Monthly Archives: August 2021

H.R. 4994 Will Defile and Dishonor Sacred Battlefields

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H.R. 4994 Will Defile and Dishonor Sacred Battlefields
Called the "No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act," It Removes Monuments to Southern War Dead in All National Parks and on All Federal Public Land
This Is Nothing But the Shameful Use of Hatred for Political Gain
It's Based on the Sponsor's Extreme Ignorance of History
But Despite How Vile This Legislation Is, Cowardly Stupid Republicans Have Destroyed More Southern Memorials than Antifa, BLM and the SPLC Combined, Times 100
by Gene Kizer, Jr.

U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York's 13th District, who brags everywhere online that he is the first formerly illegal immigrant elected to the United Stated Congress,1 has once again introduced an unconscionable and unhistorical piece of trash into the United States House of Representatives as H.R. 4994.2

This is an immoral piece of legislation that desecrates sacred battlefields on which hundreds of thousands of Americans died in a war that killed 750,000 and maimed over a million.

Most likely, Espaillat has given no thought to the long-term hatred and division this kind of legislation promotes. He is feeding the Democrat Party hate monster.

Or maybe he has thought long and hard about it, and this is exactly what he wants. He has introduced this legislation before.

George Orwell warned in 1984 about erasing history so that a society is unmoored, untethered, removed from its foundation and thus easy to control the way Big Brother controlled Oceania. Knowledge of the past, like the roots of a tree, give a society its strength and confidence. That's why destroying history is a prime Marxist Communist tactic.

Of course, human nature never changes and Orwell and the people alive in the 1930s and '40s lived through this exact same thing. That's why Orwell wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the PRESENT controls the past." (emphasis added).

For Espaillat and his party, it is about putting forth a fraudulent historical dialog in the present so they can interpret the past in ways that benefit them politically (like the constant emphasis on slavery, which is part of our history but does not define our country in any way), thus they control the future with the past.

That's why "President" Biden and so many other Democrats support the 1619 Project though its primary thesis -- that the American Revolution was fought because the Colonists thought the Brits were about to abolish slavery -- is a total, complete and utter fraud without one iota of evidence. It was fabricated by a racist, Nikole Hannah-Jones,3 then of the New York Times, whose goal she has admitted repeatedly is reparations.

She still got a Pulitzer Prize for the 1619 Project, mainly because the Pulitzer board is controlled by the New York Times and Washington Post.

Both of those newspapers also got Pulitzers for reporting as serious news the hoax that Trump colluded with Russia, which proves that Pulitzer Prizes are corrupt and meaningless today.

I don't agree with Espaillat on anything though he seems like a nice enough guy. He replaced Charlie Rangel of New York who I also did not agree with on anything but he too was a personable fellow.

Espaillat was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic in 1954. He came to America with his mother and sister in 1964 at nine or 10 (accounts vary). They overstayed their visas and were illegal for a while but eventually got green cards. Espaillat became a naturalized American citizen in the early 1980s (his late 20s).

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D. NY, sponsor of H.R. 4994, 8-10-21.
U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D. NY, sponsor of H.R. 4994, 8-10-21.
He has a large online presence and there are many references to his former illegal immigrant status and his being the first formerly illegal immigrant in the U. S. Congress, but I could find no reference to his naturalization ceremony and his becoming an American citizen until I found a Real Clear Politics article from 2016 that mentioned with no detail that he had become a citizen. It states he "stayed without documentation for more than a year after his visa expired. He ultimately became a U.S. citizen in his late 20s."4

It is as if he is proud to have once been an illegal immigrant but not proud to be a naturalized U.S. citizen which is surprising because so many who become naturalized citizens are seen at the most touching, wonderful ceremonies, crying, so happy to now be American citizens.

Of course, so many in the Marxist socialist Democrat Party today hate America so celebrating being illegal verses being a happy new American citizen is typical from their standpoint.

Espaillat "worked as a community activist before becoming the first Dominican-American elected to the New York legislature in 1996. He stayed in the General Assembly for more than a decade before moving up to the state Senate in 2010." After Rangel retired, Espaillat won Rangel's House seat and took office in 2017.

Espaillat is a liberal and most of his pet issues are social justice and immigration issues.

It appears he is influenced by the Southern Poverty Law Center from the way his bill is written. Why would a New Yorker make it his annual crusade to erase Confederate monuments that he admits are mostly in the South?

Sec. 2. FINDINGS., items (3) and (4) both regurgitate the SPLC's wildly inaccurate hate campaign against all things Confederate with the SPLC's listing of Confederate memorials so that they can be targets for local vandals and activist efforts.

SPLC's campaign is like something the Nazis would have done in Germany to get rid of all Jewish memorials. Erase the history and degrade the historical memory of your political enemies and you weaken them. To the SPLC it is never live and let live, and support each other as Americans. They always act like they want to kill you, vandalize your property, steal from you, erase you.

However, Sec. 2, items (1) and (2) are a provable fraud. Here is the entire bill, calling out Espaillat's extreme ignorance of history:

117th CONGRESS
1st Session

H. R. 4994

To prohibit the use of Federal funds for Confederate symbols, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

August 10, 2021

Mr. Espaillat (for himself, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Meng, Mr. García of Illinois, Ms. Bass, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Brown, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Velázquez, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Rush, Mr. Huffman, Ms. Jacobs of California, Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, Mr. Costa, Mr. McNerney, Mr. Kilmer, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Escobar, Ms. Brownley, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Carson, Ms. Norton, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, and Mr. Pappas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on Armed Services, and Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To prohibit the use of Federal funds for Confederate symbols, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act”.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds the following:

(1) The Confederate battle flag is one of the most controversial symbols from U.S. history, signifying a representation of racism, slavery, and the oppression of African Americans.

[Publisher's Note: Item (1) above, as stated, is a complete fraud. The Confederate battle flag is a more pure symbol of American patriotism and valor than the American flag. I love our American flag, and it flies in front of my house, but it is a national flag that flew over all the New England slave ships carrying on the slave trade and making millions for New York, Boston and the North.
Rep. Espaillat's New York, in 1862, during the War Between the States, 54 years after the slave trade had been outlawed by the United States Constitution, was STILL, along with Boston, Massachusetts the largest slave-trading ports on the planet. New York, Boston and other New England cities were still making millions in the slave trade here and in other places around the world and they did so until 1888 when Brazil finally abolished slavery.
Here's what W. E. B Du Bois wrote in his book, The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896), reprint; 179. He is quoting his footnote #2, page 179, from "The Slave-Trade in New York" in the Continental Monthly, January, 1862, p. 87:

The number of persons engaged in the slave-trade, and the amount of capital embanked in it, exceed our powers of calculation. The city of New York has been until of late [1862] the principal port of the world for this infamous commerce; although the cities of Portland and Boston are only second to her in that distinction. Slave dealers added largely to the wealth of our commercial metropolis; they contributed liberally to the treasures of political organizations, and their bank accounts were largely depleted to carry elections in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

