NEXT MEETING:  Thursday, June 12, 2008, Mr. Tom Huntington of Prattville Memorial Gardens will speak to us on “Veterans, the Flag and the Fabric”.  Come at 6 to eat; meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

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        At press time, Prattville Dragoons slated to walk in the Jeff Davis Bicentennial Celebration on Saturday, June 14, are Bill Myrick, Larry Spears, Wayne Sutherland, and Ron Davis (join them; see Commander’s Column, p. 2).  Participants will gather at the foot of Dexter Avenue at 8 a.m., and the parade will begin at 9.   Immediately following the parade, there will be a program in the Capitol auditorium, featuring Chaplain John Weaver as keynote speaker.  Whether you walk in the parade or not, you will want to attend the program and wreath-laying which follows.

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Dragoons at CityFest

Thanks to the following Dragoons who helped to set up and man our space for the 10 hours of CityFest this year:  Quartermaster Ron Davis and wife Linda (who also served as retail advisor), Bill Myrick, Carl Hankins, Wayne Sutherland, Tyrone Crowley, and Larry Miller.  Ron and Linda Davis deserve an extra thanks because of all the thought and effort they put into planning the pricing, display, and sale of our Confederate merchandise, not to mention getting it there, displaying it, and packing it back up at the end of the day.  Quartermaster Davis reports that he moved a good bit of the merchandise, some of which we'd had since last CityFest.  We also handed out our Camp brochure, talked to several people, and took a couple of names to contact with more information on the SCV and UDC.  Net receipts to our Treasury were $130.  Confederate flags and license plates were the best sellers. 

“General Lee” at May Meeting

      Dr. John W. Vanvalkenburg, among many other things a retired professor and museum director, honored the Prattville Dragoons present at the May meeting with a fine impersonation of General Robert E Lee.

        Prior to speaking in the person of General Lee, Dr.  Vanvalkenburg gave some interesting statistics and perspectives on the contending sections of the United States (North and South) leading up to the War Between the States, reflecting the great disparity in people and resources that existed, a disparity that much favored the North and made the performance of the South during the four years of the War that much more remarkable.

        Dr.  Vanvalkenburg was truly impressive in his persona of General Robert E Lee.  His acting skills, acquired over years of doing such impersonations (he also does Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and others), shone through as he discussed his (Lee’s) childhood, the influence of his mother, and his thinking as he regretfully turned away from the national government and pledged his allegiance to his true homeland, Virginia. Dr.  Vanvalkenburg came dressed in a fine white coat, and well-armed with saber, pistol, and musket—really a quite impressive sight.

 

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Thanks to Cathie Leverette of Southern Whimsy Boutique for printing this newsletter at no cost to our Camp.  Stop by and see Cathie’s selection of Southern items. She’s on Main Street, across from the Fire Station.

 

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For comments, suggestions, or contributions to the Camp Dispatch contact editor Tyrone Crowley, contact info just above.  Additionally, if you have an e-mail address and want to receive news and updates on Camp and Confederate-related subjects, send your request to be added to the Dragoon email list to Compatriot Crowley at the email address listed above.

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2008 Confederate Calendar

Bicentennial Birthday Celebration Of President Jefferson Davis - Saturday, June 14, 2008, Alabama State Capitol, Montgomery.  Will include parade, educational speakers, and a ball in the evening.  See http://www.aladivscv.com/dates.htm

For more Jefferson Davis Bicentennial events see http://www.jeffersondavisbicentennial.org/index.html

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Larry Spears New Color Sergeant

Past Commander Larry Spears has generously agreed to be our Color Sergeant, replacing incoming Commander Bill Myrick.  Thank you, Larry, for your unflagging and unselfish support of our Camp.

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Tom Collier Turns 81 On Davis Birthday

Recent Honor Flight participant and Camp Member Tom Collier turned 81 years young on the 200^th anniversary of the birth of President Jefferson Davis.  Congratulations, Compatriot Collier!

