“What Do You Mean We Can’t Fire Our Guns”? and SCV Lights a Menorah

When I visited Pickets grave in Richmond I saw a monument that kind of took me by surprise. I have never heard anyone discuss Jews in the Confederate Army. http://www.rrphillips.com/Genealogy/HollyWood_C...

I like the custom of leaving a stone when you visit a loved ones grave. The first time I saw this was about a year ago in Arlington when our guide brought it to our attention. Its a custom that I have adopted when I visit my fathers grave.

I would love to know who is responsible for this marker. Thanks for the link.

I don't know about that particular gravemarker, but the 18th-century Jewish cemetery in Newport, RI has many gravestones that display incongruous Christian iconography:
http://vastpublicindifference.blogspot.com/2008...

Thanks so much for the link.

http://www.rrphillips.com/Genealogy/Joseph_Hask...

The link above is to an interesting tombstone. Does not have anything to do with the Civil War but I have never seen anything like it before.

I took photos at the New Bern cemetery because my grandparents are buried there as well a other family members. Joseph Haskett, one of the 22 soldiers hung in Kinston by Pickett is buried here.
http://www.rrphillips.com/Genealogy/Joseph_Hask...

http://www.rrphillips.com/Genealogy/Joseph_Hask...
Allen Eubanks, Lucinda Stanley, and their children are buried in this cemetery. Eubanks is a family I have researched. Allen purchased Lucinda to take care of his mother. They would live together until his death and she would be the executer of his will. Allen was a rich man in New Bern. Lucindas ancestry changes depending on what census you look at. She is called white, black, mulatto, and her death certificate says colored.
http://www.rrphillips.com/slavery/slavery.htm
Allen and Lucinda lived together and their children went to school. I do not suggest that this is the norm in the south but their appears to have been a substantial mixed race population in New Bern before the Civil War. John Carruthers Stanley was a mixed race man who owned slaves and plantations. Usually when you see a free black with slaves they are family members but John Stanley owned 160 slaves. Again this is not the norm but an aberation but its intersting. I should also note that these mixed race people were not running to join the Confederate Army but they did join the Union Army. Former slaves formed a community called James City across the water from New Bern. My direct ancestor, Edward Phillips was their in 1900. He had served in the Union Army from NC. I never figured out what Edward is doing in James City for 10 years. He is just about the only white man their. There has got to be a story there.

Proof of the old aphroism that you can get a Confederate reeenactor to go anywhere as long as he can fire his musket.
And a Federal reenactor is happy as long as he can criticize any and all aspects of the whole event.

I say this as someone who has reenacted both sides for 30 years, so don't anyone get their knickers in a knot. :-)

Tom,

That's an interesting observation about Federal reenactors. It sounds not too far from how modern sailors are. A "bitching sailor" is a happy sailor.

Robert Moore

Actually Logan, I was laughing at both of these stories. In reference to the latter, there may have been as many as 2,000 Jewish Confederates. Why there is a need to honor their service is beyond me.

Ah, so that is why it seemed somewhat odd. I was asking myself, "Tens of thousands of Jewish Confederates?" For an army limited in numbers to begin with thats an awful lot of Jews haha. But I am confused-I thought you wrote that from something you read?

What?? Why couldn't the reenactors fire their weapons? Thats the best part! I

I agree with you on the Jewish commemoration. I had no idea that Judaism was that prevalent in that time period. Though I am not myself Jewish, I still believe there is respect due to Jewish soldiers--to both sides.