Today is December 15th. Since January 1st we've had quite a year. We started out on January 3rd by placing headstones at the Manor cemetery. We also hit tthe Morton and Lyrely cemeteries in January and the Henry Family cemetery in February.
In March we visited the State Capitol, viewed the states Confederate flag collection, met Gov. Perdue, Senator Mullis, and Rep. Reece, and welcomed two new members of the camp in the John B. Gordon room. Later we placed a headstone in a Fulton county cemetery for a Confederate ancestor of two of our camp members and then toured the Allatoona Pass battlefield. We also placed several new headstones in Trion cemetery and the Howell cemetery in Halls Valley that month In April, we covered the older cemeteries in the county with Confederate Battleflags which drew more than a few positive comments from the locals, we gave a presentation to the Chattooga County Historical Society which resulted in an unexpected $1,000 donation toward our Battle of Trion Factory Monument. We ended the month of April with several of our members in attendance at the Confederate Memorial Day service at the Georgia Monument in Chickamauga Battlefield.
May saw our Third Annual SCV Horseshoe Tournament fundraiser which was the best and most well attended we've had so far. We were awarded a grant by the Georgia Civil War Commission to help again with our Battle of Trion Factory project. Stan and Jamie helped Rome camp 469 honor Captain W.H.H. Walters at the Pisgah Baptist Church cemetery in Floyd county.
In June we began work on Farmersville cemetery by clearing a mountain of trees, brush, and debris from off the tops of old stones and grave sites. We then erected two new stones to Confederates buried there. Later in the month we participated in the Menlo Pre-fourth celebration by leading the parade then setting up a booth in Lawrence Park .
In July we paid tribute to Confederate soldiers buried in the Subligna Methodist Church cemetery and worked on Farmersville until it was agreed that it was just too hot to work and agreed to stop until cooler weather.
August was spent working on our varioius ongoing projects.
The culmination of all our efforts was celebrated in September as we had erected and then dedicated our Battle of Trion Factory Monument. With the help of the Pvt. John Ingraham Camp #1977 from Chickamauga, the Cherokee Artillery from Rome, Leonard Draper and his artillery crew from Douglasville and Cedartown, The Missionary Ridge Camp 63 Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War from Chattanooga, TN, Senator Jeff Mullis, State Representative Barbara Reece, John Culpepper from the Georgia Civil War Commission, The Chattooga County Historical Society, and the Tillotson-Menlo Charitable Foundation and especially the research done by Agnew Myers and the gracious approval of the Myers family in allowing us to do Agnew the honor of placing his name on the monument. The monument dedication was a great success and I think we raised the image of our camp, our organization, and our efforts to honor our ancestors by several points among the people of Trion and Chattooga County with this achievement.
In October Jamie and Kirk represented Camp 507 at the monument unveiling for the Gen. Patrick Cleburne statue at Ringgold Gap. Later, Jamie, Stan, Roger, and myself attended the dedication of a new plaque at the Van Wert Church in Polk County near Rockmart. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the "Summerville Camp 507" was listed by Commander Leonard Draper as one of the contributors to the project.
November 1st found us honoring Pvt. James Newton Hicks at the Matthew Johnson cemetery in Summerville. With several speakers and numerous spectators, we were well recieved and I heard several positive comments from the attendees.
Later in November, a few of us returned to Farmersville cemetery for another day of work. Several more loads of brush and logs were removed leaving the place looking a little more like a cemetery again.
December is now upon us and with it the usual events. This year Chattooga County Camp 507 participated in the annual Christmas In The Park in Summerville, which was pronounced a "great success" in the local paper, attended the annual Chickamauga/LaFayette joint Christmas party (which is fast becoming the Chickamauga/LaFayette/Summerville joint party) and enjoyed a wonderful presentation by the featured guest speaker. We had Saturday off. Then on Sunday we participated in the Victorian Window Display in downtown Summerville. I understand the lady who is responsible for the event says the Confederate window was the favorite of a great many attendees. One of the reasons given was the antics of the soldiers in the window.
The following night, Monday, members of Camp 507 marched for the first time as Camp 507 in the Summerville Christmas parade.
Then this past Saturday I was notified by the Board of Directors of the Tillotson-Menlo Charitable Foundation that we have been awarded $5000 to finish the work of erecting two flagpoles at the Trion Factory Battle Memorial and placing two benches at the site.
Altogether, it's been a banner year for Camp 507. In my opinion it's the best we've ever had. Next year will be even better if we determine to make it , so congratulations men of Chattooga County Camp 507! You deserve a rest ...... until January.
Our next meeting will be held at the Chattooga County Senior Center on Senior drive in Summerville on Thursday January 28th at 7:00 p.m.
Have a Very Merry Christmas and may God richly bless each and every one of you and your families in this holiday season and the coming year!
Dale Mitchell
Commander
Chattooga Co. Camp 507
Sons of Confederate Veterans
The hardest working camp in the Georgia Division!
Appeal for Fredericksburg .
