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Issue 31 Summer 2016

Featured in This Issue A Confederate Poem Page 2

What was the Confederacy

After All Page 2

Arnold and Cooley Sword

And Bayonet Factory Page 4

Blacks in the Confederacy Page 5

War Photos Page 7

The Angel of Goliad Page 9

“Love Lincoln”

Propaganda Page 12

MOS&B Texas Society

Conventions Page 14

Book Report Page 14

People and Scenes Page 15

From the War

The Todd Family:

Kentucky Confederates Page 16

Chapter Commander

Report Page 18

A Confederate Poem

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How many springs have gone since they

Who wore the uniform of gray

Last looked upon summer snow

Of dogwood, blooming below

Their southern skies and friendly sun,

Or watched the winding rivers run

Or knew when spring wind's gentle hand

Stretched forth to heal their

Wounded land.

They sleep where the azaleas spread

Their glorious colors, where the

Red old hills

And mountain peaks

Stand listening while nature speaks.

And from the woodlands

Sound the strains

Of memories; where coastal plains

Run down to join the ceaseless tide

Ebbing and flowing as they died.

Let us remember them as time

And tide move on in endless rhyme.

When spring is wearing her bouquet

For the lost legions of the gray.

While bud and blossom, hill and tree

Remember them, so shall we.

Shelby County Reunion 1923

What Was the Confederacy After All?

By Kirkpatrick Sale

[Editor’s Note: This article was taken from

the Abbeville Institute website:

http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org.

The article was originally published at

lewrockwell.com.]

About the writer: Kirkpatrick Sale is an

independent scholar and founder of the

Middlebury Institute. He is the author of

dozens of books and scholarly publications,

including his most recent Emancipation Hell:

The Tragedy Wrought by the Emancipation

Proclamation.

In all the recent fuss over symbols of the

Confederacy, whether to honor them or

get rid of the lot, not much attention has

been paid to what that Confederacy was,

after all, and why it might be something

that anyone would want to commemorate.

Of course one side doesn’t care. It is

sufficient for them that among the

attributes of that government was a

devotion to the defense of slavery, and

about that there is no possibility of

rational discussion or gradations of

judgment. What difference do any other

attributes make?

And the other side is not very articulate

about why the Confederacy matters any

more, except to say that their ancestors

fought nobly for it back then and they

should still be remembered today. And

getting excited about a lot of people dying

a century-and-a-half ago, no matter how

honorably, doesn’t seem all that

important to many people today.

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But I have just come back from a

conference sponsored by the Abbeville

Institute at Stone Mountain Park in

Georgia, devoted to discussing what one

speaker called “the cultural genocide

being waged against the South,” during

which a number of speakers made very

clear what the Confederacy represents

and why it is still important for us—all of

us, regardless of region or color—to

remember today.

Perhaps the first theme that emerged was

that the Confederacy was in its

inception—and could still stand for us

today—as an embodiment of the

Jeffersonian vision of an America, in

which states’ rights would predominate,

the powers of the central government

were prescribed and proscribed, and

political and economic life would remain

closer to the human scale. This stood in

sharp contrast to the Lincolnian vision

just then being thrust on the nation by the

Republican Party, which stood for the

consolidation of central power, the use of

that power to the ends of the industrial

and financial interests of the North, and

the accession of the states to the

increasing reach of Washington,

particularly over “internal

improvements,” especially transportation

infrastructure.

These were significant differences, and if

not often spoken aloud were definitely in

the minds and hearts of both camps in the

period before the war. So important was

the perpetuation of the Jeffersonian

vision to the South that the Confederacy

began its constitution with the declaration

“We, the people of the Confederate

States, each state acting in its sovereign

and independent character,” a ringing

assertion of state sovereignty in sharp

contrast to the original Constitution’s

more general idea of “We, the people of

the United States.” Indeed, it was the

failure of the U.S. Constitution to spell

out state sovereignty that led people like

Lincoln to postulate that the states were

no different from the counties in a state,

creatures of the government and obedient

to its dictates.

The Confederate constitution, reflecting

the character of its people, was also

explicit in “invoking the favor and

guidance of Almighty God,” a sentiment

absent from the U.S. Constitution. As

difficult as it may be to believe in this day

and age, it was an appropriate sentiment

and sentinel for the Southerners of that

time.

A second vital theme was the role of the

Confederacy in resisting the attempts of

the North to dominate the South, in

upholding Southern rights. In particular,

it resented the usurpation of Southern

tariffs for three-fourths of the U.S.

budget, which largely went to foster the

industrial interests of the North in the

antebellum years—and that is why the

Confederate constitution was careful to

spell out that its congress was forbidden

to appropriate money “to promote or

foster any branch of industry” so that the

Confederate government could never

treat the South as the national

government had. Not only were the states

sovereign, but the Confederacy was

sovereign, no longer under the Northern

thumb.

All that explains better than any

monument can convey the reason that so

many Southerners of military age were

ready to sign up for a war of resistance to

Northern invasion—unlike Northerners,

who readily avoided service and forced

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the Union army to rely so heavily on

foreign mercenaries and black regiments.

