Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Ceremony Planned to Dedicate 14 New Confederate Memorials In Richmond

  





"Though their hands were small and not hardened in battle, their service to the Confederacy looms large."
 

On Friday March 13th, 1863, eighteen-year-old Mary Ryan was at work at the Confederate States Laboratory on Brown’s Island. The small ammunition factory had several hundred employees, most of whom were young women between the ages of twelve and twenty. The work, which often required small hands, was vitally important to the Confederate war effort, which suffered often from shortages in the supply of ammunition.
The C.S. Laboratory was divided into six departments, and Mary Ryan worked in the last one. Seated at the end of a table with a handful of other employees, she was filling friction primers–the devices used to ignite gunpowder inside a cannon. This was dangerous work. In fact, the superintendent Captain Wesley N. Smith had reminded her of that during his routine inspection of the facility just fifteen minutes prior. Shortly after 11:00 AM, Mary noticed that the primer had gotten stuck and so she struck the table three times to dislodge the primer. Upon the third strike, the primer ignited and an explosion sent her flying upwards. The first explosion ignited other materials in the room, causing a second, much-larger explosion that destroyed the building completely.
The Confederate munitions factory on Brown's Island exploded with a fury that killed more than 40 of its female workers, most of whom were immigrants with little resources, and were laid to rest in unmarked graves throughout the city. 
In 2014, the Captain Sally Tompkins Chapter #2, Virginia Society, Order of the Confederate Rose (OCR) raised the needed funds to mark 14 of the graves in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond.  A ceremony was held in March of 2014 to dedicate the markers.  







Almost immediately after that project was completed, the Captain Sally Tompkins Chapter began to raise money to mark 14 more graves, this time at Hollywood Cemetery, and earlier this year, fundraising for the nearly $8,000 needed was completed. 

The stones have been fabricated and will be set this week and a dedication ceremony will be held this Saturday, October 28th at 11:00 a.m. at the Gettysburg gazebo in Hollywood Cemetery.

Hosted by the Captain Sally Tompkins Chapter #2, OCR, the ceremony will include a Confederate color guard and rifle salute, keynote remarks by Ms. Teresa Roane, and historical information.  Please plan to attend and help us honor these young victims of Lincoln’s illegal war on the South.

Across the country, our monuments and memorials are under daily attack by those who would wish to see our history and heritage, and the memory of the Confederate soldier, wiped completely from the face of the earth.  While continuing to fight these defensive battles is our primary focus, the placement of new flags, monuments, and memorials is also a top priority.  These 14 new memorials, placed when so many are under threat of removal, is a testimony to the hard work and dedication to the men and women of the Captain Sally Tompkins OCR and we offer our sincere thanks and admiration.


Thursday, October 19, 2017

Silver Lining: Monument Vandals Are Catalysts for Much Needed Cleaning and Restoration of Confederate Memorials

 


Early Tuesday morning, October 17th, we received word that the Jefferson Davis Monument on Monument Avenue in Richmond had been hit by vandals some time overnight, who spray painted "Racist" on the front of the pedestal.




  
Our folks were on the scene before noon and reported that the city already had dispatched crews to clean the monument.

Monument Guards remained on the scene all day, talking with law enforcement, local press, and local citizens about the vandalism. By 4:00 p.m. the monument was completely cleaned up.

Unfortunately, vandals struck AGAIN Tuesday night, painting the monument again some time before dawn...
 

This time, the city had crews out early Wednesday morning, and the monument was clean before noon.

Last night, we doubled up our Monument Patrols, and at dawn, Monument Guards  reported in that Jeff Davis, and all of the monuments, had been spared the vandals' attacks overnight. They reported heavy police presence throughout the night and increased awareness by Monument Avenue residents, angered by the senseless criminal acts. 





We will be looking to increase our Monument Guards presence over the next few weeks, in light of these back to back attacks and the growing rage from leftists as they are turned back at every attempt to eradicate our history and heritage in the Commonwealth.

If you would like to volunteer to help in these patrols, please contact us at info@vaflaggers.com.

We are also working with Richmond Crime Stoppers to establish a reward for information leading to the arrest of the individuals responsible for these crimes. Stay tuned for more information.


 
  



Finally, I wanted to give a big Flagger shoutout to all of the Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Take Em Down, and other various leftist activist groups for what has been an unintended, but happy consequence of their actions.  

Whenever they desecrate one of our monuments with paint, the memorials end up getting a (in many cases) much needed cleaning. The Stonewall Jackson monument at Manassas was vandalized a few weeks ago, and after the NPS was finished with the clean up (within 24 hours) the photos of the monument after the restoration were stunning!  These folks are unwittingly contributing to the much need cleaning up and restoring of our monuments, all across the country!

Before and after pics from Manassas below...





Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Charlottesville Judge Rules State Law Protecting War Memorials DOES Retroactively Apply







GOOD NEWS OUT OF CHARLOTTESVILLE today!

A Charlottesville Circuit Judge today issued rulings that DENIED the city’s request to dismiss the lawsuits filed to prevent removal, ruled that the monument IS, in fact, RETROACTIVELY covered by state law, asked for more documentation to confirm it’s a war memorial, and left the injunction preventing removal in place!!

http://www.newsplex.com/content/news/Lawsuit-concerning-Lee-statue-allowed-to-move-forward-449466493.html

Partial victory and more delays, all the while preventing removal, is a GREAT day for the citizens of the Commonwealth... and a huge loss for the haters on City Council.

It's not over yet.  The judge gave the plantiffs 21 days to provide additional evidence to support the fact that the monument is a war memorial.

21 days to prove that the 14' bronze statutes of WAR Between The States Generals...in full military gear...on their WAR horses...in WAR Between the States period tack... are in fact WAR Memorials.

Meanwhile, the monuments remain and momentum to push back against the monument destroyers continues to build, AND his ruling today that monuments are RETROACTIVELY covered by state law should serve to quell the isolated monument removal rumblings across the Commonwealth, including the Capital of the Confederacy.

"... the judge said he could not conclude that the General Assembly intended to leave certain memorials unprotected based on when they were built and whether they were built in a city or a county. 'Logic and common sense prevent me from reaching such a conclusion,' Moore wrote."

Logic and common sense...refreshing!

No ruling was issued today on the issue of the (illegal) tarps, which remain on the monuments.