CSA: IN THE BEGINNING
The citizens of the Confederate States of America were NOT Rebels because they had NO allegiance to the United States of America and had NO desire to overthrow the USA government.
The people of the Confederate States of America were NOT Traitors because they were citizens of ANOTHER sovereign nation and could not be legally tried in Union court as traitors.
In 1861, ALL states were sovereign states and had no allegiance to one nation, and thus were called "these" United States NOT "the" United States.
In February 1861, the South legally seceded and legally created a sovereign nation called the Confederate States of America - our nation's ORIGINAL name in 1776. Therefore, the war that ensued from 1861 to 1865 was NOT:
- A Civil War
- A War between the States
BUT, in reality:
- A war between 2 sovereign nations - the CSA and USA
- An unlawful invasion of the CSA by the USA
- A War of Northern Aggression
- The War for Southern Independence (as our American Independence in 1776)
So, we were NOT rebels or traitors BUT Americans living in the Confederacy.
(NOTE: At the 1787 Continental Convention, the committee adopted James Madison's proposal that the federal government CANNOT prevent a sovereign state from seceding.)
Believe it or not, that IS reality!
So, I proudly exercise my RIGHT to fly the Army of Tennessee Battle Flag, the Confederate Southern Cross, or the Confederate Battle Flag AS A REMINDER when AMERICANS were brave enough to stand up to and fight an invading, over-reaching, unconstitutional, tyrannical government.
---From the son of a Confederate Veteran
Dixie Diva
Southern elders speak plain hard truth; they have a knowledge of how our world works and who is a threat to our people. The old Southerns know the Federal lies.The red pill is tough. Our Southern elders are 100% RIGHT about all the attacks on Southern Culture and Heritage.
"I said long ago that it wouldn't stop with Confederate statues & monuments, or even with statues & monuments representing White men. I said it would eventually come down to getting rid of all Christian iconography, as well as crosses, steeples, & churches themselves. It's happening.--MH"
Dixie Diva 6/24/2020
I AM THEIR FLAG
In 1861, when they perceived their rights to be threatened, when those who would alter the nature of the government of their fathers were placed in charge, when threatened with change they could not accept, the mighty men of valor began to gather. A band of brothers, native to the Southern soil, they pledged themselves to a cause: the cause of defending family, fireside, and faith. Between the desolation of war and their homes they interposed their bodies and they chose me for their symbol.
I Am Their Flag.
Their mothers, wives, and sweethearts took scissors and thimbles, needles and thread, and from silk or cotton or calico - whatever was the best they had - even from the fabric of their wedding dresses, they cut my pieces and stitched my seams.
I Am Their Flag.
On courthouse lawns, in picnic groves, at train stations across the South the men mustered and the women placed me in their hands. "Fight hard, win if possible, come back if you can; but, above all, maintain your honor. Here is your symbol," they said.
I Am Their Flag.
They flocked to the training grounds and the drill fields. They felt the wrenching sadness of leaving home. They endured sickness, loneliness, boredom, bad food, and poor quarters. They looked to me for inspiration.
I Am Their Flag.
I was at Sumter when they began in jubilation. I was at Big Bethel when the infantry fired its first volley. I smelled the gun smoke along Bull Run in Virginia and at Belmont along the Mississippi. I was in the debacle at Fort Donelson; I led Jackson up the Valley. For Seven Days I flapped in the turgid air of the James River bottoms as McClellan ran from before Richmond. Sidney Johnston died for me at Shiloh as would thousands of others whose graves are marked "Sine Nomine," - without a name - unknown.
I Am Their Flag.
With ammunition gone they defended me along the railroad bed at Manassas by throwing rocks. I saw the fields run red with blood at Sharpsburg. Brave men carried me across Doctor's Creek at Perryville. I saw the blue bodies cover Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg and the Gray ones fall like leaves in the Round Forest at Stones River.
I Am Their Flag.
I was a shroud for the body of Stonewall after Chancellorsville. Men ate rats and mule meat to keep me flying over Vicksburg. I tramped across the wheat field with Kemper and Armistead and Garnett at Gettysburg. I know the thrill of victory, the misery of defeat, the bloody cost of both.
I Am Their Flag.
