The Matthews and Middlesex County (Virginia) Confederate Monuments and Capt. Sally L. Thompkins Marker

From the November 3, 2021, Daily Press (Virginia)  "Virginia counties vote overwhelmingly  to keep Confederate monuments" by Dave Ress.

The Matthews County monument was erected in 1912, after a six-year fund-raising  effort by the Lane-Diggs Camp of the United Confederate Veterans, the Matthews Monument Association and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

There is also a state marker near the statue for Captain Sally  L. Thompkins, CSA 1833-1916. It reads:  

"Sally Thompkins, born at Poplar Grove, 3 miles  south of here, was the only woman granted a commission in the Army  of the Confederacy.  'Captain Sally' founded and directed Robertson Hospital in Richmond, where over 1300 Confederate  soldiers were cared for  between 1861 and 1865.

"Her grave and monument are located  in Christ Church Cemetery on Williams Wharf Road two miles to the south."

Middlesex erected its United Daughters of the Confederacy monument in 1910.  The inscription on it reads:  "To commemorate the valor and patriotism of the men, and the devotion and sacrifice of the women of Middlesex in defense of their liberties and their homes."

--Old Secesh

Gen. Junius Daniel-- Part 5: Mortally Wounded at Battle of Spotsylvania

During the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 12, 1864,  Daniel led his brigade in a fierce counterattack on the  "Muleshoe" (also known as the "Bloody Angle"), trying to recapture that important position from the Army of the Potomac, which had captured it at dawn.  He was struck in the abdomen by a Minie ball, inflicting a mortal wound.

He died in a field hospital the next day and his body was taken to Halifax and buried in the Old Colonial Cemetery.

Unknown to Daniel, Robert E. Lee had recommended his promotion to major general just prior to his death.

Fellow North Carolinian and close friend, Brigadier General Bryan Grimes later wrote, "He was decidedly the best general officer from our state.  Though in all possibility I gained a brigadier at his death, I would for the sake of the country always remained in the status quo than the country should have lost his services."

General Grimes named one of his sons Junius Daniel Grimes (who would become a well-known Washington, D.C. attorney in the late 19th century).

The Junius Daniel Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy  in Weldon, North Carolina , was named in Daniel's honor.

--Old Secesh

So, Who was Confederate General Alfred Mouton?

 I wrote about this man in my Civil War II blog as he has a statue in front of the Lafayette Parish courthouse in Louisiana that certain people want removed.  I have heard about him, but that is about all.  The article had this to say about him.

Alfred Mouton was the son of the 9th governor of Louisiana, attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and later returned to Lafayette where he became a landowner and, of course, slaveowner.  He supported the parish's laws limiting the assembly of Blacks and their ability to move around.

He was killed at the Battle of Mansfield in 1864.

The Alfred Mouton charter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy donated the statue to the city in 1922

--Old Secesh

Confederate Gen. Junius Daniel-- Part 1

 Today, I was writing about the Confederate statue at the Halifax County Courthouse in North Carolina being removed and a picture accompanying the article was a plaque in honor of this man, but actually wasn't the monument in question.

Junius Daniel was born and grew up in Halifax County and is buried there.

The plaque reads:

JUNIUS DANIEL

1828-1864

West Point graduate in 1851.  Officer in the U.S. Army until 1858.  Brigadier-General in  the C.S. Army  Mortally wounded in the Battle of Spottsylvania Court House.  Born and Buried in Halifax.

Erected 1929 by The North Carolina Historical Commission and the Halifax Chapter, U.D.C.

It is located on the grounds of the Halifax Court House.

Of course, now there is someone wanting to remove it.  Confederate, you know.

--Old Secesh

About That Confederate Woman's Home in Austin, Texas-- Part 4: And Another Sign

 Another handwritten sign has also been placed on the black plastic shrouding the Woman's Home marker.  It reads:

"History Matters.  Then the letters KKK crossed out inside a circle.

"This plaque glorifies the UDC, a group the SLPC lists as a hate group + a group w/well documented ties to the KKK.  History is important and the glorification of a white  supremacist group is an insult to our BIPOL neighbors.

We demand that this plaque be updated to reflect the true history of the YDC until then leave this or anoter notice up."

