May 1865

By 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

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