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Our Confederate Ancestors: A Year with Forrest, by Rev. W. H. Whitsitt, Part Two, Conclusion

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A Series on the Daring Exploits of Our Confederate Ancestors in the War Between the States.

About eleven o'clock they laid the first ambuscade, but Forrest contrived to discover it in advance and, instead of walking into it, caused us to dismount and get into line and crawl up close to the enemy's position.

It would have made too much noise to have brought up a piece of artillery by horse power so soldiers were harnessed to it and dragged it to a point within two hundred yards of the enemy's line.

When the proper moment arrived, he ordered the cannon to open and the cavalry likewise so that we surprised the enemy instead of them surprising us. I walked along the line where they had been formed and found it littered from end to end with small bits of paper. It looked as if every man in their column must have employed the leisure afforded by that stop to tear up all the private letters found upon his person. It was clear that their alarm had become serious and would help us much if we could keep it up.

Part Two, Conclusion, of
A Year with Forrest

Address by Rev. W. H. Whitsitt, D.D., before R. E. Lee Camp, Confederate Veterans, of Richmond, Va., in Confederate Veteran magazine, Vol. XXV, No. 8, August, 1917.

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[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : This article, Part Two of Rev. Whitsitt's "A Year with Forrest," is one of the most exciting and inspiring I have ever read. It shows clearly what a genius Forrest was. Forrest's men were motivated by the fearlessness of their leader and became fearless themselves.

For example, Forrest, with only 475 Confederates, chased a Yankee unit made up of over 1,500 well armed men, across Tennessee and forced (tricked might be a better word) them to surrender as detailed in this article.

Forrest was relentless, on top of his enemy the whole way, anticipating their moves, designing traps, waging a psychological war to keep them scared and running.

Southerners needed brilliant leaders because they faced such overwhelming odds. They were outnumbered four to one and outgunned a hundred to one. The Yankee army was always well fed, well clothed and armed with advanced weaponry.

Southerners were usually hungry, ragged and always had inferior weapons.

The North had a huge pipeline to the wretched refuse of the world which is why 25% of the Union army was not born in America. Tens of thousands of foreigners poured continually into the North with only the shirts on their backs to find the Union Army recruiter waiting on the docks with fat enlistment bonuses.

The South had to build their country from scratch but the North started with a powerful army, navy, merchant marine, a functioning government, a stable financial system and most of the nation's manufacturing. Their horses to carry their cannons and cavalry were always well fed, healthy and replaced immediately when they were killed.

There were 19 marine engine factories in the North. Zero, in the South.

Gen. Grant did not mind losing men. He could easily replace them. Southerners could not.

Yet Southerners killed in battle roughly the same number of Yankees as they killed of us, and Southern ingenuity and valor such as displayed by Nathan Bedford Forrest, Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and so many others, are second to none among all nations and all time.

Lincoln knew if he allowed such people as native Southerners with their talent and spirit to form their own country on his Southern border with 100% control of King Cotton, they would soon eclipse the Yankee empire as the greatest, most powerful nation in history.

That's why Lincoln started his war as fast as he could. He had to keep other nations from supporting the South like the French had done for the Colonists in the Revolution.

Lincoln had to cut off the South from the rest of the world quickly so he sent his invasion fleets with hundreds of troops and armaments to Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens to get the war started, then he announced his naval blockade before the smoke had cleared from the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

Despite the outcome, the intelligence, resourcefulness and valor of Southerners is there for all to read and understand. Their true federal republic based on powerful sovereign states is exactly what the Founding Fathers wanted for America.

Can you imagine Forrest, Lee or Jackson giving billions of dollars of sophisticated weaponry, Blackhawks, night-vision goggles, etc. to murderers like the Taliban?

The Taliban are Biden and Blinken's new buddies while Biden and Blinken work against former American military personnel and others who are struggling to get our citizens and friends out of Afghanistan.

We are being led by traitors and the most incompetent fools in American history.

"President" Joe Biden has disgraced and dishonored our country and our military in the eyes of the world so that even European parliaments have passed resolutions in disgust.

Biden has armed Taliban terrorists with our own weapons and the Taliban is now bringing in Al-Quida, ISIS and all the others.

Just like Obama gave ISIS their caliphate, which was destroyed in a few months by President Trump, Biden has gone further, and Americans will die. Because of Biden and Blinken, we no longer own the night.

What is it with Democrats and their love of terrorists and people who hate America?

It is as if the Democrat Party hates white Americans so bad they would arm terrorists because they are non-whites, rather than protect majority-white America.

Why couldn't Biden have sent drones to destroy the night-vision goggles and Blackhawks?

I'll tell you why.

Because Biden, Blinken and company are such idiots they removed the military first and put us at the mercy of the Taliban.

They then were afraid if they destroyed those weapons with drones, there would be a bloodbath even worse than currently taking place, and the photo-ops would be bad for Democrats.

So, they gave billions of dollars of highly sophisticated weaponry to our worst enemies knowing our media, which are the most corrupt propagandists in the history of the printed word, would cover for them.

What utter incompetence and treason.

This Federal Government that the "Federals" in the War Between the States forced on our nation is corrupt almost beyond repair, and the national Republican Party is feckless and cowardly. Without a strong leader like Trump, Republicans will never hold these traitors accountable.

Our founding documents are clear that the PEOPLE are the Sovereign in our country. Not Big Tech with its censorship, or the racist, Marxist Communist Democrat Party with its Critical Race Theory they are forcing on everybody.

Wake up America. We are still the greatest nation in history despite this internal onslaught by our America-hating enemies on the left.

It's time they experience that Righteous Might of the American people that FDR spoke about on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese and we entered World War II.

The things we face today are worse than that day of Infamy because there are traitors in our country at the highest levels, and they intend to make us a totalitarian tyranny with them in charge.

I can't imagine a more horrible fate for our children and grandchildren. All one has to do is go to any violent, drug infested Democrat big city to witness a crumbling civilization. People defecate in the street, laws decriminalize theft which makes thievery so rampant no business can survive. Bail laws put criminals back on the street before the ink is dry on their arrest warrants so they can prey again on innocent citizens.

The Southern border is wide open and every single month hundreds of thousands of unknown people, drug dealers, terrorists, thousands with third world diseases who are also COVID positive with new strains of the plague flow into our country but that doesn't matter because they are all future Democrat voters.

As others have observed, we are witnessing a Marxist Communist takeover of the United States of America in real time and it is being orchestrated by the Democrat Party. This is undoubtedly a foreign invasion enabled by Democrat traitors and there is nothing we can do about it at the moment.

The Democrat Party is at war with our country as we know it so they can enrich themselves and rule forever.

The American Sovereign, the People, better wake the hell up and fast because time is running out.]

Part Two, Conclusion, of
A Year with Forrest
by Rev. W. H. Whitsitt

ON THE 23d of April, 1863, we were ordered from Columbia to Courtland, Ala., and at Town Creek, not far away, we found our old adversary, Gen. G. M. Dodge, again with a large force of infantry and cavalry.

Their purpose was to afford a proper send-off to the expedition of Col. A. D. Streight, who had a commission to visit Bragg's rear and do all the damage he might find possible in Georgia and elsewhere.

General Dodge pressed us sorely all day of the 27th and also the 28th, but at midnight of the 28th a messenger appeared in our camp near Courtland to announce that a body of about twenty-five cavalry had passed through Mount Hope at dusk and had taken the road to Moulton.

It was then "Boots and saddles!" and at 1 a.m. of the 29th, the same hour at which Streight quitted Moulton, Forrest set out to pursue him.

The troops of Colonel Streight were brave and formidable. They were select and seasoned infantry from Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, who had been mounted on mules especially for this expedition. In action they always dismounted just as we did, and they were practiced and patient fighters.

During the forenoon of the 20th, we reached Moulton and followed the enemy to Day's Gap, a distance of seventeen miles, where we found him in camp a little after midnight. It was suspected that with all his excellencies as a commander Colonel Streight was too slow of motion for the business he had in hand.

He had been three and a half days on the march when we struck him and had traversed a distance of only sixty-five miles. What was the use of mounting his command if they were to be marched at the rate of infantry? If he had moved forty miles a day during these three days and kept up that pace, he could have reached Rome and Atlanta in spite of the world, the flesh, and the devil. He must have considered that he was on a May-day frolic; he seemed to be trying to coddle the negroes. After we had come up with him he moved at the rate of fifty miles a day and threw in some fighting besides.

At nine o'clock on the mornig of the 30th of April, Forrest prepared to engage Streight in this camp upon Sand Mountain. Our regiment, which for this expedition was commanded by Captain McLemore, was sent with Biffle's 9th Tennessee to climb the mountain by another gap and gain the enemy's rear. Forrest hoped to hold him with a portion of Roddy's Brigade until we might catch him in that trap. But the engagement at Day's Gap was too brief for our purpose. Streight evidently apprehended the nature of our game and slipped out of the trap.

When Forrest found us in the road on Sand Mountain, he sent General Roddy and his brigade back to the Tennessee River to observe the movements of General Dodge, and, with the two Tennessee regiments mentioned and his escort and a section of Ferrell's Battery, he closely followed the enemy, although our number was less than half of theirs.

They had whipped Roddy in the initial encounter on the morning of the 29th and captured two of the guns of Morton who commanded after the death of Freeman. But we forced Colonel Streight to deliver battle again about sunset and when it was concluded the two pieces were left spiked on the field.

This was the first night battle I had witnessed. The pine trees were very tall, the darkness of their shade was intense, the mountain where the enemy was posted was steep, and as we charged again and again under Forrest's own lead it was a grand spectacle.

It seemed that the fires which blazed from their muskets were almost long enough to reach our faces. There was one advantage in being below them: they often fired above our heads in the darkness.

This battle closed about 9 p.m., and shortly afterwards the moon rose in great splendor. It seemed to have been sent for our special behoof.

I have said there is no reason to suppose that the old man had read Caesar's commentaries either in English or in Latin, but he followed the tactics of Caesar as if by instinct. His military lore in this emergency was expressed in the following command: "Shoot at everything blue and keep up the scare."

To execute this order he compelled us to hang upon the very heels of the enemy all the way. There was constant peril of ambuscade, but we waited for the moon to rise before pressing close upon the enemy after nightfall. By daylight we generally kept in sight and were able to see them and almost always to open the fighting when they attempted to surprise us.

About eleven o'clock they laid the first ambuscade, but Forrest contrived to discover it in advance and, instead of walking into it, caused us to dismount and get into line and crawl up close to the enemy's position.

It would have made too much noise to have brought up a piece of artillery by horse power so soldiers were harnessed to it and dragged it to a point within two hundred yards of the enemy's line.

When the proper moment arrived, he ordered the cannon to open and the cavalry likewise so that we surprised the enemy instead of them surprising us. I walked along the line where they had been formed and found it littered from end to end with small bits of paper. It looked as if every man in their column must have employed the leisure afforded by that stop to tear up all the private letters found upon his person. It was clear that their alarm had become serious and would help us much if we could keep it up.

At two o'clock the next morning, when most of our command had fallen asleep on horseback, we were ambuscaded at the ford of a difficult mountain stream and caused some losses, especially among the animals. We in our turn were thrown into a degree of confusion here, but they were too much frightened to press their advantage.

Indeed, most of those who fired upon us were drawn up on the other side of the stream. A small detachment lay in the undergrowth at the foot of a steep causeway upon which we were marching down to the river, but they ran away as soon as they had discharged their pieces. Wyeth declares that this ambuscade at two o'clock on the morning of May 1 was "practically a repetition" of the one attempted at eleven o'clock. It was a more serious affair; and after crossing the river, a branch of the Black Warrior, the General permitted us to get down and sleep from 3 to 5 a.m.

Colonel Streight seemed to have no proper ideas of what a cavalry soldier can endure. Possibly his men, having been only recently promoted to saddle, were galled and wearied by the novelty of the exercise. He was taking his ease as if no enemy were near when we found him at Blountsville next morning, May 2.

We immediately put his column in motion and kept it on the run to the Black Warrior, where he was compelled to fight us to obtain a crossing.

Here we were allowed a rest from 6 p.m. until the moon arose about eleven while two companies of Biffle's 9th Tennessee were detailed to hang upon the enemy's rear throughout the night.

We were summoned at the appointed moment and moved forward to find Colonel Streight next morning at Wilber's Creek, where Biffle's detail was relieved and Forrest again took the chase in hand.

About 11 a.m. of May 3 we came in sight of Black Creek Bridge and perceived that it was on fire, which indicated that the enemy were all on the other side.

They marched away after a brief season, assured of a respite of half a day before we should be able to cross the creek and catch up with them again; but Miss Emma Sanson piloted the General to a ford, and we were soon across the deep and swollen stream.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when we struck Colonel Streight in Gadsden, four miles away on the banks of the Coosa River. Why should he be sauntering at Gadsden during those precious hours?

It seemed as if he had made up his mind to fail. He ought not to have failed. He recruited his horses almost every mile. It was a common thing to find standing in the highways the wagons and carriages of citizens from which he had removed the horses, leaving his exhausted mules in the place of them. Our horses were falling out constantly and we had no means whatever of renewing the supply.

At Gadsden, Forrest took a picked company of about two hundred of his best mounted troopers and followed the retreating enemy, fighting him every step of the way to Turkey Town, where, after nightfall, Streight planned an ambuscade; but, as usual, Forrest saw his game and got the best of it.

In the encounter that was occasioned by the Confederate flank movement the Federal Colonel Hathaway, with many others, was killed, and immediately all the hopes of Streight seemed to be crushed.

When we caught up with Forrest about nine o'clock, I learned that Hartwell Hunt, one of my dearest friends, had been killed in the skirmish, and the rest of the night was filled with grief.

During the half hour he remained in Gadsden, Forrest had procured a courier to go on horseback by a route on the opposite side of the Coosa River and advise the city of Rome of its peril. Col. John H. Wisdom was the man who rendered that service, but he was not a member of our command.

At Turkey Town Streight also dispatched a force of two hundred picked men to go forward and capture the city, which was about sixty miles distant; but Colonel Wisdom outrode them and saved the day.

The bottom was carefully removed from the bridge that led across the river, the State militia was under arms, and Rome was rescued from peril. When Streight's advance guard arrived, they were beaten off with small exertion and the doom of his expedition was sealed.

We rested at Turkey Town until the moon had risen, receiving strict orders to be mounted and on the road at midnight.

There was a disturbance when the General rode up and found us in line at the edge of the road; but our colonel settled it by claiming a difference of two minutes in watches, during which time we wheeled into column on the road and resumed the march.

Pursuing the enemy with renewed vigor, we found that he had burned the bridge by which he had only recently crossed Chattanooga River. Though the stream was swollen, we were ordered to plunge in, and we got across by swimming a few yards in the middle of it.

There was a deal of trouble about the cannon, but they were finally pulled across, while the ammunition was transferred by means of canoes that the citizens provided.

Before ten o'clock in the morning we bore down upon the enemy's camp, and, finding him unprepared for battle, General Forrest sent Captain Pointer with a flag of truce to demand his surrender. Colonel Streight replied that he would be glad to meet General Forrest and discuss the question  with him.

When the message was delivered, Forrest remarked: "If he ever talks to me, then I've got him." The old man had large experience and skill in such emergencies, and before noon the surrender had been accomplished.

The place was crowded with undergrowth and Streight proposed to march down the road until they should find an open field suitable for the business of laying down his arms.

Forrest gave assent, and in a few minutes we were in the road, which shortly became a lane with immense fields of growing cotton on each side. That was the longest lane I ever traveled. It may have been a mile, but it seemed ten miles in length.

Streight had about fourteen hundred and fifty men, and we had about four hundred and seventy-five in line. We were drawn up on both sides of them, and every man of them carried a loaded rifle and some likewise loaded pistols. If they had concluded to renew the struggle, it is difficult to understand how any of us could have escaped alive.

Forrest galloped up and down the column and busily gave orders to the courier to ride to the road and order imaginary regiments and imaginary batteries to stop and feed their animals and men.

But the regiments of Starnes and Biffle and Ferrell's Battery, which had been depleted to skeleton proportions, were the only available troops within a hundred miles.

Finally the lane came to an end and there was a field of broom sedge on the right-hand side. Colonel Streight led the way and his troops were shortly formed in line. Then at the word of command they dismounted, stacked arms, remounted, and rode away.

There was an inexpressible sense of relief when they had parted company with their arms and ammunition; but we did not venture to suggest the fewness of our numbers until we had delivered them safely to the keeping of the guards whom the government had dispatched to Rome to receive them.

Our victory was embittered by a message that Stonewall Jackson had been wounded in a battle in Virginia, which was announced shortly after we reached Rome. I can never forget the sorrow and foreboding it produced.

On the way back to Columbia, Tenn., a messenger arrived bringing tiding of the death of Gen. Earl Van Dorn, and Forrest was ordered shortly afterwards to take his place in command of the cavalry on the left wing of Bragg's army.

The retreat of Bragg from Shelbyville began late in June, 1863, and the duty of covering his rear was assigned to Wheeler and Forrest.

At Tullahoma on the last day of the month, the advance of Rosecran's army began to press against our brigade now commanded by Col. J. W. Starnes of the 4th Tennessee Cavalry, and in the encounter, this great soldier was fatally wounded by a sharpshooter. His loss was deeply deplored, and his name is revered by all who appreciate courage and capacity.

The alleged inefficiency of the general in command had become more glaringly apparent during the retreat from Shelbyville and especially in the maneuvers that preceded the struggle at Chickamauga.

Forrest, who enjoyed opportunities to observe every failure at close range, was fully convinced that the situation could not be improved as long as Bragg should be retained.

The fighting at Chickamauga was more trying than the average. We always dismounted and acted as infantry, but here we were in the same line with our veteran Confederate infantry regiments.

We held a portion of the front line all the morning of the 19th of September and found the enemy duly stubborn. Wyeth affirms that it was 1:30 p.m. when Cheatham's Division relieved us and pressed on toward Chattanooga. I always supposed it was 4 p.m. when Cheatham appeared. At any rate, the day was very long indeed.

When Cheatham took our place and went in, I must concede that the music became more lively than any we had made. We immediately got on our horses to take position of his flank and keep it from being turned. There was a short pause as the column was going into line, and half a dozen of us, standing with our horses' heads together, were listening to the tremendous din, when a grapeshot that had passed almost a mile of undergrowth struck Coleman, of Company F, in the stomach. He fell from his horse and was dead in three minutes.

Severe as the battle of the 19th had been, that of the 20th was still more trying.

We were in line with the troops of Gen. John C. Breckinridge on the right wing, and I have a distinct recollection of the appearance of that officer as he rode along just behind our column shorty after daylight.

The action did not begin till 9:30 a.m., but we had been ready since 6:30. When it finally opened, we played the part of infantry again and kept up with the advance of Breckinridge, but that was not very great.

We were face to face with General Thomas, a foeman worthy of our steel, who contested every inch of the ground. My impression is that this was the loudest noise and the longest day of my life, and the night which followed it was also memorable for its discomforts.

On Monday morning, September 21, Forrest pursued the enemy almost into Chattanooga and found him apparently engaged in evacuating the town. If General Bragg had pressed forward before noon of that day, there might have been a great victory.

Forrest claimed that when he went in person to inform General Bragg of the importance of immediate action he caught him asleep and that after he got him awake Bragg objected that his army had no supplies.

When Forrest suggest that there were abundant supplies in Chattanooga, no reply was made, and he turned from the commanding general in unconcealed disgust.

The friction had become so decided that it was now impossible for the two officers to  cooperate harmoniously and on the 28th of September, Bragg issued an order for him to turn over his command to General Wheeler.

He obeyed without delay. There was no sign of discontent or mutiny.

No farewells were spoken to his companions in arms. He passed our camp at the head of his escort as if employed on customary occasions. We were not informed of the action that had been taken until he was on his way to West Tennessee to found his fortunes anew and rise to the dignity of lieutenant general of the Confederate States army.

So long as we followed Forrest we enjoyed the respect of the army.

If we passed a regiment of infantry, they would heap the customary contempt upon us; but when it was suggest that we belonged to Forrest's people, they changed tune, and they fraternized with us as real soldiers, worthy companions in arms. They inquired about our battles and our leader and wondered at his genius and success. We were heroes even to the infantry.

