All attempts have failed
All my heads are tails
She’s got teary eyes
I’ve got reasons why

I’m losing ground and gaining speed
I’ve lost myself or most of me
I’m headed for the final precipice

But you haven’t lost me yet
No, you haven’t lost me yet
I’ll sing until my heart caves in
No, you haven’t lost me yet

These days pass me by
I dream with open eyes
Nightmares haunt my days
Visions blur my nights

I’m so confused
What’s true of false
What’s fact or fiction after all
I feel like I’m an apparition’s pet

But you haven’t lost me yet
No you haven’t lost me yet
I’ll run until my heart caves in
No, you haven’t lost me yet

If it doesn’t break
If it doesn’t break
If it doesn’t break
If it doesn’t break your heart
It isn’t love
If it doesn’t break your heart
It’s not enough
It’s when you’re breaking down
With your insides coming out
That’s when you find out what your heart is made of

And you haven’t lost me yet but
No you haven’t lost me yet
I’ll sing until my heart caves in
No, you haven’t lost me yet
Cause you haven’t lost me yet

I recently emailed historian and author Wiley Sword to see if he’d like to weigh in on the current discussion regarding Hood’s blunder-failure at Franklin.  He offered this commentary.

There are a variety of modern viewpoints involving Gen. John Bell Hood’s performance at Spring Hill and Franklin,and there often is some merit with each opinion. On the positive side, Hood was a physically brave soldier, had a burning desire to succeed, and planned his operations on the basis of his considerable experience in combat.

From a negative perspective, Hood was not very adaptive of the innovation required in confronting a new era in the methodology of war, his stubborn nature disallowed constructive criticism , and being prone to blame others he could not accept responsibility for his mistakes. This led, in my opinion, to the ultimate disaster to his army at Franklin. Based upon my extensive research for my book Embrace an Angry Wind, Hood’s greatest critics were his own soldiers. Anyone wishing to explore this aspect should look at the sources listed in my book for each statement, which is based on contemporaneously written materials, not some “Lost Cause” postwar musings.

Hood at Franklin is perhaps best put into perspective by a modern observer asking himself: If I were a member of Hood’s army at Franklin, what would I think; would I willingly go; would I like my chances of surviving?

Or, would I rather have the likes of Robert E. Lee, Pat Cleburne, or Nathan Bedford Forrest calling the shots as to fighting that battle?

I understand I’m treading on thin ice here with some folk when it comes to critiquing John Bell Hood, especially for his actions at Franklin.  So let me clearly state my biases because we all have them; I’m just honest enough to admit them.

My biases and background?

• I was born in Kentucky, which was neutral in the Civil War officially.
• Until ten years ago (late 30s), I was very ‘pro-Southern’ and totally leaned to the so-called States’ rights side of the aisle. I espoused the Lost Cause ideology with conviction then, though I was not even aware how much I had descended into it.
• Today, I have completely shed the Neo-Confederate mindset and its accompanying arguments.
• I now believe that the American Civil War, at least for the last two years, was mostly (but not entirely) fought over the issue of slavery.
• I believe that human slavery was a moral scourge on this nation and wished it would have been effaced from our landscape without the shedding of blood.

If you still have an objective bone in your body I submit the following six items as evidence that John Bell Hood made at least six fatal errors at Franklin. These six are mainly related to his direct frontal massed assault at Franklin.

Hood’s blunder-failure (i.e., his frontal assault) at Franklin can be summed up thus:

John Bell Hood

a. His massed assault had virtually zero artillery support.

b. He had too large an army to perform an assault that only had roughly 1.7 miles of width-to-width from flanks once the works were reached.  His columns were terribly constrained and inter-mixed.

c. He went against the better judgment of his top subordinate commanding generals.

d. His cavalry played virtually no role in the assault strategically.

e. He started the assault too late in the day.  By the time his men reached the works it was nearly dark.

f.  He apparently had very little true knowledge of the topography of Franklin, and/or if he had the knowledge, he ignored it.

I’d love to know your opinion. Please comment.

