Salute to the Confederate Flag

SALUTE TO THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

I salute the Confederate Flag, with affection, reverence, and undying devotion to the cause for which it stands.

                          I AM THEIR FLAG

In 1861, when the perceived their rights to be threatened, when those who would alter the nature of the government of their fathers were placed in charge, when threatened with change they could not accept, the mighty men of valor began to gather. A band of brother, native to the Southern soil, they pledged themselves to a cause: The cause of defending family, fireside, and faith. Between the desolation of war and their homes they interposed their bodies and they chose me for their symbol.

I Am Their Flag. Their mothers, wives, and sweethearts too scissors and thimbles, needles and thread, and from silk or cotton or calico- whatever was the best they had -even from the fabric of their wedding dresses, they cut my pieces and stitched
my seams.

I Am Their Flag On courthouse lawns, in picnic groves, at train stations across the South the men mustered and the women placed me in their hands. Fight hard, win if possible, come back if you can, but, above all, maintain your honor. Here is your symbol, they said.

I Am Their Flag. They flocked to the training grounds and the drill fields. They felt the wrenching sadness of leaving home. They endured sickness, loneliness, boredom, bad food and poor quarters. They looked to me for inspiration.

I Am Their Flag. I was at Sumter when they began in jubilation. I was at Big Bethel when the infantry fired its first volley. I smelled the gun smoke along Bull Run in Virginia and at Belmont along the Mississippi. I was in the debacle at Fort Donelson; I led Jackson up the valley. For Seven Days I flapped in the turgid air of the James River bottoms as McClellan ran from before Richmond. Sidney Johnston died for me at Shiloh as would thousands of others whose graves are marked Sine Nomine,-without a name-unknown.

I Am Their Flag. With ammunition gone they defended me along the railroad bed at Manassas by throwing rocks. I saw the fields run red with blood at Sharpsburg. Brave men carried me across Doctor's Creek at Perryville. I saw the blue bodies cover Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg and the Gray ones fall like leaves in the Round forest at Stone River.

I Am Their Flag. I was a shroud for the body of Stonewall after Chancellorsville. Men ate rats and mule meat to keep me flying over Vicksburg. I tramped across the wheat field with Kemper and Armistead and Garnett at Gettysburg. I know the thrill of victory, the misery of defeat, the bloody cost of both.

I Am Their Flag. When Longstreet broke the line at Chickamamuga, I was in the lead. I was the last off Lookout Mountain. Men died to rescue me at Missionary Ridge. I was singed by the wildfire that burned to death the wounded in the Wilderness. I was shot to tatters in the Bloody Angle at Spotsylavania. I was in it all from Dalton to Peachtree Creek, and no worse place did I ever see that Kennesaw and New Hope Church. They planted me over the trenches at Petersburg and there I stayed for many long months.

I Am Their Flag. I was rolled in blood at Franklin; I was stiff with ice at Nashville. Many good men bade me farewell at Sayler's Creek. When the end came at Appomattox, when the last Johnny Reb left Durham Station, many of them carried fragments of my fabric hidden on their bodies.

I Am Their Flag In the hard years of so-called Reconstruction, in the difficulty and despair of years that slowly passed, the veteran, their wives and sons and daughters, they loved me. They passed them on to their grandchildren and they to their children, and so they were passed to you.

I Am Their Flag. I have shrouded the bodies of heroes, I have been laved with the blood of martyrs, I am enshrined in the hearts of millions, living and dead. Salute me with affection and reverence. Keep undying devotion in your hearts. I AM HISTORY. I AM HERITAGE, NOT HATE. I AM THE INSPIRATION OF VALOR FROM THE PAST.

            LOOK AWAY, DIXIE LAND-----I AM THEIR FLAG.
                             Michael R.Bradley--author

Embattled Emblem
by Michael Andrew Grissom

O hated flag, I hold you high
To shine as beacon light
To all the weak in foreign lands
Who battle for the right.

For once you waved above our land
The South in all her might
And gave us cheer when days were drear
A widow's lamp by night.

Ah, but that was years ago,
Cry those who loathe our cause.
Forget, repent and cease your praise
Of men who brought you loss.

Should we despise that loss of life,
Or even loss of Cause?
Far greater man once took a stand
That led him to a cross.

They curse revile and burn you in
perverted zealotry,
While those who feel the despot's heel
Hymn well your liberty.

O sacred flag, O Rebel flag,
O battle flag of Lee
May all my days be filled with praise
Of Southland, God and thee.

