Sons of Confederate Veterans logo

Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an organization of male descendants of soldiers who served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. SCV membership is open to male descendants (lineal and collateral) of soldiers who fought for and honorably served the Confederate States of America; the minimum age of membership is 12.^[1] The SCV has a network of genealogists to assist applicants in tracing their ancestor's Confederate service.^[1] The SCV has programs at the local, state, and national levels for its members, such as marking Confederate soldiers' graves, historical re-enactments, scholarly publications, and regular meetings to discuss the military and political history of the American Civil War.^[1] Local units of the SCV are called "camps." The SCV also publishes books and other media, including the magazine Confederate Veteran.^[1] In recent years, the SCV has taken actions in furtherance of what it describes as "heritage defense" regarding references to the Confederacy and "the South" in U.S. history. ^[2] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Modern soldiers. ... Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: Under God, Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (traditional) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama (until May 29, 1861) Richmond, Virginia (May 29, 1861–April 2, 1865) Danville, Virginia (from April 3, 1865) Language(s) English (de facto) Government Republic President... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... Modern soldiers. ... Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: Under God, Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (traditional) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama (until May 29, 1861) Richmond, Virginia (May 29, 1861–April 2, 1865) Danville, Virginia (from April 3, 1865) Language(s) English (de facto) Government Republic President... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total...

History

In 1889, the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) were formed in New Orleans in part as an outgrowth of the campaign to preserve what would become Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. The UCV was formed along the order of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) which was established in the 1880s for Union Veterans. The Sons of Confederate Veterans is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans.^[3] The SCV was organized at Richmond, Virginia in June of 1896.^[3] The United Confederate Veterans, also known as the UCV, was a veterans organization for former Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War, and was equivalent to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) which was the organization for Union veterans. ... Nickname: The Crescent City, The Big Easy, The City That Care Forgot, NOLA (acronym for New Orleans, LA) Location in the State of Louisiana and the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Louisiana Parish Orleans Founded 1718 Government  - Mayor Ray Nagin (D) Area    - City  350. ... Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, located in northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee, preserves the sites of two major battles of the American Civil War. ... G.A.R. Memorial, Washington, D.C. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army who had served in the American Civil War. ... Nickname: The River City Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Mayor L. Douglas Wilder (D) Area    - City 62. ... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ...

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have tendered letters of commendation to the SCV and affiliates,^[4][5] as have other members of the United States Congress. William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Type Bicameralism Houses Senate House of Representatives United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D, since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D, since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of November 7, 2006 elections) Democratic Party Republican...

Mission and general information

The Sons of Confederate Veterans describes its mission as "preserving the history and legacy of [Confederate] heroes, so future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause."^[3]

Stephen D. Lee's 1906 charge to the SCV is widely cited by the organization as one of its organizing principles:

"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will submit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, and the perpetuation of those principles he loved. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations."^[6]

Perhaps the SCV's most well-known activities involve the organization's campaigns to keep parks commemorating the Confederacy from being renamed or rededicated to non-Confederate themes.^[7] The organization uses Confederate parks for rallies. The SCV has protested against Ku Klux Klan rallies in the same parks, however, arguing that the KKK should not be identified with the Confederacy.^[8] Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ...

The SCV's home office remained at Richmond for many years, but was in recent times relocated to Columbia, Tennessee, where it is housed in an historic antebellum mansion, Elm Springs. Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Largest metro area Nashville Area  Ranked 36th  - Total 42,169 sq mi (109,247 km²)  - Width 120 miles (195 km)  - Length 440 miles (710 km)  - % water 2. ... Antebellum is a Latin word meaning before war(ante means before and bellum is war). ... Elm Springs is a city located in Benton County, Arkansas. ...

License plates

In Georgia [1], North Carolina [2], Alabama [3], Maryland [4], Mississippi [5], Louisiana [6], South Carolina [7], Tennessee [8], and Virginia [9] vehicle owners can request a license plate from the state featuring the Sons of Confederate Veterans logo, which incorporates the square Confederate Battle Flag. Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... Official language(s) English Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Area  Ranked 30th  - Total 52,419 sq mi (135,765 km²)  - Width 190 miles (306 km)  - Length 330 miles (531 km)  - % water 3. ... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,417 sq mi (32,160 km²)  - Width 90 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37°53N to 39°43N  - Longitude 75°4W to 79°33... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Official language(s) de jure: none de facto: English & French Capital Baton Rouge Largest city Baton Rouge [1] Area  Ranked 31st  - Total 51,885 sq mi (134,382 km²)  - Width 130 miles (210 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 16  - Latitude 29°N to 33°N  - Longitude 89°W... Official language(s) English Capital Charleston(1670-1789) Columbia(1790-present) Largest city Columbia Largest metro area Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson Area  Ranked 40th  - Total 34,726 sq mi (82,965 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 260 miles (420 km)  - % water 6  - Latitude 32°430N to 35... Official language(s) English Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Largest metro area Nashville Area  Ranked 36th  - Total 42,169 sq mi (109,247 km²)  - Width 120 miles (195 km)  - Length 440 miles (710 km)  - % water 2. ... Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area  Ranked 35th  - Total 42,793 sq mi (110,862 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 430 miles (690 km)  - % water 7. ... // Introduction A license plate, number plate or registration plate (often referred to simply as a plate, or colloquially tag) is a small metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle for official identification purposes. ...