It explains also why today there are still

so many people who invoke the memory

of the Confederacy and the principles for

which it was formed. It may have served

to perpetuate the sin of slavery, which

after all was the basis of its prosperous

economy, but it stood for far more than

that.

It stood for values that are worth having

statues and memorials and street names

and ceremonies for.

Arnold & Cooley Sword

and Bayonet Factory

In 1848, Earle Cooley, a native of

Middletown, Connecticut moved to

Wadesboro. In time, he married a local

woman and started a dry goods business

with Seth Arnold, also a Middletown

native. This business was located near the

square of downtown Wadesboro on West

Wade Street. Across from the store was a

warehouse that they kept stocks of bacon,

flour, corn meal, and other groceries.

Starting in February 1862 they had a

contract with the Confederate

Government to manufacture firearms,

swords, and etc. The first factory was

located on West Wade Street. In the

beginning, they made swords, daggers,

bowie knives and sword type bayonets.

Advertisements were placed in the local

paper for brass to make the sword and

bayonet handles.

In March, 1862 as business improved,

they leased a parcel of land owned by

Alfred Baucom for one thousand dollars.

The parcel was located off Jones Creek

near Baucom’s mill just outside

Wadesboro. The factory was built and the

Baucom mill pond was enlarged to power

the factory’s overshot wheel. 500 pound

bundles of steel were supplied by the

Confederate Government.

At this factory the newer style bayonets

were made and also rifled muskets were

assembled. They had seven employees

that are named in various documents.

One was a slave named Adam belonging

to George Willoughby. On May 13, 1863,

Adam drowned in the factory pond. He

and some other workers went to the pond

for a swim after dinner. It was supposed

that he was overheated and cramped after

diving into the fifteen-foot deep water.

Efforts were made to resuscitate him, but

the efforts failed.

It is not known how many swords,

bayonets, and rifled muskets were made

at the factory. The only known Arnold &

Cooley sword (a copy of the Nathan Starr

sword) resides in the Greensboro

Historical Museum. Earle Cooley’s

daughter gave the sword to the museum.

Below is a similar pattern sword. This

sword belonged to Colonel Risden T.

Bennett of the 14th North Carolina

Infantry and is now property of Anson

County.

The information for this article comes

from Confederate contract documents,

Anson County deeds, wartime issues of

the North Carolina Argus newspaper,

and an interview with one of the workers,

Gaston Huntley, which was recorded in

the “Book of Remembrances” page 301.

This book is a one of a kind and does not

exist anywhere in print. It is a large

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ledger book with handwritten articles and

original photographs that was put

together by the Anson County United

Daughters of the Confederacy per request

by the county commissioners in the mid

1930’s.

Colonel Risden T. Bennett Sword

Blacks in the Confederacy An Interesting Viewpoint

Last July, Anthony Hervey, an outspoken

black advocate for the Confederate flag,

was killed in a car crash. Arlene Barnum,

a surviving passenger in the vehicle, told

authorities and the media that they had

been forced off the road by a carload of

"angry young black men" after Hervey,

while wearing his Confederate kepi,

stopped at a convenience store en route to

his home in Oxford, Mississippi. His

death was in no small part caused by the

gross level of ignorance, organized deceit

and anger about the War of 1861. Much

of the ignorance stems from the fact that

most Americans believe the war was

initiated to free slaves, when in truth,

freeing slaves was little more than an

afterthought. I want to lay out a few

quotations and ask what you make of

them.

During the "Civil War," ex-slave

Frederick Douglass observed, "There are

at the present moment many colored men

in the Confederate army doing duty not

only as cooks, servants and laborers, but

as real soldiers, having muskets on their

shoulders, and bullets in their pockets,

ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do

all that soldiers may to destroy the

Federal Government and build up that of

the traitors and rebels" (Douglass'

Monthly, September 1861).

"For more than two years, negroes had

been extensively employed in belligerent

operations by the Confederacy. They had

been embodied and drilled as Rebel

soldiers, and had paraded with White

troops at a time when this would not have

been tolerated in the armies of the

Union." (Horace Greeley, in his book,

"The American Conflict").

"Over 3,000 negroes must be included in

this number (of Confederate troops).

These were clad in all kinds of uniforms,

not only in cast-off or captured United

States uniforms, but in coats with

Southern buttons, State buttons, etc.

These were shabby, but not shabbier or

seedier than those worn by white men in

rebel ranks. Most of the negroes had

arms, rifles, muskets, sabres, bowie-

knives, dirks, etc. They were supplied, in

many instances, with knapsacks,

haversacks, canteens, etc., and were

manifestly an integral portion of the

Southern Confederacy Army. They were

seen riding on horses and mules, driving

wagons, riding on caissons, in

ambulances, with the staff of Generals,

and promiscuously mixed up with all the

rebel horde" (report by Dr. Lewis H.

Steiner, chief inspector of the U.S.

