“A Day of Southern Remembrance 2015”
April 26th was set aside years ago as Confederate Memorial Day. The day that Southerners who had relatives in the War Between the States could remember their lost loved ones. Many graves dot the countryside and battlefields from Pennsylvania to the south and west. Graves would also dot the P.O.W. camps near Chicago and Point Lookout. The South lost nearly 300,000 men to battle and disease during the war. The State of Georgia lost 18,253 dead.
Today we descendants of those who died in the war appreciate the chance to remember them in a correct fashion. The US Government began recognizing the Confederate dead as full American Soldiers in 1958 by act of Congress and signed by President Eisenhower. Think about the Confederate dead right here in Henry County, Georgia. Over 1,000 graves dot the landscape in Church cemeteries, private cemeteries and city cemeteries.
Governor Nathan Deal on January 5, 2015 signed a Proclamation declaring April as Confederate History Month and April 26th as Confederate Memorial Day. State Offices will observe the Day by closing on April 27, 2015.
Please take time to say a prayer for those men who fought on the Southern side in the War of wars. Here is a prayer: “Father in Heaven, I come to thee at this time to remember those who fought in the long ago Civil War who died for various reasons. Father, I pray for those who died on both the North and the South in a war that many of those who fought went to fight to save their homes. Lord, may they be friends today in Your presence in eternal glory on high. I ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.”
Pastor Dr. Mike Moon
Senior Researcher for the Cemetery Research Group and B&M Civil War Research Group
Here’s another tidbit on what to remember when running for political office. The main thing that the people of a city or county want to hear is about what is a candidate’s ideas on the essential services of everyday life. They want to know about plans for police, fire, water, sewerage, garbage, and the like. They want to make sure that the candidate has these basic needs in hand. Amenities always come second to essential services. It is something that I have always taught my children that you don’t have all the nice extras until the essential bills are paid and food is in the house. The same principle works in the real world. People worry about paying the rent, mortgage, electric bills, gas bills, water bills, and taxes. And they worry about making sure their family is fed and safe.
These citizens all have one thing in common they are seeking life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If the candidate only discusses amenities and pushes for pie in the sky then they don’t have life in their interests for the people. Then, they can’t push for things that will take years to build and expect personal liberty to not be effected. And everyone wants to be happy and the candidate cannot make everyone happy. As citizens who wish to become our policy makers they soon find out that the job is filled with pit falls and people who will take them down by watching their every move while in office. That is the right of the citizen to watch those who they elect to make sure they are doing what is best for the citizens and not placing themselves on a pedestal for their ego.
All candidates must remember that We the People are the government of this nation and of these communities. No one wants to be dictated to and the citizens will not put up with it. If they see themselves as some present from the great beyond to fix all problems and know all about everything involved then you have a pompous person who will only be there for self.
No one expects a candidate to be perfect. We are not perfect and we make mistakes in who we often elect because they wear one face and then the real person comes out after they are elected. People want to see truth and honesty for a change in politics and it can only be found by those sitting in those seats find in their hearts that they do make mistakes and show some honesty then the people will feel different and want to get out and vote and stop the voter apathy.
Over the years I have watched many people come and go in elected office in our community and have watched the mistakes they have made over and over again. There is a time and place for everything and if a person running for office cannot stop and talk with a constituent for a few minutes and listen to their problem without brandishing them then they do not need to seek a public office.
Politics can be an ugly thing and in our county over the years that has been the case on many occasion. But the key thing a candidate must remember is that they work for the people and not for their personal gratification. So, remember some of these few little tidbits about being a candidate for political office and look into yourselves if you are the person attempting to gain a political seat and see if you have the qualities that make a statesman a lady or gentleman and can have a thick skin in the process.
Dr. Mike Moon.
Please post this Mr. Britt. I am Ryan Lester of Stockbridge and I currently live in an apartment and I am hoping to one day get my own home in Henry County. But I read something on a local blog that disturbed me greatly. With my finances and job as they are I can only afford a small home with a small lot. This person is talking about property values climbing, wanting larger homes built and he is speaking in a demanding demeanor. His arrogance about the homes saying they would become rental property for investors. He seems to be a snobbish person who wants nothing, but the ultra elite in this county and its cities. If there is not going to be homes that poorer families can buy and elderly couples can retire to then they should look for another county to move to where they will be appreciated. But the gall of this persons language toward the Quality Growth Council shows the intent of this arrogant person toward the poorer and less fortunate section
of our communities. My wife asked who this person is and I said I don’t know.
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Easter Story
Last year April on a Sunday we
took one of our "nowhere" drives. My husband
was quietly driving a back road. I was occupied
in the front passenger seat watching the scenery.
