Eddy Cresap: Editor

Wayne McMaster: Commander

FUTURE MEETING

If you have not attended one of our meetings at the Harrison Place, you should mark your calendar to attend a camp gathering when you can. The atmosphere is indescribable as history emanates from the walls of this old house. Our meetings are always on the first Thursday of each month. The meetings are held at Harrison Place that is located at 1105 Harrison Street. The house is open at 6:00 for fellowship and light snacks. The programs begin at 7:00. With the programs that have been lined up, you will not want to miss any of the meetings. Everybody is invited to attend. You should come, bring a member who has not attended lately, or bring a friend. Our programs and the fellowship of our members are always superb. The following are the programs that have been lined up for the upcoming months:

* September 7 Bill Ellis 11^th Mississippi

Bill has written a book about the 11^th Mississippi. I am sure the presentation will be inspiring. Hope to see you all there.

CAMP CHASE

The following article was taken from the manuscript of Milton Asbury Ryan. Mr. Ryan was a member of Company B Enterprise Guards 14^th Mississippi Infantry. He was from Jasper County Mississippi and left home to join the Confederate army at Corinth, Mississippi in June 1861. He fought and surrendered with the Confederate army at Fort Donelson. He was taken to Camp Douglas, paroled and was exchanged 8 months later. He joined Joe Johnson’s army and was with that army during the Vicksburg campaign. He fought with the army of Tennessee as they retreated through Georgia and fought around Atlanta. Mr. Ryan followed General Hood on his invasion into Tennessee. He made the famous charge at Franklin. During the Confederate route at Nashville, he was wounded in the leg and once again captured. While in the hospital at Nashville, his leg was amputated due to gangrene infection. From the Hospital, he was transferred to Camp Chase.

This is the way he described the camp:

"Camp Chase was situated four miles west of Columbus Ohio, the capital of the state. The prison had a wall around it sixteen feet high. There was a partition wall that divided the prison into two apartments, and was known as prison number 1 and number 2. I occupied prison No 1. Each prison contained seven or eight acres of land and each held 4,000 prisoners. No. 2 was called by the prisoners in No. 1 the Razorbacks.

The gates to the two prisons stood side by side and opened into each prison. When we arrived at the gates, we were told if we would take the oath of allegiance to the United States we would go into prison No. 2. They would have bountiful rations, plenty of blankets and fires to keep them warm, but if they went into prison No 1 they would have no promises to make. As a matter of regret, many went into the Razorback prison. The guards were placed on the wall with loaded guns with instructions to shoot to kill with the least infringement of prison rules. The barracks were on the pattern of camp Douglas Prison with three narrow bunks, one above another on each side of the barracks. By spooning, two could lie in one bunk. We slept on the naked planks, straw being allowed. Some poor bony fellow’s hipbones were through the skin due to sleeping on the naked planks. We were not allowed fires in our stove after night. In our emaciated and rundown condition with nothing to wear but our light southern clothing and many of us in rags, you can imagine our terrible condition with zero degree weather almost half of the time. We had no chairs or benches and when we sat we sat on the floor. We were guarded by a heartless set of wrenches. They had never been to the front and baptized in the fire of battle, therefore they were cruel and mean in the extreme often shooting unsuspecting prisoners without the least provocation. After taps, as they call it, no lights were allowed and after that all was quite as death until morning.

