CSA monuments in Abbeville, SC

SNN pictures taken in Abbeville, SC from early 2010

 

Military burial for Confederate soldier

A Confederate soldier from Putnam County will finally get a proper burial.

Captain Philip Thurmond was buried in an unmarked grave nearly 2-hundred years ago. On Saturday, Civil [sic] war reenactors will give Thurmond a funeral with full military honors. He will be laid to rest beside the historic Hoge House in Winfield.

Once again, we see what is becoming a trend in the media of not capitalising the “c” in Confederate, which is a proper noun, as in “Confederate States of America.” This seems like a case of the media being willing to violate basic rules of the English language in order to get in a little jab against anything Confederate or Southern
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Southern culture and understanding from a Southerner

This is an article from last year by Gayle Crabtree on the traditions and way of life that make us who and what we are:

Southern culture is an experience all its own. Most of us learned at the knees of our grandparents or great grandparents. My father’s family is not from here but my mother’s family has roots going beyond the War of Northern Aggression (You can call it the Civil War or the War of Southern Independence) to the Revolution and even before that.

As a kid, I grew up in East Tennessee but spent good portions of my life in Chattanooga. My mother grew up around Rossville, Georgia in the Chattanooga area. Her father was from a town on Sand Mountain called Rainesville, Georgia and for awhile my family and I lived in North Carolina. A small segment of my maternal side of the family grew up around Red Clay and purportedly walked to Oklahoma (that’s another article).

Sunday dinner usually meant a history lesson from my grandmother or perhaps my grandfather. These weren’t usually lessons found in the history books but were tales of a more personal nature
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The South starts here!

Check out this picture of a sign on US Hwy 13 Virginia-Maryland line. Of course, culturally, many people in Maryland (historically a Southern State) are Southern and people on either side of the line, much like the Kentucky-Illinois line, may or may not be with Dixie. Signs like this are cultural statements of ownership and pride though… we need more of them!

Southern language & grammar

As this writer points out, there is a difference between using Southern language (our accent, words, pronunciations, etc.) and just down-right murdering the English language. Our manner of speaking is part of the English language, though distinct from other forms of English used in different parts of the world – including right here in North America. I have personally made an effort to correct certain grammatical mistakes I used to commonly make (which became quite obvious to me during my four years of teaching English in Europe), while trying to hold onto my native dialect. There’s nothing that sounds worse to me than the so-called “standard American English” which is completely lacking any local or regional flavour.

A reader contacted me recently in response to a column I wrote defending Southern culture.

His complaint about Southerners is this: so many of us seem to use – and tolerate – bad grammar.

This reader was careful to point out that there is a difference between dialect, which includes colloquialisms like “y’all” and the drawl that goes with them, and the use of bad grammar – subjects and verbs that don’t agree (he don’t), contractions that don’t really exist (ain’t), and prepositions at the end of a sentence (where is it at?).

How the Union avenged Fort Sumter

This primary document, published about halfway through Lincoln’s war against the Southern people, was written for a Northern audience and speaks of the horrible loss of blood and treasure as well as the negative transforming power of invasion and war:

“One hundred and fifty thousand more of our men have died of disease and wounds, than of theirs… We have spent almost two thousand million more of money than they have spent. We have made two hundred thousand of our women widows. We have made one million of our children fatherless. We have destroyed the Constitution of our country. We have brought the ferocious savagery of war into every corner of society. We have demoralized our pulpits, so that our very religion is a source of immorality and blood…. There is a corpse in every family. The angel of death sits in every door. The devil has removed from Tartarus to Washington. We pretend that we are punishing the rebels, but they are punishing us. We pretend that we are restoring the Union, but we are destroying it… Selling our souls to the devil and taking Lincoln & Co.’s promise to pay. We have it in greenbacks and blood. This is the way we are “revenging Sumpter [sic].”