Sanitary Commission).

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In April 1861, a Petersburg, Virginia,

newspaper proposed "three cheers for the

patriotic free Negroes of Lynchburg"

after 70 blacks offered "to act in

whatever capacity" had been "assigned to

them" in defense of Virginia.

Those are but a few examples of the

important role that blacks served as

soldiers, freemen and slaves on the side of

the Confederacy. The flap over the

Confederate flag is not quite so simple as

the nation's race "experts" make it. They

want us to believe the flag is a symbol of

racism. Yes, racists have used the

Confederate flag as their symbol, but

racists have also marched behind the U.S.

flag and have used the Bible. Would

anyone suggest banning the U.S. flag

from state buildings and references to the

Bible?

Black civil rights activists, their white

liberal supporters and historically

ignorant Americans who attack the

Confederate flag have committed a deep,

despicable dishonor to our patriotic

Southern black ancestors who marched,

fought and died not to protect slavery but

to protect their homeland from Northern

aggression. They don’t deserve the

dishonor. Dr. Leonard Haynes, a black

professor at Southern University, stated,

“When you eliminate the black

Confederate soldier, you’ve eliminated

the history of the South.”

Gettysburg Trivia

1. Confederate troops first entered

Gettysburg looking for what?

2. With J.E. B. Stuart unavailable,

to whom did Lee turn for

information on the Federal

army?

3. What tragic occurrence

happened to the 26th

North

Carolina?

4. What weather situation

occurred after the Gettysburg

battle (as it did after many large

battles)?

5. What notable event happened to

Federal General Daniel Sickles?

Answers on page 19

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WAR PHOTOS

Dead Horses and Mules after a Battle

Federal Ironclad Paddle Wheeler

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Richmond Destruction

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TEXAS HISTORY

The Angel of

Goliad

On the morning of March 27, 1836 the

majority of the 400 Texan soldiers who

under the command of Colonel James

Walker Fannin had surrendered to

Mexican forces a week previously were

led out the gates of the presidio of La

Bahia, a fort originally built by the

Spanish that Fannin had rechristened

Fort Defiance after he had taken up

command of the post. The Texan men

were of the belief that they were going

home; that the Mexican army was

pardoning them in return for their pledge

not to take up arms against the Mexican

army again. They did not know that they

were being marched to their death.

Left behind in the fort on that Palm

Sunday morning was Col. Fannin and

others who had been too badly wounded a

week earlier in the Battle of Coleto Creek

to walk on their own, as well as Texan

surgeons Jack Shackelford, Joseph Henry

Barnard and Joseph Field and other

Texans like Abel Morgan and Joseph

Spohn who were deemed as possessing

skills that could be utilized by the ill

equipped Mexican Army. While Colonel

Fannin and the rest of the wounded

would meet the same fate as the men

outside the fort, the surgeons and a few

others would find their lives spared so

they may be of service to the Mexican

army, which was seriously deficient of

medical resources. Just as the Texan

surgeons did not know that their

comrades were being marched to their

deaths, they also were unaware that it was

through the intercession of a Mexican

woman – Francita Alavez, the consort of a

Mexican officer – that they were not

similarly being marched off to face a

firing squad. Francita Alavez was the

consort of Captain Telesforo Alavez, an

officer under the command of General

Urrea during the Texas Campaign. She is

credited with interceding and saving the

lives of Texan soldiers on three occasions

and offering aid on several others, but it

is her actions preceding the Goliad

Massacre that earned her the title “The

Angel of Goliad” and her place in history.

The exact origin of this moniker is

unclear, as several of the Goliad survivors

refer to Francita as an angel, but it most

likely is derived from the statements of

Dr. Jack Shackelford whose account

published in 1841 is the earliest to

specifically refer to Alavez (who he calls

Pacheta Alavesco). He calls her “an angel

of mercy – a second Pocahontas.”

Francita traveled to Goliad with the

Mexican army entering into the presidio

there a few days prior to March 27th.

Upon hearing that the Texans were to be

executed here too, she again worked to

save what lives she could. Dr. Barnard

recounts that “she so effectually pleaded

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with Col. Garray…he resolved to save all

that he could.” In addition to pleading

with Col. Garray, Francita also “saved by

connivance some of the officers – gone

into the fort at night and taken out some

whom she kept concealed until after the

massacre.”

What makes the story of Francita

interesting is that to the Mexican army

she was unimportant – she is just another

of the many women traveling with the

army. General Urrea, the commanding

Mexican officer at Coleto Creek and the

Goliad Massacre makes no mention of her

in his account of the events in and around

Goliad. To the Texans, however, she

played a central role in the story of

Goliad and is mentioned often.

In the 1930s Samuel Asbury, a chemist

employed by Texas A&M University who

was also an amateur historian, had great

interest in the Texas Revolution and went

to great lengths to find out what had

happened to her after the Texas

Revolution. He corresponded with the

United States State Department and

Mexican government officials attempting

unsuccessfully to find out how she had

died and her burial site.

