Volume XXXVI, Issue 11 November, 2016

Camp Officers:

Commander: David Rawls

1st Lt. Commander: David Fisher

2nd Lt. Commander: Hank

Arnold

Adjutant/ Treasurer: Pat Acton

Chaplain: Jeff Young

Color Sergeant: Bill Haas

Quartermaster: Tristan Dunn

Sergeant At Arms: Sam Nelson

Camp Surgeon: Dr. Rick Price

Dispatch Editor: Jim Darden

Commander Emeritus: Dr. Ira

West

Chaplain Emeritus: Dr. Charles

Baker

Fighting Joe Wheeler Camp 1372,

Inc. C/O Adjutant

P.O. Box 43362

Vestavia Hills, AL 35243

Please send articles or other

information for inclusion in

“The Dispatch” to

Jim Darden – Editor

645 South Sanders Road

Hoover, Alabama 35226

Or e-mail km4qr@bellsouth.net

Alabama: We Dare Defend Our Rights “The principal for which we contended is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.” - Jefferson Davis, May 1865

The Next Camp Meeting will be at 6:00 pm, Tuesday November 8 at

Miss Myra’s Restaurant, 3278 Cahaba Heights Rd, Birmingham, Ala.

SCV CALENDAR

November 8 Miss Myra’s BBQ 6:00 pm

December 13 Christmas Party / Ancestors stories New Merkle House

January 10 CSA Medical Department Dr. Rick Price

January 21 Lee/Jackson Banquet Dr. John Killian

February 11 AGCA Gun Show – recruiting table with Forrest Camp

February 14 Scouts, Skirmishers and Sharpshooters Bob Sorrell

March 14 The Jack Hinson Story Ronnie Slack

April 11 UDC Sandra Pennington

May 9 Nullification Crisis David Rawls

June 10 AGCA Gun Show –recruiting table with Forrest Camp

October 14 AGCA Gun Show – recruiting table with Forrest Camp

http://www.fightingjoewheeler.org

SCV Fighting Joe Wheeler Camp 1372

FJWCamp1372@yahoogroups.com

Page 2

Commander’s Report November 2016

Compatriots:

While the political pre-election madness known as the “silly season” is finally

winding down, the PC cultural war continues unabated despite the efforts of those of us who desire

some sort of sanity in our lives.

For example, after hearing about the tragic and brutal execution of 2 Iowa police

officers a short while ago I went online to see if I could find an article to learn the details of exactly

what happened. What I found in a way stunned me (at least in its openly direct nature), while at the

same time not surprising in the least. In the headline of the article the Associated Press went out of

its way to note that the accused was “a confederate flag waver.” The article was then accompanied

by two photos of the man, one being a mug shot and the second of him wearing a cap with the Battle

Flag on it as he waved a Battle Flag at a high school football game along with a photo of his house

containing a Trump sign prominently in his front yard (and we all know Trump is in league with the

Ku Klux Klan according to Hillary). The actual article itself went on to state that the accused had a

run in with police two weeks earlier at a football game where he was warned to quit waving the flag

in front of black students and their families stating without doubt that this was his motive for killing

the two officers. It was very clear from this that the writer was fully convinced he knew the motive

even before the police had time to properly conduct the investigation.

In response to this blatant attempt to politicize this tragic incident I have a number of

things to say. First, it is very unprofessional and downright propagandistic (Goebbels himself would

be proud) for a member of the media to publish his own skewed opinion as fact before any facts have

become known. The Associated Press’ use of this crime to further its own political agenda is beneath

contempt. Second, respect for the Battle Flag that flew over our ancestors who dared to stand up

against a tyrannical federal government that had gone far beyond its mandated constitutional limits

most certainly does not in and of itself make one a violent racist. Third (and most important), the

premeditated and unjustified taking of another’s life is never the answer for anything and if the man is

guilty of the act he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The families of all those

involved in this incident deserve our thoughts and prayers, not political tirades in the guise of

journalism.

Enough is enough. It is time that we, both as individuals and as an organization, go

on the offensive to curb this misrepresentation of our ancestors and culture as a whole before our way

of life as we know is regulated to the trash heap of history.

Now to get off my soapbox and deal with other matters. I would like to remind

everyone that the November meeting has been revised since the New Merkle is used as a polling

place during the election. We will meet at 6:00 at Miss Myra’s BBQ for supper and a conversation.

The December Meeting will be held at the New Merkle House where we all shall have the

opportunity to speak directly about our ancestors and the things they did for the Southern Cause.

After this discussion, we will hold elections for the 2017 officers. I ask that not only everyone come

and participate but invite any and all to come and enjoy. Our ancestors fought for a just cause and

they deserve far more honor and respect for what they did. Let us always honor their memory!

Deo Vindice,

David L. Rawls

Commander

Commander’s

Report

2nd Lt. Cmdr. Report November, 2016

Camp,

The most important thing we can do at this time is VOTE! We still

have the opportunity to have our say in the way the country is run with our vote. I

know how I will vote, and I hope you vote the same way, but is your decision at

this point. It might not always be that way, so save the country while you still can.

Remember your fore fathers were disenfranchised during reconstruction and the

country was not well represented to put it mildly. Do your part and let's hope it is

a fair election.

There have been questions asked as to the future AGCA gun shows.

These are every 4 months, 3 times a year. The next one should be the weekend of

Feburary 11th, followed by June the 10th, and October the 14th. We need to talk

about the activity of the camp supporting a joint recruiting table with the Forrest

Camp at these events. The show of camp support has not been good to say the

least. It seems that some of us are ashamed to show support for the cause of the

SCV. Please don't that be the case! You now have plenty of time to plan ahead.