The Confederate battle flag had nothing whatsoever to do with race, slavery or the oppression of African Americans. That is an SPLC and Democrat Party lie.
The Confederate battle flag was a command and control device on some of the bloodiest battle fields in world history. The color bearer was shot down always almost immediately but it was such an honor to carry the flag somebody always picked up the blood soaked flag and advanced it.
Battle flags were often made from the clothing of a loved one or something from back home. They were sacred in the minds of the men who loved them and willingly died for them on hallowed battle fields across the country that Rep. Espaillat and the Marxist Democrats want to desecrate.
The Confederate battle flag never flew over a slave ship as the American flag did for 80 years after the Constitution outlawed the slave trade.
The Confederate battle flag is the most pure symbol of valor and the fight for independence in American history, and it is on the same level in terms of honor as the American flag.
You can argue that the Confederate battle flag is on a higher level than the American flag because the battle flag was always just a soldier's flag on bloody battlefields. It was never a national flag.
We can not help it that the battle flag was such a powerful symbol of honor and valor that many groups wanted to be associated with it and carried it, and some, like the Ku Klux Klan today, have no claim to it whatsoever.
The Confederate battle flag until recent years was ubiquitous in the South and even in the North, among blacks and whites. All regions thought of it in terms of nothing but honor and valor.
As late as the 1990s, national polls showed an overwhelming majority of people considered the battle flag simply a symbol of the pride of Southerners in their gallant ancestry, and even black people polled showed a majority had no problem with the Confederate battle flag.
The NAACP's constant campaign against the flag in the 1980s and today the SPLC's constant hate toward everything Confederate has changed some minds as those activist organizations knew would happen because they have the fake news media that nobody trusts in their pockets; but that does not change the true meaning of the Confederate battle flag.
It was a soldier's flag on some of the bloodiest battlefields in all of history and its honor is above reproach.]

(2) The Confederate flag and the erection of Confederate monuments were used as symbols to resist efforts to dismantle Jim Crow segregation, and have become pillars of Ku Klux Klan rallies.

[Publisher's Note: Item (2) above is another Espaillat fraud and lie and it displays Espaillat's ignorance of history.

Jim Crow laws started in the North and were there for years before moving South. The South was a bi-racial society always. The North was, as people like Espaillat would say today, "white supremacist," as well as slave traders.

See "The Real Jim Crow, Now Northern Jim Crow Laws Moved South" by Mike Scruggs (link in footnote below).5

Here are several pictures from the height of the Jim Crow era in the early 20th century showing the Ku Klux Klan with only the American flag. No Confederate battle flags in sight.

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Ku Klux Klan with the American flag, early 20th century, height of Jim Crow era.
Ku Klux Klan with the American flag, early 20th century, height of Jim Crow era.

Also see esteemed historian C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, A Commemorative Edition with a new afterword by William S. McFeely, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 17. Woodward writes:

"One of the strangest things about the career of Jim Crow was that the system was born in the North and reached an advanced age before moving South in force."]

(3) There are at least 1,503 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces, including 109 public schools named after prominent Confederates, many with large African-American student populations.

(4) There are more than 700 Confederate monuments and statues on public property throughout the country, the vast majority in the South. These include 96 monuments in Virginia, 90 in Georgia, and 90 in North Carolina.

SEC. 3. FEDERAL FUNDS RESTRICTION.

(a) In General.—Except as provided in subsection (c), no Federal funds may be used for the creation, maintenance, or display, as applicable, of any Confederate symbol on Federal public land, including any highway, park, subway, Federal building, military installation, street, or other Federal property.

(b) Confederate Symbol Defined.—The term “Confederate symbol” includes the following:

(1) A Confederate battle flag.

(2) Any symbol or other signage that honors the Confederacy.

(3) Any monument or statue that honors a Confederate leader or soldier or the Confederate States of America.

(c) Exceptions.—Subsection (a) does not apply—

(1) if the use of such funds is necessary to allow for removal of the Confederate symbol to address public safety; or

(2) in the case of a Confederate symbol created, maintained, or displayed in a museum or educational exhibit.

Rep. Espaillat's bill is political hate and he is ignorant of American history.

Somebody ought to do some digging and see how much money he is getting from the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups to promote this hateful political fraud.

Republicans are worse than this.

The most dishonorable man in the United States Senate, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, then head of the Republican-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee in 2020, promised President Trump he would not change the names of United States Army bases in the South such as Fort Bragg and Fort Benning.

President Trump did not want the base names changed because we won two world wars from those bases and others. Most of those Confederate base names were a century old.

But INCREDIBLY STUPID AND DISHONEST JIM INHOFE, showing that he has NO HONOR or character, marshaled through Elizabeth Warren's request to change all the base names in the South from their current Confederate names.

The Confederate base names in the South were a gesture of reconciliation from the Union Army and Federal Government to the South after the War Between the States to bring our great nation back together. As such, they, themselves, are history lessons, but Inhofe is a dishonorable fool and traitor to his then president and party.

When his NDAA was announced which required the base names be changed, it happened just before the two senate runoffs in Georgia in January of this year and with two bases in Georgia -- legendary Fort Benning, and Fort Gordon -- many many Georgians were DISGUSTED with Republicans and did not vote in the runoffs.

Who can blame them. You support the Republican Party with money and voting and campaigning with all your might then Republicans like Inhofe FU*K you over in order to give Elizabeth Warren a victory over Republican voters.

HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?

If you are Jim Inhofe, the answer is stupid to infinity and as stupid as he is characterless and dishonorable.

And as a result, all of us have to pay for Inhofe's lying and lack of character, and Democrats win.

Thanks IDIOT INHOFE, the most dishonorable man in the United States Senate and the STUPIDEST REPUBLICAN IN HISTORY.

It was not just the base names, it was all things Confederate on the military posts so all street names, memorial names, building names, everything. Jim Inhofe and the Republicans have destroyed more Southern memorials than Antifa, Black Lives Matter and the SPLC combined, times 100.

The monument destroyers are mostly Republican whose voters are way better than they are getting from the lying, despicable national party.

The national Republican Party is a cowardly disgrace but it is possible to influence them. They MUST be made to respect Confederate war memorials and they can be. Their voters are in the red state South.

We have GOT to get through to them. There is no hope with racist, woke Marxist Communist Democrats but there is still hope with Republicans who are only stupid and cowardly. We have to MAKE them wake up, open their eyes and start serving their voters once and for all.

The time is way past for being nice. It is time to RAISE HOLY HELL.

Notes:

1 "Alumnus Adriano Espaillat, First Dominican American And Formerly Undocumented Immigrant To Serve In Congress, Named Queens College 2020 Commencement Speaker", January 29, 2020, Alumnus Adriano Espaillat, First Dominican American and Formerly Undocumented Immigrant to Serve in Congress, Named Queens College 2020 Commencement Speake – CUNY Newswire, accessed 8-26-21.

2 H.R.4994 - No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4994/text, accessed 8-26-21.

3 Jordan Davidson, June 25, 2020, "In Racist Screed, NYT’s 1619 Project Founder Calls ‘White Race’ ‘Barbaric Devils,’ ‘Bloodsuckers,’ Columbus ‘No Different Than Hitler’",

https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/25/in-racist-screed-nyts-1619-project-founder-calls-white-race-barbaric-devils-bloodsuckers-no-different-than-hitler/, accessed 8-26-21.

