NEWS FROM THE CAMP

 

August 2007 Issue

http://www.bencaudill.com

Ben E. Caudill Camp #1629

Box 1102

Whitesburg, KY  41858

 

The Last Salute     

An empty chair now and forevermore shall sit at our table in remembrance of those that have gone before.

Mark Barger, Cecil Brown, Harold Cantrell, Greg Caudill, Vernon Cooper, Atlas Hall, James Hamilton, Johnny C. Osborne, Jake Smith, Henry Webb, Michael Wright

 

The General’s Dispatch
  

Gentlemen, it is my honor to announce that the Ben Caudill Camp won two national awards at the 2007 Reunion held in Mobile, Alabama.  One went to Faron Sparkman for stone setting and the other was the General Thomas Jackson award for our chaplain work. The 2007 Reunion went as thought, with all bills passing except for the one stating that a felon could not join our ranks after serving his time.  Also the amendment increasing the dues to $10 was passed with a stipulation that it would not be implemented until after the 2008 Reunion.  Please note that it is held in Concord, North Carolina and that it is an election year.  Every vote will count, so let us become active in our recruiting.  I have appointed the following to the Public Relations Committee: Tabby Back (Chair), Ken Cantrell, Garland Kiser, Wayne Watts, Leathen Whitaker, Raymond Isaacs, John Peck, Willis Strong, and Quentin Childers.  Others interested in joining need to contact the Commander and/or the Chair to have it approved.  Your charge is as follows:

 

1.  You are to represent the interests of the camp within your community and keep the Commander informed on the events that are happening within the said community.

2.  You are to represent the Caudill Camp with dignity and honor befitting our ancestors, offering any helpful information that you might have.

3.  You are to promote good will and the good name of the Caudill Camp at every opportunity and report to the Commander upcoming events, parades, meetings, and other vested interests that may apply that could benefit our organization.

4. You are to actively recruit (the recruiting position has been rescinded and is now incorporated into the PRC to enable more people to serve and reach others within the community), using the newly developed forms, placing them within your committee, Pound Gap Information Gazebo, Isom Gazebo, supermarket and/or any business that will allow the flyers to be housed.

5.  You are to be active in talking to others, beating the bushes for prospective new members, visiting past members and asking them to reactivate their membership, and following the mandates of Cumberland Brigade Commander Williamson's "Be One, Start One" campaign on recruiting.  As he stated, "It is up to us as the leaders of our camps to recruit and become the Spark Plug."  Please talk to your compatriots and encourage each one to recruit a member of their circle of friends/family.  We could double our size in a month and protect our heritage through sheer numbers.  The price is literally a mere dime a day for membership into the oldest southern male heritage group honoring our southern ancestors.  This is one of the greatest bargains of a lifetime.  After all, look at the sacrifices of our ancestors; is it not worth giving something back to those men and women of yesteryear that are currently under fire and threatened with a total of our heritage.  You can make a difference.  You are the front lines of our defense.  

6.  The PRC will be responsible for writing a rough draft advertisement to be placed in the local papers 2 times yearly. 

7.  Each month the Chairman will provide a brief written status report that will be included in the newsletter regarding Public Relations and Recruiting. 

 

The South Carolina flagpole still awaits a crew to set her, as she joins the other flags honoring our heritage.  We need this in place by August 26, for on that date we not only having a church service skits, and skirmish at the Artisan Center in Jenkins, KY, but also a dedication of the VA flagpole.  I would love to dedicate the South Carolina pole at that juncture and send photos to our brothers and sisters in South Carolina that purchased the pole.  By the way, is your flag proudly displayed?  Do you know of anyone that has land next to the road that is willing to unfurl the colors?  If they accept the post, Danny Taylor and Quinten Childers (serving as his adjutant) will fill the position of the Quarter Master.  With sacred principles to maintain, I remain your obedient servant. Old Gen Laus Deo

 

