Former NAACP leader carries Confederate flag across Upstate on March Across Dixie

Greenville Online ^ | 10/19/02 | By John Boyanoski

[shuckmaster]

With a slow, deliberate gait, H.K. Edgerton walked along U.S. 25 toward Greenville on Wednesday wearing a Confederate soldier's uniform and resting a Confederate flag on his right shoulder.

Edgerton, who is black, is marching from Asheville, N.C., to Austin, Texas, to raise awareness and funds for Sons of the Confederate Veterans and the Southern Legal Resource Center, which advocates Southern heritage.

[Non-Sequitur]

Fair enough, although I don't understand the Lincoln connection in your trinity. And as long as you accept the possibility that the myths built up around the southern leadership is almost as pervasive as that built up around the Northern leadership.

[Non-Sequitur]

Remember that slave could earn freedom, many had done so before 1862 and many were emancipated during the fight. Either serving someone in the army or serving as a member or in support of the army was probably a means to free status long before Lincoln's effort to start a slave revolt.

Whoa there, sunshine. I'm going to have to ask for some evidence to support those claims, from the emancipation issue clear through the slave revolt charge.

Furthermore; some of our commentators might take note that it was only 1947 when blacks in the US military were allowed into non-service units and given access to rank and honors. (The guy in the Pearl Harbor story was a steward and several medals were NOT awarded because of race during WW2 and as late as Korea.

Nonsense. Black combat units existed in the U.S. Army from the Civil War clear through the Second World War. Following the Civil war, there were the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry which served on the frontier, in Cuba and in Mexico with Pershing. During WWI, the 92nd Infantry Division was all black, and black American regiments were attached to French divisions and served with the French Army. During World War II there were two or three black divisions, as well as black battalions, regiments, and squadrons in the Army. Your claim is wrong.

[mafree]

These threads are always interesting. May God protect Mr. Edgerton.

[dsutah]

I think you have a point. Otherwise, how would someone explain the "Buffalo soldiers"? Also, if the situation in the movie: "Glory" was based on a real-life situation with a black unit in the Civil war; how would they explain that? Then there are the "Tuskogee" air-men(sp?). Where would they have come from?

I would imagine there were at least some black soldiers on the Confederate side, maybe not a lot. Probably most were supporting services. But some may have taken up arms if they had been set free previously. I haven't done a lot of study on the subject. I do know that even after they were set free, some newly-freed slaves actually went back with their former 'owners' out of necessity.

Some couldn't find jobs, or couldn't get medical care, they couldn't take care of themselves. Some were with white families for many years, and were still friendly with them, although enslaved.

[archy]

Bump for colorblind loyalty to the ideals of Dixie.

Just so. Just so. They appeal to those of all races and origins, whether they are of Southern ancestry or upbringing or not. A young Japanese exchange student at the University of Memphis who I know is fascinated with the ideals of the Confederate leadership, which he finds dovetail neatly with ideals of honor and service he learned as his own family's heritage, dating back four centuries.

He dearly wishes to become a reenactor, though his physical appearance poses him a problem, if less one than the choice of which appropriate unit with which to serve. But near about as I can tell, that Indjin boy had him a mos' turrible case of the jaundice.

[archy]

During WWII, there were two or three black divisions...

I do not recall the unit, but there was a WWII artillery outfit comprised of black enlisted men and white officers, as was the requirement then. The officers took care of the administration and handled the not-inconsiderable surveying and gun plotting geometry chores. The blacks served the guns, to their chant of *Hitler, count yo' men....*

The phrase became a staple of the gunners, particularly those under the employ of one General George S. Patton, who observed that the blacks under his command made fine infantrymen and artillerists, but not tankers, as they were insufficiently aggressive and brutal for the tanker's methods and many lacked the mechanical skills necessary for a tank crewman's essential chores. But they prevailed.

-archy-/-

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

You've got all the answers, don't you?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Walt is most likely a transplant know-it-all as you can see. We call them carpetbaggers. His claim that his neighbors would get an earful if they said the CSA had black soldiers is a good hint that he's not from around there because good Southerners know that they are likely to get a good old ass whippin for having a big, loud mouth.

If somehow he is from TN, no doubt his grandpappy was a scallywag and ended up hanging from an oak tree...which explains walt's general disposition on the subject at hand.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I don't know Mr. Edgerton or his agenda, but I have never seen the name of a single black who was killed "under the Confederate flag."

Around half of the soldiers were never identified...but then, being the expert you are you no doubt know this?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I don't know what your heritage is, but I can tell you that that without the South our country would be run by leftists and other depraved socialists...care to dispute this one?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I bet Walt would get his clock cleaned in real fights too.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Exactly! BTW, his professors are from Amherst and Princeton. Interesting.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I wrote my post saying the same thing after seeing your cartoon. That looks about right.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

The Confederate ideals have always reminded me of Japanese customs.

[Red Jones]

I support and salute Mr. Edgerton regardless of whether there were significant numbers of blacks in the confederate ranks or not. Edgerton's a real american. Those who mock or ridicule him are fools.

[Non-Sequitur]

Yeah, considering some of the recent southern presidents, I do.

[Non-Sequitur]

One of my mother's ancestors was from eastern Tennessee, near Bristol and the Virginia border. Since he was a Unionist, some of Isham Harris's men did hang him, in 1861.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Believe me when I tell you I wish you could get your dream of not having the southern influence on your politics. We'd certainly be better off.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

'plains a lot.