Category: Confederate Flags Heritage

In an earlier post we got a 10 year old girl’s view of the war as Sherman started his destructive march through Georgia.(Click here to read.) Here are more details.

Needless to say that there will never be a statue like the one above honoring Union General Sherman in Georgia. And here’s the reason why.

Sherman’s  Special Field Orders No. 120 authorized a new kind of warfare. Part of it reads:

“…should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility.”In case you doubt how severe he meant this to be, this will clarify Sherman’s intentions, from one of his telegrams to Ulysses S. Grant:

“Until we can repopulate Georgia it is useless to occupy it, but utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources. … I can make the march and make Georgia howl.”One of Sherman’s officers, John Acheson, wrote these words:

“…scores of poor families have I seen, who had had no hand in bringing the present trouble upon the country, left without a mouthful to eat, and not knowing where to turn to get it, or what in the world to do to relive their distress.”While Texas General Hood was negotiating with Sherman on the treatment of civilians in Atlanta, Hood wrote to Sherman:

“And now, sir, permit me to say that the unprecedented measure you propose transcends, in studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever before brought to my attention in the dark history of war.”

His scathing messages to Sherman reveal a lot. In one of them he wrote:  

“…there are a hundred thousand witnesses that you fired into the habitations of women and children for weeks, firing far above and miles beyond my line of defense.”Sherman achieved the status of war hero after the war, but not in the lands where he “slashed and burned.”

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

After capturing Atlanta in September 1864 during the Civil War, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman,  ordered the destruction of all railroads, factories, and commercial buildings of possible use to the Confederacy. Though houses and churches were not targeted, some were looted and burned nonetheless. Here’s one of the many stories.

Ten-year-old Carrie Berry and her family lived in Atlanta, Georgia when Sherman arrived and started burning his way to the Georgia coast.

Here are some of Carrie’s diary entries: Sunday (13 Nov 1864):

“The federal soldiers have been coming to day and burning houses and I have ben looking at them come in nearly all day.”

Monday:

“They came burning Atlanta to day. We all dread it because they say that they will burn the last house before they stop.”

Tuesday:

“This has been a dreadful day. Things have ben burning all around us. We dread to night because we do not know what moment they will set our house on fire.”

Wednesday:

“Oh what a night we had. They came burning the store house and about night it looked like the whole town was on fire.  We all set up all night.  If we had not set up our house would have ben burnt up for the fire was very near and the soldiers were going around setting houses on fire where they were not watched. They behaved very badly.” The Union troops left the next day, and while her house was “torn up so bad,” it was still standing. On the 22nd of November she wrote:

“It is just a week today since the federals were burning. Papa and Mama say that they feel very poor. We have not got anything but our little house.  It is still very cold.”  

Four days later:

“I ironed this morning and in the afternoon I picked up nails and when I came home Papa and Grandpa were here. The Yankees payed Grandpa a visit and took every thing he had…” On January 2nd she was back in school.  She reports

“…studying arithmetic, spelling, reading and geography. We are all trying to see which will learn the most.”

This was a glimpse of the Civil War, as seen from the eyes of an innocent and brave 10 year old girl living in the South.

Sherman’s army destroying rail infrastructure in Atlanta, 1864

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Randolph Harrison McKim enlisted as a Confederate private at the beginning of the Civil War. He rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant. After the war, he became pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C., where he served for 32 years.

McKim wrote a book about his experiences in the war, and included these words:

“We would not do aught (anything) to perpetuate the angry passions of the Civil War, or to foster any feeling of hostility to our fellow citizens of other parts of the Union. But we must forevermore do honor to our heroic dead.”

“We must forevermore cherish the sacred memories of those four terrible but glorious years of unequal strife. We must forevermore consecrate in our hearts our old battle flag of the Southern Cross… “

“The people that forgets its heroic dead is already dying at the heart and we believe we shall be truer and better citizens of the United States if we are true to our past.”

Well said, McKim for this message that everyone needs to hear, believe, and be true to.

Many today continue to honor those men and the “old battle flag of the Southern Cross.”