When Longstreet broke the line at Chickamauga, I was in the lead. I was the last off Lookout Mountain. Men died to rescue me at Missionary Ridge. I was singed by the wildfire that burned to death the wounded in the Wilderness. I was shot to tatters in the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania. I was in it all from Dalton to Peachtree Creek, and no worse place did I ever see than Kennesaw and New Hope Church. They planted me over the trenches at Petersburg and there I stayed for many long months.
I Am Their Flag.
I was rolled in blood at Franklin; I was stiff with ice at Nashville. Many good men bade me farewell at Sayler's Creek. When the end came at Appomattox, when the last Johnny Reb left Durham Station, many of them carried fragments of my fabric hidden on their bodies.
I Am Their Flag.
In the hard years of so-called "Reconstruction," in the difficulty and despair of years that slowly passed, the veterans, their wives and sons and daughters, they loved me. They kept alive the tales of valor and the legends of bravery. They passed them on to the grandchildren and they to their children, and so they were passed to you.
I Am Their Flag.
I have shrouded the bodies of heroes, I have been laved with the blood of martyrs, I am enshrined in the hearts of millions, living and dead. Salute me with affection and reverence. Keep undying devotion in your hearts. I am history. I am heritage, not hate. I am the inspiration of valor from the past. I Am Their Flag. ~Dr. Michael Bradley~
TRUTH ABOUT THE WAR BETWEEN THE USA AND THE CSA: SLAVERY, TAXES AND THE SOUTH
The slave trade begin in Africa. Warring African tribes would capture rival tribal people and sell them to slave traders in the harbors of Africa. None of the slave traders were American ships, it was people of color selling other people of color who eventually ended up in the American colonies.
Today we see Southern history and the symbols of the Southern States being destroyed and banned by those ignorant of true history. The South is blamed as the origin of the slave trade and negative treatment of other human beings of color but in truth, slavery began in Africa by African people of color.
The Confederate Flag is slandered as a symbol of hate but it never flew on any slave vessel. The memorial statues of Confederate War Veteran's are being destroyed and the graves of Confederate dead are being desecrated. Ignorance is dangerous.
The first African slaves arrived in the American Colonies in 1619.
White folks from Ireland and Oriental people were also sold as slaves and brought to the American colonies.
In 246 years of slavery in America the Confederate flag only flew for 4 of those years. Slavery was established and maintained for 242 years under the United States flag and the British flag; consider that when discussing banning flags.
In 1776 there were twice as many slaves in New York as in Georgia.
The Civil War was never about slavery. President Lincoln stated on several occasions that the war was the result of taxes, the tax on cotton. Lincoln wanted to raise the tax on export cotton by forty percent; the cotton producing states felt the government was overreaching and decided to leave the union. Lincoln did not intend to allow the secession of the South. The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862;
it changed the federal legal status of Africans enslaved in the designated areas of the South from slave to free, this was done as a political tactic to try and hurt the South. Lincoln did not free over 51,000 slaves counted in the 1860 census in the states and territories that would make up the Union during the Civil War. Northern slaves as historical facts show were not set free in the north until after the end of the war under the United States flag.
Know true, fact based history before disrespecting the Heritage and Heroes of the South. The South fought against taxation without representation. The South fought for freedom against a tyrannical government.
Southern men did not fight and die so someone else could own slaves.
- Dixie Diva
ABE LINCOLN AND THE EMANCIPATION
PRCOLAMATION: THE TRUTH
Ever read the full text of Abe Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation?
If so, you know that he only freed slaves in Southern Confederate states; and he did not free all of those slaves. The slave states that were part of the Union were not affected; Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, got to keep their slaves.
The Haiti slave rebellion of 1804 was in Lincoln's mind because of the brutality of it; freed slaves rose up and ruthlessly murdered French women and children.
Lincoln had hoped that freed slaves in the Confederacy would rise up as well, making for a speedy end to the war. But alas, that did not happen, some freed slaves joined the Confederate Army.
He never cared about slavery as his letter to Horace Greeley proved. Lincoln stated his only goal was restoring the Union by any means necessary as he missed the Southern taxation income. Lincoln told Greeley that if he could restore the Union without freeing a single slave, he would; It is a lie that the war was fought to free slaves.
Abe Lincoln is one of the grandest examples of racism and proof of the power of a propaganda campaign in America. He was a racist and those celebrating his life with adoration are ignorant of his support of black subjugation. Lincoln was no friend of the black community and he was no abolitionist.
