ElDorado Camp Announces Monthly Meeting
Sons of Confederate Veterans
3rd Arkansas Infantry Regt. Camp #246
P.O. Box 10062
El Dorado, AR 71730
(870)310-2304
Meeting & Program: Our next meeting will be Monday January 11 at 6:30 p.m. This will be the first camp meeting of 2010 and as always we will meet at the Miles House located at 510 North Jackson. Visiting with us will be Steve Ray of the Sons of the American Revolution. Stephen Kermit Ray is a native Mississippian who makes his home in West Monroe, Louisiana with his wife Leigh Ann Bailey Ray and their son Alexander Davidson Ray where they are members of the Cedar Crest Baptist Church. Some of Steve’s favorite pastimes are genealogy, history, and helping coach his son’s ball teams.
A graduate of the University of West Alabama (formerly Livingston University), Steve holds a B.S. degree in Biology. Steve has been employed with the Louisiana Office of Public Health in Monroe, Louisiana as a licensed Sanitarian for 15 years and currently holds the position of the Safe Drinking Water Program Coordinator for Region 8, which is comprised of 12 parishes in northeast Louisiana. A member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans since 1992, Steve has also served for the last 11 years as the elected Treasurer for the Major Thomas McGuire Camp #1714 of West Monroe. Steve has received the honor of a SCV Meritorious Service Medal in 2008 for his decade of service. Steve joined the Benjamin Tennille Chapter of the Louisiana State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution on September 1, 2008 at the age of 41 and since that time has been appointed the Region 3 Board Member and the Forming Chapter President of the James Huey Chapter of West Monroe. Steve will bring us up to speed on the formation of the James Huey Chapter and how our Confederate heritage and Revolutionary heritage are intertwined.
Recent Events: Many of you are aware that camp member Selby Pace has been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. A recent radio advertisement on KIX 103.3 FM gave information for a benefit bank account that has been established for Selby. For those of you receiving this newsletter by regular mail, a card has been included with the account number. For our members receiving this by e-mail please note that the account is at Smackover State Bank, Account # 9055249 and is in the name of Selby Pace, Jr. Selby has been a member of Camp #246 since 2002 and gave us our first presence on the internet by creating the website for which he continues to serve as webmaster. Selby is the sole source of income for he and his wife, although he has begun to miss work due to side effects of the recently initiated chemotherapy treatments. Selby’s wife, Judy, is unable to work due to being a full-time caregiver to an elderly family member who lives with them. Please be generous and make a donation at any Smackover State Bank location. Our compatriot is in need.
This year will begin with the annual David O. Dodd memorial. Due to the unusually cold weather expected in downtown Little Rock on Saturday, January 9th, the annual march from the Macarthur Military Museum has been cancelled but the memorial is planned to start promptly at 11:00 a.m. at the Mt. Holly Cemetery on Broadway Street one block south of I-630. The keynote speaker this year will be the Commander of the Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Mark Kalkbrenner. The annual Arkansas Division (SCV) Executive Meeting will be held following the David O. Dodd memorial at 12 p.m. at the Whole Hog Cafe located at 2516 Cantrell Blvd in Little Rock. A report of this meeting will be given at the meeting Monday night.
Also, please remember the family of Clarence Ritchey. Clarence died after being shot during a home invasion on December 23. Compatriot Ritchey was a new brother in the SCV having recently joined the Alf Fuller Camp #1819 in Junction City. Some of us had the pleasure to meet Clarence and his wife when they visited us at the November meeting.
Upcoming Events: It’s almost time…….for the 27th annual Krewe of Janus Mardi Gras Parade in Monroe/West Monroe. The parade will be Saturday February 6 with line-up time at 3:00 p.m. We had over 100 participants last year and would like to exceed that this year. Line-up will be at the same location as always, just down from the old Lowe’s building in West Monroe. If you need driving directions, e-mail me at sau96@yahoo.com
For our Ancestors,
Chris Smith, Cmdr.
SCV Camp #246
El Dorado, Arkansas
News from The Arkansas Toothpick
Happy New Year from The Arkansas Toothpick! This year will start out with two annual events for Arkansas Civil War buffs to attend. This year also opens with a reminder that the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War is only a year away. The Patrick Cleburne Camp is currently in the planning stages of a most memorable anniversary of the Civil War in South East Arkansas.