-The Old Guard Volume 0001 Issue 5 (May 1863) How We Are Revenging Sumpter [pp.115-116
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Jeffersonian South vs Hamiltonian New England

The issue between the Federalists and the Republicans, or Democrats as the Jeffersonian Party had also begun to be called, was clear. It stemmed back to the difference in political philosophy between Jefferson and Hamilton…. Caucuses of the two parties in Congress selected respectively President John Adams and C. C. Pinckney as Federalist candidates, and Jefferson and Aaron Burr as Republican, a Northern President and Southern Vice-President, and vice-versa. The campaign was one of extreme bitterness, the Republicans being denounced as Anti-Christ in New England, and every possible slander being everywhere heaped upon the several candidates.

Hamilton was the “boss” of the Federalist Party, but… had come to hate Adams, who, nevertheless, after a tour of New England, Hamilton realized had to be the party candidate. Blinded with passion, Hamilton wrote for private circulation a pamphlet in which, with a complete breakdown of political sense and ordinary decency, he declared at length that Adams was utterly unfit for office but that Federalists should vote for him so as to bring in the party. Some of the saner leaders, such as George Cabot, urged its suppression but one of the printed copies fell into the hands of Aaron Burr, who immediately saw to its publication. When the Electoral votes were counted it was found that Jefferson and Burr each had seventy-three, Adams sixty-five and Pinckney sixty-four.

It was a Republican victory, revealing markedly distinct sectional and class cleavages. The West and the entire South up to Maryland voted for Jefferson, as did Pennsylvania and New York. Maryland was divided evenly, but Adams, who also got some votes in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, carried the whole of New England. The adroit manipulation of Burr in New York decided the final result but two facts stood out. One was that the agrarian South and the frontier West was strongly Democratic and anti-Federalist, and the other was, on a closer analysis of the local returns everywhere, that the poorer people, the farmers and town artisans and others, were Democratic whereas the main Federalist strength came from the mercantile and other moneyed interests.

Excerpted from The March of Democracy: A History of the United States Volume II by James Truslow Adams, Charles Schribner’s Sons, New York, 1947, pages 29-30
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Opposite takes on Confederate flag from The Crimson White

The Crimson White, a paper out of Tuscaloosa, Alabama which serves the University of Alabama, has a pair of articles out today from students who take opposite positions on the Confederate flag. Ironically, the student who writes to condemn the flag claims to be Southern while the student who writes in its defense is from New Jersey. Sometimes it’s easier for those foreign to South to most clearly see through the cloud of confusion and bias raised by enemies of Southern identity and culture. Let’s begin with the article which opposes the flag:

It is preposterous to think that the Confederate flag is as representative of Southern culture as pecan pie and fried chicken. In reality, the Confederate flag represents a rebellion against everything modern America stands for – and is thus not only racially insensitive, but also unpatriotic and disrespectful to the men and woman fighting oversees to champion American values today.

The South should be a place that celebrates its rich culture – of football, sweet tea, and hospitality – in a way that people of all races from all places can enjoy. After all, black southerners have done as much, if not more, to create that culture as white southerners have.

But the South shouldn’t be a place that clings to the Confederate flag. It has no place today’s United States.

Actually, as a Southern nationalist, I completely agree that our flag “represents rebellion against everything modern America stands for.” We are certainly opposed to the present system and its values such as democracy, equality, progressivism, multiculturalism, the police state, the crusader state for global democracy, etc. The traditional South stands for liberty (which is incompatible with equality, socialism, feminism, etc.), local autonomy and a classical Western Civilisation. If the South is reduced to just football, sweet tea and hospitality then there is no distinctive South in a real sense. Sweet tea can be enjoyed anywhere around the world. Football can be played anywhere. Hospitality is a value embraced by many cultures. These, while certainly part of our over-all culture, are not defining aspects of Southern civilisation. Sweet tea could disappear tomorrow and while that would be a shame, we would go on being Southerners. The Confederate symbol, the St. Andrew’s Cross with its stars for all the Southern States, connects those who honour and fly it today with the hundreds of thousands who defended the South against an invading force and sacrificed their lives for an independent South. It not only connects us to our war for independence from the United States, but its design also speaks volumes of the Scottish ancestry of so many Southerners and the central role our Scottish and Ulster-Scots ancestors played in establishing Southern culture in the first place. It connects us to Western Civilisation then and to the Christian religion, central to our identity and values. These notions are far more important and go much deeper into our make-up as a distinct people than just sweet tea and football. I would argue, in fact, that this is one of the main reasons why the Confederate symbol is so hated by Leftists and neo-Unionists – precisely because it so firmly connects us with the deeper roots from which we spring as a people. The Confederate flag is hated by the Left today because it is a national symbol; it is a symbol of the Southern nation of people.

