DIXIE DIVA'S ARCHIVE
                                        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
                 THE MURDER OF CONFEDERATES IN PRISON CAMPS 
 
When someone mentions "Civil War Prison Camp" you immediately think Andersonville....because that's what government schooling and northern historians have trained you to think that. 
 
The Chief Surgeon of Camp Elmira NY was overheard to boast, before resigning to avoid court martial, he had killed more rebels than any Union soldier. Even more cruel conditions existed in the prison at Camp Douglas in Chicago. 
 
There were 3,866 more Confederate soldiers who died in Union prisons than Union soldiers in Confederate prisons. 
 
The South was unable to feed it’s own Army; the North had abundant supplies and simply allowed Southern POWs to starve. 
 
Defending the Heritage by Roberts Apple downloads 
                     CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS WERE PATRIOTS 
 
Next time someone calls your Confederate Ancestors traitors you may ask them to contemplate… 
 
That many Southerners; most of whom never owned any slaves saw self-righteous New England Puritans as the Taliban, radical religious fanatics of their time. It was the Yankee intention to force its will and ideology on the people of the South, an idea independent Southerners fiercely rejected. 
 
The overwhelming majority of New Englanders had NO problem with slavery; in fact slavery began in the New England states and its citizens made fortunes from the slave trade and it continued to profit from slavery right up to and throughout the war. 
 
Like todays Taliban, New England Yankees were prepared to kill every man, woman and child in order to impose their philosophy and in the process rape, burn, loot and torture its way through the Southland. Northern media and the likes of General Sherman are documented as saying such and this government endorsed, scorched earth policy continued with near perfection after the war with the near extermination of the American Indians. 
 
That said, fast-forward 150 years and imagine a Taliban style regime now dominating the Congress having been elected by less than 40% of the popular vote and presently threatening to invade your homes and impose its will on your people. Considering today’s political climate, that’s not so far-fetched, it’s happened already and history often repeats itself. Would today’s population submit to that form of rule or would it rebel and form a new government, one having the consent of the people as stated by our Declaration of Independence? 
 
In this new scenario, should the Taliban win, all who oppose it would be called traitors…and guess who writes the history after that! Good becomes evil, right becomes wrong just like the War for Southern Independence. Deo Vindice! 
 
Defending the Heritage: Roberts 
                    MORE ON DEVIL SHERMAN AND HIS TROOPS


JUST WHY ARE SOME BLACKS SO ENAMORED WITH THEIR ALLEGED LIBERATORS… 
 
Sherman personally saw his men rape and murder unyielding slaves throughout the march and gave no order to stop... 
 
"General Howard, Freedmen's Bureau, estimated that 25% of African-Am lost their lives by the war. [But] Ransom/Sutch estimated that 1.6% of African-Am died as a direct result of the war. [based on the 3.5M blacks in the CSA, this would come to around 56,000 civilian (black) deaths. Howard's est. would be 875,000 d.]" 
 
In testimony given before Congress, Judge Sharkey described the devastating impact which the "armies of freedom" and the "great emancipator" had upon the black race: 
 
"I believe that there are now in my State very little over half the number of freedmen that were formerly slaves, certainly not more than two-thirds. They have died off. There is no telling the mortality that has prevailed among them; they have died off in immense numbers." Before the Joint House and Senate Committee of Fifteen, 39th Congress, in the spring of 1866, reprinted in Hans. I., Trefousse (ed.), Background for Radical Reconstruction, Little, Brown, & Co., Boston, 1970, pp. 27-29. 
 
Miss had 436,000 slaves in 1860, if Sharkey was right, that’s 130,000 Negro civilian deaths in Miss alone. 
J R Graham when looking at the issue of Negro civilian deaths came to 400,000 from death and starvation. 
CONFEDERATE MOTHER GIVES GENERAL MCCLELLAN FAIR WARNING… 
 
General George McClellan writes about his encounter with a Southern lady during the Peninsula Campaign as following: 
 
“I visited one of the dwelling-houses just outside the fortifications (if the insignificant rifle-pits could be called such) for the purpose of obtaining something more palatable than hard-tack, salt beef, or pork, which, with coffee, comprised the marching rations. 
 
