Happy Secession Day!

Today in history: 1860: South Carolina becomes the First in Secession! The brave men and women of the South took the first bold, brave step in shaking off the shackles of tyranny. It was fitting to have South Carolina take the lead. Her motto is Sic Semper Tyrannus, Thus Ever to Tyrants!

Take a few minutes today to visit in your hearts and minds the memories of those  valiant men and women who gave some or all in the Second War of Independence. Then take a few minutes to thank God that such people are around and for the actual sacrifices of those valiant men and women of days gone by. As the Sesquicentinennial of the War Between the States officially begins, expect hatred of Southrons to begin anew. Expect professional leftists and hate mongers and race baiters to come out of the woodwork.

There's great news though: Incoming congressmen have signed on to a public statement telling the SPLC that you are the real hatemongers: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-potok/splc-responds-to-attack-b_b_797273.html

More good news: For those lovers of all things Celtic, lulu.com has given me a promo code for you to get William Butler Yeats' The Celtic Twighlight for 15% off at checkout: RESOLUTION305. The code is good through January 5, 2011.

Finally, here is a little Southron levity. There truly was a time when we could laugh at each other. Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRyIMqXA_o8

Deo Vindice et Sic Semper Tyrannus!

Destruction and Reconstruction

There are so many different accounts of the War Between the States. Everyone is unique and priceless -- at least among those who were writing of first hand experiences. The bravery and tireless loyalty of battered and bedraggled Southrons who fought to the last, the priceless courage of the women and "old folks" at home, the steadfast hope until the bitter end -- we're all familiar with these sentiments, but each story is unique.

Yet among the unique stories of our war of independence for the South there are a few that stand out. One such memoire is "Destruction and Reconstruction" by Lt. General Richard Taylor. Taylor is the son of U.S. President Zachary Taylor, he was born and raised in Kentucky, studied in Scotland and France and finally settled in Louisiana. He was educated and genteel. Yet without mincing words, he presents a veritable who's who of the second half of the Nineteenth Century in truly nuanced accounts of battles from Stonewall Jackson's Shenendoah Valley Campaign to the guerilla warfare of western Louisiana to his final surrender in 1865 in Citronelle, Alabama in the last stronghold of the Confederacy east of the Mississippi River.

That's where most memoires end. Taylor takes us further. He goes on to describe in some detail the era now known as Reconstruction and ponders at some length its meaning. He tells why he believes Southrons make better soldiers: i.e. because they are surrounded by hard work and privation as comes with agrarian life while Northerners are surrounded by luxuries and dependence on manufactured goods to such a degree that it weakens their character.

If you want to understand why the South is still under siege today, read this book. So much of what we, as Southrons, suffer under, the political wrangling, the cultural genocide of our customs and way of life, the hate-mongering of Northern sychophants and the social engineers they cling to is all in this book.  Perhaps General Taylor himself says it best: "The leaders of the radical masses of the North have indicted such countless and cruel wrongs on the Southern people as to forbid any hope of disposition or ability to forgive their victims; and the land will have no rest until the last of these persecutors has passed into oblivion" Sadly, he did not quite have the foresight to see that the persecutors' children would take up the mantras of their forebears.

You can download or purchase a print copy of this book here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/destruction-and-reconstruction/2920000
List price: $14.61
Sale price: $13.15 (Through December, 2010)
PDF price: $1.56