If the flag is truly just a symbol of Southern culture, we’d expect to find it next to other symbols of Southern culture and that’s exactly where we find it. We don’t see the flag or an image of the flag as a certain politician’s logo or seal in political campaigns. Instead, we see it on belt buckles or next to Ducks Unlimited bumper stickers. Perhaps the best evidence for the Confederate flag being a cultural symbol is simply that it’s most often found right next to other Southern cultural symbols.

Absolutely. And why is the Confederate symbol found on virtually anything one can imagine? Why is it so widely embraced by the Southern people? Because it is the most widely recognised symbol of the South around the world. The St. George’s Cross is known around the globe as the symbol of the English people and associated by nearly everyone with that nation of people. Likewise, the rising sun is very closely associated with the Japanese people. These symbols would remain part of the cultures of the respective peoples even if their governments adopted different flags. They are wrapped up in the history and identity of what it means to be English or Japanese. In the very same way, the Confederate symbol is universally recognised as symbolising the Southern people and is wrapped up in what it means to be Southern
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Northern border of Dixie

Joel Garreau’s book “The Nine Nations of North America” was published in 1981 and divides the continent into distinct cultural entities, of which Dixie is one. Much has changed since 1981 in terms of demographic shifts, but the book’s focus on the cultural and therefore truly national nature of the various regions of North America is certainly worth examining. Mr. Garreau writes of the northern boundary of the South:

Dixie starts on the midcontinental Atlantic at about Ocean City, Maryland…. As resorts go, Ocean City is more like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, than it is Surf City, New Jersey…. From there, as described in the Foundry chapter, Dixie cuts across the chicken farms of southern Delaware to include the Eastern Shore of Maryland, eastern referring to its location relative to the Chesapeake Bay. The gracious capital, Annapolis, is a border town between Dixie and the Foundry. It carefully skirts Washington’s wealthier suburbs and drives up through rural Virginia, north of the Shenandoah Valley, to swoop down the western edge of the worst of the southern Appalachians, splitting off chemical-factory-laden West Virginia river counties like Mason, Jackson, and Wood. There are those who would argue that Ohio counties like Scioto and Adams, across the Ohio River from Kentucky, are still southern. Similarly, Covington, Kentucky, across the river from the industrial presence of Cincinnati, is not southern. By by and large, the Ohio river is a meaningful border until you hit Indiana, the rolling hills of which, north of Louisville, are economically and emotionally part of Dixie…

Indianapolis is the boundary where the Foundry and Dixie part company. From Indianapolis on, the distinction to be made is between the South and the “real” Midwest – the Breadbasket – another very old idea in America, which despite industrialization, communications, and travel, retains great power.

Near the Illinois boundary, Terre Haute has been a dividing line in Indiana dialects, politics, and values for over a hundred years and still is, and as a result is another good border town.

As many as thirty-one counties, below a line roughly from Terre Haute to East St. Louis, have from time to time been identified as part of Southernillinois (pronounced by natives as one word). Route 50, from Vincennes, somewhat farther south, has also been suggested as the border, although Illinois political correspondents reply that it’s “common knowledge” that Southernillinois “is ten miles beyond wherever you’re standing.”

