Lee's Dispatch
Captain Bob Lee SCV Camp 2198
Volume 1, Issue 4
www.captboblee.org
February 15, 2012
The following letter to the camp and followers was
received for publication in this edition of Lee’s Dispatch.
Commander’s Report
By Doug Garnett
Have you ever asked yourself, “What does Heritage defense
mean?” I recently read an editorial in the Ft.Worth Star
Telegram which not only angered me, but also got me
thinking. Yes, I know it is something I’m not used to doing,
but I still manage to do it every now and then.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/21/3677564/2reminders-that-for-some-texans.html Just read the article.
The author of this column did mention the SCV billboard on
US 290 outside Brenham. The giant double billboard went
up last year on the busy highway east of Brenham. Both sides
wave battle flags with the message "Southern Born, Texas
Proud! Learn About Your Heritage." Someone placed two
hangman’s nooses on the billboard. The author went on to
make fun of the fact that the SCV felt it was criminal and
wanted an investigation.
What struck me is why the news media feels everyone’s
rights should be protected except those of the SCV. Why is
the SCV open to attack? Why is the SCV the “bad guys?”
We honor our ancestors who, thanks to years of one sided
education, are perceived by many as traitors and racists.
It is our struggle and duty to correct the misconception of the
general public as to our Heritage. As Commander R.
Michael Givens states in the recent issue of Confederate
Veteran we “must assume the journalist loathes you and
everything you stand for. Ignore this at your peril. Their
job is to get you to say something controversial….You are a
Son of the South and you represent the SCV.” We must
always present ourselves in the best possible light and always
be aware of those around us. Everything we do is Heritage
Defense.
Lee’s Dispatch is the official newsletter for the Sons of Confederate
Veterans Captain Bob Lee Camp 2198 and is intended for the sole
purpose of keeping the camp members and friends of the camp
informed to the activities and news of Camp 2198. Statements in
this newsletter are those of the author and may not reflect the
opinions of the Captain Bob Lee Camp, editor or the National Sons
of Confederate Veterans. Within articles or quotes written by
outside authors mistakes in spelling, grammar or sentence structure
are strictly those of the author and have been left as is.
Greetings everyone;
Thank you everyone for being interested in this camp,
Captain Bob Lee #2198 of the SCV. I am grateful in being
the first camp commander from August 2008 thru
December 2011 of the camp, let’s keep it growing and get
the word out about our camp.. I would like to bring up a
topic we may not have done just yet and that is a camp flag.
I will bring it up at our meeting in March and post hopeful
results in the newsletter. I would like to carry out past
discussions on contact with the right authorities in getting
historical markers and roadway signs at Lee Creek and
replacement of the cemetery marker at Lee Cemetery. Also
it is only 4 months away from the State convention in June.
Let’s bring a family member to our meetings, a friend,
somebody from work, and whomever, there are folks who
would like to know more about the SCV but did not know
whom to contact. This is the 2nd year of the "Civil War"
Sesquicentennial, so let’s tell all people about our heritage.
See you at the meeting-Be there.
Thank you very much.
D. Routh
THE JEWISH CONTRIBUTION TO THE
CONFEDERACY
Marc Jordan Ben-Meir, PhD
Part-1
When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey I enjoyed
playing cowboys and Indians and watching action movies
on our black and white television set like any other kid. I
especially liked history and historical movies. I naturally
relied on my parents, whom I believed to be knowledgeable
about such things, if I had a question about a historical
event.
I remember watching a civil war movie. The camera
panned over allegedly happy black faces as they labored in
the searing sun while picking cotton for their master. They
were all singing and swaying to some invisible rhythm only
they could hear. They stopped their labors for a moment
and tearfully waived as their young master rode off to war
sporting a shiny new saber on his confederate uniform.
Continued on page 2A
Lee's Dispatch 1
Continued from page 1B
FIRST WAVE OF IMMIGRANTS
As the young master rode out of sight the slaves returned to
their labors as the white overseer cracked his whip over their
heads.
