"Tom Smith Camp Charge"
Tlre Tom Smith Cump #1702, Sons of Confederate Veternns, is proutl of the 1,500 brave nrcn From Swffolk und
Nnnsemond Coaw'1, who le.ft their honres nntlfamilies in tlefense of Constitulionul Liberty otrl States Rigttts to
.firce overwhelwing odds. Mony puid the ultimnte price; all endured harrtships and suffering white mointaining
the reputalion o.f the greotest fighting.force the worlcl hatl ever known. Placing their.faith in Go1, the Southern
Soldiers.fbwght t'ttr
a
iust cttuse and the light of their nccomplishments can never be tlimmed or shadowed
"Tlte Charge
btt
,nt:
"
"To vou, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which w-e fought. 'Io
1'our strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his
history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he lovetl and whicl you love
also, antl those ideals which macle him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember. it is your dutv
to see
that the true history ofthe South is presented to futule generations."
E FLAG OF VtRGtNtA: Ftag of
te thee. To thee I pledge my loyalty,
my life.
OUR SALUTE TO THE CONFEDERATE FLAG:
affection, reverence and undying devotion
I salute the Confederate Flag with
to the cause for which lf sfand,s ,,, Amen.
"SPEAI{E R " (onti nued from
cover)
Mr. Frank Eitrnest
Born in Nlorfolk, Virginia and currently residing in Virginia Beach with his wife Billie, who is a
UDC member and strong supporter of our Southern Heritage, A Navy Veteran with over 20 years of
seruice during conflicts from Vietnam to Deserf Storm. He has been recognized by the gDC for his
service and also awarded one of their highesf honors, the President Jefferson Dav,is Medal.
Beginnin(l a.s th9..Chafter Chaplain of the Norfotk County Grays Camp of Chesapeake,
Virginia, he has held office continuousty for 20 years with the Sons of Confe,derate Veterans at
the
Camp, Division, and Army /evels. ln 2001, he and his wife organized the 50th Anniversary of the
Last
ail majoreyenfs including, the Ftag Rally in
Columbia, S, C,,
e Lasi Confederate Wid6@, the biuriat of tn,
CSS Hunley
brations honoring General Roberl E. Lee. He
currently has served as Commander of the Army of Norlhern Virgiiia and as past Virginia Division
Commander
Confederaft
;
Cre
OFFICERS
OF TTIE TOM SMTIII
CAA4P
Commander:
1st Lt. Commander:
2nd.
Kevin Beale
Tim Houde
Bob Archer
BillShumate
Karl Bunch
757-630.5091
757-48+3560
757.539-2924
757.538-1000
809.3519
1st Color Serqeant:
2nd. Color Sergeant:
Quartermaster:
Paymaster:
Reporter:
Position Open
Position Being
Wayne Bowen
John Brown
PhilCan
Considered
757.718.7132
9',t2-67+0143
757-642.0286
Lt Commander:
Chaplin:
Historian:
Newsletter Editor:
Jim Parker
Bob Archer
Jerry Talley
757.8+0084
757-539-2924
757-477.8383
BY
IIM
Adjutant:
Adede.C4mg
PARKER, CHAPLAIN TOM SMITH CAMP
He
ls
Here
to Help
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
ROMANS Br35
After His resurrection Jesus came to His discrples , meeting them between the garden with its empty
tomb and
the city with its mob still passionate with hate. He said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tett hrly
bieihren,' (Matt.
28:10).
ln the midst of er world filled with danger, hatred, and war, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ are just
as relevant
as when He spoke them. He sfi//says to altwho love Him. "Do not be afraid."
He comes to you in the hospital room or in the midst of a family tragedy. He comes to you in the midst
of an
reversal or physical crisis. And He says, "Don't be afraid. l'm alive, and l'm here to help you.
depth of My love, and the Resurrection shows the depth of My power. Nothing can ever
!"
Billy Graham
HOPE FOR EACH DAY
"...our God mixes in the cup he gives us to drink in the Wortd,
the sweet with the bitter,"
,..in the end I trust all things will work together for our good.',
Robeft E. Lee
JLm
PAr|e,er, ChapLaLw
Pray for Kevin Beale, Mike Pullen, John wellons, Harry Liniger, Dennis Thompson,
Robert Archer, Rose
and Curtis Nichols.
Please inform me of any illness, deaths, or concerns of other camp members.
coJtltlA^DfnS conSERs
Ey Comman{er .Key in Be ab
@orfrtlqna,
Plans are beginning to take shape to see that we reach our goals as stater1 in last month's
newsletter. At our next meeting we will be discussing day trip destinations for the camp field trip in
June - bring your ideas. I hope by meeting night I will have heard from the lawyers regarding the
acquisition of the piece of land off Kenyon Road, We have filled an officer position. Ka1 Bunch
will
become our new Aide de Camp as of February, We will also be inducting three new members at
our next meeting, Talks have begun to see that a plaque is placed on our 1ag pole in Cedar Hill by
Memorial Day. ,As you can see, we have jumped right in and begun work to fulfill all our goals
by
year end,
At our next meeting, we will meet back in Graham Hall due to interfering with the Food Bank at the
church, Look fcr our vehicles in front of the church. lf you missed any meetings recently, you have
missed some fantastic speakers.
