Posted on 08/31/2006 9:07:31 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
On Sunday afternoon at Old Union Cemetery in southern White County, over 180 people gathered to pay a debt owed nearly 80 years. The group included members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, family and friends, all there to memorialize the service of Pvt. Henry Henderson, a black Confederate soldier.
Henderson was born in 1849 in Davidson County, NC. He was 11 years old when he entered service with the Confederate States of America as a cook and servant to Colonel William F. Henderson, a medical doctor. Records show Henry was wounded during his service, but he continued to serve until the war's end in 1865. He was discharged in Salem, NC, age 16.
After the war, Henry married Miranda Shockley, of White County, TN. The couple raised five children.
"We're here to honor him," said his great-grandson, Oscar Fingers, of Evansville, IN. "I think he would be proud his family has come this far and to know all we have done." Several other family members made the trip with Fingers from Indiana for Sunday's ceremony.
Sons Dalton and Lee received Henderson's first and last Tennessee Colored Confederate pension check upon their father's death in September 1926. The check provided enough funds to bury their father, but not enough to buy a headstone for his grave.
The 60,000-90,000 black Confederate soldiers are often called "the forgotten Confederates," but through the concerted efforts of the Capt. Sally Tompkins Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy along with the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, several graves have been found in the Upper Cumberland and have been or will be marked.
Pvt. Henry Henderson's service was finally recognized and his grave officially marked on Sunday, all to the snap of salutes from the grandsons of fellow Confederates, volleys of gunfire and cannons shot toward the distant hillsides of his final resting place.
Official U.S. government grave markers are available to all Confederate veterans. For additional information, contact Barbara Parsons, 484-5501.
When you honor past soldiers for their service, post the story.
I don't have a political agenda that would cause me to do so.
Ah, the racist card. Of course. This is why the black confederates are so important to you and your ilk. But please, show me what racist statement I've made.
Was he honorable? No idea, although I'll operate under that assumption until shown otherwise, just as I would anyone else. But given that he was an 11 year old slave with no will of his own under law, his honor or lack thereof doesn't enter into things much when it comes to his confederate service.
I read the story (both times you posted it), and I have no issue at all with the service, although as I said the SCV makes me queasy these days, given the Kirk Lyons factor.
No, I knew exactly who had posted it. My only confusion came when Michael S.F. responded to a post I'd made to you, and in haste I thought it was you responding. I quickly caught the error and retracted it.
Nice try, though,
Obviously you did not. No need to pay attention to details though.
I doubt he was a private. He was an 11 year old slave boy, who was made to cook for his owner. Not exactly a leader of Pickett's Charge.
Sorry we don't let folks who advertise their panties in taglines in the New South Club.
Do you unabashedly advocate that the Sons of Confederate Veterans become a modern, 21st century Christian war machine capable of uniting the Confederate community and leading it to ultimate victory?
Are you series? You think that black slaves felt threatened by the prospect of being freed? You've been drinking the whole "states rights" coolaid for far too long!
The event WASN'T politicized, except possibly by the SCV's presence. There were no protesters there. You politicized DISCUSSION of it by bringing it to FR two weeks later.
It takes a real man to wear aluminum briefs.
Don't let my tag line chaff you.
Obviously you didn't read #122, since I correctly identify the poster of this thread before my subsequent error.
Nice try, though.
You know how this scam wotks don't you? The UDC and SCV are reseaching pension and death records for anyone that might have been in the confederate army, then they find their relatives and offer to place a headstone on their grave.
Now I seriously doubt that this family even knew where this man was buried before the UDC approached them but some people would take a headstone from the devil himself if it recognized a member of their family.
As has been pointed out, The United States Government will supply a headstone to anyone that served in the confederate army all that is required is proof, only this family wasn't looking for proof it found them.
"Are you series? You think that black slaves felt threatened by the prospect of being freed? You've been drinking the whole "states rights" coolaid for far too long!"
Pretty deep, but you didn't mention the black slave owners.
BTW, The Washington Times has a while back an article about blacks fighting for the Confederacy and of a black reenactor on the side of the South because of this link.
I have always contended, and even Lincoln's own words indicate that the freeing of the slaves was an outcome of the war and not the primary cause of the war. Lincoln, if the Union was to be preserved, would have struck an agreement continuing slavery.
His long contemplation of the Emancipation proclamation and the timing of it's issuance was based to a large extent on military considerations and not primarily based on a magnanimous cause of freedom.
or that slavery wasn't so bad, or something like that
I have never stated or implied such (nor have you implied that I have).
Yes, and I'm sure that that statistically insignificant portion of the black population lept at the chance to die for Jefferson Davis, slavery and rebellion. I'm sure at least one Indian voted for Andrew Jackson too, and maybe even a German Jew voted for Hitler in the '34 plebiscite. So what?
I don't think you are sure of anything, but I'm sure you have a hostile nature.
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