The South Was Right

by James Ronald Kennedy

  Early in July of 1864, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s army was pressing toward Atlanta. Although greatly outnumbered, the Southern army was making the invader pay dearly for his conquest. As usual, when an invader has difficulty with the standing army of the invaded, he will start to attack those whom he knows he can defeat with little trouble. True to form, General Sherman sent his army into the heartland of the South with the orders to “make Georgia howl.” The food supply and factories of the South were the object of Sherman’s wrath. Sherman declared that there could be no peace in the country until large parts of the Southern population had been exterminated.5 He put his words into action. First, all the food that could be found was taken for the Yankee army. Then all means of food production were either taken or destroyed. Then he turned his attention to the destruction of factories that aided in the Southern war effort.

  It may be a little difficult for us to understand today what it means to have all the food in one’s home taken away and also have the means to replace the food stolen or destroyed. When they needed food, Southerners one hundred and thirty years ago did not run down to the supermarket or corner convenience store. They grew and preserved their food, or they bought from others who grew their own food. Some food could be bought, but in times of war when invading armies made normal commerce impossible, the family unit had to depend on its own resources. Therefore, by depriving people of the means of food production, the Yankee invader was condemning them to death by starvation.

  Who were these people upon whom Sherman had pronounced the death sentence? For the most part they were women, children, old men, and the sick and wounded who were unfit for military service. These innocent and defenseless victims were the ones upon whom the full measure of anger was to be poured. It seems strange that while the Yankees wrapped the cloak of self-righteousness around themselves and proclaimed themselves as the beacon of all that was right and good, they would stoop so low as to starve and destroy defenseless women, children, the sick, wounded, and dying!

  After the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, in which the invader was thoroughly punished for being in the wrong place, Sherman sent elements of his army around Atlanta and into the towns of Marietta, Roswell, and New Manchester. Several factories that were important to the war effort of the Confederacy were located in these towns. When the Southern soldiers were forced to evacuate these areas, the Yankees moved in and began their work. Food and the means of food production were taken away, and homes were pulled down or burned. All personal property that could be consigned to the flames was destroyed. The only items that could be taken by the hapless Southerners were the clothes on their backs. Even jewelry, such as wedding bands, was pulled from ladies’ hands by the noble defenders of the Union.6

  If the saga of these poor people were to stop here, it would still rate as one of the low points in American history. But for these Southerners, their odyssey of horror had only begun. Sherman then ordered all those who worked in the factories to be gathered up and shipped out of their country.7 The invader evidently feared that by some miracle these people might not die of starvation, and by some enormous stroke of luck might rebuild their factories from the ashes. With little or no concern for homes, women and children were torn from their families and shipped north. The vast majority of these people were never to see their loved ones again. In all, more than two thousand women, children, and a few old men were collected. Families were divided. Children were separated from their mothers.8 Tearful mothers were forced to watch as children, who had worked in the factories, were dragged away from home—almost none of them would ever be heard from again. With no more remorse than that shown by the Yankee slave trader, the invaders went about their dirty work of kidnapping defenseless women and children. Even after the end of the war, the United States government never made any attempt to reunite these families!

  In the town of Roswell, over four hundred young women and children were kept in the open town square for nearly a week. Imagine the suffering of those who were cramped in that hot (remember this was July in Georgia), dirty place. As if that were not bad enough, the whiskey stores found their way into the hands of the guards. From that time on, the young girls of Roswell lived a continual nightmare.9

  All the factory workers of New Manchester were taken off in the same manner as the other towns. So complete was the destruction that the town never recovered from the raid and soon passed from existence. New Manchester became a martyr for the cause of Southern independence.

  The following comment appeared in a Louisville, Kentucky, newspaper concerning the women and children whom Sherman had shipped north: “The train which arrived from Nashville last evening brought up from the South 249 women and children, who are sent here by orders of General Sherman to be transferred north of the Ohio river. These people are mostly in a destitute condition, having no means to provide for themselves a support.”10 These people were hired out to perform work at a price that was at no more than a subsistence level, making them virtual white slaves for the Yankees. More than two thousand women and children were sent into the North in this manner. The papers in the area advertised them as if they were any other commodity for sale. And so the Yankees maintained their illicit trade in human flesh even as they were singing glory, glory, hallelujah.

  LYNCHING AND OTHER CRIMINAL ACTS

  Nothing makes the heart of a Yankee liberal beat with more profound sorrow and grief than the thought of the misuse of a rope down South. Dime-store novels, cheap tabloids, television documentaries, and movies find a ready audience for such trash. Of course, the liberals are interested only if Southerners are portrayed as the villains. Perhaps that is why they refuse to publish anything that shows that no one during the War for Southern Independence committed more such crimes than the Yankee invaders.

