The Bear Flag Patriots. The Official News of the Missouri Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans

Transcription

1 The Bear Flag Patriots The Official News of the Missouri Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans Issue XVI MISSOURI The Twelfth State of the Confederate States of America Nov 17 Jan 18 From the Division Commander On behalf of the Division We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas. Thank you for your support and undying devotion over this past year. Let's all Pray for a greater New Year! Looking forward to seeing everyone at The Lee-Jackson Dinner. Check the newsletter for details. The Missouri Division Convention will be April 6-7 in Sedalia Mo. More info to follow. Respectfully submitted, Keith Daleen 2018 Lee Jackson Dinner January 20, 2018 Inn at Grand Glaize 5142 Osage Beach Parkway Osage Beach, Missouri

2 Social Time Begins At 5:00 p.m. Dinner Begins At 6:00 p.m. Guest Speaker Army of Trans Mississippi Commander Johnnie L. Holley, JR. of Tyler TX Commander Holley will speak on "The Outlaw Josey Wales" More information and Reservation form on last two pages of this newsletter Camps Some of our camp activities can be followed online through Facebook and camp websites listed below: Missouri Division Sons of Confederate Veterans Joseph O. Shelby Camp #191 Warrensburg MO

3 Elijah Gates Camp #570 Fulton MO John Woodside Camp #203 West Plains MO John T. Hughes Camp #614 Gladstone MO M. M. Parsons Camp #718 Jefferson City MO J. H. McBride Camp #632 Springfield MO James J. Searcy Camp #1923 Columbia MO Campbell's Company Camp #2252 Republic MO James Morgan Utz Camp #1815 Florissant Surgeon John Craven Camp #2276 Gallatin Joseph C. Porter Camp # Hunnewell MO John T. Coffee Camp #1934 Osceola M. Jeff Thompson Camp #2277 Farmington William T. Anderson Camp #1743 Huntsville Edmund Thomas Wingo Camp #2213 Salem The Stoddard Rangers Camp #2290 Dexter MO

4 The Stoddard Rangers Camp #2290, Dexter - The Dexter Statesman photo of the Stoddard Rangers officially receiving their camp charter Campbell s Company Camp #2252, Republic Day trip to Elk Horn Tavern, Fayetteville Confederate Cemetery, and Prairie Grove

5 Good Job Compatriots! While y'all are waiting for your submitted pictures to show in the Confederate Veteran magazine send them in to your Division newsletter. Take a camp picture at an upcoming meeting and we'll get them all added to this section. or text them to absaraka90@gmail.com. Missouri SCV members create Confederate Veteran Song and Music Video By The Missourian So often we get hit with negative news, that it s really encouraging to see folks out there who are using such amazing musical and artistic talent to create something really special and uplifting for ALL our veterans during these trying times. Such is the case with a recent song and music video created by Missouri SCV members, which can be seen on the Keytesville Mercantile Youtube Site. This amazing song is called "Stand Up And Fight", and can also be found at: Additionally, it was recently featured on the SCV Headquarters and Abbeville Institute Facebook pages! Anyway, the song Stand Up and Fight is an awesome tribute to our Southern veterans here in Missouri and throughout America, as well as to those people who continue to stand up and remember their sacrifice today. The video not only includes vintage artwork of battles and other scenes created after the War Between the States, but also has a lot of great photography too. Who knows, with appearances by the Virginia Flaggers, photos by Judy Smith, the I-95 flag raising, various Sons of Confederate Veterans Camps at the Missouri Capital and many parades and other noteworthy locations around the South, maybe you ll even see yourself standing up in honor of our Veterans! We think you ll agree that Hezekiah Brown who also happens to be a noteworthy historian and non-