This year will begin with the annual David O. Dodd memorial. Due to the unusually cold weather expected in downtown Little Rock on Saturday, January 9th, the annual march from the Macarthur Military Museum has been cancelled but the memorial is planned to start promptly at 11:00 a.m. at the Mt. Holly Cemetery on Broadway Street one block south of I-630. The keynote speaker this year will be the Commander of the Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Mark Kalkbrenner. Mr. Kalkbrenner is also a commissioner on the Arkansas Sesquicentennial Commission and the South East Arkansas Chair of the Arkansas Civil War Trails. Reenactors/living historians need to be at the cemetery no later than 10:30.
The annual Arkansas Division (SCV) Executive Meeting will be held following the David O. Dodd memorial at 12 p.m. at the Whole Hog Cafe located at 2516 Cantrell Blvd in Little Rock. Click here for a map to Whole Hog Cafe with driving instructions from Mt. Holly Cemetery.
January will be a busy month for Arkansas Civil War living historians as well. The first living history of the year is scheduled for the last weekend of January at the State Park at Arkansas Post. It is this event that the local living historians set the schedule of events for the year as well as host an entire weekend of military drill and other living historian-related activities that prove to be fun and fitting for the whole family.
If you know of any school-aged children interested in Civil War reenacting, the Jefferson Guard Historical Preservation Cadet Corps is perfect for students with good grades between 8th Grade and 12th Grade. The Cadet Corps provides Civil War uniforms and may perform roles varying from infantry, artillery, or signal (flag) corps. The Jefferson Guard is starting it’s second year and has a great track record of preservations ranging from restoration of the Oldest Church in Arkansas to preservation work with Steve Shore at the Reed’s Bridge battlefield. The Jefferson Guard has also taken part and fielded cadets in the Battles of Mark’s Mills, Old Washington, and Arkansas Post- to name but just a few. The official website, www.jeffersonguard.com is still under construction. Send an e-mail to info@arkansastoothpick.com for more information on The Jefferson Guard.
Ron Kelley
Editor- Arkansas Toothpick
Arkansas SCV Compatriot Killed
Compatriots, I have been asked by members of the Alf Fuller Camp #1819 in Junction City, Arkansas to pass along the sad news that one of their own has died in a tragic event on Christmas Eve. According to the El Dorado News-Times, Clarence Ritchey of Junction City, AR was found in the front yard of his son’s house by his wife, after being shot. According to the article, Compatriot Ritchey, who lived across the road from his son, heard dogs barking and went over to investigate. His son was not home at the time. Few details have been released and as of this e-mail no announcement of an arrest has been made. The sheriff’s department stated that several guns from the residence had been wrapped in bed coverings and were found in the yard near Compatriot Ritchey’s body. No funeral arrangements have been announced. An autopsy at the state medical examiner’s office in Little Rock is being conducted. In the meantime, please remember Compatriot Clarence Ritchey’s family in your prayers. He was one of our newest brothers in the SCV having received his membership certificate only six weeks ago. More details will be forthcoming as they become available.
Chris Smith
SCV Camp #246
El Dorado, AR
Cleburne Camp News- Arkansas Toothpick December, 2009
Season’s Greetings from The Arkansas Toothpick! The last issue of 2009 is packet with goings-on and pertinent Civil War events in Arkansas. This has been quiet an extraordinary year in the realm of preservation in South East and Central Arkansas, and it should come as no surprise that the Patrick R. Cleburne Camp had its hand in each and every project- both large and even larger.
For the entire article, go to http://arkansastoothpick.com/?p=508
Symposium on James H. Burton, Master Armorer of the Confederacy at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History
On January 9, 2010, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will host a one-day symposium titled, “James H. Burton, Master Armorer of the Confederacy.” The event features lectures on James Henry Burton and his role in promoting small-arms manufacturing in the South as well as Burton’s Confederate uniform, which has been on exhibit at the museum since its opening in 2001. This project is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Admission is free. In addition to hearing the lectures, participants will have one final opportunity to view “Lee and Grant,” the NEH on the Road traveling exhibit developed by the Mid-America Arts Alliance in Kansas City, Missouri. The exhibit has been at the museum since November 12 and will close on January 9.
