Shortly after 12:30 am this morning, May 10, 2024, on the 161st Anniversary of the death of Stonewall Jackson, the Shenandoah County Public Schools Board voted to restore the names of the Southern Campus Schools to Ashby-Lee Elementary and Stonewall Jackson High School.
 
The motion passed via 5-1 vote with Kyle Gutshall casting the only NO vote.
 
The exact language of the motion that was approved was: “I move that the names of Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School be restored to the schools now named Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School respectively. The funds required to implement the restoration must be provided by private donations exclusively and not be borne by the school system or government tax funds, though the SCPS will oversee disbursements relating to restoration costs.”

In 2020, the school board renamed the schools, both in Quicksburg, in a move that saw board members cave to outside leftist extremists, ignored the will of local citizens, and was done without public input or notice. Since that decision, two election cycles have brought in six new school board members.
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In the wake of the 2020 decision, public anger and outrage was channeled into action.  A group called the Coalition for Better Schools asked the board to restore the old names, citing the need to remember the area’s War Between The States history and a belief that the 2020 school board made the renaming decision in haste. In explaining the reasoning for their “yes” vote, most school board members said they believed the 2020 board had acted inappropriately in changing the names within a matter of days without enough community input.  


Across the Commonwealth, EVERY locality which has ever been allowed to vote, has voted in overwhelming majority to keep their Confederate monuments, school names, and references. Only those in cities and counties which did not allow the people to vote have been removed, yet the media and corrupt politicians will report that this is what the people want, despite all the polling data and referendums showing otherwise. 

The good people of Shenandoah County have had their voices heard, and the wrong has been righted.  Supporters vow that this is the first of many, many more such decisions to come.    ​

​As we look back on 2022, we thank God for His faithfulness in directing our efforts. We give him the glory for each victory won, each new monument and flag erected, and for the hedge of protection he has placed around those who forward the colors. 

While it may seem that evil has the upper hand, we know we serve a mighty God who WILL vindicate…and that we represent men of honor and duty whose deeds and valor will be remembered with reverence long after those who desecrate their graves and memorials are gone and forgotten, as long as WE do our duty to protect their memory and defend their honor. 

We offer each and every one of you, our friends and supporters, our heartfelt thanks for your steadfast support and prayers. We are excited about what the New Year will bring, and stand ready to defend the honor and good name of our ancestors across the Commonwealth and beyond. 

May you and your families be blessed with God’s richest blessings, health, peace and prosperity in the coming year! 

All glory to God. All honor to the Confederate soldier.

It’s not about us.

Charlottesville City Council has voted 4-0 to ignore offers by dozens of groups and localities to purchase the magnificent equestrian statues for display at other locations, and give the Lee, Jackson, and Lewis & Clark statues to a radical racial group who has detailed plans to melt them down into trinkets. 
 
Must be nice to have this type of cultural arrogance without concern of blow back from preservationists.

This comes as no surprise to any of us who have any dealings with the communist republic of Charlottesville.  These people hate us.  We knew full well that none of us had a chance to obtain the statues, and will continue our complete and total boycott of that once great and beautiful city. 

Meanwhile, Governor Northam has announced that he will illegally give the deed to LEE Circle over to the City of Richmond, after removing the LEE monument base, all of which will be completed before he leaves office in January.  Work began yesterday. 

The NBC affiliate in Richmond reached out to us and actually used a great part of our quote on air, and the entire statement in their written report:

Our statement:
 
“We are certainly not surprised to hear of the governor’s plan to illegally break the deed to the LEE circle property, destroy the remaining LEE monument base, and hand over the property to Mayor Stoney. Property owners across America should be alarmed that the state can actually disregard the legal and binding terms of a 100+ year old deed, just to appease the whims of a few ignorant and hateful activists.
 
Despite recent and repeated polls that show the overwhelming majority of Virginia’s citizens are opposed to monument destruction, and a total of NINE referendums across the Commonwealth during the past two elections, in which citizens overwhelmingly voted to keep memorials standing, Northam continues to bend over backwards to ignore the will of the people and please the extremists and haters among his own party. He appears to be racing to finish the destruction and give away the property to the city to ensure that the memorial will not be rebuilt when his party is ushered out of power next month.
 
