Directions:
1. Coming from Lake Charles, on I-10, take the Hwy. 90 exit (by Chateau Charles), continue west on Hwy. 90 to Prater Road. Take a left on Prater Road and continue heading south until you see the PPG Park sign on your left. Turn left and follow the signs into the park.
2. Coming from Lake Charles on I-210, take the first industries exit (immediately after the I-10 loop exit) and turn left on Pete Manena Road. When Pete Manena' T's, take a left on Prater Road and continue heading south until you see the PPG Park sign on your left. Turn left and follow the signs into the park.
3. Coming from Sulphur, head east on either Hwy. 90 or Maplewood Drive and turn right on Prater Road. Continue south until you see the PPG Park sign on your left. Turn left and follow the signs into the park.
This reenactment was formerly known as the Battle of Bearhead Creek in downtown Merryville. It has been moved to DeRidder in order to increase room for more cavalry and artillery.
The same amenities for reenactors offered at Merryville will be here, including catfish dinner, firewood, hay, port-a-cans and powder if funds allow.
There will be a cavalry competition with prize money and a nighttime memorial for POW/MIAs of all American wars.
The event will be held across from the Ampacet Plant on Ampacet Road. To get to the location, turn east off Hwy. 171 N. onto Ampacet Road, which is just north of Super WalMart and the Best Western Hotel.
For more information contact Johanna Pate, 4206 Hwy. 26, DeRidder, La. 70634 or by email, [email protected].
Here is the text of the governor's proclamation, which he signed 19 January:
Whereas, on January 26, 1861, the state of Louisiana declared itself to be a free and independent state and subsequently joined the Confederate States of America of which it was a member from 1861 until 1865; and
Whereas, the state of Louisiana contributed many soldiers and sailors to the service of the Confederate States; and
Whereas, the Louisianians who served on both sides of the War Between the States are memorialized in almost every parish in the state; and
Whereas, all citizens of the state of Louisiana should study the War Between the States, as we study all wars, so that we may understand the historical events which compelled the war and, from that understanding, continue to learn to live together and seek to avoid further conflicts.
Now, Therefore, I, M.J. "Mike" Foster, Governor of the state of Louisiana, do hereby designate the month of April 2001, as Confederate History Month in the state of Louisiana, and urge all citizens of the state to engage in a historical study of the events of the years 1861 to 1865, inclusive, and to solemnly contemplate that time in our history.
| Dr. James Jones gave an outstanding defense of the Confederacy at the Lee-Jackson Banquet. |
The virtues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson were given at the annual Lee-Jackson Banquet of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Jan. 27, in Lake Charles.
Dr. James Jones Jr., guest speaker, a native of Bristol, Va., noted that in spite of current revisionist histories and political attacks, both Lee and Jackson have been admired by generations of Americans for very sound reasons.
Jones said both Lee and Jackson were devout Christians and during the war objective European newspapers praised their virtues. Yet during our day revisionists have put out the idea that the war was fought only over slavery, he said.
However he said that only 10 percent of Confederate soldiers ever owned any slaves and Abraham Lincoln stated in his first inaugural address that his reason for opposing Southern secession wasn't because of slavery, but to retain the union of states.
Jones also said there is much evidence that economics was a prime cause of the war. Many in the North were primarily concerned with keeping the South in the United States because most of the revenue to fund the federal government and northern industry came from the South.
He said there were also stark religious world view differences between the sections which added to the causes for the split between North and South.
Jones said the South was the last great bulwark of Christianity and it was under threat from the unitarians and non-believers of the North.
The speaker said during the siege of Petersburg in 1864, many Confederate soldiers showed their Christian charity by sharing their meager rations with the poor in Richmond.
The lesson we can learn from these soldiers is a lesson of faith, he said.
 | Confederate Solidarity Shirley Smith of Robert E. Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, was welcomed by Cmdr. Gerald Thorn of Capt. James W. Bryan Camp at the Lee-Jackson Banquet Jan. 27. |
Today, Federal District Court Judge William M. Nickerson ruled in favor of Plaintiffs motion for Preliminary Injunction and struck a blow against political correctness for all of those who enjoy flying Confederate flags over the graves of their ancestors at Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery.
In a sweeping decision demonstrating vindication for people with "Confederate rights," Judge Nickerson basically and categorically handed the Veterans Administration and the Justice Department a pronounced and stunning defeat by dismantling all of the governments faulty notions, weak arguments, misperceptions, and intimidation. In a word, previous actions preventing the flying of the Confederate battle flag at Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery by the Veterans Administration and its employees is "UNCONSTITUTIONAL."