We Need More Prayer

http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-no-praying-in-the-end-zone-112910,0,4538168.story
Go here and read the story. It's disgusting.
Ronnie Hastie, star running back of the Tumwater, Washington high school football team was playing the State's 2A Semi-finals game in Tacoma. He scores a touchdown and drops to a knee and points skyward. He was praying with a gesture that essentially said, "Thank you, Jesus." As they say, "You go, kid!" But that's not what the ref said. This young man was flagged and given a 15 yard penalty!
While living in Texas about 4 or 5 years back, I knew of at least one high school where the parents and fans prayed a public Our Father/Lord's Prayer and everyone stopped to respect that, if not participate. But up in Yankeeland, our kids get penalized for giving glory to their creator with a gesture that does not require participation or the assent of others.
Quite frankly, this land -- north or south -- needs more prayer. We need to acknowledge our Creator. If we don't start being Hezekiahs, we'll soon see our Nebuchadnezzer at the gates. This land is on the edge of Divine judgement and we need to avert that.
Coach Sid Otton, you need to check your priorities in openly supporting the call instead of calling for a repeal of the rule. This young man on your team was giving glory to God, but the ref flagged him for self-aggrandizement on the field.
Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it: Dixie needs our prayers and so do her supporters, where ever they may be. Our Southron people have the most powerful tool on earth for freedom: access to the Father in prayer, if only we will avail ourselves of it. We can overcome the enemy by the power of prayer. As Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." Alleluia!

The Celtic Twilight and The Hound of Cullan

The Dixie Diarist is pleased to announce our reprints of two Celtic-themed books.

First is F. A. M. Webster's The Hound of Cullan, a Victorian-era retelling of the tale of Irish mythological hero, Cú Chulainn. Cú Chulainn was an ill-fated warrior who fought against the forces of the greedy Queen Maeve who stole an Ultonian prize cow.

The second is William Butler Yeats' timeless classic, "The Celtic Twilight," a book that has inspired countless Celtic descended story-tellers, poets and musicians. This book made Yeats an household word that is recognized even today, although few know why they know his name. Read this and find out why.

Just visit The Dixie Diarist's storefront at http://lulu.com/spotlight/Confederate to see these and all our titles. Through the end of the year, everything print is 10% off, just so as to make shopping a little easier on the wallet for the upcoming holiday season.

Thanksgiving Day

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the US. Those whose kids are trapped in grade school level government indoctrinations centers have been cutting out paper Pilgrim hats and Indian feathered headbands and get to enjoy all the Pilgrim-hatted turkey decorations. We hear all about the Pilgrim Puritans and their feast that they shared with the Indians. But what's the true story? As with all things Yankee, a spin to make the "betters" look better than their "lessers" is in full play with this myth.
Read Colonial Governor William Bradford's chronicle of the Plymouth Colony entitled, "Of Plimoth plantation." The Pilgrims were starving. They had adopted a socialist common pantry. But, as with all things socialist/communist, they failed to keep up with the needs of the people they purported to work for. By then, they had developed somewhat amicable relations with the local Indians who came to their rescue because common human decency would not watch another starve to death when help could be given. In thanksgiving to God, a feast was proclaimed. Thus the basis for our modern myth of the first American Thanksgiving was born.
Here's another truth: It was fourteen years after the first Thanksgiving meal by English colonists at Jamestown, Virginia who held the day of their safe arrival in 1607 as a "holy and perpetual day" of Thanksgiving to God as a part of the very Charter of the colony. If that is not enough, the Spanish colony at San Augustino (St. Augustine), Florida celebrated a communal meal with the Indians there in the 1540's. It, too,  was a Thanksgiving meal. Thanksgiving meals are truly a co-opted Southern institution.
You will likely hear about Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of a perpetual Thanksgiving Day holiday in the US. But he was not the first to make a Thanksgiving Day proclamation. George Washington, that first and finest of all Virginians was -- in 1789.  You see, in America, it is Southrons who are first to give thanks to God publicly and then Yankees imitate us (with one side of their mouths whilst they publicly deny God with the other side of it by their actions and policies in office) and take the credit due to our Southron peoples.
Nevertheless, we should not give up our Thanksgivings to God just because Yankees distort our history to their advantage. Indeed, we ought to make great efforts to reclaim this part of our heritage and live it out as a holy day and not just an excuse for a family meal. We should meditate on what we are thankful for quite extensively throughout the year, but especially at this time. I have many, many things to be thankful for myself, but one thing in particular comes to mind that I'd like to share.
Yesterday, a young man of school age in Indiana named Eddie was brought to my attention. He had brought his Confederate Battle Flag to school. As a result, he was called a racist, he was bullied, and another student tried to throw his flag in the trash. He was ordered to put it in his locker and keep it there. Rather than try to bully back or start an altercation, Eddie did the right thing. He sought out the help of a competent adult:
H. K. Edgerton, the former North Carolina chapter president of the NAACP who has taken to defending the heritage and history of Black Confederates.
H. K. sadly declined because he knows well and good that no one will accept him or what he has to say in Federally directed school systems. He applauded Eddie for his bravery and congratulated him for his strength of character. I thought something had to be done for this boy. As the owner of The Dixie Diarist, I could do something: give him some free Southron books in PDF format. I contacted Eddie through Facebook and told him how to get his free books.
This gave me an idea. I want to show my gratefulness to God for these young people who defend their Southern/Southron heritage with courage by giving them any three Dixie Diarist titles in PDF for free. So: if you know a young man or woman (under 18) who has character and bravery in the face of hertiage haters, contact me at TheDixieDiarist@yahoo.com and tell me their story or pass a link to their news story and any contact info you may have (email is preferred or a Facebook user name) and if I can get in touch with them, I will email them any three titles from The Dixie Diarist for free. The requirements are: they are under 18,  they cannot have retaliated with hate or violence, they cannot have incited racial tensions by intentional or wonton design, I need to be able to contact them and their parents have to be okay with the gift.
Please share this with any pro-Southron family or person you know.
Here is a Thanksgiving gift for you: http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=WQ26144948
Thank you for your bravery, Eddie! And thank you, for yours, HK!
View HK Edgerton in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5UjVTtkF4
Happy Thanksgiving Day to All from The Dixie Diarist!