Lt. Commander Houde is working hard to get us interesting
and
entertaining speakers every month and is committed to doing so in the future. We have speakers
lined up through April at this point.
Mark the last Saturday of March on your calendar, We will have a trash pick-up on Carolina Road
to fulfill our AdoptA-Highway responsibility, We will feed you breakfast that morning before the
trash collection. Please plan to come out to help. lt is 2 to 3 hours well spent to have good fellowship and put a pcsitive image out to the community for our cause, Hope to see you all at our February meeting.
Southern Regards,
rb,u2
"IVD{UETS OF LAST MONTHS
ll,[FEI IG-
The regular monthly meeting of the Tom Smith Camp 1702 met Monday, January 25, 2016 at the Bethlehem
Christian
Church, 1549 Holland Road, Suffolk, VA. Commander Kevin Beale catled the meeting to order at 6:30 and welcomed members
and guesfs. He thanked those who arranged the tabtes and decorated the hatt for the Mlarion Joyner Watson Banquet
in
December and Mike Pullen for presiding for him atthe meeting. He also thanked those who vrsrfed and sent
cards while he
was in the hospital.
The pledge,s to the flags were reclted. Lt. Comm. Tim Houde read the SCV Charge and Chaptain
Jim parker
rec1ted
the Tom Smith Charge and asked the invocation.
Among thot;e who are
ill are Cuftis and Rose Nrcho/s; Bob Archer; Hany Liniger, recovering fram knee replacement;
John Williams; A niece of Sam Carr is recovering from cancer and had her last day of radiation; Kevin Beate, still
recovering
from back surgery and Mike Pullen recovering from damage to his hand sustained by an acid burn at
schoot. Henrietta King
passed away and syrnpathy goes out to her husband Lee.
Dinner was seryed.
comm. Beale called the meeting back to order and thanked the wKW catering.
ln the absence of Bob Archer, Comm. Beate lit the candte in honor of the tadies of the camp who
help make the meetings successfu/, some of fhese are Beth Beale, Jena Brown, Diane
Talley, Muriel Shumate, Rose Nlcho/s and the catering
team.
Lt. Comm. Houde introduced the speaker of the
evening Dr. Mallory Read, who gave a presentation
with video on the Baftle of Portland Harbor and his
ancestor Sfeven Mallory, who led the capture of the yankee ship Catab Christian.
Lt. Comm. lloude presented Dr. Read a container of Tom Smith peanuts
and an honorarium. Dr. Read graciously returned the honorarium to the camp.
comm. Beale announced the raffle would be a reproduction of a poftrait of
Stonewall Jackson.
A break was taken.
Business;
Lt, Comm. of Northern Virginia Mike Putten said the SCy/s moving forward on some fronts. The
licensep/afe issue
concerning the battle flag placement on the /lcense p/afes was voted down 6 - 3. Other rssues rnclud e concern
over the
Portsmouth City Councils intent to remove the Confederate Monument in that city. The State Convention
witt
April 15
-
be hetd
17 and voting for state officers witt take place at that time.
Comm' John Sharreft of the Stonewalt Camp announced their banquet scheduled for January 21ra
was cancelled due
to inclement weather 'and has been rescheduled for February 23ra at Lillian's Restaurant. Order your
meal or have the buffet
and pay only forthe nteal. He said the Tidewater Region, North South Skirmish Association has
made $2,000 setting bee traps
which he showed at the meeting. wood has been donated to make more.
Comm, Robevt Joyner of the Mahone Camp said their camp is presenting $250,00 to the volunteer
rescuesquads of
Surry and Windsor. They will have a fund raiser sometime in March.
Adiutant Shumate sari/ he has membership cards for the camp and fo see him and pick yours up.
'MIIWfTES COAilATWD "
Past Comm. Lee Haft said there will be a work day March 12 putting rn sfones and working on the front
entrance of Oakwood Cemetery. A new monument wit! be ptaced atthe memoria! entrance. Most Confederates
were carried to
their final resting place through this entrance. He said they had been working since June in Btandford Cemetery
to recondition
General Mahone's fftausoleum. Donations for Btandford Cemetery have come from other camps. He wtilt be asking
the Tom
Smith Camp to donate to this proiect at a later time. The Mahone famity is involved in this project and they are
funding quite a
bit of the project.
Dates to remember:
-
February
6
February
I-
Knibbs Battery and the JEB Stuart Camp of the SCV witl be hotding their annual memorial
obseruance of Major
General JEB Stuaft ttt his gravesite in Hollywood Cemetery at 10:00 a.m. Any organization wishing
to tay a wreath is invited to
do so by replying to
cochrane, [email protected] or catting.