But when Wheeler took command of us, all of that was changed.

The infantry could not be appeased, and it was vain to reply. General Wheeler was a brave and honorable man, but nobody ever accused him of genius.

Forrest was an extraordinary genius. He developed a new use for cavalry; and that was his specific contribution to the art of war.

All the other maxims of the great masters came to him by nature. He was equally at home in infantry, cavalry, and artillery.

By the readiness of his initiative he kept the whole campaign before his eye and could strike a blow at a distance of a hundred miles before anybody dreamed it was conceivable.

He could discern the exigencies of the field of battle swiftly and surely. He had the sanest initiative I ever observed, not blind, not foolhardy; balance, when retreat was essential he could perform it with more dispatch and repose than anybody.

It was hard to find a soldier with  intellect so strong and fertile and safe, whose will was so healthy and prompt and resistless, whose organization was so much of the hair-trigger variety, whose military education and military maxims were so admirable.

If he could have commanded the Western Army after Shiloh--but I will not indulge vain regrets.

In a letter to the Cincinnati Inquirer George Alfred Townsend recites an interview he held with Lee at Appomattox C. H., in which he inquired: "General Lee, who is the greatest general now under your command?"

Lee replied with grave deliberation: "A man I never saw, sir. His name is Forrest."

I am no military critic, but my affection inclines me to say that the War between the States developed three incomparable geniuses for war, all on the Southern side--Lee, Jackson, and Forrest.

When I first met General Forrest, he was already a famous man. He was in command of troops raised in Middle Tennessee, some 1,800 men, almost all of them raw recruits.

Colonel Starnes's regiment, the 4th Tennessee Cavalry, had seen much service; four companies of Russell's 4th Alabama were also trained men.

The other were newly enlisted--Dibrell's 8th Tennessee, Biffle's 9th Tennessee, and Freeman's Battery. These made up the famous Forrest Brigade.

General Forrest was a man of remarkable appearance, over six feet tall, somewhat muscular in build, powerful and graceful, giving an impression of solidity and completeness; while neatly dressed and groomed, he apparently took no thought of dress or accouterments and was altogether devoid of personal vanity.

 

NOTE: This article is verbatim from the original by Rev. Whitsitt in Confederate Veteran except for occasionally breaking up a long paragraph to make online reading easier, and occasionally adding or taking away a punctuation mark. No words or sentences were changed in any way.

Our Confederate Ancestors: A Year with Forrest, by Rev. W. H. Whitsitt, Part One

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A Series on the Daring Exploits of Our Confederate Ancestors in the War Between the States.

There were two brigades of infantry close at hand, numbering in all about five thousand men, and the country swarmed with cavalry, but these did not count for much. The Northern generals still proceeded on the sleepy idea that it is the main function of cavalry to serve as eyes and ears for infantry. Forrest had gotten beyond that standpoint long before, and no cavalry trained upon the ancient maxims was able to stand against us.

Part One of
A Year with Forrest

Address by Rev. W. H. Whitsitt, D.D., before R. E. Lee Camp, Confederate Veterans, of Richmond, Va., in Confederate Veteran magazine, Vol. XXV, No. 8, August, 1917.

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[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Rev. Whitsitt's address recounts a year with Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest mostly in Tennessee and often around the area of SCV national headquarters at Elm Springs in Columbia, Tennessee where Gen. Forrest and his wife, Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest, will be laid to rest in a little over a week.

We are blessed to have one of the greatest cavalry soldiers of all time and his beloved wife back home with us, inspiring us now as he did his compatriots during the war. It is as if Forrest is once again commanding Confederates, charging into the enemy, winning battles, except it is our honor to do so today.

SCV members should pilgrimage every year to Elm Springs and other inspiring places and come away determined to spread the true history of the South far and wide, and obliterate our woke, ignorant enemies.

A good way to celebrate the return of Gen. Forrest and his wife to those who love them, is with the powerful words of another Tennessean, Edward Ward Carmack (1858-1908), in his "Pledge to the South." Carmack was a United States senator from Tennessee and before that a member of the House of Representatives. These words were spoken on the floor of the House:

The South is a land that has known sorrows; It is a land that has broken the ashen crust and moistened it with tears; A land scarred and riven by the plowshare of war and billowed with the graves of her dead; But a land of legend, a land of song, a land of hallowed and heroic memories. To that land every drop of my blood, every fibre of my being, every pulsation of my heart, is consecrated forever. I was born of her womb; I was nurtured at her breast; And when my last hour shall come, I pray God that I may be pillowed upon her bosom and rocked to sleep within her tender and encircling arms.

The Latin phrase, gaudium certaminis, is mentioned in this article and it means "the joy of battle" which describes That Devil Forrest and his Confederate compatriots to the letter.]

Part One of
A Year with Forrest
by Rev. W. H. Whitsitt

I JOINED THE ARMY at Winchester, Tenn., the latter part of April, 1862. Having taken my only sister to school at that place in the autumn of 1861, after the battle of Shiloh I decided to visit her; so about the middle of April I went to Murfreesboro, where the Federal lines were established.

I stopped with Prof. George W. Jarman, who the net morning took me to a lonely spot on the bank of Stone's River, where I took off my boots and small clothes and waded the stream. Replacing them on the farther shore, I waved mute thanks and farewells to my guide and friend and took my way on foot to Winchester, avoiding the turnpikes and traversing the entire distance of sixty miles by dirt roads.

I met at Winchester the cavalry battalion of Col. James W. Starnes, which had just come over from Chattanooga on a scouting expedition, and found a vacant saddle in Company F of this command.

Company F had been raised in the beginning by Starnes, who commanded it until he was promoted to the office of lieutenant colonel and put in charge of the battalion, when he was succeeded in office by Captain McLemore.

The men were recruited in the vicinity of Franklin, eighteen miles south of Nashville, where I was brought up, and I had been acquainted with a number of them in their homes. It was a choice body of troopers, most of them coming from families of wealth, position, and culture. It would have been difficult to have selected in either army a company possessing nobler blood and truer breeding than Company F.

Not long after my connection with it the period of one year for which the battalion originally enlisted ran out, and they enlisted again for three years, or during the war, and were then reorganized as a regiment, Starnes being chosen as full colonel. The following notice of Colonel Starnes is selected from many others found in the biography of General Forrest by Dr. Wyeth:

This man was James W. Starnes, who signally distinguished himself on that occasion and had won the lasting regard and friendship of Forrest, a friendship which endured until at Tullahoma in 1863 the leaden messenger of death brought to an untimely end a career full of the promise of great deeds in war. A new regiment was now organized, with Starnes as colonel, and took its place with Forrest as the 4th Tennessee Cavalry. It was destined to become famous and to sustain throughout the war the reputation it was soon to win west of the Tennessee, ending its career in a blaze of glory in a brilliant charge at Bentonville, N. C., in the last pitched battle of the Civil War.

This estimate of the importance and services of the regiment is not overdrawn. The 4th Tennessee Cavalry was the finest fighting machine I ever saw on horseback.

Our armament at the outset was something pitiful to behold. Nearly the entire command were provided with muzzle-loading, double-barreled shotguns. There were scarcely thirty long-range rifles in the regiment.

The shotguns were fowling pieces that had been contributed by gentlemen in the practice of hunting birds and other game. They were loaded with buckshot and at short range constituted a most effective weapon, but at the distance of two hundred yards they were worse than useless.

This weapon imposed a peculiar sort of tactics upon the Southern cavalry during the first year of the war. Fighting on foot, which subsequently became almost universal in the cavalry service, was rare at this time.

It was the custom during the first year to charge up to a point within twenty yards of the enemy's line and to deliver the two loads of buckshot. Then those who were fortunate enough to own pistols went to work with these, while the others would load their pieces for two rounds more.

But matters hardly ever got to that point. The enemy were generally thrown into disorder by the first two rounds of buckshot. It was a favorite expedient to march all night and at the earliest dawn of day to line up before a camp of infantry and deliver a couple of charges of buckshot into the tents before anybody could wake up. But if the camp was large, the men on the opposite side of it would grasp their long-range guns and drive off the cavalry without much trouble. Indeed, it was a part of the game to run away when the long-range guns were brought into full operation.

The month of June, 1862, was a gloomy period, but the operations of Jackson in the Valley of Virginia and of Lee and Jackson in the Seven Days' battles around Richmond gave sensible relief.

The whole State of Tennessee had previously been imperiled. It seemed difficult to prevent the capture of Chattanooga and even of Knoxville, but shortly afterwards the whole scene had changed. Kirby Smith was preparing to invade Kentucky, and the regiment of Colonel Starnes was moved up to the vicinity of Cumberland Gap, where they scouted the adjacent country in Tennessee and Virginia.

At the opportune moment, when roasting ears were in season, we entered Kentucky at Big Creek Gap and marched upon Richmond. Our regiment was placed in a brigade commanded by Colonel Scott, of Scott's Louisiana Cavalry, and took an active part in the battle of Richmond.

When the defeat of the enemy's infantry appeared to be certain, we were sent to take a position on the turnpike leading from Richmond to Lexington, along which we found the enemy retreating in much confusion.

They commonly surrendered without parley; but on passing through a dense cornfield just before we reached the main road we encountered a party who made resistance and shot through the neck my messmate and close friend, Private James Powell, killing him on the spot.

The weather was intensely warm; but we were not allowed to cease pursuit until we had taken Lexington, Frankfort, Shelbyville, and were in the neighborhood of Louisville.

The soldiers were hopeful and contented as long as they were kept engaged. But after the earliest spurt of energy General Smith seemed to require a season of rest. We did not understand all the details, but we felt that there was need of more activity. Finally it was announced that General Buell had entered Louisville without a pitched battle with Bragg.

It was a special mercy for us that General Buell was not more vigorous and successful in the military art. If he had been a genuine soldier, we might have had some trouble getting out of Kentucky; but after delivering battle at Perryville we got off very light and made good our escape to Tennessee.

Our brigade did not arrive in time to share in the conflict at Perryville; but we covered the retreat for a day or two, and then our regiment was ordered to report to General Forrest at Murfreesboro, the bulk of the army having traveled by way of Cumberland Gap to Knoxville, thence by rail to Chattanooga and Murfreesboro.

When we found General Forrest, he had a handful of raw troops with which he was trying to take Nashville, then held by a garrison of ten thousand infantry commanded by General Negley.

I first saw him about the 1st of November, 1862, when I was ordered to report at headquarters for service as a guide, and I rode with him all day and between the Nolensville and Granny White Pikes. It was my first experience of the grave responsibility of acting as guide for a considerable body of troops.

General Negley was short of provisions and on that day had led a large force out the Franklin Pine as far as Brentwood to replenish his depleted stores.

On this day I got my first conceptions of the gaudium certaminis. It was in Forrest a genuine and extraordinary passion. The whole tone and frame of the man were transformed; his appearance and even his voice were changed. It was a singular exaltation, which, however, appeared to leave him in absolute control of his faculties. He was never more sane nor more cool nor more terrible than in the moment of doubtful issue.

We camped that night at Nolensville, twelve miles away, and were in the saddle almost daily for a week entertaining the garrison at Nashville and trying to worry them into submission before relief might appear.

We had lost our shotguns in Kentucky and were now armed with Enfield rifles, and henceforth fought chiefly as infantry.

Forrest always like to charge on horseback, but he had an unerring judgment in selecting the psychological moment for such an entertainment. He always sent one of his trustiest officers to assail the enemy in the rear, and at the earliest signs of disorder in their ranks he was glad to ride amongst them.

He had likely never studied any maxims of war, but he seemed as if by instinct to understand the value of sending a force to the rear and adopted that method even in this initial fight at Sacramento, Ky.

In the fight at Murfreesboro, in July, 1862, he had also adopted the policy of beating the enemy in detail. He was swift in movement, fierce in assault, and persistent in pursuit. He had not obtained these secrets from Caesar's commentaries; they must have come to him by instinct. He was a born soldier, not made.

If by any possibility he could have succeeded Albert Sidney Johnson at Shiloh, the war in the West might have run a different course. But the government at Richmond never took him seriously until it was too late, and one of the greatest natural masters of the military art was buffeted by outrageous fortune almost to the wrecking of his career and to the entire destruction of his country's hopes.

He was no bully nor barbarian, but a gentleman of such admirable presence that he would be observed among a thousand.

But when the passion of battle was upon him, he was the most inspiring figure in the army.

In religion he was deeply devoted to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and a regular attendant, but I am not sure that he was a communicant. His veneration of his mother's religion and his wife's religion was beautiful to witness, and the Rev. Herschel S. Porter, pastor of the Cumberland Church in Memphis, was his standard of excellent in pulpit performance.

In the opening skirmish at Nashville I found Capt. Samuel L. Freeman, who had been one of my teachers at Mill Creek Academy, on my mother's farm, and later at Mount Juliet Academy, near Lebanon. Just prior to the war he had entered upon the practice of the law in Nashville.

In the autumn of 1861 Freeman raised a company of artillery and on departing for the camps intrusted to me his law library, with the request that I should keep it safe till he returned to claim it.

About noon the General rode up to Freeman's Battery, which at the moment was engaged in a lively duel with Negley's Artillery, and there I greeted my beloved master, six feet in height, a type of friendly dignity, shy, womanly modesty, reposeful courage--every inch a soldier.

In due time we were recalled from Nashville to Murfreesboro, whence we were ordered to Columbia, in Maury County, where Gen. Earl Van Dorn was placed in command of us.

Toward the middle of December we set out for the Tennessee River, and crossing it at Clifton, we commenced operation in West Tennessee with the purpose of crippling Grant, who was then pressing against Vicksburg, and also to prevent him from sending help to Rosecrans to Stone's River.

We had less than two thousand troopers and Captain Freeman's battery of artillery. I was never sensible of the perils of that expedition until I read an account of it in Dr. Wyeth's history of Forrest.

We crossed about the 16th of December, and immediately all the great resources of the enemy were brought to bear to capture us.

The first town we struck was Lexington, where we captured Colonel Ingersoll, of Illinois; but he had not then become famous, and we made nothing of him.

We made a feint against Jackson and after driving the enemy within his intrenchments worked upon the railroads and burned many bridges to the north--south of the town.

We captured Humboldt, Trenton, Union City, and other places of smaller note.

But the problem of recrossing the Tennessee River was ever before us. It was patrolled by gunboats, but Forrest had sunk his two small ferryboats in a secluded spot where no gunboat could find them and had left a guard to watch them.

On the 27th of December we became aware that forces were converging from every direction to assault us.

There were two brigades of infantry close at hand, numbering in all about five thousand men, and the country swarmed with cavalry, but these did not count for much. The Northern generals still proceeded on the sleepy idea that it is the main function of cavalry to serve as eyes and ears for infantry. Forrest had gotten beyond that standpoint long before, and no cavalry trained upon the ancient maxims was able to stand against us.

Instead of moving immediately back to Clifton, raising the sunken ferryboats, and recrossing the Tennessee, Forrest, holding apposition between these two infantry brigades, concluded to attack and capture one of them before the other could come up in his rear, and take them home with him as prisoners of war.

It was a daring conception, but he considered that he was equal to it, notwithstanding the fact that Gen. G. M. Dodge, with  two other full brigades of infantry and some cavalry, was taking position between him and Clifton.

We attacked Dunam's Brigade at Parker's Crossroads by sunrise of December 31, 1862, hoping to beat and crush it before any of Fuller's Brigade might arrive on the ground.

We had done the work for Dunham by twelve o'clock, but Fuller just then closed in on our rear. In thirty minutes the surrender would have been completed, but in that nick of time Fuller charged us and compelled us to retreat without the prisoners who were rightfully our own.

By daylight next morning our advance had reached the river.

The two ferryboats were raised from the bottom and brought over to the west side, and the work of recrossing was begun. It was completed without incident the following morning, and we made our most respectful salutations when the enemy arrived an hour later and began to shell the woods on our side. What Jackson accomplished in the Valley of Virginia was hardly more masterful than the skill of Forrest in extricating his small force from this most perilous situation.

Early in February, 1863, General Wheeler, who was in command of the entire cavalry services of Bragg's army, led a force to attack Fort Donelson and was defeated. The weather was intensely cold, and the enemy was admirably intrenched.

Forrest formally protested, but the attack was made in spite of him.

There was a bloody slaughter, in which our regiment suffered greatly, and Forrest notified Wheeler that he would be in his coffin before he should ever fight again under his command.

Forrest understood better than Wheeler when to risk a desperate encounter.

On March 5, 1863, we fought the battle of Thompson's Station under the command of Gen. Earl van Dorn and captured the entire force of the enemy's infantry, a fine brigade under Colonel Cogurn, of Indiana; but Van Dorn permitted two regiments of cavalry and a battery of artillery to escape.

Forrest got in the rear and rendered the escape of the infantry impossible. It was here that we captured Maj. W. R. Shafter; but as he had not yet been to Cuba, we heard little of him.

In one of the engagement of this day Capt. J. R. Dysart, of Company D, who was standing in a position just above me on the uneven ground, was shot through the head and fell over upon me with a severe crash. I thought for an instant that I myself had been killed.

On the 24th of March, 1863, we left Spring Hill, midway between Franklin and Columbia, and daylight next morning found us at Brentwood, midway between Franklin and Nashville, where we captured and brought away about eight hundred prisoners.

This was a perilous expedition as Nashville, the base of supplies of the Federal army, and Franklin also were held by a large force.

On our retreat we had gotten across the last pike by which we could be attacked from Nashville and, considering ourselves at last somewhat secure, had halted for dinner. While we were thus engaged Gen. Green Clay Smith, who had been sent down from Franklin to pursue us, rushed upon our rear guard and occasioned some confusion.

Forrest soon got a regiment in line, and just then Starnes, who was returning from a scouting expedition down the Hillsboro Pike toward Nashville, fell upon the flank of the enemy.

Observing the confusion occasioned by that incident, Forrest instantly led a charge against the enemy and easily shook them off.

It was the common verdict  that General Smith displayed little stomach for fight. If Forrest had been in his position, he would have fought the Confederates every foot of the journey to Harpeth River. That stream was in league against us, being swollen by the freshets of springtime; and if Smith had shown any vigor, he would have given us much annoyance.

On the 10th of April, under Van Dorn's command, a reconnoissance was made in force from Spring Hill against Franklin, with the hope of relieving the pressure upon Bragg at Tullahoma.

By an unaccountable oversight the enemy's cavalry were permitted to assail our column on the right flank as we were marching down the turnpike toward Franklin. It was the brigade of General Stanley, which was striving to get in our rear.

The first we saw of them the 4th United States Regulars were charging down the hill along the base of which we were marching. They struck Freeman's Battery, and before a single piece could be brought into action it had been captured. Many of the men escaped, but Captain Freeman was taken.

We quickly rallied and recovered the guns and prisoners, but in the melee Captain Freeman was killed. The piece with which he had been slain was held so close to his face that the skin about the eyes was deeply burned with powder.

Some of his fellow prisoners reported that he had offered no resistance; but our pursuit was so rapid that he could not keep up with his captors, and rather than give him up they concluded to take his life.

He was the idol of the brigade, and it was hard to forgive the gentlemen of the 4th Regulars. Possibly the deed was done by no rightful authority; it may have been the conceit of some irresponsible private soldier.

The next day was Sunday, and I officiated at Freeman's funeral.

General Forrest stood at the side of the grave, his tall form bent and swayed by his grief. It was a sight to remember always, the sternest soldier of the army bathed in womanly tears and trembling like an aspen with his pain. The whole army sympathized in the mighty sorrow. . . .

 

To be continued next week, September 16, 2021.

Facing Racial Realities, Measuring an American Dilemma – Guest Post By Leonard M. “Mike” Scruggs

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“Murder rates in these cities showed blacks were at least 18 times more likely to be arrested for murder than whites, and Latinos were about 5 times more likely to be arrested for murder than whites.

Contrary to the supposition of many, violent crime offenders are more likely to be arrested if they are white, for example, 22 percent more likely for robbery and 13 percent more likely for aggravated assault.

