WHY should you become an SCV member?
To defend the truth and claim your heritage with pride!

I joined the SCV to defend the truth which is under attack for a modern political agenda.  The Truth, without omission and without exaggeration, is all that anyone should really want.  --Steve Scroggins, Past Commander

"All that was, or is now, desired is that error and injustice be excluded from the text books of the schools and from the literature brought into our homes; that the truth be told, without exaggeration and without omission, truth for its own sake and for the sake of honest history, and that the generations to come after us not be left to bear the burden of shame and dishonor unrighteously laid upon the name of their noble sires."  ---Rev. James P. Smith, Staff of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, C.S.A.

The SONS of CONFEDERATE VETERANS (SCV) is an organization made up of male descendants of individuals who honorably served the CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.  The citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America. Resistance to tyrrany and the preservation of liberty and freedom motivated the South in the second American Revolution.  The South declared its independence by secession---a rightful power of the sovereign, "free and independent" states which formed a partnership called the "Constitution."  The tenacity with which Confederate soldiers fought underscored their belief in the rights guaranteed to the people and the states by the Constitution. These attributes are the underpinning of our democratic society and represent the foundation on which this republic was built.

Today, the Sons of Confederate Veterans is preserving the history and legacy of these heroes, so future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause. The SCV is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans, and the oldest hereditary organization for male descendants of Confederate soldiers. Organized at Richmond, Virginia, in 1896, the SCV continues to serve as a historical, patriotic, and non-political organization, an Historic Honor Society, dedicated to insuring that a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved and presented to future generations.

Honoring the integrity of valiant Confederate heroes, the men of the SCV proudly carry forward the BANNER handed to them by the Confederate veterans themselves. In 1906 at the reunion of the United Confederate Veterans organization, its commanding officer, General Stephen Dill Lee, CHARGED the adolescent SCV with specific duties deemed forever more THE CHARGE.  It is our mission statement.

Preservation work, marking Confederate soldiers' graves, historical re-enactments, scholarly publications, and regular meetings to discuss the military and political history of the War for Southern Independence are only a few of the activities sponsored by local units, called camps.

All state SCV organizations, known as Divisions, hold annual conventions, and many publish regular newsletters to the membership dealing with state-wide issues. Each Division has a corps of officers elected by the membership who coordinate the work of camps and the national organization.

Nationally, the SCV is governed by its members acting through elected delegates to the annual convention. The General Executive Council, composed of elected and appointed officers, conducts the organization's business between conventions. The administrative work of the SCV is conducted at the International Headquarters, 'Elm Springs,' a restored antebellum home at Columbia, Tennessee.

Every member receives the "Confederate Veteran", the bi-monthly national magazine which contains in-depth historical articles on the war along with news affecting Southern Heritage.  Members of the Georgia Division receive its newsletter, the Georgia Confederate.  Many Camps have their own newsletters.  For Camp 1399, it's The Woodward Word.[We're in need of a new editor to resume publication.] The Camp maintains an online forum and Yahoo group for internal communications. In addition, Camp 1399 also maintains a Facebook site to keep its members and the public informed on its activities and in keeping with its educational mission.

The memory and reputation of the Confederate soldier as well as the motives for his suffering and sacrifice are being consciously distorted by some in attempts to alter history. Unless the descendants of Southern soldiers resist those efforts, a unique part of our nation's cultural heritage will cease to exist.

The SCV works in conjunction with other historical groups to preserve Confederate history. However, it is not affiliated with any organization other than the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, composed of male descendants of the Southern officer corps. The SCV rejects any group whose actions tarnish or distort the Confederate soldier or his reasons for fighting.

SCV Condemns racial bigotry and hatred in all forms and misuse of Southern symbols
1989 Resolution Condemning Racial Superiority - www.scv.org/documents/genworks/scvres.pdf

About my Confederate ancestors

My five Confederate ancestors were dirt-poor farmers from Georgia and Alabama.  Their representatives, in the state conventions (the protocol by which they ratified the Constitution),  declared independence from the United States.  They did not threaten to overthrow the U.S. government.  They merely wanted to leave the old union ---where their northern sister states threatened to bully and coerce them and exploit them with heavier taxation--- and form their own union.  As President Jefferson Davis said, "I love the Union and the Constitution. But I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it."

Lincoln and northern industrialists could not let that happen---they saw it as their own economic ruin.  To protect northern wallets, U.S. forces launched an invasion of Virginia and all the border states in addition to attacking southern states along the coast.  The war was on and my ancestors did their duty to help protect their homeland. 

My great-great grandfather, George Thomas Scroggins, along with two of his brothers, enlisted in Company A of the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment.  Their mother was a widow who was left home alone, their father had died in 1855, a veteran of the Georgia Militia and the Creek War of 1837.  George was 18 years old when he enlisted, he didn't fight for slavery.  His future father-in-law, Alvin Henderson, fought for Company G of the 34th Alabama.  He was a poor farmer, too, with no interest in slavery.

