August 2005

Commander’s Column - By Nick Posey

There has been a considerable amount of activity going on in the camp during the past month with lots of member participation.

I would like to thank all of those camp members and non-members alike who were involved in the Magnolia Cemetery Workdays on July 21st and August 6th to maintain our Confederate sections. This is an ongoing camp project. Shannon Herron (our Adjutant’s wife) again replaced the silk flower arrangement on Mary Hall’s gravesite in Magnolia Cemetery, and I’m very grateful for this good deed. Along those same lines, on behalf of the camp I want to thank David Powell, our 2nd Lt Commander, for purchasing and installing a brochure box adjacent to the Speakers’ Platform in Magnolia Cemetery, which contains flyers with biographical information about the seven Confederate generals buried in the cemetery, and a map showing the location of their gravesites.

I also appreciate members and non-members, about two dozen in all, who participated in the flagging of Governor Sonny "The Liar" Perdue when he visited Columbia County on July 30th, in protest against his decision not to allow the citizens of Georgia a fair flag vote.

And I thank the members and their family members (Mae Gilmer and children) that worked in our booth at the Barnyard Flea Market on August 6th selling our camp store items and doing living history demonstrations.

I appreciate all of those referred to above for generously giving of your personal time to make this camp work. Without your efforts and sacrifices to get out and advance the Southern Cause, our camp would be nothing more than a monthly supper meeting at Sconyers for eating barbeque and hearing a good speaker. I thank all members and officers who work month after month to make Camp #158 a success.

Camp News & Events

Camp #158 members attended or participated in the following events:

Wednesday, July 20th - Saturday, July 23rd – The SCV National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, was attended by Past Commander Woody Highsmith who represented our camp during the business sessions.

Thursday, July 21st – Magnolia Cemetery Workday in the Confederate sections of the cemetery.

Thursday, July 21st – Six members of Camp #158 attended the Sergeant Berry Benson Camp #1672 meeting in North Augusta, SC. The featured speaker was P. Charles Lunsford.

Saturday, July 30th – Georgia’s Governor Sonny "The Liar" Perdue was "flagged" by about two dozen members and friends of Camp #158 when he attended a Columbia County Republican Party fund raising breakfast at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Columbia County.

Saturday, August 6th – Magnolia Cemetery Workday in the Confederate sections of the cemetery.

Saturday, August 6th – Camp #158 members and family members set up a booth at the Barnyard Flea Market to sell Confederate memorabilia, recruit new camp members and do living history demonstrations.

Announcements

Thursday, August 11th – Our next Camp #158 Meeting will be held at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Our Program Speaker will be Dr. Russell K. Brown, a retired U.S. Army major, who holds a doctorate in United States history. He will speak on his new book "Our Connection With Savannah: History of the 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters." Some of our camp members heard Russell Brown speak at a B/G John C. Carter Camp #207 meeting in Waynesboro, and highly recommend hearing this historically informative and thoroughly researched presentation. Dr. Brown is the author of three other books on Georgia during the War Between the States.

Friday, August 26th (8:00 p.m.) and Saturday, August 27th (2:00 pm., 4:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m.) – The Imperial Theatre of Augusta, downtown on Broad Street, will have the premiere showing of "The Battle of Aiken," a full length movie that chronicles the events leading up to The Battle of Aiken and the battle itself.

Saturday, August 27th – The 3rd Quarter Georgia Division SCV Executive Council Meeting will be conducted at Wick's Tavern Museum, at 10:30 a.m., in Villa Rica.

Thursday, September 8th – SCV Camp #158 Meeting at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant, at 7:00 p.m. Our Program Speaker will be Mrs. Tammy Herron who will give a PowerPoint presentation and talk on historic Oakley Park in Edgefield, SC. More details will be given in the next newsletter.