There was significant opposition in a number of these states to putting the Confederate flag on state license plates, given the popular association of the flag with racist causes. The North Carolina appellate court upheld the issuance of such license plates in SONS OF CONFEDERATE v. DMV (1998) and noted: "We are aware of the sensitivity of many of our citizens to the display of the Confederate flag. Whether the display of the Confederate flag on state-issued license plates represents sound public policy is not an issue presented to this Court in this case. That is an issue for our General Assembly."

SCV members consider these license plates to be "a tremendous recruiting tool." ^[9]

Factionalization

In the 1990s, disagreements over the purpose of the organization emerged within the SCV. At issue was an alleged shift in the SCV’s mission from "maintaining gravestones, erecting monuments and studying Civil War history" to more issue-centric concerns. The SCV's new concerns included "fight[ing] for the right to display Confederate symbols everywhere from schools to statehouses."^[10]

Increasingly, the more 'activist' members of the SCV gained electoral support and were elected to leadership positions in the organization.^[11] Members of the more traditionalist camp alleged that influence of the neo-Confederate League of the South had an impact on the new direction the SCV has taken. One ally of the activist wing claimed that thousands of SCV members are also League of the South members.^[11] News reports state that the activists advocate "picketing, aggressive lobbying, issue campaigning and lawsuits" in favor of what they term "heritage defense" to prevent "heritage violations," which the organization defines as "[a]ny attack upon our Confederate Heritage, or the flags, monuments, and symbols which represent it."^[11][12] Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A League supporter waves the Confederacys third national flag after the conclusion of a League demonstration in Montgomery, Alabama, fall of 2004. ...

In 2002, SCV dissidents formed a new organization: Save the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SSCV), comprised of members and former members of SCV.^[13]. According to SSCV co-Founder Walter Charles Hilderman, "[a]bout a hundred or so individuals and groups identified themselves on the [SSCV] Web site as supporting Save the SCV" not long after the group was founded, though the current membership numbers for the SSCV are not available.^[14] The Southern Mercury responded by asserting that most of the dissension had come to an end by 2003 and that the majority of the members of the SCV were agreeing with the heritage preservation activities espoused by the new SCV leadership.^[15]

In early 2005, the SCV council sued to expel SCV president Dennis Sweeney from office. The court initially granted the council temporary control of the organization, but its final decision returned power to Sweeney. Thirteen of the twenty five council members were expelled from the council shortly after Sweeney regained control. Nine of the council members expelled were former "Commanders-in-Chief" of the SCV, a status that heretofore had come with a life membership on the council.^[11]

By the SCV's summer 2005 convention, the activist wing was firmly in control of the council, and severed much of the SCV's long-standing relationship with the more traditionalist Military Order of the Stars and Bars (MOSB). MOSB, founded in 1938, had been closely involved with the SCV. MOSB had shared its headquarters with the SCV since 1992 and co-published Southern Mercury with the SCV. The MOSB's Commander General, Daniel W. Jones, citing "the continuing political turmoil within the SCV," moved the MOSB out of the shared headquarters, ended the joint magazine publishing enterprise, and separated the two organizations' finances. In 2006, for the first time the two organizations held separate conventions.^[11][16]The Southern Mercury declares that most of the SCV's members are now united in the fight against the "War on Southern Culture."^[15] The Military Order of the Stars and Bars is a patriotic fraternal organization for descendants of men who served as commissioned officers in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America. ...

Criticism

In 2002, the SCV was criticized by left-of-center publications and a group of SCV dissenters for the SCV's views of Civil War history and the organization's alleged association with neo-confederate individuals and organizations. Joe Conason, writing in Salon, and Jason Zengerle, writing in The New Republic, have argued that the SCV has morphed from an apolitical organization dedicated to Civil War history to a politicized organization dedicated to preserving the "Lost Cause" version of the history of the Civil War and the 1861-1865 era.^[17] The SCV states that "[t]he preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South's decision to fight the Second American Revolution".^[3] Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Screenshot of Salon. ... For other uses, see the New Republic disambiguation page. ... George Washington Custis Lee, 1832-1913, on horseback, with staff reviewing Confederate Reunion Parade in Richmond, Virginia, June 3, 1907, in front of monument to Jefferson Davis. ...

Civil War historian James M. McPherson has associated the SCV with the neo-confederate movement and described board members of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia as "undoubtedly neo-Confederate." He further said that the SCV and their equivalent for female descendants, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), have "white supremacy" as their "thinly veiled agendas." ^[18] The incident made McPherson a controversial figure among Confederate history groups and prompted a UDC boycott call and letter-writing campaign against him.^[19] For the Civil War General of a similar name see James B. McPherson James M. McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis 86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, built in 1818, photo circa 1939. ... The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is a sororal association dedicated to honoring the memory of those who served and died in service to the Confederate States of America (CSA). ... White supremacy is a racist ideology which holds the belief that white people are superior to other races. ...

