Supporting the History Groups

While I was at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in June, I joined this esteemed group.  I am a big supporter of all kinds of historical groups.  They need the membership and the money even worse in these days of the virus because if you ever noticed, most history people are also old, including myself.

I also belong to quite a few history groups myself:

ILLINOIS

McHenry County Civil War Round Table

The McHenry Area Historical Society (The City of McHenry)

The Fox Lake/Grant Township Historical Society

Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp Douglas Camp #516  (Chicagoland area)

NORTH CAROLINA

Wayne County Historical Society

Old Waynesboro Park (Goldsboro, Wayne County)

Friends of Fort Fisher  (Kure Beach)

Federal Point  Historic Preservation Society (Carolina Beach)

NATIONAL

National Trust for Historic Preservation

American Battlefield Trust

So, as you can see a put my money where my mouth is and support these worthy organizations.

--Old Secesh

David Messer, Federick Messer's Nephew Died at Chicago's Camp Douglas

George Washington Messer, Federick's brother died in 1862 at the age of 64 or 65.  No service in the Confederate Army is mentioned.

He did have a son in the Confederate Army, though, David Messer born in 1828 and died in 1864, in Chicago, Illinois.

He enlisted as a private in Company C of the 62nd North Carolina Infantry  in Waynesville, North Carolina, on July 14, 1862.  He was captured at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, on September 9, 1863, and sent to Louisville, Kentucky, and later confined at Camp Douglas in Chicago.

On August 11, 1864, he died of dysentery and is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago in grave #1264 (Confederate Mound).

My Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp, Camp Douglas, has had a ceremony at the Confederate Mound every year except this one.

--Old Secesh

Threats Over Civil War Days Investigated-- Part 3: Another View of the Situation

Matthew Evans, 35, of Genoa, Illinois, suggested that Civil War re-enactors should show up at the Lake County Forest Preserve District's board meeting.  He is the captain of the 154th Tennessee Company K, Confederate re-enactor group who goes by the nickname Johnny Reb.  He thinks the cancellation is a power play on Kyle's part.

"I think what the president (Angelo Kyle) did was wrong," Evans said about the abrupt cancellation, reinstatement and now cancellation again and added that Kyle should resign because he is pushing his own agenda.

Evans said he has 16 or 17 ancestors who fought in the war, one for the Union and the rest for the Confederacy.  He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (and also camp commander of the Camp Douglas Camp based in the Chicago area).

He started re-enacting in high school.

--Old Secesh

Upcoming Protest Calls for Removal of Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery-- Part 1

From the April 18, 2019, Chicago Weekly Citizen by Katherine Newman.

The Camp Douglas Camp #516 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (which is named after the Union prison in Chicago in which some 6,000 Confederates died during the war) will hold a memorial service on April 22 at the Confederate Mound, where at least 4,000 victims are buried, in Oak Woods Cemetery. 

They will be met by a group calling themselves Smash White Supremacy.

Matthew Evans, the commander of the SCV group said:  We gather to honor the 6,000 men buried at Confederate Mound, who suffered through harsh winters, extreme summer temperature, starvation, human cruelty by the hands of Federal guards, only to die in a prison camp and never return home."

Both groups are planning a peaceful event near each other on April 22.

--Old Secesh

Last Year It Was A Planned Confrontation At the Confederate Monument in Chicago

The Camp Douglas  Camp #516 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, with members throughout Chicagoland, has been holding a memorial service at the Confederate Mound in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago for many years and, until last year, there has never been a problem, even though this cemetery is located deep within a black neighborhood.

It has been a peaceful commemoration with much solemnity.  That is, until last year.  At that time a group arrived on the scene, supposedly to have a service at the grave of Ida B. Wells, but in reality the reason they were there was to break up the Confederate service and provoke a confrontation.

They had never been there before and neither Ida B. Wells' birthday or death occurs in April.  They had loudspeakers and were chanting right in the middle of the Confederate proceedings.  Strange that it would happen in this time and age.

But, if you read my three previous posts before yesterday, you will see it is all part of the bigger movement to bury and disgrace all things Confederate.  It is so sad that some people can not allow  others to commemorate their heritage.

And, I also believe that Ida B. Wells deserves to be better known than she is.  She was one brave woman to go after the horrible lynchings that took place in the South during her time.  And the fact that she was a black person and a woman, made her going to the South a very dangerous trip.  I'd support a statue at the cemetery or on a public space.