The piece goes on, tracing the cultural boundary of Dixie further westward and is a good read. Texans might not like how the author divided that State up and surely there is much to disagree about in the chapter, but it’s still a good read for anyone interested in the truly national nature of Dixie
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36% of Texans want to secede from USA

36% of Texans want to secede from USA Leftist media laments popular support for self-determination Recently, it was reported that according to mainstream polling data a quarter of people in the United States support secessionfrom the Union. Every region has strong support that tends to cut across demographic divides. However, the strongest support for leaving the USA comes from the Southern and Western States. The Dallas Morning News, a Left-leaning newspaper owned by US media empire A H Belo Corporation, published an article by liberal activist Nicole Stockdale (who strongly supports amnesty for illegal immigrants) in which it is lamented that over a third of the people of Texas support secession. Stockdale notes that her paper has previously condemned the secessionist views of millions of Texans as ‘hard to take seriously.’ Now, however, with support for secession on the rise, the Leftist writer says ‘I won’t be so quick to dismiss supporters.’ Secession & the USA Winner-Take-All System It is interesting to consider that if the USA had a proportional system of representation, secessionists could hold the balance of power in Texas and other Southern and Western States. In such a system which allowed for greater representation it is possible that a pro-secession party in the Lone Star State might emerge as the largest force. The largest parties in Scotland,Catalonia (northeastern Spain), Flanders (northern Belgium) and northern Italy are secessionist parties. However, the USA has a winner-take-all system which discourages small parties and essentially forces 310 million people to choose between two parties which hold very similar positions on key issues such as war, inflation, immigration and secession. When it comes to choice at the ballot box and the ability to effect real political change, the ‘land of the free’ is not nearly as free as many other countries throughout the Western world.

VMI cadet, wounded in Battle of New Market, honored at Blandford Cemetery

Virginia Military Institute grads and supporters gather for a dedication ceremony for a grave marker of Pvt. Alva Hartsfield Thursday, Nov. 11 in Petersburg. Hartsfield was wounded at the Battle of New Market and died in Petersburg, trying to walk home to North Carolina. Patrick Kane/Progress-Index Photos
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• By Patrick Kane
  Staff Writer 
  Posted Nov. 18, 2014 @ 2:01 am
  Updated Nov 18, 2014 at 7:42 AM 
  
  

  PETERSBURG — Among the fields of gravestones, a new one honors a long-time resident of Blandford Cemetery. Virginia Military Institute Pvt. Alva Hartsfield, who struggled home after being wounded in the Battle of New Market, died in Petersburg and is interred with fellow North Carolinians.

  "He is believed to have died from the effects of his wounds at the battle," said Samuel Mattocks, a 1974 VMI graduate who worked toward a gravestone for Hartsfield. "He is the last of the 10 cadets who died directly related to the battle."

  About a dozen folks gathered Tuesday, Nov. 11 for a brief ceremony at the new gravestone, located down the hill from the arch.

  "We are gathered here today to honor Alva and to commemorate his service and his sacrifice for VMI and the commonwealth of Virginia," Mattocks said in a memorial prayer.

  New Market was likely the only time an institution of higher learning took part, en masse, in a battle, Joseph Van Landingham told a crowd during a spring event marking the 150th anniversary of the battle. Union Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel dove into the Shenandoah Valley to attack railroads near Staunton. Confederate Maj. Gen. John Breckenridge knew he had to counter-attack, calling up the VMI corps to reinforce his numbers.

  Two-hundred and fifty-seven cadets marched to Staunton, a three- to four-day march, to take part in a "pitched battle" on May 15, 1864. Organized as a unit, they were held back initially but would take a central position within the battlefield. With the cadets in place, a final Confederate assault succeeded in pressing back the Union Army, which retreated across and burned a bridge.

  Records indicate that 10 cadets were killed or fatally wounded and another 57 were injured. The cadets ranged in age from 15 to 24 years old, but most were 17 to 21.