The mystery of the fate of The Angel of

Goliad was solved – or further

complicated, depending on how you look

at it – in the most unlikely of manners. In

a 1936 article in the Dallas Morning News,

Marjorie Rogers related the story of the

events of Goliad and Francita’s part in

the drama. As with the primary accounts

of Goliad, Rogers ends the story of

Francita with her return to Matamoras.

Rogers ends her article stating that “her

true identity has been lost to posterity,”

but the publication of Rogers’ article and

the attention it drew to the mystery of the

Angel of Goliad provided the catalyst for

the final act in her dramatic story. About

a month after the Rogers article was

published, the Dallas Morning News

published a letter to the editor from Elena

Zamora O’Shea under the heading

“Sequel of Angel of Goliad.” In her letter

Ms. O’Shea relates a story from her time

as a teacher on the King Ranch in south

Texas. She writes that while employed on

the ranch she met Matias Alvarez, the son

of Francita and Telesforo Alavez who

related to her the family history.

According to Matias, the two were not

legally married as his father came from a

wealthy family and was therefore

required to marry according to the wishes

of his family. Being Catholic Telesforo

was unable to divorce his wife, so instead

abandoned her in favor of living with his

childhood sweetheart Francisca who

traveled with him when his military

career took him to the Mexican frontier.

O’Shea writes that according to Matias,

the couple settled in Matamoras together

following the end of the war in Texas

where they and their two children lived

until Telesforo died.

After Telesforo’s death, Matias took work

on various ranches ending up on the King

ranch in 1884 and bringing his mother

and sister with him. The Angel of Goliad

lived out the rest of her life in obscurity

on the King Ranch and is supposedly

buried in an unmarked grave somewhere

on the vast ranch.

Ms. O’Shea’s tale is fantastical but in

many ways it enhances the mystique of

the Angel of Goliad rather than solving

the mystery of who the Angel was and

what happened to her. In her research for

her article, Marjorie Rogers examined the

military records of Telesforo Alavez

noting that he retires from the Mexican

army in the early 1850s.That raises the

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question of when the couple began

residing in Matamoras. Was it soon after

the end of the Texas Campaign, at the end

of Telesforo’s military career, or some

point in between? The O’Shea letter also

raises more questions than it answers

regarding the name of the mysterious

Angel. O’Shea uses the surname Alvarez

for both Telesforo and Francisca and

their progeny. Yet, official records for

Telesforo list his surname as Alavez. At

what point does the surname change

occur and why? Unfortunately, as

enthralling as O’Shea’s story is she offers

no evidence to corroborate her memories.

Corroboration, however, can be found in

the memoirs of Lauro F. Cavazos, United

States Secretary of Education under

Ronald Reagan and first Hispanic

appointed to a US Cabinet position.

Cavazos was born on the King Ranch, a

fourth generation kineño (term used to

describe residents of the ranch, translates

as King’s People) and possible fifth-

generation descendent of Francita and

Telesforo Alavez. In his memoirs Cavazos

writes that his mother Tomas Álvarez

Quintanilla was “probably” a descendent

of the couple and provides a brief

synopsis of the little that is known of their

lives including the account of Elena

Zamora O’Shea.

Cavazos states that “because there were

conflicting reports on the life of

Francisca, I had some doubt about my

relation to her” and so sought to verify his

relationship with the Matias Alvarez that

is central to O’Shea’s story. Cavazos

questioned his octogenarian aunt about

the identity of his great-grandfather and

she confirmed that his name was Matias,

which led Cavazos to conclude that he

was in fact a descendent of the Angel of

Goliad. The account of Lauro Cavazos of

his family history is echoed in the

accounts given by members of the Angel

of Goliad Descendants Historical

Preservation group. Their website

features the stories of the alleged

descendants of Francita and Telesforo,

but none of these accounts offer evidence

of their relationship with the Angel and

her Captain. Indeed, the only vital record

present on the site is the baptismal record

of Telesforo whose name is given as Jose

Maria Telesforo Alavez Albares, which

just creates more confusion over the

correct surname of the couple.

The story of Francita Alavez after the

war is reflective of the larger history of

the soldaderas. As with the major

European armies, the Mexican military

eventually modernized its logistical and

bureaucratic arms, which resulted in the

marginalization of the soldaderas. By the

1930s they had been eliminated from the

ranks by a patriarchal nationality and

popular culture had distorted their

contributions recasting these women in an

unflattering light. The memory of the

soldaderas faded until the 1960s when a

combined interest in Chicano and

feminist histories shone light on their

story once again but the mystery of the

“Angel of Goliad” has never been

effectively solved.

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Note: The following article is thought

provoking although many of Mr.

Benson’s views and conclusions are not

representative of and do not reflect the

views or tenets of the MOS&B.

"Love Lincoln" Propaganda

For Fifth Graders

By Al Benson Jr.

How do you create Lincoln lovers at the

fifth grade level and thereby assure that

most of them will continue to believe the

pro-Lincoln propaganda that the public

school system will continually throw in

their faces up through high school and on

into the college level?

