Monthly Archives: May 2013

Upcoming Meetings – May 2013

For our meeting in April we had Rocky Sprott visiting to speak. He is Adjutant of the Plemons-Shelby Camp #464. He spoke about his very ambitious program on graves registration, one that we can participate in if we choose.

For our May meeting we will have Compatriot Paul Ridenour speaking to us. Paul is a member of the Wells Camp in Plano and will be speaking on some history items related to plantations in East Texas.

While I have your attention, I wish to again remind each of you that you can all contribute to our newsletter, and I would like to encourage you to do just that. All you need to do is send something to me and I will fit it in.

Dispatch – May 2013

Compatriots of the Rockwall Cavalry Camp #2203,

Greetings. Well, the big event in Palestine is now behind us, and it was very, very well done. There were four us from the Rockwall camp there, and Marc Robinson afterwards called me to offer his thanks for our participation.

We are still experiencing a little growth here and there, but I, for one, would like to see more. So, let all of us remember that in order to help us do this, we need to invite friends and relatives to come visit our meetings to see what we are about.

It is now official. Our Brigade Commander, Gary Bray, will be running for 2nd Lt. Commander of the Division at our Division elections in June. All men running for election are good brothers, but of course I feel I must support Gary in his election, as he has done a superb job running our Brigade for the past several years.

As mentioned before, Tom Wilson, Aaron Wilson and I will be selling our challenge coins at the division reunion at Tanglewood Resort in June, and we hope to raise some much needed funds for the camp while there.

At our next regular meeting (Monday, May 13) I hope to be raising some ideas for new camp activities. Each of you are encouraged to bring some of your own ideas to the table for consideration.

Lastly, I am asking you to give serious consideration to the possibility of moving our camp meetings over to the Cotton Patch restaurant, which is just down the street from our current meeting place. I visited there a few days ago, and I truly feel it would be a nice place to start having our meetings at. We will discuss at the next meeting and possibly take a vote on it.

Oh, and I wanted to add that you can call me on the phone if there is anything you need to discuss. My phone number is listed at the end of the newsletter.

Your Obt’ Servant,
Daryl Coleman, Commander
Rockwall Cavalry Camp

2013 SCV Texas Division Reunion

June 7-9, 2013
Tanglewood Resort
Pottsboro, TX
Host – Lee-Bourland Camp 1848

Friday, June 7, 2013
8:00 AM Lee-Bourland Invitational Golf Tournament
Lunch on your own
1:00 PM-5:30 PM Registration opens
2:00 PM Workshops
5:30 PM Memorial Service
7:00 PM Hors d’oeuvres and entertainment (ticket required)

Saturday, June 8, 2013
Breakfast on your own
7:00 AM Registration Opens
8:30 AM Opening Ceremonies
9:00 AM SCV First Business Session
9:00 AM OCR Annual Meeting
12:00-1:30 PM Awards Luncheon and guest speaker (ticket required)
2:00 PM SCV Second Business Session
3:00 PM Children’s entertainment
6:00 PM Drinks and hors d’oeuvres
6:45 PM Glen Eden Revisited Dinner and ball (ticket required)

Sunday, June 9, 2013
Breakfast on your own
9:00 AM Division Executive Council Meeting
**For more, see http://www.scvtexas.org/State_Convention_6YY5.html

A Chaplain Speaks

May 1865

Chaplain Don MajorsBy May 1865 the struggle for Southern Independence is for all practical purposes over. Yankee General William T. Sherman has completed his rampage of genocide upon the innocent people of the Southland (Deo Vindice). Our beloved President Jefferson Davis in on the run.

We cannot even begin to understand the gloom, darkness and heaviness of heart that our battered and abused Southern ancestors must have been experiencing in May 1865. As they were decimated by the yankee invaders, their spirits were broken as they looked upon their lands. So many of their loved ones would never come back home.

On May 10, our President Jefferson Davis and his family were captured. One of those captured and lost in oblivion would be Jim Limber, their adopted black son.

On the second day of the three-day ride back to Macon, the family sat huddled together. The cruel yankee cavalrymen who captured President Davis kept passing around a poster about him. They jeered and made fun of him. They kept singing a song, “We’ll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree.” They would wave the poster in his face trying to humiliate him.

In the middle of all this humiliation, nine-year-old Maggie crept into her father’s arms and held him close, as President Davis recited Psalms from memory. Hearing him recite Bible verses did not quiet the soldiers at
all. In fact, their malice actions and vulgarity continued on even though President Davis kept quoting Bible verses to the family.

After two years in prison, President Davis stepped down into the streets of Richmond. When he did, a rebel yell erupted from the crowd of men who had gathered. They removed their hats in honor and respect to this great Southern Christian who would face freedom for the first time in two years.

President Davis said to his wife, “You have been with me in my sufferings, and comforted and strengthened me with your prayers. Is it not right that we now once more should kneel down together and return thanks?”

Another godly Southern gentleman described it very clear when General Robert E. Lee said, “All that the South has ever desired was that the Union as established by our forefathers should be preserved, and that the government as originally organized should be administered in purity and truth.”

The sentiment of General Robert E. Lee and true Southerners has never changed. All that they wanted in May 1865 is the same exact thing we, their descendants, want today.

As a dark cloud of heaviness of spirit hung over the Southland in April and May 1865, as they looked upon devastation and destruction with broken hearts, we Southerners today should look upon the American landscape with a broken spirit as well. The union established by our forefathers is not preserved. It has evolved into a government that is governed by socialistic dogmas. It is no longer administered in purity and in truth. It is a mockery to the blood and memory of our ancestors. Has their blood been in vain?

May 2013 and May 1865 hold a common thread together. It is a brokenness for the future of this nation.

Ducit amor Pairiae,

Chaplain Don Majors
Captain James P. Douglas SCV Camp 124
Tyler, Texas

Seeing to the Health of your local SCV Camp

Gentlemen,

I am inserting this special page at the last minute, as this morning (Saturday May 11) I had a rather disturbing conversation with the adjutant of the SCV Camp in Richmond, Texas. I called him as I am trying to find a local camp for one of my brothers to go to and become a part of. This man told me that it looks likely that they will have to fold up that camp, due to non-participation.

Let me be blunt. If there is one thing our 4th Brigade Commander, Gary Bray, has taught me, it is that we should consider it unacceptable to let a camp die. I agree with him 100%. There is something very wrong when you have a camp that really needs to be there, geographically, and it is allowed to dry up and die. I will not go into many of the details of that conversation, but I believe their problem is due in large part to lack of recruiting, and lack of enthusiasm. When you consider the fact that we have a camp in Arlington growing like gangbusters, and a camp in Tyler which is well over 100 members, why do we have a camp in Richmond, Texas which may fold up and die? I know that if Gary Bray were the Brigade Commander there, he would not just sit back and let that happen. Now, up here in our area, there is not much we can do for that camp in Richmond, but we can learn a lesson from it.

The health of a local SCV Camp is not only in the hands of a Brigade Commander, but also in the hands of each and every camp member. Our camp here in Rockwall, Texas, is here because it needs to be here, just as with other camps. As members get older, they are less willing to drive long distances to attend meetings and functions. And here in the 4th Brigade, everyone who has been in the SCV for more than a short while can attest to that. So, please remember that it is up to every one of us to pay attention to the health and vitality of our local SCV camp. Make your meetings interesting, and have a wide variety of activities for your men to attend to. It is not always easy, but it is worth the effort.

Thanks,
Daryl Coleman, Commander