Roy Exum
In the last several days I have received hundreds of emails after I took a stand for General Nathan Beford Forrest, the South’s rich history, and the indelible fact the War Between The States is still a big part of who were are and what we have become. For the record, as of late yesterday afternoon, I have not heard from one dissenter, although I know there are some who I believe have better manners and common courtesy than to argue their opposing views.
I agree that the Confederate flag, through the actions of both whites who hate and blacks who are racists, have reduced it to a sign of hatred and racism and, out of respect for anyone it might offend, I believe it should properly be relegated to museums and private collections. We need to encourage forgiveness among all people right now and if that’s what it takes to do my part, suffice it to say Old Glory flies in front of my house.
Emails are thrilling to me. Each teaches a lesson or shares a view that I might not know. I read every one. The horrible fact is there is no human way for me to answer them. If I took just two minutes to reply to 200 of them, that’s 400 minutes. Divide that by 60 (minutes in an hour) and I would hardly have time for lunch and other tasks I need to do each day.
Most of the emails I receive are not from Chattanooga.com regular readers. Every story I write is immediately picked up by huge search engines, like Google, AOL, and Yahoo. I get comments from across the United States and, when I write on the louts who sore horses, people in England, Canada, Europe and Australia aren’t bashful in sharing their disgust.
I treat all emails as personal correspondence. I rarely share who writes to me and, in truth, were it not for many “regulars” I would know far less than I do about many subjects that interest me. Yet as we start the week, I must veer away from my rules because over the weekend I received one of the warmest and most delightful notes I can remember.
What you are getting ready to read is from Joe Murray, who is obviously a character with a genuine laugh who lives in Mobile, Ala. If this touches your core in the way it did mine, I would most appreciate it if you would drop him a line at thermob@bellsouth.net What a marvelous American!
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Dear Mr. Exum:
Thank you for your superb article in the Chattanoogan that I received from a member of a news/discussion list I belong to. I totally support the views expressed and I suspect that my background, while quite different, led to many of the same positions and opinions that you hold.
I’m an old character, 78 on 4 July in a week or so, and was born and raised in Philadelphia back during the depths of the Depression, WWII and beyond. Like everyone else, we didn’t have much money; dad was still climbing through the ranks of his corporation but us porch climbers thought we had everything we needed except fancy toys.
I had two mothers when I was four and five since mom was not well and was especially indisposed while pregnant with my brother. My other mom was “Lottie,” (typical of those days I didn’t know her last name which I regret) who looked just like Aunt Jemima on the old pancake mix boxes. I still remember the peace she brought a little kid as she sang and rocked me to sleep in the afternoons. I imagine that Lottie is the reason that I grew up with only one prejudice – willful stupidity. Kids are not born with hatred; it’s always taught.
Back then, before and after WWII began, there was an annual parade in downtown Philadelphia; the GAR – Grand Army of the Republic – the living Union veterans of the recent unpleasantness between the states. In fact in 1937, the year I was born, there was a grand encampment at Gettysburg when fellows who’d fought there on both sides met again as friends and brothers.
I remember seeing a black-and-white film (Internet?) showing the old duffers from the Confederate side rushing up the hill at the Union guys. Their Rebel Yell wasn’t as fierce and loud as it had been 74 years before in 1863 and both sides fell into one another’s arms after the 1937 charge.
Being of Irish stock that came out of Ireland during the famine on the father’s side and in the later 19th century on the mother’s I may have had ancestors in the War Between the States. I don’t know for sure but the families are quite large and I like to think that perhaps some of my people were with the Irish Brigade on the Union Side and with Cleburne’s Iron Brigade on the Confederate side. If that were to be true, I hope they didn’t shoot one another.
My lifelong immersion in history must have begun in about 1944 or 45 when my second-generation Irish mom took me to Independence Hall because, “… you need to learn and understand what a real American kid has to know about his country.”
My first real contact with a Southern lady and the civil war was with Mrs. Estes, our prep school librarian in the fifties. She was from Tennessee and every time I called the unpleasantness the “Civil War” she would correct me in her soft Southern accent, explaining that the correct name was “The War Between the States.”
