Reconstruction brouhaha in SC

[John Christiansen]

Fellows,

Last semester I was involved in a research stuudy for a proposed new national park in Beaufort, SC, that will interpret the story of the Reconstruction era. Beaufort has been selected because it was the site of early experiments concerning the new status of freedmen. This was called the Port Royal Experiment. Also, the area was the headquarters of the Department of the South of the Federal army. Early efforts to arm black troops were conducted here (most notably the 1st SC/ 33rd USCT), and the area was a major staging ground for black troops. This experience will all be part of the story. Also, Reconstruction programs were more successful in Beaufort because of a strong African-American community that deveoloped there during and afdter the war. Harriet Tubman conducted spy operations for the Union army here, and Robert Smalls of The Planter was of Beaufort and later the towns representative in Congress.

This study and proposed legislation is meeting with heavy opposition from the SCV. Please read the attached message from Dr. paige Putnam-Miller, one of the project leaders and a former lobbyist for the American Historical Association:
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July 18, 2003
To: Reconstruction Working Group
From: Page Miller

I met yesterday with Representative Joe Wilson's staff in Beaufort and understand that his office has received over 800 letters (probably only 50 from Beaufort County and most from out of state) in support of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' resolution opposing our Reconstruction working group and the legislation for a special resource study on Reconstruction in Beaufort County. Because this resolution is full of false statements, it is important for us to help to set the record straight. The "whereas" section of the resolution that is absolutely wrong is that "if this bill passes, the Beaufort arsenal will be turned over to the national park service." However, other sections are also full of misinformation. See the full text at the end of this message.

Money has already been secured in last years appropriations bill for this special study, but release of that money is pending authorization. S. 500, Hollings bill titled Beaufort County Study Act, provides authorization. S. 500, has passed the Senate by unanimous vote and has been sent to the House for consideration.

What is needed now is for Representative Wilson to urge the House Resources Committee to hold a hearing on S. 500 and to recommend it to the House floor for a vote. Because this bill deals with a project in Representative Wilson's district, it is essential that he push for action on S. 500. The Senate bill is very similar to the bill that Wilson introduced in January. It is too late in the session for Wilson to realistically secure passage of his own bill, H. R. 332, and thus if he wants Beaufort County to receive $350,000 for this study, he needs to seek passage in the House of S. 500, the Beaufort County Study Act.

You may contact Wilson's office by e-mail at: [e-mail] or call his Washington office [phone]; fax his Washington office [phone] or call his Beaufort office [phone]; or write his Beaufort office: Lowcountry Office, 903 Port Republic Street, Post Office Box 1538, Beaufort, SC 29901.

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Boys, any support you'd be willing to lend this effort would be much appreciated. And if you know of any other Union men that would be interested, please pass it along.

Let's not win the war and lose the peace!

[John Christiansen]

Following is the full text of the Sons of Confederate Veterans resolution, and you will also find the editorial supporting the legislation that appeared in the Beaufort Gazette.

Sons of Confederate Veterans
South Carolina Division

Whereas A group calling themselves The Reconstruction History Partnership has begun an initiative in Beaufort County, South Carolina to bring national attention to the blight that was reconstruction.

Whereas The Reconstruction History Partnership has held public hearings and made their intentions clear that only a distorted and one-sided view of the period will be presented.

Whereas a bill has been introduced in congress called the national reconstruction study act (H. R. 332) directing the secretary of the interior to study certain sites in the historic district of Beaufort, South Carolina relating to the reconstruction era to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating the study area as a unit of the National Park System.

Whereas the national park service officials are rewriting all interpretive materials in order to clearly portray the south as being the aggressor and to teach visitors that the war was fought over slavery.

Whereas the national park service will set up facilities, which portray reconstruction as positive and beneficial and will certainly ignore the corruption and cruelty, which victimized so many South Carolinians.