From the Baltimore Sun
The quarterly meeting of the Baltimore Chapter, United Daughters of Confederacy, was marked yesterday by the reading of an original poem on the Confederate flag composed and read by the President, Mrs. D. Giraud Wright. The poem is as follows:

THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

The hands of our women made it,
Baptized in our mothers tears
And drenched with the blood of our kindred
With hope for those four long years,
Across vale and plain we watched it
While the tide of battle rolled,
And with streaming eyes have we followed
The wave of each soft silken fold.
As high over our hosts it floated,
Through dust and din of the fight,
We could catch the glint of spearhead
And the flash of crimson light;
While the blood of men who bore it
Flowed fast on the reddened plain,
And our cry went up in anguish
To our God for our martyred slain.
And we went and watched and waited
By our lonely household fire,
For the mother gave her firstborn
And the daughter gave her sire,
But the wife sent forth her husband
The maiden her lover sweet,
And hearts kept time in the silence
To the rhythmic tread of their feet.
As they marched o'er vale and mountains,
While our banners rose and fell,
Though victory often crowned it
As the Northern hosts can tell.
But the whole world was against us;
Our battle we fought alone,
Till the conquerors - want and famine -
Bade us lay our colors down.
Cold are the loved hands that bore it.
Stilled are the brave hearts and true,
Watching nor waiting can bring them,
Weeping is all we can do.
Light from our banner has faded,
We, in its shadow forlorn,
Have only our mem'ries left us,
And our battle flag drooping and torn.
No hand of vandal shall touch it.
'Tis shrined in our heart of hearts
With dearest, holiest mem'ries;
And the burning tear drops starts,
While laurel we weave and cypress
For the fair, the brave, the good;
The only stain on our banner
Is the stain of our heroes' blood.

Why We Use the Confederate Battle Flag
by Vickie Carpenter

I am very protective and emotional about things pertaining to my Confederate Ancestors and the South, for I feel it is my duty to my ancestors to correct things when I feel like there is some misunderstanding or things that are wrongly committed toward them. I am a very strong supporter of everything about our Confederate men and women. I feel in my humble opinion the statement made by many today about the South and the symbols our heritage being about slavery and hate is one that is used by many that have been taught that the South was responsible for slavery and that the African Americans do have a right to be offended by the symbols of our heritage because of this..... you see I myself find those very words to be very offensive to me. Why? Because I know that this isn't the truth. When one makes the statement that "because of the fact that under this flag their ancestors were slaves" one starts to forget which flag it was that brought not only their ancestors to this country as slaves but mine also. I want to give you some documented facts about the US Flag and also the Confederate Battle Flag. I want you to know why I will never turn my back on any of the Flags of the Confederacy, including the Battle Flag which was chosen by the Confederate Veterans as "Their Flag" after the war and if we are to honor them as Confederate Veterans instead of dishonor them we must in my humble opinion use the Flag that is "Their Flag".

If one has been following the news lately one would have to know that many of the African American's are now coming out and admitting that they don't say the Pledge Allegiance to the flag nor do they honor the US Flag. Wonder why this is? They know their history. When at Alcoa one of the young African American's stood up and stated that the Confederate Flag didn't offend him because it only flew for 4 years but what did offend him was having to walk and work under the US flag, he proceeded to tell how his people were brought here, who sold them into slavery and he absolutely knew that no slaves were ever brought to these shores under the Confederate Flags. No slaves were ever brought into Southern ports either, yes they were traded there, but your slaves came into the northern ports. The most notorious slave trade was done by the Brown Brothers from Rhode Island. Fact....slaves were brought to the US by northern slave traders. You can search this out and read about the Notorious Slave Triangle, which traveled from African to Rhode Island to the Caribbean. Think of it what would happen with the slaves in the north? The north was industrialized they couldn't work them, they didn't need them. The South was more like what they were use to. We aren't talking about educated people at that time, they had no education, they had no means of support. It was a way of life, a very economical way of life. It was an institution that was protected by the Constitution of the United States. But then you have to study the years before the war and see what the northern abolitionist were trying to get the slaves to do, they didn't want them but they wanted them to be rebellious against their owners. They were trying to get the slaves to take up arms and murder the men, women and children. Look at John Brown, if you read the documented truths about him he hated the black man. The very free black man who stood up against him in Harpers Ferry and wouldn't fight Hayward Sheperd was shot. There is a monument to him there. The use of the slaves and African Americans for self gain has always been, do you think for one minute they cared about how these poor people would take care of themselves without being on a plantation, I hardly think so and besides that freeing them wasn't their goal. However, trying to get them to revolt didn't work. The north wanted to control the South because at this time in history the South was far much more wealthier than the north. If one will read the book called "A Southern View of the Invasion of the Southern States and War of 1861-1865 by Capt. S.A. Ashe of Raleigh NC you will be able to understand more clearly the thoughts of the Southern people before the war. Read about how few % of the Southerners actually owned slaves, and read how many black slave owners there were in the South....not to mention the slave owners in the north. There is no way anyone can understand the Cause of that war and not go back and read to see the games of the northern people through the years to control the South. The north simply hated the South, they wanted us and our way of life totally done away with. They wanted to control the ports and the money of the South. Read writings of Sherman and what he said about the Southern people and how they should be wiped off the face of the earth....and he dang well almost did it. Educated African American�s now are faulting their own people for slavery not the Southern White man, they also realize that if it weren't for the Southern White man they wouldn't have survived during that time in history. Fact is the yankees hated the African American's...that is fact. Where did the underground railroad go to? I wonder if any ever think about it. Did it stop in the northern states? No, it went right on up to Canada. Why because the northerners didn't want them in their states. They had laws that prohibited it. They even had laws that said they would be whipped if they stayed there. How many I wonder are familiar with the New York draft riots that took place in July 1863? If not one should read about it. The white northerners murdered blacks, hung them from lamppost, drug them behind horses, skinned them and kept it as souvenirs, drown children from the orphanage, Lincoln had to send in troops to protect the black people. All of these are documented facts. You see we in the South have always been blamed for everything, always.