There is in reality a bias against whites, probably because greater legal and public relations precautions are called for in dealing with minority offenders. . . . "

Facing Racial Realities
Measuring an American Dilemma

Guest post by
Leonard M. "Mike" Scruggs


[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Mike Scruggs has given us a good analysis of the latest book from Charles Alan Murray, a brilliant American political scientist who follows facts, science and numbers the way most Americans did before the age of wokeness.

That he is hated by virtue signaling liberals tells you all you need to know. Murray scares the hell out of them because he proves with conclusive facts what everybody knows but many are afraid to say.

Here is the short Introduction to Murray's book, Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America, by the author. It is quickly obvious that Murray is a very thoughtful man asking the right questions and determined to find the right answers for the good of our country.

I DECIDED TO WRITE this book in the summer of 2020 because of my dismay at the disconnect between the rhetoric about "systemic racism" and the facts. The uncritical acceptance of that narrative by the nation's elite news media amounted to an unwillingness to face reality.

By facts, I mean what Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan meant: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not to his own facts." By reality, I mean what the science fiction novelist Philip Dick meant: "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away."

I do not dispute evidence of the racism that persists in American life. Rather, I reject the portrayal of American society and institutions as systemically racist and saturated in White privilege. What follows is a data-driven discussion of realities that make America a more complicated and much less racist nation than its radical critics describe.

Of the many facts about race that are ignored, two above all, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, must be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about why American society is the way it is and what can be done through public policy to improve it.

The first is that American Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians, as groups, have different means and distributions of cognitive ability. The second is that American Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians, as groups, have different rates of violent crime. Allegations of systemic racism in policing, education, and the workplace cannot be assessed without dealing with the reality of group differences.

There is a reason that reality is ignored. The two facts make people excruciatingly uncomfortable. To raise them is to be considered a racist and hateful person. What's more, these facts have been distorted and exploited for malign purposes by racist and hateful people.

What then is the point of writing about them? Aren't some realities better ignored? The answer goes to a much deeper problem than false accusations of systemic racism. We are engaged in a struggle for America's soul. Facing reality is essential if that struggle is to be won.

Following Mike's bio and article are links to The Times Examiner website, Mike's outstanding columns, and to his books.]

Mike Scruggs is the author of two books - The Un-Civil War, Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War, Truths the Media Never Told You - and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East.

The abridged version of The Un-Civil War sold over 40,000 copies and won the prestigious D. T. Smithwick Award by the North Carolina Society of Historians, for excellence.

Mike holds a BS degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Stanford University. A former USAF intelligence officer and Air Commando, he is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War and holds the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal. He is a retired First Vice President for a major national financial services firm and former Chairman of the Board of a classical Christian school.

Facing Racial Realities

By Mike Scruggs

(First published in The Times Examiner, 12 July 2021)

Measuring an American Dilemma

Charles Murray’s just published book, Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America, comes just as Neo-Marxist Critical Race Theory (CRT) doctrines have become major social justice engineering ideology and policy for the Biden Administration and Democrat Party leadership.

Facing Racial Reality 396 Pixels 56K

Murray is one of the most renowned and courageous political scientists in the U.S. and the world. He has a BA degree from Harvard and MS and PhD degrees from MIT. He is also the author of Losing Ground (1984), The Bell Curve (1994), Coming Apart (2012), and Human Diversity (2020).

Charles Murray speaking at the 2013 FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Charles Murray speaking at the 2013 FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Nevada.

CRT is not a cure for racism, it is racism of the most vicious, hateful, and unforgiving kind. It is flagrantly anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-capitalist, anti-history, and knows no truth or moral standard but power.

CRT is an immediate threat to our military effectiveness and the integrity of our educational institutions. It is a protection racket that is corrupting American corporations and university administrations, and a divisive threat to public order and safety.

Murray points out, however, that CRT follows over 60 years of misguided affirmative action policies that have been weakening American commitment to what he calls the “American Creed.”

Samuel Huntington described this American Creed as “embracing the political principles of liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, human rights, the rule of law, and private property.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….”

Jefferson meant by “equality” that all men were of equal human dignity in the eyes of God and thus must be treated with equal human dignity and consideration under the laws of men. This was understood by his peers. He did not mean that all men were equal in every personal characteristic or entitled to equal outcomes in life.

Murray further points out that an essential understanding of the American Creed is that people should be judged according to their character, merit, and work as individuals rather than circumstances of birth or status.

The most dramatic words of Martin Luther King’s momentous August 1963 speech to 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington were that his children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He was pleading for a more complete fulfillment of the American Creed.

But it only took a few years for the transformation of well-intentioned affirmative action policies into a political bargain that made race and gender more important than character and merit.

Under the cloak of civil rights and virtue-signaling political rhetoric, American civil rights and opportunity were slowly being molded into a race and gender conscious system of government pressured preference. Moreover, those who dared protest were shouted down by lockstep government, academia, and the media.

Murray summarizes the transition from affirmative action to blatant racial, ethnic, and gender preferences in three paragraphs:

The phrase ‘affirmative action’ originally referred to initiatives by colleges and corporations to seek out qualified Blacks who were being overlooked for educational and job opportunities.  It was a needed policy in the mid-1960s and legally innocuous. But it soon morphed into aggressive affirmative action, meaning government-sponsored affirmative preferential treatment in determining who gets the education and the jobs.

Working-class and middle-class Whites who now see themselves as second-class citizens in the eyes of the government are not making it up…They are now told by government officials, college administrators, and corporate human resources managers—to get in line behind minority applicants for admission to elite colleges and for employment and promotion in attractive white-collar jobs. Well-to-do Whites can find ways to circumvent this problem, but working-class and middle-class Whites cannot…It has long been my view…that aggressive affirmative action is a poison leaking into the American experiment. We are now dealing with nearly sixty years of accumulated toxin. It is not the only cause of the present crisis, but it is a central one.

I think it is fair to conclude that the American job market is indeed racially biased. A detached observer might even call it systemic racism. The American job market systematically discriminates in favor of racial minorities other than Asians.

The main purpose of Murray’s book, however, is to inform the public and policy makers on two important truths that cannot be ignored for a rational and just society.

First, although the overlap of cognitive abilities (intelligence) among self-identified racial or ethnic groups is tremendous, many decades of careful scientific research give overwhelming evidence that there are persistently significant differences in the averages and distributions for cognitive abilities in these groups.

Government, academic, economic, military, and other policies that do not consider this give unwise and unjust advantages to the lower testing groups and unjustly disadvantage higher testing groups. A society that rewards racial and gender preferences hurts itself and will probably decline.  The American Creed emphasizing individual character and merit benefits the nation and most individuals.

Most Americans would like to believe that all races and ethnic groups have the same average and distribution of cognitive abilities, and this wishful thinking is almost an ideology, but it is not based on decades of data and analytical, fact-driven science.

A large component of these differences is thought to be genetic, but some are rather obviously due to selective migration. There are other important factors that are not fully understood.  It is possible that these things will gradually change for reasons we do not now comprehend, but we cannot base near term decisions on uncertainties many decades away.

Cognitive tests are valuable because they are predictive. If they are not predictive, they fail the bias or practicality tests.

Cognitive ability tests are not only predictive of academic achievement, they are positively predictive for every job but especially analytically demanding jobs. They are also modestly predictive of income levels.

Perseverance, hard study, and hard work can overcome a lot of cognitive ability points but cannot move someone from average to a competent test pilot, doctor, chemical engineer, or accountant.

Murray gives the average scores and percentiles for Americans of Asian, European, Latin American, and African origin on page 38 of his 151-page book. I would prefer not to risk over-sensationalizing such numbers, but only to say that, for example, if we analyzed the most recent medical school graduates in the United States, we might find Asians the most over-represented, whites over-represented, Latinos a bit under-represented, and blacks under-represented but still common.

This would not be the result of discrimination but of differences in the upper ranges of cognitive abilities.

Non-Hispanic whites and Asians make up 66 percent of the U.S. population, but we could expect them to be 85 percent of those with cognitive abilities competitive for medical school.

Most people insist on knowledgeable doctors with good judgment. If we do not include cognitive ability as a variable in evaluating human resources, we are headed for academic, economic, military, and health services ruin.

Again, differences in average cognitive ability can change for various reasons over time, but usually a fairly long period of time. The gap between white and black test scores shrank by one-third from 1972 to 1987 but then leveled off. What was happening from 1972 to 1987 that stopped?

Two parent families apparently make a big difference in educational achievement.

Latino scores are getting better because recent immigrants include many with higher skill levels.

Asians continue to improve because Asian migration is highly selective for high technology jobs.

The simple solution is operating according to the American Creed of judging individual character and merit and tossing quota pressures in the trash can of failed and dangerous ideas.

The Second reality that we must face is that there are significant racial and ethnic differences in the incidence of violent crimes. Most people of all races are generally law-abiding, but the differences are important for evaluating public law enforcement policy.

Murray studied the violent crime arrest rates for thirteen cities. The ratio of black to white arrests averaged 9.6 to one. The worst cities were Washington at 19.9 to one and Chicago at 14.5 to one. The ratio of Latino arrests to white averaged 2.7 to one. Many Hispanic crime rates, however, are quite low.

Murder rates in these cities showed blacks were at least 18 times more likely to be arrested for murder than whites, and Latinos were about 5 times more likely to be arrested for murder than whites.

Contrary to the supposition of many, violent crime offenders are more likely to be arrested if they are white, for example, 22 percent more likely for robbery and 13 percent more likely for aggravated assault.

There is in reality a bias against whites, probably because greater legal and public relations precautions are called for in dealing with minority offenders.

According to the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, black violence against whites is 5.7 times more common than white violence against blacks. A police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black assailant than an unarmed black man is to be killed by a police officer.

There are many other considerations and many nuances that deserve more mention on these subjects, but they cannot be adequately covered in a single short article.

Our task now is to reject false narratives and virtue-signaling and seek truth measured by reality.

We must, of course, reject CRT, which insists on equal outcomes that lead only to folly, misery, and tyranny.

Wisdom can only be found in truth. In that spirit, we must embrace the principles of freedom that preserve the dignity and rights of individuals and the common good.

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Link to The Times Examiner website: www.timesexaminer.com

Link to Mike Scruggs's columns at The Times Examiner: https://www.timesexaminer.com/mike-scruggs

Link to Mike's book website:

https://www.universalmediainc.org/books/. His books are also available on Amazon and other places.

H.R. 4994 Will Defile and Dishonor Sacred Battlefields

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H.R. 4994 Will Defile and Dishonor Sacred Battlefields
Called the "No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act," It Removes Monuments to Southern War Dead in All National Parks and on All Federal Public Land
This Is Nothing But the Shameful Use of Hatred for Political Gain
It's Based on the Sponsor's Extreme Ignorance of History
But Despite How Vile This Legislation Is, Cowardly Stupid Republicans Have Destroyed More Southern Memorials than Antifa, BLM and the SPLC Combined, Times 100
by Gene Kizer, Jr.

U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York's 13th District, who brags everywhere online that he is the first formerly illegal immigrant elected to the United Stated Congress,1 has once again introduced an unconscionable and unhistorical piece of trash into the United States House of Representatives as H.R. 4994.2

This is an immoral piece of legislation that desecrates sacred battlefields on which hundreds of thousands of Americans died in a war that killed 750,000 and maimed over a million.

Most likely, Espaillat has given no thought to the long-term hatred and division this kind of legislation promotes. He is feeding the Democrat Party hate monster.

Or maybe he has thought long and hard about it, and this is exactly what he wants. He has introduced this legislation before.

George Orwell warned in 1984 about erasing history so that a society is unmoored, untethered, removed from its foundation and thus easy to control the way Big Brother controlled Oceania. Knowledge of the past, like the roots of a tree, give a society its strength and confidence. That's why destroying history is a prime Marxist Communist tactic.

Of course, human nature never changes and Orwell and the people alive in the 1930s and '40s lived through this exact same thing. That's why Orwell wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the PRESENT controls the past." (emphasis added).

For Espaillat and his party, it is about putting forth a fraudulent historical dialog in the present so they can interpret the past in ways that benefit them politically (like the constant emphasis on slavery, which is part of our history but does not define our country in any way), thus they control the future with the past.

That's why "President" Biden and so many other Democrats support the 1619 Project though its primary thesis -- that the American Revolution was fought because the Colonists thought the Brits were about to abolish slavery -- is a total, complete and utter fraud without one iota of evidence. It was fabricated by a racist, Nikole Hannah-Jones,3 then of the New York Times, whose goal she has admitted repeatedly is reparations.

She still got a Pulitzer Prize for the 1619 Project, mainly because the Pulitzer board is controlled by the New York Times and Washington Post.

Both of those newspapers also got Pulitzers for reporting as serious news the hoax that Trump colluded with Russia, which proves that Pulitzer Prizes are corrupt and meaningless today.

I don't agree with Espaillat on anything though he seems like a nice enough guy. He replaced Charlie Rangel of New York who I also did not agree with on anything but he too was a personable fellow.

Espaillat was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic in 1954. He came to America with his mother and sister in 1964 at nine or 10 (accounts vary). They overstayed their visas and were illegal for a while but eventually got green cards. Espaillat became a naturalized American citizen in the early 1980s (his late 20s).

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D. NY, sponsor of H.R. 4994, 8-10-21.
U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D. NY, sponsor of H.R. 4994, 8-10-21.
He has a large online presence and there are many references to his former illegal immigrant status and his being the first formerly illegal immigrant in the U. S. Congress, but I could find no reference to his naturalization ceremony and his becoming an American citizen until I found a Real Clear Politics article from 2016 that mentioned with no detail that he had become a citizen. It states he "stayed without documentation for more than a year after his visa expired. He ultimately became a U.S. citizen in his late 20s."4

It is as if he is proud to have once been an illegal immigrant but not proud to be a naturalized U.S. citizen which is surprising because so many who become naturalized citizens are seen at the most touching, wonderful ceremonies, crying, so happy to now be American citizens.

Of course, so many in the Marxist socialist Democrat Party today hate America so celebrating being illegal verses being a happy new American citizen is typical from their standpoint.

Espaillat "worked as a community activist before becoming the first Dominican-American elected to the New York legislature in 1996. He stayed in the General Assembly for more than a decade before moving up to the state Senate in 2010." After Rangel retired, Espaillat won Rangel's House seat and took office in 2017.

Espaillat is a liberal and most of his pet issues are social justice and immigration issues.

It appears he is influenced by the Southern Poverty Law Center from the way his bill is written. Why would a New Yorker make it his annual crusade to erase Confederate monuments that he admits are mostly in the South?

Sec. 2. FINDINGS., items (3) and (4) both regurgitate the SPLC's wildly inaccurate hate campaign against all things Confederate with the SPLC's listing of Confederate memorials so that they can be targets for local vandals and activist efforts.

SPLC's campaign is like something the Nazis would have done in Germany to get rid of all Jewish memorials. Erase the history and degrade the historical memory of your political enemies and you weaken them. To the SPLC it is never live and let live, and support each other as Americans. They always act like they want to kill you, vandalize your property, steal from you, erase you.

However, Sec. 2, items (1) and (2) are a provable fraud. Here is the entire bill, calling out Espaillat's extreme ignorance of history:

117th CONGRESS
1st Session

H. R. 4994

To prohibit the use of Federal funds for Confederate symbols, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

August 10, 2021

Mr. Espaillat (for himself, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Meng, Mr. García of Illinois, Ms. Bass, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Brown, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Velázquez, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Rush, Mr. Huffman, Ms. Jacobs of California, Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, Mr. Costa, Mr. McNerney, Mr. Kilmer, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Escobar, Ms. Brownley, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Carson, Ms. Norton, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, and Mr. Pappas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on Armed Services, and Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To prohibit the use of Federal funds for Confederate symbols, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act”.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds the following:

(1) The Confederate battle flag is one of the most controversial symbols from U.S. history, signifying a representation of racism, slavery, and the oppression of African Americans.

[Publisher's Note: Item (1) above, as stated, is a complete fraud. The Confederate battle flag is a more pure symbol of American patriotism and valor than the American flag. I love our American flag, and it flies in front of my house, but it is a national flag that flew over all the New England slave ships carrying on the slave trade and making millions for New York, Boston and the North.
Rep. Espaillat's New York, in 1862, during the War Between the States, 54 years after the slave trade had been outlawed by the United States Constitution, was STILL, along with Boston, Massachusetts the largest slave-trading ports on the planet. New York, Boston and other New England cities were still making millions in the slave trade here and in other places around the world and they did so until 1888 when Brazil finally abolished slavery.
Here's what W. E. B Du Bois wrote in his book, The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896), reprint; 179. He is quoting his footnote #2, page 179, from "The Slave-Trade in New York" in the Continental Monthly, January, 1862, p. 87:

The number of persons engaged in the slave-trade, and the amount of capital embanked in it, exceed our powers of calculation. The city of New York has been until of late [1862] the principal port of the world for this infamous commerce; although the cities of Portland and Boston are only second to her in that distinction. Slave dealers added largely to the wealth of our commercial metropolis; they contributed liberally to the treasures of political organizations, and their bank accounts were largely depleted to carry elections in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

The Confederate battle flag had nothing whatsoever to do with race, slavery or the oppression of African Americans. That is an SPLC and Democrat Party lie.
The Confederate battle flag was a command and control device on some of the bloodiest battle fields in world history. The color bearer was shot down always almost immediately but it was such an honor to carry the flag somebody always picked up the blood soaked flag and advanced it.
Battle flags were often made from the clothing of a loved one or something from back home. They were sacred in the minds of the men who loved them and willingly died for them on hallowed battle fields across the country that Rep. Espaillat and the Marxist Democrats want to desecrate.
The Confederate battle flag never flew over a slave ship as the American flag did for 80 years after the Constitution outlawed the slave trade.
The Confederate battle flag is the most pure symbol of valor and the fight for independence in American history, and it is on the same level in terms of honor as the American flag.
You can argue that the Confederate battle flag is on a higher level than the American flag because the battle flag was always just a soldier's flag on bloody battlefields. It was never a national flag.
We can not help it that the battle flag was such a powerful symbol of honor and valor that many groups wanted to be associated with it and carried it, and some, like the Ku Klux Klan today, have no claim to it whatsoever.
The Confederate battle flag until recent years was ubiquitous in the South and even in the North, among blacks and whites. All regions thought of it in terms of nothing but honor and valor.
As late as the 1990s, national polls showed an overwhelming majority of people considered the battle flag simply a symbol of the pride of Southerners in their gallant ancestry, and even black people polled showed a majority had no problem with the Confederate battle flag.
The NAACP's constant campaign against the flag in the 1980s and today the SPLC's constant hate toward everything Confederate has changed some minds as those activist organizations knew would happen because they have the fake news media that nobody trusts in their pockets; but that does not change the true meaning of the Confederate battle flag.
It was a soldier's flag on some of the bloodiest battlefields in all of history and its honor is above reproach.]

(2) The Confederate flag and the erection of Confederate monuments were used as symbols to resist efforts to dismantle Jim Crow segregation, and have become pillars of Ku Klux Klan rallies.

[Publisher's Note: Item (2) above is another Espaillat fraud and lie and it displays Espaillat's ignorance of history.

Jim Crow laws started in the North and were there for years before moving South. The South was a bi-racial society always. The North was, as people like Espaillat would say today, "white supremacist," as well as slave traders.

See "The Real Jim Crow, Now Northern Jim Crow Laws Moved South" by Mike Scruggs (link in footnote below).5

Here are several pictures from the height of the Jim Crow era in the early 20th century showing the Ku Klux Klan with only the American flag. No Confederate battle flags in sight.

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Ku Klux Klan with the American flag, early 20th century, height of Jim Crow era.
Ku Klux Klan with the American flag, early 20th century, height of Jim Crow era.

Also see esteemed historian C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, A Commemorative Edition with a new afterword by William S. McFeely, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 17. Woodward writes:

"One of the strangest things about the career of Jim Crow was that the system was born in the North and reached an advanced age before moving South in force."]

(3) There are at least 1,503 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces, including 109 public schools named after prominent Confederates, many with large African-American student populations.

(4) There are more than 700 Confederate monuments and statues on public property throughout the country, the vast majority in the South. These include 96 monuments in Virginia, 90 in Georgia, and 90 in North Carolina.

SEC. 3. FEDERAL FUNDS RESTRICTION.