Upcoming Events:  August 17-19, 2007-Battle of Saltville, Saltville, VA. Contact Captain Hunt at terryhunt05@comcast.net; There will be an actual baptism again this year during the church services.  August 25-26, 2007-Battle of Richmond and on AUGUST 26-JENKINS skirmish on the mountain. September 2, 2007-Confederate Monument Dedication for Pvt. Henderson Whisman, 5th KY Infantry Co.D. The Dedication will take place during the Whisman Reunion, held in Rowan County KY. Food for all. Dedication will be at 2:00pm at the Whisman Cemetery. There will be plenty of room for parking and for the service. Contact Amy Crawford @ amy_crawford_2000@yahoo.com or Darrell Crawford @ va63rd@yahoo.com In need of Volunteers to Honor this 5th KY Soldier.  September 7-9, 2007-Cumberland Gap Campaign:  Blue Gray Days.  Lincoln Memorial University, Harrodgate, TN; Contact: Carolyn Campbell; (423) 869-6235. September 11, 2007-Keynote speakers and book signing at the Wise County Public Library [wcplib@lprlibrary.org] at 6:00 p.m.; September 14-16, 2007-Battle of Barbourville, Barbourville, KY.  Contact Lt. Colonel Ray Adkins; johnnyrebtrooper@yahoo.com; September 21-23, 2007-Battle of Morristown, between Morristown and Russellville on N11 (Bethesda Church), Contact Mike Beck; September 29-30, 2007-Battle of Mills Springs, Nancy, http://www.millsprings.net/2007nat_reenact.htm National

 

The Adjutant’s Desk

August 16, 2007

 

The Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp No. 1629 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans currently has 81 members.  It is now time to renew your membership.  The cost is $30 ($20 for Nationals and $10 for State) until November 1st, after that, the cost will be $5 more.  Please try to get your money in as soon as possible.  The Battle of Saltville re-enactment will be held August 18th and 19th at the Saltville Show Grounds (actual site of some of the fighting).  The re-enactment of the Battle of Barbourville will be held on September 15th and 16th at a new location.  The National Event at Mill Springs will be held on September 29th and 30th at Nancy in Pulaski County.

 

On Tuesday evening, July 31st, several members of the camp met with the Jenkins Festival Committee at the Little Shepherd Amphitheatre to discuss the upcoming skirmish to be held there.  The proposed battle site is a road with woods going uphill on the right side and a small wooded field on the right.  The proposed skirmish will have the Confederates in camp at the amphitheatre with the Yankees coming down the road from the railroad tunnel.  Upon word of the Yanks coming, the Rebels will drag their cannon up the bank and take positions in the woods above the road.  When the Yanks are directly below the ambush, the Rebels will open fire.  A split rail fence will be placed along the road from which the Yanks will take cover.  They will then be pushed back into the wooded field below the road.    It should be a realistic and fun event.  All camp members are urged to help make the event successful.  We will need help going to the Industrial Park to get the split rail fence that we used there a couple of years ago.  The flags at the Pound Gap Monument were changed out on Monday, August 13.  Also the garbage was picked up and brought off the mountain.  The grass and weeds need to be cut badly and a new sign-in tablet taken there.  Camp member, Glenn Brown, mowed the grass at the Sandlick Cemetery Monument last week.  It is in good shape. Honoring the Memory of our Ancestors, I remain your Adjutant, Richard G. Brown

 

Chaplain’s Comments

 

It’s been a long hot summer, and we need to thank God for our air conditioner!  You know, our ancestors could not imagine the things we take for granted today. We all fall short of thanking God for the things we take for granted like our car, running water, telephone, and even our waste.  Most of the world could live on what we through away each day.  And be able to go to church when we want to and where we want to is such a blessing that we take for granted.  This is way people came to American in the first place. Lets take time out for God.  Sometimes we just simply have to sit down, be still and remember God is in control.  In book of Psalms 46:10 David states that we need to, “Be still, and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth”.  We need to know that He is God, and we are only messengers here on the earth.  We can only tell someone what God has already told us, and becoming a Christian is between that person and God.  We can do three things; pray for the lost, tell them about Jesus and live a life of example that glorifies our Lord.  Pray for Dixie.  Chaplain Tabby Back

 

Prayer Line

 

