January 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, Atlas Hall, James Hamilton, Johnny C. Osborne, Jake Smith, Henry Webb, Michael Wright

The General’s Dispatch

Happy New Year! I do pray that this year offers you new beginnings and opens the door to many new opportunities. This year has started off with a whirlwind of activities. To date we have been involved in a fashion show at Wise, VA, radio show (Round Table at 103.9, the Bulldog), discovering several gravesites, ordering stones, clean up at the monument, ordering a 20’ flagpole purchased by our brothers in the Virginia division, school presentations, a dedication at Middle Creek, 200th birthday celebration at Lexington, VA, working on Confederate Kin II (if anyone has a story to contribute, please send it to Ben Caudill #1629, Box 1102, Whitesburg, KY 41858), Lee/Jackson dinners and ongoing research. Not bad for the first 3 weeks of 2007! But our work has just begun. This year we must commit ourselves to sacrifices and defend our heritage by becoming even more visible. We are currently working on the 6th panel of the Pound Gap monument and seek names of your ancestors to be placed on the stone to complete that portion of the project. We are still putting up memorial markers at the Cemetery that was rediscovered at the mouth of Sandlick. We must continue to explore the mountain and mark the ole Trace/Fincastle Trail. We need to work closely with the committee that is working on opening the tunnel, building the Artisan Center and the Welcome Center. We are supporting the students and staff at Allen Central, as we monitor outside agitation from a few misinformed individuals attempting to dictate local policy from a distant quarter. We must continue our research and publish our work, for it is currently the northern pen that dictates our history. All we seek is the sounding of the truth. All we wish is to honor our ancestors and let the truth be told. "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." I shall be appointing committees to address Public Relations, Heritage, and events with the expectation that we will do all in our power to expand our role within the community and bringing harmony among our brothers. Embrace the charge that you have been given with renewed vigor and dedication. For duty, honor and integrity, let us stand before the gauntlet armed with knowledge, truth, and love. This year, let us followed Lee’s example and cling to the old paths that our founding fathers have given us. With sacred principles to maintain, I remain your obedient servant. Old General…Laus Deo

HAPPY 200TH BIRTHDAY ROBERT E. LEE!

Upcoming Local Events; January 19, 2007-Lee/Jackson Dinner at Corbin Civic Center, 5th KY Co. F will be meeting, work at the Whitesburg cemetery, Fiscal Court and Jenkins City Council meeting. It doesn’t get anymore local than this!

The Adjutant’s Desk

The Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp No. 1629 has 68 members that have paid up-to-date. Our official records from the National Office reports 103 members. This number will probably be purged in the next two months. So EACH ONE REACH ONE and get our brothers back.

I would like to congratulate Commander Chaltas on being the keynote speaker at Washington and Lee College in honor of the two hundredth birthday of General Robert E. Lee. I am sure he made the camp proud. It is truly amazing that one of our own got to talk about the great general to people from all over the United States on this special occasion.

The re-enactment at Wise is progressing very well. Rhonda Robertson and the group at Wise that are planning it have worked very hard to make the event a first class one. They want our camp to help design the monument to be placed at the Wise Cemetery honoring the soldiers that died in the Confederate hospital at Wise. Many of these soldiers were members of the 5th Kentucky Infantry. Later, several members of Caudill’s Army were treated at this temporary hospital.

We have placed a five feet by eight feet United States flag at the Pound Gap Monument. Dean and Nina Cornett of Blackey donated this flag. Also, the Caudill’s Army flag donated by Willis Strong (made by his sister) was ran up the flag pole at the same time. The camp would like to thank these individuals for their wonderful donations. It is a grand sight to see the blue and white flag of our ancestors standing out in the wind at the gap. I believe our ancestors would be proud. What a way to start off the New Year!

There has been much discussion lately about the affair at Allen Central High School, both in the newspapers and on the Internet. The local newspapers such as the Floyd County Times and the Louisa paper wrote articles supporting the Floyd County school board’s stance so far on leaving the matter to the high school. Naturally, the Lexington Herald and Courier Journal support the changing of the school’s mascot. The Kentucky Division of the SCV has taken out ads in local papers in Floyd County supporting school officials that are defending the right of Allen Central to choose for themselves if their mascot is appropriate. The Kentucky Division has requested donations to help continuing to pay for ads until the issue is resolved.