My great-great grandfather, Thomas B. Theus, along with six of his brothers, enlisted in Company C of the 59th Georgia Infantry.  Their parents, Henry and Mary Theus had no interest in slavery and had two younger children to raise.  Only three of the seven Theus brothers returned from the war.  They didn't fight and die for slavery.  I have a photo of Thomas and his extended family from 1915.  Thomas' daughter married the son of another Confederate veteran, Jesse Bud Barfield.  They were materially poor, but they were proud.  They were the people who rebuilt the South after it had been looted and burned.  Martial law and puppet governments denied them their Constitutional rights (such as voting) for twelve long years.  The government that said "no, you can't leave the U.S." now declared that they were not U.S. citizens.  There was more treasure to loot and plunder from the South.  What the occupying soldiers didn't steal, the land, the carpetbaggers took by government force (tax foreclosure). The war wasn't about slavery.  It never was.  Lincoln claimed to want to save the union, but he destroyed the original union of consent and replaced it with a nationalist empire.  The Declaration of Independence states a fundamental principle of self-government:  "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."  All Americans, including northerners, are losers on that score.

I joined the SCV because I won't let the intolerant, the ignorant and the prejudiced call my ancestors "traitors" or otherwise impugn their character or motives.  I joined other like-minded individuals to defend the truth.  The Truth, without omission and without exaggeration, is all that anyone should really want.
--Steve Scroggins

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Open Letter from Camp 1399 Past Commander, Steve Scroggins...
with apologies to Joseph Sobran and Charles Culbertson --ss

The Republican Party is sometimes called "the Party of Lincoln." Given the Trent Lott fiasco, Republicans should distance themselves from racists like Abraham Lincoln.

President Lincoln emphatically and repeatedly stated his belief that "Negroes" were not worthy of "political and social equality with whites." True, he opposed slavery but he wanted to free all black slaves, then quickly deport them---the ultimate segregation. Lincoln's advocacy of "colonizing" blacks outside the United States is well-documented, persistent and unequivocal. [ source: The Living Lincoln - The Man, his mind, his times and the war he fought, reconstructed from his own writings Edited by Paul M. Angle ]

Yet, the myth of Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator" lives on. Lincoln had a dream. He dreamed of an all-white and unified America. Did your school teach you that Lincoln was a white supremacist? A segregationist? A separatist?

Probably not, which begs the question: What other myths, lies and distortions were you taught about Lincoln's invasion of southern states to crush what he called a "rebellion?" Too many to detail here.

Despite prevalent anti-southern propaganda, the truth survives. Many southerners display the Confederate flag and many Georgians want the 1956 state flag returned because we see them as honoring our ancestors and their courage, fidelity and sacrifice. We have nothing to gain by offending or insulting anyone. That's not our intent.

Do the Japanese celebrate the Bataan Death March or the Rape of Nanking? Do Africans celebrate tribal genocide, the sexual mutilation of women or centuries of selling their brethren into slavery as Yankee ships came into port? Do Germans celebrate the Holocaust or insane attempts at world domination? Do Americans celebrate the near genocide of American Indians or yankee profiteering in the slave trade? Do Southern Americans celebrate slavery or the oppression of minorities? No, of course not.

Each of these groups celebrates its best attributes, its highest ideals. Blacks celebrate their inner strength and courage to endure and overcome centuries of slavery and oppression. All Americans celebrate the ideals of self-government, liberty and justice for all. Southern Americans share these ideals but also revere their southern heritage of faith, self-reliance, determination and loyalty.

In fondly honoring the memory of our southern ancestors and their sacrifices, we don't seek to hide or excuse their mistakes or transgressions and we certainly don't want to repeat them. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous paranoia or malicious fear-mongering.

The NAACP declared war on all things Confederate in 1989. They have successfully used malicious lies and distortions to dupe some people into equating Confederate symbols with slavery and hatred. Rather than meaningfully address the numerous real problems blacks face such as illiteracy, failing education, poverty, crime and fatherless children, they prefer to focus much of their efforts on attacking a convenient scapegoat: The Confederacy.

If every Confederate monument and flag disappeared overnight, the real problems of many black citizens wouldn't change at all. Where is the outrage over crime, illiteracy and family breakdown? What solutions are proposed or discussed? Boycotts protesting the Confederate flag. Hmmm.

Could it be that these so-called "civil rights" leaders profit by stirring racial tensions and focusing on scapegoats? Why aren't real problems and solutions the top priority?

The mission of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is to defend the Confederate soldier's good name and to assure that the true history of the South is presented to future generations. All we seek is the truth, without omission and without exaggeration. Visit a camp meeting near you and see for yourself. Visitors are always welcome.

Steve Scroggins
Past Commander, Camp 1399
Camp 1399 meets at 7pm the second Monday each month---see our home page for location. Contact Camp Adjutant for more info.