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The Confederate Battle Flag Will Continue to Proudly Wave!*********************************
The Confederate Battle Flag is, once again, getting a “bum rap” from those who, apparently, do not know their history and are so far off the mark (by charging that flag as a symbol of slavery) as to be comical… if it were not so infuriating to Southerners who DO know their history and take pride in their heritage and culture.
So, once again, let me see if I can set the record straight about the Confederate Battle Flag.
First, it was never a national flag… ever. That bit of “incorrect” history was invented by Hollywood and revisionist historians. It was never even an “unofficial” national flag of the Confederacy. The CBF was a soldier’s battlefield ensign. It was ordered created after the Battle of First Manassas where, it was learned, the First National Flag of the Confederacy was too much like the US flag and, as a result, Confederate troops were firing on other Confederate troops through the gun smoke of the battle.
It never flew over slavery. The Confederate Battle Flag never flew over slavery. It was not a national flag. It is well to notice that blacks and whites fought side by side, beneath it, in numerous battles of the war. Unlike Federal forces, blacks fought beside their white counterparts in Confederate ranks while, in the Union ranks, blacks were segregated from whites and fought in separate outfits… with white officers in command. (This remained so for blacks and whites in the US Armed Forces until the Korean War.)
The flag that flew over slavery in the United States of America is “Old Glory”; “The Stars and Stripes” … yes… the US Flag! Why this fact of history can be so easily overlooked is absolutely astounding!
The slave trade, in the US, was headquartered and run out of the New England states of America. If you know even the least bit of geography you will instantly recognize the New England states are, as we said, NORTHERN STATES!
We’d like to recommend that you read, “Inheriting the Trade” by Thomas Norman DeWolf. We recommend, also, that you read: “The Complicity of the North” by Gail Jarvis. Both these books take looks at the North’s deep involvement in the slave trade in the US.
Today, the North’s part in the slave trade has all but been expunged from, wiped out of, the history books. Nevertheless, had it not been for the North’s shipping companies and the North’s distilleries, the slave trade, in the United States would have been hard pressed, and, if not made impossible, then certainly it would have been so expensive as to make slavery unaffordable for the average southern planter.
Just this past weekend, I sat in a Sons of Confederate Veterans’ meeting while, immediately behind me, sat two black ladies. This is NOT uncommon. Last February, our SCV camp celebrated Black History Month with a black speaker, a descendant of a black confederate soldier. Our Camp recognized 8 black confederate soldiers from our county in NC. Since that February meeting we have obtained documentation on three others. Currently, we are organizing a Grave Marker Dedication ceremony for two of those black Confederate soldiers. By the way, some of these black Confederate veterans were free men… BEFORE the war.
There were thousands upon thousands of blacks who served in the ranks of the Confederate Armed Forces. Rather than denying they served why not recognize those brave men who, we in the Sons of Confederate Veterans believe, deserve the same recognition as their white counterparts. Too long have those men had their heroism covered-up and denied.
Free men of colour and enslaved men of colour served the Confederacy through service in her military. You see, the South, the Confederacy, was their home, too!
As to the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the Confederate Soldier’s Monument in Columbia, South Carolina, we say, “Hell, no”! That flag should remain. In fact, if we had our way, it would go back up on the Capitol Dome, where, we feel, it belongs. As a native “sandlapper” (South Carolinian) I honestly believe that if returning the flag to the Dome was presented to the people of South Carolina in the form of a referendum… it would be passed and the CBF would be placed back atop that Capitol Building.
We Americans have got to get hold of the truth once again and stop burdening the Southern people of this country, exclusively, with shame of slavery. If a burden is to be carried, for slavery in the US, then it certainly must be carried by the entire country… including the Northern states which based their economy on the slave trade. It was the North’s flotilla of slave ships that kept the sea-lanes busy for nigh onto 200 years transporting Africans to the US for sale as slaves. I’d be remise if I did not point out to you that none of THOSE slave ships had the Confederate Battle Flag, or the Confederate Naval Jack flying from their masts. The flag flown on those ships, after Independence was won from Great Britain, was the US Flag, Old Glory.
My family arrived in this country, the United States, in 1789 and landed at Charles Town Harbor in South Carolina. Since then, we have fought, bled, and died under only two flags… Old Glory, and the Confederate Battle Flag. As a Southern American, I get a lump in my throat at the sight of either of those two flags snapping in the southern breeze.
The plain fact is this, dear reader, we southerners are going to fly the Confederate Battle Flag. If flying it from capitol buildings or public property is forbidden us, we will certainly fly it, prominently, on private property. That includes private property along interstate highways leading into and out of the Southland. Why? Because we are proud of who we are, as Southerners, and we still, to this day, and beyond, resent the hell out of being dictated to by anyone, including that strong central government our ancestors legally left and… after four of the bloodiest years in the history of this continent… were forced to rejoin at the point of a bayonet.