However, I will NOT approve any comment that descends into plain silliness and ad hominem attacks.  I revealed my biases so fair-play suggests you will too , then lay out your arguments.

Let the readers make up their own minds.

By the way, don’t forget the Hood Legacy Discussion at Carnton coming November 6th.

Carnton will host a Hood panel discussion on Friday, November 6 at 6 p.m. in the event room of the Fleming Center. It is FREE to the public and will last about 1 ½ hours. Panelists will include Eric A. Jacobson (author, historian), Sam Hood (Hood expert, descendant), Sam Elliot (author, historian) and Brandon Beck (University of Mississippi).

I blogged earlier about the John Bell Hood exhibit at Carnton. Hundreds of people have seen the exhibit and the feedback has been very good.You can read all my previous posts related to John Bell Hood by clicking on this link.

I recently sat down with Carnton collections manager Joanna Stephens to ask her a few questions about the exhibit.

Drawing of Hood courtesy of artist Andy Amato.

BoF: How long did it take to get this exhibit installed from it’s inception?

Stephens: It took about a year, which is really not all that long for an exhibit. We wanted this exhibit to coincide with the opening of the Fleming Center. We were originally trying to find enough items on Gen John Schofield (U.S.) and General John Bell Hood (CSA).  But there just weren’t many accessible artifacts belonging to Schofield so we ended up just with Hood artifacts.

BoF: How does this Hood exhibit compare to previous Hood exhibits around the country?

Stephens: This is the largest exhibit of John Bell Hood artifacts ever assembled for a museum exhibit.

BoF: What is your favorite item in the exhibit?

Stephens: I like the personal items best. I like daily-use things best. My favorite Hood artifact in this exhibit are the gauntlets.  It is not too hard to imagine his withered left arm still wearing the glove!

I love personal artifacts . . . Those kind of things . . . but to really see a picture of what a person was like in daily life is really important.

BoF: What does this exhibit tell us about Hood that many people might be surprised of?

Stephens: My goal was to inform people that there was a lot more to this man than the decision he made at Franklin. So much before and so much more after.  He’s a whole man. You have to take everything into consideration.

John Bell Hood's coat on display in the Museum of the Confederacy.

Accompanying this exhibit will be a panel discussion about Hood. This discussion will be held Friday, November 6 at 6 p.m. The panel will include Sam Elliott, biographer of Confederate General A.P. Stewart, Sam Hood, a descendent of General Hood’s grandfather, and Eric Jacobson, Carnton’s Interim Executive Director. Topics to be covered include the early life, military career, Tennessee Campaign, and legacy of General Hood. More information about the exhibit and panel discussion will be available at www.carnton.org or 615-794-0903.

I have just finished reading Clement Eaton’s 1979 biography, simply titled Jefferson Davis. Eaton gave a balanced understanding of one whom historian Joseph Ellis calls “the sphinx of the confederacy.”  Biographies of Davis are hard to come by, but I was blessed to find one at a discount book store here in Lexington.

As I have been involved in the past couple of weeks communicating with and learning about the two living sons of Civil War soldiers coming to visit Franklin for our reburial event this weekend I have been struck by the graciousness of the two sons and especially their fathers (who actually fought ‘against’ one another).

James Brown, Sr’s father – James H.H. Brown – did not hold ill-will against his Northern neighbors after the war:

“He was not bitter. He did not have the least bit of bitterness toward the Yankees,” Brown said about his father, who was wounded twice in fighting. (Tennessean, Oct 4th, 2009)

And Charles Conrad Becker’s magnanimous spirit equaled Brown’s:

“He saw those Confederates coming at him and in his estimation they were brave souls,” Becker said. (Tennessean, Oct 4th, 2009)

We can learn a lot from these fathers-sons today.

These primary participants, men who spilled one another’s blood, and watched it spilled on American soil, found the generosity of spirit to look past sectarian interests, geographic-myopia, and just plain hate as they looked one another in the eyes in the reunions for many years after the Civil War ended and saw a real human being  who was caught up in an absurd nightmare of unconscionable proportions between 1861-1865.

