This Year was Bigger Than Ever with More and More Confederates Coming Out of the Closet
“Rebel farms should be seized and given to immigrants. We must colonize and settle as we go south. Enemies must be killed or transported to some other country.” …General William T. Sherman in a letter to his brother Senator John Sherman
… by Jim W. Dean, VT Editor, with the Sons of the Confederate Veterans
The sword was only ever drawn in defense
In Georgia the last weekend in April is when a lot of the events take place like the Savannah one above. The NAACP trying to piggyback our event to get some free publicity has almost faded away.
The reputation of that organization has gone South, literally, as people figure out the poor leadership that infects most of American today has not spared them.
As the lawsuit money dried up the lawyers who used to do a lot of their work for a piece of the action have moved on to greener pastures. Young black folks don’t buy into Southern heritage ceremonies being a threat to their futures.
If they end up not having one, there are many on their list to blame ahead of the old battle flag. And black Confederate descendants are becoming more numbers each year, especially the ladies.
Steve Scroggins main article for the month broke us into the top ten read pieces for the week for the first time. And the radio shows we did on the Rense Network when I filled in for Mike Harris were well received.
People got it when I had traditional veterans on for the first hour and Confeds for the second…that Southerners have always fought for their country…before, during, and after the War Between the States.
I am going to close the month out with a duet article, starting first with a famous Confederate descendant piece that was going around this month.
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TJ’s Grandson
CHRISTIAN, JR., THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON (1915~1944)
Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian, Jr., Colonel in the United States Army Air Force and great grandson of Confederate General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, was born on November 19, 1915, in San Francisco, California to Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian, Sr. and Bertha Marguerite Cook.
Christian attended the University of Chicago before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point on July 1, 1935. On June 12, 1939, he graduated 45th in a class of 456 and chose to enter the Field Artillery branch of the U. S. Army, his father’s branch of service, where he was appointed a Second Lieutenant.
Soon after making his branch decision, Christian changed his mind and joined the Army Air Corps.
From 1939 to 1941, Christian was a student in Texas at the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Love Field in Dallas, the Air Corps Training Center at Randolph Field and the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, both in San Antonio.
After receiving training as a pilot, Christian was assigned to the Philippines, where, after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, he was reassigned to Bataan, Mindanao, Australia, and Guadalcanal.
While there, he flew B-17s and was shot down and declared missing in action somewhere in the South Pacific. He was able to return to the base after living with natives in the jungle.
The Roll of the Dice
With the 1st Air Group, Christian landed on Guadalcanal on August 15, 1942. While there, he flew more than 60 hours in combat missions and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry.
After being granted leave, Christian returned to the United States, where on January 2, 1943, he married Marjorie Lou Ashcroft, whom he met while in Dallas. Their permanent residence was Sulphur Springs.
While in the U. S., he formed and trained the 361st Fighter Group. They were sent to England in November 1943.
In Europe, Christian flew more than 70 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart. In March 1944 he was promoted to full Colonel.
While overseas, Christian became a father. His daughter, Lou Ellen, was born in January 1944, in Dallas.
Having never met his daughter, Christian was killed in action on August 12, 1944, while flying a P-51 Mustang, which was named Lou IV, in honor of his daughter. Colonel Christian was shot down over Arras, France and his body was never recovered.”
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I will close with a less happy incident, as it represents the complete flip side of honoring our heritage.
We had a major grave robbing event this month. As fate would have it we had a white meth head called ‘Bubba’ and buddy doing the dirty deed. The motivation was the usual looking for historical artifacts to use to buy drugs. But these guys had their own meth lab.
I mention the ‘white’ part because back when the NAACP was using Confederate heritage as a punching bag, our cemetery vandalism skyrocketed, everything from spray paint graffiti to claw hammer destuction and flag poles sawed off.
This drained money away from preservation projects as cameras had be be installed to help prevent copycat crimes which can quickly become the rage.
From the Augusta Chronicle:
The Accused
Two Waynesboro, Ga., men were charged Monday in a Burke County grave robbery in which the remains of an infant casket and the corpses of five Confederate and Revolutionary War soldiers were dug up.
Jerry Atkinson, 39, and Ralph Hillis Jr. could face up to five years in prison if convicted of the seldom-used felony charge of malicious removal of the dead from a grave. The charges were filed by the Burke County Sheriff’s Office.
Hillis, who goes by the nickname “Bubba,” was in custody in Richmond County on Monday night, but Atkinson remained at large, said Burke County Sheriff Greg Coursey. Burke County deputies searched Atkinson’s Morris Village home Monday off Georgia Highway 24, where a methamphetamine lab was discovered, Coursey said. More charges are expected in the case.
The desecration of five graves at Old Church Cemetery was discovered April 13 when Roy Bell, the commander of American Legion Post 120, the memorial’s caretaker, went to the burial grounds to mow the grass.
Bell said he found parts of an old uniform on the ground and at least five graves looted.
A $2,000 reward generated a number of solid leads to police, one of which Bell said was made by a witness to the grave robbing. Bell said “without a doubt” the reward will be paid, but he could not say who will receive the money and when.
“After the sheriff’s office has completed their investigation, the witness will receive their reward,” Bell said.
Bell said members of American Legion Post 120 have temporarily sealed the five graves with sheets of aluminum and formed a work committee to permanently rededicate the sites. “The sheriff’s office has done an excellent job,” Bell said. “I am proud to have them serve Burke County.”
Malicious removal of the dead from a grave carries a prison sentence of one to five years.
You can’t get much lower than robbing a baby’s grave
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I will close this month out with an SCV recruiting pitch, of course, and I will look forward to seeing you all again next year. But keep and eye peeled for Sesqucentennial events held anywhere near your area. The reenactment battles draw record crowds for the big anniversaries like this.
SCV Headquarters – Elm Springs, Tennessee
It’s April 30th, 2013. Do you know who your Confederate ancestors are? You have sixteen genealogical lines as fishing poles. If a grandparent was from the South your success odds are like 99.5%
The SCV will help you run them down. The CSA roster is been digitized for a while now. Gone are the days when genealogical work was a lot of grunt work, always involved travel, and was expensive.
The SCV Elm Springs headquarters is in Columbia, Tenn., and the good folks there will be happy to help you. Director Ben Sewell is a retired Army Colonel and Bryan in membership will hook you up with some ancestor catchers. You will find lots of veterans in the SCV.
If you have the blood, have the honor to give your ancestors their due. They earned it, and your family experienced Mr. Lincoln’s and Mr. Grant’s Total War, and their Reconstruction. (more on this little story later…yep, a lot they did not tell you.)
Electronic databasing is so far along now that members can be matched up with others whose ancestors fought in the same unit. If you are one those ‘in the closet’ folks, we can set you free. You can also contact me in the comments. Your email address will not show, but I can get back to you.
It’s the 150th anniversary. What are you waiting for…the 200th? We also have the Order of the Confederate Rose for the ladies and the work of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is carved in stone, literally.
membership@scv.org (800) MYSOUTH http://scv.org/video.php
The mission of the SCV is best stated with the Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans given by Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee Commander General, United Confederate Veterans, in 1906:
“To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations”
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Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.
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