--Old Secesh

About That Confederate Woman's Home in Texas-- Part 2: Too Take Care of Indigent Confederate Widows and Wives

 "The Confederate Men's Home began in Austin  in 1884 and the Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter #105 of the Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) made visits, brought gifts, food and clothing to the veterans .  Under the leadership of President Katie  Daffan, the Texas UDC began coordination and fundraising to  secure a home for needy Confederate wives and widows through dinners, events, concerts and individual donations.

The Texas UDC  purchased property and constructed a Richardson  Romanesque revival style structure.  In addition to several bedrooms and bathrooms, the home featured a parlor, a dining area and a hospital.  UDC chapters from all over the state donated furnishings for the home.

Due to the cost to maintain the home, the UDC transferred the home to the State of Texas on Dec. 23, 1911.  An annex was built that doubled the size and increased the capacity and a hospital was erected in 1916.  The state legislature established the Board of Control to operate the home in 1920.

And then in 19, responsibility transferred to the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools.

This home provided  for more than 3,400 indigent wives and widows of Confederate veterans and operated  until 1963 when the last residents were transferred to private nursing homes."

So, Does This Historical Marker Sound A Lot Like White Supremacist To You?  But, WAIT!!  --Old Secesh

Calvin Crane, Last Confederate Real Son, Dies-- Part 3: Remaining Confederate Real Daughters and Union Real Sons

Mr. Crane was born on a farm near the White Oak  Mountain community of Pittsylvania County, barely two months before the United States entered World War I.  His family moved to Danville soon after his father's death so his mother could work in the Dan River Mills.  The Crane family financial situation was so desperate, Calvin had to leave school after the sixth grade.

He remembered, "I had a terrible time growing up."

He joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) in 1993 and attended meetings for over twenty years.  The SCV's national headquarters in Columbia, Tennessee confirmed that Crane was the last living son of a Confederate veteran.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy confirms that there are still five Real Daughters living, none of them in Virginia.David Demmy, executive director of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, says that  their organization knows about two living Real Sons and four living Real Daughters.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT Meeting Tuesday: Panel Discussion August 14

This Tuesday, August 14, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table will have its monthly meeting at the Woodstock Public Library in Woodstock, Illinois.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. and goes to 9.  This month's topic is a Panel Discussion.  Not quite sure what that is, but imagine  you bring something up and folks will talk about it.  I'm thinking about what we think about the attacks on the Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy.

I know the members of the Sons of Union veterans of the Civil War that I have talked to do not agree with these attacks.  It will be interesting to see what a Civil War Round Table thinks.

Anyway, a group of the people attending will be gathering for dinner at 5:30 at Three Brothers Restaurant on Illinois Highway 47.  All welcome there as well.

SCV and UDC:  Hate Groups or Historical Groups.  --Old Secesh

And the New War Continues-- Part 3: A History and a Hateful Mayor

Starting in April 1862, more than 1,000 captured Confederate soldiers were moved to Camp Randall, a Union training camp located where Camp Randall Stadium, home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers is located today.  Over the following days, 139 of the Confederates died.

According to the good mayor, in 1931 the UDC, "a racist and bigoted organization" installed the monument with names of them, honoring "treasonous rebels' as part of a national strategy of propaganda and determination to rewrite history providing a favorable interpretation of the Civil War."

"The larger monument at Madison's Forest Hill Cemetery is not a Civil War monument," he said.  "It was installed over 60 years after the end of the war.  It is a slab of propaganda paid for by a racist organization on public property when our city was inattentive to both the new form of slavery propagated by the donors with the Black Codes and to the meaning of that despicable fixture honoring slavery, sedition and oppression."

According to the good mayor, all those UDC  (United Daughters of the Confederacy) ladies must be card-carrying members of the KKK.

I sure would like to know where Mr. Soglin gets these ideas.  Sounds more of a person jumping on the bandwagon with all this Confederate hatred stuff.

Is Soglin Related to That New Orleans Mayor?  --Old Secesh

And, the New War Continues-- Part 2: Madison Preparing to Desecrate Confederate Graves

Mayor Soglin has three propositions for the 1931 memorial in the cemetery:

1.  Remove it.

2.  Eradication a section that refers to the United Daughters of the Confederacy organization that installed it.

3.  Leaving it, but placing next to it "a new honest monument" that tells the story of how the Daughters have spread lies about slavery throughout the United States and "continues to do so to this day.

He says the third item would be his preferred solution. I would say that none of these are advisable.  Leave it as it is.  Soglin wants the City Council of Madison to make the final decision but will introduce a resolution.