Northam’s divisive and spiteful actions confirm that the carpetbaggers, scalawags, and their woke “social justice” rioters who are now in charge, are afraid Old Virginia won’t stay Reconstructed as long as General Lee is still around. It says something about our Confederate heroes that more than 150 years after the war ended, the honor, courage, and Godly character of men who stood up to the evil of tyranny, still scares the daylights out of them.
 
While they may remove granite, marble, stone and bronze, we are inspired and encouraged by the fact that the name of Robert E. Lee will be spoken with reverence and honor by true Virginians long after those behind the destruction and desecration are long gone and forgotten. Our work, as the living descendants of these gallant veterans is far from over. We will continue to do our duty…to ensure they are remembered and honored as we see fit, starting with new Memorial Battle Flag sites in addition to the 35 now existing across the Commonwealth.”

Obviously, the leftists are scrambling to complete their destruction before being ushered out of office in January.  

Meanwhile, we are pleased to support the efforts of the Gordonsville Grays SCV Camp #2301 in their "LEE RIDES AGAIN" campaign to raise a full scale replica of the LEE monument!

This campaign is in the very early stages but we have reviewed their plans and are confident in their ability to make it happen and will be lending them our full support and assistance, including help to find a suitable location, the first step in the process.

Make checks payable to Gordonsville Grays, note "Lee Monument" in the memo line, and mail to PO Box 204, Gordonsville, VA 22942.

Donations may also be made via PayPal to [email protected] OR www.givesendgo.com/LeeRidesAgain

We encourage you to get behind this effort and send them a gift to help get the project off the ground.  Look for more details to follow soon. 

"Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer."  Romans 12:12

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​Under cover of darkness, and against the wishes of the majority of Virginia's citizens, House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, oordered the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the state Capitol Thursday along with busts and artifacts representing eight men who served in the Confederacy. The statuary removed Thursday night was located in the Old House Chamber, a room where delegates met before the building was expanded, which is now used as a museum and for historical tours, ironically, exactly where these leftists typically say our Confederate memorials belong. 
 
The Virginia Democrat Taliban continues its work. Remember how they said statues and artifacts belonged in a museum?  Apparently not.   The statues were in a museum called the OLD House Chamber where the events of the War Between the States era actually occurred and where the legislature of the Confederacy actually met are now removed.

Virginia has a unique and remarkable history.... and we exist now on the same spot where it all unfolded. NOT commemorating that history and the people who were legendary leaders 150 years ago is anti-intellectual and anti-American.

Last night’s secret removal is shameful.

Remember it was Democrats who acted like the Taliban.  Remember and support only those who will replace everything removed once we regain control of the Commonwealth. 

Filler-Corn’s office sclaims the state constitution and the rules of the House gave her the authority to make changes to the space, including by removing artifacts.

Filler-Corn was born in New York, and raised in New Jersey. 

She announced that she formed a “Speaker’s Advisory Group on State Capitol Artifacts” to advise her on what to do with the removed memorials and possible further actions. She appointed Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, to oversee the group.

“The artifacts at the Capitol are a painful reminder of the deep-rooted wounds of slavery and 401 years of oppression,” McQuinn said in a statement. “These Confederate artifacts are constant reminders of individuals who had no intentions of guaranteeing justice, equality and equity for all. I am proud of Speaker Filler-Corn for taking this action to not only remove these hateful symbols, but also create a process to make sure our State Capitol reflects our ideals.”

In a statement, Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, criticized the statue’s removal:

​“The Speaker’s statement reaffirming her commitment to telling the whole history of the Commonwealth is perplexing, given the fact that that the Lee statute in the old House chamber literally marks the spot where Lee accepted his general’s commission, setting off some of the most historic and tragic events in our nation’s history. Unlike the Lee monument on Monument Avenue, this statue is a historical marker. Another historical reality is that the Capitol building itself served as the Confederate Capitol, a fact that should no doubt force the Speaker’s new Advisory Group to recommend that it be razed to the ground.”

This is heartbreaking, to say the least, but certainly doesn't come as a surprise to any of us who have watched the Democrats and their EVIL, vindictive actions since they gained control of our legislature in November.

