THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1

Confederate Heroes

Confederate Heroes

By Charles E. McMichael
Delivered at the Lee-Jackson Banquet of Captain James W. Bryan Camp 1390 Sons of Confederate Veterans
15 January 2000

Confederate Heroes! Not a term you hear publicly a lot these days. I will talk later about what I feel a Confederate should be. A hero is someone who we aspire to emulate, their life and deeds serve as an example to us.

And what better example to have — men like Jeff Davis. Now there is a lot of debate on what kind of President Davis was. I will take the words of Lee "few could have done as well, none good have done better." And my new favorite D.H. HILL, who knew who he was, and knew who they were, he had received a correspondence from a yankee general about the burning of Plymouth N.C., to which he responded.. " In regard to your first communication touching the burning of Plymouth you seem to have forgotten two things. You forget, sir, that you are a Yankee and that Plymouth is a Southern town. It is no business of yours if we choose to burn one of our own towns. A meddling Yankee troubles himself with everybody's matters but his own and repents of everybody's sins except his own. We are a different people. Should the Yankees burn a Union village in Connecticut or a codfish town in Massachusetts we would not meddle with them, but rather bid them God speed in their work of purifying the atmosphere. Your second act of forgetfulness consists in your not remembering that you are the most atrocious house-burner as yet unhung in the wide universe." Now that man is heroic.

But this time of year we gather in particular to honor Lee and Jackson, but by doing so we do not honor them alone. We honor also the men who they led. For in order to be a great leader, the people in the column must also possess greatness. Lee and Jackson are not revered because of their differences with the Southern people, but because of what we have in common with them. They were after all only men with human shortcomings. Jackson's are legendary!, Lee's are admittedly harder to find and I shall not be the one who tries. But, they are the benchmark of the kind of people we all strive to be. They excelled in their commitment to God and Country, as did our Confederate forebears. When I think of Lee and Jackson's greatest triumph on the field of battle, at Chancellorsville, that thought is indelibly imprinted on me with the thought of William Robinett, my ancestor who was there with them as a part of the 28th Ga., and whose blood was shed on the same ground as Stonewall's. They all did their duty and deserve our respect.

But as great as these men were, some still ask the question, why have events such as this? What relevance is the past to us?

On the one year anniversary of the tragedy in Oklahoma City, I saw a special on Nightline. It was one of those "Where are they now?" shows. One of the most memorable images of that day was of a firefighter cradling a young girl in his arms, when they returned to interview him one year later...there he stood...in his fireman's armor with a Battleflag bandana tied about his neck. I thought, My God, how wonderful that this modern day hero is proud of and proclaims his heroic past. I then knew the answer to that question-it is- if we expect to have heroes in our future, we must teach by the example of their heroic legacy. And teach I mean! We must be in the schools, at the county fairs, and in the media... anywhere where we can gain an audience, but especially to the children, remember, what students learn today is what the average person will think twenty years from now. They are going to learn something from someone, we best make sure it is from those who know the truth. The future must know the past. In order to bring out the best in us, we must honor the best of us.

And I do mean US! Too often we think of Confederates as them. But think of your own Confederate ancestors... everyone of his ancestors is also yours, we have the same genetic imprint, the same blood, we spring from, and shall return to, the same soil. We are still the Southern People! We had our battles to fight then, and we fought them with honor and courage. We also have our battles to fight now!