(a) In General.—Except as provided in subsection (c), no Federal funds may be used for the creation, maintenance, or display, as applicable, of any Confederate symbol on Federal public land, including any highway, park, subway, Federal building, military installation, street, or other Federal property.

(b) Confederate Symbol Defined.—The term “Confederate symbol” includes the following:

(1) A Confederate battle flag.

(2) Any symbol or other signage that honors the Confederacy.

(3) Any monument or statue that honors a Confederate leader or soldier or the Confederate States of America.

(c) Exceptions.—Subsection (a) does not apply—

(1) if the use of such funds is necessary to allow for removal of the Confederate symbol to address public safety; or

(2) in the case of a Confederate symbol created, maintained, or displayed in a museum or educational exhibit.

Rep. Espaillat's bill is political hate and he is ignorant of American history.

Somebody ought to do some digging and see how much money he is getting from the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups to promote this hateful political fraud.

Republicans are worse than this.

The most dishonorable man in the United States Senate, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, then head of the Republican-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee in 2020, promised President Trump he would not change the names of United States Army bases in the South such as Fort Bragg and Fort Benning.

President Trump did not want the base names changed because we won two world wars from those bases and others. Most of those Confederate base names were a century old.

But INCREDIBLY STUPID AND DISHONEST JIM INHOFE, showing that he has NO HONOR or character, marshaled through Elizabeth Warren's request to change all the base names in the South from their current Confederate names.

The Confederate base names in the South were a gesture of reconciliation from the Union Army and Federal Government to the South after the War Between the States to bring our great nation back together. As such, they, themselves, are history lessons, but Inhofe is a dishonorable fool and traitor to his then president and party.

When his NDAA was announced which required the base names be changed, it happened just before the two senate runoffs in Georgia in January of this year and with two bases in Georgia -- legendary Fort Benning, and Fort Gordon -- many many Georgians were DISGUSTED with Republicans and did not vote in the runoffs.

Who can blame them. You support the Republican Party with money and voting and campaigning with all your might then Republicans like Inhofe FU*K you over in order to give Elizabeth Warren a victory over Republican voters.

HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?

If you are Jim Inhofe, the answer is stupid to infinity and as stupid as he is characterless and dishonorable.

And as a result, all of us have to pay for Inhofe's lying and lack of character, and Democrats win.

Thanks IDIOT INHOFE, the most dishonorable man in the United States Senate and the STUPIDEST REPUBLICAN IN HISTORY.

It was not just the base names, it was all things Confederate on the military posts so all street names, memorial names, building names, everything. Jim Inhofe and the Republicans have destroyed more Southern memorials than Antifa, Black Lives Matter and the SPLC combined, times 100.

The monument destroyers are mostly Republican whose voters are way better than they are getting from the lying, despicable national party.

The national Republican Party is a cowardly disgrace but it is possible to influence them. They MUST be made to respect Confederate war memorials and they can be. Their voters are in the red state South.

We have GOT to get through to them. There is no hope with racist, woke Marxist Communist Democrats but there is still hope with Republicans who are only stupid and cowardly. We have to MAKE them wake up, open their eyes and start serving their voters once and for all.

The time is way past for being nice. It is time to RAISE HOLY HELL.

Notes:

1 "Alumnus Adriano Espaillat, First Dominican American And Formerly Undocumented Immigrant To Serve In Congress, Named Queens College 2020 Commencement Speaker", January 29, 2020, Alumnus Adriano Espaillat, First Dominican American and Formerly Undocumented Immigrant to Serve in Congress, Named Queens College 2020 Commencement Speake – CUNY Newswire, accessed 8-26-21.

2 H.R.4994 - No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4994/text, accessed 8-26-21.

3 Jordan Davidson, June 25, 2020, "In Racist Screed, NYT’s 1619 Project Founder Calls ‘White Race’ ‘Barbaric Devils,’ ‘Bloodsuckers,’ Columbus ‘No Different Than Hitler’",

https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/25/in-racist-screed-nyts-1619-project-founder-calls-white-race-barbaric-devils-bloodsuckers-no-different-than-hitler/, accessed 8-26-21.

4 James Arkin, RCP Staff, November 17, 2016, "New Lawmaker Was Once an Undocumented Immigrant", https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/11/17/new_lawmaker_was_once_undocumented_immigrant.html, accessed 8/26/21.

5 Mike Scruggs, June 23, 2021, "The Real Jim Crow, How Northern Jim Crow Laws Moved South", https://www.charlestonathenaeumpress.com/the-real-jim-crow-how-northern-jim-crow-laws-moved-south-guest-post-by-leonard-m-mike-scruggs/, accessed 8-26-21.

The Present American Crisis, The March of Marxist Revolution – Guest Post By Leonard M. “Mike” Scruggs

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“We are actually witnessing a Communist overthrow of the United States in real time.”

James Simpson, author of Who Was Karl Marx?

The Present American Crisis
The March of Marxist Revolution

Guest post by
Leonard M. "Mike" Scruggs

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[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Here is another outstanding article by Mike Scruggs, inspired by James Simpson's excellent book, Who Was Karl Marx? The Men, the Motives and the Menace Behind Today's Rampaging American Left.

The first step to defeating this Marxist threat that is everywhere today, is understanding Marxist goals and methods. Simpson's book analyzes them well, as Mike points out below, and gives us a blueprint for defeating this vile enemy. Other excellent books raise the alarm too, like Mark Levin's American Marxism.

Marxist Communists murdered over a hundred million people in the past 100 years. It is an ideology of misery, mediocrity, hate and force, that worships only power. It's purveyors, like one of BLM's "trained Marxist" founders, Patrisse Cullors, who recently bought her fourth million-dollar home, get filthy rich, while others toe the party line or else.

When Nikita Khrushchev said in the 1960s that Communists would conquer America from within without firing a shot, nobody believed him because we were strong and united back then, enough to defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

Today, it is far different because the Marxists have spent over a half century from their strongholds in disgraceful academia and the news media marching through our institutions as their evil philosophy commands. Academia has taught a generation of young people to hate their country. The threat today from these horrible people is serious and real.

Following Mike's bio and article are links to The Times Examiner website, Mike's outstanding columns, and to his books.]

Mike Scruggs is the author of two books - The Un-Civil War, Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War, Truths the Media Never Told You - and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East.

The abridged version of The Un-Civil War sold over 40,000 copies and won the prestigious D. T. Smithwick Award by the North Carolina Society of Historians, for excellence.

Mike holds a BS degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Stanford University. A former USAF intelligence officer and Air Commando, he is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War and holds the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal. He is a retired First Vice President for a major national financial services firm and former Chairman of the Board of a classical Christian school.

The Present American Crisis

By Mike Scruggs

(First published in The Times Examiner, 11 August 2021)

The March of Marxist Revolution

The United States is experiencing a rampage of revolutionary Marxist inspired social chaos and lawless political disorder. The destruction of property, political order, and many lives seen in over 600 massive, organized riots in 220 American cities by Black Live Matter and Antifa in the last 18 months is only the tip of the iceberg.

Black Lives Matter and Antifa are certainly Marxist led and inspired movements, but they are supported by billions of dollars from newly woke big corporations, Big Tech billionaires, and institutional funding. Many more continue to succumb to their bullying protection racket.

The new “woke” Marxist ideology and hateful and unforgiving “cancel culture” and obsequious political correctness dominate the social ethic of most of the education, media, and entertainment establishments. It thoroughly dominates the thinking, policies, and actions of the “Biden” Administration—which should more rightly be called the Obama Third Term Administration—and almost every Democrat politician.

For over 20 years, I have been warning that immigration was being used to change U.S. electoral demographics to favor a leftist dominated Democratic Party and, in fact, guarantee their permanent political dominance. Under the “Biden” Administration, it is now happening at exponential levels. Our Southern border has been opened to millions of illegal immigrants, not just from Mexico and Central America, but from everywhere in the world. They are receiving financial and relocation aid and encouragement but practically no screening. Many are members of criminal gangs and Mexican drug cartels. Many are radical Islamists inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood’s own plans to overthrow American culture and government. Huge percentages of them carry the Covid virus to unsuspecting American communities around the country. The Obama and Democrat Party plan is to make them voters as soon as possible, even before they become “citizens”—the Democrats are making the concept of citizenship meaningless.

Through Critical Race Theory (CRT), which on its face is utterly deceitful and extremely divisive, hate-mongering nonsense, Marxist ideologues are attempting to indoctrinate our children in schools and even subvert our Armed Forces. Leading the subversion of our Armed Forces are Obama generals, admirals, and Defense Department appointees, who have placed their personal advancement and future job prospects above duty, honor, and country. Morale in the Armed Forces is already plunging in anticipation of a political purge of traditional conservatives. CRT has already damaged our military preparedness and put our national security in peril. The People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, Iran, and others stand ready to exploit our growing domestic and geo-political weaknesses and increasing lack of backbone.

Not the least of our concerns should be election and voter integrity. We have already seen in the 2020 Presidential Election how election procedures and thus legitimate results were severely compromised in many states. We have also seen how the Covid crisis was used to open the doors wide for massive vote fraud by mail.

Even legitimate science was compromised for the purpose of fear-mongering political propaganda and manipulation. Fake science has become a plausible political danger to American health and economic prosperity.

This has already shaken American confidence that future elections will be fair and honest and has also caused a considerable loss of confidence in the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), Federal courts and even the U.S. Supreme Court and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). There are certainly more agencies, including Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and tragically those general and flag officers who have condoned the monstrous and divisive evils of Critical Race Theory. None of this matters to Democrats and useful idiots who embrace the Marxist philosophy that “the end justifies the means.”

The Marxist culture destruction being hard pushed by the “Biden-Obama” Administration includes the usual exploitation of sex and gender issues as well as stirring up racial and ethnic unrest. Marxists have always used sexual liberation issues to increase their public popularity and gain political power. Now they are straining every nerve to create social chaos by gender confusion. Our children stand in danger of terribly malicious confusion and permanent physical and psychological damage. They are also attempting to seduce our churches through inclusion of or compromise with anti-Biblical forms of social justice.

Meanwhile huge, irresponsible, and deceitful government spending programs are igniting inflationary pressures, robbing all Americans of the buying power of their income and savings. Much of this spending is for environmental, “climate-change,” and infrastructure scams that will prove economic disasters.

Freedom of speech and religion are constantly under attack. Marxism allows no tolerance for conservative views.

I wish I could say it was only Democrats who are the useful idiots here. At least 17 U.S. Republican senators are considering making the most evil, expensive, and dishonest legislation ever proposed in Congress a bipartisan disaster. [Publisher's Note: All 17 plus two more for a total of 19 U.S. Republican senators voted with all 50 Democrats for the one trillion dollar infrastructure bill mentioned above but the House is demanding a 3.5 trillion bill that includes massive spending for radical social programs that benefit Democrats and the green new deal.]

All these things are accompanied by a storm of lies, many of them self-evident lies, which are faithfully supported by the dominant but colossally irresponsible leftist media.

Under Marxism and almost all totalitarian systems, power alone determines truth and moral compass. Marxism is bloody, because its economics, like that of most naïve socialist schemes, are lies and do not work. Coercion is necessary to make people work and live in a system that does not work and replaces freedom with fear.

In his recently released new book, James Simpson lists four concepts that patriotic Americans need to understand to rid the country of Marxist lies and insanity.

First, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always Revolution…. No matter what the issue, be it gay and ‘transgender’ rights, civil rights, immigrant rights, welfare rights, ‘social justice,’ 'equity’ [socialist equal outcomes for all] or whatever buzzwords they use, the issue is only relevant insofar as it can advance the ‘Revolution'.”

The Revolution is the Left’s relentless goal to overthrow and destroy the existing order to achieve absolute power and the wealth that comes with it. The issues matter only in that they can create the chaos necessary to destroy the culture and old order and establish a new one in which Marxists have all power.

The second concept we have already addressed in part. “Stop thinking of our political controversies as simply differences of opinion between right and left.” Stop thinking they are just political differences between Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives. “We are actually witnessing a Communist overthrow of the United States in real time.”

American Marxists, like the global Communist movement, have a plan. The brutal and pitiless philosophy of this plan was written in a 3-page pamphlet in 1869 by Russian anarchist Sergey Nechayev. It introduced the slogan “The end justifies the means,” and foreshadowed the grim totalitarian social environment described in George Orwell’s 1984.

Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci elaborated it in his 1926-1937 strategic plan for sedition “marching” through a target nation’s supporting cultural and government institutions.

Neo-Marxism conquers nations institution by institution. First comes the media, then education, the culture, and the government.

Our military institutions are being undermined by CRT and will be commanded by Obama appointed Marxist flag officers, and then by thoroughly indoctrinated field grade officers, company grade officers, and NCOs. All ranks will be expected to embrace the folly. Opportunity for advancement by those who do not enthusiastically embrace the obvious but highly poisonous lies will probably be minimal.

Our Police forces are also in danger of this anti-Constitutional transformation. Demonizing police and defunding police forces are only initial steps toward a totalitarian national police force.

The Marxists want a national police force with all local police forces under national authority. Most importantly, they want police personnel loyal to Federal Marxist bureaucrats or generals rather than the Constitution or local American citizens. BLM and Antifa could be core human resources for loyal Marxist police officers enforcing Marxist agendas.

Third, “There is a method to the madness. Every day we are subjected to mind-numbing lies and demonstrations of hypocritical double standards by media, Hollywood, Big Tech, the political Left, and certain circles in law enforcement. Down is up, right is wrong, truth is a lie, black is white.”  America is beginning to look like George Orwell’s books Animal Farm and 1984.

“Normal people are baffled by its seeming illogic. But it is a deadly logic to unhinge our society from any and all anchors to reality, stability, and security, to strike fear into our hearts, and make us desperate for it to stop.” Simpson calls it psychological terrorism. “The Left created absolute chaos for the Trump Administration’s four years. Biden has not ended the purposed chaos. He has ramped up the madness.”

Creating chaos and confusion is typical Marxist brainwashing and propaganda strategy.

Simpson’s fourth concept to understand is more shocking, but I have long believed it. “The heart of this evil Marxist agenda is Satanic. Leftists run the gamut from well-meaning liberals thinking the Democratic Party is 'compassionate' to hardcore Stalinists using every malicious tactic they can dream up to seize power. The core of the agenda, however, can only be described as Satanic.” Many Communists are not strictly atheists. Many initially professed Christian or Jewish faith but became bitter enemies of God, shaking their fist at him. Such were Karl Marx, Nicolai Lenin, and Joseph Stalin.

Doctrinaire Marxists have always seen Biblical-Christianity as an institution that must be destroyed before Marxism can advance.

Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge.”

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Link to The Times Examiner website: www.timesexaminer.com

Link to Mike Scruggs's columns at The Times Examiner:

https://www.timesexaminer.com/mike-scruggs

Link to Mike's book website:

https://www.universalmediainc.org/books/. His books are also available on Amazon and other places.

Our Confederate Ancestors: Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and His Men in Action

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A Series on the Daring Exploits of Our Confederate Ancestors in the War Between the States.

Laying down the body, Forrest spread his handkerchief over his dead brother's face and, calling on a member of his escort to remain with the corpse, he mounted his horse and said to those who were present: "Follow me." Then turning to his bugler he said, "Garis, sound the charge," and away he dashed, followed by those present, with the fury of a hurricane. They galloped into the enemy as some of them were mounting to retreat, and the spirit and animation of the spectacle so enthused the other Confederates that they rushed forward like a mighty storm and trampled down everything in their front, driving the enemy in the wildest confusion and capturing all his artillery, wagons, and a thousand prisoners besides a great quantity of supplies and several hundred negroes who were running away with the Yankees. The pursuit was kept up until night. . . .

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and His Men in Action

From Forrest's Wonderful Achievements by Capt. James Dinkins of New Orleans, Confederate Veteran, Vol. XXXV, No. 1, January, 1927.

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[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Every son and daughter of the South can gain ENORMOUS inspiration from Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest just as his own men did. They achieved so much because of the dynamism of their leader.

The entries for Forrest in Broadfoot's Confederate Veteran index go on for pages. It's like the Shakespeare section in the library.

All you have to do is absorb Forrest into your brain then go win EVERY heritage fight one way or another, like Forrest did. If a monument comes down, put up 10 and write 10 books, construct 10 more highway battle flag memorials in the area.

Campaign against the dogs who vote to remove century old monuments to war dead and throw them out of office. Sue them if possible as individuals.

Read all the inspiring accounts of Forrest you can lay your hands on then read Gen. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and all the others. The blood coursing through their veins during the great battles of the War Between the States is the same blood coursing through ours today.

Capt. Dinkins' title way understates the extreme excitement in his article on the exploits of Forrest and his men. It is riveting. I could not put it down and neither will you.]

From Forrest's Wonderful Achievements
by Capt. James Dinkins of New Orleans

AFTER THE BATTLE of Chickamauga, Forrest tendered to Gen. Bragg his resignation as brigadier general. He felt so depressed on account of the delay and the inaction in following up a great victory, and, furthermore, was dissatisfied with various conditions which seemed to indicate that he was not appreciated by the commander in chief.

For some time previously, Forrest had received urgent requests from prominent people in North Mississippi to come to that section and organize the scattered bands and defend their country from the frequent raids by the Federal forces at Memphis and along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. That may also have had its influence upon Forrest's decision.

It happened that Mr. Davis was at General Bragg's headquarters when Forrest's resignation reached him, and he at once wrote Forrest in graceful language saying he could not accept his resignation nor dispense with his services, and requested that he meet him in Montgomery a few days later.

At the time designated, Forrest met the President, who promised to give him an independent command in the department of West Tennessee and North Mississippi, and also stated that Forrest should carry with him such regiments as General Bragg could spare.

However, when Forrest took his departure, he did so with McDonald's Battalion and Morton's Battery, besides his escort company, all told three hundred men and four guns.

He reached the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Okolona, Miss. on the 15th of November, 1863. He decided soon afterwards to move into West Tennessee and use his influence and prestige in bringing together numbers of men who had been furloughed on account of wounds and other causes and having recovered were not willing to go back to the infantry service.

He, therefore, crossed the Memphis and Charleston Railroad at Saulsbury and moved to Jackson with 250 men and two rifle guns of Morton's battery. He reached Jackson on the 6th of December, 1863, and went into camp with as much composure and confidence as if he had a division instead of a few squadrons.

Major General Hurlbut, commanding the Federal forces at Memphis and West Tennessee also set to work at once to prevent Forrest's escape. He sent a force from Memphis, one from Corinth, and one from Fort Pillow, in all, about 20,000 men, well-equipped, to accomplish that object.

Think of it! Forrest with but those few hundred men surrounded by twenty thousand veteran troops. No other man on earth so situated could have marched away. Forrest soon had assembled about three thousand men, who, however, had no arms, and to protect those men from capture with the aid of only three hundred men seemed impossible---but that word was not in Forrest's vocabulary.

About this time it began to rain and bad weather lasted several days causing all the rivers and creeks to overflow their banks; but on December 22, Forrest put his column in motion and crossed the Forked Deer River, going in the direction of Bolivar. His scouts reported large Federal forces moving on him from all sides, but, with about five hundred armed men and three thousand men without guns, he set out to reach the Confederate lines. Arriving at Bolivar, he was met by Col. D. M. Wisdom with one hundred and fifty men, which made his fighting force nearly seven hundred strong.

Ascertaining that a Federal column was encamped just south of the Hatchie River and directly in the line of his intended march, Forrest constructed a bridge over the river during the night, and crossed over, and while the enemy were wrapped in slumber just before day, he dashed into their camp, creating the wildest confusion and stampeded the entire force, which left behind a large number of wagons and several hundred head of beef cattle.

Forrest then moved rapidly in the direction of Somerville, where he learned that the whole country was swarming with infantry, cavalry, and artillery, ready to pounce on him. Forrest, with the additional responsibility of protecting his captured beef cattle and wagons, was in a hopeless position it would seem.

Halting a few hours before reaching Somerville, he sent some three hundred armed men and about a thousand without arms to get in the Federal rear, and, moving boldly with the remainder of his command until he met the enemy's pickets, he drove them in.

About the same time the detached force charged into the federals on the other side, Forrest sent forward a flag of truce demanding the unconditional surrender of the enemy, consisting of 5,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, and the Federal commander, believing that he was surrounded by a large force, began a hurried retreat in the direction of Memphis.

