Confederate flag

[tombogan03884]

Written July 3 2015
The leftists and the professionally offended wish to ban the Confederate battle flag. They have gained the acquiescence of many cowardly retailers and the management of NASCAR.
Just what does that flag represent ?
Let me tell you .
Some acts of bravery and human courage live forever, Leonidas and the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, Horatius and his 2 companions holding the Tiber bridge, the charge of the British Light Calvary at Balaclava are some examples.
And among the acts of everlasting glory stands Gettysburg.
152 years ago the Union and Confederate armies faced each other across the formerly quiet town of Gettysburg Pa. The Confederates had come looking for important military supplies to support Gen Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North, it was reported that there were large stocks of shoes in the town and the bare foot Confederates intended to have them.
On July 1st the division of Henry Heth had been stalled West of the town when they were met by the Calvary Brigade of Gen John Buford.
Armed mostly with Henry repeating rifles they had withstood numerous attacks over most of the day until supported by Gen John Reynolds and the Union 1st Corps. While Buford had preserved a position that retained the best ground for the Union before the day was done the right flank of Reynolds line had been pushed South of the town by the troops of Gen. Jubal Early  arriving from the North.
The following day the 2 armies again clashed this time on the left where the left flank of the Union line was saved by the death or glory defense of strategic Little Round Top by Col (later Brig. Gen) Joshua Chamberlain and the immortal 20th Me regiment in the face of repeated flanking attacks by Gen John Bell Hoods Texas Division.
These 2 actions set the stage for "That Moment".
On the morning of July 3rd, 152 years ago today, having failed to achieve a decisive break through on either the left or right Lee decided to try once more, straight through the center of 100,000 Union troops dug in holding the high ground supported by massed artillery .
Under cover of the heaviest artillery barrage ever fired by Confederate forces the the barefoot desperate  Confederate troops of General James Longstreet formed into their 3 divisions, J. Johnston Pettigrew on the left, George Pickett on the right, with Isaac Trimble trailing Pettigrew.
As the artillery barrage lifted, unknown to the Confederates the aim had been high, rendering the barrage mostly harmless to the massed batteries located in the Union center, 15,000 Confederate troops stepped off into history.
Marching at a walking pace the men knew they had small hope of survival, let alone success.
Shortly after leaving the cover of the woods where they had formed a rabbit was flushed and ran off, one old veteran was heard to say "You run ole rabbit . If I'se a ole rabbit I'd run now too."
With about a mile of open fields to cross the troops continued at a walking pace with occasional pauses to reform, close ranks and adjust the lines, soon the Union artillery began firing from the front, with shells exploding above them, and round shot tearing holes in the battle line the troops slowed and bunched as they crossed the sunken Emmitsburg road and the fences on either side of it, then they continued their 20 minute march across open ground with out the slightest cover . Now the remainder of the Union guns, those upon Round Top began sweeping the Confederates from the right flank bringing the number of guns in action to an estimated 116 guns, (about 10X as many as were involved in the charge of the Light Brigade)
Now the marching line begins receiving rifle fire from the dug in Union defenders finally, after 20 long, bloody minutes the battered line is within  range for the final rush into the lines of their tormentors, after enduring in silence , with their battle flags leading the way they give voice to the famed "Rebel yell" and charge into the smoke of massed infantry and artillery !
Into the Union line, fire a volley , there is no time to reload their muzzle loading rifles it's now bayonets, clubbed rifle butts, fists and the regiments of the Union are shattered, disorganized and begin to fall back in confusion ! Confederate Gen Lewis Armistead, his hat formerly on the point of his sword, now down at the hilt , puts his hand on a Union cannon rallies his tired troops for one more desperate rush, The day may yet be won ! The guns flash one more time ! Then a volley by Union reinforcements !  There is a melee, men screaming, guns blasting, then a hole in the smoke shows Armistead is down, mortally wounded, The Confederacy has reached the high water mark of the war. With about half their number killed, captured, or wounded the repulsed, but not beaten, Confederates withdraw back across that fire swept mile of grass to their starting point.
When Gen. Longsteet solemnly instructed the returning Gen Pickett to reorganize his division to prepare for a possible counter attack, Pickett replied, with tears in his eyes for the lost cream of the Confederacy, "General, I have no division, my division lies out there."
And thus died the hopes of the Southern Confederacy.
The bravery of a man, or an army may be judged by the actions of their foes, the honor , and glory earned by the Union Army of the Potomac, Mr. Lincoln's army, is due entirely to the bravery and sacrifice of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
This memory is what the race baiters, and revisionists would erase.

[PegLeg45]

Yep.

[tombogan03884]

I posted this in another thread but it may be more appropriate here.

Barbara Frietchie
By John Greenleaf Whittier
Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple- and peach-tree fruited deep,

Fair as a garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,

On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain wall,—

Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.

Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,

Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;

In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.

Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced: the old flag met his sight.

“Halt!”— the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
“Fire!”— out blazed the rifle-blast.

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.

Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;

She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.

“Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country’s flag,” she said.

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman’s deed and word:

“Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!” he said.

All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:

All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.

Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;

And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.

Barbara Frietchie’s work is o’er,
And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.

Honor to her! and let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall’s bier.

Over Barbara Frietchie’s grave
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!

Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;

And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!


She was a real American :
Based on the date of her death and the presence Of Gen. Thomas Jackson , the poem refers to Lee's first invasion that lead to the indecisive battle of Antietam.
On a further historical note Jackson's troops camped that night on the outskirts of town where an officer or messenger lost the famous General Order # 93 and 3 cigars, found the following day by Union troops who camped on the same ground.
The finding of the order gave Gen McClellan a complete run down of locations, numbers, and routes of Confederate forces which he pissed away in delay and hesitation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Fritchie

Barbara Fritchie (née Hauer) (December 3, 1766 – December 18, 1862), also known as Barbara Frietchie, and sometimes spelled Frietschie,[1] was a Unionist during the Civil War. She was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and married John Casper Fritchie, a glove maker, on May 6, 1806....

She was a friend of Francis Scott Key and they participated together in a memorial service at Frederick, Maryland, when George Washington died. A central figure in the history of Frederick, she lived in a house that has, in modern times, become a stop on the town's walking tour. According to one story, at the age of 95 she waved the Union flag in the middle of the street to block, or at least antagonize Stonewall Jackson's troops, as they passed through Frederick in the Maryland Campaign. This event is the subject of John Greenleaf Whittier's poem of 1864, Barbara Frietchie. When Winston Churchill passed through Frederick in 1943, with President Roosevelt on their way to Shangra-la (now Camp David), he recited the poem from memory,[