Let me now give another view of things that have been distorted against our Confederate Battle Flag. People relate it to the kkk because that is media hype. Fact being that the flag of the kkk was and still is the US flag. There is a documentary on the kkk on the History Channel which shows the march on Washington, 8th August, 1925 guess which flag they are so proudly carrying....the US flag not a single Confederate Flag is seen, they proudly marched under a US flag that is as wide as the streets. So you see until the early 1950's NO Confederate Flag was used and when it does appear it appears alongside of the US and the Christian flag. This is what the kkk said about their flags, they wrapped themselves in the hallowed cloth of the US and the Christian flags....not the Confederate Flag. They even say the reason for burning the cross, which is the distinct symbol of Christianity, is because that when it is lit the light of Jesus is said to be shining down upon them and blessing the kkk. Now which flag is the flag of the kkk?

There again when one wants to find the Confederate Battle flag offensive they also have to remember that it was the US flag and not the Confederate Flags that flew for only 4 years that waved over the illegal invasion, murder and pillaging of the independent Confederate people of all races in 1861-1865, it was the US flag that flew over the genocide of the American Indian, invasion and partition of Mexico in the 1840's and war against Spain in 1898. It was the US flag that flew over the illegal seizure of Cuba, Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines. All of these are blatant forms of racism and imperialism. So you see some must stop and ask themselves which flag is it that really stands for slavery, oppression, anger and racism? There are today many that are doing just that and they are seeing that there has been many lies told about the Confederacy and the Confederate Battle Flag.

So by taking away things of our Southern heritage and culture is the way of doing away with it all together. That was the goal of the northerners during the war. That was the goal of Lincoln and if one would read and study his words and writings that would be made very clear. One would find that the War for Southern Independence was never a war fought over any form of slavery....it was money....Lincoln didn't even introduce the slavery issue until 1863. Sure slavery was an issue and no one can deny that but....it was not the CAUSE and anyone who thinks it was ought to get down and read and study that war. Even Grant held his slaves till after the war.....let's see I think Grant was a union officer wasn't he? The Emancipation Proclamation freed not one slave where Lincoln had the right to free them....and it darn sure didn't free them in the north....nor the South for that matter. Slavery was an institution that would have most certainly in a few more years been something of the pass. The invention of the cotton gin and other things would soon have done away with slave labor....and what were they going to do with them then?? Why many of the Southern plantation owners regardless to what people would have you believe were already trying to give the Negroes some form of education, and showing them how to live on their own. Look at President Davis wife Varina, she was already trying to educate them and many others were also. Many Southerners wished that slavery would end but they didn't quite know how to accomplish it without them starving to death because they didn't know how quite yet to fit into the world they were brought to from Africa.

