Ever feel like the entire nation (USA) looks down on The South?  Have you ever been put down for your Southern heritage?  What about all the Southern jokes and stereotypes you see on TV, the Internet, magazines, books, theatres… you name it?  Why is that?  It just doesn’t add up.  You see, the South is put down for many reasons, most of which are bogus and falsified, and can be traced back to the early and mid 1800s, and particulary since the "Civil War".  Much of what is thrown at the South stems from the country's anti-South bigotry involving slavery. I ask, Who is righteous enough in this country to put down another part of the country for any wrongful deeds, whether true or perceived?  The fact of the matter is, in 1860 (one year prior to the start of the so called “Civil War”), only 6% of Southerners owned slaves.  Furthermore, only 3% owned enough slaves to be considered a large farm or plantation. [J. Steven Wilkens, America: The First 350 Years (Covenant Publications, Monroe, LA: 1988), p. 153] Since when does the “sins of the few” (or perceived sins, it could be argued in this case) dictate the annihilation of an entire culture, economy, and way of life?  Since when does that warrant the deaths of over 600,000 men?  Some 360,000 men (and boys) from Northern states perished, plus over 260,000 from Southern states.  Again, this doesn’t add up for me.  Nor has it made sense most of my life. How does one explain it? Many questions haunted my mind regarding the propaganda spewed forth in this country for decades concerning the supposed "racial bigotry" of the South and the apparent moral righteousness of the North. The following quote sums it up best for me. I challenge you to consider these questions:

"The time has come for America to put away the divisiveness of the past and to look at the question of slavery with an open mind. If the South is an evil place because it had slaves, then so is the North. If Southerners were wrong for owning slaves, then what about the Northerners who sold them those slaves? If the South is to be castigated because a small minority of its citizens made money from slave-grown cotton, then what about the North whose textile mills made money from that same slave-grown cotton? If all Southerners are evil because of the mistreatment of their slaves by a few slave holders, then what about the Yankee capitalists who mistreated their Irish laborers? Is free enterprise to be condemned as evil because some capitalists abuse their workers? Sober reflection will be enough to convince anyone that there is more to the issue of slavery than the Abolitionists would have us believe." [James Ronald Kennedy, Walter Donald Kennedy, The South Was Right! (Pelican Publishing Company, Inc, Gretna, LA: 1994), p. 117]

In 2006 I embarked on a personal discovery mission, of sorts, to determine just how many relatives from my father’s family (Pattersons) alone, served in the “Civil War”.  I knew my great-great-grandfather had.  His name was William Harden “Bill” Patterson, from Union Co Ga.  Bill was born in 1832 and spent his entire life in north Ga.  This was his home, his country.  I had also learned over the years that many of his brothers and cousins had served in the Confederate Army (CSA).  So, my goal was to begin a comprehensive research project on Bill, all of his brothers and first cousins, sons of his first cousins, and the husbands of his sisters and female cousins.  More directly, Bill’s grandparents were John and Peggy Patterson, and this documentation was focusing on their descendants.  I had at my disposal decades of family research, including fifteen years of my own research, from which to draw.  Furthermore, for years I had posted much of this family information on my personal web site in an effort to draw in more information concerning the family.  It had been a tremendous success, and many heart-wrenching stories (and pictures) had poured in over the years. 

For six months I researched as best I could every possible “of-age male” within the Patterson clan.  Most of the family was in Georgia, while others were in western NC, Alabama and East Texas.  I was “blown away” by what I found.  There were no less than 50 members of this normal-sized, farming family who served in the Confederate Army, mostly from Georgia, some from Texas, and a few from North Carolina.  Some 20% of these soldiers (from the Patterson clan) died during the war, perhaps more.  Documentation is continuing, as time allows.  But wait just a minute… none of these soldiers ever owned a slave.  I wasn’t surprised by this fact, but I knew that mainstream America would be.  The truth of the matter is that this Patterson clan was a microcosm of the entire South.  The vast majority of Southern soldiers never owned a slave, nor were they fighting this war over slavery.  The Yankee myths run deep and wide on this subject.  As the saying goes, “The victors write the history books.” 

