Knighton, Doug Wilson

• Heritage Guard Induction: Amy Beitler

• SCV Supplemental Certificates- n/a

Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Herman Doster

• Treasurer’s Report

1st

Lieutenant Commander’s Report: 1st

Lt. Cdr. Tony Shoemaker

• Upcoming programs –

o Dec 8th

– Dennie Spence, Librarian/Archivist/Curator at Beauvoir- TBA

o Jan 9th

(Saturday) – Lee-Jackson Salute: AL Div 1st

Cdr Jimmy Hill

o Feb 9th

– Bryan Clark – “Confederate Uniforms”

o Mar 8th

– James Ronald Kennedy – "The 'Civil War' Did Not End Slavery"

o Apr 10th

– Confederate Memorial Service, Confederate Rest, Point Clear

o Apr 12th

– Robert Wisniewski - "The Great Cotton Gamble and the Ruin of the Old South."

Adjutant’s Report: Adjutant Herman Doster

• Membership Status – 114 Total Members

3 Cadet Members

9 Associate Members

9 Heritage Guard Members Total- 135

Graves and Monuments Chair Report: Compatriot Richard Sheely

• Monuments/VA Markers Report

• Guardian Program Report

o 25 AL Division Guardian Members- (Number in progress _2_)

o One National Guardian Member

Old Business:

• Presented the SCV Commendation Medal to Mail Call Editor Don Lambert

• SCV Name Badges

• AL SCV Car Tags

• Heritage Guard Applications

• Recruit- Family members, friends, co-workers, church members, etc… Invite them to come to a

meeting with you. Give a SCV membership for Christmas

New Business:

• Jesus Cares Program- Christmas Donations – Nov and Dec meetings or mail to Adjutant

Door Prizes: Treasurer Herman Doster

Announcements: Next Meeting- Tuesday, 6:00 PM, December 8, 2015

Benediction by Chaplain Jerry Rowley

Commander Recites: The SCV Charge

Commander Recites: The SCV Closing

Commander Calls on Camp Musician Craig Bruce to lead the singing of “Dixie”.

******************************************************************************************

THE MEETNG IN PICTURES - Next Page

Newly sworn in Compatriot Joe Taliaferro and Pat

Taliaferro.

Left: Camp Musician Craig Bruce provides dinner music

while

everyone

enjoys the

buffet.

New recruit Sam Mitchell and Compatriot Tom Beitler. In the back, Kim McInnis and

Compatriots Bill McInnis, Ray Fleet and Tom Renick.

Compatriot David

Chapman, Bridgett Kaiser

and Compatriot Todd

Kaiser are giving

someone their undivided

attention.

Featured Speaker Compatriot Jake Pigott’s topic was

“Patrick Cleburne: Prophet of the Confederacy”. He

delivered a well developed personal and pertinent

deduction from his research.

PROPHET OF THE CONFEDERACY

Cleburne was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1828. His

father was a doctor and he wished to follow in his

footsteps but he failed the entrance examinations to

medical school and enlisted in the British Army. He

was discharged in 1849 and shortly thereafter, he and

three of this siblings immigrated to the United States

and settled in Helena, Arkansas where he succeeded

as a pharmacist and a property attorney. With the

outbreak of the war in 1861, he enlisted with the Yell

Rifles and began his rise to general, distinguishing

himself in numerous battles including the Battle of

Shiloh, Bragg’s Heartland Offensive in Kentucky,

Battle of Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga,

Ringgold, Georgia and the campaigns in Atlanta and Franklin, Tennessee where he was killed in the

Battle of Franklin.

In January of 1864, Cleburne gave a talk to his fellow generals of the Army of Tennessee. He outlined

what he believed would happen if the Confederacy lost the war. There are two passages in his talk that

proved to be prophetic. They were, as follows:

(1) “Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is to late…it means

that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by

Northern school teachers, will learn from Northern school books their version of the war, will be

impressed by all influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, our

maimed veterans as fit objects for derision”.

