CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC

Twenty years ago, in the mid-1990's, journalist Tony Horowitz made a trek through the South to discover why Southerners are still so obsessed by the Civil War (or the Late Unpleasantness With the North, or the War Between the States, or the War Against Yankee Aggression).

As you would expect, Tony wound up talking to every eccentric and nut job in every town he visited. He talks to fanatical neo-Confederates who are ready to continue the war and militant radical black activists who want to tear down every Confederate memorial and denounce Robert E. Lee as a "criminal."  Horowitz came in for several close calls in a couple of biker bars he visited.  It was also very amusing every time one of his subjects began to cuss "The Jews,"  Sometimes the Jewish Horowitz would let it go and other times he would say, "I'm Jewish."  One neo-Confederate responded, "Then you know what I'm talking about."

He found the real last Confederate widow, living in rural South Alabama, who was briefly married to an elderly veteran in the 1920s when she was a teenager.  I was fascinated that she said that he was so old "I called him Mr. Martin, even in bed."  Although Heritage groups had pumped up old man Martin's service record to make him a hero of the Army of Northern Virginia, Horwitz hired a researcher to comb through the archives and find out the truth.  Martin was drafted as a teenager in 1864 and sent to Virginia.  Hospitalized for the Measles, Martin just left and went back home to Alabama.  The regimental rolls listed him as a deserter for the rest of the war.  Martin's brother, who was also drafted at the same time was killed.

Robert Lee Hodge

Everybody's favorite character is "hardcore" reenactor Robert Lee Hodge. (They don't like to be called reenactors, they prefer the term "Living Historians").    Hodge wants everything to be period perfect and criticizes reenactors who he doesn't think are true to the Civil War period. (Anything that is out of sinc with the mid-19th century is "Farb").  With Hodge dressed as a ragged Confederate and Horwitz as a Yankee soldier, Hodge takes Horwitz on a whirl-wind tour of Civil War battlefields and musuems that Hodge calls "The Civil Wargasm."

Confederate History

At that time, in the mid 90's there was a lot of controversy going on about whether the Confederate Battle Flag should be removed from State Flags and State Capitol Buildings.  Horowitz's interviews with protesters on both sides of the issue is fascinating.

Confederate Kitsch

Also great reading in this book is Horowitz's interview with Shelby Foote (1916-2005).  Every much as eccentric as some of the others Horowitz interviewed, Foote still wrote his books in longhand and answered his own phone without a secretary.

Even twenty years later, Confederates In the Attic: Dispatches From the Unfinished Civil War is a very good read.  Five out of Five Stars and Bars.

Tony Horwitz and his wife, novelist Geraldine Brooks

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Honor and Betrayal

U.S. Navy SEALs are some of the most highly trained, most elite warriors in the American armed forces.  In September, 2009, a team of Navy SEALs in Iraq captured Ahmad Hashim Abd al-Isawi, the so-called “Butcher of Fallujah,” who was responsible for thousands of deaths including those of four American Blackwater contractors whose bodies were mutilated, burned and hung from a bridge.

What was the reward for these brave fighting men who brought a heinous terrorist to justice?  Court-martial and disgrace.  Three SEALs were charged with prisoner abuse for allegedly hitting al-Isawi while he was in custody.  The only witnesses for the government were the terrorist and an emotionally unstable naval policeman who had earlier repeatedly abandoned his post and changed his story about what happened.  The only visible injuries to the prisoner were a split lip which a doctor testified were probably self-inflicted.

Despite pleas from Congress and public outrage, the military high command stubbornly proceeded with the prosecutions.  Even after two of the Seals were acquitted after trials in Iraq, the commanding officer, Major General Charles T. Cleveland, insisted that the prosecution of the remaining SEAL go forward.

Journalist Patrick Robinson has written an expose of the politically correct hypocrisy of the Obama military.  It is a military which is more concerned with how our military appears to the United Nations than in achieving victory.  Robinson’s book, Honor and Betrayal, should be required reading for every American.  And every Patriot should be deeply ashamed at how our current government treats our bravest and most decorated warriors.  

Guns of the Old West

Colonel Jeff Cooper (1920 - 2006) may have known more about guns than any other person in the history of the world.  A Marine Lt. Colonel and veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Colonel Cooper had a Master’s Degree in History and a love for the United States of America.  The founder of the American Pistol Institute, Colonel Cooper trained thousands of individuals in gun use and safety.

Guns of the Old West, originally published in the 1950's, recounts the history of the firearms used on the American frontier in the 19th century.  The story of the pistol really takes off with Samuel Colt’s production of the first practical revolver in 1836.  Colonel Cooper takes us through the entire development of the Colt revolver: the Patterson, the Walker, the Dragoon, the 1851 Navy (favorite handgun of the Confederate army), the 1860 Army, and finally the 1873 Army which will forever be known as the “Peacemaker.”  All of these weapons were “cap and ball” pistols until the development of the 1873 Army which shot a .45 caliber self contained cartridge.  Just as Sam Colt revolutionized the pistol, Mr. Winchester revolutionized the rifle.  The “Winchester 1873" was to the rifle what the Colt Peacemaker was to the handgun.

This is a short but very informative little book (64 pages), but well worth anyone’s time.

  Colonel Jeff Cooper (1920 - 2006)