Jan 13 Ed Bearss 1862 Valley Campaign

The best book I've read on this is Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, Shenandoah 1862 by Peter Cozzens

PENDER CIVIL WAR

ROUNDTABLE

310 East Baker St.

Tarboro, NC 27886

We all are awaiting the arrival of Ed Bearss for his words on the 1862 War in the Valley. The loyal Confederates confront and attack the hapless Federal armies and make a legend of General Thomas Jackson in the Valley. Ed will lead us through the major events. Bearss has what might best be called a battlefield voice, a kind of booming growl, like an ancient wax-cylinder record amplified to full volume—about the way you'd imagine Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill.

Jan 13 Ed Bearss 1862 Valley Campaign, Feb 23 Antietam Discussion, March 27 Randy Watkins Petersburg, April 26 Sam Craghead Shenandoah, May 24 Donny Taylor Bentonville, June 28 Chris Grimes NC River forts

From Free North Carolina

Professor David Blight Teaches Us Something

I would say, he admitted something.:) Sit down and read a Yankee admit that is was not all about slavery!:) Just love it.

Old Virginia Blog
Verbatim Post

Though I don't think its quite what he intended. I'll explain later on in this post. I've responded here before to Yale History Professor and Civil War scholar David Blight's essays. (See here.) Any objective reader will notice that Blight's tone and approach to Civil War history is becoming increasingly partisan and political. There's also an edgy, frustrated, and condescending element in some of his essays. I'll be the first to defend his right to take that approach, but let's not pretend he's playing the part of an "objective historian" simply analyzing history. And I'm not the only one to notice. Professor Blight surrendered any right to that claim with his very public 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama for President. This public political endorsement was signed by a number of well known academics "as historians." It is quite the juvenile read.

In one of his recent Sesquicentennial essays, Blight succumbs to his liberal political leanings and uses the WBTS to support his political views. In a Kansas City Star piece titled, The Civil War at 150: The Past in the Present? Blight makes the following "observation":

The conservative movement in America, or at least its most radical wing, seems determined to repeal much of the 20th century and even its constitutional and social roots from the transformative 1860s. The Civil War is not only not over, it can still be lost.

Read more here: http://civilwar150.kansascity.com/articles/civil-war-150-past-present/#storylink=cpy

The conservative movement in America, or at least its most radical wing, seems determined to repeal much of the 20th century and even its constitutional and social roots from the transformative 1860s. The Civil War is not only not over, it can still be lost.

That's right. Professor Blight believes that the Civil War is still being fought. It's not the first time he's stated that a separate nation still exists and is in a state of "war" with the rest of the nation. In a piece published in 2010 after Virginia's Confederate History month controversy, Blight asked, "Why doesn't the Confederacy just fade away?" Uh, I believe it did - that would have occurred in 1865 for you non-Civil War buffs. (As already noted, I responded to that piece here.)

(Before you read the rest of my post analyzing Blight's more recent Past in the Present article, I recommend you read that piece in it's entirety here.)

As in the 2010 piece, Blight expresses his dismay as to why so many people find the Confederacy interesting:

Why is the Confederacy, a mere four-year experiment in revolution to preserve a slaveholding society, still so interesting to so many people?

As you will see, Blight's incorrect and overly-simplistic summation about the reason for the "revolution" is actually refuted - by his own words. But he is right about Americans' fascination with the Confederacy. I've mentioned a number of anecdotal evidences of this in the past. In one of those posts, I made an observation about this fascination as it relates to most of the Civil War magazines. You can read that post - Are "Lost Causers" Funding America's Civil War? - here and a post related to the cultural aspect of this fascination here.

In both the 2010 piece, as well as the more recent one, Professor Blight seems rather frustrated with the preeminence of the study of, and fascination with, the Confederacy. I detect more than a hint of jealousy and resentment. Yes, even historians have their preferences and preferred perspectives. Both Robert Krick and James Roberston have made note of this reality. (Also see this post.) Professor Robertson once commented on this in an interview when asked about the competing perspectives between some Civil War scholars:

'The majority are Pro-Union. The overwhelming majority [of scholars] are Pro-Union, yes. We southerners are in the minority."

Noted Civil War historian Robert K. Krick has also made mention of the "overwhelming" bias of Civil War scholars. I heard him refer to "anti-Confederate" historians in more than one conference I attended where he was one of the speakers. So, there is this "friction" of perspectives when analyzing the War Between the States. I think what frustrates academics like Blight is that his perspective, for the most part, is falling on deaf ears among many, if not most, Americans. They're simply not getting "their" message out as much as they'd like, or as much as they think they should - this despite the fact that Blight's perspective (as pointed out by James Robertson and Robert Krick) dominates academia. That does have to be rather frustrating. Thus, the questions asked in an almost whining, pleading tone, "Why doesn't the Confederacy just fade away?" and "Why is the Confederacy . . . still so interesting to so many people?" (Other CW bloggers have noticed Blight's obsession in regards to America's fascination with the "Lost Cause" and Confederate history - see Dimitri Rotov's post here.) As I've already opined, I think Blight's piece is more politics than history. Blight weds his disdain for the Confederacy with his disdain for modern conservative politics. And, as I've already noted, I'm not the only one to come to that conclusion. The Star's ombudsman received more than one complaint about Blight's article. One reader commented:

He's letting his personal politics make him oblivious to an obvious fact, and I don't care if you want to dismiss that as a tea party thing or not. ... The political commentary was unneeded in an otherwise excellent package of information . . .

Another expressed this criticism:

Why did The Star feel that his view was so important that if be [sic] featured in the front section and not in the editorials where it belonged? I think in the interest of fairness, it was improperly placed. I also think that a conservative academic with an understanding of history different from that of Mr. Blight would not be placed in such prominence in the Star.

Ah yes, the general public is much more astute at sniffing out the leftist political leanings of many academic historians than most in the profession realize. Many academics truly believe that the majority of Americans buy their claim to objectivity and superiority. That arrogant, false self-confidence is part of the reason for their diminishing respect and, in my opinion, why they are having difficulty convincing the masses. But I digress. In the The Past in the Present piece, Blight expressed this opinion:

Indeed, yesterday’s secessionists and today’s nullifiers have much in common. Both are distinct minorities who have suddenly seized an inordinate degree of power.