Sources: A. Lynn & Saving the Heritage
THE REBEL YELL
“As all veterans of the great war know, in a charge the Confederates did not preserve their alignment, as the Federals did. They usually went at a run, every man more or less for himself. There was also an inexplicable difference between the battle cries of the Federal and Confederate soldiers. In the assaults of the Federals the cries were regular, like "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" simply cheers, lacking stirring life. But the Confederate cries were yells of an intensely nervous description; every man for himself yelling "Yai, Yai, Yi, Yai, Yi!" They were simply fierce shrieks made from each man's throat individually, and which cannot be described, and cannot be reproduced except under the excitement of an assault in actual battle. I do not know any reason for this marked difference unless it was in the more pronounced individuality of the average Confederate soldier.”
Source: “LIFE IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY BEING PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY,” BY ARTHUR P. FORD, 1905.
A FORMER SLAVE DEFENDS THE CONFEDERATE FLAG
When you see a Confederate flag, remember a former slave by the name of John F. Harris. In 1890, twenty-five years after the war, Mr. Harris was serving as a Mississippi representative in the House of Representatives. During his term, a bill came before the house to erect a monument to the Confederate soldiers of Mississippi. Mr. Harris could have remained silent and coasted along the easy road of “political correctness,” but his burning bravery wouldn’t allow such cowardice. Here’s what he said when he took the floor:
"Mr. Speaker! I have risen here in my place to offer a few words on the bill. I have come from a sick bed . . . perhaps it was not prudent for me to come. But, sir, I could not rest quietly in my room without . . . contributing . . . a few remarks of my own. I was sorry to hear the speech of the young gentleman from Marshall County. I am sorry that any son of a soldier should go on record as opposed to the erection of a monument in honor of the brave dead. And, sir, I am convinced that had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines and in the Seven Days’ fighting around Richmond, the battlefield covered with the mangled forms of those who fought for their country and for their country’s honor, he would not have made that speech. . . . When the news came that the South had been invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made no requests for monuments . . . But they died, and their virtues should be remembered. Sir, I went with them. I too wore the gray, the same color my master wore. We stayed four long years, and if that war had gone on till now I would have been there yet . . . I want to honor those brave men who died for their convictions. When my mother died I was a boy. Who, Sir, then acted the part of a mother to an orphaned slave boy, but my old missus? Were she living now, or could speak to me from those high realms where are gathered the sainted dead, she would tell me to vote for this bill. And, Sir, I shall vote for it. I want it known to all the world that my voice is given in favor of the bill to erect a monument in honor of the Confederate dead."
A former slave and Confederate soldier, now an elected official of Mississippi, defending the South’s honor. Not only did he vote in favor of the passage of this bill, but his address led all six black Republican representatives in voting favorably of the same. Indeed Southerners of Color, are Southerners nonetheless. We honor John F. Harris for his example and integrity, as well as his love of the South land, despite the hardships he no doubt endured.
Deo Vindice!
Defending the Heritage
Source: Reprint from the Daily Clarion Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, Feb 23, 1890.
A UNION GENERAL ADMITS THE TRUTH
The true story of the late war has not yet been told. It probably never will be told. It is not flattering to our people; unpalatable truths seldom find their way into history.
How the Rebels fought the world will never know; for two years they kept an army in the field that girt their borders with a fire that shriveled our forces as they marched in, like tissue paper in a flame. Southern people were animated by a felling that the word fanaticism feebly expresses; A Love of Liberty expresses it.
For two years this feeling held those Rebels to a conflict in which they were invincible. The North poured out its noble soldiery by the thousands and they fought well, but their broken columns and thinned lines drifted back upon our capitol, with nothing but shameful disasters to tell of the dead, the dying, the lost colors and the captured artillery.
Grant’s road from the Rapidan to Richmond was marked by a highway of human bones. The Northern army had more killed than the Confederate Generals had in command. The men of the South, half starved, unsheltered, in rags, shoeless, yet fighting gallantly against tyranny as Grant marched from the Rapidan to Richmond leaving dead behind him; more men dead than the Confederates had in the Field.
Source: Union General Piatt “Men Who Saved the Union”
Gen. Piatt (U. S. Army) 1887.
Source: Acts of the Republican Party as seen by History, By C. GARDNER, 1906.
A C0NFEDERATE SEARGENT'S POEM
I’ve roamed the hills of might've been
and the swamps of just suppose
I’ve read of our southern Confederacy,
its poetry and its prose
I have crossed the deserts of what if,
Through the bleak and burning sand
A thirst with longing still unquenched
and a love for this dear land
how close we came to victory!
how close and yet, so far.
with nothing left but glory's ashes.