Judge Nickerson related that Veterans Administration interpretation of its flag manual policy was inconsistent with the courts view and that "Plaintiffs speech is protected speech occurring in the context of a nonpublic forum and that Defendants reasons for excluding the speech fail to satisfy either the reasonableness or view-point neutrality requirements."
Accordingly, "Plaintiffs request for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief will be granted." Further, "The form of relief granted is that Plaintiff shall be permitted to display, on a daily basis between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., a full-sized, historically accurate Confederate battle flag from its own pole at Point Lookout. The pole shall be at least three feet lower than the U. S. flagpole at Point Lookout. The placement of the flags to be agreed upon by the parties but in close proximity to either the Federal or State monument.
Plaintiff is to provide all material and labor necessary for the daily placement and removal of the flag. A sign shall be erected at the base of the flag pole clearly indicating that the display of the Confederate flag is provided by a private party or parties." In his opinion, Judge Nickerson tells the public what we've known all along, "in the context of a Point Lookout, a cemetery established for the sole purpose of honoring Confederate dead, the only rational assumption is that the flag is being displayed because it is the flag under which those buried at Point Lookout fought and died."
Fellow supporters, we have a huge Confederate Victory for our ancestors and their good names as a result of Judge Nickerson's ruling. The VA has thirty days in which to decide if they wish to appeal.
Our attorney, Mike Wright, relates, if they appeal, we will soundly beat them at the next level too.
Steve Campen, one of our other attorneys shares the same enthusiasm and opinion.
All Southerners should be grateful for the efforts of The Rutherford Institute, as both attorneys endeavored under their umbrella.
Please take the time to thank the following for this Confederate Victory:
Michael F. Wright, Esq., 2049 Century Park East, Suite 3350, Los Angeles, CA 90067;
Stephen D. Campen, Esq., 3401 Urbana Pike, 2d Floor North, Frederick, MD 21704;
The Rutherford Institute, 1445 East Rio Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22901.
Now that we have this victory in federal district court, rest assured that another flag initiative already underway against the Veterans Administration in the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will continue vigorously and with optimism. Additionally, another case is being prepared against the Veterans Administration and will soon be filed in the same venue.
And, as you may imagine, beyond the aforementioned initiatives there is more possible litigation being discussed and aimed at those who choose to defy the Constitution while sullying the reputations of Confederate soldiers and their descendants.
Deo Vindice,
Patrick J. Griffin, III
Past SCV Commander in Chief
Darnestown, Maryland
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - Visitors to the Vicksburg National Military Park are missing one of the main attractions at the historic Civil War site.
The Louisiana Monument, damaged by lightning in August 1999, remains dismantled and park officials are not sure when federal funding will come through to make the repairs.
Ranger Rick Martin, acting chief of operations, said about 1 million people annually visit the 1,800-acre park near the Mississippi River. Vicksburg, located on bluffs high above the winding river, was considered the key to dividing the Confederacy. The city surrendered on July 4, 1863, after a bloody 47-day siege.
People always ask what happened to the monument, Martin said of the only park structure to remain dismantled for so long a period.
Martin said the National Park Service allocated $2 million for repairs to parks in the Southeast region this fiscal year. He said there was about $8 million in repair needs in the region.
Martin said restoring the monument will cost about $1 million.
This was not high enough on the list of priorities, Martin said.
U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, both R-Miss., are working with Louisiana congressional leaders to secure the needed funding, said Martin.
Cochran said Thursday he would consult with park superintendents to ensure that within the parks the highest priority projects are funded first.
The competition for funds in the Interior Department's appropriations bill is very intense with the larger national parks getting most of the money for operation and maintenance, but I will fight for our fair share, Cochran said.
The Louisiana Monument, dedicated Oct. 18, 1920, contains an 81-foot column, topped with by a brazier of granite and an eternal flame. A list of the organizations involved in the Campaign and Siege of Vicksburg appears around the base of the structure, which stands on the highest point in the park.
The lightning forced the top sections of the column out of alignment.
The Vicksburg National Military Park was created by an act of Congress in 1899, and in the years following most states erected memorials to their soldiers sent here for pivotal fighting in the Civil War.
Kentucky will be the last of the 28 states involved in the 47-day siege to erect a monument. The Kentucky Monument will be dedicated in October, Martin said.
Falls Church. One of my favorite stories about Robert E. Lee is how as president of Washington College he once remained seated during the graduation ceremonies, so as not to disturb a 5-year-old boy who had climbed into his lap and fallen asleep.