Blight is, of course, referring to conservative Republicans like Rick Perry and other state officials who are becoming increasingly unhappy and frustrated with the federal government's overreach. But Professor Blight appears to be ignorant for calls of secession from his end of the political spectrum.

He's letting his personal politics make him oblivious to an obvious fact, and I don't care if you want to dismiss that as a tea party thing or not. ... The political commentary was unneeded in an otherwise excellent package of information,

Read more here: http://adastrum.kansascity.com/?q=node/1261#storylink=cpyIn Blight's piece, he goes on to tie modern political arguments to the Civil War. If he consciously made an effort to appear objective, he failed. For example, Blight writes: Indeed, yesterday’s secessionists and today’s nullifiers have much in common. Both are distinct minorities who have suddenly seized an inordinate degree of power.Blight is, of course, referring to conservative Republicans like Rick Perry and other state officials who are becoming increasingly unhappy and frustrated with the federal government's overreach. But Professor Blight appears to be ignorant for calls of secession from his side of the political spectrum.

Speaking on ‘The McLaughlin Group’ the weekend after George W. Bush’s victory, panelist Lawrence O’Donnell, a former Democratic Senate staffer, noted that blue states subsidize the red ones with their tax dollars, and said, "The big problem the country now has, which is going to produce a serious discussion of secession over the next 20 years, is that the segment of the country that pays for the federal government is now being governed by the people who don’t pay for the federal government." A shocked Tony Blankley asked him, "Are you calling for civil war?" To which O’Donnell replied, "You can secede without firing a shot."

The above quote is from Salon Magazine, 16 November 2004. And there's more. Bob Beckel who was, at the time, a senior political analyst for Fox News and who has also worked as a Democratic Party strategist and consultant, made the following comments after the 2004 election:

"I think now that slavery is taken care of, I’m for letting the South form its own nation. Really, I think they ought to have their own confederacy," Mr. Beckel said on the "Fox and Friends” program.

The above quote is from the Washington Times, 9 November 2004. That's not all Professor Blight conveniently overlooked. There was the "Let's Ditch Dixie" piece that appeared in Slate Magazine after the 2000 election. That piece included these comments:

The United States doesn't have to refight the Civil War to set matters right. Rather, North and South should simply follow the example of the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Shake hands, says it's been real, and go their separate ways. And if the South isn't inclined to leave anytime soon, then we should show them the door by seceding unilaterally.

And . . .

Economically and socially, secession will be painless for the North. The South is a gangrenous limb that should have been lopped off decades ago." [How nice. Shows what many elites really think about Southerners, doesn't it?]

The author of the Slate piece was Mark Strauss, not someone who could be easily dismissed as some left-wing, hack-blogger. (Left-wing, yes. Hack, no.) He's a journalist and senior editor at Smithsonian Magazine and has written for a number of other left-leaning publications including The Washington Post and The New Republic.

And perhaps Professor Blight is unaware that he endorsed a secessionist for President in 2008. Freehawaii.org notes that, "In 1993 the 103rd Congress unanimously signed into Public Law the Apology Bill. America publicly admitted to illegally overthrowing its ally and trading partner the Sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii and falsely imprisoning the beloved Queen Liliuokalani. Since then, America, has done everything it can to avoid the consequences of this Bill. The inevitable result will be the restoration of a sovereign Hawaii."

The official 2008 Democratic Party platform (which President Obama supported) reads:

"We support the efforts for self-determination and sovereignty of native Hawaiians, consistent with principles enumerated in the Apology Resolution and the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act."

Sounds like secession to me. I suppose, in Professor Blight's mind, its ok to call for secession if you're a leftist, but not ok if you're a conservative. Interesting logic.

And, of course, Blight finds it necessary to default to the lowest common denominator and suggest that anyone who disagrees with his leftist ideology is a racist.

Both [modern conservatives and the Confederacy) claim their mantle of righteousness in the name of “liberty,” privatization and racial exclusion (one openly, the other using code that keeps it largely a white people’s party). Both vehemently claim the authority of the “Founders.”

Really? "Racial exclusion"? Hmmm . . . I suppose Alan West, Herman Cain, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, and a whole host of others didn't get that memo. Blight should be ashamed. Blight then goes on to a laundry list of "accomplishments", ostensibly due to the Civil War and the subsequent increase in federal power. Some of the items are, indeed, accomplishments - others, not so much. Social Security is bankrupt - not exactly what actuaries would call a success. And Blight was careful in what he listed. He also left out bankrupt medicare, the nation's overall bankrupt status, our "wise" government banning light bulbs based on hocus-pocus, politically driven "science", disastrous wars abroad, the gross negligence and failure of our public school system, our Indian reservation debacle, etc, etc, etc. With few excpetions, its the states where the real success stories lie, not with the far off, out of touch bureacrats in Washington. Sorry Professor, but that is soooo 1930's. Just ask the old Soviet Union and modern Europe. Centralization just doesn't work out so well in the long run. It's smothering and restricts liberty. History proves it.

Blight's frustration with conservatives and their rejection of "big government" - as it relates to his perspective on the WBTS - must be all that more annoying for him in light of a recent Gallup poll which found that Americans' fear of big government near an all-time high.

The 64% of Americans who say big government will be the biggest threat to the country is just one percentage point shy of the record high . . .

It would appear that most Americans aren't sold on all the benefits of a large federal government which Professor Blight seems to be so enamored with. Another message from academia that just ain't selling. These two things has to be driving academia crazy: fascination with the Confederacy and an overwhelming fear of big government.

Professor Blight concludes with this paragraph:

The Civil War is not only not over, it can still be lost. As the sesquicentennial ensues in publishing and conferences and on television and countless websites, one can hope that we will pursue matters of legacy and memory with one eye on the past and the other acutely on the present.

The title of this post is about what Professor Blight is teaching us. I think you can come to your own conclusion based on my comments above, but there's also the obvious conclusion that can be drawn from Blight's last paragraph, as well as his other comments (and even Beckel's): And that is these folks really do know deep down that the American Civil War was over much more than just slavery. They've admitted it - whether they intended to or not. After all, slavery in America was abolished almost 150 years ago but, according to Professor Blight and others, we're still fighting the war over the same political issues. Thus, the American Civil War was over much more than just slavery. What other conclusion could one possibly draw?

