Hope for the Future !

                                                               



                                Basic Stuff !
                            Hope for the future !

It's a Family Thang !!

With all of the Hoo Haw going on at the VMFA over the Confederate Flag ( or any flag ) I just wanted to step back and look at the reason for my interest !

My Geat Grand Father was a member of the First Company Richmond Howitzers, as well as a Member of The Robert E Lee camp # 1 .

                                                         J C Tatum's original pardon !

His older Brother was a Howitzer also !

This is a reproduction of W H Tatum's "Walkin Paper"

My Great Grand Dad left a few reminders!

So I'm just keeping the Family Tradition Alive !

J C Tatum

W H Tatum

David Tatum Jr.

Thanks to ALL The VA Flaggers !

It's not that Complicated !

It's not about being a "Lost Causer" or being a "Neo Confederate"

It's a matter of Respect, and Honor !

Levon Helm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQYj2ltJKe8&feature=player_embedded

I stole this picture from Connie's blog, 180 True South !
I guess I took the Idea as well !

But such a wonderful song and wonderful voice deserves recognition !
Please go to the link provided and PLAY IT LOUD !

Rest in peace Levon, Thank you for the memory!

David Tatum Jr.

No words Required !

RE Lee Camp #1

ARTILLERY PIECES - Cover the landscape and grounds of the Soldiers' Home, and in many photos of the soldiers on the grounds, there's an artillery piece close by. The Charleston Cannon, looks to be a Rodman Naval cannon, and once at the front door several paces away was moved a few years ago to the front and side area of the Confederate Memorial Chapel

The historical marker on the Charleston Cannon is the "R. E. Lee Camp Confederate Memorial Park", and as it was located in front of the Soldiers' Home (Robinson House) - that was a very clear statement that the "R. E. Lee Camp Confederate Memorial Park" was located all the way down to the grounds of the Virginia Historical Society. The project of restoration of this Charleston cannon should be undertaken by the Museum and the Commonweal...th, as it is a historic treasure that needs to be preserved.

The artillery pieces in front of the UDC and in back have recently been restored, and in my opinion, the grounds of the R. E. Lee Camp Confederate Memorial Park need some artillery pieces laid out for the children and adults to come take a look at, and they need an understanding of what these grounds were about. An artillery piece, so loved by those Confederate Veterans, would be a perfect item to have placed and identified, for interpretation by all visitors to the grounds. It would then be part of the wishes and thoughts of those Confederate Veterans of the R. E. Lee Camp No. 1 C.V., who provided a Grant Deed to the Virginia Arts Association in exchange for a "Contractual Promise".

(My Great Grand Dad, had need of the services rendered at the Home in his final years. He was a member of The Richmond Howitzers 1st Company).

Special thanks to Bobby Edwards for allowing me to use this post !

Just Looking For The Truth !

I have looked for years for this information, I found it this morning! For the longest time I heard about it but could never find out anything! So I didn't think it was true! HOWEVER---

The First Company Richmond Howitzers-------

"John Parker, a slave from King and Queen County, was employed as a laborer on breastworks and artillery batteries near Richmond, but when the Union army began its advance on Manassas, the Confederate military ordered all colored people must come and fight. Arriving two days before the battle, Parker and four other slaves were assigned to a battery after a brief stint of training. He and his fellow slaves, as Gun Battery no.2, opened fire at 10.00 A.M. that fateful morning with grapeshot, and Parker quickly had his hands full handling ammunition, swabbing the cannon, and staying alive."

( Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia, by Ervin L Jordan)

Intersting stuff for a descendent of two Richmond Howitzers.

Add the above find to ---‎

"Federal Official Records, Series 1, Volume 4, p.569 - Report of Colonel John W. Phelps, First Vermont Infantry:

"CAMP BUTLER, Newport News, Va., August 1 I, 186I - SIR: Scouts from this post represent the enemy as having retired. they came to New Market Bridge on Wednesday, and left the next day. They-the enemy-talked of having 9,000 men. They were recalled by dispatches from Richmond. They had twenty pieces of artillery, among which was the Richmond Howitzer Battery, manned by negroes. . . Their numbers are probably overrated; but with regard to their artillery, and its being manned in part by negroes, I think the report is probably correct."

I have searched through Howitzer records, Letters from my Ancestors, just about every source I could find. I'm not 100% convinced that the Howitzers had Black Men at the cannons.

But the evidence is adding up.

It don't matter in the grand scheem of things one way or the other. Sure it would be cool if it's true, but that is the paramount factor / " THE TRUTH" !

I will keep ya posted !

Real People on the Front Line !

It's Just a photo collection of every day people!

Doing what they feel is right !

Forwarding the Colors!

They don't hide behind Computers, not protected by the walls of a blog!

