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Massacre at Pocahontas, Arkansas

5/29/2015

In Luke 6:38, Jesus said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

Too often, we apply that passage only to money. The application is that we have to give money to get money. Whether its the TV preacher telling us to send him a big offering, or a "seed" or whatever they want to call it now, or if its just us thinking that if we put a big check in the offering plate at church is Going to bless us and pay some bill we have hanging over us (or whatever it may be).

But Luke 6:38 and the principle that it teaches us goes well beyond money. It applies to every aspect of our lives.

There are a LOT of thing in your life that you've probably been praying about for years. And you are frustrated because you feel like God is not giving you the things that you are asking for. That He is not listening to your prayers. You are asking but not receiving answers.

Maybe, just maybe, the reason is that God cannot give you the new until you first give away the old.

Let me give you an illustration. In a relationship. Your wife, or your children, or your co-workers, your employer, your parents, your siblings, your "friends," etc. cannot make emotional deposits into your life if the bank is already full. You have to empty yourself into others so that there will be room to receive the same.

Or I will give you an even more practical illustration. I know a couple who has wanted new furnishings for years. They have even prayed that God would enable them to replace their old furnishings. But that prayer never seemed to be answered. My advice to them was to give away everything that they didn't need or want. And in so doing make room in their house and life for God to give them new. It worked.

They gave the lion's share of their furniture and window coverings to a couple that was just getting started and could not afford such things. And over the next 6 months God blessed them in a number of ways and they have now replaced everything with very nice, new, everything they had ever hoped for.

Sometimes, we make the mistake of holding on to things that we should just give away because we think we should sell them. And then when they do not sell we end up holding onto them. Because we are holding onto them God cannot replace that which we've not let go of yet. The new cannot be given unto us because we are yet to give away the old.

I'm not saying that there are not times when it isn't appropriate to sell things. It certainly is. But sometimes, we just need to let go, give what we have away, let it be a blessing to someone else, and then trust God to replace it with something else. God knows what we need. And whatever replacement He gives will be exceedingly better than anything we gave away.

The principle applies to our Southern heritage as well. And today I am going to give us all a very personal object lesson by practicing what I am preaching. For the last few weeks I've been trying to sell my Suttlery tent. Instead, I am just going to give it to someone who will use it to advance the cause. I will give them the canvas, interior and exterior walls, poles, stakes, ropes, everything. All I ask is that you use it to promote our heritage, teach our history, and pass the faith and character of or ancestors on. No doubt as I give this away God will give me something greater in its place that I can use to advance the cause. In the process we will both be enabled to do the work.

I cannot afford to ship the canvas, poles, etc. And truth be told, that cost would be hundreds of dollars and make the "free" offer impractical for both of us. But if you can pick up the tent in Central Florida please respond to this eMail. We can make arrangements for you to pick it all up.

VIDEO OFFER

One of FDR's "make work" programs during the depression was to give motion picture and recording equipment to young people and send them all over the country in search of "Civil War" veterans. Their job, was to interview the veterans, both Northern and Southern, so that there would be a permanent filmed record of their experiences during the War Between the States.

This is not a documentary. It is the actual veterans telling their stories, themselves, unscripted. The footage from the Civil War Veterans Project is now on DVD. It is an awesome DVD. See the actual veterans. And hear them tell the stories, themselves.

The cost will be just $10 and I will pay the postage to get it to you.

Simply send a paypal contribution of $10 to: paypalpayments@bibleschool.edu

I will get a DVD out to you. I'll even pay the postage to anywhere in the US or Canada.

THIS WEEK IN THE WBTS

Twenty tons of captured Confederate black powder “shook the foundations” of Mobile, Alabama, when it exploded in a warehouse being used as an arsenal. The powder blast set off numerous other explosions. Boats at the dock, warehouses and other buildings were left in ruins. There may have been as many as 300 casualties. Property loss was estimated at $5 million.