As to our ration, there was just enough to keep us ravenously hungry all the time; one half loaf of bakers bread eight inches long divided between eight men, one inch to the man twice a day; with that one tablespoon of navy beans with a piece of pickled beef or salt pork about the size of a persons forefinger. We had a kitchen sergeant who had the cooking done for his barracks. When ready it was handed to us through a window in a tin coup, with the liqueur it was cooked in. The guards would throw down apple cores and peelings and enjoy seeing our starving boys scuffle for them. The hospital was just outside the prison wall. There was a ditch four feet wide and three feet deep. It was planked up side and bottom and from the hospital it passed through our prison, and in it all the filth of the prison was deposited, including the scraps from the hospital, such as scraps of meat, bakers bread, onions and beef bones etc. At the head of the ditch was a large tank. It was pumped full of water every day by a detail of prisoners. We all knew when the floodgates would be raised and the water turned loose. It would come sweeping down, bringing the garbage with other filth deposited during the day. Our boys would be strung along the sides of the ditch and as it came floating by they would grab it and eat it like hungry dogs. Beef bones was a choice morsel. We would take them and pound them up and place them in tin cups and boil tem until the marrow was boiled out. When cold there would be a thin cake of tallow on top. We would spread it on our bread like butter. Had Lazarus been laid out at our gate he would not have gotten a crumb. A little snowbird would have starved to death at our feet. I now, after fifty years, recall some of the fitful scenes of the starved, emaciated young men. Those once proud Southerners, who had been victorious in many a battle, kicked and cuffed, starving and sick at heart, and in despair with no hope sitting waiting for the scraps from the hospital to be washed to their feet with the garbage and excrement all clumped in the same ditch together. There were no words adequate to depict the outrageous cruelties and barbarities perpetrated upon helpless prisoners by some of those who had them in charge.

DATES IN HISTORY

September 2, 1864 Atlanta surrendered

September 4, 1864 General John Hunt Morgan killed

September 10, 1836 General Joe Wheeler born

September 17, 1862 Battle of Sharpsburg

September 19, 1863 Battle of Chickamauga

GENERAL JOE WHEELER, FIGHTING JOE

Joe Wheeler was born near Augusta, Georgia on September 10, 1836. He graduated from West Point in 1859 and was assigned to the Dragoons where he saw service in several Indian campaigns in Kansas and New Mexico. He resigned his commission in the U. S. Army in 1861 and joined his fellow Southerners. He entered the Confederate service as a Lieutenant and ended his rapid rise as a 26 year old Lieutenant General. After his enlistment, Wheeler was promoted to Colonel and given command of the 19^th Alabama infantry regiment and at the battle of Shiloh led a brigade in the Army of Mississippi. After Bloody Shiloh as the Army retreated south to Corinth, Wheeler acted as the rear guard of the Confederate Army to cover the retreat. During the Army’s stay at Corinth, he then was assigned to the Cavalry in the Army of Mississippi and led cavalry at the battles of Perryville, Murfresboro, Tullahoma, and Chickamauga. In these engagements, he started leading a brigade and ended leading one of two corps of Confederate Army’s Cavalry. Due to a conflict with General Forrest, he was given command of all the Cavalry troops in the Army of Tennessee after Chickamauga. He led the Army’s Cavalry during the battles around Chattanooga, the retreat to Atlanta, and the campaign around Atlanta. During these campaigns, he made a name for himself raiding Union Supply lines. After the fall of Atlanta, Wheeler’s Calvary Corp was left behind to deal with Sherman’s Army while General Hood led the Army of Tennessee to its fate in his Tennessee campaign. With his small Cavalry Corp, Wheeler fell back in the front of Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea and limited the width of his destructive path. During the final campaign in the Carolinas, General Wheeler was placed under the command of Wade Hampton and was captured in Georgia in May 1865. After his capture, he was held in prison at Fort Delaware until June. During the War for Southern Independence, the gallant General Wheeler was wounded 3 times and had 16 horses shot from under him. His aggressive service during the War of Northern Aggression earned him the nickname of "Fighting Joe".

After the war, he moved to Wheeler, Alabama, and was a longtime congressman from the Heart of Dixie. His success in Congress was a symbol to the South of the reunion of the country. During the War with Spain in 1898, he donned the uniform of a Major General in the United States Army. He led a division of Cavalry, which included Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. At one point, during an engagement in Cuba, he forgot where he was and in the excitement told his men we got the Yankees on the run. Based on his service in the Spanish American War, he is one of two Confederate Generals buried in Arlington.

Joe Wheeler personifies a Southern Gentlemen’s reaction to General Lee’s advice "To unite in the restoration of the country"

AUGUST MEETING

Our August meeting was called to order by Adjutant Eddy Cresap in the absence of Commander McMaster. Wayne Mcmaster, Dan Edney, Mike Beiser, and Lamar Roberts were absent from the meeting because they were the Camps delegation to the National convention. Eddy Cresap offered the opening prayer. David Atwood led the Pledge of Allegiance and Noel Honneycut led the salute to the Confederate flag.