The movie followed the young man through the war up until
he fell at Gettysburg screaming the Rebel Yell, waving his
saber and charging the “Yankee” lines. I was confused. The
young white master had ridden off to war. “Bonny Blue
Flag” was playing in the background. I didn’t see slavery
for the wrong it was but identified with the young soldier
who heard the bugles and the drum roll. Surely his cause
was just, the waving flags and martial music made me want
to enlist and be a rebel also. This was the power of
Hollywood on a young impressionable mind.
After the movie I asked my father to explain several of the
parts to me. Some of the scenes were simply not clear.
“No,” he told me, “there weren’t many Jews in the South.
They were all Christians down there who owned slaves. We
Jews were slaves 3000 years ago. All the Jews lived up
north.” I accepted his answer as gospel and let it go. After
all, he knew. He had fought in WW II.
A seed was planted in my mind that day. Not that I didn’t
believe my father’s words of wisdom, it just seemed too
simple of an answer. Why did all the Jews who came to
America settle in the north? Did someone overseas tell them
where they should reside?
As an adult my interest in the American civil war ripened
into a lifelong passion. My formal studies took me in a
different direction through which I made my living but my
ongoing passion for factual information about the war never
waned. Were Jews in the South in the mid-19th century?
Where were they, who were they and where did they come
from? Did they own slaves? Did they serve the
Confederacy and how. What I learned in my research
changed me and my perspective on life. In the rest of this
paper I will share the results of my research to its astounding
conclusion.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE JEWS
The myth of the wandering Jew is more than a simple
compilation of stories. The Jew was always viewed as an
outsider due to his religious beliefs. Unlike so many in
Christian Europe, the Jew chose to maintain his religious
perspective even if it meant his being ostracized for it. In
Europe the Jew, with few exceptions, was forbidden to work
in any profession where a Christian worked. Likewise, in
many places, the Jew could only labor as a money lender.
Regardless of how honest the Jew may have been, he was
still perceived as someone who profited from Christians and
was therefore to be feared, mistrusted and hated. Waves of
anti-Semitism and accusations of blood libels spread
throughout Europe and pogroms (Auth. Note: Pogrom:
organized assaults against the Jews living in a certain area)
started in the small villages of Germany and eastern Russia.
Once again, the Jews looked for a new home.
Jewish immigration to the Unites States came in three
waves. Initially, Jews from Spain and Portugal as well as
from South and Central America fled the Catholic Church’s
agents of the Inquisition. Jews arrived in the U.S. almost
immediately after the fall of the Dutch colony of Recife in
Brazil. The Portuguese along with their “holy inquisition”
arrived in Recife on January 26, 1654. The church
threatened the Jews with mass executions at the stake if they
did not convert to Catholicism. The Dutch had allowed the
Jews to maintain their houses of worship and offered a
liberal perspective to its Jews. Fearful of the imposition of
the Inquisition under the Portuguese, a group of 23 Jews
sailed north to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam,
expecting to receive the same level of toleration there.
New Amsterdam had existed for several years and was
considered to be a cosmopolitan colony, with Dutch,
English, and French settlers including various Protestant
groups, Catholics, and even a handful of earlier Jewish
settlers. As could be expected, tension had developed and
existed between the colonies. The introduction of Native
Americans also entered the mix and with the introduction of
the “new Jews” things started to spiral out of control. As a
result, the arrival of these new Jews from Recife was not
regarded favorably by Peter Stuyvesant, the colonial
governor.
Within ten years the British captured New Amsterdam. The
Jews fought for and achieved equal rights under the new
rulers. Best remembered is Asher Levy, a butcher, who
fought for the right to enlist and participate in the defense of
the colony, despite Stuyvesant’s opposition. After the
British took over the colony in 1664, the tiny Jewish
community faired better.