Taking advantage of the fright, Forrest led his escort company and McDonald's Battalion upon their retreating columns, riding them down and scattering them in all directions.

The victory was so complete that the unarmed men joined in the pursuit and captured several hundred prisoners from whom they secured arms, etc.

Leaving the Federal command scattered and in great disorder, Forrest marched toward Memphis, creating the impression that he would attack the place, which caused the Federal commander, General Hurlbut, to hurry all the troops along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, from Corinth westward to Memphis, and also recall the forces he had sent from Fort Pillow.

The heavy rains had in the meantime caused the Forked Deer, the Hatchie, and the Wolf rivers to overflow their banks, so that they could not be crossed at all, which left the Federal forces in Forrest's rear utterly harmless.

While the enemy was hurrying to Memphis, Forrest suddenly changed his course to the south, and crossed the Memphis and Charleston Railroad at Mount Pleasant into the Confederate lines, with a thousand head of cattle and a large number of wagons and stores of different sorts. The cattle were sent to feed the Army of Tennessee.

Many amusing incidents occurred during the stampede of the Federal forces at Somerville. In the pursuit of a column of these fugitives, a Confederate officer, Lieutenant Livingston, received orders to turn back with his company. He shouted after them: "Get out of our country, you worthless rascals."

In the rear of the Federals, on a horse somewhat slower than the rest, was a trooper, who, turning his head, exclaimed in unmistakable brogue and with the ready wit of his countrymen: "Faith, ain't it thot same we're trying to do jist as fast as we can?"

Forrest had them reach safe ground, and we can but wonder how it was possible for him to escape with his wagons, cattle, and unarmed men in the face of the manifold dangers which environed him.

Leaving Jackson, Tenn., on a march of one hundred and fifty miles with three thousand unarmed men, a large wagon train, and hundreds of cattle, thoroughly surrounded by more than 20,000 of the enemy (which General Hurlbut admits in his official report), having to cross three overflowed rivers, with the loss of less than thirty men, seems marvelous. And almost any other man to have thought of such a possibility, would have been regarded as foolishly rash and perilously vain.

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, writing from Memphis on January 12, 1864, in summing up Forrest's operations, said: "With less than 4,000 men, Forrest moved right through the Sixteenth Army Corps, passed within nine miles of Memphis, carried off one hundred wagons of provisions, seven hundred head of beef cattle, and innumerable stores; tore up railroad track, cut telegraph wires, ran over our pickets with a single Derringer pistol, and all in the face of 20,000 men, and without the loss of a man that can be accounted for."

Arriving at Holly Springs, Forrest found that the almost incessant rain for a week was giving way to clear, cold weather.

Forrest-on-horse-edited-43K

On December 28 the command moved toward Como, Panola County, Miss. Forrest reached Sucotobia late Wednesday evening, December 30, and remained there until Friday morning, January 1, 1864, thence to Como.

Between Como and Senatobia runs the Hickahala River, which the entire command crossed, including the artillery and wagons, on the ice. It was the coldest day known to the oldest inhabitants, and will never be forgotten during the life of those who encountered its horrors.

The writer was ordered to move with a small squad of men as rapidly as possible ahead and press into service every able-bodied negro to be found and put them to work chopping down timber and building fires.

Arriving at Como, there was not a member of the little party able to dismount without assistance, but the few citizens and negroes of the town set to work to throw us out, and within a half hour or so we were able to begin the work. The men were scantily clad, and, with less than a blanket each, their suffering was fearful, so much so that numbers of the young recruits which followed out of West Tennessee left their commands to return home.

In the meantime, Forrest had been appointed a major general and put in command of all the forces in North Mississippi and West Tennessee. He set to work to organized his force into regiments and brigades. Four brigades were formed, the first under Brig. Gen. R. V. Richardson; the second under Col. Robert McCullough, composed of the 2nd Missouri, Willis's Texas Battalion, Faulkner's Kentucky Regiment, Kinzer's Battalion, the 18th Mississippi, and a fragment of the 2nd Arkansas, commanded by Capt. F. M. Cochran.

The third brigade was under Col. T. H. Bell, and the fourth was commanded by Col. J. E. Forrest, a brother of the General.

In all, there were about 6,000 men, rank and file. The brigades commanded by Cols. McCullough and J. E. Forrest composed the first division, and it was commanded by Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers. The other division was commanded by Brigadier General Richardson for a short time, but finally by Brig. Gen. A. Buford.

These details having been accomplished, Forrest moved his headquarters to Oxford and left General Chalmers at Panola.

While at Oxford, the squads which had been sent after the deserters returned with nineteen of them, whom they delivered to General Forrest. He gave orders that in consequence of this desertion and disgraceful conduct, the whole lot should be shot, and instructions were issued that the executions would take place at an early date.

The news spread like a cyclone, and very soon prominent citizens and ladies, also every clergyman in Oxford, waited on General Forrest with urgent appeals to forgive the boys and spare their lives. Some of the officers advised Forrest that they had intimations of meetings among the soldiers.

But he was unmoved, and apparently determined on the executions. All preparations were carried out and one a bright morning, the 20th of January, 1864, the procession of wagons containing the deserters, sitting on their coffins, moved through the streets to a skirt of woods just west of the university buildings, where the graves had been dug. The men were made to get out, and the coffins placed alongside the graves. Then all were blindfolded and seated each on his coffin.

The company detailed for the purpose marched in front and loaded their guns and came to a ready. There was but a moment between these men and eternity. The next instant the commands "Aim" and "Fire" would be given. But while they were standing at the ready, Captain Anderson of General Forrest's staff, announced that the men were pardoned and would return to their commands.

The lesson was not lost and will never been forgotten by anyone who was a witness to the spectacle. As a matter of fact, I do not know of more than a dozen men living who were present at that time. The news scattered broadcast that Forrest had shot a lot of boys who went home, etc., and many people believed to the day of their death that the boys were shot. The writer was present and the statement is true in every particular as given above.

A short time after the occurrence just mentioned, General Polk, who was department commander, notified Forrest that Sherman was moving from Vicksburg toward Jackson with a large force; also that a force had moved at the same time up the Yazoo River. This information was quicky followed by news that a column had moved from Memphis toward Panola, and another from Collinville toward Holly Springs.

Jeffrey Forrest was sent to Grenada to watch the column moving by the Yazoo River, while General Chalmers posted McCullouch at Panola, Bell at Belmont, and Richardson at Wyatt, all on the Tallahatchie River. Forrest soon learned, however, that a large cavalry force was arranging to leave Memphis, and he at once decided that it was intended to participate in a cooperative movement with Sherman, and that the columns sent toward Panola and Holly Springs were feints.

Sure enough, on the 11th of February, Capt. Thomas Henderson, Chief of Scouts, reported that a force of cavalry about eight thousand strong and four batteries of artillery were moving rapidly in the direction of Germantown. Forrest ordered Chalmers to move with his division to Oxford, leaving one regiment (Faulkner's) to guard the river at Wyatt and Abbeville.

Reaching Oxford on the 14th, Chalmers received orders to march with all dispatch toward Okolona, as the enemy, under Maj. Gen. W. S. Smith, about ten thousand strong, seemed headed for the rich prairies south of Okolona, which facts confirmed Forrest's opinions.

It was raining almost constantly, and the roads were next to impassable, but we outmarched General Smith's force and reached West Point, Miss., on the 17th. Forrest established his headquarters at Starkville and sent Col. Jeffrey Forrest with his brigade to meet the Federal column in the neighborhood of Aberdeen.

Colonel Forrest had a number of light skirmishes while General Smith pressed his small brigade back to West Point. Anticipating that General Smith might cross the Tombigbee at Aberdeen, Bell's Brigade was sent to Columbus, where he crossed the river and moved along the east bank toward Aberdeen, but finding that Smith was moving his entire force toward West Point, he took up a position at Waverly. In the meantime, Forrest, with Chalmers, marched with McCullouch's Brigade and two regiments of Richardson's Brigade, to the relief of Col. Jeffrey Forrest.

The situation at this time was critical on both sides. The rivers in front and behind both the Federal and Confederate forces were badly swollen and there could be no retreat for either. The Tombigbee on the east the Sooh-a-Toucha on the south, and the Okatibbyha on the west were all in flood.

Gen. Stephen D. Lee notified Forrest that he was marching to his support with a brigade of infantry from Meridian and Forrest hoped to avoid a general engagement until his arrival. Forrest, therefore, went into camp about four miles west of West Point, from whence, we could see the eastern horizon lighted up by burning houses, barns, gin houses, fences and everything which the enemy could set on fire.

The sight so infuriated Forrest that he determined to put a stop to further devastation.

The following morning he led McCulloch's Brigade to a crossing on a little river called Siloam, about four miles east, and resolved to do all in his power to stop such an uncivilized kind of warfare. He expected to strike the Federal left flank but found that the force consisted of but one brigade, which he quickly put to flight. He ordered all his force forward from West Point and found the enemy in position in a woods four miles from that little city.

Chalmers quickly dismounted his men and moved to the attack. The men went rushing and yelling at the Federal line with as little concern for their lives, apparently, as they would have shown in a skirmish drill. The effect was instantaneous and the Federals, after firing a round, mounted their horses and galloped away.

In the meantime, McCulloch had sent the force at Siloam helter-skelter. The fugitives, on reaching Smith's main column, added tenfold to the demoralization. The whole force began a hurried retreat. Having the swollen river at their backs, the audacious onslaught of the Confederates made the victory a stampede.

The Federals could not be halted. The scene was indescribable. The roads were knee deep in mud and the fields were boggy. Wagons and caissons were left behind and our men could barely keep in sight of the fleeing house burners. Stop a moment and think of the disparity of the two forces.

General Smith's command numbered ten thousand men and twenty-four cannon. Men who had been selected from the Army of the Cumberland, seasoned and tried troops, with the best equipment, while Forrest's force did not exceed 4,000 men and eight cannon.

Bell's Brigade of 2,000 men at Waverly, ten miles distant when the fight began, did not reach the field until after the route began.

The roads and the whole country were soaked from the continued rain, and the passage of the Federal artillery and wagons left the roads impassable.

Forrest made every effort to overhaul the enemy by sending detachments through the fields, but the ground was so rotten it could not be done, although the enemy was encumbered with plunder and hundred of negroes.

However, Forrest was after them and with unsurpassed impetuosity succeeded in overtaking the Federal rear guard, several times during the day, with his escort company, and had two or three sharp brushes, but was not able to bring them to a stand.

Night coming on, the command went into camp, but the following morning, February 22, 1864, McCulloch's and Jeffrey Forrest's brigades were in hot pursuit.

Nine miles out of Okolona, Jeffrey Forrest was ordered to take a left-hand road and cut off the retreat if possible. In the meantime Barteau, with Bell's Brigade, had reached the Federal right flank, which forced the enemy to make a stand at Okolona.

Forrest, at the same time, had been dogging the rear of the Federal column with his escort company so savagely there was no alternative but to fight. General Smith, therefore, posted his force in a very favorable position across the Pontotoc road, in a skirt of woods. Barteau, with Bell's Brigade, dismounted, charged across a field and met strong resistance and suffered great loss but just at that moment Jeffrey Forrest struck the Federals in the rear and caused another stampede.

Barteau's men quickly recovered their setback and joined in pursuit. McCulloch reached the field about this time and his presence added to the confusion of the Federals, and the rout became general.

The Confederates, however, in the excitement, lost organization for a time and did not follow up the chase as well as could have been done.

In the meantime, General Smith had found a most favorable position eight miles distant from Okolona, and posted his line on a ridge of post oak timber.

Forrest soon got his men in hand and sent McCullock to the left and Jeffrey Forrest to the right, with orders to drive into them.

Jeffrey Forrest, at the head of his brigade accompanied by Col. D. M. Wisdom, made the attack with great vigor. The Federals fired a volley into his ranks as he approached and Colonel Forrest fell, mortally wounded, about fifty yards from the enemy's line.

The enemy was pushed back and soon, General Forrest, hearing of the wounding of his young brother, galloped to the spot where he lay, dismounted, raised his head, and with passionate tenderness begged Jeffrey to speak. He died in his arms. They were throughout life devoted. The General was the oldest and Jeffrey was the youngest of the family. The General had been unwearied in his efforts to give his brother an education, and he felt his untimely loss. The flower of his life had been snatched from him.

Laying down the body, Forrest spread his handkerchief over his dead brother's face and, calling on a member of his escort to remain with the corpse, he mounted his horse and said to those who were present: "Follow me." Then turning to his bugler he said, "Garis, sound the charge," and away he dashed, followed by those present, with the fury of a hurricane. They galloped into the enemy as some of them were mounting to retreat, and the spirit and animation of the spectacle so enthused the other Confederates that they rushed forward like a mighty storm and trampled down everything in their front, driving the enemy in the wildest confusion and capturing all his artillery, wagons, and a thousand prisoners besides a great quantity of supplies and several hundred negroes who were running away with the Yankees. The pursuit was kept up until night. It was a wonderful achievement.

I was induced to write this story because of a remark made to me by an old comrade I met during the reunion of the Louisiana Division, U. C. V., held at Alexandria, November 25-26.

He said: "Forrest's Cavalry was the greatest body of soldiers ever assembled."

I answered: "They were made so by Forrest's example."

The Farewell Address of Nathan Bedford Forrest to Forrest’s Cavalry Corps, May 9, 1865, from Michael R. Bradley’s The Last Words

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The Farewell Address of Nathan Bedford Forrest to Forrest's Cavalry Corps, May 9, 1865
from Michael R. Bradley's
The Last Words, The Farewell Addresses of Union and Confederate Commanders to Their Men at the End of the War Between the States
Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Forrest's Cavalry Corps, CSA.
Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Forrest's Cavalry Corps, CSA.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Michael R. Bradley probably knows more about Nathan Bedford Forrest than anybody in the country. His highly acclaimed Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff and They Rode with Forrest, along with other books, articles and talks, attest to that.

I am extremely proud to publish, by Charleston Athenaeum Press, his outstanding new book, The Last Words, The Farewell Addresses of Union and Confederate Commanders to Their Men at the End of the War Between the States. It will be out in the next few weeks.

Dr. Bradley's research and writing are extraordinary. He has drawn wide praise over the years as an historian. The Last Words is a masterful bit of original research where he dug out all the extant farewell addresses he could find of Union and Confederate commanders. Lee had surrendered but units were still in the field and had not yet broken up and gone home. Not all commanders gave farewell addresses but Bradley found 17 who did, nine Union, and eight Confederate. These are the last words commanders would say to the men they had led for years through bloody hell, death, grief, enormous privations, victories and defeats.

As primary sources originating from the battlefield with no opportunity for anything to influence them - no political influence, no sentimentality, no years of fading memories - these words are straight from the hearts of the men who fought in the war and spoke them except for, perhaps, Gen. Grant's address, which was not signed and appears to have been issued by somebody in the government.

Bradley's unit histories and vivid descriptions of their battles during the war make the reading of the various farewell addresses incredibly meaningful. The biographies of commanders are outstanding too.

The book opens with Gen. Lee's "General Orders, Number 9" and more or less alternates with a Union address and a Confederate address, which adds contrast.

This is an important book and you will love reading every word of it.

Below is Dr. Bradley's bio followed by Chapter Three of The Last Words, Nathan Bedford Forrest's address and Dr. Bradley's excellent historical narrative.]

Dr. Bradley's Bio:

Michael R. Bradley is professor emeritus of History at Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, Tennessee where he taught for 36 years. He is a native of the Tennessee-Alabama state line region near Fayetteville, Tennessee. He attended Samford University for his B.A., took a Master of Divinity at New Orleans Seminary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1970. He has been pastor of two Presbyterian churches in Middle Tennessee. He served as interim Pastor of two others.

Dr. Bradley is the author of several books on the War Between the States including Tullahoma: The 1863 Campaign; With Blood and Fire: Life Behind Union Lines in Middle Tennessee; Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff ; It Happened in the Civil War; Forrest's Fighting Preacher, David Campbell Kelley of Tennessee; The Raiding Winter; Civil War Myths and Legends; They Rode with Forrest, and others including a lifetime of articles and talks. In 1994 he was awarded the Jefferson Davis Medal in Southern History. In 2006 he was elected commander of the Tennessee Division SCV and is a Life Member. He served on Tennessee's Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.

The Farewell Address of Nathan Bedford Forrest to Forrest's Cavalry Corps, May 9, 1865

Soldiers:

By an agreement made between Liet.-Gen. Taylor, com manding the Department of Alabama. Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and Major-Gen. Canby, commanding United States forces, the troops of this department have been surrendered.

I do not think it proper or necessary at this time to refer to causes which have reduced us to this extremity; nor is it now a matter of material consequence to us how such results were brought about. That we are BEATEN is a self-evident fact, and any further resistance on our part would justly be regarded as the very height of folly and rashness.

The armies of Generals LEE and JOHNSTON having surrendered. You are the last of all the troops of the Confederate States Army east of the Mississippi River to lay down your arms.

The Cause for which you have so long and so manfully struggled, and for which you have braved dangers, endured privations, and sufferings, and made so many sacrifices, is today hopeless. The government which we sought to establish and perpetuate, is at an end. Reason dictates and humanity demands that no more blood be shed. Fully realizing and feeling that such is the case, it is your duty and mine to lay down our arms -- submit to the “powers that be” -- and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land.

The terms upon which you were surrendered are favorable, and should be satisfactory and acceptable to all. They manifest a spirit of magnanimity and liberality, on the part of the Federal authorities, which should be met, on our part, by a faithful compliance with all the stipulations and conditions therein expressed. As your Commander, I sincerely hope that every officer and soldier of my command will cheerfully obey the orders given, and carry out in good faith all the terms of the cartel.

Those who neglect the terms and refuse to be paroled, may assuredly expect, when arrested, to be sent North and imprisoned. Let those who are absent from their commands, from whatever cause, report at once to this place, or to Jackson, Miss.; or, if too remote from either, to the nearest United States post or garrison, for parole.

Civil war, such as you have just passed through naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings; and as far as it is in our power to do so, to cultivate friendly feelings towards those with whom we have so long contended, and heretofore so widely, but honestly, differed. Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out; and, when you return home, a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to Government, to society, or to individuals meet them like men.

The attempt made to establish a separate and independent Confederation has failed; but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully, and to the end, will, in some measure, repay for the hardships you have undergone.

In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. Without, in any way, referring to the merits of the Cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-fought fields, has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. And I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the officers and men of my command whose zeal, fidelity and unflinching bravery have been the great source of my past success in arms.

I have never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go myself; nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be, and will be, magnanimous.

N.B. Forrest, Lieut.-General
Headquarters, Forrest's Cavalry Corps
Gainesville, Alabama
May 9, 1865
General Orders No. 221

 

Nathan Bedford Forrest is the most controversial, and the most misrepresented, general officer of the entire war. He is the man liberal historians love to hate and the man Civil War buffs adore. Forrest is celebrated for his military genius and his intuitive grasp of psychological warfare (keep the scare on 'em) and damned for his supposed approval of a massacre of African American and white Tennessee Unionists at Fort Pillow and for his presumptive post-war leadership of the Ku Klux Klan. William T. Sherman said, in 1864, “there will never be peace in Tennessee until Forrest is dead.” Since controversy and argument still swirl around Forrest it appears he is not deceased!

Forrest grew up on a small farm in Bedford County, Tennessee (his birthplace is now in Marshal County thanks to a redrawing of boundaries) and became “the man of the family” in his early teens when his father died. Later he took the family to Mississippi where he became a successful farmer, businessman, and political leader. He moved to Memphis, engaged in the slave trade, and was elected alderman. By 1860, still in his thirties, he was worth over a million dollars.