In 1861, with very few resources, the Confederacy attempted to arm itself. Several factories and armories were created to help meet these needs. James Henry Burton played a major role in the South’s venture in small-arms manufacturing. Born in Virginia in 1823, Burton was apprenticed to a machine shop at the age of sixteen and his abilities and talent were quickly recognized. Ten years later he became acting master armorer at Harpers Ferry. Burton’s mechanical genius flourished at Harpers Ferry. He invented an altered form of Claud Minié’s rifle bullet, which became the primary small-arm projectile during the Civil War. Burton left America for England, where he became chief engineer of the Royal Small Arms Factory producing the Enfield Rifle. After his return to America, he became the premier small-arms expert in the Confederacy. Special speakers at this program are Dr. Matthew Norman, author of Colonel Burton’s Spiller and Burr Revolver: An Untimely Venture in Confederate Small-Arms Manufacturing and Jessica Hack, noted textile conservator from New Orleans.
The museum, located at 503 E. 9th St. in Little Rock, is open 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Saturday and 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Sunday. For more information, contact Stephan McAteer at 501-376-4602 or visit the museum’s website at www.arkmilitaryheritage.com
El Dorado Camp December Meeting Slated
Members & Friends of Camp #246, MEETING & PROGRAM: Our next meeting will be on Monday December 14 at 6:30 p.m. Our guest speaker will be Ted Brode of the Maj. McGuire Camp in West Monroe, LA. Ted will present “Christmas in the Confederate White House” as President Jefferson and family would have experienced it. Please attend and support our speaker as we meet for the final time in 2009. Also, we need everyone present regarding a special request.
RECENT EVENTS: On November 28 Camp #246 was represented at the annual Homer Christmas Parade. Camp members recently participated in the 2009 Festival of Lights Parade in Natchitoches. This is one of the largest parades in the area with over 100,000 spectators in attendance. Our SCV unit was well-received as we forwarded the Colors in Louisiana’s oldest city. Immediately after the parade in Natchitoches several us headed north to arrive just in time to participate in the Farmerville Christmas Parade. Again, our group promoted our Confederate history and heritage to a receptive crowd. On Thursday December 10, members of Alf Fuller Camp #1819 in Junction City participated in the El Dorado Christmas Parade. Also, on Sunday December 5, groundbreaking was held in Biloxi for the new President Jeff Davis Library and Museum at Beauvoir. This will replace the library that was destroyed when Katrina ripped the coast in 2005. On hand to speak was Bertram Hayes-Davis, the great great grandson on President Davis. We hope to hear more from Beauvoir as work gets underway.
UPCOMING EVENTS: Everyone is invited to attend the Bernice Christmas Parade on Saturday December 12. The Lt. Elijah Ward Camp from Farmerville will be organizing the SCV marching unit. For those attending, please arrive at 2:00 p.m. and line-up at the town cemetery. The parade will roll at 3:00 p.m. We are still awaiting word on the arrangements for the annual South Arkansas Brigade Lee-Jackson Banquet. As soon as this information is available, it will be passed on to you. The Louisiana Division Northeast Brigade Lee-Jackson Banquet has been scheduled for January 16 at Bar-B-Que West located at 4900 Cypress (U.S. 80). The banquet will begin at 6:30 p.m. Steve Wilkins, author of “Call of Duty”, a biography of General Lee, will be the speaker. Cost to attend will be $10.00.
CONFEDERATE HISTORY: The Arkansas Confederate Home was opened in 1890 on sixty acres near Little Rock by the Ex-Confederate Association of Arkansas. This organization established the home to care for Confederate veterans and their widows in Arkansas who had no other place to live. In April of 1891, the organization persuaded the Arkansas Legislature to approve $10,000 annually for the upkeep of the facility, after which the property was deeded to the state.
Lee/Grant Debate
Little Rock was recently witness to a rare opportunity for Civil War Generals Robert E. Lee and U.S. “Butcher” Grant to discuss in first-person moderated questions in front of Arkansas Civil War buffs. Questions ranged from questioning Grant’s sobriety during key battles to logistics of moving Lee’s army north to Gettysburg.