  "So eager were the cadets to charge the enemy, 100 or 150 yards off, that it was difficult for them to find time to load and shoot their old-fashioned muzzle loading muskets" according to Col. William Harper's "The VMI New Market Cadets."

  The ties between Blandford and VMI were little-known until local alumni began researching ideas to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the battle. The Tri-Cities chapter traced four other men buried at Blandford, although they survived the battle and settled down in Petersburg. They are : Roger A. Adams of A. Company, 1847-1872; Samuel W. Booth of C. Company, 1844-1925; William L. Venable of D. Company, 1847-1928; and John A. Crichton of C. Company, 1845-1888.

  Hartsfield is also honored with a marker under the statue Virginia Mourning Her Dead at VMI in Lexington, Mattocks said

DEP will hold a workshop on updates for parks and archaeological site

• Posted on Nov 18, 2014
  by Amber Erickson

ELLENTON, Fla -- The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Florida Park Service will hold a public workshop on improvements planned for several parks.

Upgrades are proposed for Madira Bickel Mound State Archaeological Site, Cockroach Bay Preserve State Park and Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park.

Madira Bickel Mound State Archaeological Site is just under 10 acres and protects the National Register-listed Madira Bickel Mound, Florida's first designated state archaeological site.

Proposed updates for this park include adding a picnic pavilion and two new interpretive kiosks, to better inform visitors.

Cockroach Bay Preserve State Park is a 615-acre park only accessible by boat within the Tampa Bay Aquatic Preserve.

The park provides habitat for two endangered plant species, seven shorebird species and the Florida manatee.

It also provides protection for Little Cockroach Key archaeological site, which is considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Proposed updates for this park include adding interpretive information at county boat ramps located at the end of Cockroach Bay Road and in Domino Park to better inform visitors about the history and sensitivity of the park.

Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park is a 32-acre park that protects the remaining portion of the original 3,500-acre pre-Civil War plantation and the mansion, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Proposed updates for this park include adding a kitchen facility at the current large picnic area, adding a bridal changing room in the vistor center and adding two covered picnic pavilions.

Proposed changes also include adding a restroom, picnic pavilion, a parking area and improvements to a hiking trail at the northern part of the park that contains the sugar mill ruins.

The workshop and presentation will be held Wednesday, November 19th at 7:00 pm at Palmetto City Hall.

There will also be an advisory group meeting held on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 9:00 a.m. at the visitors center at the Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park.

Reidsville Confederate monument moved to cemetery

After years of court battles, the enemy gets what it wants and the Southern people have to see more of their symbolism and monuments relegated to cemeteries.  Of course the United Daughters of the Confederacy thinks it is just great that a statue that used to greet citizens and travelers alike to Reidsville, NC will now overlook graves. Instead of it being a living symbol in the center of town, it will now be a symbol of “once was”.  But only to those who actually visit the cemetery.  I’m sure y’all have your own thoughts and opinions so here is the article about the monument dedication:

That’s because the organization dedicated the Reidsville Confederate Monument on Saturday afternoon, almost 104 years to the day of the original ceremony.

Now the monument has a new home in Greenview Cemetery and a new name — Triumphant.

“It is our hope Triumphant will stand guard forever, protecting the graves of nearby soldiers and continue to serve as a reminder of the gallant men who left us with this rich sense of history and of valor, and with a renewed appreciation of our Confederate heritage,” said Lois Marlow, the president of the state division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

More than 75 people attended the 30-minute ceremony.

The controversy of moving the statue from downtown Reidsville to the cemetery started with a 2011 car accident that toppled and broke the original Confederate soldier statue.

Officials from both the city of Reidsville and the state United Daughters of the Confederacy withstood ridicule and lawsuits surrounding the removal of the monument from a downtown intersection.

City residents endured divisiveness and national media attention following the controversy.

But finally, the soldier stands guard in the center of Greenview Cemetery looking over the graves of the buried Confederate soldiers and other residents who chose the location as their burial spot.

