THE CUMBERLAND CONFEDERATE



THE CUMBERLAND CONFEDERATE [pic]

Newsletter of the Frank P. Gracey SCV Camp #225

Meeting – Tuesday, January 14, 20

We meet at Paul and Jackie’s Country Kitchen at 1578 Zinc Plant Road.

We eat at 5:30 PM with the program and business meeting starting at 6:30 PM.

The Program: -The Speaker: our own Dennis Bagwell: his subject will be is Titled ” Remembering Air Crew 990 "

This will be the story of WWII war service of the Boeing B-17G bomber crew of AC #990, assigned to the USAAF  8th Air Force, stationed in England. 

TELL YOUR FRIENDS SEE YOU AT THE MEETING

From the Camp Commander

Hello and greetings fellow Frank P Gracey Camp 225 members.

I would like to wish each and every one of you a happy and healthy new year.

On a sadder note We were grieved to hear of the passing of Mrs. Shirley Faye Dixon the mother of Robert Dixon. The wake was attended by myself and my wife and Charles Morrison representing our camp please keep the Dixon family in your prayers.

I would also like to thank Mr. Greg Biggs for a wonderful lecture on world war two.

We are looking forward to have our very own Dennis Bagwell speak this month also on world war two.

A warning shot fired at the Southern people: Virginian

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Richmond City Council has voted to ask the General Assembly to grant control to local leaders so that they can decide whether to get rid of Confederate monuments.

Right now, state law prohibits local governments from moving or changing war memorials.

The General Assembly had previously shot down attempts to change the law, but the issue is expected to have new traction, now that Democrats have control of the General Assembly.

Councilman Mike Jones says the Confederate monuments are a reminder of Virginia’s dark past - which he says doesn’t need to be celebrated with statues along the street.

Fellow members this is also happening in our home state:

We must stay involved and continue to fight for every inch of our faith our land our people and culture if we let others erase our history we will be erased from our own country.

We must soldier on give to the SCV defense fund call your state member of the Tennessee house and senate let them know how you feel, contact the Governor’s office and tell him the same.

I look forward to seeing you all soon and I would like to thank all of you for doing what you do in keeping our history alive.

[pic] Deo Vindice!

Gary Libano

Commander

Frank P Gracey camp 225

From the Abbeville Press

The Culture War Continues

By Donald Livingston on Dec 23, 2019

The culture war rages on. And what a war! There seems to be a new outrage almost every day. “Make it Right,” a New York organization dedicated to hunting down and removing all Confederate monuments from public space, has as its symbol an image of the statue of Lee taken down by a crane in New Orleans, and the director of that organization, Kali Holloway, recently penned a piece applauding a recent decision by two North Carolina towns to cancel their annual Christmas parades because the SCV and UDC have traditionally presented floats during the events.

The Council of American Islamic Relations has requested that Google, Amazon, and other large online tech companies ban the sale of “neo-confederate propaganda” like the widely popular The South Was Right! Why? Because they believe it fosters “white supremacy.” Even “conservative” voices support a version of Southern history at odds with the facts. Glenn Beck recently promoted a version of the Confederate Constitution that does not match the text or original understanding of the document. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

This effort at ethnic and cultural cleansing of the South has received little resistance by Southern elites. Instead of using these events as a teaching moment (as president Eisenhower did when he was asked to remove a portrait of Robert E. Lee from the Oval Office), they usually are morally disarmed and reduced to silence or use the event to signal their virtue in opposing “white supremacy” and asking for “healing” but not truth, oblivious to the fact that the North was not willing to put forth a morally responsible plan of emancipation and was itself white supremacist to the core.

This attack on Confederate monuments springs from the ideology of political correctness and multiculturalism that appeared in the late 1960s. This ideology is not peculiar to America. It is global and is forcing not only Southerners, but the British, French, Germans, and other historic peoples of Europe (as well as Americans generally), to ask the unsettling question “Who are we?”

In a healthy society one knows one’s identity, not by thinking about it philosophically, but by simply living it in community with others. We don’t, however, live in normal times. So, we must address with the question “Who are we?” Jimmy Carter would sometimes say in speeches (and not only to Southerners) that he was “proud to be an American, but prouder still to be a Southerner.” What did he mean by that?

The Institute exists to explore that question and to explain and defend the permanent things in the Southern tradition and its long-contested relation to an America that is now coming apart. A poll conducted by Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service found that 67 percent of Americans believe we are two thirds of the way to a civil war. We pray that isn’t true.