In short, many if not most of the actual participants in the Civil War buried the hatchet in the immediate years after the war ended.

Where is that same spirit of reconciliation and generosity today?

I’m haunted frequently by the words of Franklin’s resident-novelist Robert Hicks who seems to never miss an opportunity to ask this question, “What is the relevance of the Civil War today?”

Though some today might believe the American Civil War is NOT over, the real relevance today regarding the Civil War is how have we healed as a nation since that great divide almost 150 years ago, and perhaps there still is some reconciliation that needs to take place?

Some would still prefer to cling to symbols (on either side) that inflame, divide, and express our differences.  People do this today through the flags they still wave or fly outside their walls, the stodgy arguments they still make, the uniforms they still wear, and the hidden-agendas they bring to another board meeting.

Discussions have been taking place all over the community in Franklin regarding the identity of the unknown soldier we are reburying this Saturday.  ”He was Union!”  ”He was Confederate!” And the arguments take off.  There are solid cases for each side.

I suggest we all find the magnanimous spirit imbued in the very hearts of Charles Conrad Becker and James H.H. Brown – men who spilled their own blood during the Civil War – and as we welcome their sons to our community this weekend we do so with open arms from a community that continues to seek reconciliation and healing because when we rebury that unknown soldier on Saturday we first and foremost acknowledge him as an American soldier who died for a vision that he thought would make America better 150 later.

Are we a better America today?

Courtesy, The Williamson County Historical Society

Face the facts; it is a no win war and if we try to occupy regions of the country as we seem to be trying to do, it will only make us weaker externally and internally.  Where is all the $ going to?  We are not taking care of our needs on the home front and we are again, a war time economy.  Foot soldiers doing the deed and getting screwed because we don’t know what to do with a  tribal nation.

I  don’t have answers but militarism is not the solution.  I feel we are like the British during our Revolutionary War; all dressed up and in order and getting wiped out by the locals.  You can put uniforms on the Afghanistan’s but the loyalties are to the their tribe.  What if we gave a war and nobody came?

Enough, going out to look at some trees to plant in the fall.

Kerry Katona has been dropped as the face of supermarket chain Iceland following allegations that she took cocaine.

The News Of The World published photographs and video footage of the 28-year-old mother allegedly showing her snorting the class A drug in her home in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

Iceland said that while the company had stood by the reality TV star during earlier personal difficulties, it was now “impossible” for her to continue in its advertising campaigns. Source

Kerry should have been dropped as the face of Iceland years ago. 

They really stuck by her, but I suppose the pictures that were published in tabloid rag The News Of The World this past weekend was the final straw.

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit for your edification a few selections from the catalogue of The Confederate Reprint Company.

• The Genesis of Lincoln by James Harrison Cathey.  This startling tome informs us that “the man known to the world as Abraham Lincoln was actually the offspring of an illicit relationship between Nancy Hanks and a married man named Abraham Enloe, in whose western North Carolina home she worked as a servant in the early years of the Nineteenth Century.”  Given the well-documented links between an out-of-wedlock birth and a willingness to trample on the Constitution, this could very well change everything we think we know about the Union war effort.
• The Eugenics of President Abraham Lincoln by James Caswell Coggins.  This enlightening volume explains how “the science of eugenics forever disproves the myth of the sixteenth President’s descent from the near imbecile Thomas Lincoln.”  Eugenics, in case you didn’t know, is the science of improving mankind’s genetic stock by encouraging selective breeding and by weeding out the less-desirable.  (Coincidentally, this book first appeared in 1941, when the German government stepped up their own endeavors in this fascinating field of study.)
• Why Was Lincoln Murdered? by Otto Eisenschiml.  Eisenschiml “suggests that several top-level Government officials in Washington, particularly Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, may have played important roles in the crime and later covered up their involvement.”  This explains all those mysterious meetings between Stanton, the CIA, Cuban expatriates, and the Dallas mob.
• The Invisible Empire: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan by Stanley F. Horn.  The rousing tale of how “the Klan quickly evolved into an institution of ‘Chivalry, Humanity, Mercy, and Patriotism’ and spread throughout the Southern States to counter the aggression against their people by unscrupulous Carpetbaggers and their vicious Union League cohorts.”

