There are some outstanding letters to the editor defending The South's Defenders Memorial Monument in today's, July 19, edition of the Lake Charles, La. American Press edition. I counted 7 pro-monument letters to just two anti-monument. We are also approaching 6,000 visits to our monument defense web site since June, and well over 6,000 to my personal blog, The South's Defenders, which incidentally has over 262,000 visits over the entire history of the blog. I think these numbers indicate the Public of Calcasieu Parish has rallied to the defense of the monument. In addition, there is a great feature article in today's American a life-member of Capt. J.W. Bryan Camp 1390, SCV, in Lake Charles, Dr. Elwi n Cavin, M.D., noting his 100th birthday on July 28. The article concentrates on his outstanding World War II record in combat in the Pacific theater. He is the camp's very last World War II veteran. The article says anyone wishing to send him a 100th birthday card can mail them to 3142 St. Andrews Drive, Lake Charles, La. 70605.
Here are two of the Pro-Monument letters to the newspaper, both outstanding:
Toppling Confederate statues now a mob sport
Immense was the Confederate warrior’s sacrifice. About
300,000 died when the region’s population was only nine million. If today
The United States were to suffer proportional casualties, losses would total 11
million — 26 times greater than in World War II.
Given such loss, the Confederate soldier’s surviving family
members wanted to memorialize him. Federal occupation troops observed Southern
women spreading flowers upon the graves of their husbands, sons and brothers. A
year after the war the ladies of Columbus, Miss., strewed flowers on the graves
of both the Confederate and Union dead in the town cemetery.
Their gesture started a movement that spread and May 30th
was selected as National Memorial Day in 1868.
Impoverished by war, with no money, Southern ladies could
only lay down flowers. Union veterans initially opposed Confederate memorials,
but when the Sons of Confederate Veterans eagerly joined the U.S. Army to win
the Spanish-American War, the aging Union soldiers saw their former rivals
again as Americans, who deserved memorial recognition.
Thus, the 20 years from 1898 to 1918 witnessed the
installation of 80 percent of the many signature courthouse square Confederate
statues in Southern towns. During that period, the typical surviving
Confederate soldiers aged from 58 to 78. Memorial placements — North and South — surged between
1911 and 1915 because it was the war’s semi-centennial and the old soldiers
were fading away.
Removing, even toppling Confederate statues is now a mob
sport, with impunity for the vandals. Such conduct, requiring the bravery of
kicking a puppy, we may wonder what comes next.
Even statues of Columbus, Presidents Wilson and McKinley
have been attacked. Anti-statue activists behave like the leaders of the former
Soviet Union, where censorship and rewritten history was done to ensure that
the correct political spin was put on their history.
George Orwell warned, “The most effective way to destroy a
people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
Michael S. Fuselier, Ragley
Historical ignorance apparent concerning war
Julius Caesar said, “The winning side will write history,”
and Napoleon said, “History is just a collection of myths and lies that men
have agreed upon” — and so it is with the current historical ignorance
concerning the War for Southern Independence. On June 14, 2020, Mr. Brandon
Shoumaker cited two common, and completely baseless and false claims — one
accusing the UDC and SCV of “white-washing” the causes of the war; the other
claiming there were no Black Confederate soldiers.
Most of the “Revisionist History” has come from the North
and Socialist Left to try and make their illegal and unjust war sound noble
and/or heroic. The slavery issue was indeed one cause, but probably would be
No. 4 or No. 5 out of the 10 main issues; and mainly concerned the expansion,
enforcing fugitive laws, preventing Northern Abolitionists from inciting slave
revolts, how to count them, etc., and not in freeing them.
Lincoln said several times “he had no authority to free the
slaves, nor do I have any inclination to do so.” Four times he declared in the
war proclamations and to Congress his sole reason for waging war was the
“collection of taxes and revenues” that were lost when the 11 Southern states
seceded. Never did he say the war was to end slavery. He more than once offered
the states a guarantee on keeping the institution unfettered, if the states
would just return to the Union; and, of course, “pay their back taxes and
revenue due to the government.” The “war to end slavery” justification didn’t
start to be pushed until nearly 20 years after the war.
Why do the very first to claim and believe the government
lied to them about Vietnam, WMD in Iraq, 9/11, etc., refuse to even consider
that they may have been lied to about the war?
As to being there “no Black Confederate soldiers,” don’t
just take the SCV’s or my word for it, look to the writings of Dr. Leonard
Haynes III, former president of Southern University, Grambling University and
American College, and for many years now a prominent educator who has held high
positions in the U.S. Department of Education under several presidents. Look to
notable men of the day such as Frederick Douglas and Horace Greeley who both
wrote and spoke on “Black soldiers in the ranks, with a rifle on their
shoulder, and bullets in their pockets.” Check out the surviving local
newspaper accounts as Lee’s army was marching through Maryland and Pennsylvania
and people were aghast seeing “Black soldiers in uniform with muskets
intermingled in the ranks.”
Better yet, do some research in “The Official Record of the
War of the Rebellion” published by the federal government. Read the After
Action Battle Reports from the Union officers in combat against both Black
units and racially integrated ones. Yes, many were slaves, but many were not;
and many were not in combat roles (as were many whites), but their service was
just as important and necessary as the infantryman in conducting a war. Some
studies have put the total at over 70,000, with some being from here in
Southwest Louisiana.
If you want to know the truth, quit getting your history
from Wikipedia or other biased liberal left websites that hide the truth
because it doesn’t fit their narrative, or goal of destroying this great
country.
The South’s Defenders Monument was erected for the 50th
anniversary of the war’s end. It was erected to honor the sacrifices made by
these men who answered the call to arms by their state and their parish; not as
aggressors but as defenders. It was not erected to commemorate the CSA or
slavery. The Confederate Battle Flag that has become so despised, was the one
chosen by these old vets to be remembered for their deeds and sacrifices, not
the flag of the Confederate States of America that was dead and gone. The
Battle Flag flew over the first integrated army in our country, where Black
soldiers received full and equal pay with their white comrades in arms, and
weren’t being used as cannon fodder while receiving half-pay as they were in
the segregated Union Army which existed until 1948.
Gordon D. Simmons, Lake Charles
No comments:
Post a Comment