Let us remember the family of John Peck.  Pray for Colonel Ray Adkins, Gary Holt, David Maynard, Carlos Brock, Willis Stong’s wife and family along with Manton Ray Cornetts.  Continue praying for Bill Nordan (General John H. Morgan).  Pray for our beloved Cliff Howard (President Davis).  Remember to pray for Big Tree and his father, Mrs. Cantrell, Puddin and others that give of their time as living historians.  Let us remember Captain Terry Hunt, as his family mourns the loss of loved ones.  Pray for all the infirmed, those alone and needing the touch of the Master’s hand, as well as our troops that guard freedom’s door.  Pray for the unity of the camp and that in all things we work for the glory of God and with a humbled spirit. Chaplains of the Confederacy

 

Our Mountain Warriors, 149th Infantry Regiment

By SGT. David Owens; Iraq

 

We are the 1st Battalion, 149Th Mountain Warriors Infantry Regiment of the Kentucky National Guard.  The regiment was first designated by the State of Kentucky during the Mexican War.  It was designated as the 2nd Kentucky Regiment of Foot.  Its first commander was Colonel Henry Clay Junior, who was killed in the war.  His father Senator Henry Clay Senior never got over his eldest son death-who was being prepped to take over for Clay.  Historians claim it cost Clay the Presidency, as he never again stumped the circuit as he had before his son's death plus he began to drink heavily.  The 2nd Kentucky remained in State service as the Guards until the Civil War when it followed then Kentucky Adjutant General Simon B. Buckner to Camp Boone, Tennessee and was assigned as the 2nd Kentucky Infantry in Lieutenant-General John Breckenridge's C.S.A. Brigade-known as the Orphan Brigade (We still have their battle streamers on our regimental colors.)  And their history is famous.   Following the Civil War the 2nd Kentucky returned to State Guard service.  It was reassigned as the 149th when put into service during the Spanish-American War.  The 149th was also activated for duty for WW1 (France)  & WWII, (Bataan) and was not reactivated for duty until Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Our Headquarters is in Barbourville with units in Ravenna, Harlan, Somerset, Williamsburg, & London, Kentucky.  Our current commander is Lieutenant-Colonel John Luttrell of Harlan.

Trivia Questions

 

  1. What was the Confederacy’s largest city?
  2. What city was General “Total Warfare” Sherman’s Christmas present to Lincoln on Christmas 1864?
  3. In what city was the Confederacy’s provisional government organized?
  4. What Shenandoah Valley town changed hands more than seventy times during the war?
  5. What Virginia city was the scene of a historic explosion of a 586-foot-long tunnel packed with gunpowder?
  6. What did General Hardee do to delay Sherman’s Union troops from entering Savannah?
  7. What horrible act did Union general Benjamin Butler commit in the booze-loving city of New Orleans in 1862?
  8. What unexpected form of recreation was allowed Texas regiments allowed in Richmond in March 1863?
  9. What was Nashville’s “river of grease”?
  10. What besieged Southern City surrendered as the Battle of Gettysburg was being fought in   

       Pennsylvania?

 

Bluegrass Confederate

Guerrant’s Diary- Letcher County, Kentucky

Friday June 3, 1864

 

Another terrible day’s march.  My good horse “Luck” stands up nobly.  Started early, after breakfasting on a glass ob buttermilk, & c.  Walked over Cumberland Mountain! (through Pound Gap)Met Evermont Barnes on the mountain.  Looks well.  Reporting with Colonel Johnson’s 2nd Battalion.  Told me of his wonderful escape from prison, 4 hour story, ropes & c. Forgot to mention that Captain Jenkins & Co. were stopped by General Morgan (and the Yankees) and were put on duty as scouts & c.  Picketed the Piketon Road while we crossed the mountain.  Run into Yankee camp (1200) last night.  Got forage, rations, blankets, saddles & c.  Yankees = ½ Negroes & ½ boys & new recruits. Passed Colonel Smith’s Infantry on Carrs Fork.  These dismounted men travel equal to “Jackson’s Cavalry”.  (this included part of the 10th Kentucky Mounted Rifles that had no horses) Had great difficulty in obtaining even a little grass for all our horses.  Overtook General Morgan for the first time at the mill on Troublesome.  Major Chenoweth (and the 10th Kentucky Mounted Rifles) with him.

