FLORIDA: Vets Agency Subs Three Confederate Soldiers
TAMPA — Three Florida soldiers who rose through the ranks in the heat of combat and who entered public service after their military careers were over are being snubbed by the state veterans organization, which is trying to keep their names out of a Florida Veterans Hall of Fame in Tallahassee.
Edward A. Perry
One of the soldiers went on to become a U.S. senator, one a Florida governor and the third helped found the Florida National Guard. The catch? Their military service was for the Confederate States of America some 150 years ago.
The names of David Lang, Samuel Pasco and Edward A. Perry were among eight submitted by a nominating council to the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs and, ultimately, the Florida Cabinet.
But earlier this month, the department submitted only five names, omitting the Confederate representatives.
Lang’s great-great grandson, David A. Lang Jr., says his ancestor deserves to be honored and recognized.
“My great-granddad certainly belongs there,” he said this week. “He was a soldier of Florida who served the state well in any capacity he was in. He’s actually considered the father of the Florida National Guard.
“I just want to see the law followed, that’s all,” said Lang. “Whatever they decide, I can live with it.”
David A. Lang Jr. is 82 and served as Leon County clerk of the circuit court until 2001 when he retired. He also served in the U.S. Army Reserves. He said he called the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs and asked why his ancestor was taken off the list and was told it was because the state did not have the Civil War soldier’s discharge papers.
In a statement released this week explaining the removal of the names, department spokesman Steve Murray said:
“No doubt that in their post-military career they were all distinguished. It is our opinion the three gentlemen who were submitted did not meet the criteria set forth by the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame Council, and by applicable federal and state laws defining veteran status.”
The Cabinet tabled the nominations earlier this month and asked for clarification of the rules under which Hall of Fame candidates are chosen.
The Florida Veterans Hall of Fame began the program in 2013 “to recognize and honor those military veterans, who, through their works and lives, during or after military service, have made a significant contribution to the state of Florida,” according to the organization’s website. Individuals chosen “will have made a significant contribution to the state in civic, business, public service or other pursuits.”
The snub has raised the hackles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans across the state, including the Judah P. Benjamin Camp in Tampa, which are calling for an investigation of the whole affair.
David McCallister, commander of the Benjamin Camp, said he is ready to take legal action if necessary. He said the nominations were made last year and the names should have been placed on a plaque in November. The glitch has delayed the entire 2014 class from entering the Hall of Fame for three months now and counting. Many of the other candidates are aging World War II veterans, and the council wanted to honor them while they still are alive, said McCallister, a Tampa attorney.
Several descendants of Confederate veterans met with the Florida Attorney General’s Office recently and laid out their argument that there is legal precedent saying that in the eyes of the government, the soldiers from the South 150 years ago are to be treated the same as those who fought for the North.
“Over the course of the years,” McCallister said, “laws have progressively been passed to include Confederate veterans in all of the privileges and honors accorded by the U.S. government to all veterans.”
It’s one thing if the council chose not to include certain nominees, he said, or if the Cabinet chose not to include a nominee or two. But it’s not up to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to pick which names should be on a plaque in the Capitol building, he said.
“As an attorney, I’m interested in the legality of Mike Prendergast (executive director for the department) unilaterally and arbitrarily taking it upon himself not to forward the three names chosen by Veterans Hall of Fame Council,” McCallister said. “That’s exactly the reason the council was created in the first place.
“If there were some doubts,” he said, “why weren’t they raised when the council met in June?”
He said the snub took him by surprise because he felt the nominated Confederate veterans met all the listed qualifications.
“They are Florida veterans,” he said. “We are prepared to defend them. The rules back them up.” The rules, he said, “say they must be Florida veterans, not U.S. veterans.”
Sons of Confederate Veterans cite several legal precedents that recognize Confederate soldiers as U.S. military veterans, including a law that paved the way for Confederate veterans to be eligible for military monuments on their graves.