It is too bad that it took the opportunity to cause a confrontation to get the other group fired up enough to go out and do something for a real hero, Ida B. Weells.

--Old Secesh

Community Organizers Want Confederate Monument Removed From Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery

From the April 7, 2019, Chicago Sun-Times  by Rachel Hinton.

Two black groups want the monument removed because such black notables as Ida B. Wells, Jesse Owens and Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington are buried in the cemetery.  About a dozen protested.  They would like to have a monument to Ida B. Wells.  (At one time there was a monument to this remarkable woman in the form of the Ida B. Wells Housing Project.)

The monument stands atop what is called the Confederate Mound at the cemetery and is the site of the graves of over 4,000 Confederate soldiers who died at Camp Douglas prison during the Civil War.  It was a Union prison noted for its harsh conditions.

The cemetery is located at 1035 E. 67th Street in Chicago's Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.

The Confederate Mound monument is administered by the Federal Veterans Administration and overseen by the Abraham Lincoln National cemetery in Elwood, Illinois (near Joliet).

Matthew Evans, the camp commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Camp Douglas Camp #516, says there is little they can do because the site is owned by the Veterans Administration.

Personally, I would like to have monuments to the three people mentioned in the first paragraph as long as they are privately funded.  They were all remarkable people whose memories should never be forgotten.

--Old Secesh

Confederates In DeKalb Saturday

The Camp Douglas Memorial Camp #516 and the Rock Island Memorial Camp #2229 will be having a joint meeting/luncheon this Saturday, September 30, 2017, in DeKalb, Illinois.

That's right, there are Confederate hereditary groups right here in Lincoln's home state.

Both camps are named after Civil War prisons in which Confederates died, some 6,000 at Camp Douglas in Chicago alone.

Steve Quick will give the keynote address on "The Past and Future of the hereditary Societies."

--Old Secesh

Getting My Civil War On This Weekend: Round Table Discussion Group and Sons of Confederate Veterans

Saturday, June 24, I have two Civil War-related things going on here way up north in Union land here in the Land of Lincoln.

First, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table Discussion Group meets in Crystal Lake to talk about Confederate generals other than Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.  I plan on talking about Gen. W.H.C. Whiting.

Then, I will go to Lake-in-the-Hills to a meeting of the Camp Douglas Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans where we will install new officers.  Our camp is named in honor of the 6,000 Confederates who died at Camp Douglas prison camp during the Civil War.

Getting My Confederate On.  --Old Secesh

Camp Douglas Prison-- The Andersonville of the North-- Part 4

Gary Flavion's article "Civil War Prison Camps" says that these prisoners were potentially more dangerous and terrifying than the battles themselves.  Some 56,000 men died in prison camps over the course of the war.  That exceeds American losses in World War I, Korea and Vietnam.

Brent Harvey wrote about a memorial service carried out at the Camp Douglas Monument at Oak Woods cemetery in Chicago on April 29, 2007.  This was put on by the Camp Douglas camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  His website also gives information on his five direct ancestors and 24 other relatives who served in Co. B of the 8th Missouri Cavalry, CSA.

She was impressed by a quote on his website by Confederate General John B. Gordon saying: "For the future glory of the Republic, it is absolutely inmaterial whether on this battlefield or that, the Blue or Gray won a great victory, for, thanks to God, every victory won in that War by either side was a monument to American valor."

--Old Secesh

Camp Douglas Prison -- Andersonville of the North-- Part 2

Continued from Friday, May 8th.

There is only one monument to those Confederates who died at Camp Douglas in Chicago and, it is an impressive one, but not at the camp's site.  It is at Chicago's famous Oak Woods Cemetery at 1035 E. 67th Street in what is called "The Confederate Mound" where at l;east 6,000 are buried (4,200 known, the rest unknown).  They are buried in a mass grave on one acre of land.

The monument was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1895 and reads:  "To the memory of the six thousand Southern soldiers here buried... who died in Camp Douglas prison ... 1862-65."  This is the largest mass burial in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Every April, the Camp Douglas Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, based in the Chicagoland area, holds a memorial service for the dead at the mound.