At New Orleans, Confederate Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, acting for General E. Kirby Smith, Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, entered into a military convention with Federal Major General Peter J. Osterhaus, representing Major General Edward R. S. Canby. Under the terms of the surrender, all resistance would cease, and officers and men would be paroled under the terms similar to those of the Appomattox surrender. Some troops, including part of Jo Shelby’s command, refused the terms and marched to Mexico, or just went home. Now only Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie, in charge of the Indian Division, remained the last holdout to surrender.

Seven Confederates, George R. Smith, Michael S. Barnhart, Hugh McGee, Nick Taylor, Jonas Myers, Rufus Holmes and Thomas Raney arrived at Federal headquarters at the St. Charles Hotel in Pocahontas, Arkansas with hopes of receiving their paroles and going home. Instead, they were bound, blindfolded and shot on Bettis Street in front of the hotel. Two additional unnamed Confederates were wounded but lived and three additional men were able to escape unharmed. A detachment of the 7th Kansas Cavalry Company C, approximately 45 in number, was responsible for the massacre.

DIXIE HERITAGE WEBSITE

Don't forget to tell your friends about our Dixie Heritage website: www.dixieheritage.weebly.com

Everyone who signs up at Dixie Heritage receives a FREE book!
Deo Vindice, Chaplain Ed

Elvis, Lisa Marie, Robert E. Lee, and our Southern Heritage

5/15/2015

I had a crazy thought this week. What happens when a good southerner fails to pass along the virtues, character, faith, history, and heritage of their Southern ancestors to their children? One example is Lisa Marie Presley.

Between the marriage to Michael Jackson (was it the first "legalized" marriage between lesbians? Or was Jackson "transgendered"?) and then there is the whole Scientology thing.

Her father, the late Elvis Presley certainly had his issues. But he came from a Christian family, accepted Jesus at a very early age, and he was connected to his heritage. He loved and cared for his mother and his grandmother. Later in his life, he also cared for his father and a few aged aunts. He financed WBTS Reenactments and he often spoke well of his Confederate Ancestors both privately and publically. He even sang a pretty good version of Dixie.

And I do not want to put the whole weight of parenthood on Elvis. He married a very immature Yankee girl who divorced him and took his daughter with her. So Elvis was forced to parent from afar. So I am not trying to be negative about Elvis. I wish that we had him with us today. And I have no doubt that he is with the Lord. I am just using him, or rather his daughter, as an illustration that our heritage does not simply pass itself along. We must actively pass it along. We have to work at it. We have to give it to our children and grandchildren. It is our gift to them.

So what will you do this week to pass our heritage along?

ROBERT E. LEE - The Road Less Traveled

When secession of States started in 1861, Robert Edward Lee was considered a stellar American patriot. No military man had the leadership ability and confidence of fellow military men like Lee. This is evidenced by the fact that when the War began, Mr. Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee command of the Union forces.

Please consider the scenario here. This young man had devoted his life to the service of the Union. He had trained to serve the military of the Union. His father and his uncles were part of the founding of this Union. Now, his lifelong dream had been realized as he could follow the steps of his hero Washington as commander of the Union. This was the most agonizing choice Lee ever faced. Unlike the fire eaters like Edmund Ruffin, Robert Toombs and William Lowndes Yancey, Lee initially opposed secession, feeling it not the wisest immediate course. So, how could Lee ever turn down this magnificent offer? Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Less Traveled", concludes with "I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." We are here today because Lee took the road less traveled by. He chose principle over expediency.

Have you considered what would have happened if Lee had taken Mr. Lincoln's offer? Well, for starters, he would have been the North's most brilliant officer and would likely have shortened the War. But Lee's greatness is not diminished due to providence determining that our side lost. Lee's choice was to do that which was right.

Lee may have been made President of these United States, may have died a rich man but Lee made a choice that enabled him to die with a clear conscience. He stood for that which he knew to be right.

