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To: billbears
I appreciate this photo. Most of these sort of photos were taken as soldiers went off to war, to leave behind as mementos. It is true that in the initial rush off to war many masters took their slaves with them as personal servants and in some cases could have outfitted them as soldiers, but the CSA army quickly weeded them out of anything close to combat duty.
89 posted on 04/19/2003 8:10:10 AM PDT by Grand Old Partisan (You can read about my history of the GOP at www.republicanbasics.com)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
LOL!!! Figured you'd say that. So let's take a look at the Chandler boys, hmmmmm???
Enlisting in the Palo Alto Confederates in 1861 from his home in Palo Alto, Mississippi, at age 15 Andrew Martin Chandler was mustered into Co. F of Blythe's Mississippi Infantry, 44th Mississippi Infantry. He participated in several campaigns with his childhood , friend and former slave, 17 year-old Silas Chandler.

Andrew was captured at Shiloh and was held prisoner in Ohio while Silas made repeated trips home to Mississippi to bring Andrew needed goods. Andrew was exchanged and he and Silas returned to their unit. Andrew was later wounded at Chickamauga. Army surgeons prepared to amputate his leg, but Silas used a piece of gold given to him by Andrew's mother to buy whiskey to bribe the surgeons to release him. He carried Andrew on his back for several miles and loaded him onto a boxcar heading to Atlanta - once there Andrew was taken to a hospital, where Silas cared for him until the family could join them - his leg, and possibly his life, were saved by Silas' attention and efforts.

The following is from a 1950 typed transcript of handwritten notes from an interview with Andrew Martin Chandler conducted in 1912:

"He served in the Confederate Army, and even in 1912, was still true to the cause. He told me much about his service in the army, even though he considered his contribution as rather slight, being that of less importance than any soldier in the ranks.

While there, he told me of another Silas Chandler that served with him in the Army. This Silas was a former slave owned by his parents, who was papered out just before the war. Even though he was granted his freedom, he insisted on going off to war with Andrew, partially because of their friendship, and partially because since Silas was a little older, he felt that he needed to protect Andrew. Andrew told me that even though Silas was considered a servant by the other men and blacks in the unit, he was very much an equal, displaying just as much hatred for the yankees as anyone in the whole unit!

Andrew then showed me an old picture of the two of them together, and while they appeared as mere boys, the look of stern determination on their faces tells the whole story of their dedication to each other and their country."

Andrew and Silas returned to Palo Alto, remained fast friends, lived close by each other and, in 1878, Andrew signed the papers which resulted in Silas receiving a Mississippi Confederate Veteran Pension.

Andrew gave Silas land adjoining one of the the Chandler plantations on which Silas built a church for the Black population of Palo Alto. Andrew Martin Chandler, born April 3, 1846, died May 7, 1920, and veteran of the 44th Mississippi Infantry, CSA, rests in Palo Alto beneath a gravestone decorated with Confederate symbols within the family graveyard, which is surrounded by a iron fence. Just across the road, the church Silas built still stands, and the past members of that church also lie in rest on all three sides of Andrew Chandler.

Silas Chander, Black Confederate veteran and faithful friend, lies eight to ten miles away, his grave now decorated with a Confederate Iron Cross deservedly placed there in a Confederate Honor Service eight years ago under the guidance of the Mississippi Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Andrew's Great-grandson, Andrew Chandler Battaile, still lives in Mississippi, while Silas' Great--grandson, Bobbie Chandler, lives the Northeast. About eight years ago, the two men reunited and restored the family relationship.

37th Texas

And a FORMER slave to boot. Remained his friend after the war? Surely the d#mn yankee revisionism must have an explanation for this. BTW, you never answered my question. Why celebrate the introduction of the party of big government, such as was the Republican/Whig/Federalist aim, so much?

91 posted on 04/19/2003 8:18:40 AM PDT by billbears (Deo Vindice)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
I think you're placing way too much confidence in the central organizing capability of the CSA. I wrote my thesis on this issue, based on the extensive collection of letters two of my gg grandfathers wrote home to their wives and other family members.

One of the main problems with that body was the total inability to enforce orders on down the line. There was an awful lot of autonomy even at the platoon level -- my gg grandfather's company ELECTED their officers every so often . . . and there is constant trouble -- mentioned frequently in his letters -- with getting even discipline, let alone orders from On High, enforced. As Willie said to Joe in a more recent conflict, "Drink it all. That guy who put out the order about shavin' ain't comin' up here."

It doesn't matter what "the law" or the Army Regulation was - you'll have to look down at least to brigade and probably to regimental level to find out what was really going on.

99 posted on 04/19/2003 8:39:33 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: Grand Old Partisan
yet another LIE/EVASION!

FRee dixie,sw

115 posted on 04/19/2003 9:56:40 AM PDT by stand watie (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. : Thomas Jefferson 1774)
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