Forrest enlisted as a private, was made a lieutenant colonel almost immediately and was instructed to raise a regiment of cavalry. As head of a cavalry force he rose quickly through the ranks to become a lieutenant general before the end of the war. Forrest also established a reputation for hard fighting, beginning with his first encounter of any importance at Sacramento, Kentucky and continuing to his last battle at Selma, Alabama. He also perfected the technique of striking deep behind the Union front line to disrupt lines of supply. The first attempt by Forrest at such raiding came in July 1862 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee on his forty-first birthday. He repeated the tactic in December 1862 by raiding for two weeks into West Tennessee, thoroughly destroying the Mobile & Ohio Railroad which brought supplies to the army of Ulysses S. Grant. By 1864 Forrest had been given an independent command in Mississippi and West Tennessee and there he won some of his most brilliant victories such as Brice's Cross Roads. Two other raids into Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee in 1864 cemented his grasp of raiding.

Forrest spent most of his military career doing traditional cavalry service, scouting and screening the infantry force of the Army of Tennessee. It was in this traditional capacity that he served at Fort Donelson, at Shiloh, and throughout 1863 during the Tullahoma and Chickamauga campaigns.

By the end of the war Forrest was the most feared opponent the Union had in the west and the most celebrated leader in the Confederate ranks. His campaigns are still studied today as early examples of mobile warfare.

Fort Pillow, April 9, 1864, casts a dark shadow over the memory of Forrest. Something happened there which has been exploited but never explained. After an all-day engagement Confederate forces got close enough to the fortifications at Fort Pillow to capture them by storm, doing so only after the Union commander had refused to surrender. In the ensuing chaos of a position captured by direct assault some Union soldiers were killed in a manner which violated the rules of war. The crucial questions of how many such deaths occurred and who is responsible have never been answered, though Forrest, as commanding officer, bears responsibility for the conduct of his troops.

The Fort Pillow affair was immediately exploited by the North. A congressional committee investigated the matter and published a report of which 40,000 copies were distributed, in which survivors gave graphic reports of men being shot after surrendering. One very obvious problem is that none of these witnesses gave the name of a single person who they saw killed. The men of these units had served together for more than a year, yet no-one recognized a friend, mess mate, or non-commissioned officer who was killed unlawfully. The more serious problem is that the Congressional Report has all the markings of a propaganda piece. The Union cause, militarily and politically, was at a low ebb. The Confederates had taken serious blows in 1863 but they still appeared full of fight. Recruitment in the North was difficult and very large bounties were being offered to lure recruits. The Democratic Party, with its call for peace, appeared to be in good position for the 1864 elections at all levels---state, congressional, and presidential. Something was needed to arouse public opinion in support of the war. Fort Pillow was used to provide that stimulus.

Post-war, the name of Bedford Forrest came to be associated with the Ku Klux Klan. The assertion that Forrest was head of the Klan has been repeated in so many books as to be beyond counting. The problem with this assertion is that no historian has ever produced any primary source document which proves Forrest held that position. Writers of secondary sources cite each other but none cite a document from the 1860—70's to prove their case. In short, there is no valid historical evidence to support the claim that Forrest was head of the Klan.

Eric Foner is considered by many to be the leading contemporary historian of the Reconstruction Era. His book, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, discusses the Klan in great detail over a number of chapters. The name of Bedford Forrest is never mentioned. A growing number of academic historians admit that there is no evidence linking Forrest to the Klan, yet still the folklore is repeated whenever the name of Forrest is mentioned.2

The historical fact is that a congressional investigating committee cleared Forrest of any involvement with the Klan and commended him for his opposition to the group. Forrest also became an advocate for African Americans exercising the right to vote. Historians who condemn Forrest for his supposed affiliation with the Klan either ignore these facts or make great efforts to dismiss them but in doing so they violate the duty of an historian to deal with facts and not to substitute personal opinions or folklore for primary sources.

Forrest was a fierce fighter. His force held out until May 9, 1865, a month after the fighting had ended in Virginia and several days after it had ended in North Carolina. Forrest accepted the inevitable with good grace and advised his men to do likewise. The farewell address he issued to his command at Gainesville, Alabama is a model of calmness and reconciliation.

There were no U.S. forces present to accept the surrender of Forrest's command. On the morning of their departure the men fell in for roll call and Forrest's final order was read aloud. The men then marched by their own ordinance sergeants and turned in their weapons, the artillery was parked in a grove of trees, and the men then reported to their regimental adjutant to received previously printed and signed paroles. Then they went home.

What does Forrest's final address tell us about his ideas concerning the cause of the war? The order states that, for Forrest, the causes of the war were irrelevant but that the result of the war was obvious, the South had lost and the Confederacy was no more. The only thing for sensible people to do was accept the results and get on with their lives. This statement reflects the same pragmatic attitude with which he had fought during the war. It should be noted that Forrest had opposed secession and had voted against it in February 1861 when Tennessee took its first vote on the issue. Forrest stood by the Union as long as the Union stood by the existing laws. Once respect for law was abandoned Forrest moved to protect his home.

Forrest's Escort Company and Staff formed an association even before the United Confederate Veterans were formed and they regularly read aloud the Farewell Address. The sound advice it contained stood them in good stead during the hard economic times that followed the war. The words do much to disprove the common public impression that Forrest was a monster.

 

1 Thomas Jordan and J.P. Pryor, The Campaigns of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and of Forrest's Cavalry (New York: Da Capo Press, 1996), 680-82. Originally published 1886.

2 See Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New York: Harper Perennial, 2014). Originally published, 1988.

CRT Transformation of the American Military – Guest Post by Leonard M. “Mike” Scruggs

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CRT Transformation of the American Military
Neo-Marxist Subversion and Its Washington Allies
Guest post by Leonard M. "Mike" Scruggs
Eye-opening book about Marxism in our military by U. S. Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier.
Eye-opening book about Marxism in our military by U. S. Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : United States Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier has done our country a HUGE HUGE favor by publishing his excellent book, Irresistible Revolution, Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military. This extremely important book should be read by everybody who cares about our country and military, and people need to start RAISING HOLY HELL about all this.

It seems that every institution in our country is under attack by Marxists in the Democrat Party and their "long march through the institutions." People had better wake up and start fighting back.

Where is the Republican Party?

I am a Republican but without Trump the Republican Party is the most worthless cowardly party in history. They allow this stuff to go on when there should be universal outrage about all of it. This is not business as usual. Critical Race Theory has got to be destroyed and those promoting it, discredited.

People should demand that academia, where all this hatred and Marxism come from, be defunded. Academia gave us CRT and this racist hatred of white people, who I might remind them still make up 62% of the country. Academia does not deserve one penny of taxpayer money.

I know there are good people in academia but they damn well better stand up and take their institutions back from the Marxists or they can go down with them. But don't hold your breath.

Academia is sick. Real debate is impossible because it is 100% liberal. I know the actual number is only 90% but the other 10% will not say a word and risk the mob showing up at their office, or having their tenure denied.

It is hard to believe that anybody would accept CRT when 62% of the country is white and only 12% is black. Why would 62% of the country allow their precious children to be labeled racists and oppressors so the Democrat Party can use the 12% of blacks to their political advantage?

Black people don't like Critical Race Theory either! They don't want their precious children labeled losers and the oppressed, because they are not.

Face it. The Democrat Party does not care a damn about black people or they would solve problems like 70 blacks being shot every weekend in Chicago. Defunding the police will make that worse.

Democrats divide everybody into racial groups because that's what today's Marxists do. They couldn't take over with class struggle because American capitalism obliterated Socialism and Communism and provides so much opportunity and wealth, there is no class struggle. Everybody has opportunity in America.

So racist American Marxists seek to destroy our country with racial hate and division.

They think they can control the future by open borders, and they might. We are on track for over 3,000,000 people from all over the world, many who are COVID positive, to cross our southern border this year and be taken by the federal government to states where they can one day make the difference in national elections. This is treason. It is certainly not democracy.

Also, those 3,000,000 illegal immigrants prove that the Democrat Party and Marxists in academia are frauds who are lying about systemic racism and America being so horrible. Nobody would risk all to come to a horrible, racist country.

The Democrat Party and Marxists in academia have convinced a generation of young people to hate their own country when the evidence is in plain sight that America is the greatest nation in history, while the Democrat Party and Marxists in academia are the biggest frauds in history.

See my article on this blog: "Woke Liberals in Academia, and the Marxist Communists They love." There is a link below. It quotes extensively from the definitive work about Communism, The Black Book of Communism, Crimes, Terror, Repression. It labels Communism, which academia loves, as a "tragedy of planetary dimensions" that has murdered over a hundred million people.

And academia is supposed to be about knowledge, learning, enlightenment? Yet they choose Marxism and racism over America? Academia has taught a generation of young Americans to hate their country. There is nothing wrong with America but there is a lot wrong with the unimpressive people in academia.

Republicans and Independents believe in Martin Luther King's colorblind meritocracy, where people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Critical Race Theory rejects Martin Luther King as a dupe and tool of the white man.

The Democrat Party believes skin color is the most important thing about a person and they don't care a damn about the content of one's character as long as they vote democrat.

Contact your representatives and other leaders and tell them you are fed up with what's happening in the country. Contact veterans and veteran groups, especially high-ranking retired military personnel with political connections. Write letters. File law suits. Speak at school board and city council meetings. Band with neighbors and make yourselves heard. Run for office. Set up a website and blog. We should fight these traitorous Marxists everywhere they pop their ugly heads up.

Fly the American flag. I put one on my house this past Fourth of July and I love looking at it every day, several times a day. Love it! I draw power from it!

Push for laws which forbid American Olympic athletes from dishonoring the American flag or the national anthem by kneeling while representing the United States on the world stage. They can hate America all they want but if they have to dishonor the flag or kneel for the national anthem, they can not be on the American Olympic team. Period. There should be stiff fines for disobeying this rule, and a lifetime ban on ever representing the United States in the Olympic Games again. Many athletes from Communist countries have made the point that if a Communist athlete dishonors their country's flag, they are executed.

Lt. Col. Lohneier's book was just published in May and as of July 27, 2021 had 1,241 reviews on Amazon and a 4.9 out of 5 overall rating. The book is self-published, which makes him one of the greatest American patriots of all time for taking the initiative to warn our country of this dire Marxist threat.

It is 230 pages and out in hardback and paper. It has an Amazon ranking of #2 under Military Policy, and #11 under Communism and Socialism. Buy it on Amazon and other places, and on Lohmeier's website where there is more information including videos of several national TV interviews with people like Tucker Carlson. There is a link below.

This article, by Mike Scruggs, is eye-opening. Mike is an historian, author and columnist for The Times Examiner out of Greenville, South Carolina. He goes into detail on Lt. Col. Lohmeier's book, points out acts of blatant insubordination in the ranks, and takes apart Critical Race Theory, which threatens to destroy the United States Military. CRT is well embedded already in the military, apparently starting under Obama.

Our military has always been one of the greatest institutions in the history of the world, a true colorblind meritocracy, until now. Like the Democrat Party, they are becoming anti-white racists who are super-aware of skin color and politics, which will degrade and destroy the greatest military ever. We must stop CRT now.

Following Mike's bio and article are links to The Times Examiner website, Mike's outstanding columns, and to his books.]

Mike Scruggs is the author of two books - The Un-Civil War, Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War, Truths the Media Never Told You - and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East.

The abridged version of The Un-Civil War sold over 40,000 copies and won the prestigious D. T. Smithwick Award by the North Carolina Society of Historians, for excellence.

Mike holds a BS degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Stanford University. A former USAF intelligence officer and Air Commando, he is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War and holds the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal. He is a retired First Vice President for a major national financial services firm and former Chairman of the Board of a classical Christian school.

CRT Transformation of the American Military

By Mike Scruggs

(First published in The Times Examiner, 26 July 2021)


Neo-Marxist Subversion and Its Washington Allies

The greatest threat to American security is not China, Russia, or Iran. It is the Critical Race Theory (CRT) transformation of our military. CRT is also our greatest threat to freedom.

According to U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, during the first month he was assigned as commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron at a Colorado Air Force and Space base in July 2020, he was asked by base leadership to watch two videos in preparation for training and discussion on race and inclusion. This was in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd and rioting, looting, and burning in Minneapolis. Trained facilitators would mediate discussion sessions for base personnel.

The first video portrayed American history as 400 years of racist white supremacy beginning in 1619.  The film taught that the U.S. Constitution codified a racist social order that intended to keep whites in power and subjugate and oppress blacks and that this racist foundation remained strong. The video narrator claimed that upon ratification of the Constitution, “white supremacy” was now the “official policy of the United States of America.” It also made reference to then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel and asserted that because the mentality of white supremacy has become engrained in our nation’s psyche, he and others like him, do not want blacks to “get too far.” The narrator stated that the racism of these white people is true whether they recognize it or not, and they cannot help it.

The second video portrayed Republican politicians as racist and claimed that George Bush 2 won his election by causing Americans to fear black people and showed clips of Donald Trump before the 2016 election that cast him in a negative light, insinuating that he had fueled systemic racism in America. The video also portrayed President Trump, who was still President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces at the time this video was created and shown to base personnel, in a terrible out-of-context light directly implying that he enjoys oppressing blacks and keeping minorities in an inferior status. However, the video portrayed Democratic politicians as aiding the black community. The video included favorable clips of Barack Obama, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, depicting them as having undoubtedly made great contributions to the eradication of anti-black racism and systemic oppression of the black community at large. The video also contained clips of an interview with Marxist activist Melina Abdullah, who organized the Los Angeles Black Lives Matter chapter. According to Lt. Col. Lohmeier, Abdullah’s comments were intended to build a suitably unfavorable narrative of American history to justify and demonstrate sympathy for violent riots in the United States. Throughout the video, the United States in referred to as a “system of oppression.”

According to discussions Lohmeier had with a base chaplain, many of the chaplains were pushing the CRT concept of “systemic racism” and the belief that “basically all whites are racists” All this divisive and slanderous nonsense was being done in the name of “racial healing.”  In my opinion, CRT is completely incompatible with Scripture-based Christianity or Judaism.

Note again that Donald Trump was President and Commander-in-Chief at the time these videos were authorized by base commanders and shown to military personnel.  Moreover, the President was in the midst of the 2020 election campaign.

President Trump did not become fully aware of this insubordinate treachery until the summer months of 2020. Under the guise of Diversity and Inclusion training, the Defense Department and several other Federal agencies had been spreading Critical Race Theory (CRT). On September 4, 2020, the Trump Administration took swift action to intervene. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), under Director Russ Vought, issued a memorandum (M20-34) to cease and desist this radical anti-American training and materials distribution. Below are some excerpts from the memorandum:

It has come to the President’s attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date “training” government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda.

For example…employees across the Executive Branch have been required to attend trainings where they are told that ‘virtually all White people contribute to racism.’ Or where they are required to say they “benefit from racism.

These types of trainings not only run counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception, but they also engender division and resentment within the Federal workforce…. We cannot accept our employees receiving training that seeks to undercut our core values as Americans and drive division within our workforce.

The President has directed me to ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive , un-American propaganda training sessions….All agencies are directed to begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on ‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is inherently evil or racist or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil…

The memorandum went on to assure all personnel that President Trump continued to be fully committed to fair and equal treatment of all individuals regardless of race, religion, or creed and ended with this statement:

The divisive, false, and demeaning propaganda of the critical race theory movement is contrary to all we stand for as Americans and should have no place in the Federal government.

On September 22, 2020 President Trump issued Executive Order 13950 restating much of the OMB memorandum of September 4 to be effective immediately.  It further contrasted the ideals of America’s founding documents and its historical progress of freedom with the lies, malign ideology, and distorted anti-American propaganda taught in CRT training. It included this statement:

Today, however, many people are pushing a different vision of America that is grounded in hierarchies based on collective social and political identities rather than in the inherent and equal dignity of every person as an individual.

The EO also cited several inappropriate training materials from various agencies, including the Smithsonian Institution, which included such statements as “virtually all White people, regardless of how ‘woke’ they are, contribute to racism,” and that racism is “interwoven into every fabric of America.” “White males” are criticized as placing an unhealthy emphasis on “rationality over emotionality.” Many non-minority participants were asked to “acknowledge their privilege.”  It also asserted that the policy of the United States does not permit promotion of stereotyping or scapegoating in the Federal workforce and Uniformed Services.

On September 28, the OMB issued another memorandum (M-20-37) on training forbidding divisive training that undermined the “Principle of Fair and Equal Treatment of All.”

On October 16, Defense Secretary Mark Esper directed the immediate suspension of diversity and inclusion training for all military and civilian personnel.

However, according to Lt. Col. Lohmeier, promotion of CRT did not stop, except for postponements (until after the November Election?) of larger training sessions. Less visible and smaller sessions on CRT issues continued, at least on his base.

In late October 2020, he attended a “book study” led by a polite but CRT-promoting officer. The book was So You Want to Talk about Race by CRT activist Ieoma Oluo.

The book teaches that the United States is a “white supremacist society” that must be “dismantled piece by piece.” The book covered the usual range of CRT subjects including “privilege,” “intersectionality,” “cultural appropriation,” “police brutality,” and “microaggressions.”

All these were specifically prohibited by Secretary Defense Esper on October 16 and the previous memorandums of OMB and President Trump’s Executive orders. Obviously, President Trump was being outrageously and secretly betrayed and undermined by senior military officers and deep state federal bureaucrats who opposed his agenda. This was also a monstruous outrage of Constitutional government and a betrayal of the American people.

According to Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness, the Obama Administration began increased efforts in 2011 to shift the Department of Defense away from the principles of non-discrimination and individual merit to increased emphasis on quotas. The driving agency for this was the Pentagon’s new Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC), which was composed largely of diversity consultants and leftist academics. Their reports closely resembled CRT promotions of “diversity,” “inclusion,” and the Marxist equal outcome philosophy of “equity.”

Besides the wild-eyed but clueless CRT enthusiast President Joe Biden and his radical but almost invisible VP Kamala Harris, David Horowitz recently named several top military and Defense Department officials, who are deeply involved in pushing CRT in the military. They are Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday, Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown, Jr, the leading candidate to replace Milley as CJCOS, and Bishop Garrison, of the National Security Institute, and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense on Human Capital, Diversity, “Equity,” and Inclusion, who according to Horowitz in leading the charge to purge conservatives and Trump supporters from the military.

It is my opinion that there are abundant signals that the Obama/Biden Administration plans to transform the military into an environment where conservatives are unwelcome and have little chance of advancement. Morale is already plummeting, and our military readiness and preparedness will soon be showing those stresses and losses in highly trained and skilled personnel, which are essential to national security, especially when confronting increasingly aggressive hostile or potentially hostile powers. Dumping the fanatical and poisonous chalice of Marxist CRT is urgent to preserve national security and American freedom.

Picture014

Link to The Times Examiner website: www.timesexaminer.com

Link to Mike Scruggs's columns at The Times Examiner:

https://www.timesexaminer.com/mike-scruggs

Link to Mike's book website:

https://www.universalmediainc.org/books/. His books are also available on Amazon and other places.

 

Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier's website where you can buy  his excellent book:

www.MatthewLohmeier.com

 

My article about Marxism and Communism quoting extensively from The Black Book of Communism, Crimes, Terror, Repression showing how Communists have murdered a hundred million people in their utopian idiocy:

"Woke Liberals in Academia, and the Marxist Communists They Love", by Gene Kizer, Jr.

Our Confederate Ancestors: Part Four, Conclusion, of The Daring Exploits of H. D. D. Twiggs and His Confederate Compatriots in the War Between the States: The Union Assault on Battery Wagner, July 18, 1863

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A Series on the Daring Exploits of Our Confederate Ancestors in the War Between the States.

Then came a few stirring words, addressed by the Federal officers to the troops; they responded with loud and prolonged huzzas and breaking into a full run they rushed gallantly upon the fort.

Wagner, which up to that moment seemed to the Federals to be almost without life, was suddenly lit up with a sheet of flame from bastion to bastion. The deepening twilight was illumined by the irruptive flashes of the small arms and the dark parapet of Wagner was decorated by a glowing ring of fire. The rattle and crash of thirteen hundred rifles was deafening and the guns of the gallant Simkins, the light battery of De Pass on the left, and a howitzer outside and on the right flank of the fort added to the roar and clamor.

Part Four, Conclusion, of
The Daring Exploits of H. D. D. Twiggs and His Confederate Compatriots in the War Between the States
The Union Assault on Battery Wagner, July 18, 1863

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : This is the second half of Lieut. Col. H. D. D. Twiggs' Address on the Battle of Battery Wagner delivered before the Confederate Survivors' Association in Augusta, Georgia April 26, 1892.

