This year is quickly coming to a close with the Christmas holidays almost upon us. The camp had another very busy year with involvement in numerous activities and events throughout the year. I sincerely appreciate the dedication and hard work done by our members and officers during this past year that continues to make Camp #158 the successful and active SCV organization that it is. A good example of this is the excellent participation that Camp #158 had when we marched in North Augusta’s Christmas Parade on Sunday, December 2nd. We had a float, seventeen re-enactors, family members of camp members in period dress, and two members from other camps giving a total of 34 representing our group in the parade. We’re one of the few camps in the area that can get that kind of participation in an event.

We’ll be having our annual Lee-Jackson Banquet on Saturday, January 19th, at American Legion Post #63 on Milledge Road next to the National Guard Armory. Our speaker will be Walter Donald Kennedy from Louisiana, co-author of The South was Right. This is rare opportunity to hear Mr. Kennedy speak and I encourage you to attend this banquet. Invite family members and friends to hear Mr. Kennedy and to honor two great Confederate generals and Christian gentlemen – Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.

We have our December meeting at 7:00 p.m. this Thursday night at Sconyers. We have a good program speaker lined up, Mr. Robert "Skeet" Willingham, coming from Washington, Georgia. He’ll speak on "The Friendship of Robert Toombs and Alexander Stephens." Mr. Willingham, an author and historian, is very knowledgeable about the history of Washington, Georgia, so this should be a very interesting presentation about Toombs and Stephens, which are two of Georgia’s most influential figures of the 19th century. I hope to see all of you at Sconyers for the last meeting of 2007, and I wish all of you and your families a very Merry Christmas!

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/

Adjutant Perry Herron will have the 2007-2008 SCV membership cards ready to give out at the meeting on Thursday night.

Lt. Commander Ron Udell has tickets available for purchase for the upcoming Lee-Jackson Banquet, which will be held on Saturday, January 19th, 2008. The tickets are $12.00 for adults and $6.00 for children 12 years old and under. Tickets must be purchased in advance in order to attend the banquet.

¦ Thursday, December 13th – Brigadier General E. Porter Alexander Camp #158 will meet at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Our program speaker will be Mr. Robert "Skeet" Willingham, an author and local historian from Washington, Georgia. He will speak on "The Friendship of Robert Toombs and Alexander Stephens."

■ 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 is 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.

Saturday, March 1st & Sunday, March 2nd: 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 to 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 to purchase 5000 advance copies at a cost of $160.50 for printing newsletters, agendas & miscellaneous printing for the camp. [Cost for copies: $150 (5000 copies at 3¢ each) + $10.50 (7% Sales Tax) = $160.50]

[7] And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

[8] And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

[9] And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

[10] And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

[11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

[12] And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

[13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

[14] Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

[15] And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

"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

"I cannot ask a pardon. A parole I would gladly accept. Perhaps a general amnesty may come - if not, I cannot with honor go back and ask a pardon for what I don’t consider a crime." Former wartime governor, Henry Watkins Allen (1820 – 1866), on being asked if he would accept a U.S. pardon.

"It is simply to me simply incredible, that a people so shrewd and practical as those of the United States, should expect us to have discarded, through the logic of the sword merely, the convictions of a lifetime; or that they could be deceived by us, should we be base enough to assert it ourselves. They know that the people of the South were conquered, and not convinced; and that the authority of the United States was accepted by us from necessity, and not from preference. The people of the South went to war because they sincerely believed (what their political fathers had taught them, with one voice, for two generations) that the doctrine of State-sovereignty for which they fought, was absolutely essential as the bulwark of the liberties of the people." Excerpt from Volume Four of "Dabney’s Discussions" written in 1892 by Robert Lewis Dabney (1820 -1898)

"Whatever your responsibilities may be to the government, to society or to individuals, meet them like men. The attempt made to establish a separate and independent Confederation has failed, but consciousness of having done your duty faithfully and to the end will, in some measure, repay for the hardships you have endured. Farewell address by General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821 – 1877) to his troops at Gainesville, Alabama, on May 9th, 1865.

"The battle sounds of this war may have subsided, but this war is not over. It will be decided in another generation at another time." Jefferson Davis

"The disposition to make money out of the war accounts for much of that zeal in the North, which was mistaken for political ardor or the temper of patriotic devotion." Statement made in 1862 by Edward A. Pollard (1831 – 1872)

On December 6th, 1889, Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America, died in New Orleans. Davis, born in Kentucky in 1808 but later a senator from Mississippi, was first in Texas as an army officer during the Mexican War in 1847 with Zachary Taylor's force on the Rio Grande. In 1854, while Davis was United States secretary of war, he recommended the Texas or thirty-second-parallel route for construction of a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, and in 1856 he sent camels to Camp Verde to test the animals' suitability as military transportation. After Reconstruction a movement was launched in Dallas to purchase a homestead for Davis and invite him to move to Texas. In 1875 he was offered the presidency of the newly established Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. In declining the appointment, he wrote of his hopes of revisiting Texas, but he never did so.