Reviewer:
Leisa Greathouse
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June 24, 2021
Subject:
Confederate Veteran Review
The Confederate Veteran is filled with "Lost Cause" narrative. A reader or researcher must keep this in mind. It is filled with praises and glory for men who fought against the United States of America and sided with large landowners whose wealth was made on the backs of those they enslaved. They wanted to form another country cut from the Grand Republic in order to preserve slavery. For example, in Volume 21, page 225 is a story about the Tolar brothers. The eldest, William Tolar served as a Captain in the Confederacy. What the article does not objectively mention is that Tolar killed a Black man in cold blood. He was sentenced to hang but only spent about a year in prison at Fort Macon before he and two other conspirators were pardon by NC native, President Andrew Johnson. While Beebe was charged with attempted rape, one must wonder why Tolar, and others who acted with him, sought to kill Beebe the day of his first court appearance. Beebe was denied due process as guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. Tolar and the other conspirators got a trial, and even received the presidential pardon, which the Constitution allows the President of the United States to do. Ask yourself, why wasn't Archie Beebe allowed to have a trial? Mr. Beebe was a local drayman. With his horse and wagon, he transported goods between the Market House and the Cape Fear River. He had been born enslaved and the 14th amendment of the same Constitution mentioned above, had given him freedom and the same rights as Tolar and those who conspired against him. The Confederate Veteran typically glorifies those that served, which is probably why the magazine began. This review is to provide those reading the digitized versions with an honest review and understanding that the articles were written with a one-sided and biased viewpoint. So in between the lines where men are adored with Christian sentiment, remember that many of them found ways to further oppress African Americans through Jim Crow laws, voting laws, and many other "outrages" as a result of their Confederate service.