From Free North Carolina

Tarboro restaurant named to the “top 100 best” list

Goodness, our laid back Southern town of 12K.

On the Square, a Tarboro restaurant owned by Inez (a Tarboro native), and Tom Ribustillo, has been designated one of the top 100 eateries in the United States. According to the website for the San Francisco Business Times, the “top 100” were located in 34 states. North Carolina and California tied for first place, with ten restaurants each on the list.

MORE

From Free North Carolina

Happy New Year!

Brothers love and blessings!

PoP

Seen in Georgia

Thanks for sharing Bro. Hamp

A Confederate Cherokee WBTS Story:)

Re-post

"There's a story my grandmother used to tell me. Her grandmother was a Cherokee Indian from the then Oklahoma territory. She wound up marrying a cowboy who later moved the family somewhere near Corinth, Miss.

During the war, her husband was off fighting and later the area she lived in became occupied by union troops.

As the story goes, the union soldiers took livestock from the local population and if anybody objected, as did a neighbor, they were summarily executed.

So my great-great grandmother took what livestock they had and hid them in a wooded area in some kind of trench or sendero.

She had something like 6 children and one day was riding her mule down the road and she was accosted by a union patrol, who demanded she turn over her mule to them.

She refused to give it up.

The soldier leading the patrol then said: "he would stick his hand up her dress" if she wouldn't get off the animal and let them have it.

To which she is alleged to have replied..."You wouldn't be the first man to put your hand up my dress"

This is said to have shocked the union soldier to the point he stepped out of the way and allowed her to proceed, and she never did give the mule up.

Via bohica, SWR

From Free North Carolina

Georgia town prepares to drop possum on New Year's Eve

Via Billy

Access Atlanta
Verbatim Post

WXIA-TV reports (http://on.11alive.com/u6hWki) up to 4,000 spectators are expected this year at the annual event in the west Georgia city.

Tallapoosa Mayor Pete Bridges said townspeople slowly lower a mounted possum to the ground.

The mayor says the animal is in a beautifully lit cage as it is lowered, and the event is followed by fireworks.

Taxidermist Bud Jones cares for Spencer, the mounted Virginia possum who will make the New Year's descent.

Jones said the animal "was road kill. He recalls that he "was going down the road one day and there was old Spencer in the road. So I jumped out and got him. And there he is."

From Free North Carolina

North Carolina Patriots of ’61 – Thomas Legion Highlanders

A Cherokee Indian WBTS Story & Picture

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"

North Carolina Patriots of ’61 – Thomas Legion Highlanders

The Thomas Legion was formed to defend the mountainous region of North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia from Northern invasion.

William Holland Thomas was born in 1805 in Waynesville and was 56 years old when the war began. A successful businessman and veteran North Carolina legislator, Thomas recruited mountaineers and Cherokee Indians near Waynesville, many of whom he had known since childhood.

At the age of twelve, Thomas had been adopted by Yonaguska, chief of the Oconaluftee tribe of the Cherokee Nation, and given the name of Wil-Usdi, meaning “Little Will.” A successful merchant and trader, by 1861 Thomas had amassed 34,000 acres of land and was one of western North Carolina’s largest landholders. His first company of Cherokee volunteers was named the “Junaluska Zouaves,” and on April 9, 1862 the unit was mustered into Confederate service at Qualla Town by Major George Washington Morgan, an Indian, with William Thomas serving as captain.

Thomas petitioned Governor Zebulon Vance to authorize a guerilla force of his own selection in North Carolina, and adopted the name “Highland Rangers.” By late September 1862 he had raised an 1100-man regiment, which included two companies of Cherokees. Their first assignment was to round up deserters and men fleeing from conscription, and later saw action in east Tennessee. In a fierce counterattack against Northern forces, Lt. John Astooga Stoga was killed, and his enraged braves reportedly scalped Northern soldiers who fell into their hands.

In the late fall of 1862 the Legion was sent to Madison County to suppress Yankee bushwhackers in that area; by spring 1863 the Thomas Legion had added Levi’s Light Battery of artillery, and had grown to an 2800 man force.

In the Battle of Limestone Station, Major William C. Walker’s battalion of the Legion captured 314 Northern prisoners; shortly thereafter Lt. Colonel J.R. Love’s 600-man regiment charged the 5th Indiana Cavalry who fled the field in disorder. Love’s men would fight under General “Grumble” Jones at Piedmont in early June, 1864; then under General Jubal Early’s command for the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Though battle wounds and death had diminished the ranks by March 1865, more recruiting had brought the Legion up to 1200 effectives. By May of 1865, the Thomas Legion was the only Southern unit east of the Mississippi that had not capitulated to Northern forces.

Having surrounded a Northern mounted infantry unit with the Cherokee battalion and Love’s regiment near Waynesville on May 10th, the Legion disbanded and returned to their nearby homes and farms. Thomas was bankrupted by the war and spent most of his postwar life in asylums; he died on May 10th, 1893 in Morganton.

From Free North Carolina

10th Alabama cemetery in VA uncovered 150 years later

Via Billy

About an hour west of Washington, D.C., on a scrubby plot of land overrun by pricker bushes and in the shadow of dense modern townhouse developments, an Alabama cemetery was born.

Civil War preservationists with no personal links to Alabama admit to muttering a "Roll Tide" or two as they walked across the newly cleared land, the final resting place of between 75 and 90 soldiers with the Tenth Alabama Infantry Regiment.

Historical documents and archeological study pinpointed the burial grounds, a desperate place in the late summer of 1861, when rampant disease claimed up to five or six Confederate soldiers a day at what was known as Camp Jones.

There are other signs. The area is devoid of stones, except for five large rocks dug deeply into the dirt, each cut on at least one side by a man-made tool. And the area is pockmarked by man-sized depressions, not in rows, but haphazardly, as if soldiers were buried right where they died.