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Commander’s Comments

NO MORE PASSIVE SUPPORT

My fellow compatriots, the time has come to end this passive support of our Southern and Confederate Heritage.  I understand how the years of so-called "political correctness" have worn away the willingness of Southerners to speak up about their Confederate ancestors.  However, we are nearing the point where all things Confederate will disappear. 

Let's take the first step Saturday, June 14th.  Let's fill the streets of Montgomery.  Join me at the fountain at 8:00.  Bring your flags.  You can use this as an opportunity to show the colors of your ancestor's units.  A little paint and plywood or cardboard and sharpies will do the job.  I'll be there with the flag of the 22nd Alabama Infantry Regiment.  Come join me.  Let the other side be hesitant about speaking out for a change.  God save the South and God bless the Confederacy.

Your Commander,

Bill

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Chaplain's Corner

        Most of us are familiar with the charge that Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, was a major factor causing the War Between the States.  It seems hard to realize, in this age of the flood of information that assaults our senses, that any book could be a major factor in the division of a country and the deaths of over a half million men.  Yet, Abraham Lincoln is quoted as declaring in 1862 upon meeting Stowe; “So this is the little lady who started this great war!”

        Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852, had a profound effect on attitudes toward blacks and slavery.  It intensified attitudes North and South in the sectional conflict that led to war.  Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19^th century; in fact it was the best-selling book after the Bible.  The importance of the novel can hardly be minimized in light of the hardening of attitudes toward the South and its remaining practice of slavery, which had succumbed to industrial progress in most of the North by that time.  In fact, slavery was a fact of life in the nation’s capital well into the war.

        The characters in the story have become part of our language and culture, and affect attitudes even today.  Who has not heard of Uncle Tom, Mammy, pickaninny children, white master and mistress, Simon Legree and Little Eva? In A Key To Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853),  Stowe listed the source books that gave her the idea for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Later research indicated that she had not read the referenced books until after writing the original book that caused so much trouble. Translated into every modern language in the world, over 1.5 million copies circulated in England, many non-licensed. The same thing happened in the United States with our equally weak copyright laws.

The plot revolves around Tom, a kindly older slave and devout Christian, whose Kentucky master sells him “down the river” because of crushing debt.  On the trip downriver, Tom saves the child “Little Eva” from drowning.  Eva’s father buys Tom and takes him to New Orleans as head coachman at his plantation.  Tom is devoted to the sickly Little Eva who eventually dies. Her father is killed in a fight, and in the settling of the estate, Tom is sold again to the evil slave-master Simon Legree. Legree is not a true Southerner, but a transplanted Yankee. Legree whips Tom for refusing to punish fellow slaves and subsequently kills Tom for refusing to tell on escaping slaves.  The novel ends as the escaped slaves reunite in Canada, travel to France and then to Liberia, the African nation created for former slaves.

        A measure of how this book influenced American and world opinion is shown by the fact that many of its characters have entered and persist in our language and culture even today.  Foremost is Uncle Tom, in the novel a heroic, devoutly Christian character helping others. He has been transformed by modern militant blacks into a black man who grovels to whites while being exploited. Then there is Little Eva, the virtuous young girl, and a tragic figure. And who has not heard of Simon Legree, the evil slave owner, not a true Southerner, but a transplanted Yankee. A minor character is Topsy, the ignorant slave girl who does not know God or where she came from. She says that she “just growed,” hence “grew like Topsy.”

        The underlying theme of the novel is the immorality of slavery and the moral correctness of motherhood and the redemption of Christianity. Critics accuse Stowe of having a very distorted view of Southern life and slavery as it existed at the time. She also is accused of not having read the books claimed as references, and had never been on a plantation. The book was condemned in the South and occasionally banned from sale.  Interestingly, Stowe advocated African Colonization for free slaves and not amalgamation into American society.  Much of the legend attributed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin was amplified by the plethora of copycat stories; staged “Tom shows,” and movies that were performed well into the 20^th century.

This novel was just one of the bitter factors that caused the intransigence of the nation’s leaders that led us into war.  If only …

Source:  See “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Bill Branch, Chaplain

SCV Camp 1524

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Report on Reunion - Adjutant Sutherland

Robert Reames was elected Commander of the Alabama Division.