6 fiction author has really done a great job here. In speaking with Hezekiah Brown, we also learned that the Confederate veteran, World War 1 and World War 2 veterans pictured in the video are also his ancestors too. We hope you enjoy, and help spread the word about this amazing tribute to our Veterans! Chaplain s Corner Please pray for our country, for our heritage and for our members and their families. Please pray for Daniel Jake Jacobs (Utz Camp 1815) and his family who lost his daughter Sidney on Friday November 10th. Pray for Kenneth Edmondson (Hughes Camp 614) who beginning 11-20, will begin being treated with injections to increase his blood count. Pray for is overall health that this situation be cured. Send your pray request to Bob Painter Paint@robertbobpainter.com. The Missouri Division has been blessed with a Corp of Chaplains both past and present. This Issue we will hear from Jon Warren, Chaplain of the M.M. Parsons Camp 718. Jon is an ordained Baptist Minister. Jon is a past Division Chaplain, he writes: As your chaplain, I feel moved to say a few words regarding the escalating desecration of the SCV, the South and the Confederacy. It is hoped that we all can take from these musings something useful in our fight for correct respect of the fighting men in the War Between the States. Along with you, I am deeply disappointed and upset by the militant efforts to destroy history as it occurred and should be remembered. I hope we can evaluate our position, its strengths and weaknesses, and thus, enhance our resolve. We are the inheritors of a treasure worth guarding. The good name of our ancestors and our fellow Southern brothers and sisters. We must evaluate because we must fight, as the Apostle Paul liked to say, the good fight. We must have an excellent position and excellent values. Excellence isn t automatic. Excellence is a hands-on quality, achieved only through the deliberate, disciplined study of who we are, where we are and who is the actual enemy? We must not fight this alone. The troopers of the CSA called on their chaplain to give them God s word as to how they should fight. These soldiers knew first hand just how hard it is to love your enemies. So, occasionally, we need to pull off the freeway and get our spiritual bearings by asking, Is my life, my values, my SCV membership, heading in the right direction? It requires knowing where we are and keeping an eye on where God really wants us to go. In short, evaluate the situation. According to Webster s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed., to evaluate is to determine or fix the value of; to determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by careful appraisal and study. Evaluation is critical to any endeavor. Motorists refer to maps or GPS and pilots to instruments. Baseball players watch videos and corporations analyze profit-and-loss statements. You get the idea. Our standard is the military valor of our ancestor and the truth for which he fought. Our evaluation needs to be based on fact and truth and not blind faith in a cause, or warm and fuzzy experience we may have had. Once again, as happed too frequently since Reconstruction, the Confederacy and its supporters (we) are being portrayed as evil monsters. The implication is that preservation of slavery was the main reason why Confederate soldiers fought, an idea that cheapens our memory of them. Therefore, our enemy has the right to degradation and

7 destruction of all emblems, statues and memorials referencing the Confederacy. Fact. No one should deny that slavery was abhorrent or that slavery was one of the issues leading to the War Between the States. Our detractors expect us and everyone they can reach to believe that the brave men who charged into the hell of combat did so with the preservation of slavery as their sole motive! I don t think so. Northern historians and Hollywood have generally portrayed Southerners as deluded country bumpkins or fanatical racist bigots. As one with a Southern heart, like you, I am proud of my heritage. My ancestors service in the Confederate army is a source of pride. That is truth. Also, true, if I find any of my forebears were in the Union army, I will be just as proud of them. They fought for what they believed was right. My ancestor s brother was an officer in the Union army. At odds during the War, the brothers survived and remained close after the War. I do not claim slavery had nothing to do with war. Nor do I believe the Northern armies were emancipating angels as some historians and related groups have indicated. Fact: There were good and bad on both sides. The men and women of the era were human and should be studied and considered as such. Fact. Slavery is alive and well world-wide today. It is a sin to enslave men, women or children. But it is happening as we speak. Fact. Races mistreat one another all over the world today. Truth: If we would turn to the God of creation, live by the principles of the Holy Bible, love God with all your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself, it would be difficult to hate your fellow human, whatever race, and just as difficult to live with forced enslavement. It is time we treated one another as God has commanded. No, the War was not all about racial matters, either. The average Southerner was poor and illiterate and did not fight for slavery, but for his home against invaders. Most of the Baptist organizations, one of which I am a member, believe we should not display the Confederate flag or let any monuments remain because it shows we are not considering how African-Americans feel. Why? Why aren t they understanding of us who display the flag and pay respect to a memorial as a symbol of the South and the valor of the Confederate soldier, having nothing to do with racism. Their goal is to eventually have nothing allowed to commemorate Confederate military heroes. Evaluation reveals our strengths and weaknesses. We can t fight the good fight with blinders on. The enemy would like for us to be so caught up in our defensive posture that we are weak in our efforts to confront error with truth. Evaluation can keep us from slipping and falling. Personal evaluation should help us be balanced in our approach. We must not teeter toward dangerous extremes. Firmly planted in true historical information and true loving kindness for our fellow humans, doesn t require us to sacrifice Christlike love. The Apostle Paul is a fine example for us in our fight. No one could accuse Paul of wishy-washy Christianity; he made no apologies about his convictions. Yet he never lost sight of the One who gave him those convictions. Paul realized that everything he was, all that he stood for, flowed from the gracious and merciful hand of God. Let us be so in our convictions. Deo Vindice! Rev. Jon Warren, Chaplain -Bob Painter of J.O. Shelby Camp 191 and Missouri Division Chaplain