 

Answers to Trivia Questions

 

  1. New Orleans
  2. Savannah, Georgia, which was the end of Sherman’s March to the Sea.
  3. Montgomery, Alabama
  4. Winchester, Virginia, nicknamed the “Sea-saw City”(Caudill’s Army helped occupy the city during November 1864)
  5. Petersburg, resulting in it being called the Battle of the Crater. (The crater was more than 170 feet long)
  6. He flooded the rice fields in the area, which cut off several roads to the city.
  7. He had all distilleries and breweries closed.
  8. An unexpected snowfall resulted in huge, organized snowball fights.
  9. The 30,000 pounds of bacon and ham that was set ablaze when the city was evacuated in February 1863. The grease and odor hung around for days.
  10. Vicksburg, which surrendered after a 14-month siege.

 

Congratulations Compatriots! 

906 Stones Set with 365 Dedications!!

 

Minutes

July 19, 2007

 

The Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp No. 1629 of the SCV held its monthly meeting on Thursday, July 19, 2007, at the Letcher County Vocational School.  Members present were: Richard Brown, Tim Blair, Danny Wright, Ross Fleming, Okie Blair, John P. Back, Garland Kiser, Danny Taylor, Manton Ray Cornett, Willis Strong, Tabby Back, Raymond Isaacs, David Chaltas, Gary Begley, Larry Combs and Larry Kiser.

 

John Back called the meeting to order.  Commander Chaltas thanked everyone for coming and welcomed guest, Rhonda Robertson and Kathy Dotson, from Wise County.  Tabby Back opened with prayer.  Pledge Allegiance to the U.S. flag and saluted the Confederate flag.  The Ancestor Honor Roll was given by each member.  Commander Chaltas explained the empty chair and roll call of members who have passed on.  It was noted that a quorum was present and business could be done. Richard Brown read minutes of the June meeting.  Danny Taylor made a motion to accept the minutes, Gary Begley seconded, motion passed.  Tabby Back gave the Chaplain’s Comments and discussed the Wise re-enactment. He read scriptures and took prayer request.  Commander Chaltas conducted prayer then he gave the Commander’s Comments.  It was reported that 903 tombstones have been set, 26 are ordered and 16 on the ground.  He also mentioned how the Caudill Flag has flown all over the country.  He reminded the camp that the re-enactment at Jenkins would be on Sunday, August 26 and encouraged everyone to attend.  He also encourages everyone to fly the Confederate flag and to recruit new members.  Richard gave the Adjutant Report.  John Back gave the Lt. Commander Report and bragged on the camp for their participation in the re-enactment at Wise.  This helps encourage people to study their history.  He also thanked Rhonda and others from Wise County for sponsoring the event.  Commander Chaltas presented a U.S. flag that flew over the capitol on March 23, 2007, in honor of the Brothers Once More Monument at Pound Gap.  Danny Taylor made a motion that the camp fly the flag at the dedication on August 26 then encase it to keep for the camp. John Back seconded the motion, the motion passed.  A $250 scholarship was given to Katie Cowden for writing an essay about her Confederate ancestors.  John Back made a motion to present the money to her, Tabby seconded, motion passed.  Four new honorary members were voted on They were Bill Nordan, Laura Nordon, Marcus Nordan and the 116th Infantry Brigade, Virginia National Guard “Stonewall Brigade”.  John Back made motion to accept, Danny seconded, motion passed.  Commander Chaltas informed the camp that he thought he had access to a vendor trailer.  He asked the camp to be considering a Quarter Master and a 2nd Lt. Commander.  Tabby Back and Kenny Cantrell were appointed on Public Relations Committee.  There will be a meeting July 31 to discuss the Jenkins re-enactment.  It was mentioned that a company made Crosses of Honor out of aluminum for $30.  Commander Chaltas will obtain the phone number.  John Back suggested that the camp get a camp T-shirt made.  John Back made motion for Danny Taylor to check on the T-shirts, Manton Ray seconded, motion passed.  Ross Fleming suggested that we raise money for a stone arch to show where the Pound Gap Monument was.  Gary Begley invited all camp members to a Men’s Day cook out at Sonny Minniard’s farm on July 21 at 1:00 P.M.  Rhonda Robertson thanked the camp for its help with the Wise re-enactment and asked if the camp would help conduct it again next year.  John Back made a motion that the camp help Wise County with the re-enactment in 2008, Danny Taylor seconded, motion passed.  Tabby suggested that we make an effort to attend some of the local Virginia camp meetings.  Camp Member Larry Combs from New York was in for vacation and attended the meeting.  He has been very helpful location burial sites, birth and death dates and other information on Confederate soldiers.  He told the camp the story of David Patton’s four sons that had belonged to Company I, 13th Kentucky Cavalry but later switched sides to the 39th Kentucky.  Three out of four of the brothers died during the war while prisoners of war.  William was captured by members of the 13th Kentucky and tried by Confederate officials for desertion.  He was sent to Andersonville, became sick, and sent to Maryland where he died.  Henry was also at Andersonville, got sick, and died at Richmond.  Christopher was a guard at Camp Chase, got sick and died at Lexington.  James survived the war.  The chances of their survival would have been better if they had stayed in Caudill’s Army.  Larry spends about 4-6 hours researching every night.  He encouraged the camp to do more dedications.  Commander Chaltas announced that he and Richard would be on the Round Table on 103.9 FM on August 14.  Willis Strong suggested that the camp sponsor a shooting match utilizing muskets, pistols and possibly cannons.  John Back made a motion for the camp’s delegation to the National Convention (David Chaltas and Danny Taylor) to vote no on the dues increase of $8, Raymond seconded, motion passed.  John Back closed with prayer.    