MORE

From Free North Carolina

War Horses - Flecked With Blood Drops

Old Virginia Blog
Verbatim Post

Steven Spielberg's latest film, War Horse, is getting lots of rave reviews. From the trailer and the reviews, it does look to be the kind of film that I'd enjoy. I'll watch it when it comes out on DVD. But I was reminded of a documentary Ron Maxwell did about the horses of Gettysburg a while back. Here's a clip:

"There hangs a sabre, and there a rein,
With a rusty buckle and green curb chain;
A pair of spurs on the old gray wall,
And a moldy saddle—well, that is all.

"Come out to the stable—it is not far;
The moss-grown door is hanging ajar.
Look within! There's an empty stall,
Where once stood a charger, and that is all.

"The good black horse came riderless home,
Flecked with blood drops as well as foam;
See yonder hillock where dead leaves fall;
The good black horse dropped dead—that is all.

"All? O, God! it is all I can speak.
Question me not, I am old and weak;
His sabre and his saddle hang on the wall,
And his horse is dead—I have told you all."

~ Francis Alexander Durivage

From Free North Carolina

Those people!

With the many issues facing "these people,"
they pick honour to attack!

NC Patriots of ’61: Privates Solomon & Hugh C. McLean

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"

North Carolina Patriots of ’61: Privates Solomon & Hugh C. McLean of Richmond County

Solomon McLean enlisted with his brother Hugh C. at Rockingham, Richmond County on 30 May, 1861, and served with Company D, North Carolina Troops, known as the “Pee Dee Guards.” Suffering a wound at the battle of Malvern Hill in 1862, he wrote home:

"The Yankees are advancing toward Richmond. They say they will have Richmond or Hell is their home and I fear Hell will be their home before they get it. God grant them a better place, for it will be bad for them to miss Richmond and get Hell."

Solomon was wounded again at Winchester on 19 September 1864 and did not return to duty until December of that year. Brother Hugh C. McLean, also in Company D, received a wound at Chancellorsville in May 1863, returned to duty only to be wounded and captured on the first day of Gettysburg in July. Hugh was taken North and confined first at Fort Delaware, then transferred to the infamous Point Lookout, Maryland where he died on 13 January 1864.

From Free North Carolina

WBTS veteran soldier footage, captured between 1913 and 1938

Re-Post



From Free North Carolina

Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859

Dixie

Elizabeth R. Varon’s Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859 is a history of the concept of disunion in the Early Republic and Antebellum era.

“Disunion” used to be the most powerful and provocative concept in the American political vocabulary. Previous generations had a sense that the American Republic was a voluntary union. It was an alliance of states that was held together by the affection and self-interest of its constituent parts.

The Union of the Founding Fathers was based on Enlightenment rationalism: it was a federation of republics, a compact that had been created for the mutual advantage of all parties, a free government that had been founded to secure the rights of its citizens and the “Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” a government that was based on the “consent of the governed,” etc.

If this sounds unfamiliar to modern ears, it is because the eighteenth century Union expired on the battlefields of War Between the States. In its place, Lincoln and the Radical Republicans created a forced Union and consolidated nation-state based on nineteenth century Northern romantic nationalism, in which the 14th Amendment reduced the South to the status of junior partner.

“Disunion” was originally a dirty word. It connoted the dissolution of the Republic – “the failure of the Founders’ efforts to establish a stable and lasting representative government.” The term was associated with “extreme political factionalism, class conflict, gender disorder, racial strife, widespread violence and anarchy, and civil war, all of which could be interpreted as God’s retribution for America’s moral failings.”

In this sense, “disunion” was invoked as a threat, an accusation, a prophecy, a process, and a program in the Early Republic and Antebellum era. As a threat, disunion was invoked as leverage in making political demands. As an accusation, disunion was invoked in partisan debates to score political points by accusing rivals of being disunionists. As a prophecy, disunion was invoked as a forecast of national ruin to encourage sectional compromise. As a process, disunion was used to describe sectional alienation. As a program, disunion was cooperative or individual state secession which was the mechanism by which states severed their ties to the Union.

Northerners and Southerners invoked the language of disunion throughout this period. The Constitution of 1789 was a compromise between the North and the South. It was practical settlement that fully pleased neither side which was necessary to create a stronger federal government while preserving the Union.

The Anti-Federalists believed the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government and that it would prove to be destructive to the rights of the states. Patrick Henry “smelt a rat in Philadelphia” and opposed the Constitution. George Mason objected that “there was no declaration of rights” and that “the five Southern states will be ruined” by commercial regulations and that “the power of providing for the general welfare may be perverted to its destruction.”

In response to these concerns, James Madison claimed in The Federalist #45 that, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

MORE

From Free North Carolina

“Let it be that I am a Traitor........

........ The word has no terrors for me…I have been born of traitors, but, thank God, they have been Traitors in the great cause of liberty, fighting against tyranny and oppression. Such treason will ever be mine whilst true to my lineage.”
-- Robert Barnwell Rhett

From Free North Carolina

Battle Hymn Of The Republic — Mark Twain Version

Re-post spurred by his War Prayer sent by Wes.

Battle Hymn Of The Republic — Mark Twain Version

Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the Launching of the Sword
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger’s wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps;
I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps;
His night is marching on! I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
“As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal; Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel;
Lo, Greed is marching on!”

We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat;
Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat;
O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! Be jubilant my feet!
Our god is marching on.

In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom — and for others’ goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich –Our god is marching on.”

On Government

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."
--Mark Twain
========
"I can now think of a certain government that follows this."
--Dixie Linh Townsend

From Free North Carolina

North Carolina Patriots of ’61: J. P. Little

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"

North Carolina Patriots of ’61: J. P. Little:

“J.P. Little enlisted in Company C [28th Regiment], at Newton on August 13, 1861. He was at this time only sixteen years of age, and the examining officer, thinking the boy too young to enlist, refused to accept him at first but through persistent pleadings of the youth to fight for a cause that he thought was just, he was at length accepted. Even at this early age he was cultivated to no small degree. His manners were frank and candid, and the more intimately he was known, the better he was beloved. Never was he known to shrink from any toil, however painful, nor quail before any danger.

He had a high regard for his superior officers, and more still for the commission which he filled, as exemplified in an anecdote told be one of his comrades. At the Battle of the Wilderness when the soldiers had become somewhat routed, in order to rally them again the brave Captain Lovell reached up to shake the flag that Little was carrying, but the fearless ensign, reaching for his pistol, gave the Captain to understand that he was man enough to carry that flag and for him to let it alone.