February 22
'lin
Officerst meeting
-
Camp meeting
- Speaker Frank
Ernest. Topic: General Lawrence S. Baker (in character)
March 5 - CiC Barrotu has declared this day as Confederate Ftag Day and has requested that attDiylslons
have
their state
March 14
-
a Ftag Ratty in
Officers ltrleeting
March 28 - Camp Meeting, Speaker Afthur Candequist. Topic: The Great Raitroad Raid of
- date to be determined
l86l
March - Trash Pickupt
comm. Beale announced the board had decided on ten goals for the
1'
rest
of 2016,
Acquire piece of land on Kenyon Road, if practical. Examine alltax imptications of monetary impact on the
camp.
2. lf acquired, have at least one work day a month at land s'tte for camp members.
3. Phase out the camp picnic in June and/or replace it with a camp fieid trip to a destination
4. lncrease membership.
of choice.
5. Fill allvacancies.
6. Place a pliaque on the flag pote in Cedar Hitt Cemetery.
7' Place af /t;asf two headstones on Confederate Veterans. There are at least 16 known veterans
buried behind
Bethlehem Church.
8. Have two Adopt-A-Highway trash coilections - March and October,
9 Fild a spring fund raising activity to compliment the lste of Wight County Fair in the fail.
1 0, Re-evaluate the Marion Joyner Watson banquet
to possibly inctude ai end of the year camp recognition
banqueilholilay pafty.
He said that it willtake all camp members to reach goals.
Minutes of the Decem'ber meeting and banquet were approved as published in the newsletter.
Comm' Beale reminded members that threeposlfions are open in the camp. Carl Bunch volunteered
to take the
position of Aid-de-carnp. He was accepted into this position with thanks.
Jerry Talley won the picture of Stonewall Jackson.
Lynn Pope won the door prize, two spaghetti dinners.
Chaplain Parker asked the benediction and Dixie was suno,
UaUlht44
.4, St4t rare,,'4d/Aaat
*NOTE BOARD"
Compatriots,
Tom Smith Camp's Newsletter Editor "Jerry Talley' has elected fo sfep away from his position stating
only that its time to do something else. Jerry has seryed as editor throughouf fhe Sesq uicentennial
making the newsletter as enteftaining and informative as possib/e.
Anyone that may have an interest in becoming our next Editor, please let one of our camp officers
know' Jerry will <;ontinue on until a replacement is found (but not indefinitety) and he wrl assisf in the
transition.
Anticipate /asf ntrws/etter from Jerry to be June 2016
ls there no one interested in becoming the Newsletter Editor
PRESER,VE ...E.DUCA'I1E ...
?
EnOATO.R
Help to presente the memory of your ancestor by telting his or her
story, educating others and honoring their memory.
This can be dc,ne with as much (or littte) detail as you like or by
simply giving tlineir name, rank, company and seruice.
Sign up to light the Memorial Candle at one of our
monthly meetings.
call 2nd Lt. ca'mmander / Historian,
to reserue one of the available dates.
" Remember
Bob Archer
at T5T-539-2924
your Confederate An cesfors,'
Compatriot Jerry Talley attended the annuat JEB Stuart Memorial Observance on Saturday
February 6th, at'Hollywood cemetery Richmond to represent the
I
Tom Smith Cam:p#1702 and topresenf the camp wreath.
Due to two different times being posfed
for this event,
Jerry was a little late and was unable to get pictures.
Ihese were taken
aftentrtards.
Jerry did arrive in'time to
present the wreath during
the ceremony.
i.t
' i:
*IAL'PORTANT
DATES
IN FEBRUARY
OUNTUC TIIE WBTS'
February 7867
February 8-9, 1861 - The southern sfafes that seceded create a government at Montgomery, Alabama,
and the
Confederate Sfaferi of America are formed,
February 18, 1861- Jefferson Davrs rs appointed the first President of the Confederate Sfafes
of America at
Montgomery, Alabema, a position he wilthotd untitelections can be arranged.
February 7862
February 6, 1862- Sunender of Fort Henry, Iennessee. The tost of this southern fott
on fhe Ienness ee River opened
the door to Union control of the river,
February B, 1862- Battle of Roanoke lsland, North Carolina. A Confederate defeat, the battte
resulted in lJnion
occupation of easte'rn Nofth Carolina and controt of Pamtico Sound, to be used as Nofthern
base for further
operations against (he southern coast.
February 16, 1862- Surrender of Fort Donelson,Iennessee. This primary southern fort on the
Cumbe1and River teft
the river in Union hitnds, lt was here that tJnion GeneralUlysses S. Grant gained his nickname ,,lJnconditional
Surrender".
February 22, 1 862- Jefferson Davrs rs inaugurated as Presiden t of the Confederate Sfafes
of Arnerica.
February 7863
Under orders, in lak> January 1863, Confederate Maior General Joseph Wheeler, commanding
two brigades of
cavalry, had taken ptosition on the Cumberland River at Palmyra to disrupt lJnion shipping.
Thie Federils, however,
apprised of wheelels intent, refrained from sending any boats up or downriver.