4 James Arkin, RCP Staff, November 17, 2016, "New Lawmaker Was Once an Undocumented Immigrant", https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/11/17/new_lawmaker_was_once_undocumented_immigrant.html, accessed 8/26/21.

5 Mike Scruggs, June 23, 2021, "The Real Jim Crow, How Northern Jim Crow Laws Moved South", https://www.charlestonathenaeumpress.com/the-real-jim-crow-how-northern-jim-crow-laws-moved-south-guest-post-by-leonard-m-mike-scruggs/, accessed 8-26-21.

The Present American Crisis, The March of Marxist Revolution – Guest Post By Leonard M. “Mike” Scruggs

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“We are actually witnessing a Communist overthrow of the United States in real time.”

James Simpson, author of Who Was Karl Marx?

The Present American Crisis
The March of Marxist Revolution

Guest post by
Leonard M. "Mike" Scruggs

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[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Here is another outstanding article by Mike Scruggs, inspired by James Simpson's excellent book, Who Was Karl Marx? The Men, the Motives and the Menace Behind Today's Rampaging American Left.

The first step to defeating this Marxist threat that is everywhere today, is understanding Marxist goals and methods. Simpson's book analyzes them well, as Mike points out below, and gives us a blueprint for defeating this vile enemy. Other excellent books raise the alarm too, like Mark Levin's American Marxism.

Marxist Communists murdered over a hundred million people in the past 100 years. It is an ideology of misery, mediocrity, hate and force, that worships only power. It's purveyors, like one of BLM's "trained Marxist" founders, Patrisse Cullors, who recently bought her fourth million-dollar home, get filthy rich, while others toe the party line or else.

When Nikita Khrushchev said in the 1960s that Communists would conquer America from within without firing a shot, nobody believed him because we were strong and united back then, enough to defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

Today, it is far different because the Marxists have spent over a half century from their strongholds in disgraceful academia and the news media marching through our institutions as their evil philosophy commands. Academia has taught a generation of young people to hate their country. The threat today from these horrible people is serious and real.

Following Mike's bio and article are links to The Times Examiner website, Mike's outstanding columns, and to his books.]

Mike Scruggs is the author of two books - The Un-Civil War, Shattering the Historical Myths; and Lessons from the Vietnam War, Truths the Media Never Told You - and over 600 articles on military history, national security, intelligent design, genealogical genetics, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East.

The abridged version of The Un-Civil War sold over 40,000 copies and won the prestigious D. T. Smithwick Award by the North Carolina Society of Historians, for excellence.

Mike holds a BS degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Stanford University. A former USAF intelligence officer and Air Commando, he is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War and holds the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal. He is a retired First Vice President for a major national financial services firm and former Chairman of the Board of a classical Christian school.

The Present American Crisis

By Mike Scruggs

(First published in The Times Examiner, 11 August 2021)

The March of Marxist Revolution

The United States is experiencing a rampage of revolutionary Marxist inspired social chaos and lawless political disorder. The destruction of property, political order, and many lives seen in over 600 massive, organized riots in 220 American cities by Black Live Matter and Antifa in the last 18 months is only the tip of the iceberg.

Black Lives Matter and Antifa are certainly Marxist led and inspired movements, but they are supported by billions of dollars from newly woke big corporations, Big Tech billionaires, and institutional funding. Many more continue to succumb to their bullying protection racket.

The new “woke” Marxist ideology and hateful and unforgiving “cancel culture” and obsequious political correctness dominate the social ethic of most of the education, media, and entertainment establishments. It thoroughly dominates the thinking, policies, and actions of the “Biden” Administration—which should more rightly be called the Obama Third Term Administration—and almost every Democrat politician.

For over 20 years, I have been warning that immigration was being used to change U.S. electoral demographics to favor a leftist dominated Democratic Party and, in fact, guarantee their permanent political dominance. Under the “Biden” Administration, it is now happening at exponential levels. Our Southern border has been opened to millions of illegal immigrants, not just from Mexico and Central America, but from everywhere in the world. They are receiving financial and relocation aid and encouragement but practically no screening. Many are members of criminal gangs and Mexican drug cartels. Many are radical Islamists inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood’s own plans to overthrow American culture and government. Huge percentages of them carry the Covid virus to unsuspecting American communities around the country. The Obama and Democrat Party plan is to make them voters as soon as possible, even before they become “citizens”—the Democrats are making the concept of citizenship meaningless.

Through Critical Race Theory (CRT), which on its face is utterly deceitful and extremely divisive, hate-mongering nonsense, Marxist ideologues are attempting to indoctrinate our children in schools and even subvert our Armed Forces. Leading the subversion of our Armed Forces are Obama generals, admirals, and Defense Department appointees, who have placed their personal advancement and future job prospects above duty, honor, and country. Morale in the Armed Forces is already plunging in anticipation of a political purge of traditional conservatives. CRT has already damaged our military preparedness and put our national security in peril. The People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, Iran, and others stand ready to exploit our growing domestic and geo-political weaknesses and increasing lack of backbone.

Not the least of our concerns should be election and voter integrity. We have already seen in the 2020 Presidential Election how election procedures and thus legitimate results were severely compromised in many states. We have also seen how the Covid crisis was used to open the doors wide for massive vote fraud by mail.

Even legitimate science was compromised for the purpose of fear-mongering political propaganda and manipulation. Fake science has become a plausible political danger to American health and economic prosperity.

This has already shaken American confidence that future elections will be fair and honest and has also caused a considerable loss of confidence in the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), Federal courts and even the U.S. Supreme Court and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). There are certainly more agencies, including Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and tragically those general and flag officers who have condoned the monstrous and divisive evils of Critical Race Theory. None of this matters to Democrats and useful idiots who embrace the Marxist philosophy that “the end justifies the means.”

The Marxist culture destruction being hard pushed by the “Biden-Obama” Administration includes the usual exploitation of sex and gender issues as well as stirring up racial and ethnic unrest. Marxists have always used sexual liberation issues to increase their public popularity and gain political power. Now they are straining every nerve to create social chaos by gender confusion. Our children stand in danger of terribly malicious confusion and permanent physical and psychological damage. They are also attempting to seduce our churches through inclusion of or compromise with anti-Biblical forms of social justice.

Meanwhile huge, irresponsible, and deceitful government spending programs are igniting inflationary pressures, robbing all Americans of the buying power of their income and savings. Much of this spending is for environmental, “climate-change,” and infrastructure scams that will prove economic disasters.

Freedom of speech and religion are constantly under attack. Marxism allows no tolerance for conservative views.

I wish I could say it was only Democrats who are the useful idiots here. At least 17 U.S. Republican senators are considering making the most evil, expensive, and dishonest legislation ever proposed in Congress a bipartisan disaster. [Publisher's Note: All 17 plus two more for a total of 19 U.S. Republican senators voted with all 50 Democrats for the one trillion dollar infrastructure bill mentioned above but the House is demanding a 3.5 trillion bill that includes massive spending for radical social programs that benefit Democrats and the green new deal.]

