Posted on 02/25/2004 11:52:26 AM PST by 4CJ
THOMASVILLE -- Nelson Winbush knows his voice isn't likely to be heard above the crowd that writes American history books. That doesn't keep him from speaking his mind, however.
A 75-year-old black man whose grandfather proudly fought in the gray uniform of the South during the Civil War, Winbush addressed a group of about 40 at the Thomas County Museum of History Sunday afternoon. To say the least, his perspective of the war differs greatly from what is taught in America's classrooms today.
"People have manufactured a lot of mistruths about why the war took place," he said. "It wasn't about slavery. It was about state's rights and tariffs."
Many of Winbush's words were reserved for the Confederate battle flag, which still swirls amid controversy more than 150 years after it originally flew.
"This flag has been lied about more than any flag in the world," Winbush said. "People see it and they don't really know what the hell they are looking at."
About midway through his 90-minute presentation, Winbush's comments were issued with extra force.
"This flag is the one that draped my grandfathers' coffin," he said while clutching it strongly in his left hand. "I would shudder to think what would happen if somebody tried to do something to this particular flag."
Winbush, a retired in educator and Korean War veteran who resides in Kissimmee, Fla., said the Confederate battle flag has been hijacked by racist groups, prompting unwarranted criticism from its detractors.
"This flag had nothing to with the (Ku Klux) klan or skinheads," he said while wearing a necktie that featured the Confederate emblem. "They weren't even heard of then. It was just a guide to follow in battle.
"That's all it ever was."
Winbush said Confederate soldiers started using the flag with the St. Andrews cross because its original flag closely resembled the U.S. flag. The first Confederate flag's blue patch in an upper corner and its alternating red and white stripes caused confusion on the battlefield, he said.
"Neither side (of the debate) knows what the flag represents," Winbush said. "It's dumb and dumber. You can turn it around, but it's still two dumb bunches.
"If you learn anything else today, don't be dumb."
Winbush learned about the Civil War at the knee of Louis Napoleon Nelson, who joined his master and one of his master's sons in battle voluntarily when he was 14. Nelson saw combat at Lookout Mountain, Bryson's Crossroads, Shiloh and Vicksburg.
"At Shiloh, my grandfather served as a chaplain even though he couldn't read or write," said Winbush, who bolstered his points with photos, letters and newspapers that used to belong to his grandfather. "I've never heard of a black Yankee holding such an office, so that makes him a little different."
Winbush said his grandfather, who also served as a "scavenger," never had any qualms about fighting for the South. He had plenty of chances to make a break for freedom, but never did. He attended 39 Confederate reunions, the final one in 1934. A Sons of Confederate Veterans Chapter in Tennessee is named after him.
"People ask why a black person would fight for the Confederacy. (It was) for the same damned reason a white Southerner did," Winbush explained.
Winbush said Southern blacks and whites often lived together as extended families., adding slaves and slave owners were outraged when Union forces raided their homes. He said history books rarely make mention of this.
"When the master and his older sons went to war, who did he leave his families with?" asked Winbush, who grandfather remained with his former owners 12 years after the hostilities ended. "It was with the slaves. Were his (family members) mistreated? Hell, no!
"They were protected."
Winbush said more than 90,000 blacks, some of them free, fought for the Confederacy. He has said in the past that he would have fought by his grandfather's side in the 7th Tennessee Cavalry led by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest.
After his presentation, Winbush opened the floor for questions. Two black women, including Jule Anderson of the Thomas County Historical Society Board of Directors, told him the Confederate battle flag made them uncomfortable.
Winbush, who said he started speaking out about the Civil War in 1992 after growing weary of what he dubbed "political correctness," was also challenged about his opinions.
"I have difficulty in trying to apply today's standards with what happened 150 years ago," he said to Anderson's tearful comments. "...That's what a lot of people are attempting to do. I'm just presenting facts, not as I read from some book where somebody thought that they understood. This came straight from the horse's mouth, and I refute anybody to deny that."