He was in many of the principal battles of the war, namely, Hanover Court House, Seven Days…around Richmond, Cedar Run, Second Manassas…Oz Hill, Harper’s Ferry, Sharpsburg…Shepardstown, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spottsylvania Court House. At the Battle of Frazier’s Farm he received a wound in the thigh, and was also wounded at Chancellorsville, and Spottsylvania Court House. At the latter place he was in the famous Bloody Angle and was taken a prisoner here. Later he was sent to Elmira, New York, where he was held during the remainder of the war.

He returned home in the summer of 1865, and then completed his education. He is now a merchant in Hickory.”

(The Catawba Soldier of the Civil War, George W. Hahn, Clay Printing Company, 1911, pp. 174-175)

From Free North Carolina

A Southern New Year's Day supper, black-eyed peas

With New Year’s Day only two weeks away, a new discussion has raised its head. Traditionally throughout the South, a dish of black-eyed peas (with or without rice) is served on New Year’s Day; it’s thought to ensure prosperity and good luck to the family for the coming year.

Recently one of those internet bits of legend or lore has raced across the web purporting to explain the “true story” behind the black-eyed peas tradition.

According to the typical unnamed source, it all goes back to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman and his march to the sea in late 1864. His stated purpose was to destroy the South, burning what he could, stealing crops, cows, food stuffs of all types, so that “a crow flying across the land could not find provenance” as he put it.

All that is true, but the story continues that the only thing left to the starving people of the South were the black-eyed peas still in the fields, since the less savvy Union troops did not realize they were edible.

Figuring that livestock was the only thing that would eat the peas (hence the alternate name of “cow peas”) and since they had stolen all the livestock, there was no use for the peas.

And thus since New Year’s Day 1866, the South has clung to the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on that first day of the year. Or so goes the lore.

Interestingly enough, one can find a dozen sites on the web which say basically the same thing, making one confident that most entries were written by those of the Northern persuasion, bless their hearts, who just didn’t know any better.

MORE

From Free North Carolina

Massive 1,100+ year old Maya site discovered in Georgia's mountains

Via Cousin Bill

Archaeological zone 9UN367 at Track Rock Gap, near Georgia’s highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, is a half mile (800 m) square and rises 700 feet (213 m) in elevation up a steep mountainside. Visible are at least 154 stone masonry walls for agricultural terraces, plus evidence of a sophisticated irrigation system and ruins of several other stone structures. Much more may be hidden underground. It is possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540, and certainly one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent times.

BLAIRSVILLE, GA (December 21, 2011) -- Around the year 800 AD the flourishing Maya civilization of Central America suddenly began a rapid collapse. A series of catastrophic volcanic eruptions were followed by two long periods of extreme drought conditions and unending wars between city states.

Cities and agricultural villages in the fertile, abundantly watered, Maya Highlands were the first to be abandoned. Here, for 16 centuries, Itza Maya farmers produced an abundance of food on mountainside terraces. Their agricultural surpluses made possible the rise of great cities in the Maya Lowlands and Yucatan Peninsula. When the combination of volcanic eruptions, wars and drought erased the abundance of food, famines struck the densely populated Maya Lowlands. Within a century, most of the cities were abandoned. However, some of the cities in the far north were taken over by the Itza Maya and thrived for two more centuries.

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From Free North Carolina

Merry CHRISTmas!

We pray the joy of CHRISTmas last y'all the year long!

Love and blessings to y'all,

Bro.'s Chuck & PoP

Tis the last Christmas

Despite the total war against soldiers and civilians alike raging around them, Americans in 1864 managed to observe their Christmas traditions for the children who could not understand their poverty.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

"It was a grim hour for all of the South when William Tecumseh Sherman [was] marching relentlessly through Georgia..... A young mother has caught much of the pathos of the hour in several brief entries in her diary. Dolly Sumner Lunt, from Maine, married a planter who lived near Covington, Georgia. Three years before the start of the war her husband died, and as Mrs. Thomas Burge, Dolly continued on the estate with her daughter "Sadai" Sarah. The Burges were still there when Sherman's men passed, and many of the plantation Negroes, afraid of the soldiers, slipped into the house to be with their mistress.

On Christmas Eve, Mrs. Burge described her preparations for a bleak meal, her attempts to provide the plainest of presents for her remaining servants. "Now how changed!" she wrote, "No confectionery, cakes or pies can I have. We are all sad...Christmas Eve, which has ever been gaily celebrated here, which has witnessed the popping of firecrackers and the hanging up of stockings, is an occasion now of sadness and gloom." Worse, she had nothing to put in her Sadai's stocking, "which hangs so inviting for Santa Claus."

On Christmas night Mrs. Burge penned a sorrowful afternote: "Sadai jumped out of bed very early this morning to feel in her stocking. She could not believe but that there would be something in it. Finding nothing, she crept back into bed, pulled the cover over her face, and I soon heard her sobbing." A moment later the young Negroes had run in: "Christmas gift, Mist'ess! Christmas gift, Mist'ess!" Mrs. Burge drew the cover over her own face and wept beside her daughter.

The next year, Christmas came more happily to the Burge plantation. On December 24 [1865] the mother gave thanks to God for His goodness "in preserving my life and so much of my property." And on Christmas Day she added:

"Sadai woke very early and crept out of bed to her stocking. Seeing it well-filled, she soon had a light and eight little Negroes around her, gazing upon the treasures. Everything opened that could be divided was shared with them. "Tis the last Christmas, probably, that we shall be together, freedmen! Now you will, I trust, have your own homes and be joyful under your own vine and fig tree."

(The Southern Christmas Book, Harnett T. Kane, David McKay Company, 1958, pp. 205-206)

Tis the last Christmas

From Free North Carolina

Sherman

Via Carl

From Free North Carolina

Christmas Cheer on the Plantation

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial Commission"

“The great fete of the people was Christmas. [All] times and seasons paled and dimmed before the festive joys of Christmas. It had been handed down for generations…it had come over with their forefathers. It had a peculiar significance. It was a title. Religion had given it its benediction. It was the time to “Shout the glad tidings.” It was The Holidays.

There were other holidays for the slaves, both of the school-room and the plantation, such as Easter and Whit-Monday; but Christmas was distinctively “The Holidays.”

Then the boys came home from college with their friends; the members of the family who moved away returned; pretty cousins came for the festivities; the neighborhood grew merry; the negroes were all to have a holiday, the house-servants taking turn and turn about, and the plantation made ready for Christmas cheer.

The corn was got in; the hogs were killed; the lard “tried”; sausage-meat made; mince-meat prepared; the turkeys fattened, with “the big old gobbler” specially devoted to the “Christmas dinner”; the servants new shoes and winter clothes stored away ready for distribution; and the plantation began to be ready to prepare for Christmas.

In the first place, there was generally a cold spell which froze up everything and enabled the ice-houses to be filled. The wagons all were put to hauling wood – hickory; nothing but hickory now; other wood might do for other times, but at Christmas only hickory was used; and the wood-pile was heaped high with the logs…

In the midst of it came the wagon or ox-cart from “the depot,” with the big white boxes of Christmas things, the black driver feigning hypocritical indifference as he drove through the choppers to the storeroom. Then came the rush of all the wood-cutters to help him unload…as they pretended to strain in lifting, of what “master” or “mistis” was going to give them out of those boxes, uttered just loud enough to reach their master’s or mistress’s ears where they stood looking on, while the driver took due advantage of his temporary prestige to give many pompous cautions and directions.

The getting the evergreens and mistletoe was the sign that Christmas had come, was really here. There were the parlor and hall and dining-room, and, above all, the old church, to be “dressed.” The last was a neighborhood work; all united in it, and it was one of the events of the year.

Then by “Christmas Eve’s eve” the wood was all cut and stacked high in the wood-house and on and under the back porticos, so as to be handy, and secure from the snow which was almost certain to come. The excitement increased; the boxes were unpacked, some of them openly, to the general delight, others with a mysterious secrecy which stimulated the curiosity to its highest point and added to the charm of the occasion.

The kitchen filled up with assistants famed for special skill in particular branches of the cook’s art, who bustled about with glistening faces and shining teeth, proud of their elevation and eager to add to the general cheer.

It was now Christmas Eve. From time to time the “hired out” servants came home from Richmond where they had been hired or had hired out themselves, their terms having been common custom framed, with due regard to their rights to the holiday, to expire in time for them to spend the Christmas at home. There was much hilarity over their arrival, with their new winter clothes donned a little ahead of time, they came to pay their “bespecs” to master and mistis.

Later on the children were got to bed, scarce able to keep in their pallets for excitement; the stockings were all hung up over the big fireplace; and the grown people grew gay in the crowded parlors. Next morning before light the stir began. White-clad little figures stole about in the gloom, with bulging stockings clasped to their bosoms, opening doors, shouting “Christmas gift!” into dark rooms at sleeping elders, and then scurrying away like so many white mice, squeaking with delight, to rake open the embers and inspect their treasures. At prayers, “Shout the glad tidings” was sung by fresh young voices with due fervor.

How gay the scene was at breakfast! What pranks had been performed in the name of Santa Claus! The larger part of the day was spend in going to and coming from the beautifully dressed church, where the service was read, and the anthems and hymns were sung by everybody, for every one was happy.

Dinner was the great event. It was the test of the mistress and the cook, or, rather, the cooks; for the kitchen now was full of them. The old mahogany table, stretched diagonally across the ding room, groaned; the big gobbler filled the pace of honor; a great round of beef held the second place; an old ham, with every other dish that ingenuity, backed by long experience, could devise, was at the side, and the shining sideboard, gleaming with glass, scarcely held the dessert. After dinner there were apple-toddy and egg-nogg, as there had been before.

There were negro parties, where the ladies and gentlemen went to look on, the suppers having been superintended by the mistresses, and the tables being decorated by their own white hands. There was almost sure to be a negro wedding during the holidays. The ceremony might be performed in the dining-room or in the hall by the master, or in a quarter by a colored preacher; but it was a gay occasion, and the dusky bride’s trousseau had been arranged by her young mistress, and the family was on hand to get fun out of the entertainment.”

(The Old South, Essays Social and Political, Charles Scribner’s & Sons, 1892, pp. 174-183)

From Free North Carolina

A Soldier’s True Spirit of Christmas

Via Cousin John

Re-post

What happened to Christmas?

Christmas was, once, a wonderful time that was celebrated with family, friends and dinner at Grandma’s house. Grandpa would gather the children around the fire place and tell them the story about Jesus Christ who was born on Christmas Day.

Some people, now, call it a “holiday.” People stand in line at at malls, after Thanksgiving, then rush through the doors to buy, buy and buy more.

Is this Christmas? Partly, but the following story is about the true meaning of Christmas.The year was 1919, one year after the end of World War I, and the people of Atlanta, Georgia, were celebrating the Christmas Season. Many people attended Church and gave thanks to God for his many blessings. Folks, while shopping, were uplifted by sweet sounds of Christmas music played by the Salvation Army Band. There was a friendly and charitable atmosphere during this time of the year.

There were, however, some who were not as fortunate!

The aging veterans, in the Confederate Soldier’s Home, were proud men who had braved many a battle in the 1860s. One of these men was former Captain Thomas Yopp who saw such battles as that of Fredericksburg where a cannon shell burst knocked him unconscious.

The man who stayed with him until he recovered was his servant who had also joined the 14th Georgia Regiment, Company H. Bill Yopp was more than a servant; he and Thomas Yopp were friends who hunted and fished together.

Bill Yopp, a Black Confederate, was sympathetic to the men of Atlanta’s soldiers home who had been his compatriots in arms over fifty years earlier.

During the War Between the States, 1861-1865, Bill Yopp was nicknamed “Ten Cent Bill” because of the money he made shining shoes. He did this for the soldiers at a dime a shine and ended up with more money than most of his comrades. These men, also, cared for him when sick.

During the Christmas of 1919, Bill wanted to pay back the kindness that was shown to him. He caught a train from Atlanta to Macon, where he was offered help from the editor of a local newspaper [The Macon Telegraph]. He then caught a train to Savannah to raise Christmas money for the old veterans.

