The November 1st deadline for membership renewals has passed and we had 18 members that did not renew, which is 15% of our camp membership. I believe we will probably get 12 to 15 of those reinstated, and that will keep our camp membership at over 100 members.

Since the last meeting our camp members and re-enactors have participated in several events, which we supported very well, as usual. On October 20th we participated in the "Children’s Southern Heritage Day" with River’s Bridge Camp #842 in Fairfax, SC. On October 27th our re-enactors took part in an annual event called the Edgefield Rodeo in Edgefield, SC. And on November 3rd Camp #158, the 5th Georgia Infantry Regiment and 32nd Georgia Artillery re-enactors set up for living history presentations at the Augusta Canal Interpretive Center on Greene Street.

We have a meeting this Thursday night at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Our program speaker will be Dr. C. L. "Chip" Bragg, an anesthesiologist, from Thomasville, Georgia. He’ll speak on the recently published book, "Never for Want of Powder," that he co-authored with Gordon Blaker (formerly with the Augusta Museum of History) and three other authors. Dr. Bragg is a member of W.D. Mitchell Camp #163 in Thomasville. He’ll give a talk and slide presentation on the Confederate Powder Works that should be educational and very interesting. Plan to attend and bring your family and any guests that would be interested in hearing our speaker. I look forward to seeing all of you this Thursday at Sconyers for another night of good Southern fellowship.

Charles A. Clary, Jr. - New member accepted at the September 13th Camp Meeting. He joined under his Great-Great Grandfather, Captain John J. Williams, who served in the 9th Regiment Kentucky Mounted Infantry.

Kenneth Ray Bellamy, Sr. - New member transferred to Camp #158 from the Brigadier General Barnard E. Bee Camp #1575 in Aiken, South Carolina.

B/G E. Porter Alexander Camp #158: http://www.eporteralexander.homestead.com/Index.html

Georgia Division SCV Website: http://www.georgiascv.com/

SCV National Website: http://www.scv.org/

■ Thursday, November 8th – Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 will meet at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. The program speaker will be Dr. C.L. Bragg, who will speak on the newly published book he co-authored, "Never For Want of Powder," the definitive history of the Confederate Powder Works complex in Augusta that produced nearly 3 million pounds of gunpowder for the Confederacy from April 1862 through April 1865. Dr. Bragg co-authored the book with four other authors.

■ Monday, November 12th - A Veterans Day Observance Ceremony will be conducted at 11:00 a.m. at the All Wars Monument located at 4th and Broad Streets.

■ Saturday, November 17th – Camp #158 members will set up a booth at the Barnyard Flea Market in Augusta to sell camp store merchandise.

■ Saturday, November 24th – Camp #158 members will set up a booth at the Barnyard Flea Market in Augusta to sell camp store merchandise.

■ Sunday, December 2nd - Camp #158 will march in the North Augusta Christmas Parade. The parade starts at 3:00 p.m. Line-up is at 2:30 p.m. on Martintown Road between North Augusta Plaza and Georgia Avenue. Parking is available at North Augusta Plaza.

■ Saturday, December 8th – Camp #158 will march in the Harlem Christmas Parade. The parade starts at 10:00 a.m. Line up will start at 9:00 a.m. at Harlem Middle School on West Forrest Street.

■ Thursday, December 13th – Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 will meet at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Program speaker to be announced later.

■ Thursday, January 10th – Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 will meet at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Program speaker to be announced later.

■ Saturday, January 19th - Camp #158's annual Lee-Jackson Banquet (on Robert E. Lee's Birthday). Our program speaker will be Walter Donald Kennedy, co-author of "The South was Right!" and "Was Jefferson Davis Right?" He was also the author of "Myths of American Slavery" The banquet will begin at 7:00 p.m. and will be held at American Legion Post #63 located on 90 Milledge Road in Augusta.

Saturday, February 23rd & Sunday, February 24th - Battle of Aiken: The gate opens at 9:00 a.m., and the battle re-enactment will start each day at 2:00 p.m. near the site of the original battle at Confederate Park just north of Aiken, SC. The site for this event is located in Aiken County off of Interstate 20 (Exit 18) on SC Highway 19 South. Barnard E. Bee Camp #1575, Sons of Confederate Veterans, sponsors the Battle of Aiken re-enactment.