8 Way Down in Missouri Exploring Missouri's connection to Southern history, culture and identity from pre-statehood to present with emphasis on the War for Southern Independence. By The Missourian After the infantile attack on the Durham County, North Carolina Veterans Monument (in which a group of Leftist Extremists toppled a 100+ year old statue commemorating veterans who fought for their community), and the general response from a minority of people in high positions who are seeking to dishonor our veterans by forcing the removal of their monuments, we thought it appropriate to discuss why our veterans still matter. That it s not just about the 2 second headline or the sanitized version of this complex time period that you might have received back in public school. Below, you ll read a small collection of reasons why people in our Missouri communities fought (which had very little, if anything at all to do with slavery)

9 In May of 1861, the Missouri Legislature convenes at the call of Gov. C.F. Jackson in order to discuss withdrawal from the Union. In response, Federal Captain Nathaniel Lyon and his four regiments of mostly German volunteers demands the surrender of Camp Jackson in St. Louis. A crowd of angry civilians taunt Lyon s men, and in the resulting confusion, Federal troops open fire. Around 100 men, women and children are wounded, with 24 dead. Enraged, Missouri citizens begin arming for war, with men like Captain Wallace Jackson (of Platte County) raising a company of men to be sworn in as State militia at St. Joseph. (Pgs W.M. Paxton s Annals of Platte County, T.L. Snead s The Fight for Missouri, Sean McLachlan s Missouri: An Illustrated History ) In late 1861, state and county officials have refused to take the Federal Oath, and are forcibly removed. W.M. Paxton notes that the military has permitted outlaws to steal without hindrance (near New Market) and that Union troops frequently forage off the people of Platte City. General David Hunter, stationed at Fort Leavenworth, begins his campaign to round up those with Southern Sympathies in Platte County, and orders county leaders to deliver up or drive out the guerrilla leader Silas Gordon or Hunter would lay waste to the County. When Paxton suggests that he has no power, under the Constitution to do so, Hunter s reply is Damn the Constitution! (Pgs W.M. Paxton s Annals of Platte County ) In retaliation for two federals killed in a recent battle in late 1861, Triplett and Close are taken to Bee Creek to be executed. Triplett is shot, but Close runs into the creek and flounders in the mud. Climbing the opposite side, he is met by a soldier who bayonets him several times and leaves him dead in the mud. Two days later, Paxton passes the scene of this tragedy and sees that someone has used blood to write the letters, U.S. on the southwest corner of the bridge. It was about this time that Col. Morgan (Federal) burns Platte City, as well as the courthouse. (Pgs , W.M. Paxton s Annals ofplatte County In 1863, Platte County is disarmed and left as prey to marauding outlaws. Federal jayhawkers bear forged military orders, search houses, barns and stables for arms, and rob and hang the people. Although the Federal militia is active in suppressing bushwhackers, they seem to give little concern toward thieves and murderers. (Pgs 336 W.M. Paxton s Annals of Platte County ) In August of 1864, Dr. Joseph Walker is met on the road by a group of men from Leavenworth, and taken into the woods and shot. Dr. Thomas L. Thomas, a favorite of Camden Point, and David Gregg, an old and highly esteemed farmer, are also recorded as recently murdered for their Southern Sympathies (Pg , W.M. Paxton s Annals of Platte County ) It s reported that Jayhawkers H.H. Moore and H.D. Fisher were freeing Missouri slaves so they could take them back to Kansas for cheap labor and work as indentured servants. 1 In a letter to Missouri Congressman Rollins, General George Caleb Bingham wrote in regards to Jennison s Jayhawks that if Jennison should be executed, for if he were hung Price would lose thereby the best recruiting officer he ever had. 2 Halleck directed General Pope to drive out Jennison s Jayhawks as, They are no better than a band of robbers; they cross the line, rob, steal, plunder and burn whatever they can lay their hands upon. They disgrace the name and uniform of American soldiers and are driving good Union men into the ranks of the secession army. 3 Near Independence at the farm of Amos Blythe, Federal troops encountered 12 year old Theodore at home. They threatened the boy with hanging if they didn t tell them what they wanted to know. Theodore managed to escape, and the troops opened fire. He grabbed a gun inside the family home, and ran for the nearby woods. However, the boy was wounded and fell to the ground. He reportedly shot the first federal that came up to him, and wounded two others as they approached. Before he could fire a fourth time, his body was riddled with bullets. 4 In Jackson County, 13 year old John Fox, who had a brother with Quantrill, was shot and killed by Federals while his sister and mother had hold of him and begged for his life. He was charged with feeding his brother. 5 Federals also killed 14 year old James Nicholson because he had two brothers with Price. 35 year old Henry Morris was serving with Col. Upton Hays when Federals rode up to his house and killed his 11 year old son. 6