We thrill at the Biblical stories of Daniel, cast in a den of lions, of little David and his defeat of the wicked giant Goliath with just a sling shot and the three Hebrew children who were cast into the fiery furnace, but yet protected by God. But there are other Biblical examples. John the Baptist was beheaded, early martyrs torn apart by lions and our Lord crucified on a tree. Right is not guaranteed to prevail in this life. Lee understood that he had no guarantee of earthly success, but he chose to do right by standing on the Constitution and in defense of his native Virginia. A man of southern heritage.

In honor of General Lee we are offering the DVD video The Christian Testimony of General Robert E. Lee from the Southern Heritage Lecture Series.

Simply send a paypal contribution of $10 to: paypalpayments@bibleschool.edu

SUTTLERY WALL TENT AVAILABLE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA

Mother's Day Tribute - The Death of Stonewall Jackson

5/8/2015

Last week, in our approach to Mother's Day, we posted our Tribute to Southern Women on YouTube. If you did not see it don't worry, its still there.

Last week, in our approach to Mother's Day, we posted our Tribute to Southern Women on YouTube. If you did not see it don't worry, its still there.

Tribute to Southern Women

The pathetic thing is that if you were to go to YouTube and try to find a tribute to Southern Women or to Confederate Women using their search engine you will find hundreds of videos of the song "Trashy Women" by a musical group that calls itself Confederate Railroad. There will also be a few tributes and documentaries about "Civil War" women (north and South) and a few videos extolling the made-up virtues of northern women trying to feed the free the slaves myth. But the internet really has failed to offer any genuine tributes to the women of the South. Actually, a better way to put that is that we Southerners have failed to place the appropriate tributes on the internet. Certainly we Sons of the South owe it to our wives and mothers to do more than songs named "Trashy Women."

Reverend John Levi Underwood, a Chaplain and Captain in the Confederate Army, saw first hand the contributions women gave to the South and the Confederacy. In his book, The Women of the Confederacy, published in 1906, Underwood gives both personal and public testimony to Southern womanhood. In citing the selflessness shown during the war he stated, "Our women gave their carpets to make blankets, their dresses to be made into shirts for the soldiers, and their linen to furnish lint for their wounds, and then, clad in home-spun, they gave themselves."

This Mother's Day I wish to express my gratitude to the women of the South who for generations have lived their Christian faith and imparted its virtues to their daughters and granddaughters.

THE SOUTHERN ROOTS OF MOTHER'S DAY

According to the encyclopedia, the modern American holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia. Her campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother died.

Anna's mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, was a Southern nurse who provided care and comfort to many an injured boy in Grey. When fallen northern soldiers were left behind on the battlefields near her Virginia home she would nurse them as well.

Ann Reeves Jarvis actually began organizing what she called Mothers' Day Work Clubs to combat the disease-causing environment of the mountain people's poorest workers. She believed too many of the workers' children were dying from illnesses brought on by filthy conditions. So under the advice of her physician brother, Jarvis taught mothers how to boil water for drinking and keep food from spoiling. When the war began, the Mothers' Day Work Clubs became a vehicle for providing nursing and care to the Soldiers.

Jarvis and other club members fed and clothed soldiers; treated their wounds and, just as they'd done with the poorest workers before the war, taught life-saving sanitation methods.

By the end of the war, her Virginia home was now in the "northern" State of West Virginia. And tensions were high. After the war, wanting to help bring the community together, Jarvis organized a Mothers' Friendship Day at the local courthouse. Although she publicized the event as a way to honor mothers, its real purpose was to bring together a fractured community by gathering battle-worn soldiers and their families.

Seeing the large crowds that the annual Mother's Friendship Days were attracting political agitators from the North began to hijack them for their own propaganda purposes. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, an early feminist and writer of the Yankee anthem "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," wrote a very highly-publicized (in the Northern and Carpet-Bagger controlled Southern press) "Mother's Day Proclamation." Howe, and others like her, organized events driven by their political leanings which were held annually in various locations across the country on June 2. However, these events began to see ever-reduced attendance because most women, both Northern and Southern, simply were not interested in what we now know as "feminism."