And a bitter unhealing scar
Who can tell the moment
When our star crossed cause was lost?
who can tell with certainty what the death of Stuart cost?
Had Bragg stood fast at Munfordville
Buell's way to bar
Had Neer Pickett's men been ordered
to cross that field so far
Had Albert Sidney Johnson's blood
not soaked the ground where he lay
might the Victory grasped in Shiloh's woods
Made complete the second Day?
Had Jackson lived... and westward gone
To command the army of Tennessee
with that wizard of the saddle
Forrest as his chief of cavalry
What of those lost orders
in the grass at Fredrick town
Was this the straw, blown in the wind
That blew our banners down?
Was the fate of our proud nation
There written in the stars....
And did anyone, I wonder
ever smoke those dammed cigars?
Though I’m looking back in anger
Down the roads of long ago
Tis better than what the future holds
if our heritages laid low
Lift your heads, ye Southerns
and do your fathers proud.
Teach your children of their birthright...
For though yet conquered we're unbowed!
By Sgt Benjamin R. Gormley - April 1992
THE DAY LINCOLN PAID A VISIT TO
THE SHARPSBURG BATTLEFIELD
In 1862, a story appeared in the periodicals that created a great deal of damaging talk until Lincoln's death in 1865. Newspapers continued to relate the story and challenge denial; denials were never made until long after Mr. Lincoln's demise.
A New Jersey Statesman from Sussex related the story in 1862 as follows:
We see that many papers are referring to the fact that Lincoln ordered a comic song to be sung upon the battlefield. We have known the facts of the transaction for some time, but have refrained from speaking about them. As the newspapers are stating some of the facts, we will give the whole.
Soon after one of the most desperate and sanguinary battles, Mr. Lincoln visited the Commanding General [McClellan], who, with his staff, took him over the field, and explained to him the plan of the battle, and the particular places where the battle was most fierce.
At one point the Commanding General said: “Here on this side of the road five hundred of our brave fellows were killed, and just on the other side of the road, four hundred and fifty more were killed, and right on the other side of that wall five hundred rebels were destroyed. We have buried them where they fell.”
“I declare,” said the President, “this is getting gloomy; let us drive away.” After driving a few yards, the President said, “Jack,” speaking to his companion, “can't you give us something to cheer us up? Give us a song, a lively one.”
Whereupon, Jack struck up, as loud as he could bawl, a comic negro song, which he continued to sing while they were riding off from the battle ground, and until they approached a regiment drawn up, when the Commanding General said : “Would it not be well for your friend to cease his song till we pass this regiment? The poor fellows have lost more than half their number. They are feeling very badly, and I should be afraid of the effect it would have on them.”
The President asked his friend to stop singing until they passed the regiment.
When this story was told to us we said: “It is incredible, it is impossible, that any man could act so over the fresh-made graves of the heroic dead. “But the story is told on such authority we know it to be true. We tell the story now that the people may have some idea of the man elected to be President of the United States.
Source: Facts Falsehoods Concerning the War on the South 1861-1865, By George Edmonds, 1904.
A PRAYER FOR THE SOUTH
Our Father, Thank you for protecting us during this time of destruction and unrest. Thank you for being the source of all truth and the knowledge that when we stand for truth that we are standing with you! Thank you for coming to this earth and freely giving your earthly life in order to redeem all those that trust you as their personal Lord and Savior! May we always remember that you showed us the greatest love ever known when you died on a cruel cross to pay for our sins. Thank you for loving us so much that you have given each of us an opportunity to respond to your salvation. Lord, Bless each one that is standing for truth by standing up for our heritage this week and in the weeks to come.
Jesus, we ask that you would touch the lives of those who are suffering today using us as your children, as instruments of your divine love, to point them to your cross and your empty tomb, that they might find peace in the midst of their storms! Where there is pain and hurt, bind up their wounds as the Balm of Gilead! Where there is loss and grief, fill their hearts with your love as the Prince of Peace! Thank you for healing that you have brought to many but we continue to lift up those that are in the hospital and suffering at home. Help us as your children to convey your love at every opportunity.