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Nathan Bedford Forrest, simply put, is a controversial figure. The son of a blacksmith, he came from an untamed area of Tennessee. Forrest had practically no schooling, but went on to become one of the highest-ranking generals of the Civil War.  Like him or not, he was a smart man, a master tactician.  And he did not put up with fools,  and that included those few who were senior to him. There are many stories about Forrest. Here’s one about a Union officer who became very upset after he surrendered to Forrest.  

It was April of 1863 and a force of the Union cavalry under Colonel Abel Streight had orders to cut the Confederate railroad south of Chattanooga. Forrest chased the Union boys for 16 days, catching up with them in Rome, Georgia. Forrest only had 500 men with him, but he maneuvered them around to make it look like he had far more.

Streight finally surrendered his 1,700 soldiers to the Confederates. But when the colonel realized that he had conceded defeat to less than a third his number, he demanded that his surrender be reversed so he could battle it out. That demand went nowhere, naturally, and it was probably for the best for Streight. Forrest was known for defeating forces greater than his own in open battle.There is a story after the war about a Yankee officer was in business with Forrest. The officer came to his house one day, and as soon as Forrest’s horse saw the blue uniform, the horse attacked him, trying to bite and kick him. One of Forrest’s men saw what was happening, came over and saved the officer.

The Yankee officer told Forrest that it was no wonder he won so many battles, since his horses fought for him with as much fury as his men did.

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Here is another tale of Private Sam Watkins, Company H, 1st Tennessee:“It was Christmas. John Barleycorn was general-in-chief. Our generals, and colonels, and captains, had kissed John a little too often…. We marched plumb into the Yankee lines, with their flags flying.”“I called Lieutenant-Colonel Frierson’s attention to the Yankees, and he remarked, “Well, I don’t know whether they are Yankees or not…”There was a lot of confusion about the situation, especially when the Yankees pulled back over the hill:“Oakley, color-bearer of the Fourth Tennessee Regiment, ran right up in the midst of the Yankee line with his colors, begging his men to follow. I hallooed till I was hoarse, “They are Yankees, they are Yankees; shoot, they are Yankees.”The shooting began, but confusion continued. Then a shell fragment struck Sam in the arm, “…and then a minnie ball passed through the same paralyzing my arm, and wounded and disabled me.”Just then General Cheatham came up, not so fazed by John Barleycorn as the rest. He was calling to his men, “Come on, boys, and follow me.” Sam tells the rest:“The impression that General Frank Cheatham made upon my mind, leading the charge, I will never forget. I saw either victory or death written on his face…as he was passing me I said, ‘Well, General, if you are determined to die, I’ll die with you.’”

“We were at that time at least a hundred yards in advance of the brigade, Cheatham all the time calling upon the men to come on. He was leading the charge in person. Then it was that I saw the power of one man, born to command, over a multitude of men then almost routed and demoralized.”

“I saw and felt that he was not fighting for glory, but that he was fighting for his country because he loved that country, and he was willing to give his life for his country and the success of our cause.”The Rebels won the field that day, and General Cheatham and Sam lived to fight again.

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

David Johnston was 15 when Lincoln was elected.  By April of the next year he was a Confederate Private in a Virginia regiment, having just turned 16 and old enough to go off to war. That is his image above.

Private Johnston fought in the earliest battles, and all the way to Appomattox.  After the war, he wrote a book about his story.  He wrote something about General Beauregard, as his unit marched into the Battle of First Manassas, the first major battle of the war:

“He appeared calm, and collected, saying as we passed, in a quiet, low tone: ‘Keep cool, men, and fire low; shoot them in the legs.’”

It seems Beauregard, like so many, wanted to preserve lives, hoping for a short conflict.  It was not to be.

The Civil War was long and hard fought by both sides.  Johnston had his share of serious wounds and tough times. He turned 20 the day after Appomattox, no longer a boy. Of the end, he wrote:

“Four years before this company left Pearisburg, Virginia, with 102 men, the majority of whom were as promising and gallant young men as Virginia produced. During the time of service twenty recruits were added, making 122 in all, and now here we were with eighteen left.”