This is not just history, this is about our way of life in the South and it is very emotional to me. I can't view the things of my heritage and culture as just a historical way of life because to me I still love my Southern heritage and culture and that way of life. I am not just preserving history. I am remembering and carrying on the memory of my ancestors and what they fought for knowing that they were right, and carrying on my Southern way of life. So you see if and when we bow down and quit using "Their Flag" we are not protecting and vindicating the Cause for which our Confederate ancestors fought, bled, suffered and died for. We are letting the twisted history be the only truth that people know. In my humble opinion we have to stand up firmly and respectfully and say absolutely �NO� I will not surrender the flag of my ancestors. We cannot and will not do that. Many lives were lost during that war, many lives were changed forever. Our people faced during that war unmentionable pain, suffering and deaths. They starved to death, little children froze because the yankees burnt their homes, many little children died of disease and hunger because the yankees would deny them medicine and food. When they would go into the homes they would take what they wanted and then destroy the rest. This is not made up these are documented truths. Our Confederate soldiers were, when they died, many times denied the right to be buried. Do you know what happened at Gettysburg with some of their bodies??? They were put into big pots and the meat boiled from their bones, they were used at the university in study. At Lewisburg W VA....the yankee general made the town people leave them laying instead of letting them bury them in separate graves, they made them dig one big trench and threw them in it. After the war the town people gave them a proper place of burial. I could go on here but I won't. I have found now 81 of my ancestors. Two of them I know died of starvation at the yankee prisons....why? Because they wanted them too. I had several that were killed in battle that their bodies never were returned home. I think about my people and how they could have survived after the war living and not ever knowing where their husbands, sons or fathers were, or even how they died. But after all the cruelties of war they had to live through the hell of 10 years of reconstruction. They came home if they had a home left they were beaten, starving, wounded and they had nothing and what they had most then had it taken away from them by the yankee government, but our Confederate ancestors still being the honorable men and women they were, they tried to survive and live accordingly, and most did. One of my ancestors went to Brazil after that war as did many of the other Confederate Soldiers. I know them and this is why this is emotional for me, very emotional for me. I am not one who walks a battlefield where my ancestors were and just say oh this happened here and this happened there....I can feel the presence of our men there. I can feel the presence of David at Gettysburg in Reynolds woods. I know this is fact. I can sense them at Point Lookout and other places I go where they were, this is very real to me. Yes it is very emotional to me. If one would read their writings one would see how very important it was to them for the things they believed in to be carried on from one generation to the next and to make sure that the truth be told. So you see it is my duty as a daughter of many Confederate men and women to stand up for them, protect them, educated about them and cherish everything about them and what they believed in......God, Family and Country. I have the same blood as those men and women did in me. Our Confederate ancestors were much like the Scots in the 1400's when the English took everything from them, their language, songs and clothing their way of life. During reconstruction our schools were taught by yankees, many of our churches were disbanded and the ministers thrown out to do away with the Southern way of life....but you know what that didn't work either because our Southern ancestors are much stronger people than most gave them credit for. They did carry on with their way of life and they did hold on to all things that were dear to them that they cherished and one of those is that Confederate Battle Flag. When the last Confederate Veteran died they still cherished it for what it meant to them and to let people condemn our Confederate Soldiers for slavery is so very wrong, just as letting someone deny them the symbol that meant the bothers, fathers, sons and friends that they stood shoulder to shoulder with fighting for what they knew was right, fighting for their Southland that was being invaded and taken from them, most didn't care one darn thing about slaves or slavery. It is them that we honor and carry the memory of on forever, it is the Southern way of life that we must protect and carry on and to do this we must not give over to the uneducated people who want to use whines and complaints about something that they absolutely have no concept as to what it is about or what the symbols stood for then or what they stand for now. When African Americans look at us in a way of displeasure maybe they should be given a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and ask him to read it and see what it says or some other history to show him that he has no reason to feel wrongly toward the flags of our ancestors, do as I have invite him to sit down and talk with you and it might change his whole view....or it may not, it is a chance you have to take. However, it worked at Alcoa and we are being given the opportunity to go in and tell others about who we are and our Southern Heritage and culture through Southern diversity classes. Once the African Americans can hear the truth and know that we aren�t about hate and what the true meaning of the Confederate Battle Flag is to those of us who hold it and our Southern heritage and culture dear for the right reasons most, not all will agree that there is no reason to find offense with us and what we cherish. Education is the key....not hiding it or using a substitute for it.

Everyone feels differently about things but I feel I must let all know from my heart how very emotional and serious this issue is to me. I dearly love people and I know from my experiences that if we are truthful and show the love and honor that we have for our ancestors and our Southern way of life and why, most African Americans as I have seen will understand and that does make all the difference in the world to them.....most will even admit they have Southern roots also. When honoring our American Veterans it is most appropriate to fly the US Flag, and we do need to show love, honor and respect to them also, but when honoring our Confederate Ancestors we must honor them with the flag that they choose to honor them and that was the "Confederate Battle flag". In my humble opinion to do less is to show dishonor to them. We should never let anyone deny us our God given right to be who we are and that is SOUTHERN BY THE GRACE OF GOD!

We Shall l Never Forget Them - Courage, Honor and Valor

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WE MUST ALWAYS STAND UP AND FIGHT TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT THE FLAGS OF OUR ANCESTORS STANDS FOR COURAGE, HONOR, LOVE OF THE SOUTH, CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT AND A WAY OF LIFE THEY DIDN'T WANT TO GIVE UP. LET IT FLY FOREVER!!