Lord, we are forever indebted to you for the wonderful Southern heritage you have given us that is now our responsibility to preserve for our children and those that come after us. May our actions be always for the purpose of pointing others toward the truth and always be glory to you and not dishonour to those that have gone before us. We may face, at times, discouragements and heartache as our faith and the things upon which our culture is built are attacked and maligned but help us to remember that truth will always reign supreme in the end. It is in the Holy and Precious name of Jesus Christ that we pray - Amen!
Source: Defending the Heritage
itunes.apple.com
YA JUST GOTTA REMIND YOURSELF OF WHO YOU ARE...
Author: Unknown
"I am a Southerner . . .
I won’t apologize
I won’t be reconstructed.
I will not surrender
My identity, my heritage.
I believe in the Constitution,
In States’ Rights,
That the government should be the
Servant, not the Master of the people.
I believe in the right to bear arms,
The right to be left alone.
I am a Southerner . . .
The spirit of my Confederate ancestor
Boils in my blood.
He fought
Not for what he thought was right,
But for what was right.
Not for slavery,
But to resist tyranny, Machiavellian laws,
Oppressive taxation, invasion of his land,
For the right to be left alone.
I am a Southerner
A rebel,
Seldom politically correct,
At times belligerent.
I don’t like DOW, AS, SELC,
Or modern neocon politicians like them.
I like hunting and fishing, Lynyrd Skynyrd,
The Bonnie Blue and Dixie
I still believe in chivalry and civility.
I am a face in the Southern collage of
Gentlemen and scholars, belles and writers,
Soldiers and sharecroppers, Cajuns and Creoles,
Tejanos and IsleÒos, Celts and Germans,
Gullah and Geechi, freedmen and slaves.
We are all the South.
The South . . . My home, my beautiful home,
My culture, my destiny, my heart.
I am a Southerner."
NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST, AN HONORABLE SOUTHERN HERO
“In 1871 a Congressional investigation was convened to look into Forrest’s alleged involvement with the Klan and to revisit the Ft. Pillow “massacre.” The investigation was chaired by Forrest’s old enemy, William Tecumseh Sherman, who told the press that, “We are here to investigate Forrest, charge Forrest, try Forrest, convict Forrest, and hang Forrest.”
The outcome of the 1871 investigation was twofold. The committee found no evidence that Forrest had participated in the formation of the Klan and that even the use of his name may well have been without his permission. They also found that there was no credible evidence that Forrest had ever participated in or directed any actions of the Klan.
“The reports of Committees, House of Representatives, second session, forty-second congress,” P. 7-449.
“The primary accusation before this board is that Gen. Forrest was a founder of The Klan, and its first Grand Wizard, So I shall address those accusations first. In 1871, Gen. Forrest was called before a congressional Committee along with 21 other ex-Confederate officers including Admiral Raphael Semmes, Gen. Wade Hampton, Gen. John B.
Gordon, and Gen. Braxton Bragg. Forrest testified before Congress personally over four hours. Forrest took the witness stand June 27th, 1871. Building a railroad in Tennessee at the time, Gen Forrest stated he ‘had done more , probably than any other man, to suppress these violence and difficulties and keep them down, had been vilified and abused in the (news) papers, and accused of things I never did while in the army and since. He had nothing to hide, wanted to see this matter settled, our country quite once more, and our people united and working together harmoniously.’
Asked if he knew of any men or combination of men violating the law or preventing the execution of the law: Gen Forest answered emphatically, ‘No.’ (A Committee member brought up a document suggesting otherwise, the 1868 newspaper article from the “Cincinnati Commercial”. That was their “evidence”, a news article.) Forrest stated ‘…any information he had on the Klan was information given to him by others.’
Sen. Scott asked, ‘Did you take any steps in organizing an association or society under that prescript (Klan constitution)?’
Forrest: ‘I DID NOT’ Forrest further stated that ‘…he thought the Organization (Klan) started in middle Tennessee, although he did not know where.
It is said I started it.’
Asked by Sen. Scott, ‘Did you start it, Is that true?’
Forrest: ‘No Sir, it is not.’
Asked if he had heard of the Knights of the white Camellia, a Klan-like organization in Louisiana,
Forrest: ‘Yes, they were reported to be there.’
Senator: ‘Were you a member of the order of the white Camellia?’
Forrest: ‘No Sir, I never was a member of the Knights of the white Camellia.’
Asked about the Klan:
Forrest: ‘It was a matter I knew very little about. All my efforts were addressed to stop it, disband it, and prevent it….I was trying to keep it down as much as possible.’