You do it by making Lincoln look like an

underdog, because most people, adults as

well as kids, will feel automatic sympathy

for the underdog. An outfit called

Scholastic Teaching Resources has done

this for fifth graders in the state of

Georgia and, I’m sure, for others around

the country.

They publish a one-page summary on

Lincoln, to be read before taking a

“bubble test” on the content of that one

page. The one page is a mélange of partial

truths about Lincoln and the slavery

issue, which as most of us know, is the

reason educators tout as being the cause

of the “Civil War.”

They start off by noting that Lincoln was

not always considered to be a heroic

person (the implication there being that

he should have been). The summary

states that: “Lincoln was hated in the

South because he wanted to free the

slaves.” Actually, Lincoln had very little

concern for the slaves.

He was a decided “racist” as his

comments during the Lincoln-Douglas

Debates in 1858 conclusively show. He

was a supporter of the Corwin

Amendment, which, had it been enacted,

would have been the original 13th

Amendment.

The Corwin Amendment, introduced by

Thomas Corwin of Ohio, of all places,

would have allowed for slavery to be

continued in perpetuity and this

amendment had Lincoln’s support. And

Lincoln readily admitted that his main

concern was to keep the Union preserved

(under a strong central government) and

that if he could free half the slaves to do

that he would, if he could do that by

freeing none of the slaves he would.

Contrary to the drivel our kids are fed in

public schools, Lincoln’s concern for the

slaves was, at best, minimal.

The summary continues: “On the other

hand, many in the North thought that

Lincoln was a coward for not having

freed the slaves already.” Another partial

truth! Most in the North couldn’t have

cared less about the slavery issue. They

were just as “racist” in their own way as

any Southerner and they, quite frankly,

did not want a lot of blacks living

amongst them. Many northern states,

Lincoln’s Illinois included, had laws on

the books to restrict black immigration

into their states and to limit the time

blacks could stay there. This is a little-

known fact that the so-called “history”

books almost never deal with.

Since this would make the North

accurately look as “racist” as the South it

is just ignored. The fifth graders just

don’t need to know this—anymore than

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the college students do—and brainwashed

fifth graders make easy-to-fool college

students.

The summary states that: “In 1862 he

(Lincoln) signed the Emancipation

Proclamation, which freed all the slaves

in the Southern states.” This is another of

those infamous half-truths that, for some

reason, the “educators” never seem to get

right. The kids are almost always taught

that the Emancipation Proclamation

freed all the slaves in the South. If the

truth be known, the Emancipation

Proclamation did not free a single slave.

You read that right.

Lincoln, or whoever, wrote it so that it

would free only those slaves in areas of

the South that were still under the control

of the Confederate States of America.

Since Lincoln had no authority in the

Confederate States of America to free

anyone or do anything, it was, in the

truest sense, nothing more than a war

propaganda measure. And there were

exceptions. Any parts of the Confederate

States that had been captured by the

Union and were, henceforth, under Union

control, got to keep their slaves, as did the

Southern states of Maryland, Delaware,

Kentucky and Missouri which had all

remained in the Union. What Lincoln did

with his infamous proclamation was to

free slaves where he had no authority to

do so and leave them in bondage where he

had the authority to free them. I would

suggest that concerned people get a copy

of the proclamation and read what it

really says in its entirety.

What passes for history in public schools

nowadays, and for decades now, never

deals with this. Down the memory hole!

I’ve read other public school material in

years past about Lincoln’s proclamation

and this is the way it’s always

presented—that it freed all the slaves in

the South. A subtle half-truth if the kids

don’t know their history.

And the summary states, near its

conclusion that: “Finally on April 9, 1864,

the South surrendered and the Civil War

finally ended. Outside of getting the year

wrong, another half-truth appears. On

April 9, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered

the Army of Northern Virginia—and

that’s all he surrendered. As commander

of all the Confederate forces at that point

he could have surrendered them all but

he didn’t. There were still Confederate

armies in the field so the war was not

officially over. In fact the Confederate

government never officially surrendered.

The only surrenders that took place were

by armies in the field.

Jefferson Davis and the Confederate

States cabinet fled rather than surrender.

Most of them were eventually caught, but

the Confederate States government never

issued a surrender document—and this is

something else they don’t discuss.

What they do with this fifth grade

material is to attempt to make Lincoln

look like the underdog and thereby create

sympathy for him and the Union cause,

which deserves no sympathy if you

understand the issues. Lincoln was much

more concerned with collecting tariffs

than he was with freeing slaves, but they

are not about to tell the fifth graders that.

It would dilute the “love Lincoln” image

they are trying to pass off on these

unknowing kids as “education.” It’s all

part of the ongoing “hate the South”

campaign that we see so vividly portrayed

in Hollyweird, the media, and

Washington. And part of this campaign is

to get the kids to hate their own history

and heritage and to feel guilty about

being Southerners. I wonder if they will

ever bother to tell the kids that slavery

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existed in the North, too; they just got rid

of it a little earlier than the South did, or

if they will inform them about the

Northern folks who took the major part

in the slave trade. You’ll have to pardon

me if I tend to doubt that such will ever

happen.