National dues are going up to $30 per year.  This means as of August 1^st member dues will be $30 National, $10 Division, $5 Camp, for a total of $45.00 per year.

After the department reports were given it was time to vote on the Amendments to the Division Constitution.  Vote was as follows.

Amendment #1 (Passed) Delete “No member under the age of 16 shall have the right to vote.”

Amendment #2 (Passed) Add “Real Sons shall become Life Members of the Division without payment of dues”.

Amendment #3 (Passed) Insert  “Division Adjutant will announce the number of delegates in attendance” and delete the remaining section.

Amendment #4 (Failed) Change wording - everywhere “Executive Committee” and “Operations Committee” appear to “Division Executive Council”.

Amendment #5 (Failed) Change term of newly elected division officers to start at the end of the convention from end of fiscal year.

Amendment #6 (Passed) Change date for dropping members from active role from Nov. 1 to Feb 1 of following year.

Amendment #7 (Failed) Renaming Brigades

Amendment #8 (Failed) To require that disciplinary action may be undertaken only by the division in convention assembled.

Amendment #9 (Passed) Add a page of how monies should be handled, to meet IRS requirements.

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Aunt Phillis's Cabin

A thought generated by our Chaplain’s Column… Few people know that books were written by Southerners in response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  The most successful was Aunt Phillis’s Cabin, written by Mary Henderson Eastman, a Virginian married to a Union officer, Seth Eastman, who later became commander of the infamous prison at Elmira, New York. According to contemporary notices, Aunt Phillis’s Cabin was probably the best-selling "anti-Tom" novel.  It sold between 20,000 and 30,000 copies, compared to 300,000 for Uncle Tom's Cabin (as usual, sensationalism was more popular than reason). The dialogue in Aunt Phillis’s Cabin consists of a good deal of debate between slave owners and abolitionists about the essential happiness of slaves in the South as compared to the sufferings of free blacks and the working classes in the North.  She quotes Uncle Tom's Cabin several times, to put her representation of slavery in direct opposition to Stowe's text, and her "Concluding Remarks" are a very unsentimental critique of Stowe and her fanatical view of slavery in the South.  A free electronic copy of Aunt Phillis’s Cabin is available at

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16741.

Recommended readings are the Preface and Concluding Remarks.  The book itself is also a fine example of antebellum writing.

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2008 - THE YEAR OF DAVIS

 

The Prattville Dragoons, Camp 1524

Sons of Confederate Veterans

D. Tyrone Crowley, Editor

114 William Court

Prattville, Alabama 36066

 

Inside This Issue:

·    Dragoons To Walk In Davis Parade

·    Dragoons At CityFest

·    “General Lee” at May Meeting

·    Confederate Calendar

·    Commander’s Comments

·    Chaplain’s Corner

·    Adjutant’s Report on Reunion

 

President Jefferson Davis Bicentennial Birthday Celebration

Alabama State Capitol

Montgomery, Alabama

Saturday, 14 June 2008

Hosted by Alabama Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy; Alabama Society, Order of Confederate Rose; and Alabama Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.

 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

PARADE -  9:00 AM - Begin assembling at Fountain on Dexter Avenue at 8:00 a.m.  Look for Commander Myrick.

COMMEMORATIVE PROGRAM in Capitol Auditorium – Immediately following the Parade – Enter Union Street Entrance – Southern Music Program - Keynote Speaker, SCV Past Chaplain-in-Chief, Pastor John Weaver.

“LAYING OF THE WREATHS” CEREMONY – Immediately following Commemorative Program – Front Portico of Capitol at the Star -  Mr. Philip Davis will give brief remarks regarding President Davis  just prior to “Laying of the Wreaths”.

GUIDED TOURS: 1:00PM – 4:00 PM (Free) Tours of the Capitol, First White House of the Confederacy, Old Alabama Town, and Oakwood Cemetery

EVENING ACTIVITY:   Jefferson Davis BiCentennial Ball - 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM – Old Archives Room in the Capitol.  $25 per couple; contact Pat Godwin at 334-875-1690 or oldsouthrebel@zebra.net