I like that story because it captures the essential Lee. Lee is the great anti-egotist in American history, and as such, he stands athwart much of contemporary thinking in his selflessness, self-denial, and humble, tolerant Christian faith. Yet when we think of our everyday lives - commuting, at work, or at home with family - we instantly recognize that Lee, the self-denying Christian gentleman, is right and contemporary self-affirming bromides are wrong.
How many of us, for instance, think our fellow commuters need "assertiveness training"? How many of us would like our bosses to think first of themselves or of "the duty I owe to myself"? How many of us want our children to subscribe to "the virtues of selfishness" as taught by the "consumer society"? No, at the end of the day, these buzzwords sound as false, metallic, and empty as they really are.
Instead of this, Lee offers wisdom, virtue, and reality. He always put the needs of others first, because "the promotion of the happiness and welfare" of our fellow man was "the great duty of life." He had no vanity, because he knew, following Christ, that to lead is to serve. As a first principle, he advised a mother to teach her son "to deny himself." Most of all, he trusted to conscience.
IN A LETTER to his daughter Mildred, he wrote: "The struggle which you describe you experience between doing what you ought and what you desire is common to all. You have only to do what is right. It will become easier by practice, and you will enjoy in the midst of your trial the pleasure of an approving conscience. That will be worth everything else."
Lee, however, would not dictate conscience; he believed that people should, and must, govern themselves. When he resigned his commission in the United States Army in order to defend Virginia as a Confederate officer, he wrote his wife that their son Custis "must consult his own judgment, reason, and conscience as to the course he may take. I do not wish him to be guided by my wishes or example. If I have done wrong, let him do better."
When we think about Lee on this Lee-Jackson Day, we should think about him in these terms: as a defender of freedom of conscience; as someone who trusted to example, compromise, and moral suasion, rather than force. Lee was a brilliant career soldier. He knew, first-hand, the butcher's bill of war. That, to his mind, was not the way Americans should settle political disputes. As he famously wrote, "With all my devotion to the Union, and all the feeling of loyalty and duty as an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home." "I shall return to my native state," he wrote in another, earlier letter, "and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none."
THE CONFEDERATE cause for which Lee fought was not a cause of slavery or even - except in the most extreme of circumstances - of secession. He fought solely in defense of Virginia and her freedom to determine her own destiny, her own laws, abiding by her own corporate conscience, which he didn't want driven by the barrel of a gun. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we mark on Monday, he believed that social evils - including, in Lee's words, the "moral and political evil" of slavery - should be met by patient and respectful appeal to conscience, by the "mild and melting influence" of Christianity, not by violence. As Lee said, "I am opposed to the theory of doing wrong that good may come of it. I hold to the belief that you must act right whatever the consequences."
The consequences of the War Between the States were horrific for Lee personally, and for the United States, which suffered more death and destruction in that war than in all its other wars combined. But Lee raised his sword as a Confederate to prevent that destruction. He raised it because he did not want "the judgment of reason" to be "displaced by the arbitrament of war." He raised it because he was "fond of freedom" and respected freedom of conscience. He raised it because he did not want America's cities, fields, and farms scarred by perpetual political war, where the ends would be said to justify the means. Finally, Lee raised his sword to defend the one thing he loved most in the world: Virginia. We honor Lee today because, ultimately, his example and his sacrifice were for us.
The Confederate Spirit: Valor, Sacrifice, and Honor (Rutledge Hill Press, $34.99 hardcover) with paintings from Mort Kunstler and text by James I. Robertson, Jr., is a stunning visual portrayal of that spirit. This book is not the story of the Confederacy's chronology, but of its people - leaders and commoners - who became its legends. It is not the story of the Confederacy's ideology but of its determination and spirit.
With 88 works of art by Mort Kunstler, 30 never before seen in any book, and insightful text by James I. Robertson, Jr., one of today's leading War for Southern Independence historians, "The Confederate Spirit" humanizes historical events in a very positive, moving manner - and that's what makes people so passionate about it.
Topics depicted in -The Confederate Spirit" include the high command, infantry, cavalry, artillery and civilians.
Project manager Dr. Bob Neyland said crews took X-ray shots of the back-side of the sub's plates and rivets, though nothing was immediately determined about their placement. The control rods that steered the sub are "still a mystery," he said.
A geologist from Coastal Carolina University has also visited the lab and is investigating the shells that were collected from inside the ballast tank's silt accumulation.
The team will remove several plates over the c crew compartment in the coming weeks to complete the excavation and remove the remains of the crew.
The remains of the Confederate sailors are expected to be buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, where previous crews were buried.
The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy war ship. It sank the U.S.S. Housatonic 17 Feb. 1864 near Charleston.
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