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Home Front: Culture Wars
Mississippi License Plates To Honor General Forrest et al.
2011-02-10
The Mississippi Division of The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to sponsor a series of four, state-issued license plates to mark the 150th anniversary of the War of Northern Aggression.

The Mississippi SCV has had a state-issued specialty license plate since 2003 to raise money for restoration of Civil War-era flags. From 2003 through 2010, the license plate design featured a small Confederate battle flag.

The Department of Revenue allowed the group to revise the license plate this year for the first of the Civil War sesquicentennial designs. The 2011 plate, now on sale, depicts the Beauvoir mansion in Biloxi, Miss., the final home of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.

The SCV wants license plates to feature Civil War battles that took place in Mississippi. It proposes a Battle of Corinth design for 2012 and Siege of Vicksburg design for 2013. Stewart said the 2015 plate would be a tribute to Confederate veterans.

A license plate honoring General Nathan Bedford Forrest is slated for 2014. Forrest, a Tennessee native, is revered by some as a military genius and reviled by others for leading the 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn.

Forrest was later a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard in Tennessee during the northern military occupation of the South after the war, leading a resistance movement against his former foes and their corrupt agents.

Almost needless to say, the usual suspects are having a hissy fit with the whole idea.
Posted by: Anonymoose

#18  In a related item today, Park Rangers executing a search warrant in Petersburg, VA called in local & state police for assistance after discovering a potentially 'live' Civil War artillery shell.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2011-02-10 20:51  

#17  You're also forgetting Reconstruction.

A small point, but I'm pretty sure that occured after the war, not as a cause of it. ;-)
Posted by: lotp   2011-02-10 20:12  

#16  In other news, so far Sons of the Revolution hasn't been clasified as a right wing homegrown terror group by DHS.
Posted by: Fire and Ice   2011-02-10 18:48  

#15  My Bad - it's SUVCW.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division   2011-02-10 18:42  

#14  Maybe the SUV can sponsor a plate honoring Ben Grierson.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division   2011-02-10 18:41  

#13  After Virginia, Tennessee had more battles than any other state

What was Sherman's march? One long one battle..
Posted by: Beavis   2011-02-10 17:36  

#12  I have lived in the South 40 years and find there is a push to either revise the history of the Civil War or erase it altogether. I live in east Tennessee where brother literally fought against brother. After Virginia, Tennessee had more battles than any other state. Unlike the North, the history of that war is all around us. The Civil War period is one of the most interesting periods in our history--maybe the most interesting period.
Posted by: JohnQC   2011-02-10 17:05  

#11  I'm inclined to give Sherman a break considering the state of the war and need to end it. At that point there was no reason to believe the South would ever stop fighting until brought to heel, at least in the mindset of the North. I'm no history expert either so feel free to correct my "ignorance" on the subject.
Posted by: Charles   2011-02-10 16:46  

#10  Yankee propaganda says Forrest ordered the "massacre of Ft. Pillow". History tells a much different story of a botched retreat after confederate snipers killed the union commander, a shitload of rum and whisky overtaken by confederate forces and drank during battle, and a whole lotta angst from local boys who's family farms had been sequestered to the service of union troops at Ft. Pillow. Go Hatchie Tigers! But the battle cry "remember Ft. Pillow" sure encouraged those brave yankee soldiers to burn, steal and murder their way across the South with the real war criminal Gen Sherman, the blue bastard.
Posted by: RebelYell   2011-02-10 15:21  

#9  P. S. Read his farewell address to his troops when he surrebdered them. He told them they were being treated well and they had been good soldiers so go home and be good citizens. He wasn't bigotted. The Black citizens called on him for help when they were being railroaded out of the elections.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2011-02-10 13:13  

#8  Nathan Bedford Forrest did not organize the KKK. He was never a member but was an advisor. When the Klan turned violent he severed all ties and even published letters in the newspapers calling on them to stop. He was not on the battlefied when the Black soldiers were murdered and when informed about it he rode hard and fast back to Fort Pillow to put a stop to it. His 20 man personal bodyguard was compsed almost entirely of Black troops. He was tried for the Fort Pillow massacre but was found not guilty as he didn't order it, was not there when it started, and did his best to stop it.
The Liberal Headline was Missippi License Plates to Honor Former KKK Leader.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2011-02-10 13:10  

#7  Gen. Forrest was a brilliant cavalry and guerrilla commander. He was also one of the most bigoted and hateful people of the south and should have been hung for war crimes and terrorism.

Gen. Lee or Gen. Jackson would have been a much better choice.
Posted by: DarthVader   2011-02-10 12:05  

#6  Frequently ignored in the story of Ft. Pillow is the fact that Forrest's troops killed white prisoners too. It was a massacre and a war crime pure and simple.

In my opinion, Gen. Forrest should have been hung as a war criminal, not celebrated.
Posted by: Frozen Al   2011-02-10 11:54  

#5  the War of Northern Aggression

Ohfergawd's sake, get over it already. What do they want? To reestablish slavery?

Maybe this is just a general reaction to the general direction our government overlords are trying to take us in. If so, figure it out and just say it then.
Posted by: gorb   2011-02-10 11:53  

#4  Of course it was. Remember the exchange (probably apocryphal) between a Yankee solder and Reb:

Yankee soldier: "Why are you fighting us?"

Johnny Reb: "Because ya'll are down here fighting us."



I have another version. In it, Johnnie Reb is onviously a "Poor White" who has never owned slaves.

Billy Yank: "Why are you fighting us?"

Johnnie Reb. "Because you have come here".
Posted by: JFM   2011-02-10 11:07  

#3  Amendment 13 - Slavery Abolished. Ratified 12/6/1865.

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.


Pure coincidence of course.
Not to mention -
Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868
Amendment 15 - Race No Bar to Vote. Ratified 2/3/1870

Them dang Radical Republicans.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-02-10 10:57  

#2  "and it was "Northern" agression. Something does not compute here."

You're obviously not from the South, JFM. ;-p (I think you're also forgetting Reconstruction.)

Of course it was. Remember the exchange (probably apocryphal) between a Yankee solder and Reb:

Yankee soldier: "Why are you fighting us?"

Johnny Reb: "Because ya'll are down here fighting us."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-02-10 10:35  

#1  The Mississippi Division of The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to sponsor a series of four, state-issued license plates to mark the 150th anniversary of the War of Northern Aggression.


Let's see. Seceeding before Lincoln had even taken his oath (let's remember that whatever Lincoln's intentions abolition could not have taken place before 1894) then after seeing that the High South had not followed them they launch an unprovoked attack on Fort Sumter, and it was "Northern" agression. Something does not compute here.

A license plate honoring General Nathan Bedford Forrest is slated for 2014. Forrest, a Tennessee native, is revered by some as a military genius and reviled by others for leading the 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn.

It wasn't the first and last time that Black troops were massacred by Confederates. I don't know if he tried to prevent it but it would have not been easy given the reaction of confederate soldiers to the sighht of Blacks in uniform.

BTW AFAIK Forrest created the Klan to fight carpet baggers, ended advocating its dissolution and by the end of his life advocating racial equality.
Posted by: JFM   2011-02-10 10:25  

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