This is incredibly fascinating reading since most people's knowledge of the Battle of Battery Wagner comes from the movie Glory. Around 1,300 Confederates endured 11 hours of non-stop bombardment in bombproofs as hot as ovens in mid-July with no water, then, when the order was given, sprang out onto the parade of the fort and to their places on the parapet to face an attack by 6,000 Union troops.

The numbers engaged are not much different from the Battle of Secessionville 13 months earlier, on June 16, 1862, when 6,600 Union troops attacked 500 Confederates at Tower Battery on James Island, which was soon reinforced by 750 Confederates via a mile-long footbridge across the marsh.

Once again, brilliant planning and strategy, with valor unsurpassed in the history of the world, enabled Southerners to defeat, thoroughly, far larger numbers of well-equipped, well-fed, vastly-better-armed Yankees from the most powerful army in the world.]

from Lieut. Col. H. D. D. Twiggs

. . . Anticipating that the smaller guns and the light battery would be destroyed or disabled by the bombardment, General Taliaferro had directed them to be dismounted from their carriages and covered with sand-bags, and the sequel proved the wisdom and foresight which suggested it.

Again, in order to avoid delay, particular sections of the parapet had been assigned to the respective commands so that they could assemble there, without first forming in the parade of the fort, and thus ensure prompt resistance to the rush upon it which was expected.

The enemy believing Wagner to be practically demolished, and its garrison too crippled and demoralized to make other than a feeble resistance, were rapidly forming to make their grand assault.

As soon as the firing had ceased, the buried guns were hastily exhumed and remounted. The Charleston Battalion, which had all day nestled under the parapet, were already in their places and when the order was given to man the ramparts, one regiment alone failed to respond.

The bombardment of eleven hours had served to utterly demoralize the 31st North Carolina Regiment and all the efforts of General Taliaferro and his staff to persuade or drive this command from the shelter of the bomb-proofs was unavailing; therefore the south-east bastion and sea front to which it had been assigned was left unguarded.

While a faithful narration of facts requires me to note this incident, it gives me pleasure to state that this regiment fully redeemed itself the following year by gallant conduct on the field of battle in Virginia.

When the order to man the ramparts ran like a bugle from the stern lips of Gen. Taliaferro, all the other commands, officers and men, leapt to their feet and rushed out into the parade of the fort. Seeing the dark masses of the Federal infantry rapidly advancing, these veteran Confederates, still undaunted by the experience of that dreadful day defiantly rending the air with enthusiastic cheers, sprang to their places on the parapet.

Fort_Wagner_-_Charge_of_56K

The Roncevalle's Pass, where fell before the opposing lance the harnessed chivalry of Spain, looked not upon a braver, a better, or a truer band. It was a sight once seen never forgotten.

Dropping on their knees, crouching low, their keen eyes glancing along the barrels of their leveled rifles, the whole face of the fort was suddenly transformed into a line of bristling steel upon which the sinister red glow of the setting sun was falling.

The Federal columns, 6,000 strong, under the immediate command of Brigadier-General Truman Seymour, were steadily approaching the fort manned by a little more than 1,300 troops.

This division of the enemy consisted of three fine brigades: The first, commanded by Brigadier-General Strong, was composed of the 48th New York, the 66th Pennsylvania, the 3d New Hampshire, the 6th Connecticut, the 9th Maine, and the 54th Massachusetts.

The second brigade, commanded by Col. Putnam, consisted of the 7th New Hampshire, the 100th New York, and the 62nd and 67th Ohio.

The third brigade, led by Brigadier-General Stevenson, consisted of four excellent regiments. These troops were from the 10th and 13th Army Corps, and were the very flower of the Federal army.

The first brigade, commanded by Gen. Strong, led the assault in column of regiments, the 54th Massachusetts, negro regiment recruited in that state, leading the brigade. On they came with a steady tramp until within easy rifle shot of the fort; they had been instructed to use the bayonet only.

Not a single shot had yet been fired from the parapet of Wagner and only the mournful cadence of the waves was heard breaking upon the beach. The stillness was ominous and oppressive.

Then came a few stirring words, addressed by the Federal officers to the troops; they responded with loud and prolonged huzzas and breaking into a full run they rushed gallantly upon the fort.

Wagner, which up to that moment seemed to the Federals to be almost without life, was suddenly lit up with a sheet of flame from bastion to bastion. The deepening twilight was illumined by the irruptive flashes of the small arms and the dark parapet of Wagner was decorated by a glowing ring of fire. The rattle and crash of thirteen hundred rifles was deafening and the guns of the gallant Simkins, the light battery of De Pass on the left, and a howitzer outside and on the right flank of the fort added to the roar and clamor.

Union attack on Battery Wagner in Harper's Weekly, Aug. 8, 1863.
Union attack on Battery Wagner in Harper's Weekly, Aug. 8, 1863.

These guns, heavily charged with canister and grape, poured at short range a withering and destructive fire upon the crowded masses of the enemy. The carnage was frightful; yet with unsurpassed gallantry, splendid to behold, the intrepid assailants, breasting the storm, rushed on to the glacis of the fort like the waves of the sea which broke upon the shore.

Oh ! the sickening harvest of death then reaped. Like the ripe grain that falls beneath the sickle, the Federal infantry reeled and sank to the earth by hundreds; yet the survivors pressed on over the dead and dying. Many crossed the ditch, and some leaping upon the parapet met death at the very muzzles of the Confederate rifles.

The Federal commander either did not remember the existence of the creek upon the right flank of the fort, or did not estimate the short distance between it and the sea at this point; therefore, as the assaulting columns pressed forward, they became crowded into masses which created confusion and greatly augmented the loss of life.

Human courage could no longer withstand the frightful blasts of the artillery, which, handled by Simkins with consummate skill and rapidity, well nigh blew them to pieces.

The 54th Massachusetts, leaving half their number killed and wounded on the field, broke and fled in confusion, and falling upon and forcing their way through the ranks of the advancing column threw it into confusion, and the entire brigade rushed to the rear completely routed.

The loss of life was terrible; the brigade commander, Gen. Strong, and Col. Chatfield of the 6th Connecticut, were mortally wounded; Col. Shaw, of the 54th Massachusetts was killed outright besides large numbers of other officers killed and wounded.

In the meantime the Confederate fire was incessant and destructive and a general repulse seemed so imminent that General Seymour saw the necessity of immediate support and he accordingly dispatched Maj. Plympton of his staff to order up Putnam with his supporting brigade.

To his amazement Putnam positively refused to advance, claiming that he had been directed by Gen. Gilmore to remain where he was.

Finally, after a disastrous delay, and without orders, says Gen. Seymour, this gallant young officer, who could not stand idly by and see his class mates and intimate friends cut to pieces, led forward his brigade and fiercely assaulted the southeast angle of the Fort.

He was received with a galling fire, for the first brigade having been repulsed, his approach was enfiladed by the centre and both flanks of the Fort, which swept the glacis and ditch in front of that angle with terrible effect.

It will be remembered that this south-east bastion had been left unguarded by the failure of the 31st North Carolina to man the ramparts there.

Notwithstanding the withering fire with which he was received, this intrepid officer cross the ditch, which had become filled with sand, and several hundred of his brigade poured into the sout-east bastion.

Heavily traversed on three sides this salient secured to these troops a safe lodgment for a time. Seeing the advantage gained by Putnam, Gen. Seymour had just sent an order to Gen. Stevenson to advance with his brigade to his support when he also was shot down.

While being carried from the field he repeated the order to Gen. Stevenson, but for some reason it was not obeyed.

Meanwhile Col. Putnam had leapt upon the parapet, and, surrounded by his chief officers, Col. Dandy, of the 100th New York, Capt. Klein of the 67th Connecticut and others, was waving his sword and urging his men to hold their ground, as they would soon be re-inforced, when he was shot dead upon the parapet.

In the language of his division commander, "There fell as brave a soldier, as courteous a gentleman, as true a man as ever walked beneath the Stars and Stripes."

An officer of his staff, Lieut. Cate, of the 7th New Hampshire, seeing his chief fall sprang to his side to aid him when a bullet pierced his heart and he too feel dead across his prostrate body.

Putnam's brigade now having also been repulsed with great slaughter, the enemy abandoned all further effort to carry the fort and thus ended this memorable bombardment and bloody assault.

The enemy's columns, shattered and torn, retreated as rapidly as possible until they gained the shelter of their works.

There was no cessation, however, of the Confederate fire during this rush to the rear, and Sumter and Gregg also threw their shells over Wagner into the crowded masses of the discomfited enemy.

In the meantime the Federal troops in the south-east bastion of the Fort were hopelessly cut off from retreat.

In the language of Gen. Taliaferro, "it was certain death" to pass the line of concentrated fire which still swept the faces of the work behind them, and they did not attempt it.

Still, these resolute men would not surrender and poured a concentrated fire into the Confederate ranks. Volunteers were called for to dislodge them, and this summons was responded to by Maj. McDonald of the 51st North Carolina, Capt. Rion of the Charleston Battalion, and Capt. Tatem of the 1st South Carolina, followed by many of their men."

Rion and Tatem were shot dead by these desperate refugees who seemed to invite immolation.

Being securely sheltered in the bastion of the Fort by heavy traverses, the effort to dislodge them failed and for hours they held their position.

Finally, Brigadier-General Johnson Hagood, of South Carolina, late Governor of that State and one of the most heroic soldiers that she ever sent to battle, landed at Cumming's Point at the head of Harrison's splendid regiment, the 32nd Georgia, for the purpose of reinforcing the garrison.

Hurrying to the Fort he found the assault repulsed, but he arrived at an opportune moment to compel the surrender of the obstinate men in the salient, who, seeing themselves outnumbered and with no hope of escape, laid down their arms.

The engagement had ended in a bloody and disastrous repulse to the assailants, and the ground in front of Wagner was literally strewn with the dead and dying. The cries of anguish and the piteous calls for water will never be forgotten by those who heard them.

The Federal loss, considering the numbers engaged, was almost unprecedented. Gen. Beauregard, in his official report, estimates it at three thousand as eight hundred dead bodies were buried by the Confederates in front of Wagner the following morning.

If this is a correct estimate, it will be seen that the Federals lost twice as many men as there were troops in the Confederate garrison.

Among their killed were Col. R. G. Shaw, of the 54th Massachusetts, Col. H. S. Putnam, and Lieut.-Colonel Greene of the 7th New Hampshire. Brigadier-General G. C. Strong and Colonel J. L. Chatfield, of the 6th Connecticut, were mortally wounded; Brigadier-General Seymour, commanding, Cols. W. B. Barton, A. C. Voris, J. H. Jackson and S. Emory were among the wounded. Lieut.-Colonel Bedell, 3d New Hampshire, and Maj. Filler, 55th Pennsylvania, were among the prisoners.

The Confederate loss in killed and wounded was only one hundred and seventy-four, but the loss on both sides was unusually heavy in commissioned officers. Among the Confederate officers killed were Lieut.-Colonel John C. Simkins, 1st South Carolina Infantry, Capt. W. H. Rion, Charleston Battalion, Capt. W. T. Tatem, 1st South Carolina Infantry, and Lieut. G. W. Thomson, 51st North Carolina.

The gallant Maj. Ramsey of the Charleston Battalion was mortally wounded. Among the wounded were Captains De Pass, Twiggs, and Lieutenant Stoney of the Staff.

It is said that "the bravest are the gentlest and the loving are the daring." This was eminently true of that accomplished gentleman and splendid soldier, Lieut.-Colonel J. C. Simkins of Edgefield, South Carolina. As Chief of Artillery, he had directed its operations with conspicuous skill and coolness, and he frequently mounted the parapet during the assault to encourage the infantry. He fell pierced through the right lung with a minnie ball, and died by my side with his hand clasped in mine. To me he gave his dying message to his wife, and long afterwards I found an opportunity to discharge this sad duty in person. Mrs. Simkins was the accomplished daughter of Judge Wardlaw of South Carolina, and not long since she joined her heroic husband in rest eternal beyond the stars.

The limit of this address would be far exceeded to give any account of the operations which for forty-eight days were incessantly prosecuted for the reduction of this indomitable Battery.

Suffice it to say that it was never reduced by artillery or captured by assault and was finally evacuated on the night of the 6th of September, 1863, after the Federals, resorting to the science of engineering, had pushed their sap to its counterscarp and were about to blow up the work with gun-powder.

In alluding to the defence of Charleston the Rev. John Johnson of that city, who was a gallant officer and the distinguished Chief of Engineers at Fort Sumter, in the conclusion of his admirable work entitled "The Defence of Charleston Harbor," from which I have drawn much valuable data in the preparation of this address, says: "It did not end in triumph, but it has left behind a setting glory as of the western skies, a blazonry of heroism where gold and purple serve to tell of valor and endurance, and the crimson hue is emblem of self-sacrifice in a cause believed to be just."

No sting is left in the soldier heart of the South for the brave men who fought us. The great Captain and Lord of Hosts, who guides the destiny of men and nations, directed the result of the struggle and made the Union of the North and the South indissoluble. Thus united, this great country which, in its marvelous development of progress, power, and wealth, has startled the world, is yet destined to compass inconceivable possibilities of achievement in its onward march in the race of nations.

Let us therefore accept, like a brave and patriotic people, the result of this great war between the States.

Let us bow with reverence to that Divinity which shaped it. Let us rejoice in the peace and prosperity which has followed it. Let us give our hands and hearts in cordial friendship and greeting to the gallant boys who once wore the blue. Let us forgive them more freely because time has made them like ourselves at last---the wearers of the gray.

But Comrades, let us never cease to honor and revere the martyred heroes who died in a cause they believed to be just.

"Forgive and forget?" Yes, be it so
From the hills to the broad sea waves;
But mournful and low are the winds that blow
By the slopes of a thousand graves.

We may scourge from the spirit all thought of ill
In the midnight of grief held fast,
And yet, oh Brothers, be loyal still
To the sacred and stainless Past.

She is glancing now from the vapor and cloud,
From the waning mansion of Mars,
And the pride of her beauty if wanly bowed,
And her eyes are misted stars.

And she speaks in a voice that is sad as death,
There is duty still to be done,
Tho' the trumpet of onset has spent its breath,
And the battle been lost and won.

And she points with a trembling hand below,
To the wasted and worn array
Of the heroes who strove in the morning glow
For the grandeur that crowned 'the Grey.'

Oh God ! they come not as once they came
In the magical years of yore;
For the trenchant sword and soul of flame
Shall quiver and flash no more.

Alas ! for the broken and battered hosts:
Frail wrecks from a gory sea;
Though pale as a band in the real of ghosts,
Salute them. They fought with Lee.

Our Confederate Ancestors: Part Three of The Daring Exploits of H. D. D. Twiggs and His Confederate Compatriots in the War Between the States

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A Series on the Daring Exploits of Our Confederate Ancestors in the War Between the States.

But, my friends, I may not detain you. An eloquent member of this Association has consented, on this occasion, to revive the memory of a siege illustrious in the annals of war; a siege, the brave traditions of which will live with the recollections of Leyden and Malta, Crema and Saragossa. Himself an actor in the grand drama, he will speak with the thunders of the guns still ringing in his ears, with the incidents of the strife indelibly stamped upon his retentive memory, and with the fervor of one who bared his breast in the heroic defence of Battery Wagner. I have the honor and the pleasure of presenting our friend and comrade, Lieutenant Colonel H. D. D. Twiggs, of the Georgia Regulars.

Introduction by Col. Charles C. Jones, Jr., President of the Confederate Survivors Association in 1892, 29 years after the Battle of Battery Wagner.

Part Three of

The Daring Exploits of H. D. D. Twiggs and His Confederate Compatriots in the War Between the States

Address of Hon. Lieut. Col. H. D. D. Twiggs on the Battle of Battery Wagner, July 18th, 1863, Delivered Before the Confederate Survivor's Association, Augusta, Georgia, at Its Fourteenth Annual Reunion, Memorial Day, April 26th, 1892.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : This is an UNBELIEVABLY detailed and exciting account of the second Battle of Battery Wagner, July 18, 1863, by a then-young officer who was there in the thick of it. What the movie Glory did for the Union side in 1989, Twiggs did for the Confederate 103 years earlier with this address.]

Mr. President and Comrades:

My theme for this occasion is the defence of Battery Wagner, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, against the combined attack of the land and naval forces of the United States, which occurred on the 18th of July, 1863.

The defence of Charleston harbor and of Fort Sumter, which commanded the channel approach to that city, is familiar to the civilized world. The memories of that heroic struggle have been preserved by history, and embalmed in story and in song; and while incidental reference will be made to these defences during a long and memorable siege, my remarks will be confined chiefly to the military operations against Wagner on the 18th July.

Battery-Wagner-Sheet-Music 43K

The almost unexampled magnitude of the war, involving during its four years of incessant strife an enormous sacrifice of men and material on both sides, tended to obscure and obliterate the details and incidents of any particular military event---yet the heroic defence of this outpost battery located upon an isolated island, against the powerful military and naval forces which assailed it, "is worthy in itself of the dignity of a great epic" even in the drama which in its gigantic proportions required a continent for its theatre of action.

History fails to furnish example more heroic, conflict more sanguinary, tenacity and endurance more determined and courageous than were displayed in the defence of this historic little stronghold.

From the time of its construction to the 18th of July, 1863, it was known and designed as Battery Wagner; after that memorable day the enemy called it Fort Wagner. A brave and appreciative foe thus christened it in a baptism of blood, but that earlier name was known only to the heroic dead who fell defending it upon its ramparts, and my unhallowed hand shall not disturb it.

Twenty years and more have elapsed since that bloody day, but the lesson then enforced is as important as ever, and no richer inheritance of emprise and valor will ever be transmitted to posterity.

In speaking of the defence of Charleston a prominent writer in "the French Journal of Military Science" states that prodigies of talent, audacity, intrepidity and perseverance are exhibited in the attack as in the defence of this city which will assign to the siege of Charleston an exceptional place in military annals.

Viscount Wolseley, Adjutant-General of the British Army, in reviewing some of the military records of the war in the "North American Review" of Nov. 1889, uses the following language: "Were I bound to select out of all four volumes the set of papers which appears of most importance at the present moment not only from an American, but also from a European point of view, I should certainly name those which describe the operations around Charleston."

For the instruction of those who are unfamiliar with the topography of Charleston and its surroundings, I shall give a short introductory description of the harbor defences of this city in order to convey a better appreciation of the location and relative importance of Battery Wagner.

Fort_Sumter_National_Mon 49K

Charleston, as you know, is situated on a narrow peninsula at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers.

These rivers in flowing together form a broad, picturesque, and beautiful bay, lying to the South-east of the city, which has for its Northern boundary the mainland, and for its Southern, James Island.

Fort Sumter is constructed upon its own little island of artificial rock, and is situated within the entrance to the harbor. It is nearly equi-distant between James and Sullivan's Islands, and is three and a half miles from East Bay battery of the city.

Fort Johnson on James Island is situated to the right of Sumter as you look from the battery towards the sea, and is one mile and a quarter from the Fort.

Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, is to the left of Sumter and about one mile distant from it.

Morris Island, upon which Battery Wagner was built, is a long, low, sandy sea island, denuded of growth, save here and there a solitary palmetto, and was considered practically the key to Charleston. Its Northern end nearest the city, known as Cummings Point, is the seaward limit of the harbor on the South, as Sullivan's Island is the seaward limit on the North, and these two points determine the entrance to the harbor and are about twenty-seven hundred yards apart.

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Morris Island is separated from James Island by wide and impenetrable marshes. On Cumming's Point was Battery Gregg, named in honor of Brig. General Maxey Gregg of South Carolina, killed at Fredericksburg, Va.

Nearly a mile South of Gregg, on the island, was located Battery Wagner. This famous work was erected to prevent the Federal occupation of the island and the erection of batteries for the destruction of Fort Sumter, which disputed the passage of the enemy's fleet to the city.

Battery Wagner was one and a half miles from Sumter and five miles from Charleston. Between Sumter and the shores of Morris and James Island is only shallow water, unfit for navigation.