All these things are accompanied by a storm of lies, many of them self-evident lies, which are faithfully supported by the dominant but colossally irresponsible leftist media.

Under Marxism and almost all totalitarian systems, power alone determines truth and moral compass. Marxism is bloody, because its economics, like that of most naïve socialist schemes, are lies and do not work. Coercion is necessary to make people work and live in a system that does not work and replaces freedom with fear.

In his recently released new book, James Simpson lists four concepts that patriotic Americans need to understand to rid the country of Marxist lies and insanity.

First, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always Revolution…. No matter what the issue, be it gay and ‘transgender’ rights, civil rights, immigrant rights, welfare rights, ‘social justice,’ 'equity’ [socialist equal outcomes for all] or whatever buzzwords they use, the issue is only relevant insofar as it can advance the ‘Revolution'.”

The Revolution is the Left’s relentless goal to overthrow and destroy the existing order to achieve absolute power and the wealth that comes with it. The issues matter only in that they can create the chaos necessary to destroy the culture and old order and establish a new one in which Marxists have all power.

The second concept we have already addressed in part. “Stop thinking of our political controversies as simply differences of opinion between right and left.” Stop thinking they are just political differences between Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives. “We are actually witnessing a Communist overthrow of the United States in real time.”

American Marxists, like the global Communist movement, have a plan. The brutal and pitiless philosophy of this plan was written in a 3-page pamphlet in 1869 by Russian anarchist Sergey Nechayev. It introduced the slogan “The end justifies the means,” and foreshadowed the grim totalitarian social environment described in George Orwell’s 1984.

Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci elaborated it in his 1926-1937 strategic plan for sedition “marching” through a target nation’s supporting cultural and government institutions.

Neo-Marxism conquers nations institution by institution. First comes the media, then education, the culture, and the government.

Our military institutions are being undermined by CRT and will be commanded by Obama appointed Marxist flag officers, and then by thoroughly indoctrinated field grade officers, company grade officers, and NCOs. All ranks will be expected to embrace the folly. Opportunity for advancement by those who do not enthusiastically embrace the obvious but highly poisonous lies will probably be minimal.

Our Police forces are also in danger of this anti-Constitutional transformation. Demonizing police and defunding police forces are only initial steps toward a totalitarian national police force.

The Marxists want a national police force with all local police forces under national authority. Most importantly, they want police personnel loyal to Federal Marxist bureaucrats or generals rather than the Constitution or local American citizens. BLM and Antifa could be core human resources for loyal Marxist police officers enforcing Marxist agendas.

Third, “There is a method to the madness. Every day we are subjected to mind-numbing lies and demonstrations of hypocritical double standards by media, Hollywood, Big Tech, the political Left, and certain circles in law enforcement. Down is up, right is wrong, truth is a lie, black is white.”  America is beginning to look like George Orwell’s books Animal Farm and 1984.

“Normal people are baffled by its seeming illogic. But it is a deadly logic to unhinge our society from any and all anchors to reality, stability, and security, to strike fear into our hearts, and make us desperate for it to stop.” Simpson calls it psychological terrorism. “The Left created absolute chaos for the Trump Administration’s four years. Biden has not ended the purposed chaos. He has ramped up the madness.”

Creating chaos and confusion is typical Marxist brainwashing and propaganda strategy.

Simpson’s fourth concept to understand is more shocking, but I have long believed it. “The heart of this evil Marxist agenda is Satanic. Leftists run the gamut from well-meaning liberals thinking the Democratic Party is 'compassionate' to hardcore Stalinists using every malicious tactic they can dream up to seize power. The core of the agenda, however, can only be described as Satanic.” Many Communists are not strictly atheists. Many initially professed Christian or Jewish faith but became bitter enemies of God, shaking their fist at him. Such were Karl Marx, Nicolai Lenin, and Joseph Stalin.

Doctrinaire Marxists have always seen Biblical-Christianity as an institution that must be destroyed before Marxism can advance.

Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge.”

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Link to The Times Examiner website: www.timesexaminer.com

Link to Mike Scruggs's columns at The Times Examiner:

https://www.timesexaminer.com/mike-scruggs

Link to Mike's book website:

https://www.universalmediainc.org/books/. His books are also available on Amazon and other places.

Our Confederate Ancestors: Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and His Men in Action

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A Series on the Daring Exploits of Our Confederate Ancestors in the War Between the States.

Laying down the body, Forrest spread his handkerchief over his dead brother's face and, calling on a member of his escort to remain with the corpse, he mounted his horse and said to those who were present: "Follow me." Then turning to his bugler he said, "Garis, sound the charge," and away he dashed, followed by those present, with the fury of a hurricane. They galloped into the enemy as some of them were mounting to retreat, and the spirit and animation of the spectacle so enthused the other Confederates that they rushed forward like a mighty storm and trampled down everything in their front, driving the enemy in the wildest confusion and capturing all his artillery, wagons, and a thousand prisoners besides a great quantity of supplies and several hundred negroes who were running away with the Yankees. The pursuit was kept up until night. . . .

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and His Men in Action

From Forrest's Wonderful Achievements by Capt. James Dinkins of New Orleans, Confederate Veteran, Vol. XXXV, No. 1, January, 1927.

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[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Every son and daughter of the South can gain ENORMOUS inspiration from Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest just as his own men did. They achieved so much because of the dynamism of their leader.

The entries for Forrest in Broadfoot's Confederate Veteran index go on for pages. It's like the Shakespeare section in the library.

All you have to do is absorb Forrest into your brain then go win EVERY heritage fight one way or another, like Forrest did. If a monument comes down, put up 10 and write 10 books, construct 10 more highway battle flag memorials in the area.

Campaign against the dogs who vote to remove century old monuments to war dead and throw them out of office. Sue them if possible as individuals.

Read all the inspiring accounts of Forrest you can lay your hands on then read Gen. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and all the others. The blood coursing through their veins during the great battles of the War Between the States is the same blood coursing through ours today.

Capt. Dinkins' title way understates the extreme excitement in his article on the exploits of Forrest and his men. It is riveting. I could not put it down and neither will you.]

From Forrest's Wonderful Achievements
by Capt. James Dinkins of New Orleans

AFTER THE BATTLE of Chickamauga, Forrest tendered to Gen. Bragg his resignation as brigadier general. He felt so depressed on account of the delay and the inaction in following up a great victory, and, furthermore, was dissatisfied with various conditions which seemed to indicate that he was not appreciated by the commander in chief.

For some time previously, Forrest had received urgent requests from prominent people in North Mississippi to come to that section and organize the scattered bands and defend their country from the frequent raids by the Federal forces at Memphis and along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. That may also have had its influence upon Forrest's decision.

It happened that Mr. Davis was at General Bragg's headquarters when Forrest's resignation reached him, and he at once wrote Forrest in graceful language saying he could not accept his resignation nor dispense with his services, and requested that he meet him in Montgomery a few days later.

At the time designated, Forrest met the President, who promised to give him an independent command in the department of West Tennessee and North Mississippi, and also stated that Forrest should carry with him such regiments as General Bragg could spare.

