Bowling Banner. Sons Of Confederate Veterans Post office Box 2355 La Plata, MD A p r i l SCV Charge: Bob Parker.

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1 Bowling Banner Sons Of Confederate Veterans Post office Box 2355 La Plata, MD A p r i l Editor: Brian Piaquadio M i n u t e s f r o m M a r c h M e e t i n g 2013 Officers Bob Parker Commander Jim Dunbar 1st Lieutenant Commander / Adjutant Jack Brown-Chaplin & Judge Advocate Acting Treasurer Rick Hunt Quartermaster - Dennis Spears This Issue A Southern Easter Honoring Confederate Dead SCV CHARGE Members in Attendance: 7 Thurl Potter Jim Dunbar Dennis Spears Donnie Bowie Bob Parker Brian Piaquadio Rick Hunt Meeting Called to order at 7:30 Invocation given by : Thurl Potter Salute to United States Flag: Bob Parker Salute to Confederate Flag Brian Piaquadio To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations. SCV Charge: Bob Parker Adjutants Report: Upcoming National Convention would like to show video of Convention from 90 s to show what they are like. Will take more than one meeting to show. Treasurers Report: After a addition that should have been a subtraction our numbers are back in line. Quartermasters Report: No report Historians Report: Jim has a newsletter archive from about 15 yrs ago if anyone is interested in viewing them. Camp T-Shirts are still available in 2X. The price is $ They are well worth it and they look great. Please remember that the shirts are for Private Wallace Bowling Camp Members only. If you cannot make the meeting and want a T-Shirt please call Dennis Editors Report: no report Old Business: Reminder of Fort trip with Civil War Round table. (see events for details on round table) Reminder of Maryland Division Convention coming up April 13th.(see events) New Business : Heads up on Veterans Home Opening on May 4th. There will be a showing. Benediction given by: Thurl Potter Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm 1

2 Monthly Recipe Church-Style Lemon-Roasted Potatoes Ingredients 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 1/2 tablespoons butter 3 pounds small Yukon gold or red potatoes, peeled 1/4 cup lemon juice 4 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper Preparation 1. Preheat oven to 400. Cook olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, 3 to 4 minutes or until butter begins to turn golden brown. Remove butter mixture from heat, and add peeled potatoes, tossing gently to coat 2. Spread potatoes in a single layer in a 15- x 10-inch jelly-roll pan 3. Bake at 400 for 40 to 45 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown and tender, stirring twice. Transfer potatoes to a large serving bowl, and toss with lemon juice, chopped fresh thyme, salt, and pepper until well coated. Serve potatoes immediately If you don t want to peel little potatoes, you can use larger peeled Yukons. Simply cut into large chunks, and bake as directed. Any leftover potatoes are great for potato salad the next day. Recipe compliments of Southern Living Magazine 2

