November 2006

November 2006

HL Hunley Camp Cmdr. Walker opened the meeting welcoming all guest and regular members. Monty Jones said the opening prayer. Rick Andrews read the minutes and Cmdr. Walker gave the treasurer’s report.

Cmdr. Walker read a letter sent to the Camp from Charleston Elks Lodge thanking us for the support of their State Major Project, Alzheimer’s disease. State Project Chairmen, Buddy Sirisky sent the letter on behalf of the South Carolina Elks Association.

Earnest George Kish III was inducted into the Camp.

Guest Speaker Our Guest was Howard Chalmers from the Moultrie Camp. Howard spoke about The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 - July 4, 1863).

The Battle of Vicksburg or Siege of Vicksburg was the final significant battle in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of brilliant maneuvers, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton into defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant besieged the city, which surrendered six weeks later, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union.

Ghost Walk - Woody Brown gave us a report on the Ghost Walk. Everyone that attended thought that the Hunley Camp put on one of the best exhibits of all in the Walk. Thanks, to the many compatriots that showed up and represented the Hunley Camp.

Camp Chorus - At our last camp meeting, Cmdr. Walker has expressed an interest in starting a chorus made up of volunteers in the HL Hunley Camp. Six have already showed interest and think that it will be a great step for the good of the camp. Walker is looking for anyone that would possible play a string instrument or piano. One of his goals is to perform at different functions in the SCV and perhaps be ready to perform at the SCV Division meeting next March. If anyone is interested please call him at home 553-7426 or page him at 219-0352.

Lee/Jackson Banquet and Auction

As everyone knows by now our Lee Jackson Banquet will be held this year at the Fellowship Hall of the Bethany United Methodist Church on Friday, January 19, 2007, social hour from 6 to 7PM. Please put this on your calendar and plan to bring family and friends. Stan Clardy will be performing his play “Soldiers in Gray” and I promise you, people of all ages will enjoy his performance tremendously.

The Silent Auction as well has always been a most enjoyable part of our Lee Jackson banquet and it will be again this year with just a little help from each of you. I am again taking donations for the auction and will accept almost anything. The item or items you donate do not have to be of a heritage flavor but instead, be creative in what you select. You do not have to spend a lot of money, look around your house and select something that you may have become tired of but may be of interest or value to someone else. If you are crafty, make me something. Please do not make donations of alcohol this year. I will take donations at any time and would like to have everything in hand by the first week in January to allow me time for preparing the bid cards and cataloging. I will even pick up the items if need be. Remember, this is our single biggest fund-raiser of the year. Give me a call. Rick Andrews 478-5317

Upcoming Events

Nov. 21st - Tuesday - Camp Meeting 6:30PM Masonic Lodge Summerville, SC
Nov. 23rd - Thanksgiving Day

Dec. 17^th – Sunday –Summerville Christmas Parade - Starts at 6 pm in downtown Summerville, SC. Sponsored by the Jaycees. The camp needs 6 ladies to ride in the event and the word is we can fire our rifles.

Dec. 19th - Tuesday - Camp Meeting 6:30PM Masonic Lodge Summerville, SC

Jan 19^th - Friday - Lee/Jackson banquet is Jan 19^th

Expression of Sympathy

BUDDIN, Theodora Theodora Barton Buddin, 87, widow of Cecil Eugene Buddin, Sr., of Summerville, SC died November 7, 2006. Memorials may be made to Summerville Meals on Wheels, P.O. Box 592, Summerville, SC 29484 or to Bethany United Methodist Church, 118 W. 3rd South Street, Summerville, SC. Mrs. Buddin was a lifelong member of Bethany United Methodist Church and was a homemaker. She was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary Post 21, Eastern Star #143, and the Estelle Dunbar Circle at Bethany UMC. To our camp compatriots, Cecil and William Buddin we extend our heartfelt condolences on the loss of your Mother.

Mrs. Leggett – The mother of Camp Compatriot Charles Leggett passed away on October 6th. To the family of Charles Leggett, please accept our sincere condolences on the passing of your Mother.

"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations."

Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, United Confederate Veterans,
New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25, 1906.

Hunley Camp Christmas Project

For this year’s Christmas Project, the Hunley Camp is teaming up with the US Marines and their Toys for Tots Campaign. We have already spoken with the local Marine representatives and our goal is to provide as many assembled bicycles/tricycles as possible before the deadline, which will be in mid December. We will then deliver the items to the Marines and have pictures taken hopefully for publication. We want as many Camp members as possible to take part in delivering the bicycles.

Funding for this project will be approached in several different ways. At our October meeting the Camp voted unanimously to use Camp funds to pay for the first dozen bicycles and to solicit our members for contributions as well. We have also applied to Wal-Mart for a matching funds grant but to date we have not heard anything back on our application.