(2) “It is said slavery is all we are fighting for…even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not

what our enemies are fighting for. It is merely a pretense to establish sectional superiority and a

more centralized form of government and to deprive us of our rights and liberties”.

Let us examine how General Cleburne’s “prophesies” were implemented.

First, the Confederacy is defined as treasonous and evil. The war is called a Civil War. A civil war is

between two rival factions within the same country. The “protagonists” were called Southern and the

“defenders of federalism” were called “Northern” as if it were the Southern United States versus the

Northern United States. So, you see, if it was a civil war, the southern states were in rebellion, hence,

traitors. Southern soldiers were called “Rebels” and their flag the “Rebel Flag”. The South is pro-

slavery.

This propaganda serves to deny the legitimacy of succession and deny the idea of state sovereignty. The

Confederate philosophy – states’ rights and liberties – was to be erased from their minds. When, in fact,

it was the Confederate States of America versus the United States of America.

Second, the Northern states would reconstruct their minds with the Yankee philosophy – a strong

centralized federal government. The education system will be the vehicle for this campaign. Have you

ever heard the phrase…”the philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of

government in the next”? The reconstruction process will begin by contrasting the pro-slavery

Confederacy with anti-slavery Union. Cleburne said “the war is a pretense by the North to establish

sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government and to deprive us of our rights and

liberties”.

The Union used slavery as a cover story for their true intention of domination over the southern states.

The same could be said today. By tying the Confederacy to slavery, they are implicitly training people to

think the Confederacy’s ideas were wrong because the Confederacy fought for slavery. Implicitly,

training people to think the Union’s ideas were good because the Union fought against slavery.

So, what is the importance of General Cleburne’s remarks to us? I seems as though we are pouring all of

our efforts and resources in combatting anti-Confederate activity. That is like a doctor fighting the

symptoms of the disease and not the disease itself.

I believe we are all at a critical moment right now. If we continue to allow false history to be taught, the

number of indoctrinated southerners will increase and anti-Confederate activities will get worse. We are

bound by the oaths we took to carry out that mission of ensuring that those “old times” are, indeed, not

forgotten. Jake Pigott

(This article has been edited from its original format due to its length. If you would like a copy of Jake’s

original manuscript, I will send one to you. Don Lambert: donlambert5@gmail.com)

What in the world is Graves Officer

Richard Sheely measuring to elicit such

enjoyment from Compatriots Todd

Kaiser and Color Sergeant Craig

Stoffle?

Commandant Rhodes presents Compatriot Amy Beitler with Commandant Rhodes

Don Lambert the SCV Commendation Medal. after being sworn in as a Heritage Guard

Member of Camp 1864.

FORGET THEM COOKIES, LEAVE SOMETHING FOR US! FORGET THEM COOKIES, LEAVE SOMETHING FOR US! FORGET THEM COOKIES, LEAVE SOMETHING FOR US! FORGET THEM COOKIES, LEAVE SOMETHING FOR US!

Comments from LT Gen Jubal A. Early, CSA, 1870

In view of the results, so far, of the unfortunate war now progressing between two of the greatest

powers of Europe, nearly equal in men and resources, and each having the benefit of the most

improved engines of war, may we not look the world squarely in the face, point to our struggle, and the

sacrifices and sufferings we endured for the cause for which we fought, and challenge its judgment as

to whether we are to be regarded as "rebels and traitors," who were seeking to overturn a "benign

government?" In conclusion, let me quote from the above-mentioned report of General Grant the

following passage:

"General Lee's great influence throughout the whole South caused his example to be followed, and to-

day the result is that the armies lately under his leadership are at their homes, desiring peace and

quiet, and their arms are in the hands of our ordnance officers."