Whereas reconstruction was the twelve-year period immediately following the war for southern independence, when South Carolina was treated as a conquered province, dominated by occupying federal troops and nearly bankrupted by carpetbagger rule.

Whereas during reconstruction all South Carolina men who served in the confederate armed forces were denied the right to vote, hold office and other civil rights. In many cases property was confiscated and wealth redistributed.

Whereas if this bill passes, the Beaufort arsenal will be turned over to the national park service. The arsenal has a long and dignified history stretching back much further than reconstruction. After the war, the arsenal was a meeting place for the United Confederate Veterans. In 1898 the Beaufort Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans was chartered and meets there today. This relationship will be in danger if the arsenal is turned over to the federal government.

Be It Resolved, that the South Carolina Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans condemns and repudiates the actions of The Reconstruction History Partnership and denounces H. R. 332.

Be It Finally Resolved that the South Carolina Division calls upon all Compatriots to take appropriate action against the parties involved with this egregious heritage affront.


Submitted by Michael Givens, Lt. Commander, South Carolina Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 15 March 2003

Adopted by unanimous decision, 15 March 2003, at the 2003 Convention, South Carolina Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Adopted by unanimous decision, March 2003, by the General Executive Council, Sons of Confederate Veterans.


Beaufort Gazette, July 18, 2003
Flag signifies start of Reconstruction

Recently two events have happened that are significant to creating a Reconstruction Era shrine in South Carolina, and Beaufort County plays a significant role in both. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, was able to earmark up to $350,000 for a three-year National Historic Landmark study to determine whether six sites in Beaufort County should be included in the National Park System.

In June, the Massachusetts Historical Society agreed to get rid of a flag that symbolizes the end of the Old South and the beginning of Reconstruction, according to Beaufort historian Lawrence S. Rowland, and W. Eric Emerson, executive director of the South Carolina Historical Society. The historical society is seeking funds to preserve an artifact known as the Fort Walker flag. The flag has been absent from the state for 142 years. Rowland writes, "The banner could reasonably be considered the last artifact of the 'Old South' for Beaufort County. The Battle of Port Royal Sound on Nov. 7, 1861, was one of the most important turning points in American history. É It was the beginning of 'Reconstruction' in America."

Union troops captured Fort Walker, a Confederate post on Hilton Head Island, following a bombardment by a Union fleet under the command of Rear Adm. S.F. DuPont, Emerson says.

One of the Fort Walker flags was considered to be the unofficial Secession Flag. DuPont sent the flag to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, who gave it to Capt. Gustavus V. Fox, who presented the banner to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1869.

In the meantime, a small, but growing, group of individuals and groups has been quietly working for a couple of years to make a case for Beaufort County to be home for a national shrine to Reconstruction. The road to a national site within the U.S. Interior Department's National Park System isn't easy and isn't cheap.

While the road is daunting, this small group is optimistic that the initiative spearheaded by the Reconstruction History Partnership of at least six county and state organizations, institutions and governments will move forward.

Beaufort County deserves the designation because "we are No. 1 in Reconstruction," says Rowland, professor emeritus of history at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. "There is no national monument honoring the Reconstruction period, and Beaufort County was the birth place of Reconstruction." In fact the county has more than 60 identifiable, significant sites connected to the Reconstruction era. Among those sites is the first place in the South where the Emancipation Proclamation was read. The reading was on the grounds of what is now Naval Hospital Beaufort.

Among other sites are Penn School on St. Helena Island; the Freedmen's Bureau at Beaufort College, where the federal government conducted official business regarding emancipated slaves; the Freedman's Village of Mitchelville on Hilton Head Island; and sites associated with Robert Smalls, a former slave who eventually served in the U.S. House of Representatives and held great political power during the Reconstruction era.

So South Carolinians, especially residents of Beaufort County, have an opportunity to help preserve portions of the Old South. No matter what we think of the war, as one of the last artifacts of the "Old South," the Fort Walker flag is significant as Rowland suggests because its capture signified the beginning of Reconstruction in America.