THE SECOND WAVE: HOLLAND, THE
NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY
During the sixteenth and seventeenth century the only real
refuge for the Jews in Europe was found in Holland
or what was referred to as the United Provinces. Holland
extended refuge to her holdings in the new world, and laid
the foundation in what had become the great New York
community. The Jews returned the good deed to Holland by
aiding in their resistance to foreign encroachment, especially
in South America. The first settlers came from Spain,
Portugal and the Netherlands. A large majority of these
settlers were Sephardic Jews. In Hebrew, the word
“Sephard” means Spain but generally also encompassed
Jews from the Iberian Peninsula and their descendants. Jews
who came from this area are generally referred to as
Sephardic Jews. A small minority of German Jews joined
these settlers. Jews, who were forbidden to live in England
at this time, also contributed a small number to the effective
settlements that England was making on the eastern
seaboard of the new world.
Continued on page 3A
Lee's Dispatch 2
Continued from page 2B
During the early to mid-19th century a vast majority of
Jewish immigrants were Ashkenazi. Again, by definition,
Ashkenazi Jews are usually those from Germany or Eastern
Europe. Unlike previous Jewish immigrants, these Jews
were mostly educated, secular, and very cosmopolitan. They
settled in the American mid-west as well as into previously
settled coastal regions. The number of Jews immigrating
from Germany and Eastern Europe increased exponentially
as a result of the 1848 Napoleonic wars and internal
revolutions. From that time, while this phase of revolution
lost its impetus, the Jews continued to arrive in a steady
stream so that the Jewish population of the United States
was quadrupled within 20 years between 1850 and 1870.
Part 2 will continue in March
Herold told the group that the other man was not Booth, but
a different man named Boyd. Boyd was hiding because he
was a wanted fugitive for killing a Captain Watkins in
Maryland.
The group was impatient. They demanded that Booth come
out of the barn. When he hadn’t, they torched the barn.
Still, this man did not surrender.
Boston Corbett impulsively shot and mortally wounded this
man. The man was pulled out of the barn and carried to the
front porch of a house.
The dying man had red hair and freckles. John Wilkes
Booth had dark black hair. A member of the gang asserted
that this was someone other than Booth.
If this wasn’t Booth, the posse had wrongfully murdered
another man and could be tried in a court of law!
The dead body they wanted to be Booth’s was clothed in a
Confederate uniform. The men in the posse took the dead
body, and David Herold, to Washington.
In Washington, Dr. John Frederick May examined the
corpse. Booth had once been a patient of his. May said this
was not Booth.
Dr. Marc Jordan Ben-Meir
Born in the Bronx, NY, Marc is a Licensed Clinical
Psychologist by profession, and an ordained Jewish rabbi,
and a rebel by passion. Marc has been a reenactor for 20+
years portraying a Confederate civil war doctor. Marc lives
in North Richland Hills with his wife Tina.
Was John Wilkes Booth Killed at Garrett’s Farm?
Jeff Minshew
Somebody was shot and killed at Garrett’s Farm, but it
wasn’t John Wilkes Booth.
There were sixteen members of a search party that
supposedly located and killed John Wilkes Booth. Their
plan was to take John Wilkes Booth alive, and return him for
a $100,000 reward. The money would be divided among
each member of the gang.
However, only a few of these men were familiar enough
with Booth that they could have identified him. In fact, the
men in this posse did not have a photo of John Wilkes
Booth, although they did have a photo of Edwin Booth,
John’s brother.
They followed a lead that led them to a barn at Garrett’s
Farm. Two people were known to be inside the barn. One
of these men was believed to be John Wilkes Booth. The
men from the search party called for the two men to come
out of the barn.
David Herold was a friend of Booth’s. Herold surrendered,
and stepped out of the barn. The other man stayed hidden in
the barn.
There was no real evidence that this was Booth and there
were no photos of the dead man. The only proof offered,
was that David Herold had been captured.
Had the government really believed this was Booth, there
would have been many people used to confirm his identity.
There would have been a lot of publicity about Booth’s
capture. This was a newsworthy topic. However, the
government wanted to close the case and assure the public
that all was well.
Herold was hanged. The dead body clothed in the
Confederate uniform was placed in an ammunitions crate,
and buried in secret inside the basement of an old naval
prison.