And finally, my personal favorite.

• A Scriptural, Ecclesiastical, and Historical View of Slavery by John Henry Hopkins.  An 1864 classic which “proves conclusively that Abolitionism is at odds with, not only the entire history of mankind, but also two millennia of Christian theology.”  What Would Jesus Do?  Apparently nothing.  He’d make somebody else do it.

Operators are standing by!

Today’s first case involves Alan Truitt from “Sick Days,” an aptly named bid for attention he created to illustrate just how inane people in offices can be.  And he does a striking job of it, even demonstrating his own pitiful lack of interpersonal skills by being completely unable to speak in the presence of his Dulcinea, one Carlita Paonessa. Damn Carlita Peonessa.

I must confess that I first found Mr. Truitt so riddled with deep-seated issues, I feared we would never be done with therapy.

Then I began to fear we might finish too quickly.  You’ll understand why soon enough.

Because Alan’s, er, Mr. Truitt’s therapy has been so extensive, I’ve taken the liberty of simply copying some of my session notes here. I did not ask his permission. We have something of an understanding between us, which is that he won’t sue me because I’m a ghost, and the courts do not look kindly on frivolous lawsuits.

Haha! Did you like my little joke? Oh, I just really crack myself, as they say. No, the courts have no problem whatever with silly suits, including Alan.

So here is a glimpse at the secret mind of the Sick Days creator:

Me: So, Mr. Truitt, I understand you are here today to discuss the inadequacies that prevent you from fully releasing your shyness and embracing your true nature. It says here you are stuck in an emasculating workplace, that you frequently spend hours writing dirty lyrics for songs you make up in your head, and that you are obssessed with rhyming couplets. Is that correct?

Alan: Nerk.  Uh, I….snork…nerkal.  Bplatt.

Me: I see. It might be worse than I suppose. Can you tell me what you see here, in this pen I’m holding up?

Alan: Aaaaah! AAAAAAHHHH! Nerrrrrrrr.

Me:  Shhhh, no, no, Mr. Truitt. It’s okay. I’ve put it away now. Please, let’s calm down now. Sometimes, Mr. Truitt, a  pen is just a…well, nevermind. I can see that this first session has already been very stressful, so I’m going to administer….shhh! No, really, you are safe here, Alan. Alan, please calm down!  A psychological test! That’s all! Here. Take this home with you and I’ll look over it when you return. See my secretary to make your next appointment.  I’ll see you soon.

But not soon enough, I’m afraid.

Just as it began
To materialize
For the first time in
His life

Wrapping his head
His heart around it
Embracing with wild
Abandon

Shifting perception
To a clearer view
Uninhibited
Filled with wonder

Unveiling calm
In the storm of
His life
To his true self
Introductions made

Freedom offered
At too high a cost
He weighed the options
Too much to be lost

He fabricated a story
That fit the bill
Sold his soul
For that house on
The hill

Building his arsenal
Of material possessions
At the end of day
Believing he’s
Made it

Not quite sure what I’d do if I had to face ALL the news. You know, as in, sit at home, jobless, watching TV and thinking that, maybe, by watching TV, I might actually channel-surf across something that could potentially expand my mind…

Hence, these tubes of Internets are pretty cool for a fellow like me. At the least, clicking on things on a plastic, light reflecting screen, gives me the feeling that I’m actually accomplishing something in a world of zero-accomplishment. Like, I can sift through all the BS and get right to the meat – click here/there. Or I can just get lucky. The vid above is a great example. Believe it or not, I actually listen to R. Limbaugh a few times a year. In fact, about 25 years ago, I read his first book. But 25 yrs is a long time. I might not have grown up to be a man, but I’ve grown beyond the dangerously childish nature of American republicanism that has become cancerous. Although it’s too late, RL needs to hang up the mic. Of course, the non-sense he spews isn’t as deplorable as the morons that actually believe in the things he says. That America can’t wake up to this level of ignorance – so that it can move beyond it – and relegate RL to having only a few listeners instead of the millions… Well, nuff said.

