We
are into the third year of the Civil War Sesqucentenial rememberance of a war
that crossed five Aprils. April of 1861 saw hostilities break out between north
and south, and 148 years ago on April 9, the war ended with the surrender of
Robert E. Lee's forces in Virginia. On that same day, the last full engagement
battle of the war was fought here in Baldwin County near the township of
Blakeley and became known as The Battle of Blakely.
Please
note the two spellings of the same word in the previous sentence. The town is
named for Josiah Blakeley, with the letter "e" being used twice. The
name given to the battle is "Blakely", with one "e",
because that is how it is written in the official record, the Yankee record. To
the victors go the history.
My
personal rememberance this year will span all four weeks of this month. It
began last week with my making a presentation at the monthly meeting of the
Fort Blakeley Camp, #1864, of The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group of
which I am proud to be a member. I presented information on the Battle of Oak
Hills, or Wilson's Creek if you prefer the better known name the Yankees
bestowed on the conflict. It was fought a few miles outside Springfield,
Missouri in August of 1861, and was the second battle of the War Between the
States, and the first major engagement west of the Mississippi.
My
next observance was this past Tuesday when the Fairhope Library's Book Review
Series invited me to make a presentation on my yet-but-soon-to-be-published
book, Under the Magnolia Tree, the Legend
of Jeremy of Blakeley. It is the story of the battle told through the eyes of
a twelve-year-old boy. Through him, we are able to gain a more human
perspective beyond troop numbers and movements. The writing and telling of the
story has brought me closer to the battlefield as I have spent many hours
walking it in search of inspiration, and I have found it. The spirit of that
battle is still strong.
There
was much more to the battle than the actual fighting. The fort had been under
siege since April 1, and afterward, there were mopping up operations on the
part of the Yankees and escaping for the Rebels. There are many stories of
Confederate escapes, and attempts that failed. It was a long and deadly night.
I
will make a visit to Confederate Rest Cemetery at Point Clear. Due to family
obligations, I was unable to attend the official memorial honoring the over 400
mostly unidentified Confederate soldiers who died at the hotel which was used
as a hospital during the war. A fire years later destroyed the records, dooming
the buried to anonymity.
My
memorial observance will conclude this year with a trip to Port Gibson,
Mississippi, located a few miles south of Vicksburg. A battle, minor to
history, but hugely significant to me and mine, was fought there the night and
morning of April 30-May 1, 1863. Those days will mark the 150th anniversary
of the capture of my great-great-grandfather and his subsequent imprisonment in
the north. It was an event that altered our family history in ways that we will
never be able to fully comprehend, but just as 2nd Lieutenant Evans Atwood's
blood flows through our veins, his experiences shape us.
You
might wonder why all this remembrance. The answer is simple, because it is my
heritage. Popular or not, it is who I am, and I am proud to claim it.
The
image of the Confederacy has become tarnished. Those who honor the Stars and
Bars are often seen as racist, or as misguided in honoring a lost cause. A few
local politicians have, as recent as the past two weeks, told us the war is
over, forget it. I do so hope the cause is not lost, nor forgotten, because the
cause was, and is, freedom.
The
South was fighting against unfair tariffs, unequal representation in congress,
and a tyrannical government bent on destroying their way of life. If those
causes sound familiar, they should. They are the same ones the united colonies
fought for against England less than ninety years before.
Granted,
there were some unsavory aspects to southern culture in the 1860s that needed
to be changed. Slavery is a terrible stain on our history and heritage, but the
majority of Confederate soldiers did not own slaves.
Fighting
and dying to keep the rich man rich may have kept some on the battlefields for
a few months, but how do we explain those who stayed to the task for four
years? What were they fighting for?
The
troops from Missouri, which was not a slave state, were the backbone of the
defense at Fort Blakeley. They were the same units that fought at Wilson's
Creek four years earlier. It is recorded that every one of them had been
wounded at least once. What cause kept these men in the field across five
Aprils? Freedom was the cause, and that is all. The same cause that made their
grandfathers stand up to King George. They too were honoring their heritage.
I do
hope we never lose sight of that great cause, or the will to fight for it,
because as soon as we do, it will be taken from us. We should honor all who
fought for freedoms in the Civil War, south and north. Their sacrifice is
deserving of our remembrance. May we ever be willing to stand and bear arms
against anyone who would take away what they gave so much to guarantee.
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