Unable to disrupt Union shipping and realizing that he and his men could not remain in
the area indefinitety, Wheeler
decided to attack the garrison at Dover,Iennessee, which informers reported was small
and could easity'be
overwhelmed' The i?ebels sef ouf for Dover and between 1:00 and 2:00 pm, on February
3, began an ittack.
ad
s and decided that the enemy was too welt-placed to allow capture,
out a pursuit but to no avail. The confederates had failed to disrupt
the garrison at Dover,
This Confederate failure left the tJnion in control in Middte lennessee and
a bitter Brig. General Nathan Bedford
Forrest denounced l|lheeler, a favorite of General Braxton Bragg, saying
he would nit again se*e under him.
"INIPORTANT DATES
February
IN FEBRUARY OUNING TIIE WBTS.
7864i.
February 9, 1864- Escape from Libby Prison, Nchmond. After weeks of digging, 109 lJnion officers
made their
escape from the ncttorious Libby Prison, the largest and most sensafiona/ eicape of the war. Though
48 of the
escapees were later captured and two drowned, 59 were abte to make their way into lJnion lines.
February 27, 1864' ln Georgia, Camp Sumter Prison Camp opens, lJniversatly referred
fo as Anders onville prison
Camp, it will beconrc notorious for overcrowded conditions and a high death iate among
ifs rnmafes,
February 14-20, 1864- Union Capture and Occupation
Sherman enter the city of Meridian, Mrsslssrpp i after a
the sfafe. The capture of this important southern town,
hampers the efforts of Confederate commanders fo susf
Mlssissppi River.
February 17, 1864- Frrsf Successful Submarine Attack of the CivitWar. The CSS H,L. Hunley,
a seven-man
submergible craft, trttacked fhe USS Houstonic outside of Charteston, South Carolina. Struck
by the submarine,s
torpedo, the Housa,tonic broke apart and sank, taking all but five of her crew with her. Likewise,
the Hunley was a/so
lost and never heard from again until discovered in 1995 at the spot where it sank after
the attack.
Februdry 7865
February 1, 1865- Siherman's Army leaves Savannah to march through the Carolinas.
February 17,1865- sherman's Army captures Columbia, South Carolinawhite Confederate defenders
evacuate
Charleston, South Carolina,
February 22, 1865- Wilmington, NC, fatts to lJnion troops, closing the last important southern port
onfhe easf coasf,
On this same day, ,tioseph E. Johnston rs resfored to comt and the nearly shattered Army
of ihe Tennessee, vrce
John B. Hood who resigned a month earlier,
"DATTS TO REME]UBER"
February 22,
2016
-
6:00 PM
-
camp Meeting
-
speaker Frank Ernest. Topic: General
Lawrence S. Baker (in character)
IF AAIYONE KNOWS OF ANY
IMPORTANT DATES COMING IJP,
Compatriots, CiC Btarrow has declared that Saturday, March S, 2016 is Contederate
PLEASE LET ME KNOW SO I MAY
Hag Day and has rrrguesfed that all Divisions have a Ftag Rally in their state.
INCLUDE THEM HERE ..., THAKS
The virginia Division reguesfs that each Brigade have a ralty on that date. Those
Cemps in brigades that are spread out over a large area, are requested to have their own
rally if it is inpracticatto
travel due to distance or weather conditions.
Brigade Commanders are requested to contact their Camps and coordinate a location for
the rally. Take plenty of
pictures and send I'hem to the Virginia Division Facebook page.
Deo Vindice,
Tony Griffin, 1st Lt Commander
Virginia Division SCV
March 14, 2016
- Ctfficers Meeting
March 28, 2016
-
6:00 PM
-
Camp Meeting
-
Speaker Afthur Candequist. Topic: The Great Raitroad Raid
March 2016 -
Trach Pickup - March 26th (rain date Aprit 2nd)
breakfast then proceed to Highway l3 for the trash clean up.
APRTL
tS CONFEDE:nerc
- Ofticers Meeting
April 25,
-
6:00 PM
-
Meeting
at Beale's Run Farm at T:00 for
nenneat mourn
April11,2016
2016
-
of 1g6l
Camp Meeting
-
Speaker Scott Witliams. Iopic; The Bermuda 100 Campaign.
"CAAVIP
BRIT-DAYS"
Ralph L. Aliff
February 11, 1935
Robert R. Brinkley Jr.
February 27, L947
Vernon R. England 3rd
February 23, t957
Vernon O. Gayle
February LL, L942
February 7, L938
Walter F. Hunter Jr.
February 5, 1959
The Camp wishes all a Happy Birthday
Please let us know if we've missed your Birthday
Robert Edurard Lee
Born January 19th, 1807
I have seen many ytictures
of GeneralLee, but never
one that conveyed a correct impression
of his appearance. Above the
ordinary size, his propotlions were perfect. His form had futtness, without
any appearance of supefluousflesh, and was as erecf as that of a cadet,
without the slightestt apparent constraint. His features are foo well known to
need description, but no representation of General Lee which I have ever
seen properly conv'eys the light and sortness of his eye, the tenderness and
intellectuality of his mouth, or the indescribable refinement of his face. One picture gives him a meatiness
about the nose; another, hard or coarse lines about the mouth; another, heayrness about the chin. None
of
them give the effect of his hair and beard. I have seen all the great men of our times, except Mr. Lincoln,
and
have no hesitation in saying that Robert E. Lee was incomparabty the greatest looking man I ever
saw. I say
greatest-looking.
the
By this I do not mean to provoke drscussion whether he was, in fact, the greatest man of
his age' One thing ,is, however, certain. Every man
in that army betieved that Robert E. Lee was the greatest
man alive, and their faith in him alone kept that army together during the tast six months of its existence.