We understand, like few others, that all of this destruction and desecration is because 150+ years later, liberal Democrats are still terrified of the Confederacy and what we stood for...and they know full well it had NOTHING to do with slavery or race.

It was the last time Godly men of honor and valor had the courage to stand against evil tyranny...and THAT scares them to death.

Q: What was the cause of secession in 1861?

A: It was the yoking together of two jarring nations having different interests which were repeatedly brought to the breaking point by selfish and unconstitutional acts of the North. The breaking point was nearly reached in 1786, when the North tried to give away the Mississippi River to Spain; in 1790, when the North by Congressional act forced the South to pay the Revolutionary debts of the North; in 1801, when they tried to upset the presidential ticket and make Aaron Burr President; and in 1828 and 1832, when they imposed upon the South high protective tariffs for the benefit of Northern manufacturers. The breaking point was finally reached in 1861, when after flagrant nullification of the Constitution by personal liberty laws and underground railroads, resulting in John Brown's assassinations, a Northern President was elected by strictly Northern votes upon a platform which announced the resolve never to submit to a decision of the highest court in the land. This decision (the Dred Scott Case, 1856), in permitting Southern men to go with their slaves into the Territories, gave no advantage to the South, as none of the territorial domain remaining was in any way fit for agriculture, but the South regarded the opposition to it of the Lincoln party as a determination on the part of the North to govern the Union thereafter by virtue of its numerical majority, without any regard whatever to constitutional limitations.

The literature of those times shows that such mutual and mortal hatred existed as in the language of Jefferson to "render separation preferable to eternal discord."

Q: Was slavery the cause of secession or the war?

A: No. Slavery existed previous to the Constitution, and the Union was formed in spite of it. Both from the standpoint of the Constitution and sound statesmanship it was not slavery, but the vindictive, intemperate antislavery movement that was at the bottom of all the troubles. The North having formed a union with a lot of States inheriting slavery, common honesty dictated that it should respect the institutions of the South, or, in case of a change of conscience, should secede from the Union. But it did neither. Having possessed itself of the Federal Government, it set up as its particular champion, made war upon the South, freed the negroes without regard to time or consequences, and held the South as conquered territory.

Q: Was the extension of slavery the purpose of secession?

​A: No. When South Carolina seceded she had no certainty that any other Southern State would follow her example. By her act she absolutely shut herself out from the territories and thereby limited rather than extended slavery. The same may be said of the other seceding States who joined her.

​Q: Was secession the cause of the war?

A: No. Secession is a mere civil process having no necessary connection with war. Norway seceded from Sweden, and there was no war. The attempted linking of slavery and secession with war is merely an effort to obscure the issue - "a red herring drawn across the trail." Secession was based (1) upon the natural right of self-government, (2) upon the reservation to the States in the Constitution of all powers not expressly granted to the Federal government. Secession was such a power, being expressly excepted in the ratifications of the Constitution by Virginia, Rhode Island, and New York. (3) Upon the right of the principal to recall the powers vested in the agent; and upon (4) the inherent nature of all partnerships, which carries with them the right of withdrawal. The States were partners in the Union, and no partnership is irrevocable. The "more perfect Union" spoken of in the Preamble to the Constitution was the expression merely of a hope and wish. No rights of sovereignty whatever could exist without the right of secession.

Q: What then was the cause of the war?

A: The cause of the war was (1) the rejection of the right of peaceable secession of eleven sovereign States by Lincoln, and (2) the denial of self-government to 8,000,000 of people, occupying a territory half the size of Europe. Fitness is necessary for the assertion of the right, and Lincoln himself said of these people that they possessed as much moral sense and as much devotion to law and order as "any other civilized and patriotic people." Without consulting Congress, Lincoln sent great armies to the South, and it was the war of a president elected by a minority of the people of the North. In the great World War Woodrow Wilson declared that "No people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does not choose to live." When in 1903 Panama seceded from Colombia, the United States sided with Panama against Colombia, thereby encouraging secession.

Q: Did the South fight for slavery or the extension of slavery?

A: No; for had Lincoln not sent armies to the South, that country would have done no fighting at all.