Don't Mess With Dixie

Don't mess with a boy from Dixie
Unless you plan to see
Southern ragin' fire
Burnin'up the hills...
-- from Don't Mess With Dixie by the Free South Band.

Every society has its downcast classes. Many times, the name of that group becomes synonymous with backwardness, idiocy, degeneracy and so forth. In America today, it is the Southern culture(s) that is (are) refered to this way. The allegedly cultured segment of society use terms like hillbilly, Redneck, Cracker as derogatory epithets. In fact, it has become so common, that social commentators like James Howard Kunstler make comments (refering to the Peak Oil concept) like:   "Dixieland is hopeless, what with their thrall to the born-agains and the misfortunes of their demographic (namely "Cracker Culture," which celebrates ignorance and violence)"; and (refering to a theorized emminant techno-economic collapse), "I remain pessimistic about Dixieland, which I think will be prone to violence and political disorder. In the longer run I believe it will become what it was before World War II: an agricultural backwater." The entire article, which is otherwise fairly interesting, can be read here:
http://www.christmartenson.com/blog/straight-talk-jim-kunstler-coming-cluster/47864 

Now I feel that James Kunstler probably does not harbor hatred for the South, but he has tapped into a cultural stereotype that holds little truth in reality and by default, uses his position of influence in the larger culture to reinforce a terribly mistaken stereotype. Why does he get away with this? Because it's popular to denigrate the South. But if I were to denigrate Yankee ghetto dwellers as ignorant and backward, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be up in arms and I might discover that Al Sharpton wants to set up a new headquarters down the road from my home in order to force me to convert my opinion and decisions he disagrees with like he did to the Indianapolis Police Department recently.

There's a lot of secession talk in the air these days, and not just in the South. With the 150th Anniversary of South Carolina's secession and the wave of secession it created across the South for more than a year, this is no doubt going to be a bad 4-1/2 years for anyone who is pro-Southern. Sadly, there is no need for this. A little mutual respect and understanding goes a long way. But, alas, I do not believe this is going to happen. Indeed, if things get tense enough to turn aggressive, I believe that America will simply split up into several smaller, regional countries or autonomous areas. Hopefully, if that happens, I am back in Texas already!