There was nothing of the pomp or panoply of war about the headquarters, or the military government,
or the
bearing of General Lee. The place selected as hls headquarters was unpretentious. The officers of his
staff
had none af the insolence
of martinets. Oddly enough, the three
prominent members of hls staff ColonelVenable, C;olonel Marshall, and ColonetWatter Taylor - were not even West pointers. persons
having
busrness with his headquarters were treated tike human beings, and courtesy, considerateness, and
even
deference were shctwn to the humblest. He had no gilded retinue, but a devoted band of simptescoufs
and
couriers, who, in th<tir quietness
most
and simplicity, modeled themselves after him. General Lee as often rode out to consult with his
subordinates
as he senf for them to come to him. The sight of him upon the roadside, or in the trenches, was
as common as
that of any subordinate in the army. When he approached or disappeared, it was with no
blare of trumpets or
"Traveler," he ambled quieily abaut, keeping his eye
a
a
charger. He was a horse bought by General Le
with black points, het was sound in eye, wind,
ready to go, and able to stay; and yet without
army, "Traveler" was no pedigreed, gazelle_eyed
healthy, comfortable, genileman,s saddle horse. Gray,
, sprain, ipavin, or secretion of any sort;
the pretentious bearing of the typicat
his west virginia campaign
When General Lee rode up to our headquarters,
or elsewhere, he
came as unosfen tatiousty as if
he had
been the head of tt plantation, riding over his fields to inquire and give directions about plawing or seeding, He
appeared to have no mighty secrefs concealed from his subordinates. He assum ed no airs of superior
authority' He repelled no kindly inquiries, and was capabte of jocutar remarks. He did not hotd himself atoof in
solitary grandeur. His bearing was that of a friend having a common interest in a common venture with the
person addressed, and as if he assumed that his subordinate was as deepty concerned as himsetf in its
success. Whatever greafness was accorded to him was not of his own seeking. He was/ess of an actor than
any man I ever saw. But the impression which that man made by his presence, and by his leadership, upon all
who came in conterct with him, can be described by no otherterm than that
of grandeur.
When
I
havesfood af
evening, and watc'hed the great clouds banked in the west, and tinged by evening suntight; when, on the
Western plains, I have looked at the peaks of the Rocky Mountains outtined against the sky; when, in
mid-ocean,'l have seen fhe /rmifless waters encircling us, unbounded save by the infinite horizon, - the
grandeur, fhe vasfrress of fhese have invariably suggested thoughts of General Robeft E. Lee. Certain it is
that the Confederacy contained no other man like him. When its brief career was ended, in him was centered,
as in no other man, the trust, the love, almost the worship, of those who remained sfeadfast to the end. When
he said that the career of the Confederacy was ended; that the hope of an independent government must be
abandoned;that all had been done which mortals could accomplish againsf fhe power of overwhetming
numbers and resources; and that the duty of the future was to abandon the dream of a Confederacy, and to
render a new and cheerful allegiance to a reunited government, - his utterances were accepfed as true as
Holy Writ, No other human being upon earth, no other eafthly power, could have produced such
acquiescence, or could have compelled such prompt acceptance of that finat and irreversible judgment.
Of General Lee's military greatness, abso/ufe or relative, t shatl not speak; of his moral greafness t need not.
The former, in viett' of the conditions with which he was hampered, must leave a great deat to speculation and
coniecture;the latter is acknowledged by allthe world. The man who could so sfamp hls rrnpress upon his
nation, rendering all others insignificanf beside him, and yet die without an enemy;the soldier who could make
love for his person a substitute for pay and clothing and food, and could, by the constraint of that love, hold
together a naked,
staruing band, ano' transform it into a fighting army; the heart which, after the failure of its great endeavor,
could break in silen'ce, and die without the utterance of one word of bitterness, - such a man, such a soldier,
such a heart, must have been great indeed, - great beyond the power of eulogy.
Not in five hundrecl years does the opportunity come to any boy,
I care not who he may be, fo tylness scenes
like these, or live in daily contact with men whose names will endure as long as man toves military gtory.
From " The End Of An Era " by John Sergeant Wise
The friro-day s;nowstorm wouldn't have fazed Confederate
soldrers who llived through the'Frozen Campaign'
By Linda Wheeler January 24 at 2:70 PM 'The Woshington post,'
Hey, Virginia? You lhink you have it bad with allthat snow? Consider what happened to
Gen. Thomas "Sfon,ewal/" Jackson and 9,000 of his men when they set off from
Winchester, Va., on Jan. 1. 1862. to raid Romnev Va (now Wcsl Viroinial e I lninn
stronghold.