The monument was erected at the cemetery in December, but it wasn’t dedicated until Saturday.

People dressed in Civil War period clothing. Not dressed for war, but dressed for a ceremony. Think gold ball gowns, gray dress coats and a nice top hat.

Then came the souvenirs. Reidsville resident J.P. Lester drove his work van into the cemetery. On one side of his van a sign offered Confederate monument T-shirts for $15, though he said he would give them away for free to anyone who wanted one.

“I’ve lived here since I was 3 years old,” Lester said. “I wanted it back downtown.”

That’s not an uncommon feeling for locals.

Lester originally protested moving the monument from downtown. He said he never protests, but this cause was worth it.

But he attended Saturday to support the monument’s dedication.

Across the back of the shirt, the words “PRIDE NOT PREJUDICE” surround a picture of the monument in front of the Confederate flag.

The ceremony had many flags. People came dressed adorned with the Confederate flag. People pledged allegiance to the U.S., North Carolina and Confederate flags.

“The original monument was dedicated in 1910 and stood for 101 years in honor of and as a tribute to Confederate soldiers from this area,” Marlow said. “The ladies of the United Daughters of the Confederacy from the Reidsville chapter worked long hours in those early years to secure funds for the purchase of the original monument.”

But the accident allowed for a redo. The UDC took the opportunity to make changes.

Instead of marble, the soldier is made of Georgia white granite, which withstands the elements better.

It’s also a total Confederate soldier this time.

“Realizing the old one was a generic soldier wearing both Confederate and Union gear, a careful research was done and insurance money used to craft a 100 percent Confederate soldier,” Marlow said.

The remodeled statue sits atop the original base.

Marlow said the monument’s base bears the scars of “many accidents.”

But Marlow said she hopes the monument brings healing to the community and reminds everyone of the UDC’s original intent in building the statue.

After the ceremony ended with a bagpipe playing taps in the distance, UDC recording secretary Donna Snipes looked up at the monument.

“He’s home, bless his heart.”

  

Our future, our nation

The following picture was submitted to SNN recently. It was taken north of New Martinsville, West Virginia. It features a Southern nationalist husband and wife holding the Black Cross banner by a Mason-Dixon Line sign. The wife in the picture is expecting the couple’s first child. This is what the future of the Southern people looks like: happy, healthy couples with a strong national identity in our beautiful land.

Support Southern

On Saturday October 25, 2014, the Kentucky League of the South had its 2nd demonstration (and third overall) in support of Southern workers, specifically coal miners. The first city we visited was Middlesboro, a former coal town of about 10,000 people on the Kentucky- Tennessee border. We were joined by two fellow League members from Tennessee. The response in Middlesboro was very positive. We received many honks, thumbs ups, and waves from people passing by. Some folks came to talk with us, and expressed gratitude we were standing up for the miners and voicing independence from the federal government. A few even offered donations for the League. We received no negative remarks in Middlesboro.

At noon, we left Middlesboro and traveled about 45 minutes northeast to Harlan Kentucky, a very famous coal town of about 2,000 people. After enjoying lunch at a local BBQ restaurant, we had two more folks from Western Kentucky join us. The response in Harlan was probably the best this Southern nationalist has ever seen at a demonstration. Before we had even completely set up our demonstration, we had already lost count of how many positive responses we had received! We distributed hundreds of Free Magnolias, the League’s newspaper, to the people of Harlan. At the end of the demonstration, we were approached by a group of coal miners who thanked us for coming out and then asked if we could take a picture with them. They were very interested in the League, and took several Free Magnolias with them. All in all, the demonstrations were highly successful. The attacks on the coal industry by the federal government have ruined the economy in many ways here in eastern Kentucky, and the people of the region have had enough. They are ready for the Southern nationalist solution. This issue should be brought to light in every Southern state that has suffered due to the restrictions on coal, and the League of the South should be leading the way. #secede!