The Confederate Battle Flag is ours. It flies today as a warning that the Southern people will, for all time, resist tyranny… no matter the quarter from whence it comes.
Deo Vindici!
Longstreet
So, once again, let me see if I can set the record straight about the Confederate Battle Flag.
First, it was never a national flag… ever. That bit of “incorrect” history was invented by Hollywood and revisionist historians. It was never even an “unofficial” national flag of the Confederacy. The CBF was a soldier’s battlefield ensign. It was ordered created after the Battle of First Manassas where, it was learned, the First National Flag of the Confederacy was too much like the US flag and, as a result, Confederate troops were firing on other Confederate troops through the gun smoke of the battle.
It never flew over slavery. The Confederate Battle Flag never flew over slavery. It was not a national flag. It is well to notice that blacks and whites fought side by side, beneath it, in numerous battles of the war. Unlike Federal forces, blacks fought beside their white counterparts in Confederate ranks while, in the Union ranks, blacks were segregated from whites and fought in separate outfits… with white officers in command. (This remained so for blacks and whites in the US Armed Forces until the Korean War.)
The flag that flew over slavery in the United States of America is “Old Glory”; “The Stars and Stripes” … yes… the US Flag! Why this fact of history can be so easily overlooked is absolutely astounding!
The slave trade, in the US, was headquartered and run out of the New England states of America. If you know even the least bit of geography you will instantly recognize the New England states are, as we said, NORTHERN STATES!
We’d like to recommend that you read, “Inheriting the Trade” by Thomas Norman DeWolf. We recommend, also, that you read: “The Complicity of the North” by Gail Jarvis. Both these books take looks at the North’s deep involvement in the slave trade in the US.
Today, the North’s part in the slave trade has all but been expunged from, wiped out of, the history books. Nevertheless, had it not been for the North’s shipping companies and the North’s distilleries, the slave trade, in the United States would have been hard pressed, and, if not made impossible, then certainly it would have been so expensive as to make slavery unaffordable for the average southern planter.
Just this past weekend, I sat in a Sons of Confederate Veterans’ meeting while, immediately behind me, sat two black ladies. This is NOT uncommon. Last February, our SCV camp celebrated Black History Month with a black speaker, a descendant of a black confederate soldier. Our Camp recognized 8 black confederate soldiers from our county in NC. Since that February meeting we have obtained documentation on three others. Currently, we are organizing a Grave Marker Dedication ceremony for two of those black Confederate soldiers. By the way, some of these black Confederate veterans were free men… BEFORE the war.
There were thousands upon thousands of blacks who served in the ranks of the Confederate Armed Forces. Rather than denying they served why not recognize those brave men who, we in the Sons of Confederate Veterans believe, deserve the same recognition as their white counterparts. Too long have those men had their heroism covered-up and denied.
Free men of colour and enslaved men of colour served the Confederacy through service in her military. You see, the South, the Confederacy, was their home, too!
As to the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the Confederate Soldier’s Monument in Columbia, South Carolina, we say, “Hell, no”! That flag should remain. In fact, if we had our way, it would go back up on the Capitol Dome, where, we feel, it belongs. As a native “sandlapper” (South Carolinian) I honestly believe that if returning the flag to the Dome was presented to the people of South Carolina in the form of a referendum… it would be passed and the CBF would be placed back atop that Capitol Building.
We Americans have got to get hold of the truth once again and stop burdening the Southern people of this country, exclusively, with shame of slavery. If a burden is to be carried, for slavery in the US, then it certainly must be carried by the entire country… including the Northern states which based their economy on the slave trade. It was the North’s flotilla of slave ships that kept the sea-lanes busy for nigh onto 200 years transporting Africans to the US for sale as slaves. I’d be remise if I did not point out to you that none of THOSE slave ships had the Confederate Battle Flag, or the Confederate Naval Jack flying from their masts. The flag flown on those ships, after Independence was won from Great Britain, was the US Flag, Old Glory.
My family arrived in this country, the United States, in 1789 and landed at Charles Town Harbor in South Carolina. Since then, we have fought, bled, and died under only two flags… Old Glory, and the Confederate Battle Flag. As a Southern American, I get a lump in my throat at the sight of either of those two flags snapping in the southern breeze.
The plain fact is this, dear reader, we southerners are going to fly the Confederate Battle Flag. If flying it from capitol buildings or public property is forbidden us, we will certainly fly it, prominently, on private property. That includes private property along interstate highways leading into and out of the Southland. Why? Because we are proud of who we are, as Southerners, and we still, to this day, and beyond, resent the hell out of being dictated to by anyone, including that strong central government our ancestors legally left and… after four of the bloodiest years in the history of this continent… were forced to rejoin at the point of a bayonet.
The Confederate Battle Flag is ours. It flies today as a warning that the Southern people will, for all time, resist tyranny… no matter the quarter from whence it comes.
Deo Vindici!
Longstreet
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