10 James C. Horton of Lawrence describes the capture of a guerrilla by the name of Skaggs, who was shot off his horse. A man tied a rope around his neck and drug him through the streets of Lawrence until the body was nude and terribly mutilated. The body was then hanged and further mutilated bycutting it with knives, shooting and throwing rocks, etc. 7 Order Number 11, a response to a guerrilla attack on Lawrence (which was in turn a response to numerous Federal attacks on families throughout the region), was an order that burned numerous homes suspected of giving aid to the South. Women and children were naturally not exempt from this, and suffered greatly through the loss of husbands and fathers who were often killed on their doorsteps, as well as the loss of homes and property (like clothing, bedding, etc) to protect from the elements. Union men kill 17 year old Al Carter. After shooting him from his saddle, they shot out his eyes and scalped him. 8 (scalping was a brutal practice that was said to have been committed numerous times by federal troops along the Missouri/Kansas border) Guerrilla leader William Anderson was beheaded and his head attached to a telegraph pole in the town of Richmond. One year after Appomattox, 4000 comer secessionists were said to have been murdered in southwest Missouri. Supposedly Federals encouraged bands of regulators to serve retaliation on former Confederate soldiers who served. 9 After the collapse of a makeshift prison that killed a number of women in Kansas City on August 13, 1863 (which was said to have been intentionally done by federal captors as revenge against southern resistance), John McCorkle writes, This foul murder was the direct cause of the famous raid on Lawrence, Kansas. We could stand no more. Imagine, if you can, my feelings. A loved sister foully murdered and the widow of a dead brother seriously hurt by a set of men to whom the name assassins, murderers and cutthroats would be a compliment. People abuse us, but, by God, did we not have enough to make us desperate and thirst for revenge? We tried to fight like soldiers, but were declared outlaws, hunted under a Black Flag and murdered like beasts. The homes of our friends burned, our aged sires, who dared sympathize with us had been either hung or shot in the presence of their families and all their furniture and provisions loaded in wagons and with our livestock taken to the state of Kansas. The beautiful farming country of Jackson County, Cass County and Johnson County were worse than a desert, and on every hillside stood lone blackened chimneys, sad sentinels and monuments to the memory of our once happy homes. And these outrages had been done by Kansas troops, calling themselves soldiers, but a disgrace to the name soldier. And now our innocent and beautiful girls had been murdered in the most foul, brutal, save and damnable manner. 10 Also of note is that a black man by the name of John Lobb was said to have served Quantrill and reportedly spied on Lawrence prior to the raid. Quantrill also had a Cherokee Indian, Adam Wilson riding with him. 11 Naturally this is not a complete account of all that occurred during Lincoln s War. But the reader is encouraged to learn and find out more for themselves about what really went on during this complex and extremely difficult time. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented here, again, the reader is encouraged to read and learn on their own. Perhaps instead of just accepting the thoughts of a biased college professor or a skewed public school textbook, you too will come to understand why so many people continue to want to honor the many sacrifices of a people not so different than us. Their sufferings and stories during a time of deep division and bloody conflict are worth remembering. Because like they say, those who forget history might be tragically condemned to repeat it. 1. Quantrill of Missouri, Petersen (pg. 72) 2. Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, Brownlee(pg. 49) 3. The War of the Rebellion, 1883, Series 1 Volume VIII (pg 507) 4. Quantrill, Harrison Trow, Quantrill and the Border Bars, Connelley Quantrill of Missouri, Petersen (pg 240)

11 7. Joanne C. Eakin and Donald R. Hale, Branded as Rebels 8. William Gregg Manuscript 9. Quantrill of Missouri, Petersen (pg 423) 10. William Gregg Manuscript 11. Quantrill of Missouri, Petersen (pg 159)

12 2018 Lee Jackson Dinner January 20, 2018 Inn at Grand Glaize 5142 Osage Beach Parkway Osage Beach, Missouri Social Time Begins At 5:00 p.m. Dinner Begins At 6:00 p.m. Guest Speaker Army of Trans Mississippi Commander Johnnie L. Holley, JR. of Tyler TX Commander Holley will speak on "The Outlaw Josey Wales" You Won t Want To Miss This One

13 Missouri Division Sons of Confederate Veterans 2018 Lee Jackson Dinner Reservation Form Name: Guest(s): Total Number Attending: Total Amount Enclosed: ($30 per person) Please send reservation and payment to: Don Bowman - Adjutant Missouri Division - SCV Audrain Rd. 989 Centralia, MO Make checks payable to: Missouri Division - SCV Special Room Rate for those staying at the Inn at Grand Glaize Hotel/Resort: $ tax Inn at Grand Glaize 5142 Osage Beach Parkway P.O. Box 969 Osage Beach, MO Call the Inn at Grand Glaize direct at: and mention SCV Rate. Registration Deadline is January 14, 2018, please get reservations in early! Any questions contact Keith Daleen at: (660) southpawreb@gmail.com