Thus wrote the General-in-Chief of the United States armies—the now President of the United States—

on the 22d of July, 1865. Yet we have not had peace. The heel of the military power, supplanting all civil

government, is scarce yet withdrawn from our necks, and our venerated and beloved commander has

gone down to his grave with his great heart broken by the sufferings of his people—sufferings which

he found himself powerless to relieve. We have just witnessed the elections throughout several States

of this "Free Republic," some of which are called "loyal States," superintended by armed agents of the

United States Government, backed by United States troops, for the purpose of perpetuating the power

of the ruling faction, through the instrumentality of the ballot in the hands of an ignorant and inferior

race. This thing has been tamely submitted to by the descendants of men who rushed to arms to resist

the stamp act, the tea tax, and the quartering acts of the British Parliament. We look on in amazement

at the spectacle presented, conscious that, come what may, we have. done our duty in endeavoring to

maintain the principles of our fathers, and aware of the fact that we are now powerless and helpless—

our only earthly consolation being that derived from a sense of duty performed and the conviction that

the world will yet learn to do justice to our acts and motives.

Very respectfully,

J. A. EARLY,

Late Lieutenant-General Confederate Army.

LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA, November 19th, 1870.

VIRGINIA MOBBERLEY’S CONFEDERATE GUERRILLA COMMAND

Commanding officer: Captain John W. Mobberley

As Northern Virginia guerrilla leader Mobberly earned a reputation as the “meanest” Confederate east of

Missouri. Originally a member of White’s 35th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Mobberly ended up leading an

independent unit in his own home neighborhood during the war’s last 2 1/2 years.

With Union deserter French Bill and an elusive band of “ruthless horsemen”, he fought irregularly in

Loudoun County and the Harpers Ferry area with lightning raids from their mountain hideouts. Mobberly

was known for miraculous feats of horsemanship, a very full social life, foolhardy risk-taking and narrow

escapes. A comrade wrote in “Prince of the Daredevils”, XXVII Confederate Veteran 288, that this young

man was the bravest of the brave, and probably personally killed more Yankee soldiers than any man in

Lee’s army. Though reviled by Unionists as an illiterate, illegitimate bandit, no gentleman, and perhaps a

Jew, Mobberly was “mourned as a romantic hero” by impressive crowds of Confederate ladies when

“assassinated” at the war’s end.

General Order No. 73

To those that don’t understand what was so gallant and chivalrous about the army that Robert E. Lee led, you

might cast an eye over his General Order No. 73. Compare it to the conduct of Sherman's troops as they were

burning city after city, emptying hospitals, and seizing crops and everything else they could get their hands on

as they proceeded on their March to the Sea.

Here is what General Lee told his troops as they crossed into Pennsylvania for their rendezvous with destiny at

a crossroads town called Gettysburg :

Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

June 27, 1863

The commanding general has observed with marked satisfaction the conduct of the troops on the march, and

confidently anticipates results commensurate with the high spirit they have manifested.

No troops could have displayed greater fortitude or better performed the arduous marches of the past ten

days. Their conduct in other respects has with few exceptions been in keeping with their character as soldiers,

and entitles them to approbation and praise. There have however been instances of forgetfulness on the part

of some, that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the army, and that the duties expected of us

by civilization and Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own.

The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole

people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed, and defenceless and the wanton

destruction of private property that have marked the course of the enemy in our own country. Such

proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and all connected with them, but are subversive of the

discipline and efficiency of the army, and destructive of the ends of our present movement.

It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the

wrongs our people have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been

excited by the atrocities of our enemies, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without

whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain. The commanding general therefore earnestly

exhorts the troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury to private

property, and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who shall in any way

offend against the orders on this subject.

R. E. Lee

General

FORT BLAKELY CAMP 1864

BALDWIN COUNTY, ALABAMA

2003, 2011, 2012 ALABAMA DIVISION

CAMP OF THE YEAR

2003, 2008, 2009, 2010 AL DIV, 2009 National Newsletter of the Year