Saturday, March 1st & Sunday, March 2nd - The seventh annual commemoration and re-enactment of the Battle for Broxton Bridge. This year's event will be held at the original earthen fort battle site on the Salkehatchie River built by Confederate forces in 1865. This is the 143rd anniversary of the battle. Camps are open Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Battle re-enactments are 1:30 p.m. daily. One-day admission is: 18 years and older-$6.00; 10 - 17 years-$3.00; 9 years and under-free. Directions: Broxton Bridge Plantation entrance is on US Highway 601, 20 miles south from the intersection of US Highway 78 in Bamberg, SC. It is about 13 miles north of Hampton, SC, on US Highway 601, and about 5 miles south of Ehrhardt, SC, on US Highway 601.

A motion was made, seconded and passed for the camp to pay the annual membership dues, at $41.00 each, for three members needing assistance.

A motion was made, seconded and passed to reserve American Legion Post #63 on Milledge Road in Augusta for our Lee Jackson Banquet for Saturday, January 19th, at a cost of $450.00.

A motion was made, seconded and passed to select Mrs. Sammie Arrington from Wrens as our caterer for the Lee Jackson Banquet. She will provide food at a cost of $11.00 per person.

A motion was made, seconded and passed for the camp to participate in two Christmas Parades: North Augusta, SC at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 2nd, and Harlem, GA at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 8th.

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:17

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Romans 6:23

"All prayers, catechisms, and Bibles will ultimately be driven out of the schools." – Written by Robert Lewis Dabney on the 19th century feminists’ idea of equality, from Volume Four of "Dabney’s Discussions," circa 1862.

"The North isn't a place. It's just a direction out of the South." – Roy Blount, Jr.

"Charleston and its defenders will occupy the most conspicuous place in the history of the War, and it shall be as much glory as I shall wish if I can inscribe myself as one of its defenders." – Remark by George Dixon upon becoming commander of the CSS Hunley.

"The Constitution is not an instrument for government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government, lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." – Patrick Henry

The Union League of America, sometimes called the Loyal League, was an organization for political purposes of Northern whites, later of Southern Negroes, which originated in Ohio in 1862 when the Confederate military successes and political disaffection in the northern states made the outlook for the North seem doubtful. Within one year it had spread over 18 Northern states and among the Unionists of the South. The organization raised troops, paid their expenses, sent supplies to the field and distributed political literature. At the close of the war it worked for radical reconstruction of the Southern states, punishment of the Southern leaders, confiscation of property and Negro suffrage. The Southern Unionists hoped to make it the nucleus of a new political party, but this was frustrated by the admission of blacks for political purposes, after which the Southern whites generally deserted the league.

After the Freedmen's Bureau agents and other Northern whites obtained command of the league in the South it became simply a machine to control the Negro vote. The league ceased to be important in the North, though headquarters were in New York City. Each Southern state had its grand council and each county had one or more councils. A constitution and an elaborate ritual were adopted, making it an oath-bound secret order, whose members were sworn to support one another on all occasions, to vote in elections only for Negroes or Northern men, and to overthrow the Southern "white oligarchy." No ex-Confederate and few Southern Unionists were permitted to join.

At each meeting the members were taught that they must fear their white neighbors as their worst enemies, that the Democratic party, to which the Southern whites belonged, had opposed emancipation and was still opposed to any rights for the Negro. To prevent moral control of the Negroes by former masters, the league, by an "exodus order," required all Negroes who were still living with their former masters to find other homes.

The Negroes were taught the equality of men and the right of the Negro to his master's property. The Negro vote during Reconstruction was controlled by the few white radical leaders, and Negroes who voted with the mass of the southern whites were persecuted, beaten, or even, in a few cases, killed. The league died out about 1870 but not before it had succeeded, with the Freedmen's Bureau and other forces, in permanently arraying the Negroes and the whites into opposing political parties.

Augusta, Georgia