May god-fearing numbnuts be able to reduce taxes and buy more shit on the backs of their children…

Rant on.

At a friend’s urging, we have added a new category: GrammarGrave for those grammar issues that may no longer be worth pressing.

We will, hesitantly, add to this category as our language evolves (whether we like it or not).

Please stay tuned, and, submit your candidates for burial.

Currently with the morticians:

“none” as singular (originated as a contraction for not one). See our earlier post (and comments) “Accepted through misuse“

“lay” vs. “lie” as to be in a horizontal or recumbent position, or to recline. See our earlier post: “Lie like a rug … “

“like” vs. “such as” or “as though.” See our earlier post: “Like, totally … NOT“

“My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering from God.” James 5:19-20 The Message

I want to tell you about an important scene from one of my favorite movies, Seabiscuit (2003). It is one of my favorite movies because it so beautifully illustrates grace. Charles Howard is a man haunted by loss and death, looking to buy a horse and he goes through all the regular channels. But out of the corner of his eye he notices something different. He notices a “crackpot” horse trainer named Tom Smith. Later on, under the cover of night (like Nicodemus) Charles comes to find Tom. He notices that Tom is treating an older horse that no one else wanted and asks why he is “fixing” the horse. Tom explains that every horse is good for something. And then Tom says a line that I always remember – it is at the heart of the grace of Jesus Christ and the heart of my ministry, “You know, you don’t throw a whole life away just ‘cause he’s banged up a little.”

Banged up a little. That’s all of us – whether we are open about it or not. Whether it is visible or not. Whether it was by our choice (sin) or by circumstances and events. That is one of things I was reminded of yesterday about why Youth Sunday always stands out. The brave young people who shared their testimonies poignantly reminded us that we are all banged up a little. The difference – each year, several of our wonderful young people speak bravely and openly about it. No pretense, no apologies –

just authenticity, some tears and hope – a lot of hope.

Speaking of hope. “We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him (Jesus) (Isaiah 53:6).” It is by this fact that we are people of grace – received, undeserved, unearned grace as in forgiveness.

See, God didn’t write us off, when he could have. Sometimes Christians and churches get so good at celebrating God’s grace that we forget that God could have written us off. And we lose sight of what it was/is to be without grace and a kind of blindness develops to those who are “banged up” and who have wandered away from God.

That is why, when we are tempted to think people are less than perfect and don’t belong and to think that lives can be written off, we need to stop and listen…

“My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering from God (James 5:19-20).” 

Do you know someone who has wandered off from God’s truth? Do you know some people who are “banged up a little” or worse? I know I do. And I have been going after them for most of my life. I do because first I know that I am “banged up a little” and I know the grace by which I am saved – for which I am eternally thankful. And I do this because I believe every life is precious to God, even if they are “banged up a little.”

It is hard to precisely put into words how amazing it feels when God has allowed me to be a part of “getting them back and rescuing precious lives…” It is a peace beyond words and it feels sacred; it is the true definition of fulfillment for me. I know that I experience healing when I am a part of others’ healing. God is the initiator of grace, but if we are faithful, the grace we receive can be shared and multiplied – and really that was God’s design – for the grace to be shared. And how “wonderful and marvelous” it is to play a lead role or even to be an “extra”   in stories of grace and redemption. And though I may not get it right every time, it is at the core of my soul.   

As many of you know, the partnership of Charles Howard and Tom Smith led to finding the rider Red Pollard and the horse Seabiscuit. It is story of winning despite lost causes; it is story of finding and sharing grace and healing in the midst of brokenness; it’s about redemption. At the end of the film, during the last race, the sound of hoofs and cheers recedes to the musical theme played softly and to Red’s voice, who explains, “You know, everybody thinks we found this broken down horse and fixed him. But we didn’t. He fixed us. Every one of us (as the camera shows each of the main characters). And I guess in a way, we kinda fixed each other too.”

See, when it comes to people, according to God – and therefore to us, there is no such thing as a lost cause. And to believe this – to live this – is to be in the palm of Jesus’ outstretched hand.