Forrest: ‘I talked with different people that I believed were connected to it, and urged the disbandment of it, that it should be broken up.'”
The following article appeared in the New York times June 27th, “Washington, 1871. Gen Forrest was before the Klu Klux Committee today, and his examination lasted four hours. After the examination, he remarked than the committee treated him with much courtesy and respect.”
Congressional records show that Gen. Forrest was absolved of all complicity in the founding or operation of the Ku Klux Klan, and he was certainly never a “Grand Wizard”. These committees had the utmost evidence and living witnesses at their disposal. The evidence precluded any Guilt or indictment of Gen. Forrest and the matter was closed before that body of final judgment in 1872.
The following findings in the Final report of this committee of Congress concluded,
“The statement of these gentlemen (Forrest and Gordon) are full and explicit…the evidence fully sustains them.” (Personal Note: At this time Honor was a big part of their society and daily lives with many duels being fought over just that “HONOR” as much General Sherman would have welcomed an excuse to have hanged Forrest, he too concluded he was innocent).
Later the surviving participates from the battle were individually interviewed “Both white and negro soldiers were interviewed fully supporting General Forrest’s testimony”.
After the war committees determined the rumor was started to ensure the USCT would fight, many white officers felt they (USTC) could not be counted on and they had to either be threaten, coerced or frighten. Apparently they got more than they bargained for as in several engagements the USCT were killing both Confederate prisoners and civilians in retaliation for Pillow and could only be controlled under threat of harm.
Reference Specialist
Main Reading Room
Humanities and Social Sciences Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20540-4660
A SOLDIER DESCRIBES JEB STUART
“General J. E. B. Stuart was a handsome, dashing, spectacular officer. He wore a broad brimmed, heavily plumed hat with a cockade and dressed in a fine suit of Confederate gray. His sword and belt, his boots and other equipments were bright and clean. He had long reddish brown beard and mounted a splendid charger. Altogether he was a picturesque commander but his showy appearance made him the target of the enemy. He was a brave and gallant officer and his reputation as a capable commander increased until his untimely death.” Houghton Brothers, 1912.
Source: “Two Boys in the Civil War and After,” by W. R. HOUGHTON and M. B. HOUGHTON, 1912
Link to e-book: http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/houghton/houghton.html
THAT DEVIL SHERMAN
Sherman unleashed hell on innocent children, defenseless women, unarmed old men and helpless pets.......
"One bizarre undercurrent of Sherman's devastation came to be known as the "war on dogs". Convincing themselves that Southerners used bloodhouds to track escaped Union prisoners of war, the invaders became obsessed with the notion that all dogs be destroyed. A Federal colonel said that "we were determined that no dogs should escape, be it cur, rat dog or blood hound; we exterminate all." And he saw no need to waste ammunition on the creatures. "The dogs were easily killed. All we had to do was to bayonet them." Some animals, such as cats, "seemed to feel it in the air that something was approaching," observed one woman...
Another lady living in Barnwell wrote that the first act of the invaders upon breaking into her home was to kill her pet dogs. They barked and growled at the intruders, "but in an instant both were hushed, two sharp pistol reports followed the last growl as the faithful dogs bounded forward only to fall in their tracks, dead. Her terrified children stood by, "shedding silent tears." Sometimes the soldiers used the butts of their rifles to kill beloved pets in the presence of children. "
WAR CRIMES AGAINST SOUTHERN CIVILIANS
Walter Brian Cisco
GENERAL LEE & HIS TRUSTY STEED TRAVELLER
In the following passage, Lee’s son relates a story that illustrates the bond between his father and the high spirited Traveller:
"One afternoon in July of this year, the General rode down to the canal-boat landing to put on board a young lady who had been visiting his daughters and was returning home. He dismounted, tied Traveller to a post, and was standing on the boat making his adieux, when someone called out that Traveller was loose. Sure enough, the gallant gray was making his way up the road, increasing his speed as a number of boys and men tried to stop him.
My father immediately stepped ashore, called to the crowd to stand still, and advancing a few steps gave a peculiar low whistle. At the first sound, Traveller stopped and pricked up his ears. The General whistled a second time, and the horse with a glad whinny turned and trotted quietly back to his master, who patted and coaxed him before tying him up again. To a bystander expressing surprise at the creature's docility the General observed that he did not see how any man could ride a horse for any length of time without a perfect understanding being established between them.