I noticed out of the corner of
my eye that my husband was straining to look out my
window. This startled me, since his eyes should have
been on the road in front of him. I asked him
what he was looking at out the windows, and he quietly
replied, "Nothing." His eyes went back to
the road in front of him. After a few minutes, I looked
over at my husband and noticed a tear. I asked
him what was wrong. This time he told me,
"I was just thinking about Pop and a story he had
once told me" Of course, because it
had to do with his Pop I wanted to know the story, so
I asked him to share it with me. He said, "When I
was about 8 years old, Pop and I were out fishing and
that's when he told me that the Pine trees know
when it is Easter.." I had no idea what he
meant by that, so I pressed him for more information.
He continued on... "The Pine trees start their
new growth in the weeks before Easter -- if you look
at the tops of the Pine trees two weeks before, you
will see the yellow shoots. As the days get
closer to Easter Sunday, the tallest shoot will branch
off and form a cross. By the time Easter Sunday
comes around, you will see that most of the Pine trees
will have small yellow crosses on all of the tallest
shoots."
I turned to look out the window and I couldn't
believe my eyes. It was a week before Easter,
and you could see all of the trees with the tall
yellow shoots stretching to Heaven. The tallest ones
shone in the sunlight like rows of tiny golden
crosses. MAY
GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU WATCH FOR THE CROSS
The Blog Staff.
On March 31, 2015, I attended the Stockbridge City Council Work meeting. I was on the agenda to request that on the April Council meeting they have a proclamation
to honor Confederate History and Heritage Month. I explained in my presentation that the Georgia General Assembly approved Senate Bill No. 27 and signed by the Governor Sonny Perdue.
This bill officially designating April permanently as Confederate History and Heritage Month. I provided some history of local people that were in the war. I and Dr. Mike Moon provided information on a Hospital that had 4 Union Veterans as well was limbs and still born children were laid to rest.
Near the end of the meeting citizens are allowed 3 min to speak. One person that got up to speak called himself Mr. Alexander, he has a FaceBook page called Because we care Henry County Atlanta South. He spoke about not liking the idea of honoring the Confederate Veterans because of the bad feelings that could be felt. He was concerned that in 2015 we still want to honor these people. He asked the City Council to think about it before they issue the Proclamation I had requested. I feel for poor Mr. Alexander, because he has failed to learn the true history of the Civil War and what led up to it. But what is more concerning to me is he is saying he does not support American Veterans. A man that does not want to support American Veterans that sits on the Zoning Advisory Board for Stockbridge. This is something I think Stockbridge needs to look in to. Normally I would ask is he that ignorant but I will not this time. I will ask is he that uneducated or does he just not care about public law?
U.S. Public Law 810, Approved by 17th Congress 26 February 1929
(45 Stat 1307 – Currently on the books as 38 U.S. Code, Sec. 2306)
This law, passed by the U.S. Congress, authorized the “Secretary of War to erect headstones over the graves of soldiers who served in the Confederate Army and to direct him to preserve in the records of the War Department the names and places of burial of all soldiers for whom such headstones shall have been erected.”
U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958
(US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134)
The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States.
Remarks: While this was only a gesture since the last Confederate veteran died in 1958, it is meaningful in that only forty-five years ago (from 2003), the Congress of the United States saw fit to consider Confederate soldiers as equivalent to U.S. soldiers for service benefits. This final act of reconciliation was made almost one hundred years after the beginning of the war and was meant as symbolism more than substantive reward.
Additional Note by the Critical History: Under current U.S. Federal Code, Confederate Veterans are equivalent to Union Veterans.
U.S. Code Title 38 – Veterans’ Benefits, Part II – General Benefits, Chapter 15 – Pension for Non-Service-Connected Disability or Death or for Service, Subchapter I – General, § 1501. Definitions: (3) The term “Civil War veteran” includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term “active military or naval service” includes active service in those forces.
Researched by: Tim Renick, Combined Arms Library Staff, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Alfred Britt
Senior Researcher at the CRG Dr. Mike Moon will comment below.
It seemed that there was at least one person in the room at the Stockbridge City Council Work Session that was not listening. He said that I said that 36,000 blacks died for the Confederacy. I did not say that. I said that over 180,000 black soldiers served in the Union Army and that over 36,000 of them gave their lives for the Union. The Union was the United States Army not the Confederate. Either he was not listening or he is trying to start trouble. History is history and we cannot change what happened. It cannot just be rewritten or forgotten just because some want it that way. When this starts we go down a path of repeating what had come before.
Dr. Mike Moon