Just weeks before the Christmas of 1919, he had raised the money and Georgia’s Governor Hugh Dorsey helped him distribute envelopes of three dollars to each veteran. That was a lot of money in those days.

The old Confederates were speechless. Tears were shed because of Bill Yopp’s good heart and kind deed. Many of these men had little or nothing. Bill was invited to come into the home’s Chapel and say a few words.

Bill Yopp was later presented a medal of appreciation for his support of the old soldiers and also voted in as a resident of the Confederate Soldier’s Home.

Bill died on June 3, 1936, the 128th birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He was buried at Marietta, Georgia’s Confederate Cemetery with his compatriots.

Christmas is about love, forgiveness, old friends, family and the Child who became a savior.

Merry Christmas!

Calvin E. Johnson Jr.

From Free North Carolina

My only question is - where do we find such men?

Guns & Patriots

Verbatim Post

Marine Gen. James F. Amos
USMC Commandant

The series of McClatchy news articles have cast doubt on the decision to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to Sgt. Dakota Meyer. I stand firmly behind the process and the decision to award the Medal of Honor to Sgt. Meyer.

The Medal of Honor is our nation's highest award for bravery. Fittingly, it involves the most demanding of investigations and multiple levels of review. This process, followed scrupulously in this and other cases, is designed to confirm with as much certainty as possible that the level of bravery and self sacrifice displayed is worthy of this singular honor. Selflessness of this caliber cannot be measured under ordinary circumstances, because the ordinary does not evoke the extraordinary. Rather, the Medal of Honor requires that a display of heroism take place under the most difficult circumstances our service members can face. With life and death hanging in the balance, brave warriors, like Sgt Meyer and those who have gone before him, override their natural, instinctive impulses of self preservation and risk their lives to save others. Our highest honors are reserved for those who perform such deeds in combat while facing the enemy and braving his fire.

The Marine Corps has reviewed the investigations, the many and varied statements submitted by those who observed the battle in the Ganjgal Valley, the statements of those who participated in pieces of it, and the multiple reviews and endorsements confirming that Sgt Meyer exhibited the rare courage and selflessness worthy of our nation's highest military honor. The ambush and ensuing six hour firefight was without a doubt a "life defining event" for those present that fall morning. As such, it was seen and subsequently recorded from many different perspectives, each with a personal view of how events unfolded. This thorough review did not cause me to question the extraordinary heroism of, then, 21-year-old Cpl. Meyer, nor the worthiness of the award; just the opposite occurred. Sworn testimonies substantiated the events of that morning and the extreme heroism of Dakota Meyer. The facts are that he saved many lives and recovered the bodies of his fallen comrades. In this, he did not act alone; other brave warriors-soldiers and Marines and Afghans-were also in the fight for their lives.

In the final analysis, I did not find cause to question any single fact, nor minor discrepancy that may be buried in descriptions of a battle that lasted for hours and evoked such bravery in our troops. My only question is - where do we find such men?

From Free North Carolina

Thomas Jefferson vs. The Elites

Old Virginia Blog
Verbatim Post

"Bureaucrats hate the quintessential American culture of family farms. The independence-centered, 'pull yourself up by your boot straps' emphasis on responsibility goes against everything they believe in. Simply put, people who think for themselves and work hard don't live off the government . . . Farming is part of our identity. It is our way of life, our heritage, our patriotism, and the foundation of our generational values. Farming is the essence of our loyalty to our families and our God -- and there is nothing more sacred than that. That's why unelected liberal elites don't want farm kids working on farms."
~ Josiah Cantrall

More here at the American Thinker.

"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands."
~ Thomas Jefferson to John Jay 23 August 1785

I could smell the hay and Orchard Grass of my youth as I watched the video.

From Free North Carolina

$NAACP$ complains, school retreats

Southern Nationalist Network

Verbatim Post

It was the Tyrant Lincoln's favorite tune.

Missouri State University interim president Clif Smart has apologised after the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter complained about the school’s band performing “Dixie” in Springfield, MO. The reason given for the offence is that the song was played at a site where three Black men were lynched more than century ago. Based on this the NAACP complained and Mr Smart immediately bent to their wishes. He says that the school will no longer play the Southern anthem publicly.

NAACP complaint raises questions. Was the lynching of three men the only thing that ever happened in Springfield, MO? Of course not. Does the song glorify violence against Blacks or anyone else? Certainly not. It celebrates the South, where most Blacks in the United States live. And while the song was adopted by Confederates in the 1860s, it was written before Southern secession and the US war against the South and has remained popular with Southerners to this day. Was the Missouri State University band celebrating the lynching of three men a century ago? Absolutely not. And if “Dixie” conjures up memories of or associations with the lynching of three men in 1906, does “The Star Spangled Banner” conjure up associations with the nuking of a quarter million defenseless civilians in 1945, the US genocide of the Plains Indian nations in the late 1800s or most recently the deaths of one million Iraqis? Two can play this game and if songs are going to be banned because of such associations then the rule should be applied evenly across the board. But of course that will not happen.

The song “Dixie” is the most recognisable Southern anthem. Banning it is an act of cultural intolerance against the Southern people. Considered in light of the bans elsewhere and removals of Southern symbols and statues throughout the South, it smacks of an effort to eradicate Southern identity and culture. In their hay-day, the Marxists enacted similar bans on the symbols, songs and flags of the cultural groups they ruled over in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in an effort to destroy the national identities of their captive populations. Today’s cultural Marxist movement of political-correctness which has swept across the Southern States certainly bears great resemblance to something “Uncle Joe” and his murderous band of communist criminals would have tried back in the USSR. The goal is to eliminate us as a distinct people and culture.

From Free North Carolina

The Real Domestic Terrorists

Via Southern Nationalist Network

Those who support States rights, constitutional government, and the right of secession are now commonly called by the ruling elite right-wing extremists and potential domestic terrorists. We traditional Southerners are indeed familiar with this game. Had the term been around then, our ancestors—from Washington and Jefferson to Lee and Davis—would have been called domestic terrorists by the Brits and Yankees, respectively. As it was, they were simply called “traitors.” We reject the use of both terms for ourselves and for our forebears. Instead, we can make a good case that the real threats to domestic peace and quiet are on the other side. And yet we continue to pay them tribute and allow them to rule over us.