Whether true or not, it is imperative that we educate the public in what is true and valuable in the Southern tradition (something no longer done in higher or secondary education) and especially that we reach our young people. Our website now contains nearly 2000 articles on Southern culture, history, religion, literature, music, philosophy, film, architecture, food, politics, economics, and humor, and nearly five hundred audio files from our popular weekly podcast and lectures from past conferences and summer schools. All of this is free of charge.

We have big plans for next year, including three public conferences, new titles from the Abbeville Institute Press, and a series of videos designed to push back against the anti-Southern bias across the political spectrum. Your support is critical to making those things happen. No donation is too small. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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RELATED MEETINGS OF INTEREST

Colonel Cyrus Sugg Camp #1792, Adams, TN

The meeting will be Saturday December 14, 2019, the meal begins at 5:00 pm, The Business meeting at 5:45pm, Program at 6:00 PM SHARP, ending at 7 PM SHARP. The meeting is held at MOSS’S Restaurant, 7617 Hwy. 41N, Adams TN (The old Bell School). This month’s speaker will be Tim Henson. Tm will complete his previous presentation about the Bell family of Adams, Tenn.

Clarksville Civil War Roundtable

The Clarksville Civil War Roundtable meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month at the Bone and Joint Center. Meetings begin at 7 PM. 

January 2020 - James Knight, author/historian – “The Battle of Pea Ridge”

February 2020 – Russell “Chip” Hooper, historian – “Commander William F. Maury, CS Navy”

March 2020 - Karel Lea Biggs – historian/teacher – “Quinine in the Confederacy”

Porters Battery

Company Planning Meeting is the first 2020 event. Shoney's Restaurant, 791 N. 2nd. St., Clarksville Tn. 37042. Ph. # 931-647-6684. The date and time - Saturday, January 11, 2020, 0800 hrs. 

Photographs of the December 2019 Meeting

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Commander Gary Libano presents our speaker Gregg Biggs a Certificate of Appreciation with Lt Commander Dennis Bagwell looking on.

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Members listing to the presentation on the Battle of the Bulge

Remembering our History January 1863

Disheartened at Stones River, Confederates, retreat south

• By Mike West, Managing editor, Murfreesboro Post Apr 6, 2008

As the bodies of the dead and wounded crowded into Murfreesboro’s public buildings, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg decided upon his next move: Retreat. Retreat? Had not Bragg loudly proclaimed victory after the first day of Stones River? He telegraphed Richmond _ a huge mistake _ to crow: The enemy has yielded his strong position and is falling back. We occupy the whole field and shall follow him .... God has granted us a happy New Year, wired Bragg. The Confederate general was not lying to headquarters. The first day of the battle was a victory for the South. The Union Army of the Cumberland was pushed back, but didn’t break and run back to safety in Nashville. Braggs scouts had brought him word that Union wagon trains were headed to Tennessee’s capital city, but those wagons were filled with the Army of the Cumberland’s wounded.

The bulk of Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans forces still occupied the field near the Nashville Pike and was reinforcing their positions. When Rosecrans didn’t retreat, Bragg decided to give them a nudge by sending Gen. John C. Breckinridges division to assault them on Jan. 2, 1863. That, as previously discussed, was a disaster. Now, Braggs confidence and the support of his general staff hit rock bottom. Rumors roared through the Confederate camp saying Bragg planned to renew his assault the following day. That rumor hit division commanders Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham and Gen. James Withers particularly hard. Their forces were seriously depleted from the first days action. Cheatham had lost 36 percent of his troops and Withers 28 percent. Between them, they had only some 7,000 effectives and were the only Confederate units on the west side of Stones River.

After hours of discussion, Cheatham and Withers composed a most unusual letter to General Bragg. This army should be promptly put into retreat was the message they penned and sent to their direct commander, Gen. Leonidas Polk. Polk signed off on the letter and forwarded it by courier to Bragg, who was awakened at 2 a.m. Say to General Polk that we shall hold our own at every hazard. With dawns light, the grumpy Confederate general had a change of mind and heart. Bragg called Polk and Gen. William Hardee to his headquarters at 10 a.m. By noon, he was issuing orders to prepare troops for a night march south. Braggs decision remains fodder for discussion until today. It is generally accepted that Bragg believed he was seriously outnumbered and that Union reinforcements were on the way. Bragg based that fear on a report from his cavalry commander, Gen. Joseph Wheeler, and from documents captured from Union Gen. Alexander McCook saying the army had 70,000 soldiers. (Both reports were wrong.) And there was the Cheatham/Withers letter that advised, we do fear great disaster from the condition of things now existing and think it should be averted if possible. That letter reflects the lack of confidence Braggs generals had in their commander. This problem began on the retreat from Perryville to Murfreesboro and began to fester at Stones River. Bragg was indecisive and overly strict when it came to commanding the Army of Tennessee.

