Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
Just a brief note tonight. I have been preoccupied with our oldest Papillon, Minnie, who has been quite sick this week, we thought her Kidney disease had gotten worse, but after three days the vet looked at the newest blood test results suggested a toxin. We wracked our brain and figured it out. She looks like she may be turning the corner to getting better. She has some a bunch of medicine, we got some food down her, she drinks a lot of water and seems to have gotten some of her old spunk back. Two visits to an emergency vet for subcutaneous fluid injections this weekend and another with the primary vet Monday. Hopefully, she continues to recover and starts eating more.
Today was Juneteenth, which I hope becomes or next National Holiday. On June 19th 1865, over three months after Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox and the subsequent surrender of Joe Johnston’s Army in North Carolina, and other longer resisting Confederate units took longer to give up. This included the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, which commanded troops in Texas, under the command of Major General Kirby Smith surrendered on May 26th 1865.
There are still questions of why it took so long to Union troops to Texas, but I am too tired to deal with that now.
To cut to the chase On June 19th 1865, Major General Gordon Granger, who had distinguished himself in combat during the war and who had been named as Military Commander of the District of Texas arrived in Galveston at the head of 2,000 Union troops. Upon arrival he issued General Order Number 3, which stated in part:
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
What Granger announced was the implementation of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1st 1863. It was a military order that only applied in non-Union held areas of the eleven Confederate states then in a state of rebellion against the United States. The Confederates mocked it, and many in the Union wondered about it, but when it was issued, a new phase of the war began.
Northern Blacks, as well as liberated slaves in the South were able to become members of State or Federal Regiments of what were then called Colored Troops. Some like the legendary 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry were State Regiments mobilized into Federal Service, and the many Regiments of infantry, cavalry, and artillery that were raised as U.S. Colored Troops or USCT. Then units were composed of Black enlisted troops officered by Whites. The White officers who elected to serve with them were frequently derided by other Union officers for messing up their careers by serving with Blacks. But during the war over 180,000 Blacks joined either State or USCT units. Their service was of great help with the eventual Union victory by helping ensure a huge manpower advantage, and quite a few units and individual soldiers distinguished themselves in combat against Confederate units. They were not accorded the same rights are White Union soldiers by the Confederacy. Robert E. Lee suspended long-standing prisoner exchanges with the Army of the Potomac after Ulysses Grant insisted that Black soldiers be treated the same as Whites and be exchanged. General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s troops massacred hundreds of Black troops when he overran the Union garrison at Fort Pillow.
The Emancipation Proclamation only became law when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6th 1865. In the following years June 19th became known in Black communities as Juneteenth, a time of celebration, even in spite of the backlash of the KKK and other violent paramilitaries in the South, the decline of support in the North for Reconstruction and ensuring the rights of Blacks. But that didn’t stop the celebration. In 1938, Texas became the first state to officially recognize Juneteenth as the Texas State Fair had become a major gathering site for Blacks celebrating it. The Governor of Texas, J.V. Allred issued the following proclamation:
Whereas, the Negroes in the State of Texas observe June 19 as the official day for the celebration of Emancipation from slavery; and
Whereas, June 19, 1865, was the date when General Robert [sic] S. Granger, who had command of the Military District of Texas, issued a proclamation notifying the Negroes of Texas that they were free; and
Whereas, since that time, Texas Negroes have observed this day with suitable holiday ceremony, except during such years when the day comes on a Sunday; when the Governor of the State is asked to proclaim the following day as the holiday for State observance by Negroes; and
Whereas, June 19, 1938, this year falls on Sunday; NOW, THEREFORE, I, JAMES V. ALLRED, Governor of the State of Texas, do set aside and proclaim the day of June 20, 1938, as the date for observance of EMANCIPATION DAY
in Texas, and do urge all members of the Negro race in Texas to observe the day in a manner appropriate to its importance to them.
Since then 47 other states with the exceptions of North and South Dakota, and Hawaii, have either recognized it as a holiday or special day of remembrance. It is time for Juneteenth to take its place among Federal Holidays, and for my two cents, it is a holiday worth remembering, complete with celebrations, as well as memorial ceremonies and military parades with the last active units that began as Buffalo Soldier units, 4th Squadron 10th Cavalry, the First Battalion 24th Infantry, the 1st and 4th Squadrons 9th Cavalry, which are now desegregated, should be included. Unfortunately, no battalions of the 25th Infantry Regiment remain on active duty.
Juneteenth needs to become a Federal Holiday, to be observed on June 19th and not to observed on the date closest to a weekend, which only makes it another holiday in which most Americans take off to party without thinking of the sacrifices that were made by others to secure the freedom of fellow Americans.
Receiving my Commission 19 June 1983 at UCLA
I think that there is something in my life that makes June 19th something to celebrate in conjunction with Juneteenth, not because it matters for most people, but that it provides my service as an Army Officer and later Navy Officer some additional meaning and context. I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army on June 19th 1983. Since then I have remained in service on active duty in the Army, in the National Guard, Army Reserve, and finally as an active Duty Navy officer and Chaplain since 1999. For me, that makes Juneteenth that much more meaningful. If ever there was an occasion to celebrate Juneteenth it should begin with remembering that day that I swore the solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
I take that oath seriously, thirty seven years after the day that I rose my right hand and made it the first time.
I never thought that muppets allegiance to that oath would make some Americans to consider me to be Un-American, or even a traitor, simply because I remain true to it, and will not obey illegal orders, or sell my soul to any President or political party. I continue to serve and will remain on active duty after my retirement date of 1 August until at least 31 December because of CIVID19.
As I head into the certain twilight and end of my active service I cannot forget the words of General Ludwig Beck who resigned his position over Hitler’s planned invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and lost it in the attempt to kill Hitler on July 20th 1944.
“Final decisions about the nation’s existence are at stake here; history will incriminate these leaders with bloodguilt if they do not act in accordance with their specialist political knowledge and conscience. Their soldierly obedience reaches its limit when their knowledge, their conscience, and their responsibility forbid carrying out an order.”
If I cannot stand in solidarity with Black Americans when an out of control, blatantly racist, and immoral leader encourages violence against his opponents, and especially with minorities, then I make a mockery of than oath. I cannot do that.
So until tomorrow,
Peace,
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 