3 Happy Easter! A Southern Easter by Cliff Lowe Easter was a pretty big deal when I was a kid, growing up in the southern U.S. It was one of those holidays we kids hated because it meant dressing up in a suit and tie (oh woe!) and getting up before God did, to go to sunrise Easter church service. It would begin with my mom shouting get up, it s Easter, you re going to make us late while at the same time searing my poor eyeballs with blinding white light from the unadorned fixture above my bed. It wouldn t even be daylight outside, the rooster hadn t even stirred on his roost, and there I was dragged from the deepest pits of sleep into the cold world to go stand on a windy hill and sing Easter hymns while we waited for the sun to rise. At least the sun had the good sense to wait until morning to get up, unlike all the poor kids in my church. All over town we were being screeched at, and blinded, all in the name of Easter. Once I was dressed, my Mom and Dad looked me over just in case there was a little something else they could do to ruin my Easter morning. I mean, if you want to make a 10-year old country southern boy miserable, roust him out of bed before the chickens are up, strip his jammies off in a cold, drafty farm house, cram him into a stuffy old suit (a hand-me-down at that), and choke him half to death in a starched-neck shirt with a Windsor knotted tie. And, to add insult to injury, we were required to fast until after the sunrise service concluded. We started this ritual at 5 am and by 7 am I would have killed for a cookie crumb! But even the ending of the service didn t allow us to eat right away. Oh no! Now everyone had to pile into their cars and drive all the way across town to the Southern Methodist Church where the Ladies Auxiliary (bless their little auxiliary hearts) had prepared Easter breakfast. Good breakfasts, too, consisting of eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage or ham, hash browns, biscuits, and gallons and gallons of hot coffee! The kids, of course, had milk. This was a rich southern Easter after all. Once there, we were subjected to waiting while everyone yakked and admired everyone else s Easter outfit, and about the time you thought it was time to chow down, we once again had to wait while Mr. Glasco droned through a lengthy prayer asking blessing on the food which, by the time he finished, was cold as a well-digger s wallet. I liked Mr. Glasco, understand; he was a fine man. But he had that slow, southern drawl, and these really loose false teeth and he had this habit of clacking them constantly when he wasn t talking. And when he was talking, they clacked themselves. A prayer would go something like this, <clack-clack> Lord, <clack-clack> we thank you for this bountiful blessing of food <clack-clack> we are about to receive <clack-clack >.... Then a statement of thanks would be given by Mr. Bennett, a nice southern gentleman, also with false teeth that unfortunately whistled as he talked. He would sound something like this: tweee I would like to take this opportunity to tweee thank the Ladies Auxiliary tweee for the fine job they have tweee done... When Mr. Bennett and Mr. Glascow had a conversation ( clack-clack - good morning John, tweee -good morning Bill ), I had to leave the room for fear of falling to the floor in laughter. They were both good men and I often miss them, but I will never forget how they sounded. In the southern food tradition, Ham goes with Easter in the same way that turkey goes with Thanksgiving or a goose with Christmas. In the days before good refrigeration, hogs were slaughtered and butchered in the fall after the weather had become cold. Thus the meat could be trimmed, prepared, cured,and hung without fear of spoilage. It also meant that not long thereafter, Easter celebration was at hand and the ham was plentiful. Baked ham just naturally became the traditional Easter meal. Now that I am a grown man I still celebrate Easter. I attend the Sunday meeting, but I make it a point to skip the sunrise service and breakfast at church. Besides, a church breakfast wouldn t really be fun without Mr. Glascow and Mr. Bennett and their slow southern drawls. 3

4 Today in Confederate History 1st 1st 1st 2nd 2nd 3rd 6-7th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 12th 13th 13th 14th 1823 General Simon B. Buckner s birthday. April 1863 General Stand Watie authorized to raise his own brigade. The Cherokee leader is the first and only Indian to serve as a General in the WBTS on either side Battle of Five Forks, VA 1865 Battle of Fort Gregg, VA, The Fall of Richmond, VA, General A.P. Hill is killed 1865 Confederate government retreats to Danville, VA where President Jefferson Davis issued his last official order 1865 Richmond and Petersburg, VA occupied by yankee troops 1862 Battle of Pittsburg Landing, TN 1865 Battle of Sayler s Creek, VA 1862 Battle of Island #10, MO 1864 Battle of Mansfield, LA 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House 1806 General Leonidas Polk s birthday 1862 Fort Pulaski, GA in the mouth of the Savannah River is captured by yankees 1861 Confederates begin the bombardment of Fort Sumter 1862 Andrews raid on Western & Atlantic Rail Road in GA also known as The Great Locomotive Chase 1861 The garrision of US troops at Fort Sumter surrenders yankee troops occupy Raleigh, NC 1861 Fort Sumter is occupied by Confederate forces. 15 th 1861 Lincoln issued a call to the U.S. state governors for 75,000 militiamen. This call was made without the consent of Congress, which was a breach of the Constitution. It signaled another act of aggression against the peaceful secession of the Confederate states. Fort Macon, NC is occupied by state troops. 16th 1861 Forts Caswell and Johnston in North Carolina are occupied by state troops. 16 th 1865 Battle of Columbus, GA 17 th 1861 Virginia secedes 4 18th 19th 19th 20th 21th 21th 22th 22th 23th 23th 24th 25th 26th 26th 27th 28th 1864 General John S. Marmaduke captures 198 supply wagons at Poison Springs, AR 1861 Lincoln announces the blockade of all Southern ports from South Carolina to Texas Battle of Culloden, GA 1861 Texan s seize the US Coast Guard schooner Twilight at Port Aransas, TX. Arsenal at Liberty, MO seized by Confederate sympathizers Mint at Charlotte NC seized by state troops. General Van Dorn assumes command of Confederate forces in Texas Confederate Congress passed the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act, which recognized Southern guerrilla forces as legal military groups with official officers Arsenal at Fayetteville, NC seized by state troops Confederate raiders capture federal vessels in Aransas Bay, TX 1861 Arkansas troops occupy Fort Smith. General Robert E. Lee assumes command of State troops in Virginia Fighting at Monnett s Ferry, LA, Independence, MO, and Hunter s Mill, VA 1862 Confederate gun boats battle Union fleet below New Orleans, LA 1862 New Orleans falls to Admiral Farragut s US Fleet 1865 General Joseph E. Johnson surrenders the Army of Tennessee at Durham Station, NC Confederate Memorial Day (most Southern states observed) 1861 Virginia invites the Confederate Government to establish Richmond it s capital. Colonel Thomas Jackson assigned to command at Harper s Ferry, VA Forts Jackson and St. Phillip on the Mississippi river are surrendered to Union troops.