However, when Forrest took his departure, he did so with McDonald's Battalion and Morton's Battery, besides his escort company, all told three hundred men and four guns.

He reached the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Okolona, Miss. on the 15th of November, 1863. He decided soon afterwards to move into West Tennessee and use his influence and prestige in bringing together numbers of men who had been furloughed on account of wounds and other causes and having recovered were not willing to go back to the infantry service.

He, therefore, crossed the Memphis and Charleston Railroad at Saulsbury and moved to Jackson with 250 men and two rifle guns of Morton's battery. He reached Jackson on the 6th of December, 1863, and went into camp with as much composure and confidence as if he had a division instead of a few squadrons.

Major General Hurlbut, commanding the Federal forces at Memphis and West Tennessee also set to work at once to prevent Forrest's escape. He sent a force from Memphis, one from Corinth, and one from Fort Pillow, in all, about 20,000 men, well-equipped, to accomplish that object.

Think of it! Forrest with but those few hundred men surrounded by twenty thousand veteran troops. No other man on earth so situated could have marched away. Forrest soon had assembled about three thousand men, who, however, had no arms, and to protect those men from capture with the aid of only three hundred men seemed impossible---but that word was not in Forrest's vocabulary.

About this time it began to rain and bad weather lasted several days causing all the rivers and creeks to overflow their banks; but on December 22, Forrest put his column in motion and crossed the Forked Deer River, going in the direction of Bolivar. His scouts reported large Federal forces moving on him from all sides, but, with about five hundred armed men and three thousand men without guns, he set out to reach the Confederate lines. Arriving at Bolivar, he was met by Col. D. M. Wisdom with one hundred and fifty men, which made his fighting force nearly seven hundred strong.

Ascertaining that a Federal column was encamped just south of the Hatchie River and directly in the line of his intended march, Forrest constructed a bridge over the river during the night, and crossed over, and while the enemy were wrapped in slumber just before day, he dashed into their camp, creating the wildest confusion and stampeded the entire force, which left behind a large number of wagons and several hundred head of beef cattle.

Forrest then moved rapidly in the direction of Somerville, where he learned that the whole country was swarming with infantry, cavalry, and artillery, ready to pounce on him. Forrest, with the additional responsibility of protecting his captured beef cattle and wagons, was in a hopeless position it would seem.

Halting a few hours before reaching Somerville, he sent some three hundred armed men and about a thousand without arms to get in the Federal rear, and, moving boldly with the remainder of his command until he met the enemy's pickets, he drove them in.

About the same time the detached force charged into the federals on the other side, Forrest sent forward a flag of truce demanding the unconditional surrender of the enemy, consisting of 5,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, and the Federal commander, believing that he was surrounded by a large force, began a hurried retreat in the direction of Memphis.

Taking advantage of the fright, Forrest led his escort company and McDonald's Battalion upon their retreating columns, riding them down and scattering them in all directions.

The victory was so complete that the unarmed men joined in the pursuit and captured several hundred prisoners from whom they secured arms, etc.

Leaving the Federal command scattered and in great disorder, Forrest marched toward Memphis, creating the impression that he would attack the place, which caused the Federal commander, General Hurlbut, to hurry all the troops along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, from Corinth westward to Memphis, and also recall the forces he had sent from Fort Pillow.

The heavy rains had in the meantime caused the Forked Deer, the Hatchie, and the Wolf rivers to overflow their banks, so that they could not be crossed at all, which left the Federal forces in Forrest's rear utterly harmless.

While the enemy was hurrying to Memphis, Forrest suddenly changed his course to the south, and crossed the Memphis and Charleston Railroad at Mount Pleasant into the Confederate lines, with a thousand head of cattle and a large number of wagons and stores of different sorts. The cattle were sent to feed the Army of Tennessee.

Many amusing incidents occurred during the stampede of the Federal forces at Somerville. In the pursuit of a column of these fugitives, a Confederate officer, Lieutenant Livingston, received orders to turn back with his company. He shouted after them: "Get out of our country, you worthless rascals."

In the rear of the Federals, on a horse somewhat slower than the rest, was a trooper, who, turning his head, exclaimed in unmistakable brogue and with the ready wit of his countrymen: "Faith, ain't it thot same we're trying to do jist as fast as we can?"

Forrest had them reach safe ground, and we can but wonder how it was possible for him to escape with his wagons, cattle, and unarmed men in the face of the manifold dangers which environed him.

Leaving Jackson, Tenn., on a march of one hundred and fifty miles with three thousand unarmed men, a large wagon train, and hundreds of cattle, thoroughly surrounded by more than 20,000 of the enemy (which General Hurlbut admits in his official report), having to cross three overflowed rivers, with the loss of less than thirty men, seems marvelous. And almost any other man to have thought of such a possibility, would have been regarded as foolishly rash and perilously vain.

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, writing from Memphis on January 12, 1864, in summing up Forrest's operations, said: "With less than 4,000 men, Forrest moved right through the Sixteenth Army Corps, passed within nine miles of Memphis, carried off one hundred wagons of provisions, seven hundred head of beef cattle, and innumerable stores; tore up railroad track, cut telegraph wires, ran over our pickets with a single Derringer pistol, and all in the face of 20,000 men, and without the loss of a man that can be accounted for."

Arriving at Holly Springs, Forrest found that the almost incessant rain for a week was giving way to clear, cold weather.

Forrest-on-horse-edited-43K

On December 28 the command moved toward Como, Panola County, Miss. Forrest reached Sucotobia late Wednesday evening, December 30, and remained there until Friday morning, January 1, 1864, thence to Como.

Between Como and Senatobia runs the Hickahala River, which the entire command crossed, including the artillery and wagons, on the ice. It was the coldest day known to the oldest inhabitants, and will never be forgotten during the life of those who encountered its horrors.

The writer was ordered to move with a small squad of men as rapidly as possible ahead and press into service every able-bodied negro to be found and put them to work chopping down timber and building fires.

Arriving at Como, there was not a member of the little party able to dismount without assistance, but the few citizens and negroes of the town set to work to throw us out, and within a half hour or so we were able to begin the work. The men were scantily clad, and, with less than a blanket each, their suffering was fearful, so much so that numbers of the young recruits which followed out of West Tennessee left their commands to return home.

In the meantime, Forrest had been appointed a major general and put in command of all the forces in North Mississippi and West Tennessee. He set to work to organized his force into regiments and brigades. Four brigades were formed, the first under Brig. Gen. R. V. Richardson; the second under Col. Robert McCullough, composed of the 2nd Missouri, Willis's Texas Battalion, Faulkner's Kentucky Regiment, Kinzer's Battalion, the 18th Mississippi, and a fragment of the 2nd Arkansas, commanded by Capt. F. M. Cochran.

The third brigade was under Col. T. H. Bell, and the fourth was commanded by Col. J. E. Forrest, a brother of the General.

In all, there were about 6,000 men, rank and file. The brigades commanded by Cols. McCullough and J. E. Forrest composed the first division, and it was commanded by Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers. The other division was commanded by Brigadier General Richardson for a short time, but finally by Brig. Gen. A. Buford.