Who They Are?

The real domestic terrorists were (and are) those who oppose ordered Christian liberty and the worldview which upholds it. Indeed, Abe Lincoln and his minions have sired a long line of domestic terrorists, including most recently George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama (and all who aid them in their misrule). We might throw the larger part of Congress into the mix as well.

Most of what the U.S. government does is beyond the bounds of its constitutional limitations. That makes it unlawful. That which is unlawful ultimately terrorizes society. Jefferson told us that the fundamental law of the land should be viewed as chains to bind a singularly dangerous beast (the general government). For a while the beast was successfully bound; however, he slipped his chains for good in 1865 and our republic of republics was lost. Today, we live under a strange combination of socialism and fascism that would surely please a Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, or Mao as much as it would disgust our Founders.

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From Free North Carolina

Why Texas? It's not perfect, but it's well-armed

Natural News

Why Austin? Because Texas has its own power grid unlike the rest of the nation. Texas can grow its own food. Texas is the energy capital of the nation and can produce natural gas, diesel, oil and even jet fuel. Texas has masses of armed patriots who own more guns than they do pairs of shoes, and that makes Texas practically impenetrable to any invading force.

For example, suppose North Korea launches an ICBM into the high atmosphere over North America and unleashes an EMP weapon that destroys nearly all electronics.

This could theoretically be followed by a naval invasion of forces from Red China and North Korea, both of which suffer from too many young males that can hardly be fed and might as well be thrown at some enemy nation as cannon fodder. These forces would plow right through Southern California, with all its anti-gun laws and totally unprepared populations. Oregon would fare a lot better, thanks to the country folks who know how to live off the land, and although Seattle would be quickly overrun by enemy forces, the eastern (country) parts of Washington state would put up a fierce resistance. And any enemy forces foolish enough to try to make it into Idaho would, of course, be viciously intercepted by highly capable resistance forces that would snipe, explode and shred the enemy's supply lines, halting any advance no matter how strongly intentioned. (You do not want to mess with American rebels and patriots in Idaho, for the record.)

If some enemy force was foolish enough to try to enter Texas, they would be obliterated by a mass of Texas farmers, ranchers, National Guardsmen, law enforcement officers and ex-military men who are all locked and loaded to the hilt. That's where I feel safest, in the midst of the best-armed and most well-skilled riflemen in the country, most of which are upstanding, community-minded citizens who defend life and liberty. Texas is a fortress of determined men and women who will not, under any circumstances, willfully surrender their freedoms or their Bill of Rights.

Interestingly, Austin is also a progressive town with lots of raw foods, vegans, yoga studios and amazing artists. It's a progressive, almost liberal town, surrounded by conservative country folks who ultimately serve as a safety buffer that protects the city of Austin itself. When SHTF time comes, you can bet all the unarmed Austin residents will be begging the rural cowboys to protect them from looters and armed gangs.

That's why people who don't own guns dial 911 -- because they want men who DO own guns to arrive as quickly as possible and solve their problem.

From Free North Carolina

A post to cheer-up your day. ; ^ )

Letter from D. H. Hill to Union General Foster

OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 2, vol 5, Part 1 (Prisoners of War) p. 389-390
GOLDSBOROUGH, N. C., March 24, 1863.
Major General J. G. FOSTER, Federal Army.

SIR: Two communications have been referred to me as the successor of General French. The prisoners from Swindell’s company and the Seventh North Carolina are true prisoners of war and if not paroled I will retaliate five-fold. In regard to your first communication touching the burning of Plymouth you seem to have forgotten two things. You forget, sir, that you are a Yankee and that Plymouth is a Southern town. It is no business of yours if we choose to burn one of our own towns. A meddling Yankee troubles himself about everybody’s matters except his own and repents of everybody’s sins except his own. We are a different people. Should the Yankees burn a Union village in Connecticut or a cod-fish town in Massachusetts we would not meddle with them but rather bid them God-speed in their work of purifying the atmosphere. Your second act of forgetfulness consists in your not remembering that you are the most atrocious house-burner as yet unhung in the wide universe. Let me remind you of the fact that you have made two raids when you were weary of debauching in your negro harem and when you knew that your forces outnumbered the Confederates five to one. Your whole line of march has been marked by burning churches, school-houses, private residences, barns, stables, gin-houses, negro cabins, fences in the row, &c. Your men have plundered the country of all that it contained and wantonly destroyed what they could not carry off. Before you started on your freebooting expedition toward Tarborough you addressed your soldiers in the town of Washingtonand told them that you were going to take them to a rich country full of plunder. With such a hint to your thieves it is not wonderful that your raid was characterized by rapine, pillage, arson and murder. Learning last December that there was but a single weak brigade on this line you tore yourself from the arms of sable beauty and moved out with 15,000 men on a grand marauding foray. You partially burned Kinston and entirely destroyed the village of White Hall. The elegant mansion of the planter and the hut of the poor farmer and fisherman were alike consumed by your brigands. How matchless is the impudence which in view of this wholesale arson can complain of the burning of Plymouth in the heat of action! But there is another species of effrontery which New England itself cannot excel. When you return to your harem from one of these Union-restoring excursions you write to your Government the deliberate lie that you have discovered a large and increasing Union sentiment in this State. No one knows better than yourself that there is not a respectable man in North Carolina in any condition of life who is not utterly and irrevocably opposed to union with your hated and hateful people. A few wealthy men have meanly and falsely professed Union sentiments to save their property and a few ignorant fishermen have joined your ranks but to betray you when the opportunity offers. No one knows better than yourself that our people are true as steel and that our poorer classes have excelled the wealthy in their devotion to our cause. You knowingly and willfully lie when you speak of a Union sentiment in this brave, noble and patriotic State. Wherever the trained and disciplined soldiers of North Carolina have met the Federal forces you have been scattered as leaves before t he hurricane.

In conclusion let me inform you that I will receive no more white flags from you except the one which covers your surrender of the scene of your lust, your debauchery and your crimes. No one dislikes New England more cordially than I do, but there are thousands of honorable men even there who abhor your career fully as much as I do.

Sincerely and truly, your enemy,
D. H. HILL,

Major-General, C. S. Army