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Historical Re-enactment, The Battle of Ft. Sanders / The Stench of Abraham Lincoln
On Saturday, October 17, 2009, some of the spectators who had gone into the tent where the Lincoln re-enactor would speak during the Historical re-enactment of the Battle of Ft. Sanders would come out and come over to the table where I was set up and relate to me that Lincoln had conveyed to them that he would like to see me placed in front of a Union cannon and give the orders to fire. I suppose his comments were based upon my rendition of the Rebel Yell that I shouted out every time a unit of Union soldiers would pass by the encampment where I was stationed.
Lincoln’s comments bothered me not, nor the fact that he had been paid a healthy honorarium to come to this Southern town and speak. What did bother me and so many other Southerners present was that this war criminal would be allowed to rant on and on spreading his lies and propaganda unchallenged to an unsuspecting public, many of whom were our Southern babies who had no knowledge of the total warfare policy sanctioned by Lincoln on our Southern populous, as his soldiers raped, murdered, starved, and burned the homes of innocent and defenseless old men, women and children, while leaving them helpless. And it is worth to note that some of these war criminals would be reported and even court-martialed, and Lincoln would overturn the rulings and promote them for their actions. (Col. Turchin, Commander of the 19th Illinois) General David Hunter, General Philip Sheridan, and many others to include the devil himself, General William Tecumseh Sherman, would be commended by Lincoln for their pulling down and burning of homes, businesses, army supply warehouses, hospitals, churches, everything.
On Sunday morning, October 18, 2009, I like so many others of my Southern family who had complained of Lincoln’s rhetoric and presence had just about enough, and knew it was time to act. I would ask of the gentleman who was serving as the Master of ceremony at a small re-enacted skirmish that had taken place before the major battle as he announced to the crowd of spectators gathered that Lincoln would address them after the skirmish; or you going to let a southerner make comments after Lincoln speaks? He would chide me a tongue lashing that I was shocked to hear. “No! This is our re-enactment. We are one nation now and I am a Southerner.”
I told him that I failed to see the relevance of his answer. And that this re-enactment was truly ours as he had indicated, and it would not sit well with any true and loyal Southerner to have Lincoln strutting around spitting out his lying propaganda on a battlefield in the Southland of America, while cheering on his Northern troops. Having no other reply, he just ignored me and continued talking to those gathered.
I am not just disappointed about what I witnessed at Ft. Sanders and those who would sponsor it, but also at the hostile judiciary that our babies continue to face, (Candice Hardwick of Latta, South Carolina; the babies of Blount County High School; young Tommy Defoe of Knoxville, etc.) with case law like Tinker vs. the Des Moines, Iowa School Board having no standing with these spineless Federal Judges to give them due justice as they grant implied immunity to those teachers and school administrators who take away the limited First Amendment Rights of these babies, while stripping young Southern Black babies of any memory of the honor and dignity earned by their ancestors under the Banner of the Southern Cross, and using them against their peers as weapons of choice to justify their criminal behavior.
And to include in my disappointment, the gutless poverty pimps like the apparent great grandson of William T. Sherman, “Julian Bond”, who spit their hate filled and traitorous rhetoric against their homeland, while filling their coffers and leaving other unsuspecting Black folks to suffer the consequences of hate triggered by their actions; just as it did during the 12 year period of so called reconstruction that created a divide between a man called master and a man that he called slave and family; who through God’s plan had found a love for each other. And had they been left alone in the greatest country in the universe, would have been a shining example for all of mankind to follow.
