About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2022)
thesy lvaniatimes. com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, May 11, 2022 - Page 3 Editorial 4^ f. .'I'M* From the Editor’s Desk -Joe Brady The Sylvania Times, Editor In my family, my baby sister, Dana has a hard row to hoe. From my self to my middle sister to our parents, Dana is still treated as the baby. Despite the fact there is 10 years difference in our ages, she remains in my eyes a child. I suppose it is true what the experts say about our mind seeing what we want to see, because I must admit that when I look at this 42-year-old mother of one I still see a toddling two-year-old playing with baby dolls in her room and asking me to brush their hair. Do all older siblings look at the younger ones in the same light? I find myself at family gatherings constantly admonishing her, “Dana, wash your hands, it’s time to eat,” or “Dana, don’t rock in that chair!” I stop short of cutting her meat but bless her heart, I’m sure she stays confused and would probably like to tell me where to go. Several years ago, a psychologist told the world that the middle child in families have the most problems, but I must disagree. At least the middle child isn’t smothered their whole lives. Let’s face it: our younger siblings will always be the babies. Do they complain? I suppose they are accustomed to having a houseful of mothers. Dana seems to take my nurturing in stride, albeit with gritted teeth and a roll of her eyes. However, the truth of the matter is that even though I know I treat her like a child I can’t seem to stop. Bossing Dana is as natural as breathing; you just do it. I imagine that when she is old, gray and a grandmother of six as we sit in the nursing home, I’ll still be treating her like a child, “now Dana don’t dribble your food,” or “for Pete’s sake, put your teeth in when you talk!” And what will Dana be doing? Sitting there, following my barked orders, rolling her eyes, and wishing she could tell me where to go. That’s all for now, take care! _ Pastor Bill Kent, Memorial Baptist Church Reggie walked with his Family to the graveside on a cold and rainy morning in January. The Minister spoke comforting words and told a few heartwarming and humorous memories of Ber nice. As the funeral directors lowered her body, it seemed like half of him was buried underground. He still had a home and children that loved him but he didn't know how he would keep on living. He went back to work several days later at the plant but he struggled to concentrate and he felt like a dead man walk ing but he kept on working and his boss and coworkers helped him in every way they could. In the midst of his incredible grief, God strengthened him but after thirty days people stopped calling and reality slapped him in the face. She wasn't coming back home but he knew that God is still real Better Days even when we lay awake for half the night and don't know where we fit in anymore. Then Reggie started read ing the Bible every day and saw that God brought lots of people from despair to vic tory but they had to pray and wait for months or years. In the psalms, Reggie saw how David and other writers were lifted up by God's power. As God rescued the people in Bible times from danger and sorrow, the Lord steps into our weeping room and gives us enough hope to get up for another sunrise. As time passes, we may or not see a storybook ending but God renews us on the inside. Then we join the host of be lievers who praise God for his deliverance because we will see better days either in this life or the life to come. See PASTOR page 6 Ogeechee Ramblings Scotty Scott 1 Dow and July to the editor This is not a story to glorify war or the ghosts of the Confederacy. It’s about the humanity of one special human being; a black man named July. According to Margaret Scott Harley and Donny Mallard, July had a thick accent, but they didn’t know if it was Jamaican or perhaps Gullah. At any rate, though a slave, he became very close friends with my and Donny’s great-great- great-grandfather, Lorenzo “Dow” Scott. Dow loved horses, and as July was purportedly very good with them as well, he served as a mentor of sorts to Dow in that respect. Anyway, it has been repeatedly established through the legends of the Scott family that July and Dow were bosom buddies, and wherever one was, you’d usually find the other. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Dow Scott joined Screven Troop of the 5th Georgia Cavalry Regiment. He participated in many engagements throughout Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, including the Battle of Olustee, also known as Ocean Pond, and you guessed it - July was with him through all of these. During the Third Battle of Atlanta Campaign on 21 Aug 1864. Dow was mortally wounded near Dalton, Georgia. As he was hit in the lower abdomen. he didn’t have much of a chance. July, having witnessed Dow getting wounded, entered the affray, and pulled Dow to safety to keep him from being trampled to death by the horses. After the skirmish moved off aways, July took Dow to a Union Hospital, and remained with him until he died on 28 Aug 1864, (he was 42). After seeing Dow buried in the Union Cemetery near Dalton, Georgia, July returned to Screven County, travelling almost 300 by night, as it was quite dangerous for a lone, unknown black man to be openly on the road. After almost a month of travel, July made it back to Beulah Crossroads, where Dow’s widow, Jane Ann Catherine Griner Scott, and their children resided. He informed them of everything that had occurred and where Dow was buried. His eldest daughter, Eugenia Scott Powell, visited Dow’s grave before an attempt was made to move the Confederate dead out of the Union Cemetery, with the remains being put into a mass grave. Now, as I am a product of the twentieth century, I wonder why a slave, being in the presence of Yankee soldiers up above Atlanta would come home, when he more easily could have continued northwards to freedom? The only thing any of us can SEE RAMBLINGS page 6 “A big thanks from Very Special Field Day” Dear Editor, I would like to offer a tremendous