We have received another shipment of the camp’s book, Confederate Kin. If anyone knows of someone wishing to buy a copy, please let them know they are now available. All proceeds from the book go to the camp. Also if anyone needs help writing an article on their ancestor for Confederate Kin II, I would be glad to help them. Please keep Camp member’s Tim and Okie Blair’s father, Bruce Blair in your prayers. Mr. Blair has been very sick and in the hospital at Whitesburg for several days. Adjutant Brown

Chaplain’s Comments

Happy New Year! I pray this year will be a great on for us all. I like to thank everyone for their prays for my son. He is doing better. I was working hard on a clock the other day and thinking about life and I thought to myself that life is like a wind up clock. God winds us up when we are born but we don't know how much time He has appointed unto us. We just tic right along. As we get older it starts to slow down and one day the clock stops. My brother and sister only lived a bout a week but then you have the lady who lived up the road from me that died last mouth at 102. Only god knows the time. Think about it. May God bless us all Chaplain Tabby Back

Trivia Questions

(This month’s questions are in honor of Caudill’s Army cannon crew)

  1. What type of weapon was classified as either sword or angular?
  2. How many guns comprised an artillery battery?
  3. What was a limber?
  4. What was the most important item brought in by Confederate blockade runners?
  5. What were Quaker guns?
  6. What rank was an artillery gunner?
  7. What rank was the officer who headed an artillery battery?
  8. What name was given to the ammunition chests mounted on four-wheel carts?
  9. Was most rifled cannons made of bronze or iron?
  10. What term referred to horse-drawn cannon firing from different positions as they moved about a battlefield?

Bluegrass Confederate, Guerrant’s Diary

Tuesday, April 14, 1863

Greasy Creek, Harlan County, Kentucky

We are now in Harlan County, notorious in our partisan history as the hotbed of Home Guards (Harlan Battalion) and bushwhackers. The people along our march were frightened almost out of their wits and often fled like fearful deer into the mountains, and these mountains, Oh Dear! How cruelly high they are. These vicious murders whom we call bushwhackers, fired on us again this evening. No one knows what moment swift-winged death may dart from some thick jungle that lines the road, or craggy rock that overhangs it, and bear him off to judgment. And still we care not. Ah! Such a war!! We came down Greasy a mile or two and turned up Laurel of the Middle

Fork of the Kentucky.

"When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South." quoted from General Robert E. Lee, in 1864.

"Let us be certain that our children know that the war between the States was not a contest for the preservation of slavery, as some would have them to believe, but that it was a great struggle for the maintenance of Constitutional rights, and that men who fought Were warriors tried and true, Who bore the flags of a Nation's trust, And fell in a cause, though lost, still just, And died for me

and you" J. Taylor Ellyson.

Answers

  1. The bayonet.
  2. Usually six.
  3. A two-wheeled ammunition chest used in the artillery.
  4. The British Enfield Rifle.
  5. Logs made to look like cannons at a distance.
  6. Usually a corporal.
  7. Usually a captain.
  8. Caissons.
  9. Iron
  10. A Flying Battery.

Stone Total: 858 with 216 Dedications!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Generals Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, Pickett

Minutes

December 21, 2006

The monthly meeting of the Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp # 1629 was held on December 21, 2006, at the Letcher County Vocational School in Whitesburg. Members present were: Carlos Brock, Willis Strong, Raymond Isaacs, Quenton Childers, Garland Kiser, Okie Blair, Tim Blair, Ross Fleming, John P. Back, Richard Brown, David Chaltas, Wayne Watts and Danny Wright.