In 1905, when Jarvis died, her daughter lobbied enthusiastically to institute a national holiday that wouldrecognize mothers by encouraging sons and daughters to honor their own mothers. In 1914, then President Woodrow Wilson officially named the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

Almost as soon as the proclamation ink dried, merchants began advertising candies, flowers and greeting cards to commemorate the day. This disturbed Anna, who believed it was being corrupted from her intention of an intimate celebration of one's own mother. In the years that followed, she tried to reverse the commercialization of Mother's Day, spending her sizable inheritance, along with her energy, on boycotts and lawsuits against groups that violated the spirit of the day. In 1923, she crashed a confectioners' convention. In 1925, she protested the American War Mothers convention, which used Mother's Day as a fundraising event by selling carnations. She was arrested for disturbing the peace.

Her efforts went largely unanswered. She died penniless in a sanitarium in 1948, having no children of her own. Mother's Day, as we now know it, continued to gain momentum. And like so many things in our Southern heritage and history, its story has been retold. The retold version is one where a Southern mother's genuine efforts to care for the poor in her community and then for the wounded soldiers who fought to defend it is recast where yankee feminists are supposed to be the heroes. This is why I begin my book The Truth About The Confederate Battle Flag with the quote: "History is written by those who hung the heroes." If you would like for us to send your mother a free copy of the book just have her visit our website at: www.dixieheritage.weebly.com

And whatever you do, do not forget to wish your mother a happy Mother's Day!

SUTTLERY WALL TENT AVAILABLE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA

What you see in the pictures above are my personal suttlery tent. It is a 12X14 wall tent that also has a middle dividing wall if you want to divide it into two rooms. I am making it available for $100 (poles and canvas - I am keeping the ropes and stakes) to anyone who can make arrangements to pick it up in Central Florida. I am going to limit my set up to a fly so I will no longer need the wall tent. If you are interested just reply to this newsletter.

I would consider shipping it, minus poles (I can always eMail the dimensions) but fear that due to the weight of the canvas it would be a very expensive shipment. Probably more than anyone would want to spend. The Dukes of Hazzard car - known on the show as "the General Lee" - has become something more of a hot-button topic during the last 10 years or so. Far more than it was when the series originally aired in 1979.

THIS WEEK IN THE WBTS:

As you remember, last week, General Stonewall Jackson would be mortally wounded by his own soldiers in the Battle of Chancellorsville. On May 10th he would die from that wound.

Military historians consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in history. His Valley Campaign and his envelopment of the Northern Army's right wing at Chancellorsville are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership. He excelled as well in other battles;such as First Manassas, where he received his famous nickname "Stonewall", Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredricksburg.

Before the war, beginning in 1851, Jackson was a Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Instructor of Artillery at the Virginia Military Institute. Much of Jackson's self-written curriculum is still taught at VMI, regarded as timeless military essentials: discipline, mobility, assessing the enemy's strength and intentions while attempting to conceal your own, and the efficiency of artillery combined with an infantry assault.

Jackson was revered by many of the blacks in his hometown of Lexington, both slaves and free blacks. He was instrumental in the organization in 1855 of Sunday School classes for blacks at the Presbyterian Church. His second wife, Mary Anna Jackson, taught with Jackson in this Sunday School.

Upon hearing of Jackson's mortal injury, General Lee would write to him: "Could I have directed events, I would have chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead." On his death bed, though he became weaker, he remained spiritually strong, saying towards the end "It is the Lord's Day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday."

His attending physician, Dr. McGuire, wrote an account of his final hours and his last words: A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, "Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks"-then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."

In honor of General Jackson we are offering the DVD video on Warriors of Honor.

Simply send a paypal contribution of $10 to: paypalpayments@bibleschool.edu

I will get a DVD out to you. I'll even pay the postage to anywhere in the US or Canada. DIXIE HERITAGE WEBSITE

Don't forget to tell your friends about our Dixie Heritage website: www.dixieheritage.weebly.com

Everyone who signs up at Dixie Heritage receives a FREE book!
Deo Vindice, Chaplain Ed

A Tribute to Southern Women

5/1/2015

Titus 2:3-5 says, "The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."