The day was in the mid'S1s when they depafted. Newly recruited so/diers, some on their first march, shed their coats
and blankets, stowing them on the wagon train that would follow behind, By nightfatl, the wind had come up and the
temperature:droppe! to below freezing. The precious wagon train never made it to the first night's encampment at
Pughtown (now Gainsboro)
a community of just a handfulof houses that offered liftle shelter. There was no food for
the soldiers, who had to bed down on the frozen ground.
-
Snow began to fall t'he next day, and the temperature dropped to the mid-2}s. Each day after that offered more of the
same. The rutted mountainous roads turned to ice, adding to the so/drers' misery, The weather did not deter Jackson,
who seemed imperv'ious to the cold, from sticking to his ambitious and secref plan, which inctuded a lengthy detour to
attack the Union carnp at Bath (now Berkley Springs/ lt woutd add days and miles to the expedition.
Although Bath had tteen abandoned when Jackson arrived, his froops came underfire from Federals camped at
Hancock across the Potomac River. The snow in Bath was deep enough that a Confederate officer wrote that the
Union aftillery "snow'balled us, for fhe missi/es from their guns scaffered the hard snow and hurted the fragments upon
.,us, almost as unconfoftable fo us as fhe sp/rnfers from their shells,"
On Jan. 7, as the traops returned to the main road they would now fottow to Romney, a major snowstorm set in, with
high winds that mad'e the mid-21s temperature feel more like zero. The icy roads began to claim its victims:So/diers
fell often, someftmesr breaking arms or legs; artillery slipped off the road and was damaged beyond repair; and wagons
could not move forw,ard because fhe horses lacked winter shoes and easily tost their footing.
The weather next brcught
a sleet storm that, according to one so/dier's letter home,
left "men encased
in
ice &lcicles
hanging from the visors of their hats."
Jackson's entry into Romney on Jan. 14 was not the
victorious moment he had expected. The Federals had
already abandoned the town, Leaving several brigades to
defend thetown, Jackson reversed course and began the
long march backto Winchester, arriving on the 24th.
Although Jackson had accomplished his goal of seizing
Romney and disbursing Union troops, the expedition is better
remembered for the weather, lt is often referred to as the
"Frozen Campaign,"
Did Blaclk People Own Slaves?
By Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on
Jan 5, 2016
This article was originally printed at rheRoot.com on March 4, zo1g.
One of the most vexing questions in African-American history is whether free African Americans
themselves owned
slaves. The short answer to this question, as you might suspect, is yes, of course; some
free black people in this
country bought and sold other black people, and did so at least since 1654, continuing to do
so right through the
Civil War' For me, the really fascinating questions about black slave-owning are how many
black',masters,,were
involved, how many slaves did they own and why did they own slaves?
The answers to these questions are complex, and historians have been arguing for some
1me over whether free
blacks purchased family members as slaves in order to protect them
motivated, on the one hand, by benevolence
and philanthropy, ar3 historian Carter G. Woodson put it, or whether, on the other hand, they purchased
other black
people "as an act of exploitation," primarily to exploit their free labor for profit, just
as white slave owners did, The
evidence shows thart, unfofiunately, both things are true. The great African-American historian,
John Hope Franklin,
states this clearly: "'Ihe majority of Negro owners of slaves had some personal interest in
property."
their
But, he
admits, "There werer instances, however, in which free Negroes had a realeconomic interest in
the institution of
slavery and held slarves in order to improve their economic status,"
-
In a fascinating esslly reviewing this controversy, R, Halliburton shows that free black people
have owned slaves
each of the thirteen original states and later in every state that countenanced slavery," at least
since Anthony
,,in
Johnson and his wife Mary went to couft in Virginia in 1654 to obtain the services of their indentured
servant, a black
man, John Castor, for life,
And for a time, free black people could even "own" the services of white indentured servants
in Virginia as well. Free
blacks owned slaver; in Boston by 1724 and in Connecticut by 1783;by 1790,48 black people
in Maryland owned
143 slaves. One particulady notorious black Maryland farmer named Nat Butler "regularly purchased
and sold
Negroes for the Southern trade," Halliburton wrote,
Perhaps the most insidious or desperate attempt to defend the right of black people to
own slaves was the
statement made on the eve of the Civil War by a group of free pebpb of coloi in New Orleans,
offering their services
to the Confederacy, in part because they were fear-ful for their own enslavement: "The
free colored
population [native]of Louisiana ,,. own slaves, and they are dearly attached
to their native land ... and they are
ready to shed their blood for her defense, They have no sympathy for abolitionism; no
love for the North, but they
have plenty for Louisiana .., They will fight for her in 1861 as they fought
[to defend New Orleans from the Britishl in
1814-1815;
These guys were, to put it bluntly, opportunists par excellence: As Noah Andre Trudeau and James G,
Hollandsworth Jr. explain, once the war broke out, some of these same black men formed 14 companies of a militia
composed of 440 men and were organized by the governor in May 1861 into "the Native Guards, Louisiana,"
swearing to fight
volunteers
-
b
defend the Confederacy. Although given no combat role, the Guards
became the first civil war unit to appoint brack officers.
