Back to the main articles page     

An Open Report / Living History – Blue Gray Heritage
Event — Hendersonville, N.C

ON Saturday, September 29, 2006, I would find myself participating at the
invitation of Michael Arrowood in the Annual Blue Gray War Between the States
Living History Re-enactment. My actual role in battle was limited on both Saturday
and Sunday because I would fall victim early on from Yankee gun fire on both
days and succumb from wounds received as I carried the glorious battle flag.
Most of my time would be spent autographing the now renowned Asheville/ Hendersonville
Tribune Newspapers acclaimed articles of Mike Scruggs on the War Between the
States , which have been condensed into a magnificent book ; part of the proceeds
from the sale, like the historical DIxieOutFitter shirt that brandishes my likeness,
would go to help finance my upcoming journey both Northward into Washington,
D.C., and early next year , Southward into Tallahassee, Florida.

I would on Saturday morning engage in conversation with a group of Boy
Scouts camped on the grounds, who had gathered at the table provided me. I in
no uncertain terms scold them for the actions taken by the Boy Scout Council
in Richmond, Virginia; removal of the Honorable General Marse Robert E. Lee
from their namesake. While I explain to them that they might not have had anything
to do with it directly; their and their Southern leaders acquiesce made them
as complicit as those who had carried out this devious scheme to defame a man
whose very life and character epitomized just what it meant to be a Boy Scout.
The young men who stood before me would listen very attentively, and were extremely
polite; one even wore upon his uniform shirt, a Confederate Medal of some type,
that bore the Southern Cross. I would learn the next day that they had reported
my conversation to their Scout Masters.

I mentioned the Scouts because the very next morning, several Settlers(vendors
who sale their wares at these events) would stop me, and make a very disturbing
affirmation. They told that the Scouts had been nothing but trouble for them
just about everywhere they had been on these kind of venues. They would tell
me that in this very encampment, several Scouts had cut a slit in one of the
tents with the intent to steal some of their goods, but had been caught and
run away. They told me of being in the National Park in Missouri , and had witness
a group of Scouts sitting on a Confederate monument, while eating , and upon
finishing, threw left over hamburgers upon thaw bust of the Confederate Monument.
The stories just seem to pile up, and get worse. I would later stop one of the
Scout Masters, a very nice young man, and report to him what was related to
me. He said that he was disturbed about the revelations given, but that he could
only deal with the boys under his control. Being a former Scout, I am somewhat
taken back when it appears that my Southern babies have given the impression
that they have joined the ranks of those who who deface and dishonor the name
and symbols of our men and women who served and lived in and for our Southland;
and furthermore to bring disgrace upon their very own body.