As time allows I will share in more detail the clear reasons Confederate soldiers fought this war, but for now I’ll let them speak for themselves.  After all, it doesn’t matter what any of us in the 21st century think about it, the truth lies in why THEY fought the war.  Here is a copy of the call to arms that rang loud and clear across north Georgia (and across the entire CSA).  And for the record, it was posted in Blairsville, Ga, which is where my father was born, and where the five generations before my father are buried.  Bill Patterson and many of his relatives and neighbors answered this very call put forth by the following Col. Sumner J. Smith:

Headquarters 1st Reg’t Partizan Rangers,
Blairsville Union County, Georgia
May 5th, 1862

I have been authorized by the Secretary of War to raise a Regiment of

PARTIZAN RANGERS,

For three years or the war. The non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates will receive a bounty of Fifty Dollars each, and are entitled to the same pay and organization as the other troops.

Men of the Mountains! The same sanguinary and re-lentless foe who is visiting the cities and seaports of the Confederate States with fire, sword and devastation, is now approaching with slow but measured tread your own mountain begirted homes. Can you supinely await longer their approach? Nay: up, up, my Countrymen, and to arms!

Three hundred Spartans, fighting for the sanctity of home and fireside, dared meet, in mortal combat, the armed millions of a Persian despot. Is home, country and liberty less dear to you than to them, and the men of 1776? If nay, then let us in the hour of our country and freedom’s peril, rally to their standard, and swear to make each pass in the grand bulwark of mountains which God has upheaved around our homes, a Thermopylae in which the heroic deeds of the noble Spartans shall be emulated.

We can defend our country, repel the foe, and transmit the priceless heritage of freedom to our children if we will. Failing we can but die. Death in such a struggle is glory. Submission to the Federal tyrant is infamy and slavery.

Parties wishing to form a portion of my Regiment, will address me at Blairsville, Union County, Georgia.
S. J. SMITH

Now, I could be wrong, but when someone uses words like “defend our country”, and “repel the foe”, and “transmit the priceless heritage of freedom to our children…”, that tells me that a foreign army has invaded his country.  He compared their struggle for freedom to the likes of the Spartans, and more importantly, to the Patriots of 1776.  But, you say, this was a “Civil War”.  The South was not its own country, nor did a foreign country invade it.  Oh, contraire.  The Patriots of 1776 seceded from the tyranny of Britain and forged a new nation.  The U.S. Constitution, which they penned in 1786, further allowed for the same “last resort” should such tyranny present itself in the future.  What tyranny?  The tyranny of “government without representation”.  By the 1830’s the Northern culture was very different from Southern culture, admitted by politicians from both sides.  Over 30 years later, in short, there were irreconcilable differences between the Northern States and the Southern States.  The Southern States exercised their constitutional right to secede, a right which each state possesses unto itself.  They then agreed to unite and form a new nation together, but one that would maintain State Rights, a right that fully embodies the spirit of Self-Determination.  The South seceded, the North invaded, and Southern men and boys of all ages took up arms to defend their nation.  In Bill’s case, he was defending Georgia first, and the CSA second.  To Southerners of that day (and now), a more accurate description would be “The War for Southern Independence”.  A “Civil War” would be a war fought by two factions trying to gain control of one government.  Everyone knows that is not what happened in 1861!  The South had seceded, then elected, nominated and inaugurated its own President, formed a legislature, and selected a capitol.  Calling that war the “Civil War” couldn’t be further from the truth.  That would be yet another Yankee myth. But, I digress… for the time being.

So who were the members of this Patterson clan?  John Patterson was born in 1765 (SC) and died in the 1840s, in Union Co Ga.  His wife, Margaret "Peggy" Black, was born in 1767 (SC), and died in the 1850s, also in Union Co Ga.  John and Peggy had at least nine children, but as far as I can tell, only seven of them had offspring.  Their children were as follows:

Of the seven branches of the family who had offspring, I have been able to develop six of the seven branches in regards to being able to track the descendants and therefore determine whether or not they served in the War for Southern Independence to any degree.  The branch of the oldest daughter Elizabeth is still undeveloped.  I know she had at least ten children, but hardly anything is known about them at this time.  My ancestor, Bill Patterson, was the son of George, and therefore a grandson of John and Peggy. 

The regiments I am researching are as follows (if linked, the link goes to a page on my site, containing notes I've collected on the regiment):

One of my primary resources is an excellent web site called Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System. I have focused on the soldiers section of the site. The URL for soldiers section is http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm. You can learn not only about the soldier, but even more about the unit(s) in which he served. Links that have been extremely helpful so far:

Best regards,
Wes Patterson