That curious mix of traits cost him the support of his troops and pushed away important allies among the Confederate high command. He did, however, have the ear and the unwavering support of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. Particularly ugly was the resentment between Bragg and his troops from the border state of Kentucky. He used the 1862 Confederate Conscript Act to draft Kentuckians into his army. Breckinridge, the former vice president of the United States, fought Bragg over conscription because Kentucky was still part of the Union. There was no ending the bad blood between Bragg and Breckinridge when on Dec. 26, Bragg ordered the execution of Kentucky Private Asa Lewis for desertion at Murfreesboro. Lewis, a Kentucky conscript, had left the army following Perryville and had vowed to return after some family duties were resolved. Then when Bragg ordered Breckinridge’s troops to charge across Stones River on Jan. 2, most of the Kentuckians were sure their commanding general had purposely tried to slaughter them. Not only did Bluegrass State troops hate Bragg and the conscription law, the feeling was universal among the Army of Tennessee.

Pvt. Sam Watkins, of the 1st Tennessee Infantry, expressed his feelings: Soldiers had enlisted for twelve months only, and had faithfully complied with their volunteer obligations; the terms for which they had enlisted had expired, and they naturally looked upon it that they had a right to go home. They had done their duty faithfully and well. They wanted to see their families; in fact, wanted to go home anyhow. War had become a reality; they were tired of it. A law had been passed by the Confederate States Congress called the conscript act. ... From this time on till the end of the war, a soldier was simply a machine, a conscript. It was mighty rough on rebels. We cursed the war, we cursed Bragg, we cursed the Southern Confederacy. All our pride and valor had gone, and we were sick of war and the Southern Confederacy. "A law was made by the Confederate States Congress about this time allowing every person who owned twenty negroes to go home. It gave us the blues; we wanted twenty negroes. Negro property suddenly became very valuable, and there was raised the howl of 'rich man's war, poor man's fight.' The glory of the war, the glory of the South, the glory and pride of our volunteers had no charms for the conscript. And to top it off, the Army of Tennessee was tired of retreating.

Some, like Brig. Gen. St. John Liddell, were ready to fight and suggested cutting off Rosecrans from his supply lines in Nashville. If you will throw your army between Rosecrans and Nashville, you will cut off all reinforcements. They will withdraw at the sight of your forces. Then I would fight Rosecrans to the last. I would rather bury my bones here than give up this field and our previous successes, Liddell said. But Bragg could sense the lack of support. General, I know that you will fight it out, but others will not, Bragg responded. The terrible weather than began during the Battle of Stones River continued. It was near freezing, rainy and muddy. When Breckinridge’s division began the retreat at 10 p.m. the mud was nearly 10 inches deep on the Nashville Pike. Withers followed. Bragg and his staff left at 11:30 p.m. for Shelbyville. Cheatham moved out at 1 a.m. with Cleburne and McCown leaving Murfreesboro at dawn.

The wounded were left behind at the Courthouse, Soule College and even at private homes like the Harding’s on the battlefield. The retreat was a nightmare of suffering. It rained incessantly, the temperature hovered about freezing, and rations were short. The Sixth Kentucky received food only after it had marched eighteen miles on 4 January, and then was issued simply six ounces of flour, wrote Peter Cozzens in his The Battle of Stones River _ No Better Place to Die. A woman who watched the troops leave Murfreesboro saw utter defeat in their mannerisms. The retreat! It was the grandest, saddest sight were ever saw... No other sound broke the stillness ... only the ceaseless footsteps of the retreating heroes, that followed each other in rapid succession, disturbed the breathless silence ... Not a word was spoken. The author of these lines saw amid the dreary, falling rain, the dim outlines of a gallant army that was passing away! And leaving their homes to the mercy of a bloodthirsty enemy and dropped bitter, burning tears.

EDITORS NOTE: Remember that information on Frank P Gracey events can be found on Facebook at SCVcamp TwoTwoFive and on the web at

FRANK P. GRACEY CAMP OFFICERS – 2019

|Commander |Lt. Commander | |Treasurer/Adjutant |

|Gary Libano |Dennis Bagwell | |Drew Scholes |

|3180 Lylewood RD |3415 Tarsus Rd | |5030 Long Branch RD |

|Woodlawn, TN 37391 |Clarksville TN 3704 | |Tennessee Ridge, TN 37178 |

|libanog@ | | |drewscholes@ |

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