Some people questioned the government’s story. Some
people thought the truth had not been told. In 1869, the
corpse was interred and buried at Green Mount Cemetery in
Baltimore. Since then, all attempts to verify Booth’s
identity have been blocked by the government.
The first of the year is always slow. Check the calendar at
www.captboblee.org it will be updated as new events are
submitted
Lee’s Dispatch, again, puts forth a call for submissions. We
are looking for articles, Confederate ancestral genealogy,
ideas for articles, poetry, photos and feedback from the
readers.
Lee's Dispatch 3
The Fish Boat
Doug Garnett
Imagine if you will; a cove, the sun gleaming through
nearby trees as it sets, crickets chirping in the distance,
frogs croaking, and water gently lapping on the sides of a
boat tied to a dock. There are quiet conversations among
the men gathered by. The waning light lends an almost
ghostly surreal appearance to the activities.
A distinctive sound of a man limping on the dock brought a
hush to all noticeable sounds. The men who had gathered
watched the man make his way to the boat. Eight of the
men quickly climbed down into the Fish Boat followed by
their Commander, Lt George Dixon. The ropes which held
the boat to the dock were let go and the men began to drive
the Fish Boat out into bay.
On the front of the boat is a 17 foot long iron pole and
attached to the end of the pole is a torpedo. The crew’s
intentions are to drive the pole into the side of an enemy
ship, much like harpooning a whale, and then to detonate
the torpedo. The night is February 17, 1864 and the crew
of the Fish Boat are about to sail into history as the first
successful attack by a submarine.
The Fish Boat, later known as the H.L. Hunley began its
short life in Mobile Alabama. There had been two other
boats before the Hunley. In New Orleans, H. L. Hunley and
his engineers James McClintock and Gus Whitley had built
the Pioneer. As the Union army captured New Orleans,
Hunley and the engineers escaped to Mobile. The Pioneer
was sunk in Lake Pontchartrain.
The second prototype American Diver was built in Mobile.
McClintock and Whitley experimented with different
methods of propulsion, battery, and steam then settled on
hand cranked. Once built, the American Diver was being
towed out into Mobile Bay, became swamped and lost in an
unknown area of the bay.
The civilian crew went out daily without finding a target.
On August 23, 1863; the frustrated Confederate government
seized control of the boat. Lt. John Payne and a crew from
the CSS Chicora trained for 6 days. Then on August 29th
the boat was being towed out as far as possible to save the
crews strength. Both forward and rear hatches were open.
Lt. Payne standing in the open forward hatch accidently
kicked the diving planes and the boat went under.
Lt. Payne and 3 others managed to escape the steel tube as it
filled with water. One of the three became tangled with an
open hatch and was taken to the bottom with the boat 42
feet below.
Recovery was underway by September 1st. By the 10th of
September the boat was back on the surface and being
refitted. During the refit, Horace Hunley requested the
return of the Fish Boat to himself and the civilian crew.
The military agreed, but put one of their own in command
of the boat, Lt. George Dixon.
The civilian crew was reassembled and Lt. Dixon began a
daily routine of training. Shortly after October 5th they
began nightly forays outside the harbor. A demonstration
dive was arranged for the 15th of October. Horace Hunley
insisted on being in command during the demonstration.
The demonstration was for the boat to make a run on the
CSS Indian Chief, dive and go under the ironclad and then
surface on the far side. The boat went down.
After three days of searching, divers found the boat nose
down in the mud. After being raised, the forward sea cock
was found open, filling the forward ballast tank to
overflowing, flooding the boat.
Continued on page 5A
The third unnamed prototype known as the Fish Boat was
built and tested successfully by a civilian crew.
Demonstration runs were carried out in Mobile Bay in front
of the representatives of the Confederate military. The boat
was approved, and then moved by rail to Charleston. The
promise of the Fish Boat raised the spirits of the citizens of
Charleston.
