Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog

Small stories that don’t warrant larger posts all their own.

• A life-sized bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest was stolen last weekend from the Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama. Police reported no leads, and it’s unclear whether the Forrest monument was specifically targeted, or if the bronze was stolen for its metal value.
• Ron Wilson (right), a coin and precious metals dealer from South Carolina, is under investigation by the state for allegedly running a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme involving the purchase of silver securities. Wilson, a former National Commander of the SCV, was one of the so-called hard-liners that came to prominence within that organization in the early 2000s, bent on a more aggressive, politically-engaged course for the group. Wilson remains prominent in local Confederate heritage circles, and apparently hawked his dubious investments among his butternut friends. Wilson has a history of skeevy business dealings dating back to his tenure as a local elected official, some of which involved steering favors to his SCV buddies.
  
• Also in South Carolina, State Senator Glenn McConnell has agreed to serve as that state’s Lieutenant Governor. McConnell has been invaluable in raising funds and public support for the recovery and conservation of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, but he’s also caught grief for posing for some seriously ill-advised photos. Cartoonist Kate Salley Palmer wonders whether McConnell, who’s been a fixture in South Carolina state politics for decades, is really enthusiastic about relinquishing his senior post in the State Senate. John Courson, the new South Carolina Senate Pro Tem, was (with McConnell) one of the Senate Republicans that negotiated the compromise by which the Confederate flag was removed from the State House in Columbia and placed at the Confederate memorial, where it remains today. (Update: the claim about Cleburne’s coat is being the one in which he was killed is in dispute, as noted in the comments below.)
• The coat worn by Confederate General Patrick Cleburne when he was killed at Franklin in November 1864 will be one of the centerpiece artifacts on display at the new Appomattox site of the Museum of the Confederacy. Cleburne is, after Jackson, Lee and Forrest, probably the most-celebrated Confederate general officer today, but his prominence at the museum is being overshadowed by the controversy surrounding that institution’s decision not to fly a Confederate flag out front.
• Cole Grinnell has a great new blog post up at the Civil War Monitor, “How I tried and failed to escape the Civil War.”
• Finally, ninety-two year-old Pete Seeger sings (what else?) “Forever Young,” part of an album celebrating Bob Dylan’s 50-year career. More about the song here.

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