The dead interred in the mound had previously been buried in paupers graves in Chicago's City Cemetery but were moved in 1867 to make way for the creation of Lincoln Park.  Who knows how many bodies are still buried there?

--Old Secesh

Bells Ring to Commemorate Lee's Surrender-- Part 3

During the Civil War, between 6,000 and 7,000 Confederates died at Chicago's Camp Douglas (there is a Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp based in the Chicagoland area that has the name of the prison to honor those men).  Most of the soldiers who died during the war were as a result of diseases like typhoid and dysentery.

The bell at Camp Douglas was rung when news of the surrender reached Chicago.  Also rung were most of the church bells in the city.

People at the ceremony also stood in front of the table on which Confederate General Lee signed the surrender at the McLean house in Appomattox Court house, Virginia.  That was a real connection to the event.

--Old Secesh

News from the Front: Lake Villa Civil War Days-- Part 3

Continued from Oct. 6th.

The Camp Douglas Sons of Confederate Veterans held the monthly meeting at the Lake Villa, Illinois, Civil War Re-enactment.

The 2011 National Sons of Confederate Veterans will be held in June at the first capital of the Confederacy, Montgomery, Alabama. Our Illinois Division will hold its conference in April in Abraham Lincoln's hometown, Springfield. A descendant of Captain Wirtz, the commandant of Andersonville Prison, will be a speaker.

And speaking of prisons, in 1864, the state of Illinois housed Confederate prisoners at four camps:

8,000 at Camp Douglas in Chicago
7,500 at Camp Butler in Springfield
6,000 at Rock Island
5,000 at Alton

Our division and camp websites have been changed.

Just Some SCV News. --Old B-Runner

News from the Front: Lake Villa Civil War Days-- Part 2

Our Camp Commander, Dr. Mark Woolfington had a short meeting. he mentioned that a new group has been formed called the Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation who want to open a museum and rebuild one of the barracks at the site of the former prison.

This would be great as few in Chicago even know of the camp's existence. However, in the current state of affairs, we'd like to know if this group is Confederate-friendly.

My own thought is that they must be if they want to bring to public awareness one aspect of the Union's war effort for which they can't be proud. You always hear about the horrors of Andersonville, which they certainly were, but rarely anything of the horrific conditions at northern prisons.

Our next Camp Douglas meeting will be this Saturday October 9th at the Silver Stallion in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Fighting an Uphill Battle. --B-Runner

News From the Front: Lake Villa Civil War Days-- Part 1

I attended the Lake Villa Civil War Days September 18th.

It was a threatening day, but fortunately we did not receive the torrential rains that turned the 2008 encampment into a washout.

As usual, the Camp Douglas Sons of Confederate Veterans had our headquarters camp near the Lehmann Mansion (founder of Chicago's Fair Department Stores, on whose grounds the re-enactment is held). We set up each year the "Further the Colors" and to recruit new members. There is always a laptop on hand with genealogy for folks who wonder if they have Confederate ancestors.

I met our camp's new commander, Dr. Mark Woolfington. He has some great plans for the camp. The former camp commander, John Jeffers is now Illinois Division Commander.

While there, a former member of the camp from the 1980s re-enlisted. Always good to get an old member back. We need all the members we can get.

Several members of the Confederate Rose Society also came by the tent. They portray the roles of gallant Southern women.

More to Come. --B-R'er

A Confederate Burial Ground in Chicago?-- Part 2

GETTING REFURBISHED

The 6,000 Confederate dead buried at Oak Woods Cemetery were victims at Chicago's notorious Camp Douglas, on the grounds of former Illinois senator Stephen Douglas' estate. He also ran for president.

Earlier in the war, it was used as a training base for Illinois troops, then as a prison for captured Confederates. Conditions were so bad that the prison got the name "Eighty Acres of Hell because of rampant disease and cruelty.

After the war, the federal government bought two acres in the cemetery for burial of the Confederate dead. By the 1890s, ex-Confederate soldiers in Chicago and in Georgia raised funds for the monument and it was dedicated in 1895.

It sat there for the next 115 years with nothing being done to it. The new Abraham Lincoln national Cemetery near Joliet, Illinois, has stewardship over the Confederate Mound which is federally-owned. Work begins this month and is expected to be finished by January.

