As many people have observed, for many Confederate heritage groups it is heritage, not history. Nowhere is this more evident than when one contemplates the Virginia Flaggers. Their blundering through the historical record is a marvel to behold, and their blithering idiocy is their special trademark. Take this example:
Let’s recall that Wade Hampton and the paramilitary Redshirts conducted a campaign of terrorism in 1876, featuring the Hamburg Massacre of July 8, where several blacks were killed in the aftermath of a clash four days earlier.
The impact of the massacre was deadly on Hamburg itself, which virtually ceased to exist.
In the aftermath of the massacre there were those who speculated that perhaps blacks would take up arms to protect themselves. I doubt that those white people who today advocate open carry had this image in mind …
Indeed, whites did not want blacks to carry arms, a clear violation of blacks’ Second Amendment rights … but I’m sure we won’t hear about that.
Thomas Nast’s cartoons offered powerful indictments of what had happened at Hamburg. In a year when Americans celebrated the centennial of a document that declared that all men are created equal, he offered this observation:
So what the Virginia Flaggers want is for God to bless a gang of white supremacist terrorists who would have been horrified to see an African American elected to represent the Palmetto State in the United States Senate … and they proclaim this in the name of Confederate heritage, and call it a triumph.
Really, Virginia Flaggers? Really?
Even Flagger favorite Matthew Heimbach knows better …
Crossroads 
The Redshirts were a liberal conspiracy taking orders from Al Sharpton and ACORN. You should know that by now…
…and Benghazi … (IDK, they always seem to stick that in there)
I think you mean “BENGHAZI!!!!”
I’m so very confused. What does Wade Hampton have to do with Tim Scott?? Let me guess…..South Carolinians have gone from being people who owned black people to ones who now elect black people??? Is that right?? Or it is that South Carolinians waved the “Battle Flag” in the early 1860s and some still want to wave it today?? Oh wait, Tim Scott is a black Republican so he likes the “Battle Flag????” Gosh, I’m just confused.
Such questions never bother the Flaggers. I doubt they even occur to them.
Wade Hampton and his red shirts would probably have assassinated Tim Scott soon after he announced his candidacy. The heritage instead of history crowd continues to plumb new depths of ignorance.
I just think it’s sweet of them to ask God to bless white supremacist terrorists. This should come as no surprise to many of us.
The author needs to read more about Martin Gary, the real leader of the Red Shirts, and his role in the Hampton victory of 1876. But here are two places to start:
“The negro shall not become a part of the body politic, or from any qualification either as to education or property, be allowed to vote in this country.”
“Never threaten a man individually if he deserves to be threatened, the necessities of the times require that he should die.”
These trogdlytes treat every circumstance like a one-sided coin. Heads they win, tails their opposition loses. They always, always find a way to make everything look like a victory for them, even if they have to butcher history to do it.
Careful. You’re inviting them to point out how many “Black ex-Confederates” served with Hampton at Hamburg.
Well, there is this …
Interesting stuff, that. Although the numbers were certainly far lower than the number of soldiers in the Wehrmacht who were Jewish or had Jewish blood.
A couple of points: Hamburg survived the events of 1876 and existed well into the 20th century. It was eventually wiped out by repeated flooding from the Savannah River, with the last residents leaving around 1930. Also, while Wade Hampton was the putative leader of the Red Shirts, the two men more closely associated with the Hamburg Massacre are Martin Gary and Matthew Butler, both from nearby Edgefield County, S.C., who had served as Confederate cavalry generals under Hampton during the war.
A third point is that there were a number of blacks who rode with the Red Shirts in the 1876 campaign. However, I have not had an opportunity to independently determine (through newspaper accounts from the time or later academic research) how widespread such support was or what the motivations for such support were.
That said, I’m unclear on what Tim Scott’s election has to do with Wade Hampton or the Red Shirt movement of 1876.
The AfroAmerican vote in beaufort SC was the swing vote that elected hampton. Martin Delany thought or hoped it was the better choice.
Impossible to know how blacks voted in Beaufort, where 77% of the vote went to Chamberlain. Hampton owed his showing to a good number of suppressed black votes. Delany regretted his effort to deal with the enemy.