To my fellow Southrons, I have this suggestion: as far as possible, be peaceable with your neighbors and strangers alike. Take the high moral ground and don't give in to Yankee meddlin' and tomfoolery. Don't hesitate to defend yourself, if accosted, but be peaceable as far as it lies within your power. Be the better man and stand united with your fellow Southrons and resist the tyrant the way the South always has: with the heart first and foremost.

The Power of Song

We all know the Battle Hymn of the Republic, right? We all associate it -- and correctly -- with the War of Northern Aggression. We see it in a whole lot of church hymnals, but is it Christian? Why not go here to see another perspective: 

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance84.html

Then there's some songs that are just too fun. Alabama has been pumping out the music for 30 years or more. Every album/LP/EP/Tape/CD they ever put out had top 10 hits and many were number ones. Yet for all their musical genius, they never gave in to PC-ism and never repudiated their roots. Here's a great video you can watch over on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzUOBu8wbhI

As an Independent Sacramental Christian, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about my faith. One of the things that has often come to mind is the hymns that I sing. I used to love "In the Garden." But when I stopped to think about the content of the lyrics, I was astonished that I had ever sang it. There was no theological content whatever. It was entirely subjective and was nothing more than a feel-good "Jesus is my buddy" kind of song. There are others like it, but there are some that are full of solid biblical content, often quoting the Bible directly. Many of the Psalms have been rediscovered by modern composers as a source of inspiration.

In the same way, Southrons should take care of the music we sing. What you sing is something that you will come to accept as part of you and your world view. Songs with lyrics are so often artistic representations of our world-view and our sense of reality. As a Southron, I will not sing Yankee songs and mindlessly "patriotic" songs. When I hear Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," I sing along, but I change the words to say, "God bless the CSA." I once parodied the Oak Ridge Boys with "Confederate Made." 

Just food for thought. Keep singing, but make it mean something. 

Take the War North

Hind sight is 20/20. We now know that Lee should never have taken the war to the North. Let's face it: Gettysburg was the beginning of the end; just a real bad choice all around. But was Jackson wrong as he lie on his death-bed in asking the message to be sent to Lee to take the war northward? Yes and no. Yes, in that it was a military decision of monumentous import that turned out poorly. But no, for another reason:

The Book of Ecclesiastes says there is a time and a season for everything under heaven. It was not the time to take the war north, nor was their manner of warfare the correct one. To wit: today is the time, and the war of words and cultural genocide against Southrons is the form of warfare. Now, where is it, precisely, that I am going with all this?

Here is my premise: for the last 150 years the South has been blamed for the unconstitutional war Abraham Lincoln thrust upon us. We have been brow beaten and hen-pecked at every turn for our backward, stubborn opposition to false union (and "progress") and our nostalgic views of "magnolia and moonlight." We have been beaten over the proverbial head most of all for our "Negro servitude," our "peculiar institution," or (dare I say it?!) just plain slavery of Blacks. Old news, I know, but I'm going somewhere with this.

For a few decades now, many people have been openly embracing Southern Nationalism as a philosophy of politics and we're just plain sick of the "meddlin' Yankees" dictating to the South how to live her own life culturally and politically. We are beat over the heads in newpapers, magazines, TV and radio and now the internet by carpetbaggers and scalawags who want us to change our ways and renounce our past, our ancestors and our heroes. Some of us, of late, have been hankerin' for a way to really get up in the face of those damned meddlin' Yankees and their scalawag turncoat friends. Now, in a small way, I have one:

The official name of Rhode Island: The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Ever hear it put that way in a school book or class room? Yeah, me neither, until recently. A Black legislator took it upon herself to be offended at her State's name (on behalf of everyone else everywhere, no doubt). I understand it was largely her doing that got a ballot measure put on the ballot to drop the second half of the State's name. After all, "Providence Plantations," can only be a terrible reminder of her State's role in the slave trade! That terrible word, "Plantations," can of course only mean a slave owner's farm, right? Here's the facts, folks, during the Colonial Period, Rhode Island ended slavery, but many of her ships brought thousands of "Slave Coast" war captives to our shores for sale in other colonies (later States). Rhode Island was among the foremost to flag vessels for this explicit reason. Here's another lesson: a "plantation" was simply an English term for a farm where cash crops are grown, usually on a large scale. I may be wrong here, but I believe hemp was the reason for the usage of the word "plantation," not the presence of slaves.