David Atwood described his trip to the Gettysburg reenactment.

WEB PAGE

If you have not looked at our Web page on the Internet lately, you should. Greg Nail has invested a lot of time and effort in establishing and improving the General Pemberton Camp’s home page. The information on our page is not only to keep our camp members advised of activities, but a way of portraying our cause in a positive light to anyone. Our page is found at:

http://www.magnolia.net/~nail/jcpcamp.html.

After you view the page, take time to let Greg know what you think of the effort. The home page also has some good links to other sites of interest on the Internet.

DUES

Annual dues are now due. 1999 dues are due in August 1998 and will be late in February 1999. If you have not paid your 1999 dues, please send $32 for your 1999 dues to the address on the newsletter.

1999 MISSISSIPPI DIVISION CONVENTION

The 1999 convention will be in Natchez on June 4 – 5. The host hotel will be the Ramada Inn. The motel is blocking 40 rooms for us and will block 10 more if we fill the original 40 soon. You need to make your reservations soon by calling 1-800 – 256-6311 and identify yourself as attending the SCV convention. The room rate is $69 per night. If you have any questions about the convention call Billy Rae Hankins at 601 – 428 – 7286. See you in Natchez next spring.

NATIONAL CONVENTION

The following were elected in St. Louis to offices in the SCV:

* Commander in Chief Rick Griffin form Maryland

* Lt. Commander in Chief Ron Wilson from South Carolina

* Army of Tennessee Army Commandeer James Turner from Tennessee

* Army of Tennessee Executive Commander George Church from Meridian Mississippi

Lamar Roberts of the John C. Pemberton Camp was elected to the Executive Councilman Army of Tennessee, Military Order of Stars and Bars.

All these men should be congratulated on their new office and given everyones support so that our cause can benefit.

SENATOR LOTT

The following is the speech given by Senator Trent Lott at the dedication of the Presidential Library at Beauvoir. If there was any doubt where the Senate Majority leaders heart is in our cause, this speech should answer all doubts. Senator Lott is very proud to fill the same Senate slot that was filled by Jefferson Davis. He also reminded us that the Senior Senator from Mississippi, Senator Cochran, sits in the desk that was occupied by Davis while he was an U. S. senator. Senator Lott’s speech along with the other activities of the day left me with a day I will remember forever.

"Governor Fordice, Members of the Legislature, Mayors, distinguished guests, and friends of Beauvoir.

As you know, this week marks the 190^th anniversary of the birth of the man who became the President of the Confederate States of America.

Though born in Kentucky, he was truly a son of Mississippi: a planter, a soldier, and a statesman. It is fitting that we gather here at his beloved Beauvoir, in tribute to this exceptional man.

This home was a treasure to him and his family. But now it will house a greater treasure: a wealth of historical documents, research materials, and memorabilia. Like the presidential libraries of more recent Presidents, this institution will have a broader focus than just one person will. It will cover the era in which Davis lived, the times, in which he worked and fought. With true Southern hospitality, it will welcome scholars and the public from around THE WORLD. It will be a place of pride and of learning, of memory and of new visions of the past.

Sometimes I feel closer to Jefferson Davis than any other man in America. I represent Mississippi, as he did, in the United States Senate. Each morning, when I arrive at work, I see part of HIS Capital. For he supervised the construction of the two new wings where the Senate and House have gathered uninterrupted since 1860. It was in that Senate where he lifted the mantle of Southern leadership from the aging shoulders of John C. Calhoun. And there, in 1861, his fellow Senators openly wept as he bid them a "final adieu" and headed home to await the call of his state.

For almost one century distinguished Americans, and not just Southerners, have come to Beauvoir to recall the highlights of his life. But these facts without the context of truth are meaningless. Or as Robert Penn Warren said, " History is not the truth, the truth is in the telling" In the case of Jefferson Davis, this Library and Museum will help to tell the world the truth about the complicated man who came to embody the cause of Southern Independence.

He was the reflection of a proud people. He was a gentleman, who met each of Life’s challenges with unquestioned faith in his Creator and an unfailing devotion to duty. Here was the Commander in Chief who sadly said, "I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent this war, but I could not."

