South Carolina Celebrates Secession With a Ball

As is so happens, I've been reading a collection of the writings of William Tecumseh Sherman and his staff on their incredible march through Georgia. It stands among the greatest feats of arms ever accomplished.

There was just a Carolina redneck piece of shit on "Hardball" spouting the same old tired bullshit that is beloved of racist fucktards.

If a Southerner tells you that the Civil War was about anything but slavery, tell them that they are lying sacks of shit.

This quotation is from a letter written by Henry Hitchcock, who was Sherman's adjudant. At Lee's surrender, one of the persons in the room was the Confederate General Wade Hampton. Hitchock had personally supervised the burning of Hampton's main estate. It was a slave breeding farm. It was a place where white men were encouraged to impregnate slave women (many of them held there in bondage because of the "one drop" rule) to "improve" the strain of slaves. The first burning wasn't good enough for Hampton. He had his men cut fresh pine, douse that with kerosene and coal oil and burn that shit some more.

At Appomattox he refused to observe any niceties with Hampton, neither military courtesy or common civilian.

To his son, who was serving with Thomas in Tennessee he wrote:

Hampton's whole demeanor was marked with the easy 'well-bred' essentially vulgar insolence which is characteristic of that type of 'gentleman;' a man of polished manners, scarcely veiling the arrogance and utter selfishness which marks his class, and which I hate with a perfect hatred."

The vaunted Southern "Home Guard" never once came out to confront Sherman. He understood, as Epamanondas had understood about the Spartans, that their army was designed to deal with rebellions of unarmed slaves. Not to confront an army of soldiers bearing weapons.

Let them know that if they want to nullify federal laws and authority, if they want to secede again. We will be more than happy to muster and kick their fucking asses thoroughly once more.

Comments

[Lisa Simeone]

Secessionist Ball??

My, my, I'm all for pretty ball gowns, but they should never be sullied by such an event.

[Lisa Simeone]

Oh, wow, I just checked out their website. Ya gotta see this (sorry the florid calligraphic script isn't going through):

The South Carolina Secession Gala tickets are going quickly. We have less than one month left to attend an event that will surely be an “EVENT OF A LIFETIME”!!! You certainly won’t want to miss this wonderful event!
We have a 45-minute theatrical play re-enacting the signing of the original Ordinance of Secession with Senators and famous individuals as actors in this performance. We even have President Pro-Tempore of the SC Senate, Glenn F. McConnell as Convention Chair, David F. Jamison of Barnwell.
The wonderful news is that the ORIGINAL Ordinance of Secession will be available for viewing by our guests. This is not a lithograph, but the ACTUAL document which has been protected for years in the vault and hasn’t been seen in years. Those sponsoring tables will be able to have a group photograph with all Sponsors made with the ORIGINAL ORDINANCE.
The cost includes the theatrical play, dinner, and dancing. Do not wait until the last minute as tickets are going fast and there is limited seating.
* A $100 ticket entitles guest to have access to the Performance, as well as the Dinner Reception and Open Bar.
Dress Code: " Modern black tie, Period formal, or pre-war militia. Ladies formal modern or period."

http://www.scsecessiongala.org/

[kathy a.]

i'm a little surprised by the secessionist ball, and that it's being held in charleston, which is the most liberal part of the state. despite being the city where the civil war began, "when the union fired back." i'll just bet that will be one heck of a protest tomorrow. today's charleston paper notes that the longtime mayor of charleston -- he was there when i was there -- unveiled a historical marker today, making remarks that clearly linked slavery and secession.

i'm more surprised by the editorial you linked from the state, the major newspaper in the state capital, columbia, which has neither the charm nor the more open views of charleston. granted, i've not lived in SC since the late 1980's, but my impression is that the state has come a long way. the confederate flag finally was taken off the statehouse in columbia in 2000. only 10 years ago.

[wev]

A secession ball with modern or Period formal, or pre-war militia, (I guess that means no Confederate uniforms) and women in modern or period formal wear. Dear Lord.

I think there must be something in the water. There was a letter to the editor in the Memphis Commercial Appeal two days ago titled "Once again, it wasn't about slavery." Nearly 200 comments and still counting today.

High point of that debate was a quote from the Mississippi secession document which was absolutely clear how totally about slavery that state's secession was. (You never have had to worry about any ambiguity on racial matters in Mississippi.)

Has the whole damn south, the whole country, gone crazy? I'm just appalled.

And I'm so tired of birthers and intelligent design kooks, anti-evolutionist "science" "educators" and Texas school book history revisionists and anti-vaxxers, and small government, tea partiers, and states righters and anti-choice, war mongering, homophobic, racist, misogynist, libertarian, sophomoric Ayn Rand fans, and all the rest of the ranting oppressive, selfish, mean-spirited. self-appointed God-speakers and thieving, cruel, punishing, self-satisfied horrors that pass for human beings in this country today I could spit.

We've got our Christmas goose and all the presents are wrapped and I'm sending for chocolate and music and old movies because think I might just have to hide out for a couple of weeks.

