My daughter and her husband and three grand kids were visiting this week end and I had to show off the site. Ho Hum! Some times you work long and hard, and nobody cares, but that one person who finds a great great grandfather and begins to understand some of what occurred in the 1860's.  Maybe one will write a book about their findings and a little more will be added to history.

I have been reading Martha L. Crabb's book about the 9th Texas Cavalry and the Texas Brigade, All Afire to Fight, the Untold tale of the Civil War's Ninth Texas Cavalry. At this point  I have just began reading about Elkhorn Tavern, Pea Ridge for you Northerners, it has been enjoyable to read some history, and not someone's politically correct opinion about what he thinks the Southerners were fighting for. A few weeks ago even a Sunday school teacher explained that God was on the side of Lincoln and the North, that's why he punished the South so hard.  Of course he forgot that Lincoln was shot and almost as many Northerners died in this war as Southerners. I will not presume to explain who God was behind or who he punished, but slavery ended, but descrimination was extended for many more years. General Lee said, had he known the affect of the peace, he would not have surrendered, but would have fought to the death. General Nathan bedford Forrest became a leader in the Klu Klux Klan, because of his feelings of the imposed will of the North on the South and his hatred of the black race.

Were these views correct? Probably not, but the hatred the North poured on the South for years and the inposed governments, only fanned the hatred and descrimination, and caused the blacks to wait almost till 1965 for true freedom, but even that has been litered with descrimination in both directions, and a watering down of the Constitution. Almost anyone who crys gets their way versus the majority. Today a white man can say nothing and a black can say anything. A evangelacial can say nothing, not even pray, but an atheist can urinate on the flag and that's freedom of Speech. We have no freedom of Religion in America, but a crazy person can shoot up a school, and we must feel for him because he had a bad childhood. But don't think about praying in school, reading the Bible (the World's oldest history book), or putting up the ten commandments (the World's oldest written laws).

Please forgive me Martha. My Southern, religious blood, does run deep. I know I will enjoy your book. Yes, I was born in Midland (Long before Bush), and live in Texas, now for 70 years, and I have been to Dumas! Lived in Pampa for a while. I guess that's modern history.