Ever wonder how many slave ships flew any of the three national flags of the Confederate States of America? Precisely zero. There were no slave ships ever to fly the Stars and Bars, the Stainless Banner or the Blood-stained Banner. Not one. The importation of slaves was banned from the get-go in the Southern Nation.

Yet how many times have you ever seen Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or their ilk protesting outside the Rhode Island governor's mansion or capital building?  Same exact number: zero, nada, no-never-not-once. Where is the indignation? Where are all the offended Blacks? (So far I know of only one!) Why hasn't Ta-Nehisi Coats been screaming about this one in his drivel-filled columns? He knows better than to believe the historical record when it says there were Blacks who volunteered for the Confederate Cause. Where's Al Sharpton? He hasn't been complaining too loudly. Has his racist rat-smelling nose even picked up this scent so close to home? Jesse Jackson has not seemed to notice, either, and by golly, he knows for sure that Civil Rights still don't exist for people of color. If the race-baiting crowd can't clean up their own houses and back yards, how dare they come down to Dixie by the bus load and protest and how dare they set up boycotts? They certainly aren't invited by Southrons of any color.

To the meddlin' Yankee invader: GO HOME! You're not welcome in Dixie and you're not wanted in Dixie. Southrons are proud of their heritage, the blight of that peculiar institution, notwithstanding. We love our land and we long for the day when the program of Southern Cultural cleansing will come at last to an end so we can get on with the business of being a free and sovereign nation again. And that has nothing to do with the colors of our skins. It has everything to do with our Southern culture and values.

A Great Source of News and Commentary

If you haven't already subscribed, then you need to see this site:
http://www.shnv.net/

This is a news and commentary newsletter for, by and about Southerners/Southrons and the world they live in. Chuck Demastus does a fabulous job creating and maintaining this wonderful site and keeping the content clean and safe for the whole family.

Now, those who should be most in favor of our freedoms, the Teas Parties of the various States have, it seems, forced all those with Confederate flags and uniforms out of their South Carolina meeting. Let me ask you this: If the Confederate soldier fought and died for freedom for hearth and home, who more suited to represent freedom against a tyrannical government gone amok? My message to the Tea Party there in South Carolina: Get yer heads outta yer 'hinder-parts' and locate some shampoo quickly before anyone figures out that yer just Republicans without a convention!

Confederate Calendar for 2011

Again this year, we are offering a Confederate-themed wall calendar to our readers.  Dates of major battles and birthdays of many notable Confederate persons have been added to civil and Judeo-Christian holidays. Each month shows pictures of notable Confederate persons and places, including a picture with a flying First National flag taken inside Ft. Sumter after the surrender of that most notable of all forts. (Flying flags were usually blurs back then in the age before stop-action photography.)

http://www.lulu.com/content/legacy-lulustudio-calendar/confederate-calendar-2011/9484751

Deo Vindice!

Non-White Confederates?

You know, I started this blog basically to be a  very cheap form of advertising. I just want to get the word out about my books that I reprint and sell via my lulu.com  storefront. I just wanted to keep it simple. I have actually resisted even having a blog for years just because it was another inane "web presence" to be maintained at the expense of time that might just be better spent elsewhere.

But...since I have this blog, I decided to go ahead and add my two cents' worth here and there, so here goes:

There has been controversy over the Confederate Battle Flag for years, but Southern/Confederate cultural cleansing in the past 15 years has spread like some virulent disease that has gone amok from a Frankensteinian lab. Why now? Didn't the South and all her citizens feel at home singing Dixie at the home games and flying their beloved flag in the parades for all those long decades since the end of the War Between the States? Yet the beloved flag has been targeted by "Civil Rights" activists who are interested in the rights of everyone except those they don't like.