  In Marion County, Missouri, one of the most hideous of such crimes took place. After Missouri attempted to secede from the Union, the state was quickly overrun by Yankee troops. Anyone who expressed Southern sympathies was quickly persecuted by the “loyal” Missouri (Yankee-backed) government officials. In the little town of Palmyra, Missouri, the war was very personal and ugly. After a certain Union informer in town came up missing, it was presumed by the Federal authorities that he had been abducted. The general of the “loyal” Missouri troops at that time demanded the return of his informer; otherwise he would execute ten Southerners whom he held in jail.11

  The men Gen. John McNeil held in jail were not criminals; they had been thrown into jail for expressing a pro-Southern point of view. We would call that an expression of free speech, but Yankee invaders obviously didn’t believe in constitutional freedoms or they would not have been invading the South. It should be noted that the Yankees claimed that the Union informer had been captured by Confederate military forces. The Southern hostages held by the Yankees had no connection with said military forces! Let us emphasize this fact: They were civilians.

  When the Union informer did not return, Yankee general McNeil ordered ten men to be chosen for execution. The ten were not selected by a lottery. No, General McNeil had a more sinister design for the deaths of these men. He gave orders that only those of high social, military, educational, and professional background were to be chosen. Those selected ranged from nineteen to sixty years of age. With one exception, all were active in their churches and most were family men. The two who did not have a wife or children were Hiram Smith and Thomas A. Sidenor. Hiram Smith was twenty-two years of age and was chosen to die after the others had received their death sentence. He had spent much time in tears trying to assist those who had been given the death sentence, not knowing that his name was to be added to the list. When the jailer called him to the cell door and informed him that he too would die the next day, he ceased his crying and never shed another tear. Those in jail noted that this young hero could weep for others but remained strong and resolute in the face of his own fate.12 Thomas A. Sidenor was a former captain in the Confederate army. His unit had been destr
oyed in battle and thereafter disbanded. He had taken up the life of a civilian and was engaged to be married. The new suit of clothes he was wearing had been chosen carefully by himself to serve as his wedding garment. It would become his burial shroud.

  Both pro-Southern and pro-Northern citizens made pleas on behalf of the innocent men. Those who thought they had some influence with the Yankee government and who had a sense of decency implored the military authorities not to commit this act. But the order had the highest backing from all levels of the Yankee government. At 1:00 p.m. on October 18, 1862, the ten men were loaded on wagons, seated on newly made coffins, and taken to the Palmyra fairgrounds where the hideous act was to be carried out. No one doubted the resolve of the Yankee. For after all, this was not the first time such an act had taken place. In Kirksville, some seventy miles from Palmyra, Confederate colonel McCullough and fifteen of his men had been murdered by the invader.13 No help could be expected from the Yankee high command because Union general Merrill nearby had ordered the execution of ten Southerners himself.14 No, the time had come for this group of men to pay the supreme price for believing in State’s Rights and their Southern homeland.

  On reaching the fairgrounds, the men were placed in a row and seated on their coffins. A few feet away stood thirty United States soldiers. Behind the thirty soldiers were an equal number of reserve troops. At the command “ready, aim, fire,” the order was carried out. The only problem was that only three of the men were killed instantly. One was not even hit. The others were lying in pools of their own blood. Not to be outdone, the reserve troops were called into action. Walking among the wounded men, they took their time, and with their pistols shot each hostage until he stopped moaning. Poor Mr. Baxler was the one who had not been hit by the first volley. Sitting on the ground, he had to watch as the reserve troops moved in and shot his friends at point blank range, with each shot moving him closer to eternity.15

  This incident did not pass without some protest. Not only in the South, but also in London and even in the North, decent people made loud protests about such a barbaric act. Twice in Lincoln’s Cabinet meetings the issue was brought up about how to put the best face on this atrocity. But finally the incident was just ignored, because the South had its hands full and could not pursue the matter. But what about General McNeil? Surely the noble men of Yankeedom would censure this man for such acts. Not really. Shortly after the Palymra massacre, he was given a promotion to the rank of Brigadier General of United States Volunteers. The promotion was made, of course, by none other than the all-loving and tender-hearted Abe Lincoln.16 Who says that crime does not pay! (The reader is directed to Addendum XI, “I Am Condemned to Be Shot,” a previously unpublished letter from a Confederate POW writing home on the eve of his execution. He had been chosen at random to die in retaliation for Confederate military activity in the area surrounding the POW camp in which he was being held.)