It was a hard war with many men lost, and it needs to be remembered to this day.

Arlene Barnum, a 63 year old African American Viet Nam war-era veteran has been travelling the southern US decorating graves of fallen soldiers with confederate flags. This article was the result of an interview of her in Ardmore, Oklahoma. So far, there’s been no word from groups that may oppose her activity. She is raising money to restore a Bryan County, OK, Confederate statue.

Cemetery adorned with Confederate flags

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Many have heard of the U.S. Army’s use of camels in the old west, well before the Civil War.  In the 1850’s, as the first American settlers started moving west, they realized their horses and mules weren’t cut out for the long, dry journeys between water sources. Many settlers wanted to find a different animal.

What you may not know is that it was Jefferson Davis who played a vital role in camels coming to America.  He was the first to encourage the U. S. to use camels while he was serving in the US Senate in 1855. He persuaded a skeptical Congress to to appropriate $30,000 to fund a purchase.  A ship brought them from (the modern countries of) Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and what’s now Turkey.

By the time of the Civil War, there was a camel named “Old Douglas” who had somehow made his way east to Mississippi, joining up with the 43rd Mississippi Regiment.  The men didn’t know anything about camels, and tried to keep him on a tether like a horse.  But no rope could ever hold “Old Douglas,” and eventually the soldiers learned to just let him graze freely.  That was no problem because he was never far from the men. But the Infantry’s horses feared “Old Douglas.” It is recorded that one day he spooked one horse into starting quite a stampede.

Besides acting a mascot, “Old Douglas” served the Confederate regimental band, carrying their instruments and supplies.  But wherever the 43rd went and whatever battles it fought, there was “Old Douglas.”

Old Douglas’s first active service was with Gen. Price in the Iuka campaign. Later he was present at the 1862 Battle of Corinth and stayed with the regiment until the Siege of Vicksburg. Here a battalion of Union sharpshooters were ordered to shoot “Old Douglas”. So enraged at his murder, the men swore to avenge him. Col. Bevier enlisted six of his best snipers, and successfully shot the culprit, severely wounding him.

Good “Old Douglas” served  the Confederate cause well and has the honor of his own grave marker at Cedar Hill Cemetery, in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  

Historians and Civil War Re-enactors recognize the significance of the history of camels in America. The Texas Camel Corps is an active group with the mission of promoting the stories of camels, like “Old Douglas,” used during the Civil War.

Members of this group say that some things we believe about camels are not true:

“They aren’t mean, they don’t spit (it’s the camel’s cousin, the lamas, who spit), and they’re every bit as smart as a horse – if not smarter.”

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Southern Irishmen from all over fought for the Confederacy, but Louisiana sent the most into the fray.  New Orleans was home to more Irishmen than any other city in the South. They were in many Confederate Regiments, but the 6th Louisiana had the most. Above is a the flag of that regiment. Half the Irish in the 6th had been born in Ireland.  The bulk of these men worked the docks and riverboats, were carpenters and bricklayers, clerks and policemen. The Irish were noted for their bravery in battle.  General Gordon described one charge they made: “As we reached the first line of strong and high fencing, and my men began to climb over it, they were met by a tempest of bullets… It was one of those fights where success depends largely on the prowess of the individual soldier… nothing could deter them. Neither the obstructions nor the leaden blast in their front could check them.” Half of Gordon’s men fell, but they kept on, hurling themselves into the line of battle-hardened Federals and driving them back. Another Confederate General wrote that the Northerners “ran like sheep without a Shepherd.” Union General Wallace later wrote that after witnessing Gordon’s attack formations that “it was time to get away.” In fierce fighting, Southern Irish helped carry the day.

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

It was 1907, and the US Senate was debating what was to be the official name for the Civil War. Former Confederate and Union soldiers were present, and the record shows they were getting along just fine.  

Here is part of what Senator Hernando Money of Mississippi said, from the Senate Record: There was ex-Senator Blair, of New Hampshire, as gallant a soldier as ever went to the field, now on crutches as the result of wounds inflicted by Confederate soldiers. He was shot three or four times. He called to me. I did not recognize him on account of my bad sight. We shook hands. I said:

“What are you doing on these sticks, Blair?”