The citizens of Fredericksburg have been great sufferers by the horrid devastation inflicted upon that town by the Yankees. Not only have their dwellings been destroyed, or rendered uninhabitable, but, in almost every instance, their furniture, clothing, and personal effects of every kind, have been torn to pieces or stolen, so that a community in which such a thing as poverty was once unknown is now homeless, comfortless, and, in the case of many of its inhabitants, actually requiring the assistance of others for food and lodging. The rich inhabitants, though much impoverished, may not be thus destitute; but the rich are but a small minority of any community. The great mass of them who have been dispossessed of their habitations and homes by the sudden convulsion which, like an earthquake, has swallowed up Fredericksburg, have no surplus means to provide against such an exigency, and must, therefore, either perish for want of the absolute means of subsistence, or be relieved;--we will not say by the charity — but by the justice and humanity of their fellow-citizens. We invoke all just and humans people to contribute every dollar they can spare, and all the influence they possess, to the relief of the community of Fredericksburg . On this Christmas day, what better Christmas gift can we lay upon the altar of Almighty God, what better thank- offering for the great deliverance which He has just effected for us at this same Fredericksburg and by which we ourselves, perhaps, have been saved from being rendered houseless and homeless, than a literal and universal donation in all the churches to the relief of the Fredericksburg people? ------ Richmond Daily Dispatch, Dec. 25, 1862
Christmas Letters from a Confederate Soldier
Confederate Letter of John W. Hagan A Confederate POW
To Mrs A. Hagan, Cat Creek, Lowndes County, Ga-I send you a Stamp #15--Barracks 16 Prison 3 Camp Chase Ohio-- December 25th, 1864 My Dear Wife... Again I write you a short letter which leaves myself, James D. Pounds, A. Mattox, M. F. Giddins & Wm.Anderson in good health & hope you & familley are enJoying the Same blessing I have nothing new to write you. I am very anxious to hear of and [an] Exchange but have very little hopes of being Exchanged during the War. we are permitted to receve the papers now & have a chance of Knowing what is going on. The late arrangement entering [entered] into by the C.S. & U.S. will not lead to & Exchange. Brig Gen Beall on the part of the C.S. is now in N.Y. on Parole to carry out the arrangements on the part of the C.S. to furnish we prisoners of War with all the nessary supplies to make us comfertable. & we have Elected Col Josie of Ark & Col Healkine of Tenn & Capt Smith of Va to make a report of what we need to Gen Beall in N.Y. & Issue the Same when it arrives here. So you may not give your self any uneaseyness about us we are fairing very well now & will do better when our supplies is encreast. I havent heard from Anderson yet & do not expect to Soon. let me Know when you write if J.M. Griffin have been heard of at home. I am still corresponding with my friend in Nashville " Tenn & will not suffer for any thing. your Uncle John Roberts is in Prison at Rock Island Ills & Bryant his son is with me & in good health Give my love to all at home & Kiss Reubin for me. I will close hoping to hear from you soon as my last was dated Oct 8th. I Remain your Affectsionate Husband John Wm. Hagan P.S. this is a dull Crismass day
Author of the following unknown to me Christmas, December 25, 1863 Bright Merry Christmas is here again, and so am I, right in the breezy woods to enjoy it, unhampered by the restraints of custom, the fetters of fashion, and thraldom of etiquette, ready and willing to hide away a first-class Christmas dinner if I had it. I am glad I am alive and whole, for during this year many a poor soldier whose sun of life glowed in the very zenith of manhood and glory was cut down and immolated on the altar of his country, like the full blown rose that sacrifices and casts its beauteous and fragrant petals on the altar of the passing storm. At sunrise thismorning we fired two rounds from our guns in commemoration of the birth of Him who said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth."
The menu of our Christmas dinner was composed wholly of beef with gravy and corn bread. Our mess was afraid to try anything new, as it might throw us headlong on the sick list in the busy season of house building. I was hard at work all day, getting raw material for the business end of our culinary department.
A Gunner in Chew's Battery, Stuart's Horse Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia December 25, 1862
This is Merry Christmas. This morning we resumed our march early and moved down the Valley nearly to Kernstown, where we encountered the Yankees and gave them a Christmas greeting in the shape of a few shell. We took the same position we held at the battle of Kernstown last spring. About sixty sharpshooters advanced on our position and attempted to drive us away. We opened fire on them with two guns and fired three rounds, which thoroughly settled the sharpshooting business for this Christmas. Their line fell back in a rather stirred-up mixture, and that was the last I saw of the sharpshooters. We remained in battery till sunset, to see whether the Yanks intended to advance on us in force. Their infantry camp was not far away, for I heard their drummers beating the long roll immediately after we opened fire on their sharpshooters. After dark this evening our cavalry kindled camp-fires all around the place we held to-day, to make the Yanks believe that we were many, and still holding the position. We fell back to Middletown and camped.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Not for fame or reward, Not for place or for rank, Not lured by ambition, Or goaded by necessity, But in Simple Obedience to Duty As they understood it, These men suffered all, Sacrificed all, Dared all--and died.(Inscription on the monument to the dead of the Confederate States Army, Arlington National Cemetery , Washington , D.C.)
This month in history
Fredericksburg
Dec 13, 1862 - Army of the Potomac under Gen. Burnside suffers a costly defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men after 14 frontal assaults on well entrenched Rebels on Marye's Heights. "We might as well have tried to take hell," a Union soldier remarks. Confederate losses are 5,309."It is well that war is so terrible - we should grow too fond of it," states Lee during the fighting
Dec 15/16, 1864 - Hood's Rebel Army of 23,000 is crushed at Nashville by 55,000 Federals including Negro troops under Gen. George H. Thomas. The Confederate Army of Tennessee ceases as an effective fighting force.
Dec 21, 1864 - Sherman reaches Savannah in Georgia leaving behind a 300 mile long path of destruction 60 miles wide all the way from Atlanta . Sherman then telegraphs Lincoln , offering him Savannah as a Christmas present.
Dec 6, 1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, is finally ratified. Slavery is abolished.
Quotes of Robert E. Lee. Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it.
Quotes of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson "Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me." He added, after a pause, looking me full in the face: "That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave" Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees
Let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christ mas. Let us rejoice in the Incarnation, God into man. Let us praise God for sending his Son among us that we shall know eternal life. I wish you all a special time with your families and friends. Let us also remember to pray for those who may be in difficult circumstances this time of year and for our troops in harm's way.