 

*******Special Notification*******

This is official notification for reconsideration of a motion previously passed by the camp membership. The motion will be reconsidered and voted on at the August 11th camp meeting. During a meeting at Enterprise Mill, in the 2002, when Woody Highsmith was commander, a motion was passed to pay for a security light to illuminate the three Confederate flags placed at the Jefferson Davis monument located in Clearwater, SC. The monument is at Belvedere-Clearwater Road and Jefferson Davis Highway (US Highway No. 1). Several of our members have noticed recently when passing by these flags at night that the security light, because of its location and height in respect to the flags, is providing negligible or next to no illumination of these flags. At our last camp officers’ meeting on June 28th, the officers decided to recommend to the membership that we no longer pay the monthly cost and discontinue the use of the light. We are billed monthly by SCE&G. This would save the camp over $100 a year.

Reminder - Annual SCV *****Dues Notice*****

This is an early notification regarding annual SCV dues, which are due by November 1, 2005.

Make checks payable to: SCV Camp #158

Payment Schedule:

Regular Membership Dues are $41.00

($20-SCV National + $12-GA Division + $9-Camp #158)

SCV Life Members pay $21.00

($9-Camp #158 + $12-GA Division)

SCV & GA Division Life Members pay $9.00

($9-Camp #158)

The cost for a new member to join SCV Camp #158 is $51.00

Note: Dues paid after November 1st will require the payment of a $5.00 reinstatement fee.

Dues may be given to the Treasurer or Adjutant at the regular meetings, or dues can be mailed to Camp #158’s mailing address:

Sons of Confederate Veterans

B/G E. Porter Alexander Camp #158

P. O. Box 3694, Hill Station

Augusta, GA 30904

Quotes

In the winter of 1863-1864, there were religious services almost every night when one of the major Confederate forces was not directly engaged in battle….But it was not only the young who were converted while under arms. Generals Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, William J. Hardee, Dick Ewell, and John B. Hood (to mention only a few) were converted and/or baptized while in Confederate service, along with perhaps 150,000 men in gray….No equivalent religious activity went on in the Union Army. – Melvin E. Bradford (1934-1993) from his 1991 publication "The Theology of Secession."

 

The fact that one army was fighting for union and the other for disunion is a political expression; the actual fact on the battlefield, in the face of cannon and musket, was that the Federal troops came as invaders, and Southern troops stood as defenders of their homes, and further than this we need not go. – A statement by P.G.T. Beauregard in 1887 regarding the War Between the States.

Scripture for Thought

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of God shall stand for ever. – Isaiah 40:8

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. - Psalm 121:1-2

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.   - 1 John 2:15-17

Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. - Romans 2:1

Meeting Minutes for July 14th, 2005

Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp#158

Sons of Confederate Veterans

Warren Road Community Center - Augusta, Georgia

Camp Commander Nick Posey called the monthly meeting of Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 to order at 7:00 PM and then led the salute to the Confederate Flag. Lt. Commander Ron Udell provided the invocation. Commander Posey then recited the "SCV Charge."

There being no additions or corrections, the meeting minutes of the June meeting were approved as published in the July Wigwag.

Commander Posey then invited Past Commander Richard Smith to describe his recent experience of a weekend ride with the SCV Mechanized Cavalry. Richard described his 4th of July outing to Columbia, Tennessee, to participate in a biking weekend. The activity was sponsored by S&G Custom Cycles, who had a beautifully detailed Confederate Harley (not for sale). About 80 bikers took tours with stops at Elm Springs, Nathan Bedford Forrest's boyhood home, and Pulaski, Tennessee, and its monuments to Southern hero Sam Davis. Richard encouraged SCV members who enjoy biking to join the SCV Mechanized Cavalry.

Our 5th Brigade Commander, Michael Mull, then arrived with his guest, Deke Cox, 2nd Lt Commander of the Ogeechee Rifles Camp #941, Statesboro, Georgia.

Reports of Officers

Commander Posey provided a preliminary June camp financial report, prepared by Treasurer Lee Herron, who could not attend the meeting.

Lieutenant Commander Ron Udell reported nearly $170 was made at the July 2nd Barnyard Flea Market. Fourteen Confederate Heritage magnets were sold. The next flea market is August 6th.

Commander Nick Posey reported on the following upcoming events:

1) Georgia Division SCV 108th Annual Reunion in Savannah on Saturday, June 11th