Prattville Dragoons SCV

08/24/2025

The only impressive thing about great powers is their excessive physical strength. As a result they can claim a place of honor only in a world that has greater veneration for physical prowess than for intellectual values, and is basically collectivist rather than individualist. To an individualist excessive strength signifies nothing but a threat to his integrity, and an invitation to ignore the development of his intellect.

08/23/2025

No solution was found and the states of the Deep South began parading out of the Union. Davis’s emotional distress was palpable. To his old comrade and former boss Franklin Pierce he wrote sadly, “now I come to this hard task of announcing to you that the hour is at hand which closes my connection with the United States, for the independence and Union of which my father bled and the service of which I have sought to imitate the example he set for my guidance.” The next day Jefferson Davis made his final appearance in the Senate. After briefly defending Mississippi’s decision to secede, he closed with memories of shared experiences and denials of any personal hostility. The response of his listeners reflected his own intense feelings.

(JD to Pierce, Jan. 20, 1861, Rowland, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, 10 vols. 1923, 5:37-38; Crist, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12 vols. 1971, 7:18-22; Cooper, Jefferson Davis and the Civil War Era, p. 14)

08/22/2025

08/22/2025

Jefferson Davis opposed secession. That’s right, the president of the Confederacy was not a fire eater hellbent on “preserving and expanding slavery.”

Davis always powerfully proclaimed his devotion to the United States. In response to a fellow southerner telling the Senate in 1850 that the South was his country, he proudly exclaimed, “I, sir, am an American citizen.” To those in the Senate who dared name him a disunionist, he responded defiantly. Seven years later in Mississippi, he denounced the “brainless intemperance of those who desire a dissolution of the Union, and who found in every rustling leaf fresh evidence of volcanic eruption.” To another Mississippi audience in 1858, Davis made it clear, “I love the flag of my country with more than filial affection.”

(Rowland, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, 10 vols. 1923, 1:378; Crist, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12 vols. 1971, 6:154)

08/21/2025

YOU ARE ONLY REBELLIOUS IN THE EYES OF THOSE WHO CANNOT CONTROL OR MANIPULATE YOU.

08/20/2025

JOHN BROWN WAS PSYCHOTIC

A psychologist who made a careful study of John Brown's life concluded that their extravagant phrases — and frequent confusion — were part of a pattern that flashed through his career. Again and again, Brown had nurtured grandiose schemes and dreams that invariably ended in disappointment. The psychologist concluded that Brown was manic-depressive. In his manic phases he was capable of going for days without sleep and producing magnificent plans that were ruinously short on practical details.

(Peggy A. Russo and Paul Finkelman, eds., Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown (Akron, OH: 2005), 119-137.)

08/20/2025

“If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation… to a continuance in union… I have no hesitation in saying, ‘let us separate.'”

~ Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to W. Crawford, June 20, 1816

08/19/2025

SCC EVENT REMINDER

TO ALL OUR FRIENDS, SUPPORTERS, AND MEMBERS

TOMORROW, AUGUST 17, IS THE 3RD SUNDAY AND WE WILL HAVE BIBLE STUDY AT 11-12AM AT THE SCC WETUMPKA.

CHAPLAIN CALEB WHORTON WILL LEAD OUR DISCUSSION AND UNDERSTANDING OF "IN THE BEGINNING" ....GENESIS CH 1-2. WHAT'S HIDDEN IN THE PLAIN SITE ABOUT THE CREATION? AS THE APOSTLE DANNY BURNETT SAID " IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND GENESIS, YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE".

COME AND JOIN US WE STUDY AND DISCUSS THE SCRIPTURES TO UNDERSTAND AND
TO LIVE THE WORD OF GOD

08/18/2025

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Dixie Butt Fundraiser

Members of SCV Camp 1524 held their annual Dixie Butt fundraiser to generate proceeds for the camp treasury. Members were asked to " Buy One and Sell One" and a number of compatriots went above and beyond selling many to friends and neighbors. Saturday August 16th Quartermaster Myrick went by Smokin S BBQ in Wetumpka to pick up the quanitity of hot and cold butts for distribution that morning to purchasers. Smokin S has prepared the butts for the last several years for the camp and they also provide catering services for the camp's Christmas Social. Delicious product. 2nd Lt Karl Wade and compatriots Darrell Haywood and Wayne Sutherland helped bag the butts for transport. Treasurer John Dennis and his wife kept the books, accounting for the butt tickets distributed and the monies paid, a lot of commendable work to keep straight. Camp 1524 1st Lt Larry Spears, Adjutant Doug Butler, and Color Sgt Billy Leverette worked the distribution for most of the morning there also greeting camp members and friends of the SCV who arrived to pick up their butts. Brigade Commander Waldo took a quantity of butts to deliver...compatriot Philip Edwards visited for quite a while with everyone... brand new member Blake Dickinson brought his two beautiful children to the event for a while... Skip Ward who always donates a few butts for later camp events drove thru... Allen Herrod whose facility was used for the distribution point stopped in to pick up a couple butts.... Earl Edmondosn and Danny Smythe came in and chatted with the compatriots under the canopy for a while. It was a great opportunity to see members and friends of the camp this morning and proved to be another successful fundraising campaign.

08/17/2025

To insure that the freedmen would remain in the South, some Midwestern Republicans proposed the use of federal power. They suggested that the blacks be colonized in Florida, or placed in the Indian territories of the Southwest, apprenticed on confiscated plantations, or restrained and employed in the South by the government.

(Congressional Globe, 37 Congress, 2 Session, p. 35 and Appendix, pp. 212, 234)

08/15/2025

It wasn’t difficult for the South to see through all the Northern platitudes about keeping slavery out of the territories. It was no “moral line in the sand” beyond which slavery could not go. The North had already said too much:

“I want nothing to do with the free negro or the slave negro. We wish to settle the territory with free white men.”
~ David Wilmot, Northern Senator of Wilmot Proviso fame.

“The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these territories. We want them for the homes of free white people.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
October 16, 1854.

08/15/2025

August Camp Meeting 2025

Rob Schwartz entertained us with traditional songs and Commander Grooms led us through camp business.

Blake Dickinson was sworn in as a new member by Chaplain Dave Brantley. Welcome to the brotherhood Blake!

Our own Paul Whaley gave an excellent but sobering presentation on what Lincoln's War was like for the average soldier. He delivered personal accounts from the letters and diaries of the men in the field. All in attendance were laughing one minute and tearing up the next. The Dragoons are fortunate to have Mr. Waley who effortlessly brings history to life.

DEO VINDICE!