-
reaching a peak of 1,000
When New Orleans fell in late April 1862 to the Union, about 10 percent of these men, not missing a beat, now
formed the Native Guard/Corps d'Afrique to defend the Union. JoelA, Rogers noted this phenomenon
in his 100
Amazing Facts: "The Negro slave-holders, like the white ones, fought to keep their chattels in
the Civil War," Rogers
also notes that sorne black men, including those in New Orleans at the outbreak of the War, "fought
to perpetuate
slavery."
How Many'Slaves,Did Blacks Own?
So what do the actual numbers of black slave owners and their slaves tell us? In '1830, the year most carefully
studied by Carter G, Woodson, about 13.7 percent (319,599) of the black population was free, Of these,
3,776 free
Negroes owned 1it,907 slaves, out of a total of 2,009,043 slaves owned in the entire United States, so
the numbers
of slaves owned by black people over all was quite small by comparison with the number owned by white people.
In
his essay, " 'The Known World' of Free Black Slaveholders," Thomas J. Pressly, using Woodson's
statistics,
calculated that 54 (or about 1 percent) of these black slave owners in 1 830 owned between 20 and 84 slaves;
I 72
(about 4 percent) owned between 10 to 19 slaves; and 3,550 (about 94 percent) each owned
between 1 and g
slaves. Crucially, 42 percent owned just one slave.
Pressly also shows that the percentage of free black slave owners as the total number of free black heads
of
families was quite high in several states, namely 43 percent in South Carolina, 40 percent in Louisiana, 26 percent
in Mississippi, 25 percent in Alabama and 20 percent in Georgia. So why did these free black people
own these
slaves?
It is reasonable to assume that the 42 percent of the free black slave owners who owned just
one slave probably
owned a family member to protect that person, as did many of the other black slave owners who
owned
only slighly
larger numbers of slaves, As Woodson put it in 1924's Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United
States in 1g30,
"The census recorcls show that the majority of the Negro owners of slaves
were such from the point of view of
philanthropy. In many instances the husband purchased the wife or vice versa ...
Slaves of Negroes were in some
cases the children of a free father who had purchased his wife. lf he did not thereafter emancipate
the mother, as so
many such husbands failed to do, his own children were born his slaves and were thus repo1ed
to the numerators,',
Moreover, Woodson explains, "Benevolent Negroes often purchased slaves to make their lot
easier by granting
them their freedom for a nominal sum, or by permitting them to work it out on liberal terms,',
In
other words, theser black slave-owners, the clear majority, cleverly used the system of slavery trr protect their loved
ones. That's the good news,
But not all did, ancl that is the bad news, Halliburton concludes, afterexamining the evidence, that "itwould be a
serious mistake to automatically assume that free blacks owned their spouse or children only for benevolent
purposes." Woodson himself notes that a "small number of slaves, however, does not always signify
benevolence
on the pad of the Owner." And John Hope Franklin notes that in North Carolina, "Without doubt, there were
those
who possessed slaves for the purpose of advancing their
[own] well-being .., these Negro slaveholders were more
interested in making their farms or carpenter-shops 'pay' than they were in treating their slaves humanely."
For
these black slaveholders, he concludes, "there was some effort to conform to the pattern established by the
dominant slaveholrJing group within the State in the effort to elevate themselves to a position of respect and
privilege." In other words, most black slave owners probably owned family members to protect
them, but far too
many turned to slavery to exploit the labor of other black people for profit,
Who Were These lSlack Slave Owners?
lf we were compiling a "Rogues Gallery of Black History," the following free black slaveholders would
be in it:
John Carruthers Stanly
Wright Stanly
-
-
born a slave in Craven County, N,C., the son of an lgbo mother and her master, John
became an extraordinarily successful barber and speculator in realestate in New Bern. As Loren
Schweninger points out in Black Property Owners in the South , 1790-1915, by the early 1820s, Stanly owned
three
plantations and 16:3 slaves, and even hired three white overseers to manage his properly!
He fathered six children
with a slave woman named Kitty, and he eventually freed them. Stanly lost his estate when a loan for
$14,962 he
had co-signed with his white hallbrother, John, came due, After his brother's stroke, the loan was Stanly's sole
responsibility, and he was unable to pay it,
William Ellison's faricinating story is told by Michael Johnson and James L. Roark in their book, Black Masters:
A
Free Family of Color in the Old South, At his death on the eve of the Civil War, Ellison was wealthier
than nine out of
10 white people in South Carolina. He was born in 1790 as a slave on a plantation in the Fairfield District
of the
state, far up country from Charleston, In 1816, at the age of 26, he bought his own freedom, and soon bought
his
wifeandtheirchild lnls22,heopenedhisowncottongin,andsoonbecamequitewealthy.Byhisdeathinl860,
he owned 900 acres of land and 63 slaves. Not one of his slaves was allowed to purchase his or
her own freedom.