Source: “Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee,” by Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son
Link to free e-book: https://archive.org/details/recollectionsand02323gut
THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S TRIBUTE TO LEE
“No man who is not willing to bear arms and to fight for his rights can give a good reason why he should be entitled to the privilege of living in a free community. The decline of the militant spirit in the Northeast during the first half of this century was much to be regretted.
To it is due more than to any other cause the undoubted average individual inferiority of the Northern compared with the Southern troops – at any rate, at the beginning of the [War].
The Southerners, by their whole mode of living, their habits, and their love of outdoor sports, kept up their warlike spirit, while in the North the so-called upper classes developed along the lines of a wealthy and timid bourgeoisie type, measuring everything by a mercantile standard (a peculiarly debasing one, if taken purely by itself), and submitting to be ruled in local affairs by low, foreign mobs, and in national affairs by their arrogant Southern kinsmen. The militant spirit of these last certainly stood them in good stead in the civil war.
The world has never seen better soldiers than those who followed Lee, and their leader will undoubtedly rank, without any exception, as the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking peoples have brought forth . . .”
(Roosevelt’s Tribute to Lee, Rev. J.H. McNeilly; Confederate Veteran, June 1900, page 257)
http://circa1865.com/?p=1117
SLAVERY IN NEW YORK – IT’S TIME TO SHARE IN THE BLAME
Systematic use of black slaves in New Netherland [New York] began in 1626, when the first cargo of 11 Africans was unloaded by the Dutch West India Company… From the 1630s to the 1650s, the WIC "was unquestionably the dominant European slave trader in Africa."[1] The British took over in 1664, and control of the colony passed to the Duke of York, who, with his cronies, held controlling interest in the Royal African Company. The change of name from New Netherland to New York brought a crucial shift in policy. Whereas the Dutch had used slavery as part of their colonial policy, the British used the colony as a market for slaves. "The Duke's representatives in New York -- governors, councilors, and customs officials -- were instructed to promote the importation of slaves by every possible means."[2]
But after 1682, as the number of slaves rose (in many places more rapidly than the white population) fears of insurrection mounted, restrictions were applied, and public controls began to be enacted. By that year, it had become illegal for more than four slaves to meet together on their own time; in 1702 the number was reduced to three, and to ensure enforcement each town was required to appoint a "Negro Whipper" to flog violators. In a place where slaves were dispersed in ones and twos among city households, this law, if enforced, would have effectively prohibited slaves from social or family life.
Local ordinances restricted times or distance of travel. Slave runaways were tracked down rigorously, and ones bound for French Canada were especially feared, as they might carry information about the condition and defenses of the colony. The penalty for this was death. Slaves did run off, especially young men, but they tended to gravitate to New York City, rather than Canada. There many of them sought to escape the colony by taking passage on ships, whose captains often were not overly scrupulous about the backgrounds of their sailors.
"Others skulked along the waterfront, where they were drawn into gangs of criminal slaves infesting the docks. The most notorious gang was the Geneva Club, named after the Geneva gin its members were fond of imbibing. There were also groups known as the Free Masons, the Smith Fly Boys, the Long Bridge Boys, and many others whose names have not been recorded. Slaves belonging to such gangs were extremely clannish and often engaged in murderous feuds. Only rarely, however, did they attack white persons. The very existence of such groups nevertheless caused the whites much anxiety. The authorities regarded them as a much greater threat to the public safety than the deadlier gangs of white hoodlums on the waterfront."[3]
In 1712, some slaves in New York City rose up in a crude rebellion that could have been much more deadly, had it been better planned. As it was, it was among the most serious slave resistances in American history, and sparked a vicious backlash by the authorities. The revolt was led by African-born slaves, who decided death was preferable to life in bondage. They managed to collect a cache of muskets and other weapons and hide it in an orchard on the edge of town. On the night of April 6, twenty-four of the conspirators gathered, armed themselves, and set fire to a nearby building. They then hid among trees, and when white citizens rushed up to put out the blaze, the slaves opened fire on them, killing five and wounding six.
The surviving citizens sounded the alarm. Every able-bodied man was pressed into service, and appeals were made to governors of surrounding colonies. The militia pinned down the rebels in the woods of northern Manhattan. The leaders of the uprising committed suicide, and the rest, starving, surrendered. The death toll in the 1712 uprising doesn't seem high, but in a New York county that, at that time probably numbered some 4,800 whites, it was shocking. In considering the psychological impact on the survivors, imagine some sort of attack on modern New York, with its 8 million people, that would leave casualties of 10,000 dead.