“A Confederate veteran should therefore be treated with the same honor and dignity of any other American veteran,” said a proposal to have the three Confederate soldiers inducted into the Tallahassee memorial.
McCallister said the nominations should not be limited but instead expanded to include all of Florida’s military notables.
“We intend to put forward qualified candidates every year as we move forward, including historical veterans — not just Confederates — but even from the Spanish, colonial and territorial periods.
“I could see the possibility of including even historically well-known Seminoles from the Seminole Wars as Florida veterans,” he said. “They were warriors, veterans and famous. Chief Osceola is famous and I would be supportive of nominating him.”
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed it had received the complaint.
“Our office agreed to review the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs analysis,” said Whitney Ray, spokesman for the office. “Our review is ongoing.”
Here are brief sketches of the nominees scrubbed from the list:
♦ Edward A. Perry was a judge in Escambia County when the Civil War started and enlisted in the Confederate army. He rose from the rank of private at the beginning of the war and retired a brigadier general. In 1862, he was wounded during the Peninsular Campaign, and when he was poised to lead his men at Gettysburg, came down with typhoid and his brigade was taken over by Lang. He returned to service later in 1863 and was severely wounded the following year.
Perry returned to Florida after the war and became a prominent lawyer and politician. He was elected governor in 1884. During his time in office, the state adopted its first constitution and established the state board of education.
After his public service, he returned to Pensacola; he died of a stroke in 1889 at the age of 58.
♦ Samuel Pasco was Harvard-educated and moved to Florida two years before the Civil War, joining the Florida 3rd Volunteers in 1861. He fought in 1863 at Missionary Ridge in Tennessee and later was captured by Union forces in Mississippi and served out the rest of the war in a prison camp.
After the war, he returned to Florida where he was principal of a North Florida academy. He served as clerk of the court in Jefferson County and ended up a prominent attorney there.
In 1885, he was president of the convention that wrote Florida’s first constitution under then-Gov. Perry, and was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1886, briefly serving as speaker in 1887. He was elected to the U.S. Senate from Florida and served two terms until 1899. He died in Tampa. Pasco County is named after him.
♦ David Lang enrolled in the Confederate army as a private and retired a colonel. He participated in several pivotal battles in the Civil War and was wounded at Antietam. He recovered and went on to fight at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, leading the 8th Florida Infantry.
During the Gettysburg campaign, Lang took over for Perry and led the brigade July 2, 1863, on an attack of the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. At the end of the war, Lang formally surrendered Florida’s troops at Appomattox.
After the war, Lang was a civil engineer and served as state representative. He also served as the adjutant general during the administrations of two governors. He was instrumental in forming the Florida National Guard and in 1885 was appointed by the Legislature to position a monument at Gettysburg to honor Florida troops.
He died in Tallahassee in 1917.
Lang’s great-great grandson said he’s keeping a close eye on the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame.
“I hope everything plays out right,” said David A. Lang Jr. from his Tallahassee home. “Frankly I’m just hoping for the best. If they look at it honestly, everything will go fine for all three candidates. But this is something everybody has got to be honest and open about. There should not be hidden agendas or anything of that nature.
“We think a lot of this country and want to see its heritage preserved,” he said. “When the rubber meets the road, we will stand up and be counted.”
–Tampa Tribune
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KENTUCKY: Free Blacks Helped Build Pre-Civil War Lexington
Slaves were everywhere in Lexington before the Civil War: cooking in white people’s kitchens, cleaning their houses, washing and mending their clothes and working in their hemp fields and factories.
Slaves also were on the auction block and whipping post at Cheapside and in three downtown “jails” that became major way stations in the Southern slave trade.
Michael and Hannah Clarke built 344 South Upper Street, left, in about 1818. He was a waiter and carpenter; she a laundress and seamstress. TOM EBLEN — Herald-Leader
But a lesser-known piece of Lexington history is that many free blacks lived side-by-side with slaves and masters. The 1850 census showed the city with 8,159 residents, including 2,309 slaves and 479 free people of color.