Southern kids, and others too, need to get

out of these establishment propaganda

mills and begin to learn real history from

alternative sources. It can be found if you

are willing to look.

Al Benson describes himself and his views

as part of the Neo-Confederate Movement.

The 2016 MOS&B Texas Society convention

was held on April 29/30 at the Y. O. Ranch in

Kerrville. If you haven’t attended one of the

conventions, please consider doing so. They

are short, usually from Friday evening to

Saturday noon, and you can meet other

members as well as learning more about the

operation of the Texas Society. Over the past

16 years the annual convention has been held

throughout the state, making it convenient

for everyone to attend at least once.

Past Convention Locations

2001 Austin

2002 Arlington

2003 Bryan

2004 Nacogdoches

2005 Temple

2006 Waxahachie

2007 Austin

2008 Corsicana

2009 Fort Worth

2010 Huntsville

2011 Brownwood

2012 San Antonio

2013 Tyler

2014 Bryan

2015 Fort Worth

2016 Kerrville

Book Report

For those who have the time and enjoy

reading, these two recently published

books might be of interest to you.

Confederate Saboteurs, Building

the Hunley and Other Secret

Weapons of the Civil War by

Mark K. Ragan. This is the story

of the Southern Secret Agents of

the War. It focuses mainly on the

“Singer Secret Service Corps”

although other groups are

mentioned. Edgar C. Singer

formed the “Corps” from among

his friends and fellow Masons in

Port Lavaca Texas and this rag-

tag group of men created havoc

with the Federals for most of the

War. They started by building

underwater mines based on

Singer’s design and grew from

that into the development of

railroad mines and other explosive

devices. In the last two years of the

War they developed and deployed

iron clad torpedo boats and

submarine vessels with

underwater weaponry. This

included the Hunley and other

similar vessels. Unfortunately

there are many unknown areas of

their operation because so many

records were destroyed but the

author still tells a fascinating story

of their exploits.

Fighting for General Lee,

Confederate Brig. General Rufus

Barringer and the North Carolina

Cavalry Brigade by Sheridian R.

Barringer. At first glance this book

seems to only be a tale of a little

known Confederate General by

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one of his descendants. It actually

is an interesting story of the life of

an interesting man. Barringer

fought with and for Stuart,

Hampton and other well-known

Confederates. He was a brother-

in-law of A. P. Hill and Stonewall

Jackson and often visited with

both men. In his civilian life he

fathered two mixed race boys at a

young age with a mulatto woman.

These two boys became very

successful in later years and one

became the wealthiest Black man

in NC in the 1880s. Barringer

married twice and had three

legitimate sons who all had notable

careers. He was severely wounded

at Brandy Station during the

opening hours of Gettysburg when

he was hit by a minie ball in the

mouth and lost several teeth. He

required a three month

recuperation period before he

rejoined his unit. He was captured

late in the War and met with

Lincoln during his captivity. After

the War he remained a Republican

in a state controlled by Democrats

and continuously urged his fellow

citizens to return and be faithful to

the U. S. government.

General Rufus Barringer

People and Scenes of the War

This issue begins a series featuring photos

and stories of individuals and various items

and events which played a part in the War.

Some are well-known people, places and

things, some practically unknown.

Alexander Gardner

In the aftermath of the bloodiest single

day of the war at Antietam, Alexander

Gardner managed to take many

photographs of the dead. When they

were placed on exhibition in New

York City, they created a sensation.

Gardner got scant praise at the time,

however. As an employee of Matthew

Brady, like everyone else on the staff of

the man whose name is attached to

thousands of Civil War photos, his work

was exhibited under Brady's name. Not

until years later was he credited with

some of the most spine-chilling images

made during the 1860s.

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Like Alexander Gardner, photographer

George N. Barnard worked with

equipment that today seems to have been

incredibly slow and cumbersome. Here

his tent is conspicuous on an Atlanta

battlefield, with the rear of his wagon

seen at the right of the photo. Barnard

created one of the first comparatively

complete photographic records of an

army's movement—Sherman's Atlanta

Campaign.

The Todd Family:

Kentucky Confederates

The battle flag of the Army of Tennessee

and the National Flag of the Confederate

States of America display thirteen stars:

one star for each member state of the

Confederacy. Although only eleven

southern states seceded from the federal

union, there were two states that

established provisional Confederate

governments, and thus earned a star.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky and the

State of Missouri were considered Border

States, they authorized the holding of

slaves, and the people of the states held

mixed loyalties. Moreover, the culture of

Kentucky was decidedly southern.

In the case of Kentucky, the state had

initially established a policy of neutrality,

which soon proved impossible to

maintain. So, while the government in

Frankfort opted to remain loyal to the

United States, there were many

prominent Kentucky citizens who chose

the Confederacy, and were determined to

lead their state out of the Federal union.