Our response as Southern people? Show that the South was not a lillie-White oligarchy of plantation owners contemplating moonlight and magnolia while sippin' whiskey on the front porches of the "big houses" of the South. My wife has Cherokee ancestors. That almost guarantees Confederate soldiers in her ancestry. Our historic flag collection includes the Cherokee Braves flag. "How White was their cause?" I once asked a White Supremist who tried to recruit me via email some time back.

A wonderful Filipina I used to know in Oregon assured my wife and me of her love for us, but opined that Asians would not be welcome in our beloved Old South. Only after losing contact with her did I learn of a whole company of Filipinoes who fought under the Stars and Bars from Louisiana.

Then there are Black Confederates. Mention them and a whole new firestorm rages around you. "They were just slaves who were forced to serve by their masters," the professional race-baiters and court-jesters cum historians scream. Well, that is true in some cases. The "Chandler Boys," -- one White and one Black -- would refute that thought.  The Black Chandler was a former slave of the White, but had been manumitted. They went to war togetheras friends and brothers and when the White Chandler was wounded, the Black Chandler protected him with his own life until he could get him home to mend up.

Yes, most of those Black Confederates were teamsters, valets, cooks and so forth, but to loosely quote Frederick Douglas, runaway slave and Civil Rights demigod, there were at that very minute Blacks who voluntarily fought with "guns on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets." And most of them got no pay because the Confederate Congress had not yet authorized the enlistment of Blacks of any state [in life]. They simply picked up a gun from among the battlefield fallen and moved to the firing line. They were most certainly NOT coerced!

The FACTS of history are there. Southern Blacks loved the South and hated the Yankee invader as much as their White brothers did. Just read The Slave Narratives and you'll see a great many stories that embarass the Civil Rights cabal. Several "emancipated" slaves in that area of Missouri where I grew up ran to the camps of Colonel William Clarke Quantrill after escaping from Jayhawkers who had "liberated" them. (In fact, many "Abolitionists" in the Bleeding Kansas period were, in fact, "freeing" slaves, only to re-sell them in Louisiana or Texas.) Paul R. Petersen in his book, "Quantill of Missouri" documents this. O. S. Barton records John McCorkle (a scout of Quantrill's) telling of free and slave Blacks joining that command and spying for it.

In modern times, I know that Blacks still love the South and her heritage and history. While living in Kansas City, Missouri in the late 1990's, there was a Black family with a big Ford truck that had a Confederate Battle Flag grill cover living in the minority-dominated Northeast neighborhood. While living in Texas, I recieved as many smiles and compliments on my kepi, slouch hat and shell jacket from Blacks who loved the South as I did from Whites. In Bryan, Texas, there is Dixie Tire Company, a Black-owned and operated business with the Confederate Battle Flag right in the company's sign. My friend, John, a former trucker told me once of a Black man repairing his rig in Mississippi who commented on being angry at all the activists who thought they needed to bus themselves in for every flag and statue flap that came up. He apparently expressed (much to John's suprise) anger at their hatred of his flag. I could go on and on with the examples.

Let me chime in one last set of thoughts here:
A) If you are an historian, professional or not, quit reading into history what you want to be there. Stick to the FACTS that you can document in active voice and not passive voice. Blacks loved the Confederacy then and many still do today. Just ask H.K. Edgerton over at www.SouthernHeritage411.com or the good folks who run www.37thTexas.org.

B) If you are an activist, work your home plot. Leave ours alone. You don't belong here. We don't need your busloads of B--- S--- artists coming down to Dixie and race-baiting and hate mongering. We love our home, it's heritage and it's history. And we love it quite in spite of its flaws and warts. Get over yourself and go home. You have plenty to do there. Almost all of the major White Supremist groups are headquartered NORTH of the Mason-Dixon Line.