thank you to the Screven County Community for a wonderful Very Special Field Day for our exceptional students. We asked for the sup port of our community, and we were overwhelmed with the response. Thanks to the many people who volunteered, we were able to provide a mentor for each student and extra’s to help with event tables and ribbons. God provided a beautiful day, and our sponsors, volun teers and staff came together to provide everything else in the way of food, drink, and manpower. Our athletes were excited to have their own personal mentor from the com munity and I believe that not only did our students receive a blessing, but the volunteers did as well. The sounds of laughter all around the recreation department filled hearts and made grownups smile. We are already actively planning for a Very Special Field Day 2023, so if you missed it, I hope you will plan to join us next year for an even bigger and better day for our children. Sincerely, Pam Reddick - Collins Letters to the editor of The Sylvania Times are wet- corned and encouraged. These are pages of opinion, yours and ours.Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s readers. The Sylvania Times re serves the right to edit any and all portions of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters mwust include the signature, address and phone number of the writer to allow our staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should be limited to 400 words and should be typewritten and double-spaced or neatly printed by hand. Deadline for letters to the editor is noon on Wednesday. Email Letters to the Editor to: thesylva- niatimes@gmail.com — // ? ^/C>/7 S' — A &• tt&/~ — //? i/•o/ce'S Sylvania Times Printing Services Unearthing Camp Lawton Dr. Ryan McNutt, Ph.D, FSAScot, R.RA. In the last column, I discussed the cargos brought into the Confederacy and their effect on the war effort and the home front. It is almost impossible to overstate how well supplied the Confederacy was through the blockade. On March 14th, 1862, the Economist arrived in Charleston, with 100,00 rifles and ten field artillery batteries—that’s 60 cannons, with harnesses for all sixty. April 1862, the Kate ran into Charleston with rifles, pistols, cartridge boxes, knapsacks, and accoutrements for 10,000 men, and with 1,000 barrels of gunpowder. As late as December 1864, equally large cargoes of munitions and essential supplies were being run into Wilmington, North Carolina prior to the fall of Fort Fisher in January 1865. As were food and medicine: in February 1864 the Pet was taken by the USS Montgomery off the coast of Wilmington loaded with “provisions, fruit, vegetables, liquors, and dry goods”. Given the perishable nature of her cargo, it was divided amongst the blockading squadron’s sailors. Indeed, British shipyards swung into action to meet the demand for blockade mnners: in Scotland, along the banks of the Clyde, the shipbuilders who were making the name Clyde Built famous produced nearly 150 individual vessels who would run the blockades for mercantile firms. And shipyards in England along the Mersey, the Tees, and the Tyne and Wear were equally productive. Long, sleek, with low profile side wheels, telescoping raked back steam funnels; shallow drafted, only drawing about 7 feet and painted a dull lead color, these ships ran cargoes across the Atlantic under British captains, crews, and the Union Jack into British ports along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Havana, Cuba, and Nassau were crammed with Confederate blockade runners and crews who offloaded and picked up cargoes that were run into Southern ports. Most of these voyages were private enterprise, done not for ideology, or because of support for the Confederacy, but for profit: one successful run of the blockade brough $119,00 in profit, or about $2 million in today’s money. Each captain was paid about the equivalent of $20,000 in today’s money, not including any money they made on their own cargo sales. Indeed, the captain of the Don arrived in Wilmington in 1863 with 1000 corsets for the women of the Confed eracy; they sold immediately, netting him a 1100 percent profit of about $48,000 in today’s money. And the return voyages fueled the cotton exchange and maintained the lifestyles of the planters. So, if there were so many supplies, why was there deprivation, the reader may be asking. Railroad issues aside, they were complicated by the sins of inefficiency, greed, and incompetent bureaucracy. In October of 1864, General Winder, CSA, and head of prisons for the Confederacy was attempting to finish the brick ovens at Lawton to provide the POWs a central cook ing resource. Except he couldn’t get bricks brought into Lawton Station, writing “[a]t Macon three cars were being loaded with brick for Camp Lawton when the railroad company had them unloaded, and the cars turned over, as I understand, to cotton speculators to transport cotton. “Greed for the money to be made with blockade runners. Later correspondence also clearly indicates resources in Augusta, at the arsenals and depots there with General Hardee, CSA ordering 8,000 rations of meat and bread, 1,500 bushels of corn, and other resources from Augusta to Millen on November 25th, 1864, days after the POWs at Lawton had been loaded LAWTON up with pittance of com meal and sent south. And across the Confederacy, soldiers scrounged, starved, and shivered from the trenches of Petersburg to the fields and turnpikes of Franklin, continued on page 9 thesylvaniatimes.com Sam Eades Publisher Joe Brady Editor Sam Eades Advertising Sales Debbie Heam Layout and Design Executive Sarah Saxon Admin/Legals/AP Correspondent Burton Kemp Sports Editor Jake Gay Staff Writer Scotty Scott Staff Writer SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS The Sylvania Times is published weekly by The Sylvania Times 117 N. Main • Sylvania, Ga. 30467 Phone: (912) 451-NEWS (6397) Subscription Rates (Includes tax): 6 Months Delivered In Screven County $ 18.00 1 Year In Screven County $30.00 1 Year Online Only $20.00 2 Years In Screven County $55.00 1 Year Outside of County $40.00 1 Year Outside of Georgia $45.00
