SC Division Commander's Statement
If you are visiting our web site for the first time, or you’re wanting to know more about the Sons of Confederate Veterans, then please read on.
The citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America. The preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South's decision to fight the Second American Revolution. The tenacity with which Confederate soldiers fought underscored their belief in the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. These attributes are the underpinning of our democratic society and represent the foundation on which this nation was built.
Today, the Sons of Confederate Veterans is preserving the history and legacy of these heroes, so future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause.
The SCV is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans, and the oldest hereditary organization for male descendents of Confederate soldiers. Organized at Richmond, Virginia in 1896, the SCV continues to serve as a historical, patriotic, and non-political organization dedicated to ensuring that a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved.
Now, nearly 150 years from the time of Secession (December 1860), contemporary American understanding and perception of the time is mostly vague and unclear. To the men of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) it is just the opposite. While some men re-enact the battles and participate in “living histories” of the 1860 period, many members do not. But whether we re-enact or not, we are all bound together by a common interest and unique bond that clearly defines who we are and what motivates us today. The following statement, in part, explains who we are.
To be Southron
Word Origin & History
Southron
c.1470, variant (originally Scottish and northern English) of southren (late 14c.), on analogy of Briton, Saxon , from O.E. suđerne or O.N. suđrćnn "southern" (see south). Popularized in Eng. by Jane Porter's "Scottish Chiefs" (1810), and adopted in U.S. by many in the Southern states.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
"We Southron are people to whom the past is forever speaking. We listen to it because we cannot help ourselves, for the past speaks to us with many voices.
Far out of that dark nowhere which is the time before we were born, men who were flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone went through fire and storm to break a path to the future and form a true government, by the people, and for the people.
We are part of the future they died for; they are part of the past that brought the future. What they did--the lives they lived, the sacrifices they made, the stories they told and the songs they sang and, finally, the deaths they died--make up a part of our own experience. We cannot cut ourselves off from it. It is as real to us as something that happened last week. It is a basic part of our "Southern Heritage” as Americans"
(Author unknown)
Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans:
"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish."
- Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General
United Confederate Veterans,
New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25, 1906.
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