He said: “You fellows hit me pretty hard three or four times, and it is beginning to tell on me since I have been getting old.”

He said: “Did we get you?”

I said: “Once; not much.”

He said: “Are you not glad you got it?”

I said: “I do not know. I have not regretted it.”

He said: “I am glad I was hit.” We shook hands.

He said: “Any man who was worth being hit ought to have been there either on one side or the other. If you had been in New Hampshire you would probably have been in my regiment.”

I agreed that it was a great deal a matter of environment. Today, let’s not forget these men.

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

One of Robert E. Lee’s most aggressive and successful generals, and probably the most courageous and determined was General John Gordon. He fought bravely and ferociously for the Confederacy the entire war, several times while wounded.At the Battle of Antietam Gordon’s took a minnie ball through his calf.  A second ball hit him soon after in the same leg, but he was still “…able to walk along the line and give encouragement to my resolute riflemen.”The battle continued, and later in the day Gordon took yet another ball in his left arm.  His men pleaded with him to go to the rear, but he refused and Gordon stayed to fight..Gordon and his men had earlier promised Lee that “…we would stay there till the battle ended or night came.”A fourth minnie ball ripped through Gordon’s shoulder. He later recalled, “I could still stand and walk, although the shocks and loss of blood had left but little of my normal strength.”It took a fifth hit that same day to bring Gordon down. The ball struck him in the face. When he woke up, Gordon asked the surgeon what he thought of his condition. Gordon relates,“He made a manly effort to say that he was hopeful. I knew better, and said: ‘You are not honest with me. You think I am going to die; but I am going to get well.’”And get well he did. Gordon was again wounded in later battles, but never failed to keep going. In fact, Gordon was the man Lee assigned to conduct the “furling of the flags” after Appomattox, even though Gordon’s leg still ached from a round received just 18 days earlier.When Gordon died in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt described him this way,

“A more gallant, generous, and fearless gentleman and soldier has not been seen by our country.”

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags

Confederate Private Watkins tells a story about capturing a mule.“He was not a fast mule, and I soon found out that he thought he knew as much as I did. He was wise in his own conceit…. If I wanted him to go on one side of the road he was sure to be possessed of an equal desire to go on the other side.”But riding an ornery mule was still better than walking, so “me and mule worried along until we came to a creek. Mule did not desire to cross.”Nothing Private Watkins did persuaded the mule.  However, an artillery unit came along and offered to help. They got a rope and tied one end to the mule and the other to carriage pulled by a team of horses.“The mule was loath to take to the water. He was no Baptist, and did not believe in immersion, and had his views about crossing streams, but the rope began to tighten, the mule to squeal out his protestations against such villainous proceedings. The rope, however, was stronger than the mule’s ‘no,’ and he was finally prevailed upon by the strength of the rope to cross the creek.”On the other side the mule “… seemed to be in deep meditation. I got on him again, when all of a sudden he lifted his head, pricked up his ears, began to champ his bit, gave a little squeal, got a little faster, and finally into a gallop and then a run. He seemed all at once to have remembered or to have forgotten something, and was now making up for lost time. With all my pulling and seesawing and strength I could not stop him until he brought up with me at Corinth, Mississippi.”

Watkins tells another story about a mule, only he wasn’t the one riding it this time: “One fellow, a courier, who had had his horse killed, got on a mule he had captured, and in the last charge, before the final and fatal halt was made, just charged right ahead by his lone self, and the soldiers said, “Just look at that brave man, charging right in the jaws of death.”He began to seesaw the mule and grit his teeth, and finally yelled out, ‘It arn’t me, boys, it’s this blarsted old mule. Whoa! Whoa!’”

You may think mules are naturally very smart and focus on their own self-preservation, or they are just plain, stupid beasts. But you can’t dispute the fact they are, for sure, very stubborn. And when you think about it, that’s really not such a bad thing.

Thanks for reading. Please share our posts with your friends and family so they too can learn more about Southern Heritage and History.

Brought to you by: Ultimate Flags