A special court convened by the governor made short work of the rebels. Of the twenty-seven slaves brought to trial for complicity in the plot, twenty-one were convicted and put to death. Since the law authorized any degree of punishment in such cases, some unlucky slaves were executed with all the refinements of calculated barbarity. New Yorkers were treated to a round of grisly spectacles as Negroes were burned alive, racked and broken on the wheel, and gibbeted alive in chains. In his report of the affair to England, Governor Hunter praised the judges for inventing 'the most exemplary punishments that could be possibly thought of.' "[4]
As in other Northern colonies, blacks in New York faced special, severe penalties for certain crimes. An example from Poughkeepsie illustrates one of them: A young slave, about twenty years of age, fired his master's barn and outbuildings, and thus destroyed much grain, together with live-stock. He was detected by the smoke issuing from his pocket, (into which he had thrust some combustibles,) imprisoned, tried, and on his confession, condemned to be burned to death. He was fastened to a stake, and when the pile was fired, the dense crowd excluded the air, so that the flames kindled but slowly, and the dreadful screams of the victim were heard at a distance of three miles. His master, who had been fond of him, wept aloud, and called to the Sheriff to put him out of his misery. This officer then drew his sword; but the master, still crying like a child, exclaimed, "Oh, don't run him through!" The Sheriff then caused the crowd to separate, so as to cause a current of air; and when the flame burst out fiercely he called to the sufferer to "swallow the blaze;" which he did, and immediately he sunk dead. [5]
Free blacks lived in New York at risk of enslavement. The colonial courts ruled that if a white person claimed his black employee was a slave, the burden was on the black person to prove he was not. Blacks on the street who could give no plausible account of their movements or proof of their freedom often were picked up by the authorities and jailed on suspicion of being runaway slaves. Local authorities had all but unlimited power in such cases. A black man was arrested in New York City in 1773 simply "because he had curious marks on his back." In such cases the suspected fugitives were held in local jails while advertisements ran in the newspapers seeking their owners. If a claimant arrived, and reimbursed the sheriff for the cost of the detention and the ads, he took the black person away after a few legal formalities. There was little incentive for the sheriff to challenge the claim of ownership in such cases. Even if no claimant came forth, the authorities sometimes then sold the black person into slavery, to cover the cost of detaining and advertising him.
Footnotes to article:
1. Herbert S. Klein, ‘The Atlantic Slave Trade,’ Cambridge University Press, 1999, p.76-7.
2. Edgar J. McManus, ‘A History of Negro Slavery in New York, Syracuse University Press,’ 1966, p.23.
3. ibid., p.105-6.
4. ibid., p.124.
5. William J. Allinson, ‘Memoir of Quamino Buccau, A Pious Methodist,’ Philadelphia: Henry Longstreth, 1851, p.4.
Source: Source: Condensed from - http://www.slavenorth.com. By Douglas Harper/historian, author, journalist and lecturer based in Lancaster, Pa.
Photo: Slave being burned at the stake in 1741. The New York Public Library, Picture Collection.
THE DEATH OF ROBERT E LEE
"On a quiet autumn morning, in the land which he loved so well and served so faithfully, the spirit of Robert Edward Lee left the clay which it had so much ennobled and traveled out of this world into the great and mysterious land. Here in the North, forgetting that the time was when the sword of Robert Edward Lee was drawn against us—forgetting and forgiving all the years of bloodshed and agony—we have long since ceased to look upon him as the Confederate leader, but have claimed him as one of ourselves; have cherished and felt proud of his military genius; have recounted and recorded his triumphs as our own; have extolled his virtue as reflecting upon us—for Robert Edward Lee was an American, and the great nation which gave him birth would be today unworthy of such a son if she regarded him lightly.
“Never had mother a nobler son. In him the military genius of America was developed to a greater extent than ever before. In him all that was pure and lofty in mind and purpose found lodgment. Dignified without presumption, affable without familiarity, he united all those charms of manners which made him the idol of his friends and of his soldiers and won for him the respect and admiration of the world. Even as in the days of triumph, glory did not intoxicate, so, when the dark clouds swept over him, adversity did not depress."
New York Herald, in the death of Gen Robert E Lee, October 12, 1870