The main channel, which is very deep between Sumter and Sullivan's Island, takes an abrupt turn to the South about one thousand yards East of Sumter and flows in a Southerly direction along the shores of Morris Island so that a fleet before entering the harbor would be compelled to run the gauntlet of Battery Wagner and Gregg before reaching Sumter and the city.

The importance therefore of these auxiliary defences against naval attack will be readily appreciated, and the necessity for their reduction by the Federals is equally manifest.

Situated to the South of Morris Island is Folly Island, separated from it by Light House Inlet, about five hundred yards wide.

After the memorable repulse of the Iron Clad Fleet under Real Admiral DuPont by Fort Sumter on the 7th of April, 1863, the enemy changed his plan of attack and the Union Commander, Genl. Q. A. Gilmore, who had relieved Maj. Genl. Hunter, concentrated upon Folly Island, 10,000 Infantry, 350 Artillery, and 600 Engineer Troops. In the meantime, Rear Admiral DuPont had been relieved and Rear Admiral Dahlgren placed in command of the naval squadron.

Concealed from the view of the Confederates by dense brushwood, the Federal Commander with remarkable skill and celerity had erected formidable batteries within easy range of the weak and imperfect works of the Confederates on the Southern end of the island. The presence of these works, armed with guns of heavy calibre, was unknown to the Confederates and was a complete surprise to them.

On the morning of the 10th of July these batteries were unmasked and a furious cannonade, supplemented by the guns of the fleet in Light-house Inlet, was opened upon the Confederate batteries, and under cover of this bombardment the Federal troops succeeded in effecting a landing and lodgment on Morris Island.

They were gallantly met by the Confederate troops under Col. Robert Graham of the First South Carolina Regiment; but, after a sharp and severe engagement, they were forced to yield to the superior numbers of the enemy, and being rapidly driven back sought shelter and refuge in Battery Wagner.

Following up rapidly this success, and anticipating an easy capture of the latter, which now alone seriously disputed their full occupation of the island, on July the 11th they made their first assault upon it.

During the night, however, Wagner had been re-inforced by 550 Georgia troops under Col. Charles H. Olmstead (the distinguished and heroic defender of Fort Pulaski) and Nelson 's South Carolina Battalion.

This assault lasted less than half an hour and resulted in a complete repulse of the assailants who retired to the Sand hills of the island out of the range of the Confederate battery.

General Gilmore then commenced the erection of heavy batteries on the island varying in distance from about 1300 to 1900 yards in front of Wagner, and thus were commenced the formidable preparations for the great attack upon it by land and sea on the 18th of July, 1863, which is the subject of this address.

Battery Wagner

was named after Lieut. Col. Thomas M. Wagner of the 1st Regiment of South Carolina Regular Artillery, who was killed by the bursting of a gun at Fort Moultrie in July, 1863.

It was a large bastioned earth work enclosed on all sides and was situated at a very narrow neck of the island extending across its full width at that point from the sea on one side to Vincent Creek on the other, so that its flanks were protected by these natural barriers from assault.

Its sea line, which faced the ship channel, was 300 feet long and its land faces extended about 250 yards across the island.

Its magazine was protected by a roofing of heavy timbers which were compactly covered over with ten feet of sodded earth. It was also provided with a bomb-proof, similarly constructed for the protection of the troops, thirty feet wide by one hundred feet long.

There was also a gallery of a similar character about twelve feet wide by thirty feet long through which the bomb proof was entered from the parade of the Fort.

The work was constructed with heavy traverses, and its gorge on the North face provided with a parapet for Infantry fire. The embrasures were revetted with palmetto logs and turf, and around the work was a wide, deep, but dry ditch.

In the parade of the Fort on its West side was a row of wooden tenements, roughly built for officers' quarters and medical stores.

Brigadier General Taliaferro, who had been stationed with his command on James Island, was ordered by General Beauregard to take command of Battery Wagner and, on the morning of the 14th July, he relieved Col. Robert Graham of that charge. This gallant officer, who was a native of Virginia and who is still living and practicing law in that State, had served with the immortal Stonewall Jackson in many of his brilliant campaigns in the valley.

While at home in Georgia convalescing from a wound received while serving with my Regiment in Virginia, I was ordered to report to Gen. Beauregard at Charleston and was assigned to duty with Gen. Taliaferro, who placed me temporarily on his personal staff as Assistant Inspector General.

I trust that you will pardon this reference to myself. I make it, because I claim for this narrative some degree of accuracy acquired largely from personal observation in the drama afterwards enacted.

Between the 12th and 18th of July the enemy was steadily and rapidly constructing and equipping his batteries designed to co-operate with the fleet in the bombardment which followed.

THE MONITORS.

While this work was in progress, the monitors of the fleet would daily leave their anchorage and engage in a desultory shelling of the fort. The huge projectiles, fired from their 15 inch guns, weighing 440 pounds and visible at every point of their trajectories, made it very uncomfortable for the garrison.

They practiced firing ricochet shots which would skip and bound upon the water, each impingement making sounds similar to the discharge of the gun itself. Indeed, until this curious phenomenon was noted, the multiplication of detonations was regarded as separate discharges of different guns.

Some of these enormous shells would roll into the fort, bury themselves in the earth, and, with deafening explosions, would make huge craters in the sand, lifting it in great columns, which falling in showers like the scoriae and ashes from a volcanic eruption, would fill the eyes, ears, and clothing, mingling the dirt of the fort with the original dust from which we sprung.

Some would burst in the air; others passing over the fort with a rush and roar which has aptly been likened to the noise of an express train, would explode in the marsh beyond.

Of course our guns replied, but they were so inferior in calibre compared to those of the monitors, that they did little harm at such long range to the iron armor of their turrets eleven inches in thickness.

THE ARMAMENT OF WAGNER

consisted of one 10 inch Columbiad, one 32 pound rifle, one 42 pounder Carronade, two 32 pounder Carronade, two naval shell guns, one 8 inch sea coast howitzer, four smooth bore 32 pounders, and one 10 inch sea coast mortar; in all thirteen guns, besides one light battery. Of these only the 10 inch Columbiad, which carried a projectile weighing 128 pounds, was of much effect against the monitors.

THE STAFF

of Gen. Taliaferro consisted of W. T. Taliaferro, Assistant Adjutant General, Lieutenants Henry C. Cunningham and Mazyek, ordnance officers, Captain Burke, Quartermaster, Lieutenants Meade and Stoney, aides, Dr. J. C. Habersham, Surgeon in Chief, and Captain H. D. D. Twiggs, Inspector General.

THE GARRISON

was composed of the 51st North Carolina, Col. H. McKethan; the 31st North Carolina, Lieut. Col. Charles W. Knight; the Charleston Battalion, Lieut. Col. P. C. Gaillard; the Artillery Companies of Captains J. T. Buckner and W. J. Dixon, of the 63d Georgia Regiment, and two field howitzer details of Lieut. T. D. Waties of the 1st South Carolina Regular Artillery.

All the Artillery was under the immediate command of Lieut. Col. John C. Simkins of the 1st South Carolina Regular Infantry.

Let it be borne in mind that the entire garrison, according to official reports, numbered on the 18th of July thirteen hundred men only. These troops had relieved, a few days before, Olmstead's Georgia Regiment, Capers', Hanvey's and Basinger's Georgia Battalions, Nelson's South Carolina Battalion, and the Artillery Companies of Mathews and Chichester under Lieut. Col. Yates of South Carolina. They had participated gallantly in repelling the assault of the 11th of July and needed relief from the heavy work and details to which they had constantly been subjected.

THE FORCE OF THE ENEMY

opposed to this artillery and infantry force of Wagner consisted of four heavy batteries on the island mounting 42 siege guns of heavy calibre, and the naval squadron of iron clads and gun-boats carrying an armament of 23 of the most formidable guns ever before used in the reduction of a fortification, making an aggregate of 64 guns.

In addition there were 6,000 veteran infantry within the batteries on the island, ready for the assault. To say that the outlook to the garrison of Wagner was appalling, but feebly expresses the situation.

THE BOMBARDMENT BEGINS.

On the morning of the 18th I was invited to breakfast with Dr. Harford Cumming of Augusta, Ga., an Assistant Surgeon in the Fort. Our repast consisted of some hard crackers and a tin bucket of fresh butter sent the Doctor from home; a most tempting meal in those times of gastronomic privation.

We were sitting in the little Medical Dispensary over which the Doctor presided, by the side of an open window which looked out upon the parade, with a small table between us upon which our breakfast was laid.

Just as we had begun our meal, a 200 pounder Parrott shell was heard screaming through the air above us and descending it buried itself in the earth just outside the window. It exploded with terrific report, shattering into fragments the glass and filling our bucket, about half full of butter, with sand to the very top. The frail tenement reeled with the shock.

This shell was followed by another and another in rapid succession, which exploded in the parade of the Fort and were fired from the land batteries of the enemy.

This was the beginning of the bombardment long anticipated and our first intimation of it. We no longer felt the pangs of hunger and hurriedly left the building for a safer place.

Upon reaching the open air the shot and shell began to fall by scores and we saw the infantry streaming to the bomb-proof.

For a considerable time the firing of the enemy was conducted by the land batteries alone.

Finally the enemy's entire squadron, iron clads and gunboats, left their moorings and bore down steadily and majestically upon the Fort. The heavy artillerists sprang to their guns and, with anxious but resolute faces, awaited coolly the terrible onset.

It was now apparent that the entire force of the enemy, land and naval, was about to be hurled against Wagner alone, but the dauntless little Garrison, lifting their hearts to the God of battles in this hour of fearful peril, with their flag floating defiantly above them, resolved to die if need be for their altars, their firesides and their homes.

The day broke bright and beautiful. A gentle breeze toyed with the folds of the garrison flag as it streamed forth with undulating grace, or lazily curved about the tall staff. The God of day rising in the splendor of his midsummer glory, flung his red flame upon the swelling sea, and again performed the miracle or turning the water into wine.

Rising still higher he bathed the earth and sea in his own radiant and voluptuous light, and burnished with purple and gold the tall spires of the beleaguered and devoted old city.

What a strange contrast between the profound calm of nature and the gathering tempest of war, whose consuming lightnings and thunders were so soon to burst forth with a fury unsurpassed!

On came the fleet, straight for the Fort; Admiral Dahlgren's flag ship, the Monitor Montauk, Commander Fairfax, in the lead.

It was followed by the New Ironsides, Captain Rowan; the Monitors, Catskill, Commander Rogers; Patapsco, Lieut. Commander Badger; Nantucket, Commander Beaumont, and Weehawken, Commander Calhoun.

There were besides five gunboats, the Paul Jones, Commander Rhind; Ottawa, Commander Whiting; the Seneca, Commander Gibson; the Chippewa, Commander Harris, and the Wissahickon, Commander Davis.

Swiftly and noiselessly the Monitors approached, the white spray breaking from their sharp prows, their long dark hull lines scarcely showing above the water, and their coal black drum-like turrets glistening in the morning's sun.

Approaching still nearer they formed the arc of a circle around Wagner, the nearest being about three hundred yards distant from it.

With deliberate precision they halted and waited the word of command to sweep the embrasures of the Fort where our intrepid cannoniers stood coolly by their guns.

As the flagship Montauk wheeled into action at close quarters, a long puff of white smoke rolled from the mouth of the 10 inch Columbiad on the sea face of the Fort, and the iron plated turret of the Monitor reeled and quivered beneath the crashing blow.

Then the pent up thunders of the brewing storm of death burst forth in all their fury and poured upon the undaunted Wagner a remorseless stream of nine, eleven, and fifteen inch shells monitor after monitor, ship after ship, battery after battery, and then altogether hurled a tempest of iron hail upon the Fort.

About seventy guns were now concentrating a terrific fire upon it, while the guns of Wagner, aided at long range by the batteries of Sumter and Gregg, and those on Sullivan's and James Islands replied.

Words fail to convey an adequate idea of the fury of this bombardment. "It transcended all exhibitions of like character encountered during the war."

It seemed impossible that anything could withstand it.

More than one hundred guns of the heaviest calibre were roaring, flashing and thundering together. Before the Federal batteries had gotten the exact range of the work, the smoke of the bursting shells, brightened by the sun, was converted into smoke wreathes and spirals which curved and eddyed in every direction; then as the fire was delivered with greater precision, the scene was appalling and awe inspiring beyond expression and the spectacle to the lookers on was one of surpassing sublimity and grandeur.

In the language of Gen. Gilmore, "the whole island smoked like a furnace and shook as from an earthquake."

For eleven long hours the air was filled with every description of shot and shell that the magazines of war could supply. The light of day was almost obscured by the now darkening and sulphurous smoke which hung over the island like a funeral pall.

Still later in the afternoon as the darkness gathered and deepened did the lightnings of war increase in the vividness of their lurid and intolerable crimson which flashed through the rolling clouds of smoke and illumined the Fort from bastion to bastion with a scorching glare; clouds of sand were constantly blown into the air from bursting shells; the waters of the sea were lashed into white foam and thrown upwards in glistening columns by exploding bombs while side sheets of spray inundated the parapet, and Wagner" dripping with salt water, shook like a ship in the grasp of the storm.

By this time all the heavy guns were dismounted, disabled, or silenced, and only a few gun detachments were at their posts.

Passive endurance now only remained for the garrison while the storm lasted. The troops generally sheltered themselves, as best they could, in the bomb proofs and behind the traverses. But for such protection as was thus afforded, the loss of life would have been appalling and the garrison practically annihilated.

There was one command only which preferred the open air to the almost insufferable heat of the bomb proof, and sheltered itself only under the parapet and traverses on the land face of the Fort during that frightful day. Not one member of that heroic band, officer or man, sought other shelter. In all the flight of time and the records of valor, no example ever transcended their splendid heroism. All honor to the glorious name and deathless fame of "Gaillard's Charleston Battalion."

A little after two o'clock, two deeds of heroism were enacted which will never be forgotten by the lookers on. The halliards were cut by a shot or shell, and the large garrison flag released from the lofty staff fell into the parade.

Instantly, and without hesitation, there were a score of men racing for the prostrate colors. Out into the open area, they rushed regardless of the storm of death falling around them. Maj. Ramsay, Sergeant Shelton, and Private Flynn of the Charleston Battalion, and Lieutenant Reddick of the 63rd Georgia Regiment, bore it back in triumph to the staff and deliberately adjusted it. Up it went again, and amid the cheers of the garrison the Confederate banner again floated defiantly in the smoke of battle.

Some little delay occurred in adjusting the flag, and some few moments elapsed during which Wagner showed no colors to the enemy. Supposing that the Fort had struck its flag in token of surrender, exultant cheers burst forth from the crew of the Ironsides.

At that moment Captain Robert Barnwell of the Engineers seized a Regimental battle flag and recklessly leaping upon the exposed ramparts, he drove its staff into the sand and held it there until the garrison flag had been hoisted in its place.

There was one Jasper at Moultrie.

There were a score of them at Wagner.

In the meantime the City of Charleston was aflame with excitement; the battery, house-tops and steeples were crowded with anxious spectators. Hundreds of fair women were there with hands clasped in silent prayer for the success of their gallant defenders; strong men looked on with throbbing hearts and broke forth into exclamations which expressed their hopes and fears.

How can the Fort hold out much longer? It has ceased firing altogether! Its battery has been silenced!

Yes but see the colors streaming still amid the battle smoke!

Suddenly the flag is seen to droop, then rapidly descend.

Oh God! was the agonized cry, Wagner has at last struck her colors and surrendered. Oh! the unspeakable suspense of that moment.

Then tumultuous cheers arose from hundreds of throats amid the waving of snowy handkerchiefs.

No ! no ! they shouted, look ! Look! It has gone up again, and its crimson cross flashes once more amid shot and shell and battle smoke.

What a wonderful power there is in the flag of one's country. How mysterious the influence by which it sways and moves the hearts of men.

A distinguished general in the Confederate army, who had been an officer in the old army, was so strongly imbued with the power of this influence over the will of men that he expressed the belief that if the Confederate Government had adhered to the stars and stripes thousands in the North, who, early in the war were Southern sympathizers, would have rallied around it, and thousands, who were actually arrayed against us, would have refused to fire upon it.

The colors of an army have carried more strongholds than the bayonet, and battered down more fortresses than artillery.

Even in Holy Writ we find the expression "As terrible as an army with banners."

'Twas the flag that floated again over Wagner which restored confidence in Charleston, and the exultant cry which broke from the lips of these lookers on, was the echo of that hoarser shout in the battle scarred Fort in the  midst of the roar of cannon.

The banner of the stars and stripes is again the flag of our united country, and long may it wave over the land and the sea, for it is the symbol and the emblem of a union never again to be sundered.

The Southern heart is true and loyal to that flag but base is the soul and craven is the heart of him who marched and fought beneath the starry cross of Dixie which will cease to love and honor it.

It waved its conquering folds in the smoke of battle at Manassas and Shiloh. It stirred the souls of men with thrilling power in the wild assault upon Cemetery Hill. It floated triumphant amid the roar of cannon at Spottsylvania's bloody salient, and was borne resistless at the head of  conquering hosts on an hundred bloody fields.

Though furled forever and no longer existing as the emblem of a brave and heroic people, still we salute thee with love and reverence oh ! phantom banner of that great army underground, which died beneath thy crimson cross.

"For though conquered, we adore it,
Love the cold dead hands that bore it."

But I return to the raging battle at Wagner.

All day did the furious bombardment continue without intermission. The long midsummer day seemed endless and the fierce July sun seemed commanded by another Joshua to stand still---would it never set?

The wooden tenements in the fort were literally torn into splinters, and the ground bore little trace of where they stood.

The fort itself was pounded into an almost shapeless mass; the parapet, traverses, scarp, and counter scarp, were well nigh obliterated, and the ditch was filled with sand.

The covering of the bomb--proof had, to a large extend, been torn away, and now the magazine containing a large quantity of powder was in imminent danger of being breached by the heavy projectiles hurled incessantly against it, and the immense shells from the Cohorn mortars which, thrown to an incredible altitude, would descend with terrific force now almost upon the yielding and dislocated timbers.

The magazine once pierced, Wagner would have been blown to atoms, with not a man surviving to tell the story of its demolition. The reports constantly made to the commanding officer by the ordinance sergeant in charge justified the gravest fears of such a catastrophe.

Once, after a report of its condition had been made, this stern old veteran, addressing a member of his staff sitting beside him, quietly asked him if he was a married man.

Upon being answered in the affirmative, he shrugged his shoulders and said with a grim smile, "I'm sorry, sir, for we shall soon be blown into the marsh."

Indeed this result was but the question of a little time when suddenly, to the infinite relief of the harassed and weary garrison, the blazing circle of the enemy's fleet and batteries ceased to glow with flame.

In the language of Gen. Taliaferro, "the ominous pause was understood---the supreme moment of that awful day had come."

Wagner, which could not be conquered by shot and shell, must now be carried by assault. . . .

Part Two, the Conclusion, of Hon. Lieut. Col. H. D. D. Twiggs' Address will be published next week, July 22, 2021 in Part IV, Conclusion, of The Daring Exploits of H. D. D. Twiggs and His Confederate Compatriots in the War Between the States.

Lt. Col. H. D. D. Twiggs' Address comes from "Anonymous, British Library, Historical Print Editions, Jones, Charles Colcock, 1892" from the BiblioLife Network under title: Defence of Battery Wagner, July 18th, 1863. Addresses delivered before the Confederate Survivors' Association ... by Col: C. C. Jones ... Hon: Lieut: Col: H. D. D. Twiggs ... and by Captain F. E. Eve.

The title page states: DEFENCE OF BATTERY WAGNER, JULY 18TH, 1863. / ADDRESSES / Delivered Before the / Confederate Survivors Association / in / Augusta, Georgia, / On the Occasion of Its Fourteenth Annual Reunion / on / Memorial Day, April 26th, 1892, / by / COL. CHARLES C. JONES, Jr., LL. D., / President of the Association / by / HON: LIEUT: COL: H. D. D. TWIGGS, / Member of the Association, / and by / CAPTAIN F. EDGEWORTH EVE, / First Vice President of the Association. / Printed by Order of the Association. / Augusta, Georgia. / Chronicle Publishing Company. / 1892.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : This article is verbatim from the original including with the original spelling and most of the punctuation. Long paragraphs were broken up, here and there, for easier online reading.]