These details having been accomplished, Forrest moved his headquarters to Oxford and left General Chalmers at Panola.

While at Oxford, the squads which had been sent after the deserters returned with nineteen of them, whom they delivered to General Forrest. He gave orders that in consequence of this desertion and disgraceful conduct, the whole lot should be shot, and instructions were issued that the executions would take place at an early date.

The news spread like a cyclone, and very soon prominent citizens and ladies, also every clergyman in Oxford, waited on General Forrest with urgent appeals to forgive the boys and spare their lives. Some of the officers advised Forrest that they had intimations of meetings among the soldiers.

But he was unmoved, and apparently determined on the executions. All preparations were carried out and one a bright morning, the 20th of January, 1864, the procession of wagons containing the deserters, sitting on their coffins, moved through the streets to a skirt of woods just west of the university buildings, where the graves had been dug. The men were made to get out, and the coffins placed alongside the graves. Then all were blindfolded and seated each on his coffin.

The company detailed for the purpose marched in front and loaded their guns and came to a ready. There was but a moment between these men and eternity. The next instant the commands "Aim" and "Fire" would be given. But while they were standing at the ready, Captain Anderson of General Forrest's staff, announced that the men were pardoned and would return to their commands.

The lesson was not lost and will never been forgotten by anyone who was a witness to the spectacle. As a matter of fact, I do not know of more than a dozen men living who were present at that time. The news scattered broadcast that Forrest had shot a lot of boys who went home, etc., and many people believed to the day of their death that the boys were shot. The writer was present and the statement is true in every particular as given above.

A short time after the occurrence just mentioned, General Polk, who was department commander, notified Forrest that Sherman was moving from Vicksburg toward Jackson with a large force; also that a force had moved at the same time up the Yazoo River. This information was quicky followed by news that a column had moved from Memphis toward Panola, and another from Collinville toward Holly Springs.

Jeffrey Forrest was sent to Grenada to watch the column moving by the Yazoo River, while General Chalmers posted McCullouch at Panola, Bell at Belmont, and Richardson at Wyatt, all on the Tallahatchie River. Forrest soon learned, however, that a large cavalry force was arranging to leave Memphis, and he at once decided that it was intended to participate in a cooperative movement with Sherman, and that the columns sent toward Panola and Holly Springs were feints.

Sure enough, on the 11th of February, Capt. Thomas Henderson, Chief of Scouts, reported that a force of cavalry about eight thousand strong and four batteries of artillery were moving rapidly in the direction of Germantown. Forrest ordered Chalmers to move with his division to Oxford, leaving one regiment (Faulkner's) to guard the river at Wyatt and Abbeville.

Reaching Oxford on the 14th, Chalmers received orders to march with all dispatch toward Okolona, as the enemy, under Maj. Gen. W. S. Smith, about ten thousand strong, seemed headed for the rich prairies south of Okolona, which facts confirmed Forrest's opinions.

It was raining almost constantly, and the roads were next to impassable, but we outmarched General Smith's force and reached West Point, Miss., on the 17th. Forrest established his headquarters at Starkville and sent Col. Jeffrey Forrest with his brigade to meet the Federal column in the neighborhood of Aberdeen.

Colonel Forrest had a number of light skirmishes while General Smith pressed his small brigade back to West Point. Anticipating that General Smith might cross the Tombigbee at Aberdeen, Bell's Brigade was sent to Columbus, where he crossed the river and moved along the east bank toward Aberdeen, but finding that Smith was moving his entire force toward West Point, he took up a position at Waverly. In the meantime, Forrest, with Chalmers, marched with McCullouch's Brigade and two regiments of Richardson's Brigade, to the relief of Col. Jeffrey Forrest.

The situation at this time was critical on both sides. The rivers in front and behind both the Federal and Confederate forces were badly swollen and there could be no retreat for either. The Tombigbee on the east the Sooh-a-Toucha on the south, and the Okatibbyha on the west were all in flood.

Gen. Stephen D. Lee notified Forrest that he was marching to his support with a brigade of infantry from Meridian and Forrest hoped to avoid a general engagement until his arrival. Forrest, therefore, went into camp about four miles west of West Point, from whence, we could see the eastern horizon lighted up by burning houses, barns, gin houses, fences and everything which the enemy could set on fire.

The sight so infuriated Forrest that he determined to put a stop to further devastation.

The following morning he led McCulloch's Brigade to a crossing on a little river called Siloam, about four miles east, and resolved to do all in his power to stop such an uncivilized kind of warfare. He expected to strike the Federal left flank but found that the force consisted of but one brigade, which he quickly put to flight. He ordered all his force forward from West Point and found the enemy in position in a woods four miles from that little city.

Chalmers quickly dismounted his men and moved to the attack. The men went rushing and yelling at the Federal line with as little concern for their lives, apparently, as they would have shown in a skirmish drill. The effect was instantaneous and the Federals, after firing a round, mounted their horses and galloped away.

In the meantime, McCulloch had sent the force at Siloam helter-skelter. The fugitives, on reaching Smith's main column, added tenfold to the demoralization. The whole force began a hurried retreat. Having the swollen river at their backs, the audacious onslaught of the Confederates made the victory a stampede.

The Federals could not be halted. The scene was indescribable. The roads were knee deep in mud and the fields were boggy. Wagons and caissons were left behind and our men could barely keep in sight of the fleeing house burners. Stop a moment and think of the disparity of the two forces.

General Smith's command numbered ten thousand men and twenty-four cannon. Men who had been selected from the Army of the Cumberland, seasoned and tried troops, with the best equipment, while Forrest's force did not exceed 4,000 men and eight cannon.

Bell's Brigade of 2,000 men at Waverly, ten miles distant when the fight began, did not reach the field until after the route began.

The roads and the whole country were soaked from the continued rain, and the passage of the Federal artillery and wagons left the roads impassable.

Forrest made every effort to overhaul the enemy by sending detachments through the fields, but the ground was so rotten it could not be done, although the enemy was encumbered with plunder and hundred of negroes.

However, Forrest was after them and with unsurpassed impetuosity succeeded in overtaking the Federal rear guard, several times during the day, with his escort company, and had two or three sharp brushes, but was not able to bring them to a stand.

Night coming on, the command went into camp, but the following morning, February 22, 1864, McCulloch's and Jeffrey Forrest's brigades were in hot pursuit.

Nine miles out of Okolona, Jeffrey Forrest was ordered to take a left-hand road and cut off the retreat if possible. In the meantime Barteau, with Bell's Brigade, had reached the Federal right flank, which forced the enemy to make a stand at Okolona.

Forrest, at the same time, had been dogging the rear of the Federal column with his escort company so savagely there was no alternative but to fight. General Smith, therefore, posted his force in a very favorable position across the Pontotoc road, in a skirt of woods. Barteau, with Bell's Brigade, dismounted, charged across a field and met strong resistance and suffered great loss but just at that moment Jeffrey Forrest struck the Federals in the rear and caused another stampede.

Barteau's men quickly recovered their setback and joined in pursuit. McCulloch reached the field about this time and his presence added to the confusion of the Federals, and the rout became general.