“The woman of the house was communicative, and expressed her surprise at the great number of Yanks who had ‘come down to invade our soil.’ She said she had a son in the Confederate army, or, as she expressed it, ‘in our army,’ and then tearfully said she should tremble for her boy every time she heard of a battle. I expressed the opinion that we should go into Richmond without much fighting. ‘No!’ said she, with the emphasis of conviction, ‘you all will drink hot blood before you all get thar!’” 
 
 Source: BATTLES AND LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR, VOLUME TWO 
                                     SOME UNDENIABLE TRUTHS…. 
 
In the late nineteenth century Bill Arp's weekly column in the “Atlanta Constitution,” syndicated to hundreds of newspapers, made him the South's most popular writer. Others surpassed him in literary quality, but in numbers of regular readers, no one exceeded Bill Arp. Here is yet one more commentary made by a man who lived during this time in history that illustrates the North’s involvement in the slavery issue and lack of accepting responsibility… 
 
The South takes the position that if slavery is sinful, the North is not responsible for that sin; that it is a state institution, and that to interfere with slavery in the states in any way, even by censure, is a violation of the rights of the states. The language of our politicians is, upon us and our children rest the evil! We are willing to take the responsibility, and to risk the penalty! You will find evil and misery enough in the North to excite your philanthropy and employ your beneficence. 
 
You have purchased our cotton; you have used our sugar; you have eaten our rice; you have smoked and chewed our tobacco --all of which are the products of slave labor. You have grown rich by traffic in these articles; you have monopolized the carrying trade and borne our slave-produced products to your shores. Your northern ships, manned by northern men, brought from Africa the greater part of the slaves which came to our continent, and they are still smuggling them in. When, finding slavery unprofitable, the northern states passed laws for gradual emancipation, but few obtained their freedom, the majority of them being shipped South and sold, so that but few, comparatively, were manumitted. If the slave trade and slavery are great sins, the North is particeps criminis, and has been from the beginning. Bill Arp, 1902 
 
 Source: THE UNCIVIL WAR by Bill Arp, 1902.
                                  TODAY IN SOUTHERN HISTORY  
 
 
February 22nd marks the 158th anniversary of the establishment of the permanent Government of the Confederate States of America. This day was deliberately chosen as the birthday of the new "republic of republics," for it was also the birthday of the illustrious Virginian, George Washington. 

President Jefferson Davis said, "We have changed the constituent parts, but not the system of our Government. The Constitution formed by our fathers is that of these Confederate States, in their exposition of it, and in the judicial construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its true meaning." 

 Carefully avoiding the ambiguities of the U.S. Constitution which had allowed for the growth of a sectional party in the North, the preamble of the C.S. Constitution clearly stated from whence political power in the new Confederacy was drawn and for what purpose it was formed: "We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity — invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God — do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America." 
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN THE NORTH AT THE HANDS OF THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT 
 
The first civilian casualties of 16 killed and several dozen wounded occurred in Maryland when a Baltimore mob attacked a Massachusetts regiment on its way to protect Washington in April 1861. 
 
Another 1000 were killed in the New York draft riots of 1863 when the US Government used infantry and artillery against its own citizens. 
 
Lincoln issued a proclamation extending martial law to those who opposed conscription. The number of arrests under this order during the war was several thousand. One can only speculate as to how many of these as well as political prisoners died while in confinement in Northern prisons during the suspension of Habeas Corpus. 
 
Source: Defending the Heritage
                                      ROBERT E. LEE WAS "RIGHT" 
 
“The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it.” Robert E. Lee 
 
The greatest transformation after the War for Southern Independence involved the growing power of the central government. 
 
The federal government which was previously invisible except for the post office, now has its fingers in virtually every aspect of American life due in no small part to the end of States Rights. The leviathan of government is almost daily stripping Americans of previously held sacred rights, proving again…THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT! 
 
