An Open Letter & Open Report / The Battle of Olustee; A Yankee Tainted Event



From: HK Edgerton (hk.edgerton@gmail.com)
Date: Sat, Feb 18, 2017
Subject: An Open Letter & Open Report / The Battle of Olustee; A Yankee Tainted Event
To: siegels1 (siegels1@mindspring.com)

Dear Ms. Lunelle,

On Friday morning, February 17, 2017, there I was don in the uniform of the Southern soldier in the dining area of the Fairfield Inn, reading myself with breakfast
before I would journey to the Olustee Battlefield Park for School Days, where I would speak to many young children, their parents and teachers about the Black
Confederate soldier, and his family.

I would humbly accept the accolades from a dining room filled with guests of the Inn, and the lady who served as Hostess. It was a most gratifying experience.

Stopping for gas at a convenience store, I would run into a Yankee author, Bob O’Connor, who would present himself to me, and point out that there was an article about
himself in the Lake City newspaper. It did not take but 30 seconds for me to realize that he was a damn Yankee spewing out his tainted lies about the people of the South,
and the event for Southern Independence.

As a store filled with Black folks listened in on the ensuing conversation, I would whip him about his lies to their complete satisfaction. He would give me his card,
and promise that he would see me at the battlefield. I told him that I was looking forward to it.

Upon arriving, I would be greeted warmly first by a Park Ranger at the Park entrance, who shouted out my name, and who would remind me that he was present several years
ago at the Lake City School Board building in a public hearing on the placement of a Yankee monument at the entrance of the Battlefield park. And that he, like so many
present, would never forget me speaking, and upon leaving the podium, breaking out and singing Dixie as the packed audience suddenly stood up and joined in.

Standing next to the Ranger was a middle age White man listening to the exchange between the Ranger and I. I would give the Ranger a copy of the Honorable Nathan
Bedford Forest collection edition comic book produced by the Tennessee Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and offer one to the man, who quickly showed that he, too,
was a damn Yankee by expressing rather gruffly that he didn’t want the thing.

I would soon learn that this venue was a Yankee propaganda event geared to poison the minds of our Southern babies against our Southern families who stood against
their unholy onslaught against our people.

The next that I would encounter was a Black man don in a Union officer uniform that appeared to carry the rank of a senior officer. The lies were really pouring in now,
and I wasted no time jumping him. His only defense was that he was getting paid just like I was, and to leave him alone. I didn’t get the opportunity to tell him that I
wasn’t getting paid one dime to be there, because he quickly stormed away.

I want to report about the wonderful time that I had speaking to all the babies, their parents and teachers, and all the applause I would receive the entire time.
However, I am compelled to continue to report just how biased this event was against the South.

One of the Southern men would bring to my attention that the re-enactor of Lincoln’s snitch, Fredrick Douglas, was just across from where I stood shooting the breeze,
and posing for photographs. I would hurry myself over to where Douglas was speaking to my babies just in time as he would ask did anyone have a question of him? No
reply from anyone. I would raise my hand and shout out, “Mr. Douglas, I have a question.” He looked like he had just seen a ghost, and I could see the fear set in.

He did not want the babies to hear my question, and began to give excuses about time, and how he had some more students coming, and just couldn’t field my question.
I would learn later that he had asked my babies if they had been to hear me speak?

I thought to myself, here I am with these Yankees, with some Southern scalawags thrown in, being paid top dollar to deliver out their lies to my babies, and I
wasn’t getting a dime to counter what was now clear to me a Yankee propaganda event. Stinks real bad – no wonder so much White folk guilt around here in Florida. I
could only wonder how many years this has been going on at this re-enactment?

But, not today! I was the monkey wrench that was thrown into the gears of their fine tuned machine where the disease of White folk guilt, and Black folk hate had
festered like a man made virus. However, just like Dr. Alexander Darnes, a Black Confederate soldier, and Aid de Camp of the Honorable General Kirby Smith had done when
he helped lead the eradication of a yellow fever and small pox epidemic that would have killed thousands; Dr. HK Edgerton, a Modern Day Confederate soldier, had come
to eradicate this disease. God bless you, and thanks for bringing me to this moment!

Your brother,

HK

Honorary Life Member, North Carolina & Tennessee Division of the Confederate Rose