In our reverence of Lee, Stonewall, Davis, and other Southern hero's, we too often overlook the women of the Confederacy. This month, being the month we celebrate Mother's Day, let us pay tribute to the women who in many ways were the strength and encouragement of our confederate ancestors.

Last Sunday was an interesting service in the church where I pastor because it was our last Sunday in our "old" building. Sunday morning we will meet for the first time in our "new" building. But the service was even more interesting because of one of our visitors. I saw her pull into the parking lot driving a car with Indiana tags. Since we are in a retirement area in Florida that alone would not be at all uncommon. But when I greeted her and we shook hands I discovered that she was in the UDC. So I asked how a woman from Indiana found her way into the UDC and she told me a story about her grandmother, and how General Sherman's "Army" captured her and thousands of other women in Savannah and crowded them into cattle cars to be transported up north by train. Her grandmother was shipped to Indiana. Like many of you, I knew the story, but this was the first time I had heard it told by a descendant of one of the displaced Southern women.

Come to find out our guest grew up not too very far from where I did. Her grandmother nurtured within her a love for the South and for the brave men and women who fought for Southern independence.

This week's submission to YouTube is a video tribute to the Women of the Confederacy. Specifically to those brave women who were displaced by General Sherman and his uniformed band of raping, pillaging lunatics.

When asked by one of the women of Savannah why he was loading them onto cattle cars to be herded up north like so many heads of cattle he replied: "You women are the toughest set I ever knew. The men would have given up long ago but for you. I believe you would keep this war up for thirty years."

Hopefully you have something special planned for Mother's Day.

YANKEE HATEMONGERS AND THE GENERAL LEE

The Dukes of Hazzard car - known on the show as "the General Lee" - has become something more of a hot-button topic during the last 10 years or so. Far more than it was when the series originally aired in 1979.
The latest controversy involving the car happened recently when one of New York City's finest drove his recreation of the General Lee to work and was kicked off NYPD property.

A spokesman for New York City Police Department issued the following statement: "due to the fact that its presence at the NYPD facility may be considered offensive and/or inappropriate, the registered owner is being instructed that the car should not be parked on NYPD property."

As for the police officer who owns the version you see in the image above, he is a really big fan of The Dukes of Hazzard. And his recreation of the General Lee is every bit as awesome looking on a new body style Dodge Charger as it was on the old! But sadly, the majority of his fellow New Yorkers do not appreciate it.

A police officer could be "queer" and "here" and everyone in New York would be "OK with it." A woman police officer could walk the streets topless and city ordinances would protect her "freedom of expression." But let a Police Officer drive to work in a really cool looking car and the entire city goes viral trying to have him branded a "racist" and demanding that the mayor fire him. And the Yankees and Liberals are the ones calling we Southerners "hatemongers"?

THIS WEEK IN THE WBTS:

Today, in 1863, the Battle of Chancellorsville began. General Robert E. Lee's forces began fighting with Union troops under General Joseph Hooker. The Confederate Army would win one of its biggest victories of the war. But Confederate General Stonewall Jackson would be mortally wounded by his own soldiers in this battle.

In honor of General Jackson we are offering the one-hour DVD video on The Christian Testimony of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Simply send a paypal contribution of $10 to: paypalpayments@bibleschool.edu

and I will get a DVD out to you. I'll even pay the postage to anywhere in the US or Canada.

DIXIE HERITAGE WEBSITE

Don't forget to tell your friends about our Dixie Heritage website: www.dixieheritage.weebly.com

Everyone who signs up at Dixie Heritage receives a FREE book!
Deo Vindice, Chaplain Ed

Massacre at Pocahontas, Arkansas

Elvis, Lisa Marie, Robert E. Lee, and our Southern Heritage

Mother's Day Tribute - The Death of Stonewall Jackson

A Tribute to Southern Women

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