Source: Defending the Heritage
                                           SARAH MORGAN DAWSON 
 
Sarah Morgan Dawson was born on 2/28/42 in Louisiana. She is known for the diary she kept during the War Between the States. From March 1862 until April 1865, Dawson recorded her thoughts and experiences, providing one of the most detailed accounts of civilian life in wartime Barton Rouge, Louisiana. 
 
Here is a quote from the diary of this determined Southern Belle that shows what Southern ladies are made of… 
 
“This is a dreadful war to make even the hearts of women so bitter! I hardly know myself these few weeks. I, who have such a horror of bloodshed, consider even killing in self-defense murder, who cannot wish [Yankees] the slightest evil, whose only prayer is to have them sent back in peace to their own country - I talk of killing them!” 
 
 
Source: “A Confederate Girl’s Diary” by Sarah Morgan Dawson, published 1913. 
Link to free e-book: http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/dawson/dawson.html
                                       SOME SOUTHERN HISTORY  
 
In July 1864, in an effort to cause the Union to pull troops away from the siege of Petersburg, General Robert E. Lee ordered General Jubal Early to initiate an attack against Washington DC. In conjunction with this action, Colonel John Singleton Mosby (the Grey Ghost) was sent to disrupt communications between Washington and Harpers Ferry, WV. 

On July 4-5, Mosby attacked the Union base across the river at Point of Rocks, Maryland. They also cut all of the telegraph wires between Washington and Harpers Ferry and captured a number of Union wagons full of supplies. 

 On the evening of the 5th, Mosby ate dinner at Temple Hall Farm in northern Loudoun County, Virginia, a place of divided loyalties. Elizabeth White was the wife of Confederate Cavalry officer Elijah White of the 35th Battalion of the Virginia Cavalry. She had been living with her neighbors the Balls at Temple Hall, but she was not present at dinner that evening. 

Early that morning of July 5, 1864, White, Kate and Betsie Ball of Temple Hall Farm and their friend Annie Hempstone had embarked on a daring mission. to retrieve desperately needed boots and clothing for soldiers of the 35th Battalion who had family in Maryland. The decision by these young women to risk charges of treason by crossing the Potomac River into Union territory to obtain supplies illustrates the increasing desperation in the Confederacy. 

While guns blazed a short distance up the Potomac River at Point of Rocks on the morning of July 5, 1864, Elizabeth White and her friends crossed the Potomac River at White's Ford. Once in Montgomery County, Maryland, the four friends hurried to find the family members who were holding the supplies for Confederate soldiers. 

 The next morning, the women came back to the ford to cross the river and return to Virginia. They had tied the boots and clothing they collected to the frames of their hoop skirts. At the ford, they discovered that Union soldiers were guarding the river crossing. The women quickly retreated to the home of Elizabeth White's mother, where they hid their clandestine goods. 

The four women were arrested as spies and transported to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC. Though Union officials knew the women were Confederate sympathizers, they could find no evidence to support a charge of spying. The women repeatedly stated that their trip to Montgomery County, Maryland was for pleasure alone, and Union officials released them three weeks later. 

Somehow escaping detection, Elizabeth White and her comrades promptly returned to the house of White's mother in Dickerson, Maryland and retrieved their concealed items. The return river crossing was precarious simply because of the weight of the items concealed in the folds of the women's skirts but went off without a hitch. 

Colonel White distributed the boots and clothing to his grateful cavalrymen. Elizabeth White, Annie Hempstone, and Kate and Betsie Ball had taken great risks to retrieve these supplies and had demonstrated their willingness to expose themselves to great danger to support their soldiers.- Virginia Division UDC 
                                 WOMEN OF THE CONFEDERACY  

Nancy Hart lived in Nicholas County, then in Virginia and now part of West Virginia. She joined the Moccasin Rangers and served as a spy, reporting on federal troop activity in her home's vicinity and leading rebel raiders to their position. She was said to have led a raid on Summersville in July 1861, at age 18. Captured by a band of Union soldiers, she tricked one of her captors and used his own gun to kill him, then escaped. After the war she married Joshua Douglas.- United Daughters of the Confederacy Archives 
                                     DEFENDING THE HERITAGE 