Happy holidays, you valiant warrior.

[Corvus]

This is my one of my favorite Civil War anecdotes, which I found in the Sherman's March to the Sea wikipedia page. From Sherman's memoirs:

... We rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur road, filled by the marching troops and wagons of the Fourteenth Corps; and reaching the hill, just outside of the old rebel works, we naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past battles. We stood upon the very ground whereon was fought the bloody battle of July 22d, and could see the copse of wood where McPherson fell. Behind us lay Atlanta, smouldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in air, and hanging like a pall over the ruined city. Away off in the distance, on the McDonough road, was the rear of Howard's column, the gun-barrels glistening in the sun, the white-topped wagons stretching away to the south; and right before us the Fourteenth Corps, marching steadily and rapidly, with a cheery look and swinging pace, that made light of the thousand miles that lay between us and Richmond. Some band, by accident, struck up the anthem of "John Brown's soul goes marching on;" the men caught up the strain, and never before or since have I heard the chorus of "Glory, glory, hallelujah!" done with more spirit, or in better harmony of time and place.

I can only describe that conclusion as righteous bloodlust. I mean, here they are, just just finished burning Atlanta to the ground, and they are marching off to tear the South apart, and as they start marching, they all start singing "John Brown's Body"? If the Civil War wasn't about slavery, maybe somebody should have told the North.

[minstrel hussain boy]

sherman's army of the west had much more contact, and a much better view of the issues regarding the war because it was in their faces every step of the way.

they saw the whips, and the people who bore the scars of those whips. they shot every dog that they found because they knew that the main reason for plantation dogs was to hunt down runaways.

they were righteously pissed off country boys, they saw evil up close and kicked its fucking ass hard.

[Sir Charles]

Bbbbut, Haley Barbour tells me it was all about States Rights.

I seriously hate these motherfucker slavery apologists.

[big bad wolf]

wev, i do not think the whole country, or even the south, has gone crazy. indeed, i think that things like the state homepage suggest that reason might actually be growing. the media and the web, however, are a big, controversy-seeking megaphone which allows those speaking most absolutely, those yelling most loudly, those asserting most surely to get the attention. perhaps it was ever so, just more obviously now.

[oddjob]

For those who don't know, on 12/20/1860 (150 years ago to the day (yesterday)) South Carolina seceded from the United States of America.

[oddjob]

Four years later, on 12/20/1864, Gen. Sherman's army reached Savannah, GA.

[minstrel hussain boy]

another hallmark of southern society, and most slave cultures is that the wealth gets concentrated into very few hands.

private ownership of land was held by less than 4% of the population, the white people who were not slave owners (nearly 90%) were held in a state of debt bondage that was nearly as bad as slavery. unemployment was rampant, it was a stagnant place culturally and economically. slave economies are not industrious, nor are they innovative.

sherman's destruction was sharply focused. he left the poor and the middle class largely untouched and attacked instead the large plantations, the few industries, the railroads and anything that could be used to continue the war.

in six months he destroyed the southern economy, and their will to continue the fight. as the march began there was a contingent of 400 carolinians who came to hood to upbraid him about going out to face and fight sherman. hood invited them to volunteer, they demurred, and as they were leaving he told them that when sherman came into the carolinas they were welcome to fight him there, but said "you will find him unstoppable."

there was no other union general who was able to turn poor white against the elites, georgian against carolinian.

to my military mind, sherman was the most innovative example of military genius to come out of that conflict. he knew the southern culture and geography intimately and used that knowledge to awesome effect.

if you were a private soldier who enlisted at the beginning of the war, serving under sherman you had the best chance of survival. he did not squander his men.

[Sir Charles]

Grant and Sherman are also extremely interesting from an existential point of view -- two guys who were very much familiar with darkness and failure. One gets the sense that whatever success they had during the War never provided either of them with the triumphal sense that other comparable generals seem to have possessed. It was a grim business and they understood that.

[tata]

That ball was last night? I hope someone stood outside with a camera and today there's a website filled with the faces of each loathsome thing that felt it simply must dress up and celebrate the glory of human trafficking.

[low-tech cyclist]

Atlanta-to-the-Sea was a wonderfully bold, innovative, and imaginative stroke. Up to Atlanta, Sherman was dependent on a long, thin supply line running back up through Georgia and Tennessee. It was accepted doctrine that you couldn't outrun your supply lines.

Grant, in the run-up to Vicksburg, was in a position where his army was living off the land for just a couple of weeks, if I recall correctly, after his supply line had been cut and before it could be re-established. So the idea was already there in the minds of the Western commanders that it was possible to a limited extent. But Sherman, with Grant's approval, took the idea way past that in his famous march.

After Atlanta, Hood, rather than pursuing Sherman, went northwest to cut the supply line that Sherman had just abandoned. This was quite understandable, but we know how it worked out.

Logistically, though, Sherman's march through the Carolinas was even more impressive. Since the rivers in that part of the country flow from the Appalachians in the west to the Atlantic in the east, that march from south to north involved the crossings of several major rivers during the 1864-65 winter.