The American patriarch of the Todd

family, David Levi Todd, emigrated from

County Armagh, Northern Ireland, in the

mid-eighteenth century. He served in the

Pennsylvania militia during the American

Revolutionary War, and following

American independence, migrated to

what is now Fayette County, Kentucky.

David Levi Todd was both resourceful

and successful, and his large family

established themselves in the Kentucky

bluegrass region of the state, and helped

in the founding of Lexington. The several

sons that he sired also achieved success in

personal life, they were large land owners,

and were important military figures of

the times. One son, Colonel John Todd,

commanded American patriot forces at

the Battle of the Blue Licks, in Robertson,

County, where on August 18, 1782, he

was mortally wounded.

Another son, Brigadier General Robert

Todd, was also a veteran of the

revolutionary war, and had also fought at

Blue Licks, as a major of militia.

Additionally, a third son, Major General

Levi Todd, who also served in the

revolutionary war and fought at Blue

Licks, became the leader of all militia

forces in Kentucky.

An aristocratic and proud family, the

Todd’s, with their exceptional wealth, and

advantages in education and culture, held

an enviable position in Southern society.

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Moreover, they were also unique in that

one of their members, Mary Ann Todd,

was married to the President of the

United States. Mary Ann Todd was one of

fifteen children of Robert Smith Todd,

and the offspring of the first of two

marriages. Mary Ann and six siblings

from the first marriage were pro-union,

with one exception, George Rogers Clark

Todd, who was pro-Confederate. The

family from the second marriage chose to

go with the Confederacy, and all but one

of the Todd men volunteered for

Confederate service, where two of them,

along with a brother-in-law, were

mortally wounded.

Captain Samuel Brown Todd, son of

Robert Smith Todd and Elizabeth

Humphreys, became the family’s first

casualty of the war, when he was mortally

wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, on April

5, 1862, in Hardin, Tennessee. Samuel

Todd had, upon the death of his father in

an 1849 cholera epidemic, moved to an

Uncles’ sugar plantation near New

Orleans. It was there that he volunteered

for service in Company H, 21st Regiment,

Louisiana Infantry.

The second casualty, Captain Alexander

Humphreys Todd, 1st Kentucky Brigade,

and a brother to Samuel Brown Todd,

was mortally wounded in a skirmish at

Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Captain

Alexander Todd was an aide-de-camp to

brother-in-law, Brigadier General

Benjamin Hardin Helm, the husband of

Emilie Todd Helm. The bodies of the two

brothers were later exhumed, and were

reburied in Lexington Cemetery,

Lexington, Kentucky.

Another brother, George Rogers Clark

Todd, M.D., earned his medical degree

from Transylvania University, Class of

1848, and served the Confederacy as a

surgeon in Semmes Brigade. Surgeon (the

equivalent rank of major) Todd was

engaged in the battles of the Army of

Northern Virginia, and is mentioned in

vignettes of the Gettysburg campaign. He

survived the war and settled in Camden,

South Carolina, where he died on April 1,

1900, as an unreconstructed rebel.

Captain David Humphreys Todd,

Company A, 21st Regiment, Louisiana

Infantry, was a veteran of the Mexican

War. He was considered the “Black

Sheep” of the family, having run away

from home at age fourteen to join the

military. He briefly commanded Libby

Prison in Richmond, Virginia, fought at

Shiloh, and served as an artillery

commander at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Captain Todd’s regiment surrendered on

May 4, 1865, and he was paroled on May

15, 1865, at Meridian, Mississippi.

There were two additional casualties in

the War Between the States that affected

the Todd family. The first of these was

Brigadier General Helm, the husband of

Emilie Todd, and son of former Kentucky

Governor John L. Helm. General Helm, a

native of Bardstown, practiced law, was a

Kentucky state legislator, and a graduate

of the United States Military Academy,

class of 1851. A year prior to the start of

hostilities he was assistant inspector

general, under Adjutant General Simon

Bolivar Buckner, of the Kentucky State

Guard. Buckner was to later become a

lieutenant general in the Confederacy.

The development of internecine conflict

forced Kentucky, in September 1861, to

abandon its policy of neutrality. It was

then that Helm, on a visit to the White

House to see his wife’s brother-in-law,

was offered a commission as paymaster of

the union army, which he later said he

18

thoughtfully considered, and then

declined. On September 20, 1863, on the

battlefield of Chickamauga, in northern

Georgia, Brigadier General Helm, while

leading the First Kentucky Infantry

Brigade, (later known as the “Orphan

Brigade”) was mortally wounded.

The final casualty of the War Between the

States, with a familial relationship to the

Todd family, was Abraham Lincoln,

President and Commander-in-Chief of

the United States of America.

While the Todd men served military roles

in the war, it was left to their women to

sort things out at its end. In that respect,

Emilie Todd Helm, who ensured the

return of her brothers’ bodies to

Lexington, and her husband’s to

Bardstown, was active in the United

Daughters of the Confederacy. She

attended many of the Confederate

veteran reunions, and was given the title

“Mother of the Brigade” by the former

soldiers of the First Kentucky Brigade.