As of November 8^th, our most generous Compatriots have pledged an additional $1,200.00 towards this project with almost a third of the Camp left to be contacted. If you have not received a call about this project and wish to contribute, please contact either Rick Andrews or Ben Bunting. If you have already pledged and wish to turn in your money, you can either give the money to Rick or Ben at one of our upcoming meetings or mail a check to Rick at 207 East 3^rd South St., Summerville, SC 29483.

Hopefully we will find ourselves in a situation where we might have to spend a Saturday putting all of these bicycles together and if that is the case we will gather at Rick Andrews’ home to accomplish this and if you work real hard I might even fix you a hamburger.

I think the thing I love most about being a member of the H. L. Hunley Camp 143 is the way our Compatriots step up to the plate to support the Camp in all of it’s undertakings and endeavors. Whether it is a heritage related need, assistance to other Compatriots in the face of disaster or needs in our local community, our Camp members stand together. God Bless the H. L. Hunley Camp members and their families.

Thank you, Rick Andrews 478-5317

Dues are Past Due

If you have not paid your dues by now they are seriously past due and as of November 1^st they were considered delinquent. Compatriots that are delinquent will have to pay an additional $10.00, $5.00 each for Division and National, to bring their membership status back up to a member in good standing. If you have extenuating circumstances, please call Rick Andrews so he can help resolve the problem.

What you may not know is that payment of dues on time, retention of existing members and recruitment of new members plays a big part in the selection process used by Division and National for the Camp of the Year Awards. Winning the Division Camp have the Year Award and placing 3^rd in the National Camp of the Year Award was a truly outstanding accomplishment for the Hunley Camp and its compatriots. Congratulations to all and let’s keep up the good work by getting those dues in right away. Thanks, Rick Andrews

ELECTIONS COMING UP SOON

Please be aware that this is an election year for Camp officers and it is coming up real soon. Commander, 1^st Lt. Commander, Adjutant, Treasurer, and Color Sergeant are all elected positions and we will be taking nominations at our November meeting.

Each nominee will be given a few minutes to speak at the November meeting and the voting will take place at our December meeting (Annual Meeting). Newly elected officers will take command after the swearing in ceremony at the Lee Jackson banquet in January.

All Hunley Camp compatriots are urged to become an active participant in our Camp and what better way than by serving as one of our officers. If you are not inclined to run for one of the elected positions but would be willing to serve as one of our many appointed officers then by all means please make this known to either Commander Walker Wright or Adjutant Rick Andrews so that your name can be placed in nomination at our November meeting or placed on a list for consideration by whomever is elected as our new Commander. This is your chance to make changes and help our Camp grow.

Remember our Camp meeting is on Tuesday Nov. 21^st, at 6:30PM at the Masonic Lodge in Summerville. Make plans and come on out for the election of Camp Officers.

Private John E. Googe, D. July 10th, 1864, Appling County, Co. F, 47th Regiment, Georgia Infantry, Appling Rangers. Killed in action at the Battle of Burdens Causeway known as The Battle of Bloody Bridge on Johns Island.

The Month of November in
U.S. Civil War History

Nov. 8, 1861 - the British mail packet Trent, carrying James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate commissioners to London and Paris respectively, was halted in the Bahaman Channel by the U.S. warship San Jacinto, commanded by Capt. Charles Wilkes. The commissioners and their secretaries were forcibly removed from the Trent and taken to Boston, where they were interned in Fort Warren.

Nov. 12, 1861 - Fingal (later CSS Atlanta), purchased in England, entered Savannah laden with military supplies -- the first ship to run the blockade solely on Confederate government account.

Nov. 3, 1862 - CSS Cotton and shore batteries engaged Union squadron at Berwick Bay, Louisiana. The squadron suffered considerable damage before the gallant Confederate gunboat expended all its ammunition and was compelled to withdraw.

Nov. 4, 1864 - Confederate raiders captured small gunboats USS Key West, Tawah, and Elfin near Johnsonville on the Tennessee River.

Nov. 8, 1864 - Abraham Lincoln is re-elected president, defeating Democrat George B. McClellan. Lincoln gets 212 of 233 electoral votes and 55 percent of the popular vote. Upon hearing of President Lincoln being re-elected General William T. Sherman ordered 2,500 light wagons to be loaded with supplies in preparation for his March to the Sea.

Nov. 10, 1865 Henry Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville Prison (Camp Sumter), was executed for the supposed brutality and the mistreatment committed under his command. Wirz was the only Confederate to be
executed as a war criminal after the Civil War.

