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Local group remembers Civil War's hardships

BY SCOTT FITZGERALD, THE SOUTHERN

Saturday, February 2, 2008 11:44 PM CST

MARION - A majority of people in Southern Illinois were sympathetic to the Confederacy when the Civil War erupted in the 1861.

Many who had settled here initially were from southern states such as Virginia, and they brought their slaves with them.

A continuing influx of northerners - Yankees - from the Middle Atlantic and New England states into this region, however and astute politicking by President Abraham Lincoln of key figures such as Gen. John A. Logan got Illinois, particularly Southern Illinois, to remain loyal to the Union.

"Slavery does play into the events of Southern Illinois," said Bobby Samuel of Carterville. Samuel was a guest speaker Saturday at the Long Knives Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

"There was slavery here," Samuel said. "The French settlers were allowed to keep slaves because provisions had already been made. Those provisions pre-dated the constitution.

Samuel, dressed as Gen. Robert E. Lee, stood in front of a fireplace at Western Sizzlin Steakhouse in Marion and spoke to 14 members and two guests who attended Saturday's chapter meeting.

He also brought with him some artifacts he has collected through the years, such as a sword to show what many Civil War soldiers used in their fighting and a $1,000 bond issued in Montgomery, Ala., that was used to help finance the Confederacy.

Also joining Samuel was his wife, Margaret, who was attired like Southern women in the mid-1800s; the only exception was the high neckline on her dress.

Samuel, a former pastor at Free Methodist Church in Herrin, said news events from the early 1990s piqued his interest in the Civil War.

There were stories about some southern states having their state flags removed or redesigned because some of the flag emblems were Confederate symbols, he said.

"As a pastor, I was concerned with social issues," Samuel said and himself and his wife. "Because we are both southern, we knew our families were in the Confederacy."

Samuel said he read and researched voraciously on the Confederacy and the Civil War and was surprised at what he learned.

"I have learned of a different Confederacy all together than what I was led to believe," he said.

The Confederacy was composed of people who were patriotic, believed in God, had strong family virtues and fought honorably, Samuel said.

There were more than 150,000 conversions to Christianity within the Confederate forces during the war, he said.

What motivates Samuel to continually learn and study the Confederacy and the Civil War and talk to groups like the Sons of the American Revolution is "to see America come to a place to appreciate people on both sides of that conflict," he said.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com

351-5076