We can’t prevent or stop all the wandering and the dents that we get in life – self-inflicted or the ones that just happen. But we can experience and be a part of the reaching, finding and healing.

That is where I want to be.

Will you join me?

Amen.

Discussion Questions

1. What is your own redemption story? Have you ever shared it with anyone? Would you like to share it with me?
2. Have you ever been a part of someone else’s healing and grace? What did that feel like?
3. Can you think of someone for whom you can be a part of reaching, finding and healing? What will you do about it?
4. How you can share some grace today?

I’m kenthewan, both fighter of lost causes, and fighter for lost causes.

Is it even a lost cause? I honestly can’t answer. I just feel like there’s some worth, some hope of achievement, however small, and well, without a fighter, then the battle is already lost.

I’m kenthewan, creator of hope.

There really is something irresistible about a lost cause.

I always tell everyone that I’m mad that he wins. That his life goes on and mine is stopped. Then I started winning a few battles here and there. I remembered the time I yelled at him and I chaulked myself up a point. I bought a strapless dress and gave myself another for looking and feeling beautiful. I gave myself another one when I realized when I was a good person.

Now I’m fighting one of our last battles.

You see there’s this boy, and right now it’s nothing just two friends who get together a lot and hang out. I’m holding on the fact that the guy I like is going to accept me and help me grow as much as I have been lately. It’s scary though, really scary and I freaked out last night. Knowing that I’m having this battle because of Steve, and I don’t want him to win it.

“Do you know where you can get those saint pennants? Like the St. Jude one?”
“Ya I have some. Why? Do you want one?”
“St. Jude. Because sometimes I’m a lost cause.” He didn’t even flinch the conversation just kept going. Then last the night he pulls out his pennant and says, “Take it if you want it.”

Baby maybe I’ll be your lost cause and you can believe in me.

More later.

I borrowed ¡Ask a Mexican! from the library a week ago and have been perusing it randomly ever since.  Though I still haven’t made up my mind whether it’s brilliant or offensive (because it does have its moments of both), I came across this one earlier today and was very amused:

What do Mexicans think of Beck? He smokes a lot of weed and says a lot of gibberish in Spanish, so you’d think they would like him.  Anyway, I’m just asking because I’m making a mix CD for a hot Mexican girl.  You know what’s up.

O Mi Amore

Dear Gabacho: We hate him. Beck had a chance to redefine American usage of Mexican Spanish forever when the Silver Fake hipster decided to name his latest album after a Mexican-Slang word for a white person. Beck could’ve been the hombre to teach the world the wonders of gabacho. But Beck instead named his [2005] release Guero.  Sure, many Mexicans use the term to disparage white people, but it doesn’t have the pinpoint ferocity of gabacho–güero technically means “fair-skinned” and is used to describe Americans as well as white-looking Mexicans. More important, though, Beck forgot to put the umlaut (the two dots that hover above a vowel to indicate one vowel assimilating into another) over the u in Guero, rendering his album title meaningless.  By the way, if you want to get into a Mexican girl’s chonis, shore up on the Art Laboe and Luis Miguel comps. You know what’s up.

Damn! My Mexican card has been revoked again!

I love Beck (even though I’m positive he’s a total tool), I love Guero (hell, this* was my jam for months on end), and I even love Guerolito, even though I typically hate remixes.  But my most pressing issue with this?  I would definitely give you the stink eye if you thought you could woo your way into my chonis with Luis Miguel.  In fact, I’d probably be more inclined to make like Bobby Hill and not know yew.**  For real.

I think if you’re gonna get mad at Beck’s mangling of Spanish, you should instead focus on the way he says perdedor (pear-de-door) on the wildly popular “Loser,”* off 1994’s Mellow Gold.  But I even find that irritatingly charming, because he’s Beck, dammit, and he can say it however he wants.

So I guess, baby, I’m a Lost Cause.*

* mp3 files

** This is one of my favorite King of the Hill episodes of all time.  You haven’t lived until you’ve seen it.