Lee's Dispatch 4
Continued from page 4B
The rear ballast tank was full of air. Hunley was found in
one of the hatch areas, asphyxiated. The bolts for both
hatches had been removed but external water pressure held
them closed. The First officer was found also asphyxiated
in the rear hatch. The remainder of the crew drowned.
During these past few months of the accidents, training and
attempts to find targets, the H. L. Hunley lost one of its
advantages. It was no longer a secret. US ships began
deploying chain nets and other obstacles to prevent torpedo
attacks.
Raised once again, by November 1863; the Hunley was
being refurbished on a wharf in Mt. Pleasant South
Carolina. A new military crew of volunteers was assigned.
By mid December 1863, night training had resumed. Again,
Lt. Dixon trained his crew tirelessly. As before, to save the
crew’s strength, the Hunley would be towed out. For all the
training and operational sorties, the Hunley had been towing
a torpedo. In January 1864 the torpedo drifted toward the
side of the CSS David which had been towing the Hunley.
To avoid being the unintentional target, one of the sailors
from the CSS David jumped into the water and pushed the
torpedo away. The Hunley would no longer be towed.
It was calm on the night of February 17, 1864. The Hunley
approached the USS Housatonic on the surface. Night watch
on the Housatonic saw the object coming fast and began
shooting at it with small arms. The Housatonic slipped her
anchor chain and tried to back away from the Hunley. The
efforts were to no avail. The Hunley’s spar drove into the
ship’s side about eight feet under the water line, and then, as
trained, the Hunley quickly began to back away.
Continued on page 6A
After the incident with the CSS David, the Hunley was
relocated to Breach Inlet, between Sullivan’s and Long
Islands (now Isle of Palms).
A 17 foot iron spar with a sharp barb on the end to which
the torpedo attached was now the method of delivery.
They do not know what they say. If it came to a conflict of
arms, the war will last at least four years. Northern
politicians will not appreciate the determination and pluck of
the South, and Southern politicians do not appreciate the
numbers, resources, and patient perseverance of the North.
Both sides forget that we are all Americans. I foresee that
our country will pass through a terrible ordeal, a necessary
expiation, perhaps, for our national sins.
Robert E. Lee
Lee's Dispatch 5
Continued from page 5B
The explosion lifted the Housatonic into the air, then it
began to settle into the ocean, its masts and rigging standing
high out of the water. All but five of the Housatonic’s crew
were rescued.
Another view of the Hunley located at the Warren Lasch
Conservation Center.
Pictured are scale models of the USS Housatonic and the
CSS Hunley. The Hunley model is circled.
History records that a blue signal light was seen from the
shore. This was prearranged so bonfires would be ignited to
guide the Hunley home. The Hunley was not seen again
until 1995. Raised again in 2000, the Hunley is slowly
revealing its secrets to archaeologists. The Hunley now
resides at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center.
Looking toward the rear of a replica, this view shows how
nine men would crowd into this steel tube.
Compare the Hunley to the USS Dallas:
The H.L. Hunley opened the door to a new world of naval
warfare that still dominates naval strategies today. The
modern submarine has only one restriction, how much food
it can carry. The Hunley was restricted by size and air.
The Hunley:
Displacement: 7.5 short tons (6.8 metric tons)
Length: 39.5 feet (12.0 meters)
Beam: 3.83 feet (1.17 meters)
Propulsion: Hand-cranked propeller
Speed: 4 knots (7.4 kilometers/hour) (surface)
Complement: 1 officer, 8 enlisted
Armament: 1 spar torpedo
USS Dallas SSN-700:
A modern Class and type: Los Angeles-class submarine
Displacement: 6,900 tons
Length: 110.3 m (361 ft 11 in)
Beam: 10 m (32 ft 10 in)
Draft: 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
Propulsion: S6G nuclear reactor
Complement: 14 officers, 113 men
Armament: four 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Lee's Dispatch 6
Answers for The States
Puzzle from January 15, 2012
Lee's Dispatch 7
Puzzle for February 15, 2012
Lee's Dispatch 8