Remember that the New Merkle House is a polling place, so the

meeting will be at Miss Myras BBQ in Cahaba Heights at 6:00 on the 8th. This

will be an informal get together so vote, enjoy dinner with your camp members,

and go home to watch the election returns. Miss Myras address is 3278 Cahaba

Heights Rd, Birmingham, AL 35243. This is just down the street from the New

Merkle house. We hope to see you there.

The December meeting will be back at the New Merkle House on

the 13th. This is when we vote for new camp officers. Please let us know of any

changes you would like to make and please feel free to run for office in the camp.

Geroge Soros will not count the votes here so your vote will count. We will also

vote for this years recipient of the Robert E. Lee award.

The topic of the program will be you presenting one of your fore

fathers to the camp in a 2-3 min. presentation. This is always a great meeting, one

of my favorites.

Go out and have a great November, hope to see you at Miss Myras

Tuesday!

Thanks,

Hank Arnold

2nd Lt. Cmdr.

FJW Camp 1372

2nd LT Commander’s

Report

ELECTION ~ 1860

From https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1860

Following on the heels of the Dred Scott decision of 1857, in which the U.S.

Supreme Court voided the Missouri Compromise (1820), thus making slavery legal in all U.S.

territories, the election of 1860 was sure to further expose sectional differences between

those, especially (but not solely) in the North, who wanted to abolish slavery and those who

sought to protect the institution. The Democratic Party held its convention in April–May

1860 in Charleston, S.C., where a disagreement over the official party policy on slavery

prompted dozens of delegates from Southern states to withdraw. Unable to nominate a

candidate (Sen. Stephen A. Douglas received a majority of the delegates’ support but could

not amass the required two-thirds majority needed for nomination), Democrats held a second

convention in Baltimore, Md., on June 18–23, though many of the Southern delegates failed

to attend. At Baltimore the Democrats nominated Douglas, who easily defeated Kentuckian

John C. Breckinridge, the sitting vice president of the United States. Trying to unite Northern

and Southern Democrats, the convention then turned for vice president first to Sen. Benjamin

Fitzpatrick of Alabama, who declined nomination, and eventually to Herschel V. Johnson, a

former U.S. senator and former governor of Georgia, who was chosen as Douglas’s running

mate. Disaffected Democrats, largely Southerners, then nominated Breckinridge, with Sen.

Joseph Lane of Oregon as his running mate. Both Douglas and Breckinridge claimed to be

the official Democratic candidates.

The Republican convention was held in Chicago on May 16–18. The party,

which had formed only in the 1850s, was largely opposed to the extension of slavery in the

U.S. territories. Though many party members favoured the total abolition of slavery, the

party pragmatically did not call for abolition in those states that already had slavery. Entering

the convention, Sen. William H. Seward of New York was considered the favourite for the

nomination, and on the first ballot he led Abraham Lincoln, who had been defeated in Illinois

in 1858 for the U.S. Senate by Douglas, as well as a host of other candidates. On a second

ballot the gap between Seward and Lincoln narrowed, and Lincoln was subsequently

nominated on the third ballot. Sen. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated as Lincoln’s

running mate.

Trying to transcend the sectional divide was the Constitutional Union Party,

which was formed in 1859 by former Whigs and members of the Know-Nothing Party. The

Constitutional Unionists nominated former senators John Bell of Tennessee and Edward

Everett of Massachusetts as their presidential and vice presidential nominees, respectively. In

attempting to ignore the slavery issue, the party’s platform particularly appealed to border

states.

After his nomination, Lincoln put aside his law practice and ran a stay-at-home

campaign, in which he made no stump speeches, though he did give full time to the direction

of his campaign. His “main object,” he had written, was to “hedge against divisions in the

Republican ranks,” and he counseled party workers to “say nothing on points where it is

probable we shall disagree.” With Republicans united, and with division within the

Democratic Party and surrounding Bell’s candidacy, the primary fear that Republicans had

was that some disunity might appear and hamper their chances. Breckinridge also did little

campaigning, giving only one speech. Douglas, however, was an active campaigner, in both the North

and the South, where he gave a passionate defense of the Union and strenuously opposed secession.

Still, much of the campaigning that did follow consisted of parades and rallies that boosted interest in

the election (on election day some four-fifths of eligible voters turned out).

Despite four main candidates (and Douglas’s forays into the South), the contests in the

states were sectionally fought, with Douglas and Lincoln dominant in the North and Breckinridge and

Bell dueling for support in the South. On election day Lincoln captured slightly less than 40 percent of

the vote, but he won a majority in the electoral college, with 180 electoral votes, by sweeping the North

(with the exception of New Jersey, which he split with Douglas) and also winning the Pacific Coast

states of California and Oregon. Douglas won nearly 30 percent of the vote but won only Missouri’s 12

electoral votes. Breckinridge, with 18 percent of the national vote, garnered 72 electoral votes, winning

most of the states in the South as well as Delaware and Maryland. Bell, who won 12.6 percent of the

vote, secured 39 electoral votes by winning Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The results in the

South are instructive in understanding the deep sectional divide. Lincoln did not win any votes in any

state that would form the Confederacy, with the exception of Virginia, where he garnered only 1 percent

of the total vote (Douglas won slightly less than 10 percent). By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration in

March, seven Southern states had seceded, and barely a month after Lincoln became president, the

country became engaged in war.

presidential

candidate

political party electoral votes popular votes

Abraham

Lincoln

Republican 180 1,866,452

John C.

Breckinridge

Southern

Democratic

72 847,953

Stephen A.

Douglas

Democratic 12 1,380,202

John Bell Constitutional

Union

39 590,901

Sources: Electoral and popular vote totals based on data

from the United States Office of the Federal Register

and Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections, 4th ed.

(2001).