Good News for the Confederate Dead and Their Relatives. --B-R'er

A Confederate Burial Ground in Chicago?-- Part 1

Yes there is one...and it is a BIG ONE with 6,000 burials, but not individual graves, just one mass burial. The 6000 Southerners buried there lost their lives at Chicago's infamous Camp Douglas Prison in a two year time frame.

It is called the Confederate Mound at Oak Woods Cemetery, a private 180 acre site located at 67th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

The Confederate Mound is one of the most spectacular monuments in Chicago, but most people don't know about it. The Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp Douglas Camp holds a memorial service every April at the site.

The mound area consists of two acres with a 46 foot Georgia granite monument on top of it and that is topped by the bronze statue of a Confederate soldier. The names of the 6000 are on bronze plaques at the base. Cannons with stacked cannonballs guard the perimeter.

From Lee Bey's Chicago-- Beyond the Boat Tours.

Confederate Dead in Chicago. --Old B-Runner

Heading Out to the Civil War

A few hours from now, I'll be on the road going out to the Wauconda, Illinois, Civil War Re-enactment, billed as the largest in northern Illinois.

We have rain in the forecast and it did rain last night. Hopefully we won't have a monsoon like we had last September in Lake Villa when all the soldiers just floated away.

This is, as I said before, the 20th anniversary of our Camp Douglas #1507 Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and we will again be out there spreading the word. This has been the largest SCV camp north of the Ohio River for many years until one close to the river surpassed us. Plus, we may or may not have been passed by a camp here in Illinois (also way down south), but there are many differing thoughts on the subject.

Yesterday, I went to Wauconda and helped the camp commander and his daughter put up our tent. As usual, we got the primo site near all the action and on the main walk, across from the sutlers.

After the event closes, the camp will have a bbq out at a compatriot's home in Marengo.

Getting My Civil War On. --B-R'er

20th Anniversary of Camp Douglas, SCV

This Thursday will mark the 20th year of Confederates in Chicagoland area as Camp Douglas #1507 Camp of the Sons of Confederate veterans was chartered on July 9, 1989. This was mostly through the efforts of Andy Wilson. He certainly went above and beyond to accomplish this and we owe him a lot.

Two original members still belong, Illinois Division Commander James F. Barr and yours truly.

It was originally named the Andrew Jackson Eaton Camp. As plans for the camp moved forward, compatriots were asked to submit names. Most wanted Camp Douglas to honor the 6,000 plus Confederates who died at the infamous prison in Chicago. Names were put in a hat and one drawn, which happened to be Andrew Jackson Eaton. That was the name until that member left the camp, and then it was changed to Camp Douglas.

Our membership usually hovers around fifty, but meetings are difficult because we are spread out over a huge area.

Thanks Andy and Congratulations to Camp Douglas, SCV, on Twenty Great Years. --Old B-Runner

Illinois Division Formation

I was reading my journal from 1989, twenty years ago, and for May 3rd, I wrote: "Received a letter from Andrew Wilson from Ottawa, Illinois, in regards to the formation of a Sons of Confederate Veterans camp in Illinois. He had eleven positive responses from 22 letters he sent out. It would be nice to have a camp here. I am a member but essentially in name only. About the only positive thing is the magazine Confederate Veteran which I get every two months."

This was my first indication of what is now the Illinois Division and Camp Douglas. Last month, we had the 16th Annual Convention of the Division.

We sure owe a lot to Mr. Wilson. Thank you.

Confederately, Old Blockade-Runner

Lee-Jackson Dinner-- Camp Douglas

Continuing with Norman Stevens interesting talk on Lexington, Virginia, Lee, and Jackson.

In the 1850s, Lexington was the Athens of the South with its two institutions, VMI and Washington College. You received a classical education at Washington and a scientific one at VMI.

Stevens received his BA from the Virginia Military Institute, MA and PhD from Connecticut.

Some Other News

GOOD NEWS; Camp Douglas member Mike Triplett has taken it upon himself to establish a new Sons of Confederate Veterans camp in the Peoria, Illinois, area. Best of luck, Mike. At present, there are no Illinois Division camps in that area.

THE CHALLENGE IS ON-- Camp Douglas has long been the undisputed largest camp in the Illinois Division. However, Camp 1962 in Belleville, Illinois, now has 41 full SCV members and 13 associate members. Guess we'd better get to some serious recruiting.

Confederately. --Old B-R