The Confederates, however, in the excitement, lost organization for a time and did not follow up the chase as well as could have been done.

In the meantime, General Smith had found a most favorable position eight miles distant from Okolona, and posted his line on a ridge of post oak timber.

Forrest soon got his men in hand and sent McCullock to the left and Jeffrey Forrest to the right, with orders to drive into them.

Jeffrey Forrest, at the head of his brigade accompanied by Col. D. M. Wisdom, made the attack with great vigor. The Federals fired a volley into his ranks as he approached and Colonel Forrest fell, mortally wounded, about fifty yards from the enemy's line.

The enemy was pushed back and soon, General Forrest, hearing of the wounding of his young brother, galloped to the spot where he lay, dismounted, raised his head, and with passionate tenderness begged Jeffrey to speak. He died in his arms. They were throughout life devoted. The General was the oldest and Jeffrey was the youngest of the family. The General had been unwearied in his efforts to give his brother an education, and he felt his untimely loss. The flower of his life had been snatched from him.

Laying down the body, Forrest spread his handkerchief over his dead brother's face and, calling on a member of his escort to remain with the corpse, he mounted his horse and said to those who were present: "Follow me." Then turning to his bugler he said, "Garis, sound the charge," and away he dashed, followed by those present, with the fury of a hurricane. They galloped into the enemy as some of them were mounting to retreat, and the spirit and animation of the spectacle so enthused the other Confederates that they rushed forward like a mighty storm and trampled down everything in their front, driving the enemy in the wildest confusion and capturing all his artillery, wagons, and a thousand prisoners besides a great quantity of supplies and several hundred negroes who were running away with the Yankees. The pursuit was kept up until night. It was a wonderful achievement.

I was induced to write this story because of a remark made to me by an old comrade I met during the reunion of the Louisiana Division, U. C. V., held at Alexandria, November 25-26.

He said: "Forrest's Cavalry was the greatest body of soldiers ever assembled."

I answered: "They were made so by Forrest's example."

The Farewell Address of Nathan Bedford Forrest to Forrest’s Cavalry Corps, May 9, 1865, from Michael R. Bradley’s The Last Words

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The Farewell Address of Nathan Bedford Forrest to Forrest's Cavalry Corps, May 9, 1865
from Michael R. Bradley's
The Last Words, The Farewell Addresses of Union and Confederate Commanders to Their Men at the End of the War Between the States
Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Forrest's Cavalry Corps, CSA.
Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Forrest's Cavalry Corps, CSA.

[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. : Michael R. Bradley probably knows more about Nathan Bedford Forrest than anybody in the country. His highly acclaimed Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff and They Rode with Forrest, along with other books, articles and talks, attest to that.

I am extremely proud to publish, by Charleston Athenaeum Press, his outstanding new book, The Last Words, The Farewell Addresses of Union and Confederate Commanders to Their Men at the End of the War Between the States. It will be out in the next few weeks.

Dr. Bradley's research and writing are extraordinary. He has drawn wide praise over the years as an historian. The Last Words is a masterful bit of original research where he dug out all the extant farewell addresses he could find of Union and Confederate commanders. Lee had surrendered but units were still in the field and had not yet broken up and gone home. Not all commanders gave farewell addresses but Bradley found 17 who did, nine Union, and eight Confederate. These are the last words commanders would say to the men they had led for years through bloody hell, death, grief, enormous privations, victories and defeats.

As primary sources originating from the battlefield with no opportunity for anything to influence them - no political influence, no sentimentality, no years of fading memories - these words are straight from the hearts of the men who fought in the war and spoke them except for, perhaps, Gen. Grant's address, which was not signed and appears to have been issued by somebody in the government.

Bradley's unit histories and vivid descriptions of their battles during the war make the reading of the various farewell addresses incredibly meaningful. The biographies of commanders are outstanding too.

The book opens with Gen. Lee's "General Orders, Number 9" and more or less alternates with a Union address and a Confederate address, which adds contrast.

This is an important book and you will love reading every word of it.

Below is Dr. Bradley's bio followed by Chapter Three of The Last Words, Nathan Bedford Forrest's address and Dr. Bradley's excellent historical narrative.]

Dr. Bradley's Bio:

Michael R. Bradley is professor emeritus of History at Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, Tennessee where he taught for 36 years. He is a native of the Tennessee-Alabama state line region near Fayetteville, Tennessee. He attended Samford University for his B.A., took a Master of Divinity at New Orleans Seminary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1970. He has been pastor of two Presbyterian churches in Middle Tennessee. He served as interim Pastor of two others.

Dr. Bradley is the author of several books on the War Between the States including Tullahoma: The 1863 Campaign; With Blood and Fire: Life Behind Union Lines in Middle Tennessee; Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort and Staff ; It Happened in the Civil War; Forrest's Fighting Preacher, David Campbell Kelley of Tennessee; The Raiding Winter; Civil War Myths and Legends; They Rode with Forrest, and others including a lifetime of articles and talks. In 1994 he was awarded the Jefferson Davis Medal in Southern History. In 2006 he was elected commander of the Tennessee Division SCV and is a Life Member. He served on Tennessee's Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.

The Farewell Address of Nathan Bedford Forrest to Forrest's Cavalry Corps, May 9, 1865

Soldiers:

By an agreement made between Liet.-Gen. Taylor, com manding the Department of Alabama. Mississippi, and East Louisiana, and Major-Gen. Canby, commanding United States forces, the troops of this department have been surrendered.

I do not think it proper or necessary at this time to refer to causes which have reduced us to this extremity; nor is it now a matter of material consequence to us how such results were brought about. That we are BEATEN is a self-evident fact, and any further resistance on our part would justly be regarded as the very height of folly and rashness.

The armies of Generals LEE and JOHNSTON having surrendered. You are the last of all the troops of the Confederate States Army east of the Mississippi River to lay down your arms.

The Cause for which you have so long and so manfully struggled, and for which you have braved dangers, endured privations, and sufferings, and made so many sacrifices, is today hopeless. The government which we sought to establish and perpetuate, is at an end. Reason dictates and humanity demands that no more blood be shed. Fully realizing and feeling that such is the case, it is your duty and mine to lay down our arms -- submit to the “powers that be” -- and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land.

The terms upon which you were surrendered are favorable, and should be satisfactory and acceptable to all. They manifest a spirit of magnanimity and liberality, on the part of the Federal authorities, which should be met, on our part, by a faithful compliance with all the stipulations and conditions therein expressed. As your Commander, I sincerely hope that every officer and soldier of my command will cheerfully obey the orders given, and carry out in good faith all the terms of the cartel.

Those who neglect the terms and refuse to be paroled, may assuredly expect, when arrested, to be sent North and imprisoned. Let those who are absent from their commands, from whatever cause, report at once to this place, or to Jackson, Miss.; or, if too remote from either, to the nearest United States post or garrison, for parole.

Civil war, such as you have just passed through naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings; and as far as it is in our power to do so, to cultivate friendly feelings towards those with whom we have so long contended, and heretofore so widely, but honestly, differed. Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out; and, when you return home, a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to Government, to society, or to individuals meet them like men.