5 Honoring the Confederate dead at historic St. John s Church by Mark St. John Erickson News from around the Confederacy HAMPTON Cecil W. Thomas III strides down an old brick walk outside historic St. John s Church, scanning its ancient cemetery left and right for the tell-tale signs of Civil War soldiers. Hundreds and hundreds of tombstones and monuments rise from the earth as he walks. But what he s searching for much closer to the ground are the low gray forms of Confederate memorial crosses. Over the past year and a half, Chesapeake resident Cecil W. Thomas III has restored 166 Confederate memorial crosses in the cemetery. Singly and in clusters as large as six and seven, these cast-iron markers crop up like mournful flowers here and Thomas nods toward every one with the reverence and familiarity of someone who feels a personal attachment. For nearly a year, he spent much of his free time alongside them on his hands and knees, wearing out a half-dozen wire brushes in a determined one-man campaign to scrape off the rust and restore every one of 166 crosses. That s fewer than half, however, of the nearly 400 he s brushed off, primed and repainted over the past four years in a string of cemeteries that stretches from St. John s in Hampton across the James River to his old family burial ground at Mill Swamp Cemetery in Isle of Wight County. I just really think that I m doing God s work, he said. I get plenty of satisfaction out of it. Most of these guys were simple, ordinary people. They believed they were fighting for their homes and their families, says Thomas, whose blood ties to the war include not only 28 kinsmen who fought for the South but also distant cousin George Henry Thomas, the Southampton County soldier whose battlefield prowess as a Union general sparked such nicknames as The Sledge of Nashville and The Rock of Chickamauga. My great-great-grandfather James Henry Thomas was shot six times but still survived the war and I don t want people like him to be forgotten. Such devout acts of remembrance are one reason why the Civil War and the culture of honor and mourning it spawned continue to draw scholarly attention more than 150 years after the conflict started. Many of the distinctive military burial rites taken for granted in the United States today reach back to that turbulent time, says historian J. Michael Cobb, who will explore the origin of these traditions in a free lunchtime program scheduled for noon today at the Hampton History Museum. Before the Civil War, the country had no systematic way to count and identify its fallen warriors, no way to notify next of kin and no provision for the decent burials of those killed in the line of duty. But as described by Harvard University historian Drew Gilpin Faust in her ground-breaking 2008 book The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War all that changed dramatically with the deaths of as many as 750,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. At the center of the war was the vast number of the killed and wounded. It was unprecedented, Cobb said, recounting Memorial crosses line the graves of Confederate veterans at St. John s Episcopal Church in Hampton. 5