  In Tennessee, the Yankee invaders laid their foul hands on a young Confederate soldier by the name of Sam Davis who had entered Confederate service at the age of nineteen. He had fought under some of the most noted Confederate generals. In 1863 he was selected as a member of “Coleman’s Scouts,” an elite group from Tennessee who entered Yankee-controlled territory to gather information. Sam was captured in his Confederate uniform when he visited his home during one of these raids. Regardless of this fact, he was condemned to be hanged as a spy. The commanding general of the Yankees kept young Sam in jail awaiting his execution, during which time Sam was offered his life, freedom, and many rewards if he would betray his commander and other friends in the Scouts. Over and over he was reminded of his impending death by the Yankees. Over and over he was reminded that he was young and had only begun to live his life. Over and over the Yankees tempted him to sell out his country and friends. Over and over he refused to break. Finally the Yankee commander told young Sam that all he had to do to gain his life and freedom was to give the Yankees the name of the man who was the leader of the Scouts. Young Sam’s reply was, “You may hang me a thousand times but I would not betray my friends.”17

  To make matters worse for Sam, his commander (Capt. Henry B. Shaw) was already in the hands of the Yankees. Shaw was being held in the next jail cell but the Yankees did not know whom they had captured. All young Sam had to do to gain all that was promised him was to point a finger toward the next jail cell. He did not. He stood by his country and friends, and, as a result, the invader took a rope and placed it around the young man’s neck. Courageous Sam Davis, Confederate hero, was hanged by the neck until dead.

  When the Lord calls up earth’s heroes

  To stand before his face,

  O, many a name unknown to fame

  Shall ring from that high place!

  And out of a grave in the Southland,

  At the just God’s call and beck,

  Shall one man rise with fearless eyes,

  And a rope about his neck.

  (Poem on the statue of Sam Davis in Nashville, Tennessee)

  LOUISIANA AND “THE TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD”

  In June of 1864, Louisiana’s governor Henry Watkins Allen appointed commissioners to collect testimonies from eyewitnesses of the Yankee invasion of his state.18 The conduct of the invader had so appalled the people of Louisiana that Governor Allen felt it necessary to make a written record of such fiendish activities. In his charge to the commissioners, he stated, “I hope the publication of a few hundred copies of this report will preserve for the future historian many facts which might otherwise be forgotten.”

  A reading of The Conduct of Federal Troops in Louisiana will provide a fully documented account of the barbaric conduct of the Yankee invaders in Louisiana. Governor Allen’s report has been edited by David C. Edmonds. The following facts have been taken from this report.

  A review of the history of the conduct of Yankee troops in Louisiana will bring two facts to light: (1) The invader felt that nothing Southerners owned or cared for was to be held beyond the Yankee’s hate. This would include not only homes, furniture, clothes, crops, food, and the tools of food production, but also churches and even tombs of the recent dead. (2) The invader had a strong preconceived notion of what life “down South” was like and would not allow contrary facts to change his mind.

  Louisiana has always been divided into two distinct portions: the Southern, or Cajun, area with its rich French and Catholic traditions, and the Northern, Scots-Irish and Protestant section. When war began, both sections joined in the defense of their home state and both suffered for their devotion to constitutional principles.

  The Mississippi River offered the invader a natural highway into the lower portion of the state. With the fall of New Orleans, the people got their first taste of Yankee justice. The city of New Orleans had been defended by a small squadron of makeshift naval vessels and by two old forts. With the passage of the Federal fleet beyond the forts, both the forts and the city were forced to surrender to the invader. General Mansfiel Lovell, the Confederate military commander, ordered his forces to evacuate the city. On the morning of April 26, 1862, a force was landed from the USS Pensacola. This small force moved into the defenseless city and hoisted the United States flag over the Mint Building and then retired to their ship.19 Unoccupied and unwilling to see the hated emblem of tyranny flying above the city, a young man of twenty-one years climbed to the roof and removed the United States flag. Being young and patriotic was not considered a virtue by the Yankees. Union general Benjamin Butler demanded that the man responsible for the act be thrown in jail. The young man was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging for the act of lowering the United States flag.20 News of this decree swept the city and the South. All of the city, including the mayor, leading citizens, and church leaders pleaded with the Yankee invaders for the life of the young man. They might just as well have implored the fires of hell to cool as to beg for mercy from the Yankees. Young William Mumford was hanged. A small portion of the rope which was used to murder t
his innocent young man is maintained in the Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans to this day.

  Thus Louisiana came under the rule of its conquerors with the infamous General “Beast” or “Spoons” Butler in full power. General Butler would earn for himself a special place in history. No foreign occupier has ever been held in such contempt as Ben Butler. During his stay in New Orleans, not only did he preside over the usual debauchery of Yankeedom, but he also issued the infamous decree that stated that any officer of the United States could and should treat the ladies of the city as if they were prostitutes “plying their trade.” He sent to prison, without a grand jury indictment or trial by jury, both women and leaders of the clergy because they would not accept the invaders with open arms. He closed churches and newspapers at his will if he felt they were not loyal to the Yankee government. Every principle and precept that we as Americans take for granted was trampled upon by this man who some would have us believe was a hero of the Union. Jesus said that a tree could be known by its fruit. The fruit of this Union that Benjamin Butler brought to New Orleans was bitter and deadly.

  Like a coiled snake, the invaders struck west from New Orleans, through the quaint Acadiana district toward Texas. As the army moved, they continued their normal and expected activities of plunder and destruction. So normal an activity was this that we will no longer mention it, but only relate some of the more audacious acts of these villains.