Invasion, Conquest, and Subjugation

No, this post is not about the war in Iraq, but it could be. All acts of aggression against a sovereign people might be described thus.

This post is about Liberty.

On the day in 1865, she was raped, robbed, and murdered on the streets of my hometown, Columbia, South Carolina.

On that day, non-combatant residents in Columbia - black & white, slave & free, rich & poor - were terrorized, plundered, abused, ravished, and their homes and private property put to the torch by Federal troops.

This was not an act of war in the pejorative sense of the word. This was not collateral damage resulting from a heated battle between two opposing armies. This was a military invasion of an unarmed city and the conquest of a people — a war crime without precedence in our country’s history!

The responsibility for the burning of Columbia rests squarely on the shoulders of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the Federal forces.

Sherman's official report on the burning placed the blame on Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton III, who Sherman said had ordered the burning of cotton in the streets. Sherman later recanted this allegation and admitted lying in his Memoirs, Volume 11 page 287. He said, "In my official report of this conflagration I distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and confess I did so pointedly to shake the faith of his people in him, for he was in my opinion a braggart and professed to be the special champion of South Carolina."

In 1867 a chance meeting of former combatants occurred in Federal Governor Orr's office in Columbia. Gen. Howard, commander of the US 15th Corps of Sherman's army during the burning, was to be introduced to Gen. Hampton in the presence of many dignitaries. Gen. Hampton said, "Before I take your hand General Howard, tell me who burnt Columbia?" Gen. Howard replied, "It is useless to deny that our troops burnt Columbia, for I saw them in the act." (See Edwin J. Scott, Random Recollections of a Long Life. page 185; The Burning of Columbia, Charleston, SC, 1888, page 11.)

While some historians and other Northern apologist may dispute that Sherman was really responsible for the atrocity, those who were in the city during the invasion knew exactly who was responsible.

William Gilmore Simms, the world renowned Southern antebellum writer and father of Southern Literature, was in Columbia on those fateful days and recorded his own experience along with several other first hand accounts from the survivors.

Simms’s account was first published in the Columbia Phoenix, an aptly named newspaper that rose from the ashes of the beleaguered city. This account was later sanitized and toned down by Simms and subsequently published in book form as The Sack and Destruction of Columbia, South Carolina after the war.

Happily, the original, unvarnished newspaper installments by Simms became available for the first time since the war through the efforts of Dr. David Aiken of Charleston. Published as A City Laid Waste: The Capture, Sack, and Destruction of the City of Columbia by the University of South Carolina Press in 2005, these original accounts are primary documents, unequalled in war-time narritave in both content and style.

I believe Simms's account is important for many reasons. Primarily it is important because these installments were written before the end of the war when Columbia was still had freedom of the press - Appomattox would not occur for another couple of months and Reconstruction had not yet reared its ugly head. Simms was free to write the event without having to worry about being censored. Furthermore, because it was written and published where the events transpired and published for the residents of the city, he could not embelish without losing his credibility. In short, this account is the real deal and can be collaborated in other sources, including Federal soldier who where present.

This book is, in my opinion, one of the most important works published during the war. One cannot read it and remain unscathed. One cannot read it and come away with anything other than shame regarding the conduct of the Grand Army of the Republic and the cause for which they fought.

I urge you, nay, I dare you to get this book and read it. It will explain everything you need to know about the Southern point of view with regards to the War for Southern Independence.

Yes, Libery was murdered on the streets of Columbia. The crime occured right here in the heart of Dixie, February 17, 1865. As Americans, we should remeber what was won and what was lost on that day. I think of it often with tears in my eyes...

__________

For further information, you might consider visiting the following sites:

http://www.shermansmarch.com/

http://www.wadehamptoncamp.org/bfc-boc-a.html

http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/HomeFront/burningofcolumbia.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/jarvis/jarvis19.html

http://www.geocities.com/cmp_csa/BurningColumbia.html

http://sclos.org/News-BOC.htm

The War on Terror

Hello & Greetings from Dixie!

Now what I wish to address is not THE war on terror currently being conducted by the US armed forces. I understand that it is too late to avert that one and that we MUST finish it. In fact, I was all for it until we decided that it was our job to plant the "seeds of democracy." [The democratically elected government in Palestine should be enough to convince those skeptical of my view on this matter] Government building is not our job, retaliation against those who would like to fly planes into our building, cut off people's heads, etc., is an all together different consideration. But I digress...

I am tired of being terrorized by our government in the form of taxation and intrusive policies under the auspices of protecting us from a small group of people bent on blowing themselves and others up for Allah. Until we can keep our citizens from killing each other, the exercise is one of futility.

This protectionalist ruse has been used by many here since "Honest" Abe opened this Pandora's Box in 1860. It is an excuse to disregard the Constitution and consolidate power.

What we need is something or someone to protect us from the government!

I haven't the slightest concern for being blown-up on a plane.

I am, however, concerned about those folks manning the gates and riffling through my person and property with the full sanction and authority of the Federal Government.

We should never sell our birthright for a pot of porridge, which is EXACTLY what we have done!
Consider the words of Benjamin Franklin:

"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

I can choose not to fly, but I cannot choose to not pay my taxes-- at least without great material injury to my family.

Why should I, a citizen of South Carolina, be taxed for a bridge being built in Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter)?

Why should my hard earned money be shipped to foreign countries for God knows what?

Why should I struggle to make ends meet when my hard earned money is scattered to the four winds of heaven?

Thomas Jefferson said that, "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."


At least I am not alone in my assessment of tyranny! I think Mr. Jefferson would be with me on this...

Recently in South Carolina, our legislature voted for property tax relief, funding it by raising the sales tax. This shuck and jive election year stunt comes on the heels of a surplus of income to the state. Its not just the Feds, the states are in on the gig too!

What will it take to make us open our eyes?

George Washington would be reaching for his sword! Don't believe me? Check out the complaints lodge against the tyrant, King George as enumerated in our Declaration of Independence before we seceded from the British Empire.


[Go ahead, read it before continuing...]


How many of these outrages committed by King George do we suffer under today?

How much better off were we then as opposed to now?

Are we better off at all?

If we are not living under terror, then I would like to know what kind of liberty this is...

We are being terrorized by domestic and foreign enemies: one determined to rob us of our God given rights and lawfully obtained sustenance (The State) and one determined to terrorize us through murder and mayhem because of their extreme religious views (Islamo-Fascists are but one example).

Both are--or have become-- the enemy of a once free and proud people... Now mostly a Nation of Sheeple.

We can’t do much about the war overseas, but we can do something about the war going on here:

We can accomplish much by voting out the terrorist in Washington and replacing them with Patriots.

This may mean voting outside the two party system, i.e., voting for a candidate who is friendly to the Constitution instead of the voting the lesser of two evils.

This does not work and never will.

The Republicans have caused just as much mischief, if not more, than The Democrats previously in power.

They are the same! This is especially true at the National level.

Our domestic terrorists in power depend on an ignorant populist in order to increase/consolidate their power and rob us of our rights and goods.

Read the constitution of your state and the federal government and lay it against what you see going on around you. It will shock and amaze you!

We need to do something before we lose what little bit of personal liberty that we have left.

What will you do? What will I do?

~ P. C.

One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence. ~Charles A. Beard