In the streets, on the front lines.
They don't get paid to do it, and they ain't doin it for fame!

Like our Confederate ancestors they do it from their heart!

Lexington VA !

Richmond VA, At the VMFA!



John Taylor, as a police officer he put his life on the line!
And his wife who waited at home, every night never knowing if -----
She is the true hero!




Susan Hathaway and Elizabeth Wilson!


Two beautiful young women!


Both who have courage. They endure insults and keep their composure!





Mr Robert Wagner.
This Guy Scares me ! And I ain't afraid Of nothing !

Lexington VA Again!

Flagging the Hallmark Lady!

At the Pelham Chapel.

Just regular folks, who wish to right a wrong!

God bless em!

This guy is a good friend of mine !
He wishes he could flag more often!

I wish to thank every one who has the courage to do whats right!

RESPECT !

It's a hot day and you are walking through town , your feet are smokin hot from the concrete and asphalt, you pass by a lush green lawn, it has a sign, "Please Keep Off The Grass"

It doesn't say "No Trespassing" so would it be "proper" to take your shoes off and walk across the lawn ?

Your not walking across the lawn to damage it, but your poor feet are hot, so you say what's the harm? You also say I'm not breaking any law since the sign is a request!

Can you see where I'm coming from ?

Would it be "PROPER" to walk across the grass?

Connie Chastain @ http://one80dts.blogspot.com has at her blog a note requesting that you not reprint material without permission!

Basically the same thing, so out of respect should you should follow her request?

I say yes ! Respect and Honor are seriously lacking in today's society !

But some folks just don't care, It's more important to inflate their blog hits by using controversial methods and ignoring scruples!

It's a sad state of affairs. This reflects directly upon the pirate who ignored a polite request !

Bad Luck ?

If only Capt. Francesco Schettino had served with Gen. Lee at Gettysburg the outcome would have been different. After all, anybody who has the Bad Luck to trip and fall into a life boat on a sinking ship: thats the kind of guy you need on your side!

Freedom in the North !

While the South has been label racist lets take a look at our wonderful neighbors to the north!

OHIO
The state had enacted Black Laws in 1804 and 1807 that compelled blacks entering the state to post bond of $500 guaranteeing good behavior and to produce a court paper as proof that they were free.
"No extensive effort was made to enforce the bond requirement" Likwack wrote, "until 1829, when the rapid increase of the Negro population alarmed Cincinnati. The city authorities announced that the Black Laws would be enforced and ordered Negroes to comply or leave within thirty days."
Citizens of the city's "Little Africa" -- largely a ghetto of wooden shacks owned by whites -- appealed for a delay, and sent a delegation to Canada to try to find a place to settle there. But if the authorities were willing to offer more time, the Ohio mob was not, and whites in packs roamed through the black neighborhoods, burning and beating. The delegation came back from Upper Canada with the offer of a safe home from the governor. "Tell the Republicans on your side of the line that we royalists do not know men by their color. Should you come to us you will be entitled to all the privileges of the rest of His Majesty's subjects."
About half of the city's 2,200 blacks left, most of them apparently going to Canada. The proponents of strict enforcement of the Black Laws then discovered that they had driven off "the sober, honest, industrious, and useful portion of the colored population," which lessened "much of the moral restraint ... on the idle and indolent, as well as the profligate" among the rest

Connecticut
Discrimination against free blacks was more severe in Connecticut than in other New England colonies. Their lives were strongly proscribed even before they became numerous. In 1690, the colony forbade blacks and Indians to be on the streets after 9 p.m. It also forbid black "servants" to wander beyond the limits of the towns or places where they belonged without a ticket or pass from their masters or the authorities. A law of 1708, citing frequent fights between slaves and whites, imposed a minimum penalty of 30 lashes on any black who disturbed the peace or who attempted to strike a white person. Even speech was subject to control. By a 1730 law, and black, Indian, or mulatto slave "who uttered or published, about any white person, words which would be actionable if uttered by a free white was, upon conviction before any one assistant or justice of the peace, to be whipped with forty lashes. As early as 1717, citizens of New London in a town meeting voted their objection to free blacks living in the town or owning land anywhere in the colony. That year, the colonial assembly passed a law in accordance with this sentiment, prohibiting free blacks or mulattoes from residing in any town in the colony. It also forbid them to buy land or go into business without the consent of the town. The provisions were retroactive, so that if any black person had managed to buy land, the deed was rendered void, and a black resident of a town, however long he had been there, was now subject to prosecution at the discretion of the selectmen.

Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania laws forbid blacks from gathering in "tippling-houses," carrying arms, or assembling in companies. These, however, were loosely or unevenly enforced. But throughout Pennsylvania colony, the children of free blacks, without exception, were bound out by the local justices of the peace until age 24 (if male) or 21 (if female). All in all, the "free" blacks of colonial Pennsylvania led severely circumscribed lives; they had no control even over their own family arrangements, and they could be put back into servitude for "laziness" or petty crimes, at the mercy of the local authorities.