Q: Did the South fight for the overthrow of the United States Government?

A: No; the South fought to establish its own government. Secession did not destroy the Union, but merely reduced its territorial extent. The United States existed when there were only thirteen States, and it would have existed when there were twenty States left. The charge brought by Lincoln that the aim of the Southerners was to overthrow the government was no more true than if King George III had said that the secession of the American colonies from Great Britain had in view the destruction of the British Government. The government of Great Britain was not destroyed by the success of the American States in 1783. Nor would the government of the United States have been destroyed if the Southern States had succeeded in repelling the attacks of the North in 1861- 1865. Had the North refrained from conquest, its example would have been felt by Germany and there would have been no World War costing millions of lives. A group of Northern States in 1861-65 assumed the imperialistic attitude of Great Britain in 1776 and Germany in 1914, and substituted the armed fist for the American principle of self-government. Universal peace will never ensue till the principle of self- government, which requires no armies to maintain it, is recognized throughout the world.

Q: What did the South fight for?

A: IT FOUGHT TO REPEL INVASION AND FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT, JUST AS THE FATHERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAD DONE. Lincoln himself confessed at first that he had no constitutional right to make war against a State, so he resorted to the subterfuge of calling for troops to suppress "combinations" of persons in the Southern States "too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary" processes. It is impossible to understand how the Southern States could have proceeded in a more regular and formal manner than they did to show they acted as States and not as mere "combinations." It shows the lack of principle that characterized Lincoln when later he referred to the Southern States as "insurrectionary States." If the Federal Government had no power to make war upon a State, how could it be called insurrectionary?
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Q: Did Lincoln carry on the war for the purpose of freeing the slaves?

A: No; he frequently denied that that was his purpose in waging war. He claimed that he fought the South in order to preserve the Union. Before the war Lincoln declared himself in favor of the enforcement of the fugitive slave act, and he once figured as an attorney to drag back a runaway negro into slavery. When he became President he professed himself in his inaugural willing to support an amendment guaranteeing slavery in the States where it existed. Wendell Phillips, the abolitionist, called him a "slave hound." Of course, Lincoln's proposed amendment, if it had any chance at all with the States, did not meet the question at issue. No one except the abolitionists disputed the right of the Southern people to hold slaves in the States where it existed. And an amendment would not have been regarded by the abolitionists, who spit upon the Constitution itself. The immediate question at issue was submission to the decision of the Supreme Court in relation to the territories. The pecuniary value of the slaves cut no figure at all, and Lincoln's proposed amendment was an insult to the South.

Q: Did Lincoln, by his conquest of the South, save the Union?

A: No. The old Union was a union of consent; the present Union is one of force. For many years after the war the South was held as a subject province, and any privileges it now enjoys are mere concessions from its conquerors, not rights inherited from the Constitution. The North after the war had in domestic negro rule a whip which England never had over Ireland. To escape from it, the South became grateful for any kind of government. The present Union is a great Northern nation based on force and controlled by Northern majorities, to which the South, as a conquered province, has had to conform all its policies and ideals. The Federal authority is only Northern authority. Today (1935) the Executive, the Cabinet, the Supreme Court, the Ministers at foreign courts are all Northern men. The South has as little share in the government, and as little chance of furnishing a President, as Norway or Switzerland.

​What happened at UNC Chapel Hill last night is sickening. This memorial stands in memory of the 1,800 UNC students that were called to service by their State, many of whom lost their lives never returned home to their families. UNC is noteworthy for providing more students to the war than any other university in America. The front of the monument actually depicts a student dropping his textbooks while looking up to a woman symbolizing North Carolina calling him to duty.

Yet the far left would have you believe this is an oppressive monument to white supremacy, as if it is somehow strange or unusual for people to build memorials in memory of their dead loved ones following the bloodiest war in American history.

This just goes to show the very real dangers of the growing far left extremism, radicalization, and ignorance on college campuses across the United States. It doesn't always just result in funny memes and viral videos, but often very serious violence and destruction. Historical artifacts and works of art like this made by famous sculptors in memory of the dead are priceless and irreplaceable, and once gone are gone forever.

Note: This piece was originally published on the Virginia Flaggers' website on August 21, 2018