Have You Forgotten...?

This past Sunday, our nation reflected on a dark day in it's history - September 11, 2001 - remembering the nearly 3,000 lives lost 15 years ago when Islamic terrorists hijacked airplanes and rammed them into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and attempted to fly a plane into another target (probably either U.S. Capitol or the White House) before being thwarted by the plane's brave passengers who rammed the plane into the earth to save other lives.

An oft heard question each year around that date is "Have You Forgotten?"

While it is safe to say that no one of a certain age who was living in this country on that dark day has intentionally forgotten what happened, one day that event will become a factoid in a history book and no one who was alive then will still yet inhabit the planet to recall it's horrific events.

Here we are in 2016, more than 150 years after the conclusion of the War Between the States, the costliest conflict in this nation's history in terms of lives lost and blood shed, but I must sadly declare that many Southerners have forgotten not only it's causes and events but also they have forgotten about the lives of their ancestors who were killed for the cause of Southern independence from federal tyranny.

(Image Courtesy of Maeve Magdalen)

Have YOU, personally, forgotten that...

... more than 4,700 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Gettysburg between July 1-3, 1863?

... more than 2,300 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Chickamauga between September 19-20, 1863?

... more than 1,700 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862?

... more than 1,700 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864?

... more than 1,600 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Chancellorsville in April & May 1863?

... more than 1,500 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Sharpsburg on Sept. 17, 1862?

... more than 1,500 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864?

... more than 1,400 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Gaines's Mill on June 27, 1862?

... more than 1,400 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864?

... more than 1,200 Confederate soldiers were killed in the Battle of Stones River between Dec. 31, 1862 - Jan. 2, 1863?

... the tens-of-thousands more Confederate soldiers who were killed or wounded at dozens of other battlefields across the South?

... the civilian casualties of Lincoln's war on the South, which are estimated by historians to number into the tens-of-thousands, maybe as high as 50,000+, the vast majority of whom were Southerners?

While it is good and right to remember those victims of terrorism from 9/11/2001, it is despicable that we sons & daughters of Confederate veterans cannot show the same respect & honor to our ancestors, who were no less victims of invasion & terrorism, without being vilified for it! Today it's the memory of our Confederate ancestors which is under attack; in 150 years it might be the memory of you or someone you personally know & love who served in the U.S. military after that dark September day.

We should never forget what happened to our ancestors and to our native Southland in the War of 1861-1865...

WE, THE SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS, WILL NEVER, EVER FORGET!

DEO VINDICE!
Jonathan McCleese
2nd Lieutenant Commander
Admiral Raphael Semmes Camp #1321 (Dearborn, MI)
Army of Tennessee, Sons of Confederate Veterans