Thomas County Historical Society Board member and SVC member Chip Bragg moved in to close the session after it took a political turn when a white audience member voiced disapproval of the use of Confederate symbols on the state flag. Georgia voters are set to go to the polls a week from today to pick a flag to replace the 1956 version, which featured the St. Andrew's cross prominently.
"Those of us who are serious about our Confederate heritage are very unhappy with the trivialization of Confederate symbols and their misuse," he said. "Part of what we are trying to do is correct this misunderstanding."
He popped in for a few posts and was whooshed away again.
I'm sure gonna miss him. (sniff...)
Very convenient when "loyalty" is redefined to mean complete agreement with the incumbent.
Do you not see the attribution of the quote to Lucy Shelton Stewart? The post was made to Partisan because she was his (non)source for a discussion topic a few weeks ago (and, come to think of it, almost everything else it appears).
Learn to read, learn not to lie. It will take you far.
Use the word 'union' on a WBTS thread and be surprised when I associate it with the GAR. What a job you are.
Another instance where use of my imagination was required, no doubt.
Let's come to an understanding of terms.
There is a hierarchy of levels in the law, many of which we never deal with.
The highest level is sovereign acts, the kind that can be reviewed only by Who Am. These are acts of will by the Sovereign, who in England is the King or Queen.
The next level is constitutional and treaty law. They are made by the Sovereign and obeyed voluntarily by the Sovereign. They can also be broken by the Sovereign, by sovereign acts.
Under the Constitution is statutory law passed by the Government created by the Constitution.
Beneath that is regulation lawfully created by bodies created by statute and reviewed by them -- by e.g. administrative law judges and inspectors general.
And below that, there are other rules and guidelines that lawyers and regulators can describe in better detail than I.
My point here is that under the logic of subsidiarity, a creature of the Constitution, i.e. the United States Government or its branches (Supreme Court, Congress, President) cannot review an act above its pay grade, i.e. above its level of competence. When the People sit in convention assembled, they take up the rods and axes of the Sovereign and become not objects of government but take on their awful aspect of Sovereign, and in that capacity, the People answer to nobody who isn't God Himself. Capiche?.
Responding to GOP, it says, precisely that -YOUR SOURCE- Lucy Shelton Stewart said that Republicanism was on crooked knee to the KKK is such states as Maine, New York and Indiana. Lucy Shelton Stewart said it, you goofy bleating foal, you curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and who then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.
Gradually the newspapers are revealing this close connection between Republicanism and the Klan in the North: in such States as Maine, New York, and Indiana the influence is profound.
-- Lucy Shelton Stewart, The Reward of Patriotism, 1930, p. 449.
Soooo ripe for response.
#422 [#3Fan] Military ships that travel close to land need arms. The Vikings had arms,
#423 [#3Fan] All I can do is repeat that military ships that travel close to shore do indeed have arms. Vikings, Vietnam, and the Spaniards all had arms.
Gradually the newspapers are revealing this close connection between Republicanism and the Klan in the North: in such States as Maine, New York, and Indiana the influence is profound.
-- Lucy Shelton Stewart, The Reward of Patriotism, 1930, p. 449.
All Democrats and anyone not overtly loyal to the evil race-hustling pimp Lincoln, rapist of the Constitution, was considered "suspicious-acting."
[#3Fan] As the bible says, law-abiding people have no reason to fear His sanctioned powers that be, but His sanctioned powers that be are a terror to the law-breaking.
In #3World, He appeared in the form of Spoons Butler. No wonder you are such a mess, #3. You worship an image of Spoons Butler.
There's no need to go easy on him ;o)
He lied out both sides of his mouth, instigated war, failed to convene a special session of congress in a timely manner, called up troops illegally, authorized expenditures without congressional approval, jailed dissidents for having the audacity to disagree with the warmonger, suspended habeas corpus, refused to abide by decisions of the federal court system, threatened to jail the Chief Justice for failing to agree with Lincoln's interpretation of the Constitution, instituted a policy of waging war on innocent women & children, &c, &c.
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