ILLINOIS, INDIANA
The legal history of the black codes in these two states is essentially similiar, and in fact Illinois simply continued Indiana's code when it organized as a territory.
The new states that entered the union in the North after the gradual emancipation of northern slaves were just as concerned as the old ones with maintaining their racial purity. To do so, they turned to an old practice in the North: the exclusion law. Slaves could not be brought into the Northwest Territories, under the ordinance of 1787, but slaves already there remained in bondage. Once states began to emerge from the old territories, most of them explicitly barred blacks or permitted them only if they could prove their freedom and post bond. Ohio offered the first example, and those that followed her into the union followed her lead on race.
Both Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818) abolished slavery by their constitutions. And both followed the Ohio policy of trying to prevent black immigration by passing laws requiring blacks who moved into the state to produce legal documents verifying that they were free and posting bond to guarantee their good behavior. The bond requirements ranged as high as $1,000, which was prohibitive for a black American in those days. Anti-immigration legislation was passed in Illinois in 1819, 1829, and 1853. In Indiana, such laws were enacted in 1831 and 1852. Michigan Territory passed such a law in 1827; Iowa Territory passed one in 1839 and Iowa enacted another in 1851 after it became a state. Oregon Territory passed such a law in 1849.

Ever wonder why the underground Rail Road went to Canada ?

Source (http://www.slavenorth.com)

Is Mississippi Still Burning ?

Well I watched “Is Mississippi Still Burning”

Joseph Goebbels would be happy with the production were he around to see it!

The producer had four shots of the Mississippi State flag that includes the Battle flag in its design.And a couple of shots of a Confederate monument. Both were mentioned in the segment.

But what wasn’t mentioned was neither had a damn thing to do with the crime! The man (PUNK), who is accused of the murder, and by all accounts it is a hate crime and should be dealt with as such, had no Confederate connections.

It was mentioned that he hung out at a gas station, I guess by the same logic used to tie in the Confederate part of the story you could have tied in the Company that owned the gas station.Was it Shell, or Texaco?

And what brand of beer did he drink? It would have made just as much sense to tie in the gas company or the beer brand as it did The “Confederate Connection” which is NONE!

It was just another inflammatory piece of Yankee journalism, designed to vilify Southern Heritage!

I hope the guilty person gets the death penalty!

And you can be sure my flag won’t be at half staff when they throw the switch!

David Tatum Jr.

So post about it !

Kevin Levin made this statement---

"No one here has attempted to turn this into a South bashing crusade. We are all aware of the North’s long and violent history surrounding slavery and the slave trade."

Well if he is as he claims / a "Historian" his new place of residence should provide a fantastic opportunity to enlighten us all about the slave trade.

http://www.slavenorth.com/massachusetts.htm

Kevin I checked the Museums in your area, why no mention of the "Slave Trade" ?

The Museums in the South as well as the Battlefields are required to mention Slavery,

Are the folks from Boston suffering from selective amnesia?

Prove your not on a South Bashing Crusade!

Come on Kevin ! Show us all what the Museums in your area say about slavery!

HEY KEVIN !!!!!

Hey Kevin!

Glad to read your checking out the "Local History" in your new hometown!

Do me a favor ! Check out the local maritime museums; see what they have to say about the North's role in the slave trade!

I'll bet the places are overflowing with the true story ! (NOT)

After all, the South has to address slavery at its battlefields and museums, so the North should be held to the same standards.

While you are checking it out, I'm gonna buy a lotto ticket, I got a better chance of winning the lotto than I do waiting for an HONEST reply from you!

Be careful Bubba remember what happened in Virginia, ya can't go bad mouthing your home town and keep a job!

D.T.

Hurry hurry step right up !

I Think I will Pass on this product!
( I know what it smells and taste like, and it ain't good)
But I can't wait for the Infomercial!

Rolling Cotton on the Tatum

Rolling Cotton on the Tatum

It wus inna munfa May inna 1863

Five months had passed since we done learned Pesident Linklon done set us free....

I members like it wuz yesterday Oh Dem proud Yankees at the gate

At dat Worthington plantation Its near sundown / getting late

Me and Tod, and ol Big Joe Knew that we wus free

And decided dat we would go To thank Mr Lincoln, in Washington DC

Yes we would go out de gate of Worthington plantation.

We wuz free men Mr Linkon said so In his mansupation proclamation.

At the gate and headed north Glory in our faces a showin.

Dat Yankee guard point his gun at us an said Where you boys think you Going?

Why wes a going to Washington, Washington DC

To Thanks Mr President Linkon cause he done set us free.