And, finally, C) Morris Dees, you are not wanted in Dixie. Please leave now. Your strong-arm hate monger tactics are not welcome in our Southern, Judeo-Christian society where we still extend the 5th Commandment to the point of honoring the "Fathers" of our culture and our ancestors, too.

Okay, enough of my rant for now. Next time perhaps I will have a good book to tell you about!

Deo Vindice!

A Short History of the Confederate States of America

Have you ever read a truly scholarly history book? Unless you're a scholar-type person, it got really tedious, didn't it? I know there have been a couple along the way that just left me going, "What year was that, again?" Jefferson Davis' The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volumes 1 and 2 can really get that way, especially when a very scholarly Davis starts to discuss the minutiae of American and Confederate history. You've got to be a scholar or at least not intimidated by scholarly writing that has fully half-pages of foot notes and digressive discussions to illustrate otherwise simple points to read either of those volumes. In fact, he spends several chapters just leading up to the idea of secession before he ever discusses it. A real tough read, to be sure.

There is good news, though. Jefferson Davis apparently was also one of those rare scholars who did not have trouble relating to or communicating with the common man. He wrote a third volume of Confederate history: A Short History of the Confederate States of America. This is the common man's abridged version of the story of the South's battle for freedom and independence. Here is a very accessible telling of the story which does not skimp on any essential detail of the War Between the States, yet does not bog down in detail, minutiae, or footnotes. This book is wonderfully written and easy to follow, and it was written by Jefferson Davis himself; he is eminently and uniquely qualified to write this story.

You can obtain it here: http://www.lulu.com/content/hardcover-book/a-short-history-of-the-confederate-states-of-america/9560758

Enjoy! 

Let's Get This Ball Rolling

I have, for years now, resisted both blogging and social networking. I truly hate fads and I have a relative by marriage that was once constantly trying to get me to join this or that site. I had no interest in it and wanted no part of it.

Alas, I really have to step into the realities of the 21st Century. Blogging and social networking sites are seriously important ways to communicate with potential customers, to make friends, and learn about the world around us. So, in that light, here is my first contribution to blogging: my notice of the release of my first three youtube slide show videos.

The first one was Free South Band's "Toast to Dixie." I liked the song a whole lot when I bought their Free South Project CD a few years past. Then one day, I was standing in the liquor aisle of the grocery store where my wife worked looking for a bottle of whiskey when I noticed that several of the songs lyrics were, in fact, on the bottles' labels! This is a fun song and I think you might enjoy it, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKTckU6kGWs

The second one is from T. Warren and the Border Ruffians. It's called "Border Ruffians." This song immortalizes those hearty and brave souls who joined the Partisan Ranger Corps of the Confederate Army or who joined various guerilla commands. They lived off the land as they went, or took in donated goods, food, or services like horse shoeing and sewing from the sympathetic locals. Where I grew up in Jackson and Clay Counties in Missouri, Colonel William Clarke Quantrill and Colonel Upton Hayes are remembered as heroes, not as ego-maniacal killers as the winner's history would have you believe. Here is their tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIZFW3nqRmw

Finally, there are those of us who are willing, but not terribly able to do much for our beloved Southland. Sadly some of us are not willing for fear of our enemies. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who really can -- and do -- do much to preserve our Southern Heritage. Ray McBerry of Dixie Broadcasting (www.DixieBroadcasting.com), T. Warren of Border Ruffians fame (www.TerryWarren.net), the Free South Band, Chuck Demastus of Southern Heritage News and Views (www.SHNV.net), and let's not forget H.K. Edgerton at southernheritage411.com. There are so many who deserve mention, as well, but space and time prohibit the mention of more than a few. This third video was set to the tune of the Rebelaires' "For the Cause," because these and so many others have given themselves and their time and effort "for the Cause." Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPA_biMrjd4

With this, I will end my first ever blog post! Until next time, Deo Vindice!