When I was growing up, I was taught to respect the man whose face stared down at us from countless shrines across the South. I hope that tradition will continue for today’s youngsters need examples of honor, courage, and self-sacrifice.

Jeff Davis’s story is the story of America. Born in a frontier log cabin, he rose from harsh circumstances to attend West Point, where his appointment papers were signed by none other than the man who was then the Secretary of War: John C. Calhoun. At the Academy, he stood alongside Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnson. As a soldier, he led the Mississippi Rifles to glory in Mexico and, from then on, was marked as a leader of men.

When the Magnolia State sent him to the Senate, he became the Congress’ leading intellect and voice of Southern nationalism. He was unyielding in his defense of the Constitution. A document, after all, that had been written primarily by Southerners of an earlier generation. At the same time, he earnestly sought a solution to the upcoming crisis within the framework of the Union. But his people called him home, and he marched with them. On February 10, 1861, while tending his garden, he received word of his unanimous election as President of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America.

Mrs. Davis later said, "He grew white and read the note as a man might speak of a sentence of death" He left Mississippi the next day.

We cannot do justice here to Davis’ entire record as President, but we can help to reverse what Shelby Foote calls "the conspiracy that has underrated President Davis for 130 years." For starters, there is the matter of his personality. When you read about him in the history books, he seems a cold-blooded prig. He was, in fact, a warm, friendly, outgoing man. Perhaps studies at this Library will correct that impression.

It was Lee himself who set the record straight about Davis’s administrative abilities. He reminded the critics, most of them whom were armchair generals, that "no one could have done a better job than Jefferson Davis, and as far as I know, no one could have done as well"

It’s easy to forget that Davis inherited no functioning government, no army and no navy. He created everything from the Post Office to the Treasury almost overnight. Through sheer force of will, he marshaled every resource his country had against an adversary that had every advantage.

All the while, he was riding herd on the most talented and eccentric group of general officers in military history. He forged the system that kept the Grey legions fighting along a thousand-mile front for four long years.

Put yourself in his place, sitting in that Richmond office as the casualty count rolled in from the Shiloh buzzsaw. In that one battle, the South lost more men than the entire country had lost in the revolution, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War combined. One battle—and a heartache that would last a lifetime.

By 1865, a devastated South looked to Davis for hope, for dignity, for self-respect. He did not disappoint his people. Even when abused by sadistic jailers, he remained a symbol and an example. And he emerged from confinement to remind his country that, in the end, all would be right.

In the end, Jefferson Davis, more than any other person was the living, breathing embodiment of the Southern spirit. Just like the common soldiers who bore the name of Johnny Reb, he too stood in the breach, protecting his home, his family, and his people. Most of all, he was a defender of the Constitution. He rightly understood that that document was created to restrain government, not constrain the people.

He feared that, if government ever broke away from the rule of law, that all power would flow away from the people to Washington. That was the same argument advanced, more than a century later, by another Southern Senator, Sam Ervin of North Carolina, in opposing more recent Executive Branch violations of the rule of law. In that light, we come back full circle in the life, times, and redemption of Jefferson Davis. Once more the halls of Congress ring with warnings against the coercion of power in official Washington.

History is funny that way. As we relearn its lessons, we sometimes see the figures of the past in a different light.

The rigid categories of heroes and villains fade away and we are left with imperfect human beings, from whose trials and struggles we can learn so much, not only about the past, but also about ourselves.

That learning is the goal and purpose of this institution (the Presidential Library). Within its walls, and amid its treasures, we can follow the advice of a great Mississippian, Doctor Walker Percy.

Percy urged the nation to look South to recover its lost sense of community, and stability, and the sense of place in God’s order. That is a tall proposition, but it is one, which Jefferson Davis would have approved.

I will leave you with Jefferson Davis’ own words. Gravely ill, with only eight months to live, Davis pulled together his remaining strength and made the short six-mile journey from Beauvoir to Mississippi City to address a convention of Southern youth. In a remarkable few minutes, Jefferson Davis spoke for the ages:

"Before you lies the future—a future of golden promise; a future expanding national glory, before which all the world will stand amazed. Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feelings, and take your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished – a reunited country."

Thanks to Senator Lott’s office for sending me a copy of his speech, which I attempted to type accurately.