April is Confederate History and Heritage Month in the Old Dominion, as well as in many states across the South. As part of the celebration, here are some frequent Q&A's: 
 
1. Was secession the cause of the war? 
 
No. Secession is a mere civil process having no necessary connection with war. Norway seceded from Sweden, and there was no war. The attempted linking of slavery and secession with war is merely an effort to obscure the issue - "a red herring drawn across the trail." Secession was based (1) upon the natural right of self-government, (2) upon the reservation to the States in the Constitution of all powers not expressly granted to the Federal government. Secession was such a power, being expressly excepted in the ratifications of the Constitution by Virginia, Rhode Island, and New York. (3) Upon the right of the principal to recall the powers vested in the agent; and upon (4) the inherent nature of all partnerships, which carries with them the right of withdrawal. The States were partners in the Union, and no partnership is irrevocable. The "more perfect Union" spoken of in the Preamble to the Constitution was the expression merely of a hope and wish. No rights of sovereignty whatever could exist without the right of secession. 
 
2. What then was the cause of the war? 
 
The cause of the war was (1) the rejection of the right of peaceable secession of eleven sovereign States by Lincoln, and (2) the denial of self-government to 8,000,000 of people, occupying a territory half the size of Europe. Fitness is necessary for the assertion of the right, and Lincoln himself said of these people that they possessed as much moral sense and as much devotion to law and order as "any other civilized and patriotic people." Without consulting Congress, Lincoln sent great armies to the South, and it was the war of a president elected by a minority of the people of the North. In the great World War Woodrow Wilson declared that "No people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does not choose to live." When in 1903 Panama seceded from Colombia, the United States sided with Panama against Colombia, thereby encouraging secession. 
 
Defending the Heritage  
                                     A WORD ON ROBERT E. Lee  
 
“He possessed every virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring.  
 
He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy and a man without guile. He was a Caesar without his ambition; Frederick without his tyranny; Napoleon without his selfishness, and Washington without his reward.  
 
He was obedient to authority as a servant, and loyal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life; modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vital in duty; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle as Achilles!” ....Georgia Senator Benjamin Harvey Hill, 1874. 
 
 
                  THE INFAMOUS SOUTHERN BELL...BELLE BOYD 
 
Only 17 years old when the Civil War began, by early 1862 Belle Boyd of Martinsburg (now West Virginia) and her activities were well known to the Union Army and the press, who dubbed her La Belle Rebelle. While visiting relatives whose home in Front Royal, Virginia was being used as a Union headquarters, Boyd learned that Union General Nathaniel Banks' forces had been ordered to march. 
 
She rode fifteen miles to inform Confederate General Stonewall Jackson who was nearby in the Shenandoah Valley. She returned home under cover of darkness. Several weeks later, on May 23, 1862, when she realized Jackson was about to attack Front Royal, she ran onto the battlefield to provide the General with last minute information about the Union troop dispositions. Jackson captured the town and acknowledged her contribution and her bravery in a personal note. 
 
Boyd was arrested several times, but managed to avoid incarceration until July 29, 1862, when she was imprisoned in Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC, but was released after a month. She was arrested again in July 1863, after which she devised a unique method of communicating with her supporters outside. They shot rubber balls into her cell with a bow and arrow; she then enclosed messages inside the balls and threw them back. 
 
In December 1863 Boyd was released and banished to the South. She sailed for England on May 8, 1864, but was arrested again as a Confederate courier. She finally escaped to Canada with the help of a Union naval officer, Lieutenant Sam Hardinge, and eventually made her way to England where she and Hardinge were married. Boyd later wrote of her wartime activities, "I allowed but one thought to keep possession of my mind - the thought that I was doing all a woman could do for her country's cause." 
              NEW ORLEANS DAILY CRESCENT, JANUARY 21, 1861: 
 
“They (the South) know that it is their import trade that draws from the people's pockets sixty or seventy millions of dollars per annum, in the shape of duties, to be expended mainly in the North, and in the protection and encouragement of Northern interest... These are the reasons why these people do not wish the South to secede from the Union. They (the North) are enraged at the prospect of being despoiled of the rich feast upon which they have so long fed and fattened, and which they were just getting ready to enjoy with still greater gout and gusto. They are as mad as hornets because the prize slips them just as they are ready to grasp it." New Orleans Daily Crescent, January 21, 1861 
 
N.C. Wyeth Civil War Notes
                                      SARAH MORGAN DAWSON 
 
Sarah Morgan Dawson was born on 2/28/42 in Louisiana. She is known for the diary she kept during the War Between the States. From March 1862 until April 1865, Dawson recorded her thoughts and experiences, providing one of the most detailed accounts of civilian life in wartime Barton Rouge, Louisiana. 
 
