Dear Ms. Lunelle,
On Saturday, November 12, 2022, I would journey to the Tipton County Museum, Veterans Memorial Nature Center for the Annual Living History Day where Living Historians would speak on different war eras.
Wayne Tate portraying the Honorable General Robert E. Lee; Dan Summers, Desert Storm; Jim Yates, Vietnam, The Dusty Bottom Boys performed music and finally myself, HK Edgerton on the War for Southern Independence.
The Tipton County Museum, Veteran's Memorial, and Nature Center is located in the largest Urban Park in Tipton County and includes a twenty acre wild life sanctuary and includes a half mile nature trail through a woodland forest and a wetland study area. The 5,000 square foot Museum houses changing exhibits featuring artifacts from Tipton County's rich heritage and a nature Center depicting the unique ecosystem of West Tennessee.
As I sat in the amphitheater listening to Wayne Tate (portraying Gen. Lee) speaking about Unión General Ulysses Grant and what an honorable man he was; my thoughts would go back to the time of Lincoln, Sheridan, Sherman and Grant.
Lincoln said, "We will destroy the South and remake it in our own image" And began in earnest his total warfare against everything Southern... defenseless old men, women children, the slaves, property- everything. He did this by directing Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and others from his telegraph office. The most wicked warfare ever seen.
The integrity of Southern women was to be destroyed. In New Orleans General Beast Butler issued a General Order directing that any woman who was rude to any soldier was to be treated as a prostitute. In a report dated October 7, 1863 from Sheridan to Grant, Sheridan boasted:
"I have destroyed over 2,000 barns filled with wheat, hay and farming implements; over 70 mills filled with flour and wheat, and have driven in front of the Army 4,000 head of stock and have killed and issued to the troops not less than 3,000 sheep. Tomorrow I will continue the destruction down to Fisher's Mill. When this is completed, the Valley from Winchester to Staunton, 92 miles will have but little in it, for man or Beast.”
Grant remarked how proud he was. He was fighting the same kind of war in Louisiana!
I would bring it to the attention of General Lee with questions...
“Is it time for my Speech?
I speak today on behalf of the two and one half million Southern Bondsmen, Bonds women, Freedmen and Freedwomen who from 1861 to 1865 loyally served and supported the Confederate Cause, in however a noble a capacity".
When cotton was needed to finance a long war, it was Black hands that picked it and prepared it for export to Europe. When foodstuffs were needed to feed the embattled Southern Armies and a beleaguered Southern civilian population, it was Black hands working with White hands that tilled the soil to grow needed crops to fend off starvation. Slave and Freeman alike gave his last penny to support the Confederate Cause.
It was trusted Black hands left on the Plantation to guard the Mistress and her children from the hand of the invader. It was skilled Black labor that worked in the new Southern factories making the implements of war that kept Southern Armies in the field for four years. Across the South in every Town, City, and Plantation a trained cadre of Black laborers and craftsmen worked to keep Southern Armies supplied with all the implements of war.
Without the untiring sweat of Black men, the Confederate Integrated Army would have quickly ground to a halt. Black men served as Teamsters, Cooks, Blacksmiths, Farriers, Laborers, Servants, and in many cases as the close friend of the White man he accompanied. And not to forget the “gun toters” like sharp shooter Holt Collier, defending their homes and families like their white counterparts. Many of these Black Auxiliaries were to prove their worth in combat, even by law they could not be compelled to fight. Most importantly was the bond of love and affection between Black and White that transcended the institution of slavery and is so incomprehensible to people up North.
In cases too numerous to mention, boyhood friends Black and White, went off to war together, sharing together the hardships of Camp life, the camaraderie of Army life, the stress of campaigning, the excitement of battle, the agony of the hospital and the painful separation of death.
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