Dear Editor:

April is designated Confederate History Month in Alabama by the Governor and State Board of Education in honor of our Confederate Veterans and ancestors.

The vast majority of Confederate soldiers were descendants of European Protestants. Serving alongside them were tens of thousands of American Indians, Hispanics, Blacks, Catholics and Jews, who also received Confederate Pensions after Lincoln’s Tax War.

Cherokee Confederate General Stand Watie led the Cherokee Braves Brigade in numerous battles west of the Mississippi and was the last Confederate General to surrender and the first American Indian General in American history.

Mexican Confederate Colonel Santos Benavides “whipped the snuff” out of Lincoln’s Federalists at Laredo, Texas, which paved the way to free Texas from Union occupation. Benavides was the first Mexican-American Colonel in American history.

Black Confederate Veteran Dr. R. A. Gwynne of Birmingham attended the last Confederate Veterans’ reunion in 1944 and was photographed on Alabama’s Capitol steps with a large Confederate Battle Flag (see photo at www.confederateheritage.org).

Catholic Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard reversed Lincoln’s invasion of Virginia with a stunning victory at the First Battle of Manassas, sending the Federals in a full-blown panic back to Washington.

Jewish Confederate Judah P. Benjamin was referred to as “the brains of the Confederacy” and served as Attorney General, Secretary of War and Secretary of State in President Jefferson Davis’ Cabinet and was the first Jewish Cabinet member in American history.

Roger Broxton

Andalusia