The attempt made to establish a separate and independent Confederation has failed; but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully, and to the end, will, in some measure, repay for the hardships you have undergone.

In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. Without, in any way, referring to the merits of the Cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-fought fields, has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. And I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the officers and men of my command whose zeal, fidelity and unflinching bravery have been the great source of my past success in arms.

I have never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go myself; nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be, and will be, magnanimous.

N.B. Forrest, Lieut.-General
Headquarters, Forrest's Cavalry Corps
Gainesville, Alabama
May 9, 1865
General Orders No. 221

 

Nathan Bedford Forrest is the most controversial, and the most misrepresented, general officer of the entire war. He is the man liberal historians love to hate and the man Civil War buffs adore. Forrest is celebrated for his military genius and his intuitive grasp of psychological warfare (keep the scare on 'em) and damned for his supposed approval of a massacre of African American and white Tennessee Unionists at Fort Pillow and for his presumptive post-war leadership of the Ku Klux Klan. William T. Sherman said, in 1864, “there will never be peace in Tennessee until Forrest is dead.” Since controversy and argument still swirl around Forrest it appears he is not deceased!

Forrest grew up on a small farm in Bedford County, Tennessee (his birthplace is now in Marshal County thanks to a redrawing of boundaries) and became “the man of the family” in his early teens when his father died. Later he took the family to Mississippi where he became a successful farmer, businessman, and political leader. He moved to Memphis, engaged in the slave trade, and was elected alderman. By 1860, still in his thirties, he was worth over a million dollars.

Forrest enlisted as a private, was made a lieutenant colonel almost immediately and was instructed to raise a regiment of cavalry. As head of a cavalry force he rose quickly through the ranks to become a lieutenant general before the end of the war. Forrest also established a reputation for hard fighting, beginning with his first encounter of any importance at Sacramento, Kentucky and continuing to his last battle at Selma, Alabama. He also perfected the technique of striking deep behind the Union front line to disrupt lines of supply. The first attempt by Forrest at such raiding came in July 1862 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee on his forty-first birthday. He repeated the tactic in December 1862 by raiding for two weeks into West Tennessee, thoroughly destroying the Mobile & Ohio Railroad which brought supplies to the army of Ulysses S. Grant. By 1864 Forrest had been given an independent command in Mississippi and West Tennessee and there he won some of his most brilliant victories such as Brice's Cross Roads. Two other raids into Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee in 1864 cemented his grasp of raiding.

Forrest spent most of his military career doing traditional cavalry service, scouting and screening the infantry force of the Army of Tennessee. It was in this traditional capacity that he served at Fort Donelson, at Shiloh, and throughout 1863 during the Tullahoma and Chickamauga campaigns.

By the end of the war Forrest was the most feared opponent the Union had in the west and the most celebrated leader in the Confederate ranks. His campaigns are still studied today as early examples of mobile warfare.

Fort Pillow, April 9, 1864, casts a dark shadow over the memory of Forrest. Something happened there which has been exploited but never explained. After an all-day engagement Confederate forces got close enough to the fortifications at Fort Pillow to capture them by storm, doing so only after the Union commander had refused to surrender. In the ensuing chaos of a position captured by direct assault some Union soldiers were killed in a manner which violated the rules of war. The crucial questions of how many such deaths occurred and who is responsible have never been answered, though Forrest, as commanding officer, bears responsibility for the conduct of his troops.

The Fort Pillow affair was immediately exploited by the North. A congressional committee investigated the matter and published a report of which 40,000 copies were distributed, in which survivors gave graphic reports of men being shot after surrendering. One very obvious problem is that none of these witnesses gave the name of a single person who they saw killed. The men of these units had served together for more than a year, yet no-one recognized a friend, mess mate, or non-commissioned officer who was killed unlawfully. The more serious problem is that the Congressional Report has all the markings of a propaganda piece. The Union cause, militarily and politically, was at a low ebb. The Confederates had taken serious blows in 1863 but they still appeared full of fight. Recruitment in the North was difficult and very large bounties were being offered to lure recruits. The Democratic Party, with its call for peace, appeared to be in good position for the 1864 elections at all levels---state, congressional, and presidential. Something was needed to arouse public opinion in support of the war. Fort Pillow was used to provide that stimulus.

Post-war, the name of Bedford Forrest came to be associated with the Ku Klux Klan. The assertion that Forrest was head of the Klan has been repeated in so many books as to be beyond counting. The problem with this assertion is that no historian has ever produced any primary source document which proves Forrest held that position. Writers of secondary sources cite each other but none cite a document from the 1860—70's to prove their case. In short, there is no valid historical evidence to support the claim that Forrest was head of the Klan.

Eric Foner is considered by many to be the leading contemporary historian of the Reconstruction Era. His book, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, discusses the Klan in great detail over a number of chapters. The name of Bedford Forrest is never mentioned. A growing number of academic historians admit that there is no evidence linking Forrest to the Klan, yet still the folklore is repeated whenever the name of Forrest is mentioned.2

The historical fact is that a congressional investigating committee cleared Forrest of any involvement with the Klan and commended him for his opposition to the group. Forrest also became an advocate for African Americans exercising the right to vote. Historians who condemn Forrest for his supposed affiliation with the Klan either ignore these facts or make great efforts to dismiss them but in doing so they violate the duty of an historian to deal with facts and not to substitute personal opinions or folklore for primary sources.

Forrest was a fierce fighter. His force held out until May 9, 1865, a month after the fighting had ended in Virginia and several days after it had ended in North Carolina. Forrest accepted the inevitable with good grace and advised his men to do likewise. The farewell address he issued to his command at Gainesville, Alabama is a model of calmness and reconciliation.

There were no U.S. forces present to accept the surrender of Forrest's command. On the morning of their departure the men fell in for roll call and Forrest's final order was read aloud. The men then marched by their own ordinance sergeants and turned in their weapons, the artillery was parked in a grove of trees, and the men then reported to their regimental adjutant to received previously printed and signed paroles. Then they went home.

What does Forrest's final address tell us about his ideas concerning the cause of the war? The order states that, for Forrest, the causes of the war were irrelevant but that the result of the war was obvious, the South had lost and the Confederacy was no more. The only thing for sensible people to do was accept the results and get on with their lives. This statement reflects the same pragmatic attitude with which he had fought during the war. It should be noted that Forrest had opposed secession and had voted against it in February 1861 when Tennessee took its first vote on the issue. Forrest stood by the Union as long as the Union stood by the existing laws. Once respect for law was abandoned Forrest moved to protect his home.

Forrest's Escort Company and Staff formed an association even before the United Confederate Veterans were formed and they regularly read aloud the Farewell Address. The sound advice it contained stood them in good stead during the hard economic times that followed the war. The words do much to disprove the common public impression that Forrest was a monster.

 

1 Thomas Jordan and J.P. Pryor, The Campaigns of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and of Forrest's Cavalry (New York: Da Capo Press, 1996), 680-82. Originally published 1886.

2 See Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New York: Harper Perennial, 2014). Originally published, 1988.