On the evening of Dec 30, 2015 nine historic headstones and war memorials were vandalized. These monuments are important pieces of North Carolina history and mark the graves of several leaders in North Carolina history.
Cemeteries are considered sacred ground and serve as a place where families can mourn their loved ones and celebrate their lives. Historic Oakwood Cemetery is a private, non-profit cemetery and does not receive any public funding. Because we are a non-profit organization, we do not have the restoration costs in our budget and ask for your assistance in helping us clean and restore these historic markers.
We appreciate your help in bringing Historic Oakwood Cemetery back to a serene place of remembrance.
oakwood cemetary fundraising website
150 Years Ago this Week:
A Boston newspaper writer is touring the South. Here is part of what he wrote. Please keep in mind where the writing is originating:
January 2, 1866 - in Atlanta: "The former residents are returning and re-establishing themselves, re-furnishing their houses and getting things in order again. Sherman did not destroy all the city. He spared the City Hall, the Medical College, all churches, many of the handsomer and more stylish dwellings, and nearly all the houses of the middling and poorer classes....But the entire business section of the city was destroyed, together with some of the larger dwellings." (There was not one church that could hold services when Sherman left, and most were totally destroyed. The Medical College was saved by tricking the assigned Yankees into thinking it was still occupied by wounded, and most of the houses left standing were barely habitable).
January 7, 1866: "Arlington Heights still remains in the possession of the Government, but it is said that the wife of Robert E. Lee has recently written to a friend that she intends to return there, even if she is "obliged to live in the black quarters." "This is indicative of the strength of her determination to re-assert what she considers the rights of herself and husband to this historic property; but among the other obstacles she will probably encounter, is the fact that 12,000 Union soldiers have been buried in its soil."
Quentin Tarantino calls Confederate flag 'the American swastika'
The director told Britain's Telegraph publication that with his new movie "The Hateful Eight" he wanted to make a movie about race relations in the United States. Set a few years after the Civil War, the movie finds people from both sides of the conflict stuck together in a Wyoming saloon during a blizzard.
Tarantino noted how the civil unrest around the 2014 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and June's racially-motivated mass killings at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina made his movie "more relevant than we ever could have imagined." The latter incident prompted the state to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol.
"All of a sudden, people started talking about the Confederacy in America in a way they haven't before," Tarantino said. "I mean, I've always felt the Rebel flag was some American Swastika. And, well, now, all of a sudden, people are talking about it, and now they're banning it, and now it's not OK to have it on (expletive) license plates, and coffee cups, and stuff."
"And people are starting to question about stuff like statues of Bedford Forrest (the Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard) in parks," he continued. "Well, it's about damn time, if you ask me."
American Flag Replaced with Confederate Battle Flag
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WTVA) -- Drivers on Highway 82 eastbound entering Columbus from the west got a surprise this morning...someone replaced one of four American flags on the city's welcome sign with a Confederate battle flag.
An anonymous caller alerted the mayor's office just before 9. City property manager Mike Anderson replaced the Confederate flag with a new American flag just after 10 after city leaders made sure there was nothing that might lead them to the culprit.
Flags at the other three entrances to the city weren't bothered.
The city council last summer voted to no longer fly the state flag which contains the Confederate battle flag and expressed support for designing a new state flag. That move likely nwas the target for this message but it was anyone's guess.
"I think whoever the person or culprits were, I think they were making a statement. Who ever knows, I have no idea," Mayor Robert Smith said.
The city could press theft charges if the culprits are identified. The missing flag wasn't located.
Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks
Everyone who makes a donation of $5 or more to Dixie Heritage can receive a copy of the 265-page Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks:
Below is a link to a PDF file. It is 4 pages extracted from the January issue of The Howling Dawg. It is a very interesting article about the wife of Chinese Emperor Chiang Kai-shek.
Kai-shek, as we know, was the leader of China between 1928 and 1975. What we did not know was that his wife, who lived through THREE centuries (March 5, 1898 - October 23, 2003) was an American raised Southerner who was primarily responsible for her husband's conversion to Christianity and who was an adamant fighter to prevent the Communist takeover of China.
JANUARY HOWLING DAWG ARTICLE
I found this to be the best article I am yet to read in 2016. Thank You to Compatriot Wayne Dobson and everyone up in Georgia for sharing this great item with us.
Legal Team Ramps Up Court Battle Over Confederate Monuments
Take Em Down NOLA (TEDN), a multiracial coalition working to bring down statues that are vestiges of the Confederate States of America has been joined by a team of lawyers that will file an amicus brief on Monday, Jan. 11, in support of the removal of Confederate monuments from New Orleans.
The brief will be filed in federal court against the lawsuit brought by opponents of removing the monuments honoring confederates Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard, and the Battle of Liberty Place Monument.
The amicus brief supports the authority of the New Orleans City Council to remove statues considered to be public nuisances.
"Section 146-611 (b) of the New Orleans Code of Ordinances empowers the City Council to remove statues from public property when those statues are a nuisance. Part One of the ordinance defines a nuisance a "thing honors, praises, or fosters ideologies which are in conflict with the requirements of equal protection for citizens as provided by the constitution and laws of the United States, the state, or the laws of the city and gives honor or praise to those who participated in the killing of public employees of the city or the state or suggests the supremacy of one ethnic, religious, or racial group over any other, or gives honor or praise to any violent actions taken wrongfully against citizens of the city to promote ethnic, religious or racial superiority of any group."
The legal wrangling actually began when an opposing group that includes the Monumental Task Committee, Louisiana Landmarks Society, Foundation for Historical Louisiana, Inc., Beauregard Camp No. 30, Inc., and the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, filed a lawsuit on Dec. 17, 2015, shortly after the City Council's vote to remove the monuments. They sued the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, the City of New Orleans and Mayor Mitchell Landrieu.
A federal judge will hear the first arguments in the case on Thursday, Jan. 14, in the federal court for the Eastern District at 500 Poydras Street.
But the issue for TEDN is not if but when will the monuments come down.
"The easiest thing for a judge to do is to delay action," says Bill Quigley, Loyola law professor and Executive Director of the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center.
VISIT THE DIXIE HERITAGE BOOKSTORE
The Christmas pricing remains in effect only because I have not had time to update the website. We will honor all sales made at the site until that update is made. so take advantage of the savings while they are still online!
VISIT OUR WEBSITE:
YES, we are still giving a FREE eBook (PDF) copy of the book The Truth About the Confederate Flag to everyone who visits the website - so tell your friends - and your enemies!
www.dixieheritage.weebly.com
Until next week,
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed