Remembrances for July – 2026

 

Dear friends, if you have time, please pray for these members of the Southern family on the day they reposed.  Many thanks.

But one may ask:  ‘What good does it do to pray for the departed?’  An answer is offered here:  https://orthochristian.com/130608.html

Along with prayers and hymns for the departed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6je5axPodI

July 3^rd

John Crowe Ransom, one of the leaders of the Vanderbilt Agrarians and a leading 20th century writer and teacher.

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/john-crowe-ransom/

July 4^th

Thomas Jefferson, undoubtedly the South’s most recognizable Enlightenment philosopher, but his most important intellectual contribution is rather the opposite of all that:  his agrarianism and insistence on local customs and governance (i.e., the preservation of old English traditions).

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/?s=Thomas+Jefferson

July 6^th

Paul Hamilton Hayne, one of the South’s best poets.

https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/hayne-paul-hamilton/

https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/hayne/hayne.html

July 9^th

Sir William Berkeley, a colonial governor of Virginia whose influence is felt within Southern culture to this day.

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Berkeley_Sir_William_1605-1677

July 9^th

Pierre d’Iberville, Canadian soldier and explorer, the founder of the first permanent French settlement in Louisiana.

https://64parishes.org/entry/pierre-le-moyne-diberville-2

July 9^th

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, one of the great figures of Southern literature for his comic work Georgia Scenes, but also an active preacher and a leader of four universities.

https://georgiawritershalloffame.org/honorees/augustus-baldwin-longstreet

July 10^th

Gen Henry Benning, from the Georgia Supreme Court to a successful general in the War and back to practicing law afterwards.

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/henry-l-benning-1814-1875/

July 10^th

Paul Charles Morphy, a chess prodigy from Louisiana who died young in 1884.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/the-southern-gentleman-who-dominated-chess/

July 17^th

John Coltrane, the famous jazz composer and performer.

https://southernorthodox.org/john-coltranes-jazz-the-african-diasporas-search-for-a-religious-home/

July 17^th

Gen James Johnston Pettigrew, a good example of a Southern gentleman.

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/pettigrew-james-johnston

July 19^th

Colonel Charles Colcock Jones, Jr, a multifaceted talent in Dixie:  lawyer, farmer, mayor, soldier, archaeologist, and historian.

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/charles-c-jones-jr-1831-1893/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71922720/charles_colcock-jones/photo

July 23^rd

Eudora Welty, one of the South’s best writers.

https://eudorawelty.org/biography/

July 25^th

Wilmer Mills, a gifted Louisiana poet who died young.

https://64parishes.org/entry/wilmer-mills

https://www.timesfreepress.com/obits/2011/jul/28/wilmer-mills/16401/

https://kirkcenter.org/essays/wilmer-mills-the-poet-as-maker/

July 26^th

Sam Houston, one of the most influential men in Texas history, but the arc of his life also touched other States and tribes.

https://www.dissidentmama.net/when-men-were-giants/

https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/sam-houston

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/510/sam-houston

July 29^th

John Slidell, an important diplomat during the War.

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/chron/civilwarnotes/slidell.html

July 30^th

George Fitzhugh, a helpful critic of the pure capitalist economic system.

https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughcan/bio.html

July 30^th

Gen George Pickett, a soldier for most of his life, he is best known perhaps for his part in the Battle of Gettysburg.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/george-e-pickett

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/812/george-edward-pickett

July 31^st

Randolph Shotwell, a gifted writer, and a microcosm of the suffering South as she went through the War and Reconstruction.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/randolph-shotwell-in-war-and-prison/

Also, to celebrate some of the saints of July from the South’s Christian inheritance of various lands, follow these links:

https://southernorthodox.org/orthodox-saints-for-dixie-july/

http://confiterijournal.blogspot.com/2020/08/happy-feast-for-saints-of-july.html

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

‘The Fourth of July’

 

Over the coffin of a fallen soldier

Is draped the flag of the United States,

Signifying that death lies within.

How many a Southern church, preparing

For a patriotic holiday

Is smothered in those Yankee banners

From roof to floor, inside the walls and out?

Worse than the churches of Asia Minor,

Sick and diseased, addressed by Saint John

The Revelator in the Holy Scriptures,

Not merely weak are they but truly dead –

 . . .

The rest is at https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/the-fourth-of-july-poetry.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

‘The Spiritual Plane Is Manifesting after the Texas Flooding Tragedy’

 

In the wake of a serious disaster in the past, the tsunami that struck Indonesia in 2018 that killed thousands of people, someone wrote (in an essay that we can no longer find) that what is most noteworthy is not that such disasters happen.  Mankind has experienced them throughout his life on earth:  volcanoes erupting, earthquakes, fires, diseases, and so on with the rest.  What is remarkable, the writer said, is that despite all these disasters, in the face of so much grief and suffering, good things still happen in the world.

This applies to the tragedy of the flash floods that struck the interior of Texas on July 4^th [2025].  The deaths of the young Christian girls at Camp Mystic, together with the other deaths that have now surpassed 100 people total, are heart-wrenching.  And yet what do we see once again in the midst of this bleak picture of death and loss?  Virtues of all sorts:  Hope, generosity, self-sacrifice, and more besides.  Surviving campers joyfully singing Christian hymns; men and women heroically risking their lives to save victims of the flooding, or to locate the bodies of the dead.

What is this?  Who or what breaks into the death and destruction and despair of this world to bring light and comfort and healing?  It is Christ; it is Emmanuel; it is God With Us.  The sin and rebelliousness of men and women and the demons have caused chaos to reign in the world, but God has lovingly descended from the heavens to restore and mend what has been broken and damaged:

‘If there is any sense to be made of these tragedies from our poor, myopic perspective, it is one provided simply and eloquently by the Church’s liturgical worship. From Nativity, through Theophany, and on to Holy Pascha which we are now preparing, the common theme that we celebrate and proclaim to each other and to the world is summed up in the name given to Jesus at His birth, the name Emmanuel, “God is with us.” This means not only that God accompanies us, remains present with us, and provides hope and consolation in our times of grief and loss. It means above all that God shares our suffering. He takes part in our pain and anguish, fully and to the bitter end.

‘ . . . Another and still more important point, however, is the truth expressed in the name Emmanuel. In the midst of a critically unstable, and at times violently chaotic world, we can hold fast to the one truth, the one reality that matters: God is with us’ (Fr John Breck, ‘Why?,’ oca.org).

It is the love of Jesus Christ that is seen time and again when disasters strike and overwhelm us, that lifts us out of them, that keeps the world from falling completely into the depths of hopelessness.

The saints of the Church, the honored friends of Christ, are quite clear that what happens in the physical realm is a reflection of what is happening in the spiritual realm.  Without a doubt, Texas has become a veritable spiritual battleground.  Over the past year we have noted in articles here at The Hayride that largely Christian Texas has come under assault from Hinduism, the death cult of Santa Muerte, and Islam.  While the ultimate causes of tragedies like the flash flooding in Texas are mostly hidden from us, we could perhaps venture to say that, considering the warfare that is raging on the unseen spiritual plane, we should be surprised that the physical manifestation of that warfare has not produced more destructive prodigies than it has.

And Church history gives us a strong indication of how to keep both the spiritual and physical destruction at bay – by imitating and honoring the God-bearing saints, especially the Mother of God:

‘The image of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, which we especially venerate today, is not merely a church feast—it is a celebration of deep significance for the history of our country. On this day, we commemorate the miraculous deliverance of our country from the aggressive expansion of Khan Akhmat. There is no need to delve into the historical aspects or examine that particular event in detail. What is important for us as believers is to highlight the main point: that every time our state stood on the edge of disaster, divine intervention—through the prayers of the Mother of God—saved us from imminent destruction. If it were not for Her special protection, if not for the prayers of the saints, if not for the firm faith of our forefathers, it is quite possible that we would no longer be gathering here in church for worship, and most likely our state would have ceased to exist long ago.

‘When our state stood on the brink of ruin, divine intervention—through the prayers of the Mother of God—delivered us from destruction.

‘How many military campaigns have there been, revolutions, diseases, epidemics—yet our nation, like a phoenix, always rose from the ashes. And of course, one is led to the thought that this is . . . also a sign of God’s special care for our nation through the prayers of the Most Pure Virgin Mary.

‘On one condition will the Lord always be with us—if we preserve the faith and our spiritual values; if we do not cave into sin and stand firm in defending our spiritual culture.  . . .

The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2025/07/garlington-the-spiritual-plane-is-manifesting-after-the-texas-flooding-tragedy/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

‘Flying Dixie’s Flag on the Fourth of July’

 

It is unsurprising to see the United States flag flying on the 4^th of July.  It is the day of the colonies’/States’ separation from Great Britain, and the beginning of their existence as countries on an equal footing with the others of the world.

And yet something is missing.  The Southern cultural element that should be present in Louisiana and the rest of Dixie has been cut out.  And one of the key components of that is the Southern flag, also known as the Confederate battle flag.

That might sound strange to some folks, but when one actually reads what Southerners of that day said and wrote, rather than the distortions and misrepresentations of it, they believed that their secession from the United States was an act of the same kind as their forefathers’ in 1776.  That is, the government in DC in 1861 had become an endangerment to them and the culture they wanted to preserve:  deeply rooted in agriculture, Christianity, the family, and good manners – values which are held in honor by both blacks and whites at the South.

The North at that time did, and still today does, live by the opposite values:  enamored with technology and industry, with various heresies, with the redefinition of the family, and personal behavior that is rude and disagreeable.

The typical Southerner continues to show his difference from those Northern values by his love for the outdoors, for pretty flower and vegetable gardens, for hunting camps and fishing ponds, by his Yes Ma’am and No Ma’am, by his intense desire for Christ, by his family reunions, by his rejection of the LGBT cult, etc.

The Southern flag is a good symbol of those values because it is a distinctly Christian flag.  The cross depicted on it is the Cross of St. Andrew the Apostle, who was crucified on an X-shaped cross in Patras, Greece.  This cross was chosen for the Southern flag thanks to the influence of the large numbers of Scottish people who made up Dixie’s population.  The Scottish highly venerated St. Andrew; their national flag in Scotland also features St. Andrew’s Cross.

 . . .

The rest may be read here:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/flying-dixies-flag-on-the-4th-of-july/

Or here:

https://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letter-to-the-editor-confederate-flag-not-to-be-hidden-as-wicked/article_a47c8893-d812-4a6f-b2bd-eecaeb127087.html

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!