 

Welcome Compatriots!

Honorary Membership

149th Mountain Warriors

Ben Sewell

Tim Kelly

Rhonda Robertson

Kathy Marshall

 

Executive Council Meeting

 

Conducted via Internet

     Richard Brown, David Chaltas & John P. Back

August 14, 2007

 

Agenda developed

Upcoming events (Skirmish at Jenkins, Dedications, living history)

Membership Drive

Expenditures:

Appalachian Monument=$300.00

C.K. reimbursement=$50

Webmaster=$60.00

Donation in support of Jefferson Davis Park

 

Support the following candidates for honorary membership into the Camp

The Mountain Warriors

Ben Sewell

Tim Kelly

Rhonda Robertson

Kathy Marshall

Pound Gap Project Progress

Colors across the Commonwealth

Presentation:  Shiloh:  The Many Faces of War

 

Agenda

August 16, 2007

 

Call Business meeting to order-Sgt. At Arms Watts

Prayer-Chaplain

Pledges

Scripture Reading-Chaplain Tabby Back

Ancestral Roll Call-All members

Welcome-Recognition of new SCV, Honorary & Associate Members

 (HAND OUT:  Membership Applications)

 

State if there is a Quorum present

Reading/Approval of Minutes-camp member

Commander’s Comments

 

New Business

 

National Reunion held in Mobile, Alabama

Vote on Members: 

116th Infantry Brigade (better known as the Stonewall Brigade!)

Mountain Warriors-Honorary Membership

2nd Lt. Commander & Quartermaster Position

Appoint a Public Relations Committee

Dedication:  EVENT Calendar

 

Open Floor

 

ü      Events Committee-Report on Status of 2007 events:  August 26th, 2007-Jenkins

ü      Setting South Carolina Flagpole and Statue on the mountain

ü      Trash Pickup at Pound Gap-set date

ü      Vender Trailer

ü      Confederate Kin-ISBN=$150.00----check needed to apply…

ü      Iron Cross from S.C.!

ü      Scholarship award-Use of account for gathering of the License tag money…

ü      PRESENTATION:  Shiloh:  The Many Faces of War

ü      Trivia-Richard Brown

ü      Adjourn by Prayer