Several of the masters at that school were WWII vets, three of them having been in on the D-Day invasion, two, including the head master, with the 101st Airborne. They were all vital in my personal formation, including Mrs. Estes who guided me in the library and was one of my delightful history mentors.
Life went on and in college and Army service I got to know a number of black guys. During my Army years I met ‘Jim Crow’ repeatedly around my southern base assignments. There was one confrontation with some Klan guys while on weekend pass in Columbia, SC with three buddies, one black.
I was pretty good with my fists back then but they turned tail before things got going. Our black friend went back to the fort which gave me an understanding of how much fear was endemic for blacks under those old segregation laws.
My studies of history over the years gave me a deep respect for several of the general officers on both sides of the divide.
On the federal side, I have a particular respect for Grant, Sherman and a Sheridan. They were among the first of the 20th century warriors who believed that the shortest war with the fewest casualties was total war with strategies that removed the other side’s supporting infrastructure instead of following the early 19th Napoleonic strategies and tactics of fixed battlefield combat.
On the Confederate side, I’ve always had a huge respect for Marse Robert, Thomas Jackson, General Forrest, and Jeb Stuart, among others. They were the epitome of personal honor in addition to their superb leadership qualities as were the ones I mentioned above from the federal side. In fact, as I write on this late Friday evening, I’m sitting under pictures of Generals Lee and Jackson.
I know that I’m just a “damn Yankee” down heah but not long after arriving here in Mobile, 23 years ago, I managed somehow to capture me a Mobile girl so, as I’ve mentioned to friends here, I’m now only half a damn Yankee. Early on Annette and I went to a local gun show and that’s where I picked up my pictures, pretty large, of Lee and Jackson.
I hung them on each side of the fireplace when we got home and as I got off the ladder my southern belle said, “ok now, you can have pictures of your Mr. Grant and your Mr. Custer or whoever BUT they cannot be on the same wall and they cannot be the same size!”
I said, “yes ma’am!” I’ve explained to her that the commander who held Grant up at Vicksburg for 90 days was an Irishman from Philadelphia, like me, so I claim a tiny bit of the “Lost Cause” for myself!
Most of the officers on both sides were men of honor and integrity, many from West Point, as you know. Even in the midst of that horrible war they remained fraternal brothers. I’m sure you know the same stories as I know about truces called while the men from both sides shared coffee and on one occasion there was a quiet bachelor party for one officer who was to be married (Pickett? I don’t remember).
This hatred and division that’s developed in this country, especially since 2008 is a tragedy. The emotional “cultural cleansing” we’ve seen since the horrible tragedy in Charleston has only exacerbated divisions that are Balkanizing America piecemeal far beyond the split that she experienced in the 1860’s.
All this political “correctness’ crap is exactly how the populations in the Soviet Union were cowed for some 70 years. Maybe only old (guys) like me remember the Soviet/Russian put down from back in that day – Ne Kulturny – an accusation that “you have no culture, you are against the state!”
What’s happening with the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate monuments and statues across the country is but the latest example of a secular humanist poison that’s been infecting our country since the end of the Reagan administration.
As a retired business executive with a lifelong avocation in history I’m appalled at the lies that kids are taught about the tap root, fertilization, birth and growth of our country with all of her errors over two centuries that are so minor compared to the truth of what Reagan called “the Shining City on a Hill.”
My personal opinion is that America is listing in very deep water and needs to get herself righted very soon or the damage will be too severe to repair. Unfortunately, I don’t see that kind of leadership in the current leaders in both parties and if we don’t elect a first class patriot leader next year, I may be glad that I’m on the shady side of the hill of life.
That sounds depressing but I’ll probably change my mind since I’m Irish and we all like a darn good fight!
Thanks again for your superb article,
Joe Murray
Mobile, AL
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I knew you would love that. Thank God there are still people like Joe Murray in our world and I pray he’ll enjoy many more years on “the shady side.” Glory, Joe!
royexum@aol.com