Camp activities have slowed down considerably in the last month as we approach summer and warmer weather. January through April were extremely busy months for active camp members with battle re-enactments, festivals, memorial services, etc. These events went on almost every weekend somewhere in the South.

Work at Magnolia Cemetery will be ongoing throughout the summer. The Confederate sections need to be cut and cleaned up quite frequently and the help of more members is needed to keep our sections maintained. (Yes, that means you too!) As a camp we need to do our duty to those soldiers who paid the ultimate price defending the cause we still defend today.

Our last meeting went very well and was well attended. Commander David Moncus, from the B/G John C. Carter Camp #207 in Waynesboro, gave an excellent presentation on "The Vicksburg Campaign." At our upcoming meeting this Thursday, Commander Ed Kennedy from Kansas will speak on the contributions of black Confederates to the South’s war effort. Commander Kennedy has been researching this subject for many years, so this should be a very educational presentation. (See the narrative in the opposite column.)

We have 8 delegates representing Camp #158 that will attend the business session of the Georgia Division 108th Annual Reunion in Savannah on Saturday, June 11th. This will be my second Division Reunion and I’m looking forward to it. Other members are also encouraged and welcomed to attend.

When the Confederate Army marched to war in April 1861, it was composed of men of all backgrounds and means.  It was primarily an army of men who worked the soil: farmers.  If you were to believe the current historical interpretations shown in movies like "Gettysburg," they were all white.   The fact is that they weren't.  Thousands of black Confederates, along with many other minorities fought for the South.  Distinguished black historian Dr. Edward C. Smith estimates as many as 93,000 blacks served with the Confederate Armies.  Numerous records exist to prove black participation with the Confederate forces.  Why is this not better known today? Come find out why black Southerners fought for the South, how we know this, and why there is an attempt by historical revisionists to hide the contribution of thousands of loyal black Confederate soldiers.

Our program Thursday night, with a slide presentation included, will be given by Lt Col (ret) Ed Kennedy, an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  He taught graduate level military history when on active duty and now runs a business teaching leadership to corporate executives by taking them to WBTS battlefields.  He is a member of the Brigadier General William Steele Camp #1857 in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Camp News & Events

Thursday, May 12th –Cemetery Workday in Confederate sections of Magnolia Cemetery.

Sunday, May 15^th - New Market Day Memorial Service at Cottage Cemetery in Augusta at 1:30 p.m.  The Augusta Chapter of the VMI Alumni Association hosted the ceremony.

Thursday, May 19th – Sgt Berry G. Benson Camp #1672 Annual Picnic held at Misty Lake Picnic Area off of Ascauga Lake Road in North Augusta.

Saturday, May 21^st & Sunday, May 22^nd – Battle of Central Re-enactment in Central, South Carolina, north of Anderson.

Monday, May 23^rd – Three members of Camp #158 attended the Brigadier General John C. Camp #207 meeting in Waynesboro, GA.

Saturday, May 28^th – Monument Dedication Service for a relocated Jefferson Davis monument located on Fort Gordon Highway and Powell Road. The W.H.T. Walker UDC Chapter #2253 in Augusta hosted the service. Camp #158 Confederate re-enactors fired a black-powder salute during the service.

Saturday, May 28^th – Cemetery Workday in Confederate sections of Magnolia Cemetery.

Monday, May 30^th – Members of Camp #158 attended annual the Augusta-CSRA Memorial Day Observance ceremony at the All Wars Monument at 4^th and Broad Streets in Augusta. A wreath was placed in honor of Confederate soldiers and veterans. A black-powder salute was fired by Camp #158 re-enactors in honor of all soldiers who fought for the Confederacy.

Thursday, June 9^th – Camp #158 Meeting at Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Our Program Speaker will be Commander Ed Kennedy of B/G William Steele Camp #1857 in Leavenworth, Kansas. Ed’s topic will be Black Confederates: Forgotten Heroes of the South."

Friday, June 10th - Sunday, June 12th – Georgia Division SCV 108th Annual Reunion in Savannah; Registration Fee is $25.00.

Thursday, July 14^th – Camp #158 Meeting at the Warren Road Community Center at 7:00 p.m. Warren Road Community Center is located on 300 Warren Road across from Warren Road Elementary School. Our regular meeting place, Sconyers Bar-B-Que Restaurant, will close after July 4^th for several weeks. This is their annual vacation time.

"There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil.  It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race." - Col. Robert E. Lee, United States Army, December 27, 1856

"If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper, but if we and our posterity ignore its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity." - Robert E. Lee

"The invasions of the Southern States for the purpose of coercion were in violation of the written Constitution, and the attempt to subjugate sovereign states under the pretext of preserving the Union, was alike offensive to law, to good morals, and the proper use of language. The Union was the voluntary junction of free and independent states; to subjugate any of them was to destroy the constituent parts, and necessarily therefore, must be destructive of the Union itself." From Jefferson Davis’ book, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government"

"You could put a soldier in front of every cottage in the state and could not prevent the return of South Carolina to her own people." Former Confederate General Martin Witherspoon Gary, in response to an order from the carpetbag government not to interfere in the 1876 election.

"One ounce of fear is worth a pound of persuasion." A statement made by former Confederate General Martin Witherspoon Gary in the 1876 election in South Carolina during Reconstruction.

Yankees expect to make the war pay. Yankees do not undertake anything that does not pay. They think we belong to them. We have been good milk cows, milked by the tariff – or skimmed. We let them have all of our hard earnings. We bore the ban of slavery; they got the money. Cotton pays everybody who handles it, sells it, manufactures it; but it rarely pays the men who make it. Second-hand, the Yankees received the wages of slavery. They grew rich; we grew poor. Mary Boykin Chesnut – An entry from her diary, July 8, 1862

We, the free-born descendants of the Cavaliers, to submit to the descendants of the witch burning Puritans, whose God is the Almighty Dollar. Never! I thank God I am a Southerner and South Carolinian. Emma Holmes – An entry from her diary, February 14, 1863

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29: 11-13

And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 1 John 3: 22

Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Psalm 34: 11-16

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few be there that find it. Matthew 7: 13 & 14

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20: 15

-- President Jefferson Davis

Wig Wag - June 2005 Edition