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.
"How did the North exploit all these subsistence farmers any more than they would have exploited the similar farmers in the Midwest? What's the difference between a yeoman in Michigan and one in Georgia?"
The nation was one people, North and South, except for the narrow self-interest of the slaveowners who were willing to break up the unity of the one nation to further their own well-being.
The true allies of the majority of Southerners were their fellow Americans in the North, not the leaders of the degenerate slave society. It's a shame that the Southern people were deluded into fighting their natural friends to support their natural enemies who ran the CSA.
Concurring bump.
Lincoln, with his log cabin upbringing, had more in common with the average Southerner than Jefferson Davis and his slavehound cohorts ever did.
You summed up a lot very well in one sentance.
You trotting that line out again? You somehow manage to cram that in on every thread about Lincoln.
Clinton was brought up in a modest environment but he doesn't have any more in common with the average Southerner than Rudy Giuliani, so, nice try but no subway token.
On the other hand, according to you yanks, all Southerners are just a bunch of low life, bottom dwelling, inbred, uneducated, lazy, worthless, shiftless pond scum, so, from your point of view, Lincoln would have a lot in common with the 'average Southerner'.
Summed up a lot of bull manure.
"As commander in chief of the army and navy, in time of war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the enemy."
Abram Lincoln
Now, that sums up 'a lot very well in one sentence'. Take special note of the 'any measure' part.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.