Her older sister, Margaret Todd Kellogg,

attended the inauguration of her brother-

in-law, yet she wrote letters on behalf of

Confederate prisoners of war, and her

husband, Charles Kellogg tended

Confederate wounded at Shiloh, and was

suspected of being a Confederate agent.

Sister, Martha Todd White, who was

unabashedly pro-Confederate, married

an Alabama physician, and often received

permission from her brother-in-law to

travel north, and was supposedly involved

in smuggling contraband to the

Confederacy. Kitty Todd spent the war in

Lexington, with her mother. After the

war she married a former Confederate

officer.

The matriarch of the Todd family,

Elizabeth Humphreys Todd, sided with

the South. Three of her sons were

Confederate soldiers, two of whom died

during the war. When she died, she left

money for a monument in Lexington

Cemetery, to honor her sons’ service. The

inscription on the monument reads “In

Memory of My Boys, Samuel B. Todd,

David H. Todd, Alexander H. Todd. All

Confederate Soldiers.”

Chapter Commander’s Report

Gentlemen,

I hope you are all doing well and

enjoying the spring weather albeit a little

too wet for some of us.

I have often lamented modern technology

in various ways. I think some of my

interest in history comes from not being

entirely happy with the way everything is

computerized in our modern world. For

all its marvels, I feel technology is

responsible for the dumbing down of our

population. It used to be important to

know things, now you only need a hand

held device and access to the internet, aka

“Google it”. How on Earth did we survive

before computers?

Well, I may have come across one of the

answers. Back in the old days, people had

books. I still have a few, one of which was

published in 1856 and it was likely in

many of our ancestor’s homes around

about the time of the WBTS.

The book is entitled Inquire Within and it

was the Google of the mid-19th

century. In

just 438 pages, of very small print, it

covers everything. Recipes, home

remedies, landlord tenant agreements,

19

how to treat your wife, American history,

how to remove stains, grammatical rules,

tables of weights and measures, how to

write a love letter, taxidermy methods,

how to predict the weather, legal advice,

solving mathematical equations, ways to

propose marriage and how to tie other

knots, to name a few. In all, 3778 facts

that you NEED to know. It’s amazing, but

like Google, not always accurate. On page

187 I think they might be taking a shot at

our Southron ancestors. “Persons bred in

Ireland and Scotland retain more or less

of their provincialisms…….they become

conspicuous for the peculiarities of their

speaking. In many cases they appear

vulgar and uneducated….”. Oh well, the

book was published in New York.

I guess having information at your

fingertips has always been a goal of our

society. We older folks just need to go

with it and use it as best we can.

Things to think about: Do you think R. E.

Lee would have “friended” U.S. Grant on

Facebook? How many “dislikes” would

W.T. Sherman have received in Georgia?

I know I would have been following

@jeffdavis on Twitter.

I am going to go back to reading about

“Domestic Surgery” in Inquire Within.

Yep, that was an important topic in the

1850’s.

Hope to see you all soon!

God Bless,

Gary L. “Nux” Loudermilk

Commander Chapter 264

Trivia Answers

1. Shoes

2. Actor/Scout Harrison who had a

knack for infiltrating Federal

camps.

3. Fourteen color bearers were killed

including the Colonel and Lt.

Colonel of the Regiment.

4. A heavy downpour of rain.

5. After being hit by a cannon shot,

his leg was amputated. He sent the

bones to the Army Medical

Museum in Washington D.C. and

visited them frequently after the

War.

BANNAL AB BRAITHREAN (Band of Brothers)

Is a newsletter published of

and for the

Major John Loudermilk Chapter #264 of the Military Order of the

Stars and Bars It is published electronically

and issued seasonally. Comments, suggestions or questions may be sent to the Editor, Gary M. Loudermilk at gmldhl@harrisbb.com

Two Time Winner of the Captain

John Morton Award for Best

Chapter Newsletter

20

Military Order of the Stars

and Bars Benediction

Leader: I asked God for strength, that I

might achieve,

Members: I was made weak, that I might

learn humbly to obey.

Leader: I asked for health, that I might do

greater things,

Members: I was given infirmity that I might

do better things.

Leader: I asked for riches, that I might be

happy,

Members: I was given poverty, that I might

be wise.

Leader: I asked for power, that I might have

the praise of men,

Members: I was given weakness, that I might

feel the need of God.

Leader: I asked for all things, that I might

enjoy life,

Members: I was given life, that I might enjoy

all things.

Leader: I got nothing that I asked for – but

everything I had hoped for.

Members: Almost despite myself my

unspoken prayers were answered.

ALL: I am, among all men, most richly

blessed.

Prayer of an Unknown Confederate

Soldier Found on his body in the

“Devil’s Den” at Gettysburg

Stone Mountain Ceremony

Living History Presentation with

Chapter Members