I think an appropriate plaque would be a plaque explaining how so many Confederates came to die while in Union hands over a short period of time in their fair city.  Also, there should be acknowledgement of the atrocities Wisconsin and Union soldiers inflicted on Southern civilians, women and children during the war.

Kind of strange that that memorial was okay from 1931 to 2017,

But Now It Is Not.  --Old Secesh

Fort Warren in Boston Harbor-- Part 2: Held Confederate Officers and Others

From Wikipedia.

This is what I'd really rather be doing than spending so much time on the anti-Confederate attacks as I do.

If they would just stop, I could get back to what I'd rather be doing.

Fort Warren was built between 1833 and 1861 and completed just short before the beginning of the Civil War.  It was one of 42 Third System of U.S. fortifications and the fifth largest built.

It was supposed to hold 200 guns, but never had that many.  During the Civil War it had 15-inch and 10-inch Rodman smoothbore cannons.

It served as a prison for Confederate States Army, Navy, elected officials from Maryland and Northern political prisoners., which is why the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the plaque.

--Old Secesh

The Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery-- Part 2

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) petitioned to erect a memorial at the Confederate section and on March 14, 1911, Secretary of War William Howard Taft granted the request.

The cornerstone was laid November 12, 1912.  Speakers were William Jennings Bryan and James A. Tanner, a former Union corporal who lost  both legs at the Battle of Bull Run and was, at the time, the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans.

That same evening, President William Howard Taft addressed addressed the UDC at a reception of the DAR's Centennial Hall.

Noted sculptor Moses Ezekial designed it and it was rich in symbolism and rose 32-feet.

Buried at the base of the monument are Ezekial, Lt. Henry C. Marmaduke, CSN, Captain John M. Hickey, 2nd Mssouri and Brigadier General Marcus J. Wright who commanded a brigade at Shiloh and Chickamauga.

--Old Secesh

Mrs. Waterman's "Boys"

Article by Thompson in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Autumn 2008, Vol. 92, Issue 1, page 14.

Alice Whiting Waterman was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1820 and moved to New York City at age ten.  In 1868, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and tended to the graves in Confederate Rest until her death in 1897.

In 1906, the UDC erected a monument to her for her many years of service to Confederate dead.

--Old Secesh

Heritage Attacks

Of course, they continue.

Well, this first one isn't really an attack, though. 12-28-13 Savannah (Ga) Morning News. Georgia Benton became the first black member of the Savannah Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Her great grandfather, George W. Washington, a slave in Sumter County, went to war as the body servant of Lt. Alex McQueen and was at the Battles of Sharpsburg (Antietam) and Gettysburg. Personally, I am sure that her ancestor was really a soldier. Georgia Benton was very involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

12-23-13: Bullet dents Washington, DC, memorial to black Civil War veterans. The African-American Civil War Memorial and Museum reports that a bullet struck a panel of the Wall of Honor which lists 209,145 blacks who served the Union. The bullet came from two groups of people who began shooting at each other.

--Old Secesh

Evidently, No More Thomas Ruffin UDC in Goldsboro

I tried to look up the Thomas Ruffin UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy) Chapter in Goldsboro, North Carolina, but evidently they have disbanded.  I found no website for them.

It was originally chartered 30 November 1899 as Goldsboro #349, before becoming Thomas Ruffin Chapter 2513.  It reorganized 3 April 1986 and disbanded in 2005.

Sorry Thomas.  --Old Secesh

It's a Holiday Open House at Fort Fisher

This Tuesday, December 6th from 10 to 5.

Seasonal refreshments and entertainment will be provided and the museum will be decorated.

The Leland Christian Academy elementary school band will perform at 11 am. At noon, songs and stories of blockade-runners (Hey, that's me!) by noted historian and singer John Golden (AKA Captain Roberts) will follow at noon.

Then actor/interpreter Joyce Grear (AKA Harriet "Moses" Tubman will tell stories of the black experience in the Cape Fear area associated with Christmas.

The Murray Middle School Jazz Band will perform holiday selections at 1:30.

Special discounts are available at the Fort Fisher Museum store. The event is sponsored jointly by the Friends of Fort Fisher (to which I belong) and the Fort Fisher Chapter No. 2325 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

I'd sure like to be there, but alas, live too far away. And, I really should not go near that museum store.

A Good Time at the Fort. --Old B-Runner