Dat Guard he laughed an said turn around, cause you boys got work to do!

He stand there wif dat shiney gun, in his pretty suit of blue.

Wells I guess old Massa Linklon lied, and to this day I hate em.

Cause me an Tod an Ol Big Joe, we still rolling cotton on the Tatum.

By David Tatum
I wrote the poem THEN I found the Story

CONFISCATION OF ANGLO- REBEL COTTON.

THE design on page 273, from a sketch by Mr. Theodore R. Davis,

illustrates the SEIZURE AND HANDLING OF COTTON IN THE SOUTHWEST. With the sketch Mr. Davis sends us the following letter:

"AMERICAN BEND,

WASHINGTON CO., MISS., 120 MILES ABOVE VICKSBURG,

Monday Night, March 30, 1863. "General T. E. G. Ransom, one of the youngest Brigadiers in the army, and an excellent and a gallant officer, who has been severely wounded several times, having learned some weeks ago that a large amount of cotton, pledged to the British Government at seven cents per pound, by the soidisant Confederacy, was hidden near the American Bend, determined to make an effort to rescue it, and at once set about forming an expedition for the purpose. "Rapid as were the General's movements, he did not succeed in reaching the place before more than half of the staple was burned by the guerrillas; but the remainder, something over three thousand bales, he has secured to our Government, and has been engaged for some days past in hauling it in, and putting it on board of the transports, as is seen in the sketch.

"The cotton was marked "C. S. A.," and with the rebel and British flags, as is shown in the upper centre of the picture. The left corner represents a huge pile of the staple covered at the top with boards, to protect it from the inclemency of the weather. The right corner reveals the negroes hauling the "fleecy monarch" from the swamps and cane-brakes where it was concealed; and the main sketch exposes the shipping of the floculent fibre on board the David Tatum and other steamers lying at the shore. "The poor contrabands toiled most energetically to bring in the cotton, and were very instrumental in discovering it, hoping by their fidelity and labor to obtain their freedom, for which they manifest a most ardent longing. "

Alas for their vain hopes! After all the service they had rendered they were not allowed to go aboard of the boats, General Grant having issued a special order prohibiting their removal, because no provision has been made for them at Young's Point. "The disappointment and distress of the negroes were painfully apparent when they made this unwelcome discovery, and as they stood in crowds—men, women, and children—along the levee, with sorrow-stamped faces, their grief was pitiful to witness—all the more so because they did not murmur or complain.

"Seneca was right: Small griefs are loud; great woes are dumb.

Suppress Nothing !

This is a pretty basic rule! I feel that " Suppress nothing that is true"

This is what separates The Confederate or Southern Historian from the Yankee or Northern one!

The Northern historians are always shining a bright light on the South/Slavery !

The Yanks are all too quick to show the admitted faults of the south. In doing so the choose to ignore or conceal the other side of the issue!

They keep the spotlight in your eyes so that you Cant see what they don't want you to see!

All the time they are shining their halos!

It's a tactic that has been used for 150 years!

If the Yankee Bastards would just own up to their part in the mess we could move ahead!

But I guess guilt keeps em from doing so !

All of you Yankee Historians/Bloggers should follow the Suppression part !

Wack A Yank !

(Disclaimer ! This is a parody and in no way promotes physical Violence! )

Ya Know, Yankee bloggers Are a real pain!
It’s like playing Wack-A-Mole !
Just as soon as one shuts up,
Another one pops up with the same old Stuff!

Who Was the Confederate soldier ?

So who was the Confederate soldier?

He was a man of every color, every income range, every religion, a man who was highly educated or had no education at all. A farmer, a lawyer, a politician, a store clerk, a blacksmith, a ship captain, a dock worker, a military man, a civilian, a slave , a slave owner,A free Black man, a native American, A Doctor, He was every man who resisted the despotic Government of Abe Lincoln; and all had one thing in common, they were Southerners!

Men to whom Honor was more than an idea, it was a way of life.
Men of courage, outnumbered, without supplies’, Men who when the enemy had repeating rifles and endless amounts of ammunition , stood their ground and threw rocks at the invaders.

Men who at Appomattox upon General Lee’s return from the surrender told the general,
“Just give us the word general and we’ll charge em again”!

That is who they were, and that is why we honor them.

The Original Corwin (13th) Amendement!

Thomas Corwin



With all the hoopla about the Confederate States wishing to continue slavery, Lets see what the North had to offer!

_____________________________________________________________________
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution, namely:

ART. 13. No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.

--12 United States Statutes at Large, 36th Congress, 2nd Session, 1861, p. 251.
____________________________________________________________________

Seems to me the "MORAL" North was ready to sell out the Black man for all time for money!

Strange how the selective memory of Yankees avoids this topic!