Captain Henry Wirz

A Defense of Captain Henry Wirz
by Louis Schade

To the American Public:

     Intending to leave the United States, I feel it my duty before I start to fulfill a promise which, a few hours before his death, I gave to my unfortunate client, Captain Henry Wirz, who was executed at Washington on the 10th of November 1865. Protesting up to the last moment his innocence of those monstrous crimes with which he was charged, he received my word that, having failed to save him from a felon's doom, I would as long as I lived do everything in my power to clear his memory. I did that the more readily, as I was then already convinced that he suffered wrongfully. Since that time his unfortunate children, both here and in Europe, have constantly implored me to wipe out the terrible stains, which now cover the name of their father.

          Though the times do not seem propitious for obtaining justice, yet, considering that man is mortal, I will, before entering upon a perilous voyage, perform my duty to those innocent orphans and also to myself. I will now give a brief statement of the causes, which led to the arrest, and execution of Captain Wirz.           In April 1865, President Johnson issued a proclamation stating that from evidence in the possession of the Bureau of Military Justice it appeared that Jefferson Davis was implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and for that reason the President offered one hundred thousand dollars for the capture of the then fugitive ex-President of the Southern Confederacy. That testimony has since been found to be entirely false and a mere fabrication, and the suborned, Conover, is now under sentence in the jail in this city, the two perjurers whom he suborned having turned state's evidence against him; whilst the individual by whom Conover was suborned has not yet been brought to justice. Certain high and influential enemies of Jefferson Davis, either then already aware of the character of the testimony of those witnesses, or not thinking their testimony quite sufficient to hang Mr. Davis, expected to find the wanting material in the terrible mortality of Union prisoners at Andersonville. Orders were issued accordingly to arrest a subaltern officer, Captain Wirz, a poor, friendless, and wounded prisoner of war (he being included in the surrender of General Johnston) and besides, a foreigner by birth. On the ninth of May. He was placed in the Old Capital prison at Washington, and from that time the greater part of the Northern press was busily engaged in forming the unfortunate man in the eyes of the Northern people into such a monster that it became almost impossible to obtain counsel; even his countryman, the Swiss Consul-General, publicly refused to accept money to defray the expenses of the trial. He was doomed before he was heard, and / even the permission to be heard according to law was denied him, / To increase the excitement and give éclat to the proceeding and to influence still more the public mind, the trial took place under the very dome of the capitol of the nation. A military commission, presided over by a despotic general, was formed, and the paroled prisoner of war, his wounds still open, was so feeble that he had to recline during the trial on a sofa. / How that trial was conducted the whole world knows! / The enemies of generosity and humanity believed it to be a sure thing to get at Jefferson Davis, therefore the first charge was that of conspiracy between Henry Wirz, Jefferson Davis, Howell Cobb, Richard B. Winder, R. R. Stevenson, W. J. W. Kerr, and a number of others / to kill the Union prisoners. / The trial lasted for three months; but fortunately for the bloodthirsty instigators, not a particle of evidence was produced showing the existence of such a conspiracy; / yet Captain Wirz was found guilty of that charge! / Having thus failed, another effort was made. On the night before the execution of the prisoner (November 9, 1865) a telegram was sent to the Northern press from this city, stating that Wirz had made important disclosures to General L. C. Baker, the well-known detective, implicating Jefferson Davis, and that the confession would probably be given to the public. On the same evening some parties came to the confession of Wirz, Rev. Father Boyle, / and also to me, / one of them informing me that a high Cabinet official wished to assure Wirz that if he would implicate Jefferson Davis with the atrocities committed at Andersonville, his sentence would be commuted. The messenger requested me to inform Wirz of this. In the presence of Father Boyle, I told Wirz next morning what had happened. The Captain simply and quietly replied, "Mr. Schade, you know that I have always told you that I do not know anything about Jefferson Davis. He had no connection with me as to what was done at Andersonville. If I knew anything about him, I would not become a traitor against him or anybody else even to save my life."

He likewise denied that he had ever made any statement to General Baker. Thus ended the attempt to suborn Captain Wirz against Jefferson Davis. That alone shows what a man he was. How many of his defamers would have done the same? With his wounded arm in a sling, the poor paroled prisoner mounted the scaffold two hours later. His last words were that he died innocent and so he did. The 10th of November 1865 will indeed be a black stain upon the pages of American history. To weaken the effect of his declaration of innocence and of the noble manner in which Wirz died, a telegram was manufactured here and sent North stating that on the 27th of October, Mrs. Wirz (who actually on that day was nine hundred miles from Washington) had been prevented by that Stentorian / deus ex machina, / General L. C. Baker, / from poisoning her husband. / Thus at the time when the unfortunate family lost their husband and father, a cowardly and atrocious attempt was made to blacken their character also. On the next day, I branded the whole as a lie, and since then I have never heard of it again, though it emanated from a brigadier-general of the United States Army.