[oddjob]

One gets the sense that whatever success they had during the War never provided either of them with the triumphal sense that other comparable generals seem to have possessed.

And of course, after the war Sherman, probably uniquely (or nearly so) in the history of comparably significant American generals, went out of his way to refuse to run for president when the offer was about to be made to him. ("If nominated I will not run. If elected I will not serve.")

[kathy a.]

the NAACP and other groups in charleston had a march, protested outside the auditorium, and then the group proceeded to their own educational event at a nearby AME church.

particularly since the navy pulled out, tourism is the major industry in charleston. it was the first city in SC, founded early in the 1600's. sherman bypassed charleston, so many historic sites and homes remain. the historic preservation society was [no joke] the most powerful group when i lived there, and that probably has not changed. (the office where i worked was in the historic district, and built before the revolutionary war.)

anyway, charleston's focus on history makes it utterly unsurprising that the mayor would unveil yet another historical marker on the anniversary of the secession vote -- denouncing that vote and the terrible practice of slavery it meant to protect. the fancy-dress party is another thing, though.

[minstrel hussain boy]

grant and sherman were a pair to draw to. one of my favorite exchanges was the one between grant and sherman after the first day's fighting at shiloh.

sherman, after having 3 horses shot out from underneath him and being wounded twice in his action which saved the river crossing and ensuring that the flow of fresh troops and ammunition would be uninterrupted said to grant:

"well grant, we've had the devil's own day."

to which grant replied:

"lick 'em tomorrow though."

and they did.

another sherman quote that i love is when he was being baited into criticizing grant by a reporter and he said

"i stood by him when he was drunk, he stood by me when i was crazy, we stand by each other at all times."

he also coined the phrase "tell it to the marines" when he was negotiating with columbia, south carolina (which he later destroyed). the carolinians to sherman's thinking had started this shit that he was finishing and he wanted them to have a clear picture of the world they had made for themselves. they were asking for all kinds of concessions, including the chance to evacuate men at arms along with the civilian population.

i saw the slave breaking pits at monticello. i remarked to the guide "that's the shit ya'll are so proud of?"

the south and its heritage can kiss my half-breed ass.

i am mixed race, my children are mixed race, my grandchildren are mixed race, my great-grandchildren will be mixed race.

my family is joyfully fucking those racist scumbags into irrelevance. (and more of them are mixed race than they will admit. most of them would fail under the "one drop" rules)

[oddjob]

Racial purity is bullshit.

[kathy a.]

most of the south is mixed heritage, too. while a small strand of the historical crowd is dedicated to remembering white supremacy as the good old days, many others are more interested in remembering so that shit does not happen again.

[Gene O'Grady]

I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly, but I don't actually believe that Hampton was Appomatox -- he had gone back to South Carolina to organize ineffective resistance to Sherman.

I think the failure of Southern militias to do anything to stop Sherman and the other Union invaders (in fact outside of Forrest their much ballyhooed cavalry raids didn't accomplish a single militarily significant thing and in one spectacular instance arguably cost the South the war) should be connected with the second amendment. It was obvious to any serious observer (certainly including Robert E Lee) that the kind of militia envisioned in the second amendment was militarily silly, although it might be good for terrorizing and bullying civilians. Thus it is only after the lessons of the war have been forgotten, or replaced with ignorant lost cause nostalgia, that that regrettable and useless amendment has come to be used to justify the sale of cheap handguns in Chicago.

If fancy dress balls are your thing, I might remark that Mrs. Jefferson Davis did herself far more honor shaking Booker T Washington's hand than she ever did in a hoop skirt.

[kathy a.]

the second amendment was adopted in 1791, seven decades before the civil war, and it speaks of a "well regulated militia." at that time, the revolutionary war was still reasonably fresh in people's minds. Art. I, section 8, clauses 15 and 16 of the US constitution (adopted 1787) address militias, stating their mission and placing control over their "discipline" in the hands of congress:

Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

so, i agree with gene's assessment that blind nostalgia (as promoted by NRA) has led to the proliferation of cheap handguns, not to mention semi-automatic weapons and about everything else you can think of, on the streets of everywhere USA.

[minstrel hussain boy]

by the time of appomattox, sherman was already looking into demobilizing the army of the west.

according hitchcock's diary and letters, hampton was there at the surrender. his organizing of partisans would have been after lee's surrender and against lee's specific orders and personal advice. of course rat bastards like hampton don't give a tinker's damn for orders or advice. the antebellum plantations were more like kingdoms or other medieval fiefs than anything found in a democracy.

i do agree with your assesment of the 2nd amendment. at the time of its writing a militia was folks who ran to assemble when the church bells rang. the current obsessive bullshit on interpreting it to mean that any old son of a bitch who wants to can go around heeled is insanity. the NRA done lost its mind and its shit.

(and in a tiny nit to pick with my friend oddjob, the full sherman quote on the presidency is:

if nominated i will not accept. if drafted i will not run. if elected i will not serve.)