Gentlemen, SCV annual membership dues are now due. Members have a three month window of opportunity from August 1st until November 1st to pay their yearly dues. Please make this a priority to pay your dues at this Thursday’s meeting, or either mail them to the camp’s Post Office Box (mailing address on page 2).

Raffle Tickets for the camp fund raiser need to be turned in at the meeting this Thursday night, or definitely by the September 14th meeting. The raffle drawing will be on Saturday, October 7th, at the Oliver Hardy Festival in Harlem. If you took tickets to sell, and haven’t sold all of your tickets before the drawing, you are expected to turn in unsold tickets so we’ll be able to account for all tickets.

A permanent Confederate Battle Flag sign has finally been installed on the base of the Confederate Powder Works Chimney. Hopefully this flag won’t have to be replaced again for at least another 5 to 7 years. It’s quite a beautiful sight to see our Southern cross of honor permanently affixed to this structure that is the last remnant of the Confederate Powder Works complex. All of you should make it a point to ride by and see the new flag on the chimney in front of the old Sibley Mill. As we all know, sights like this are being erradicated from our landscape every day.

■ Keith Allen Walker, Sr., applied for membership through his 3rd great grandfather, Private William Wallace Miller of Company C, 1st Regiment, SC Cavalry Hampton’s Brigade.

Saturday, July 15th – Camp #158 members setup a booth at the Barnyard Flea Market of Augusta to sell camp store items, Confederate memorabilia, and raffle tickets.

Wednesday, July 26th – The Old Men’s Crew had a Workday at Magnolia Cemetery cutting grass and cleaning up the Confederate Dead section, the Confederate Survivor’s section, and the Confederate Generals’ Memorial.

Saturday, July 29th – Camp members (and also some of the wives) installed a permanent 4ft X 6ft Confederate Battle Flag sign made of aluminum and vinyl on the base of the Confederate Powder Works Chimney at Sibley Mill on Goodrich Street.

Saturday, August 5th – Camp #158 members setup two booths at the Barnyard Flea Market of Augusta and sold camp store items, raffle tickets, and also gave living history presentations.

Thursday, August 10th – Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 Meeting at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant, 7:00 p.m. Our program speaker will be Mr. Wayne Damron, owner of Clein’s Rare Coins in Augusta. He’ll speak on "Confederate Currency."

Saturday, August 26th – Camp #158 members will setup a booth at the Barnyard Flea Market of Augusta to sell camp store items and raffle tickets.

Thursday, September 14th – Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 Meeting at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. (Speaker to be announced later)

Saturday, September 23rd – Hephzibah’s September Festival: Re-enactors and members of the camp will march in the festival’s parade at 10:00 a.m. Members will also reserve a booth in order to sell camp store items and remaining raffle tickets. Festival hours will be from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., and the location will be on Windsor Spring Road & Georgia Highway 88 behind Wally’s Gas Station & Convenience Store.

Thursday, October 12th – Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 Meeting will be held at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Our program speaker will be Dr. John Griffin from Lancaster, SC. He’ll be speaking on his recently published book, "The Execution of Abraham Lincoln." A big thank you goes to Jerry Grigsby for arranging to have Dr. Griffin make his presentation to our group.

Camp #158 dues are $41.00 per year ($20.00 SCV National + $12.00 GA Division + $9.00 Camp #158 = $41.00)

■ If you are a Life Member of SCV National your annual dues are $21.00 ($12.00 GA Division + $9.00 Camp #158 = $21.00)

■ If you are a Life Member of the GA Division your annual dues are $29.00 ($20 SCV National + $9.00 Camp #158 = $29.00)

■ If you are a Life Member of SCV National & the GA Division your annual dues are $9.00 (Camp #158 dues = $9.00)

Your dues can be paid at one of the next three camp meetings, or mailed to the Camp’s Post Office Box at this address:

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. — Psalm 16:11

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4: 6,7

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. — John 5:25-29

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. — John 14: 6

"The combination of Yankee artillery with Rebel infantry would make an army that could be beaten by no one." — Observation by a Southern officer during the war

"The dead covered more than five acres of ground about as thickly as   they could be laid." — A Confederate soldier after the battle of Cold Harbor in 1864 describing the Union dead

If the South had been an independent nation for the past 30 years it would have had budgets more closely in balance, less governmental taxation, a tougher policy on crime and welfare, greater local control over schools, protected prayer in schools, a more conservative Supreme Court, and an immigration policy that would not flood the country with Third World immigrants. — Excerpt taken from the book "The South As An Independent Nation," by William L. Cawthon, Jr.

"The South fought to free herself from outside interference and fanatical intermeddling with her domestic institutions – the right to manage her own internal affairs in her own way." — James H. McNeilly (1838 – 1922)

"Those were the years of the domination of the carpetbagger, the scalawag, and the Negro, and they were years of the most brutal despotism. The carpetbagger was the Northern adventurer who came South for office and for spoils; the scalawag was the native of the South who joined the radical party for spoils and from hatred of his neighbors." — Recalling the days of Radical Republican Reconstruction in the South, which lasted from 1865 through 1877, James H. MeNeilly penned these words in September 1920.

"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today." — Robert E. Lee

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

"The South: where roots, place, family, and tradition are the essence of identity." - Social historian Carl N. Degler

-- President Jefferson Davis