All those who were charged with having conspired with Captain Wirz have since been released, except Jefferson Davis. Captain Winder was let off without trial; and if any of the others have been tried, which I do not
know, certainly not one of them has been hanged. As Captain Wirz could not conspire alone, nobody will now, in view of that important fact, consider him guilty of that charge. As to "murder in violation of the laws and customs of war," I do not hesitate to assert that about one hundred and forty-five out of one hundred and sixty witnesses that testified on both sides, declared during the trial / that Captain Wirz never murdered or killed any Union prisoners with his own hands or otherwise. Those witnesses, some twelve or fifteen, who testified that they saw Wirz kill prisoners with his own hands or otherwise, swore falsely, abundant proof of that assertion being in existence. The hands of Captain Henry Wirz are clear of the blood of prisoners of war. He would certainly have at least intimated to me a knowledge of the alleged murders with which he was charged. No names of the alleged murdered men could be given, and when it was done no such prisoner could be found or identified. The terrible scene in court when he was confronted with one of the witnesses, and the latter insisting that Wirz was the man who killed a certain Union prisoner which irritated Wirz so much that he nearly fainted, will still be remembered. That witness, Gray swore falsely and God alone knows what the poor innocent prisoner must have suffered at that moment. The scene was depicted and illustrated in the Northern newspapers as if Wirz had broken down on account of his guilt. Seldom has a mortal man suffered more than that friendless and forsaken man. But who is responsible for the many lives that were lost at Andersonville and in the Southern prisons? That question has not fully been settled, but history will yet tell on whose heads the guilt for those sacrificed hecatombs of human beings is to be placed. It was certainly not the fault of poor Wirz, when in consequence of medicines being declared contraband of war by the North, the Union prisoners died for the want of the same. How often have we read during the war that ladies going south had been arrested and placed in the Old Capitol Prison by the Union authorities, because quinine and other medicine had been found in their clothing! Our Navy prevented the ingress of medical stores from the seaside and our troops repeatedly destroyed drug stores and even the supplies of private physicians in the South. Thus the scarcity of medicine became general all over the South. That provisions in the South were scarce will astonish nobody, when it is remembered how the war was carried on. General Sheridan boasted in his report that in the Shenandoah Valley alone he burned more than two thousand barns filled with wheat and corn and all the mills in the whole tract of country; that he destroyed all factories and killed or drove off every animal, even poultry, that could contribute to human sustenance. And these desolations were repeated in different parts of the South, and so thoroughly that money had to be appropriated to keep the people from starving. The destruction of railroads and other means of transportation by which food could be supplied by abundant districts to those without it increased the difficulties in giving sufficient food to our prisoners.

The Confederate authorities, aware of their inability to maintain the prisoners, informed the Northern agents of the great mortality, and urgently requested that the prisoners should be exchanged, even without regard to the surplus, which the Confederates had on the exchange roll from former exchanges -- that is, man for man. But our War Department did not consent to an exchange. They did not want to "exchange skeletons for healthy men." Finally, when all hopes for exchange were gone, Colonel Ould, the Confederate Commissioner of Exchange, offered early in August, 1864, / to deliver up all sick and wounded / without requiring an equivalents in return, and pledged that the number would amount to ten or fifteen thousand, and if it did not, he would make up either number by adding well men. Although this offer was made in August, the transportation was not sent for them until December, although he urged that haste be made. During that very period most of the deaths occurred. It might be well to inquire whom these "skeletons" were that Secretary of War Stanton did not want to exchange for healthy men. A noble and brave soldier never permits his antagonist to be calumniated and trampled upon after an honorable surrender. Besides, notwithstanding the decision of the highest legal tribunal in the land that military commissions are unconstitutional, and earnest and able protestations of President Johnson and the results of military commissions, yet such military commissions are again established by recent legislation of Congress all over the suffering and starving South. History is just, and, as Mr. Lincoln used to say, "We cannot escape history." Puritanical hypocrisy, self-adulation, and self-glorification will not save the enemies of liberty from their just punishment. Secretary Stanton has allowed not even Christian burial of the remains of Captain Wirz. They still lie side by side with those of another and acknowledged victim of military commissions, the unfortunate Mrs. Surratt, in the yard of the former jail of this city.

If anybody should desire to reply to this, I politely beg that it may be done before the first of May next, as I shall leave the country -- but to return in the fall. After that day letters will reach me in care of the American Legation or Mr. Benedete Bobzani, Leipsig Street, No. 38, Berlin, Prussia.

Louis Schade
Attorney at Law
Washington, D.C.
April 4, 1867

* This Article Was Extracted From: *
* The True Story of Andersonville Prison *
James Madison Page
Lieutenant, Sixth Michigan Cavalry
former Andersonville inmate
Published in 1908