In April 1861, Sarah’s brother, Henry Waller Morgan, died in a duel. Later the same year, her father—who opposed secession, but supported his state once it seceded—died at home. When Dawson began her diary in January 1862, she was still mourning the loss of her kin in addition to the departure of her three remaining brothers into Confederate service. 
 
In April 1862, Farragut captured New Orleans and by May, the Federal onslaught on Baton Rouge had begun. With her “running bag” packed and her personal papers piled on her bed ready to burn, Dawson used her diary to record a warning to any Federal soldier who attempted to “Butlerize—or brutalize” her in the attack. 
 
Here are several of quotes from the diary of this determined Southern Belle that shows what Southern ladies are made of… 
 
April 26, 1862: 
And if you Yankees want to know what an excited girl can do, just call and let me show you the use of the small seven-shooter and a large carving knife which vibrate between my belt and my pocket. Always ready for emergencies. 
 
May 9, 1862: 
This is a dreadful war to make even the hearts of women so bitter! I hardly know myself these few weeks. I, who have such a horror of bloodshed, consider even killing in self-defense murder, who cannot wish [Yankees] the slightest evil, whose only prayer is to have them sent back in peace to their own country - I talk of killing them! 
 
May 9, 1862: 
“All devices signs and flags of the Confederacy shall be suppressed,” so says Picayune Butler (word used then in LA. that meant trivial). Good! I devoted all my red, white, and blue silk to the manufacture of Confederate flags. As soon as one is confiscated, I make another until my ribbon is exhausted, when I will sport a duster emblazoned in high colors, “Hurrah! For the Bonny Blue Flag!” Henceforth, I wear one pinned to my bosom - not a duster, but a little flag. The man who says, take it off will have to pull it off himself. The man who dares attempt it –well! A pistol in my pocket fills up the gap. I am capable, too. 
 
May 10, 1862: 
Does it take thirty thousand men and one million of dollars to murder defenseless women and children? O great nation! Bravo! 
 
May 31, 1862 
So ended the momentous shelling of Baton Rouge, during which the valiant Farragut killed one woman, wounded three, struck some twenty houses several times apiece and indirectly caused the death of two little children who were drowned in their flight… Hurrah for the illustrious Farragut, the Woman Killer!!! 
 
Date not indicated: 
The North cannot subdue us. We are too determined to be free… If by power of overwhelming numbers they conquer us, it will be a barren victory over a desolate land. 
 
 
Source: “A Confederate Girl’s Diary” by Sarah Morgan Dawson, published 1913. 
                                             THE OFFICIAL BIG LIE… 
 
In December of 1860 and January of 1861, many newspapers across the North and Midwest simply wanted to “let the South go in peace.” But the bankers, railroads and shippers soon informed the press of the financial implications of Southern independence. 
 
The editorial tune changed dramatically in February and March of 1861 to “No, we must NOT let the South go,” and “what about our shipping?” and “what about our revenue?” As the New York Times noted on March 30th, “We were divided and confused until our pockets were touched.” [See Northern Editorials on Secession, Howard C. Perkins, ed., 1965] 
 
The North prevented southern independence because it threatened their financial interests. The South wanted independence for its own best interests, in the tradition of the American Founders. 
 
It sought peaceful separation, but fought in self-defense when invaded and blockaded. 
The Official Big Lie (a war to end slavery) was created and maintained to obscure the overthrow of the Founding Principles, and the true motivations that resulted in tragic and unnecessary death on an epic scale. 
 
 
From an article by Steve Scroggins