Many were skilled craftsmen who had been given their freedom, or found ways to earn enough money to buy it. Once free, they often worked years to buy the freedom of their wives, children and other relatives.
Some free blacks became so financially successful that they built or bought fine homes for themselves, acquired rental property and helped their church congregations grow and prosper.
“There weren’t separate enclaves then,” said Yvonne Giles, who has extensively researched black history in Lexington. “They lived among the white community.”
That wasn’t for lack of racism. White people tolerated and, to some degree, accepted these free black masons, blacksmiths, plasterers, carpenters, coopers, barbers and confectioners because they had to.
“In order for Lexington to prosper, they needed these skilled laborers,” Giles said. “If they hassled them, they would have left. They didn’t go because they felt protected.”
Giles has searched census documents, court records and old newspapers to document the lives of many free blacks in antebellum Lexington. Others who also have researched the topic include historians Marion Lucas and Alicestyne Turley and preservationist Rachel Kennedy.
Their work reveals interesting lives of accomplishment, and legacies that still endure. No photographs of them are known to exist, Giles said. But the houses built or owned by several successful free blacks in the South Hill neighborhood have been restored into valuable historic homes.
Perhaps the best known today is Samuel Oldham, who built a handsome house at 245 South Limestone in 1835. After years of neglect and the threat of demolition, it was restored in 2007.
Oldham was a barber who bought himself out of slavery in 1826, then earned enough to free his wife, Daphney, and their two sons. He operated barbershops and a spa, helped other blacks with legal issues and bought freedom for several slaves.
Daphney Oldham, a seamstress, and her house were the inspiration for playwright Ain Gordon’s 2008 one-woman play, In This Place.
Michael and Hannah Clarke built 344 South Upper Street about 1818. He was a waiter and carpenter; she a laundress and seamstress. Billy and Hannah Tucker, who owned a confectionery shop downtown, lived at 521 South Upper in the 1840s.
Blacksmith Rolla Blue and his wife, Rachel, lived in a South Limestone house that no longer exists. But they owned 346 South Upper and rented it. Upon his death in the 1840s, Blue left a considerable estate with instructions that it be used to buy freedom for enslaved relatives.
James Turner and his wife, Arena, lived in the 1850s at 331 South Mill. He was a plasterer and minister who after the Civil War was active in black education.
Many of these men were important black community leaders and church trustees, in part because their freedom allowed them to borrow money and sign legal documents. They helped establish and grow some of Lexington’s most prominent black congregations, including First African Baptist, Historic Pleasant Green Baptist and Historic St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal.
Two well-known free black ministers were London Ferrill of First African Baptist Church and his successor, Frederick Braxton, who oversaw construction of the 1856 sanctuary that still stands at Short and Deweese streets. In the 1860s, Braxton helped start two other prominent Baptist churches, Main Street and Bracktown.
Still, Giles said, life could be precarious for free blacks in antebellum Lexington. They had to carry papers proving they were free. Even with papers, they lived in fear of being kidnapped and sold into slavery and of offending the wrong people.
“Being a free black didn’t mean you were really free,” she said. “If they didn’t stay on the good side of white people who would support and protect them, they were lost.”
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SOUTH CAROLINA: Fort Sumter Cannon Getting New Mount
CHARLESTON, South Carolina — A large cannon used at Fort Sumter during the Civil War is getting a new carriage mount.
Cannon displayed at Fort Sumter.
Rick Dorrance with the Fort Sumter National Monument says the gun, a 10-inch Columbiad cannon, has sat for years at the fort on wooden blocks.
On Monday it’s being lifted onto a new replica carriage at the fort in Charleston Harbor.
The gun weighs about 20,000 pounds and was made in 1846. It later was moved to Fort Johnson at the edge of Charleston Harbor.
It was brought back to Fort Sumter in 1954. Dorrance says the gun is one of only 14 of its type known to still exist.
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