Posted on 07/12/2007 6:04:07 AM PDT by RDTF
Two old steamer trunks sit in the rare-book room at the Virginia Historical Society, looking worn and forlorn. The smaller one was once red but the paint has faded to a dull rust. The larger one is brown with a piece of tin patching a hole in the top. On one side, a name is stenciled: "M. LEE."
That's Mary Custis Lee, Gen. Robert E. Lee's adventurous eldest daughter. In 1917, she stored these wooden trunks in the "silver vault" in the basement of Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust in Alexandria. A year later, she died at the age of 83. Her trunks sat in a dusty corner of the vault for 84 years, unclaimed, until E. Hunt Burke, the bank's vice chairman, discovered them in 2002.
Burke called his high school classmate Rob E.L. deButts Jr., who is Robert E. Lee's great-great-grandson. Together, the two men descended into the vault. Burke carried a basket of old keys.
"The first one I pulled out was a perfect fit," he says.
The trunks were stuffed with Lee family papers -- a priceless cache of 4,000 letters, photographs and documents. DeButts carted them to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, which houses the world's largest collection of Lee papers. He spent a week there, sitting at a desk in the research library, reaching into Mary Custis Lee's trunks and picking out treasures and trash.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
http://www.dixieoutfitters.com/heritage/cw88.shtml
Anti-Semitism By THE UNION In The Civil War. General Order #11
... and the casue of freedom.
For 2/3rds the population anyway.
Well that “must” prove it then! They couldn’t possibly have been fooled, you know, with all their access to alternative information and all... http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370190
I don’t have patience for this. Formulate a thoughtful rebuttle of each of the three inconsistencies I presented in #129 or take that kind of nonsense to some mentally-challenged guilt-ridden apologist.
Many ladies in those days enjoyed decades of poor health :-).
I suggest you pick up a copy of the current edition of “North & South” magazine. There is a great article in it that puts to rest the whole notion of legions of black confederates fighting valiantly for the South...and the idea that what service blacks did provide was respected by the white soldiers or politicians.
So...if you were the King of the United States, what parts of the Constitution would you keep, and what parts would you throw out?
That is essentially what this whole (weird) argument is about.
Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
Pack rats, thank heaven for em. :)
What county was that?
Youre confused. The idea that the North fought to free the slaves is almost as absurd as the South succeeding for states right. The South succeeded to preserve slavery, and the North fought them to preserve the union.
Do we need to list the myriad of Southern atrocities against black Union soldiers in rebuttal?
Again - Youre still confused. The idea that the North fought to free the slaves is almost as absurd as the South succeeding for states right. The South succeeded to preserve slavery, and the North fought them to preserve the union.
Can you say Ft. Pillow.....or the crater.......
"A free black descended from one of George Washington's slaves, now the owner of a small farm near Mt. Vernon, offered twenty-eight acres, one-sixth of his property to be sold at auction to raise money for Virginia's defense.
"More active efforts in Virginia came form other quarters, like the fifty free blacks in Amelia County, and two-hundred more in Petersburg who offered themselves to the government to perform labor or even to fight under white officers. Slaves like a Tennessee barber named Jim donated money from their small savings to help raise companies; a Montgomery slave subscribed $150 of his own to the first call for loans from Secretary of the Treasury Christopher Memminger; not far from Mobile sixty slaves on one plantation practiced drilling every night after a full days' work, expressing their hope to fight the "damned buckram abolitionists" who had caused the crisis that now led to the fear of slave uprisings and the consequent curtailment of their few little freedoms."
-Look Away! William C. Davis
Davis goes on to say their motives and support varied. Some freedmen were in it for the business, using their skills as blacksmiths and masons, to earn money. Others were caught up in the excitement of the times, looking for adventure. Still others realized that although the might be near the bottom of the social order, it was still their state and they ought to defend it. Others had hopes of freedom if their patriotism was displayed during this time of crisis.
There are many good accounts of blacks and Jews in the Confederacy - lots of research is being done.
North & South magazine ran a great article "Black Confederates: Myth or Reality?" (vol. 5 no.3) with many good sources and accounts. Enjoy!
#####And in a century, people will be claiming that their great grandfather fought for [Islamic] states rights with al Qaeda. And some people will actually smoke that crap.#####
People like Turban Durbin and other people who want to ban the Confederate Flag might smoke it. Take a Rebel Flag to a Code Pink rally and see how fast they eject you. The anti-Confederacy crowd is composed largely of anti-American left-wing kooks.
Or Saltville...or Poison Spring...or Olustee...or Plymouth...
An opposing view: Descendant of black Confederate soldier speaks at museum
Black Confederate veteran to get proper memorial at Blandford
Black Confederate soldiers overlooked during Black History Month
Black Confederate-flag supporter irks some on march to Texas
Black Confederates
Black man supports Confederate flag in march
Black Man Was a Rock Hill Leader Before Integration (Belonged to KKK? a redshirt? in 1870s SC
Black service, on both sides, in the Civil War
Blacks join Confederate Army heritage group
Blacks, Jews Fight on Side of the South
Former Slave's Family Sees Him Honored At Last (Chris Columbus in Florida)
Confederate group, blacks to clean up cemetery [NC] - more comments
Did free blacks support the Confederacy during the Civil War? Novel on blacks in Confederate South
DIXIE'S CENSORED SUBJECT BLACK SLAVEOWNERS
Minorities During the War Between the States: Collected Resources
Natchez(Ms)conference explores Free Blacks in the Antebellum South (Imagine That)
Ohatchee marker to have names of black and white Confederate vets
Quotations on Black Confederates
UDC marks another black Confederate grave (pt1)
UDC marks another black Confederate grave (pt2)
Freedom and liberty for 2/3rds of their population at any rate. The other third was plain out of luck.
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