Carlos Brock called the meeting to order. Lt. Commander Back led the Pledge of Allegiance. Commander Chaltas lead the salute to the Confederate Flag. What is a quorum for our camp was discussed, Raymond Isaacs and the other original members of the camp agreed that twelve members present should be a quorum. Camp voted that since we had thirteen members present that we had a quorum. Commander Chaltas explained about Robert’s Rules of Order and By-Laws. By these rules, we needed to read the second reading of the camp’s new by-laws item by item and vote on each item accordingly. We did not do it this way at the second reading so therefore our new camp by-laws have not taken effect yet. We will have to vote on each item of the by-laws separately to make them official. Therefore, the camp will have to re-nominate camp officers. The commander handed out part of the SCV handbook, which explains each officer and their official responsibilities (Commander to Sergeant at Arms). Lt. Commander Back read last month’s minutes. Okie Blair made a motion to accept them as read; Raymond Isaacs seconded motion, passed. A re-enactment group will be started within the camp, which will probably meet once a month. A representative of the group will report back to the Caudill camp during its monthly meeting. Commander Chaltas noted that according to SCV by-laws, politics should not be brought up in the camp meetings. Lt. Commander Back asked to speak and read a statement about the nominations for officers that had been done in the November meeting and also about the by-law problems. He believed the whole thing was brought up because he was running for camp commander. He said that rather than hurt the camp or make anyone mad, he would not run for commander nor would he accept the nomination if nominated. He would consider any other position if the camp needed him. Richard Brown gave the adjutant report. Carlos Brock requested to speak and explained why he requested the executive committee to void the November nominations. He gave several reasons with two being that only two executive committee officers were at the November meeting and the main one being that the new by-law was not in effect due to line items not being voted on separately. Commander Chaltas noted that religion had been part of the Confederate soldiers life during war and that it continued to today. Therefore he believed that religion could be part of the camp functions without hurting the camp. Nominations for camp officers held. John P. Back nominated David Chaltas for commander, Raymond seconded. No further nominations stated therefore Wayne Watts made motion that nomination cease, Ross Fleming seconded, motion passed. Willis Strong nominated Carlos Brock for Lt. Commander, Tim Blair seconded. Danny Wright nominated John P. Back for Lt. Commander, Wayne Watts seconded. No further nominations therefore Richard Brown made motion for nominations to cease, Raymond Isaacs seconded, motion passed. Wayne Watts nominated Richard Brown for adjutant, John P. Back seconded. No further nominations therefore Raymond Isaacs made motion for nominations to cease, Tim Blair seconded, motion passed. John Back nominated Tabby Back for Chaplain, Wayne Watts seconded. No further nominations therefore Raymond Isaacs made motion for nominations to cease, Quenton Childers seconded, motion passed. Carlos Brock nominated Faron Sparkman for Camp Historian, Willis Strong seconded. No further nominations therefore Wayne Watts made motion for nominations to cease, John Back seconded, motion passed. Carlos Brock nominated Wayne Watts for Sergeant at Arms, Tim Blair seconded. No further nominations, therefore John Back made motion for nominations to cease, Garland Kiser seconded, motion passed. There were no more officers to hold nominations for therefore John Back made a motion to close nominations, Ross Fleming seconded, motion passed. Elections to be held at Camp meeting on January 18. Absentee ballot explained to camp, only Raymond Isaacs or Manton Ray Cornett (vote tellers) can open the sealed ballots. Letters containing ballot should have the word ballot on the outside of the envelope and sent to the camp’s address and will be delivered to the vote tellers un-opened. Commander Chaltas reminded camp that stories were needed for Confederate Kin Volume Two and also requested members submit articles for monthly paper. The Allen Central Confederate flag and mascot protest was discussed. The Floyd County School Board was asked by an activist from Louisville to quit using the Rebel soldier and flag as the school’s mascot. Camp members were encouraged to write letters supporting the school board on their outspoken objections to change the mascot. Commander Chaltas read aloud a letter sent by the Kentucky SCV commander, Dr. Hiter, which was sent to the Floyd County School Board. The letter supports the board and offered any help that the SCV could give. Commander Chaltas offered to write a letter supporting the board and then have the camp members sign it. Wayne Watts made a motion giving Commander Chaltas permission to write the letter on behalf of the camp, Quenton Childers seconded, motion passed. Ross Fleming discussed the Kid’s Day that is scheduled for July 27, 2007. He hoped that the camp could conduct a living history during the event to educate the children. Richard Brown made a motion for the camp to help with the living history, John Back seconded, motion passed. Commander Chaltas announced that he would be giving a presentation at the old Sycamore School at Ash Camp in Pike County, which now houses a rehab center. The presentation will be done at the request of Mike Williams, director at the school. The school in return will help cut weeds and grass at the Pound Gap monument. Carlos Brock asked the camp to prepare a certificate for Joe Wells of Hazard who helps with the research for Confederate soldier’s graves. The quilt made and donated by Mike and Debbie Tyree will be given away on February 15, 2007, to allow for more time to sell chances. The next meeting will be held on January 18 at the Letcher County Vocational School. Meeting adjourned via prayer.

 

Agenda

January 18, 2007

Call Business meeting to order-Sgt. At Arms

Prayer-Chaplain Tabby Back

Welcome-Recognition of new SCV & Associate Members

Pledges

Scripture Reading-Chaplain Tabby Back

Ancestral Roll Call-All members

State if there is a Quorum present

Reading/Approval of Minutes-camp member

Commander’s comments regarding election

Lt. Commander’s comments

Nomination by Secret Ballots

(Follow established election protocol)

New Business

Heritage Issue

2nd reading of the Bylaws-if ready by Bylaw Committee

Form committee to update website mission/goals

Form a Public Relations Committee

Open Floor

Present Dan Buckner (General Stonewall Jackson) for honorary membership