Assistance Needed..

Friends, this is the second issue of The Southern Cavalry Review in which I am addressing “the truth” about the War of Secession. Needless to say, I have to be very careful if I want to get this information out without being shut down or losing my post as editor. Last issue (the first in the membership year July/August) I started with a look at the term “civil war” – and how it wasn’t – and who called it that first – Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address – and so forth. Well, I wasn’t shot down, but I still know that some of the officers are kinda spooked.

What I chose this month came about when I found comments by Mr. Thomas Moore of the League of the South which he made on May 30th (the anniversary of Mosby’s death) in the Warrenton Cemetery in which Mosby and many of his family are buried. It has to do with the assault on Southern history and it was perfect. What I need “feedback” on (hate that word) is my introduction. The issue will be going to the printers in about two weeks and I need to know if I have been both bold and cautious enough. Thanks.
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Under the masthead are the following two quotes presented in a “box”:

“All that the South has ever desired was that the Union as established by our forefathers should be preserved and that the government as originally organized should be administered in purity and truth.” ~ Robert E. Lee

“Sirs, you have no reason to be ashamed of your Confederate dead; see to it they have no reason to be ashamed of you.” ~ Robert Lewis Dabney, Stonewall Jackson’s Chaplain

Introductory comments:

History, like science, is not static for daily we learn more of the past. Cultures and civilizations pass away and later ones look again upon issues and events once considered “settled”. Of course, this is a good thing, always providing that such re-evaluations are objective and intent upon finding facts and discerning truth rather than advancing some contemporary agenda. For just as more can be discovered of the past, it is equally true that more can be concealed when those involved wish to do so. Unfortunately, once such a campaign is embarked upon, succeeding generations suffer the consequences of history that is more determined myth than distasteful truth. Among the most evident manifestations of such “created” history is that of England’s King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenets. Richard is presented as a monster, deformed in body and mind who murdered all who stood between himself and the throne including the rightful King, Henry of Lancaster, fighting to regain his throne from Richard’s older brother, the usurper King Edward IV of York (Richard married Henry’s widow, Ann Neville), his older brother the Duke of Clarence, his orphaned nephews, heir to their father’s throne and anyone else who happened to be suspicious. Richard, died a dog’s death on Boswell Field replaced by “the glorious” Earl of Richmond, who then became Henry VII first of the Tudor line of Kings (3) and Queens (2). Henry claimed the throne by virtue of the fact that he was descended from the bastard son of a Welsh groomsman and King Henry V’s mad French Queen. We have learned all about this “history” from the pens of Sir Thomas More and William Shakespeare, both Tudor lackeys. The only problem with their portrayal of Richard III is that it simply isn’t true! Indeed, when Richard fell, betrayed by Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, the City of York, his family home, loudly – and rightly – lamented the death of “Goode Kyng Richard”!

Now, the truth of Richard’s life is known. The facts are even included in a fictional work by author Josephine Tey, entitled “The Daughter of Time” which title, of course, relates to Truth said to be the offspring of Chronos. But it doesn’t matter. Truth has been “trumped” by fiction and, despite the old saying “truth will out”, it doesn’t appear that it will be widely acknowledged anytime soon – at least as long as Shakespearian actors want a gloriously bloodthirsty villain. Of course, the real question here is: “So what?” – a question that seems to be very much in vogue in these days of moral ennui. Who cares if “history” is wrong, even intentionally so! What difference does it make? In the case of Richard III, admittedly not much except for those who prefer truth to falsehood. But there are other spurious “histories” that have present consequences in that modern agendas arise from them as a soiled phoenix rises from polluted ashes. When intentional falsehoods and spurious history become the basis for cultural edicts, policy and law, then it is time to look more closely at what “everyone knows”.

The first article in this issue’s coverage of the War contains excerpts from comments made by Mr. Thomas Moore whose particulars are included at the end of his remarks. Mr. Moore addressed a gathering at the Confederate Memorial in Old Warrenton Cemetery on Memorial Day, May 30th, 2010 in an event sponsored by the Black Horse Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans. We chose it for two reasons. First, he spoke at the cemetery in which Colonel Mosby and many of his family are buried on the anniversary of Mosby’s death in 1916. But more important, Mr. Moore mentions something I had always believed existed but had never seen validated; that is, what he calls the Grand Bargain. The importance of that unspoken agreement will become known as you read Mr. Moore’s comments. Of course, not everyone will agree with him; that is to be expected. Yet his points are well made and provide food for thought for those who wish to think. ~ the Editor

 

Lady Val


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