Louisiana, as we have seen, was its own bizarreworld of color, class, caste and slavery. By 1830, in Louisiana,
several black people there owned a large number of slaves, including the following: In Pointe Coupee parish
alone,
Sophie Delhonde owned 38 slaves; Lefroix Decuire owned 59 slaves; Antoine Decuire owned Z0 slaves;
Leandre
Severin owned 60 silaves; and Victor Duperon owned 10. In St. John the Baptist Parish, Victoire Deslondes
owned
52 slaves; in Plaquu'mine Brule, Martin Donatto owned 75 slaves; in Bayou Teche, Jean B.
Muillion owned 52
slaves; Martin Lenormand in St, Martin Parish owned 44 slaves; Verret Polen in West Baton
Rouge parish owned
69 slaves, Francis.ferod in Washita Parish owned 33 slaves; and Cecee McCarty in the Upper
Suburbs of New
Orleans owned 32 r;laves, Incredibly, the 13 members of the Metoyer family in Natchitoches parish
including
Nicolas Augustin Metoyer, pictured
collectivery owned 215 slaves,
-
-
Antoine Dubuclet and his wife Claire Pollard owned more than 70 slaves in lberville parish
when they married.
According to Thomas Clarkin, by 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, they owned 100
slaves, worth 994,200. Durinq
Reconstruction, he became the state's first black treasurer, serving between 1868 and
1g7g,
Andrew Durnford was a sugar planter and a physician who owned the St. Rosalie plantation,
33 miles south of New
Odeans. In the late 1820s, David O, Whitten tells us, he paid $7,000 forseven male slaves,
five females and two
children, He traveled all the way to Virginia in the 1830s and purchased 24 more, Eventually,
he would own TT
slaves. When a fellow Creole slave owner liberated 85 of his slaves and shipped them
off to Liberia, Durnford
commented that he couldn't do that, because "self-interest is too strongly rooted in the
bosom of all that breathes the
American atmosphere."
It would be a mistake to think that large black slaveholders were only men.
In 1830, in Louisiana, the aforemen-
tioned Madame Antoine Dublucet owned 44 slaves, and Madame Ciprien Ricard
owned 35 slaves, Louise Divivier
owned 17 slaves, Genevieve Rigobert owned 16 slaves and Rose Lanoix and Caroline
Miller both owned 13 slaves,
while over in Georgia, Betsey Perry owned 25 slaves, According to Johnson and
Roark, the wealthiest black Derson
in Charleston, S.C,, in 1860 was Maria Weston, who owned 14 slaves and property
valued at more than 940,000, at
a time when the average white man earned about $100 a year. (The city,s largest
black slaveholders, though, were
Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry, both of whom owned g4 slaves.)
In Savannah, Ga', between 1823 and'1828, according to Betty Wood's
Gender, Race, and Rank in a Revolutionarv
Age, Hannah Leion owned nine slaves, while the largest slaveholder in 1860 was
ciprien Ricard, who had a
sugarcane plantatircn in Louisiana and owned 152 slaves with her son, Pierre
many more that the 35
-
she owned
in 1830. According toeconomic historian StanleyEngerman, "ln Charleston, South Carolina
about42 percentof free
blacks owned slavt;s in 1850, and about 64 percent of these slaveholders were women."
Greed, in other words.
was
gender-blind.
Why They Owned Slaves
These men and women, from William Stanly to Madame Ciprien Ricard, were
among the largest free Negro
slaveholders, and their motivations were neither benevolent nor philanthropic. One
would be hard-pressed to
account for their ovunership of such large numbers of slaves except as avaricious,
rapacious, acquisitive and
predatory.
But lest we romanticize all of those small black slave owners who ostensibly purchased
family members only for
humanitarian reasons, even in these cases the evidence can be problematic.
Halliburton, citing examples from an
essay in the North American Review by Calvin Wilson in 1905, presents some
hair-raising challenges to the idea
that black people who owned their own famiry members always treated them well.
A free black in Trimble County, Kentucky,,, ,,. sold his own
$1,200,' .., A Maryland father sold his siave children in ord
woman
Dilsey Pope
owned her husband, ,,He
Louisville, Kentucky,, owned her husband Jim
a
At New Bern, North carolina, a free brack wife and son purchased their
-
-
offend
drunken
-
slave husband-father. When the newly bought father criticized his son, the
son sold him to a slave trader. The son
boasted aftenruard that "the old man had gone to the corn fields about New
Orleans where they might learn him
some manners."
About Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a Harvard Professor and author. More from Henry
Louis Gates, Jr,
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Generol Patrick R. Cleburne, CSA
"Evety man should endeavor to understand the meaning
of subjugation
before it
is too
will
dead
fit obiectsforderision.. /f is saidslaveryisallwearefightingfor,andif wegiveitupwe
give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not ail
our enemies are
fighting for. lt is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more
centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.,'
MaI GeneralPatrick R. cleburne, csA, January 1g64, writing on what would
happenifthe Confederacy were to be defeated.
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