CSA Mass Grave Of 900 Unknown Soldiers Marked
Several years ago at one of the January Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ meeting, someone had exclaimed that the mass grave of 900 CSA Veterans in the Little Rock National Cemetery was not marked, save for an oblisk at the head of the grave. There were no markings to show the extent of the size of the grave. This fact had come to the surface and several SCV members from the Newton Camp in Little Rock and Cleburne Camp in Pine Bluff set out to find the best solution to an old and quiet political dilema in which we found ourselves regarding this gravesite.
To read the complete article on the largest marking of Confederate mass graves in recent history by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, go to the following link to the official website of the Patrick R. Cleburne Camp 1433:
http://arkansastoothpick.com/?p=465
3rd Arkansas Camp (El Dorado) to meet Nov. 9, 2009
MEETING & PROGRAM: Our next meeting will be Monday November 9 at 6:30 p.m. inside the South Arkansas Historical Foundation located at 510 North Jackson Street. Our guest speaker will be David Rockett of Monroe, LA. Mr. Rockett was born in El Dorado, AR and grew up in Moss Point, MS. He was raised in a Southern Baptist family and was a high school jock. After a quick stint in the US Air Force he married his high school sweetheart, finished a double-major at FSU, only to move back to Mississippi and then to Louisiana for work in sales — first as a stock-broker/financial planner, and then as a Charitable Gift Planner using life insurance. He became a Southern/Confederate in the early 80’s reading and learning much, only to become an Agrarian by the early 1990s. The Rocketts live in relative bliss in Monroe, LA as Presbyterians and have eight children — five grown and married and three still at home. Mr. Rockett, in his presentation, will familiarize uswith Agrarianism.
RECENT EVENTS: This past weekend, Old Washington State Park hosted a campaign-style reenactment and was expected to draw reenactors from neighboring states. We hope to have a report from this event at the meeting. The Alf Fuller Camp recently hosted the Battle of Brown’s Plantation. The event was attended by reenactors from the Arkansas and Louisiana Divisions. Along with a battle reenactment, the event featured a mock trial and mock hanging of a captured yankee. UPCOMING EVENTS: Parade season is upon us again. The first parades in our area will be the Natchitoches Festival of Lights Parade on Saturday December 5 followed by the Farmerville Christmas Parade that same evening. More events will be posted as they are announced.
CONFEDERATE HISTORY: Daniel Harris Reynolds, of Lake Village, Arkansas, was a lawyer, Confederate general, and state senator who is remembered as one of the state’s most loyal citizen-soldiers during the War of Northern Aggression. Serving initially in northwest Arkansas, Colonel Reynolds and the Chicot Rangers (a cavalry regiment raised in Chicot County) were dismounted shortly after Elkhorn Tavern. Unhappy about serving as infantry, the regiment soon transferred to the Army of Tennessee and served in the Western Theater (that is, east of the Mississippi River) for the rest of the war. By request from his colleagues, the Confederate government eventually promoted Reynolds to brigadier general. His left leg was amputated below the knee due to a wound received in the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, on March 19, 1865. The bullet entered through his horse’s right breast and exited into Reynolds left leg, causing the bone to shatter. After the war, hereturned to Lake Village, reestablished his law practice, and received a presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson. From 1866 to 1867, he served as a state senator for Ashley, Chicot, and Drew counties until yankee Reconstruction policy forced the removal of Confederate veterans from elected office.
Cemetery Symposium November 7
The Searcy County Historical Society is sponsoring a Cemetery Symposium, Saturday, November 7, in Marshall, Arkansas. Symposium speakers are members of the Arkansas Archeological Survey and the Washington County attorney. They will cover Arkansas Cemetery Law, cemetery restoration, including funding, and the techniques and science of finding lost graves. An Arkansas Cemetery Law abstract is available at the website or by purchase. For more information and registration forms go to website: http://www.ancestorfair.us and click on ‘cemetery symposium’ or contact James Johnston at johnston@ipa.net or telephone 479-442-2691.
