Jesse Bud Barfield was born about 1839 in Macon County, Georgia. Jesse Bud Barfield was the youngest of nine children; his father (Jesse M. Barfield) had moved from North Carolina to Macon County Georgia in 1833 and the senior Jesse was a farmer and veteran of the Mexican war. When another war came in the early 1860's, young Jesse enlisted in Company A (the Macon County Guards) of the 10th Georgia Infantry Batallion and later transferred to Company B of the 22nd Georgia Heavy Artillery where he served until the end of the war. He married in 1866 and started a family despite the hardships of Reconstruction.

Jesse Bud's son, Thomas Lafayette Barfield, would later marry the daughter of another Confederate veteran, Thomas B. Theus.

Thomas B. Theus, along with six of his brothers, served in Company C of the 59th Georgia Infantry. After fighting all over Northern Virginia, he was captured near Appomattox on April 6th, 1865 and paroled shortly after the surrender at Appomattox. Reportedly, he walked home from Burkeville Virginia to Taylor County Georgia.

I have a photo of the Theus family from 1915 given to me by my grandmother's sister. My great-aunt was not yet born when this photo was taken just three years before Grandpa Theus died. The photo has a "Tobacco Road" quality to it and clearly shows that they were hard-working farmers. Thomas B. Theus is in the center holding my Aunt Ethel (his grand-daughter) in his lap. My great-grandparents Tom and Dora Barfield are to the left of him. My grandmother is a toddler sitting in her mother's lap.

My Aunt Ethel (Barfield McInvale) was a real pistol. She stood about 4 feet eleven inches tall and weighed about 80 pounds soaking wet. She was quick to smile and had an infectious laugh. She dipped snuff and could spit and ring a coffee can on the floor across the room. She was a great fisherman and made fantastic boiled peanuts. When I view the photo of the older Dora Theus Barfield, my Aunt Ethel looked just like her.

My Grandmother, Oleta Barfield Jones, was a great lady, too. She worked 30 years in Thomaston's Martha Mill (textiles, tire cord) after her husband died very young. She always had a huge garden, she made fantastic quilts with very ornate designs and no one on earth knew how to cook better. She always had rough hands--because they were hard-working hands that were always busy. She had a paddle hanging on a nail by the kitchen door. My brother and I (and my cousins) learned early that she would use it---there was never any doubt who was 'boss' in her house. I was surprised to find a newspaper clipping a few years ago revealing that at the age of 13, she was voted the "prettiest girl" in her school. When I was very young, we spent a lot of weekends at her house---there are many fond memories there for me. She had a loud laugh that I can still hear to this day.

On January 19, 1905, her grandfather---my great-great grandfather---Thomas B. Theus, was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor by the Butler Georgia Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In the early part of the twentieth century, the ladies of the UDC were busy putting up monuments to the heroes of the South, the men who had sacrified everything to defend their homes and their right to self-government, in almost every county in the South. They were giving awards to the remaining Confederate veterans before it was too late to thank them. Jesse Bud Barfield died just a short time before he could get one.

I don't think it was a coincidence that the award was presented on January 19th. That day has long held special meaning to Southerners; it's the birthday of Robert E. Lee. Both my parents graduated from R.E. Lee Institute, the high school in Thomaston, GA, which was located on ---you guessed it----Lee Street. As a child, I remember every calendar that I looked at marked January 19th as Lee's birthday. Today, political correctness reigns supreme. There are virtually no calendars that acknowledge the birthday of this Southern hero. Efforts are constantly underway to rename schools and streets named for him all across the South.

There remains a number of Southerners who honor Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson every January, but we must acknowledge that we are the shrinking minority. A number of Southern states still observe Lee's birthday as a holiday, but the official recognition is taking a lower and lower profile as time passes.

One hundred years after that period of active memorialization by the UDC, the forces of Political Correctness are working feverishly to discredit, destroy or hide every vestige of Southern heritage. The Lee painting was removed from the Savannah City Council chambers in December. The Confederate flag (Second National) was removed from the Riverwalk in Augusta earlier in the year. Similar ethnic cleansing is occuring constantly, steadily all across the South and the United States.

One hundred years from now, what will our descendants remember about the 19th and 20th centuries? Will every positive vestige be erased and replaced with a sanitized P.C. version of history? And who will be the next target of the revisionists? World War II vets? Who will be next after them? Since the WWII vets are dying at an alarming rate, who will be left in 100 years who remembers any of them?

One thing's for certain. If we don't pass on what we know about true American and Southern heritage to our children and grandchildren, many of the better parts of our history will be lost forever. The character, the work ethic, the courage, the honor and the faith of our ancestors deserves better. For the sake of our future and that of our children, we must preserve and restore our heritage, our true history. As Winston Churchill said, “A nation that forgets its past has no future.”

Steve Scroggins is Commander of the Lt. James T. Woodward Camp 1399, Sons of Confederate Veterans, in Warner Robins, GA and a frequent GHC contributor of parody and political cartoons and graphics.