Americans who think today’s elections are bitter should look back at 1860. As the presidential election approached that fall, the country was more divided than at any time in its history. In South Carolina, the Charleston Mercury reported that Minute Men were organizing across the state “for any emergency that may arise in the present
The Temper of the Southern Mind as the 1860 Election Approached Read More »
The Charleston Zouave Cadets of the Confederate Army, 1861 Charleston’s Own Zouaves When war came to South Carolina in 1861, Charleston answered with a long list of volunteer militia companies. One of the most colorful was the Charleston Zouave Cadets. Like many units of the day, they borrowed their style from the French Zouaves, whose
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What “Heritage Not Hate” Really Means “Heritage not hate” is one of the most common phrases you will hear from people who fly the Confederate battle flag. For millions of Southerners, those three words sum up exactly why the flag matters to them. To these families, the flag is a memorial. It honors grandfathers and
The Dukes of Hazzard Still Ride For anyone who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Friday nights meant one thing: Bo and Luke Duke tearing down the back roads of Hazzard County in the General Lee. The Dukes of Hazzard ran on CBS from 1979 to 1985 and became one of the
Now More Dukes Of Hazard You Say… Read More »
Mosby’s Rangers The Men Who Rode With the Gray Ghost Few Confederate units were as feared, or as admired, as Mosby’s Rangers. Officially the 43rd Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, they were led by Colonel John Singleton Mosby, a lawyer turned cavalryman whose lightning raids earned him the nickname “the Gray Ghost.” Mosby’s men operated behind
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“They were fathers, husbands, brothers and sons…” The Families Behind the Uniform The old photograph in this image shows a Confederate soldier with his wife and little daughter. It is a reminder of something easy to forget when we talk about armies and battles: every soldier had a family waiting for him at home. When
“American by birth. Southern by the grace of God.” You have probably seen it on a bumper sticker, a t-shirt, a coffee mug or a flag hanging from a front porch. It is one of the best-known sayings in the South, and for the people who share it, those nine words carry a lot of
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“Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.” It is one of the most quoted lines ever attached to General Robert E. Lee. It hangs on classroom walls, appears in speeches and books, and every freshman cadet at
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“…the contest is not over, the strife is not ended. It has only entered upon a new and enlarged arena.” Jefferson Davis After the War These words are attributed to Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America. Davis was a West Point graduate, a hero of the Mexican War, a United
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