Notable members

• Ellis Arnall, Georgia governor
• Gresham Barrett (R), Congressman (R), South Carolina
• Milledge Lipscomb Bonham, chief justice of South Carolina state supreme court
• Lindsay Boone, Lays potato chips
• Thomas Watson Brown, Watson-Brown Foundation
• Patrick J. Buchanan, author, syndicated columnist, commentator, politician
• Robert Gregg Cherry, North Carolina governor
• John Courson, South Carolina State Senator
• Charlie Daniels, musician
• Thomas DiLorenzo, noted author
• Clint Eastwood, actor, composer, film director, film producer, politician (Mayor of Carmel, California)
• Charles R. Farnsley, mayor of Louisville, U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky
• Orval Eugene Faubus, U.S. Army intelligence officer, Arkansas governor
• MacDonald Gallion, Alabama state attorney general
• Virgil Goode (R), Virginia Congressman
• Richard T. Hines, lobbyist [10]
• Trent Lott (R), U.S. Senator
• Creighton Lovelace, Baptist Pastor
• Kirk Lyons, noted attorney
• Glenn McConnell (R), South Carolina State Senate Majority Leader
• Larry McCoy, MAI - noted Alabama state certified appraiser and SCV genealogist
• Daniel Grove Moler, member of West Virginia state senate
• Rick Perry (R), Texas governor, legislator
• William P. C. Perry, member of West Virginia state senate
• Thomas Ravenal (R), South Carolina State Treasurer
• Charley Reese, syndicated columnist
• John Warwick Rust, member of Virginia state senate,
• Floyd Spence, South Carolina governor, legislator
• Jack Taylor, II, artist, historian
• William Munford Tuck, Virginia governor, legislator
• Danny Verdin (R), South Carolina State Senator
• R. Lee Ware, Virginia House of Delegates
• Alexander Wilbourne Weddell, Ambassador to Argentina & Spain
• Guinn Williams, U.S. Representative from Texas
• Addison G. Wilson, U.S. Representative from South Carolina
• Ron Wilson, South Carolina Board of Education, politician
• Joe Wilson, Congressman (R), South Carolina

Ellis Gibbs Arnall (March 20, 1907 - December 13, 1992) was an American politician who served as the Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1943 to 1947. ... Patrick Buchanan Patrick Joseph Buchanan (born November 2, 1938), usually known as Pat Buchanan, is an American conservative journalist and a well known television political commentator. ... Robert Gregg Cherry (17 October 1891 -- 25 June 1957) was the Democratic governor of the state of North Carolina from 1945 to 1949. ... Charlie Daniels performed at a USO concert at Camp Victory, Iraq on April 10, 2005 Charles Edward Daniels (born October 28, 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina) is an American country music, Southern rock, and jazz singer, fiddler, and guitarist. ... Thomas J. DiLorenzo is an economics professor at Loyola College in Maryland and a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. ... Clint Eastwood (born Clinton Eastwood, Jr. ... Charles R. Charlie Farnsley (March 28, 1907 - June 19, 1990), a Democrat, served as mayor of Louisville, Kentucky and as a member of the [[United States House of Representatives. ... Orval Eugene Faubus (7 January 1910–14 December 1994) was a six-term Democratic Governor of Arkansas, infamous for his 1957 stand against integration of Little Rock, Arkansas schools in defiance of U.S. Supreme Court rulings. ... Virgil Hamlin Goode, Jr. ... Chester Trent Lott, Sr. ... Pastor Creighton Lovelace Creighton Lee Lovelace (born December 15, 1981) is Pastor of Danieltown Baptist Church in Forest City, North Carolina. ... James Richard Rick Perry (b. ... Charley Reese (born January 29, 1937) is an American syndicated columnist. ... Floyd Davidson Spence (April 9, 1928-August 16, 2001) was a Republican politician from South Carolina. ... William M. Tuck (1896-1983) served as Governor of Virginia from 1946 to 1950 as a Democrat. ... Guinn Williams may refer to: Guinn Williams (actor), aka Guinn Big Boy Williams Guinn Williams (politician), US Representative from Texas, 1922 to 1932, and the father of the above named actor This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Addison Graves Joe Wilson (b. ... Ron Wilson is the national commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans since 2002, and a South Carolina Senate hopeful for Anderson County, South Carolina. ... There is more than one person referred to as Joe Wilson: Addison G. Joe Wilson is a Representative from South Carolina. ...

References

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper of Atlanta and metro Atlanta. ...

See also

• Confederate States of America memorials and cemeteries
• League of the South

• Southern Poverty Law Center

A League supporter waves the Confederacys third national flag after the conclusion of a League demonstration in Montgomery, Alabama, fall of 2004. ... The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is based in Montgomery, Alabama, in the South of the US. It was started in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joe Levin as a civil rights law firm. ...

External links

• Official website
• Save the SCV
• The Political Graveyard website list of SCV members