6 News from around the Confederacy (Cont) losses that would be the equivalent of 6 million killed today. And in the South where three in five men of military age fought and one in five died practically everyone was touched. Thomas learned about that impact early on, hearing story after family story about the war as a child. But not until the Chesapeake man visited the Isle of Wight graveyard of his ancestors for the first time in 1986 did he begin to grasp the full extent of its consequences for his kin. More than a dozen of those who fought are buried at Mill Swamp, and as the only surviving male Thomas in the region the young man started tending their headstones and memorial crosses. Chesapeake resident Cecil W. Thomas III holds a Confederate flag near the entrance to the cemetery at St. John s Episcopal Church in Hampton. Thomas has restored 166 Confederate memorial crosses at the Hampton church. He uses a wire brush to remove rust and old paint from the crosses, then repaints them with primer and a shade of Confederate gray. Five years later, he says, he decided to remember their sacrifice by marking their graves with small Confederate flags. Over time, that act of family devotion expanded to include the burial places of other Southern soldiers. Soon Thomas was planting some 200 flags twice each year in a ritual that cost him hundreds of dollars. Not long after joining the Isle of Wight camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 2008, he took on the added task of restoring the soldiers cast-iron crosses. Whenever I put out the flags I saw the way they looked and it really upset me, Thomas said. Some of the crosses at St. John s looked like they hadn t been kept up for 50 years. Even that diligence may not be enough, however, for a man whose reverence for the fallen now takes him as far as Old Blandford Church in Petersburg, where more than 20,000 Confederate graves inspired one of the first Memorial Day observances in I m very serious about this, he says, looking out over the crosses at St. John s. I m going to come back and clean off every single tombstone, too. LIMITED EDITION BELT BUCKLES ARE HERE! Great news compatriots. Belt buckles are back. The Camp just received our allotment of belt buckles. We received approximately 20 belt buckles out of the 500 made. Each belt buckle is numbered with the botony cross Son s of Confederate Veterans Maryland Division. The buckles are $21 each and can be bought at our monthly meeting or you may contact the quartermaster Dennis Spears You do not have to be an SCV member to purchase. Belt buckles are numbered and guaranteed against breakage.

7 Upcoming Events April Events April 04/06/2013 (Saturday) Living history, Battles of Sailor s Creek at the Sailor s Creek Battlefield Historical State Park, 6541 Saylers Creek Road, near Rice. Camps, demonstrations and ranger programs /12-13/2013 (Friday 2 pm -7 pm, Saturday 9 am - 4 pm) Civil War show and sale at the Fredericksburg Expo Center, 2371 Carol D. Silver Drive, Fredericksburg. $8. nvrha.com/show.htm 04/13/2013 (Saturday) 9:00 am -? 9:00 A.M. at Knights of Pythious, 10 Pythian Drive, Edgewater,MD Entertainment by blue grass band Shady Side Sour Notes and food by Adams Ribs of Anapolis. See Flyers Civil War Roundtable The Civil War roundtable will host monthly meetings, the second Tuesday of every month from September through May meetings begin at 7 p.m. at the College of Southern Maryland s (CSM) Center for Business and Industry (BI) on the La Plata Campus. The roundtable is open to anyone interested in the Civil War. According to Dr. Brad Gottfried, the roundtable president, author of nine books on the Civil War and CSM president. Meetings will feature a guest speaker, usually an author or historian, who will present some aspect of the Civil War, followed by group discussion. The group is planning field trips to battlefields and historic sites, adoption of monuments on battlefields and a newsletter. Southern Maryland Civil War Roundtable officers for the first year include Gottfried, Ben Sutherland as vice president, Ron Sweeny as treasurer and Greg Stottlemyer as recording secretary. Annual membership dues are $30. For information, contact Gottfried at bgottfried@csmd.edu or Have any content you would like to share? Article, book or movie you would like me to review? Comment or Suggestion? me at: motoman172@hotmail.com Thank you and Deo Vindice Editor/Webmaster Brian Piaquadio 7

8 REMINDER The next meeting is April 16th, 2013 At the Port Tobacco Court House Time 7:30pm Check us out on the web Pvt. Wallace Bowling Camp #1400 P.O. Box 2355 LaPlata, MD <<Name>> <<Street>> <<Town/State/Zip>>