The controversy there has been stoked by the increasingly radical Sons of the Confederate Veterans. Now dominated by the segregationist and secessionist League of the South, the SCV is more open than before about considering blacks and Northerners its archenemies. The drive to monumentalize the history of Reconstruction has members' blood boiling.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group of Civil War veterans' descendants, wants to stop the effort to federally protect several sites honoring South Carolina's and Beaufort County's prominent historical roles in the post-Civil War period.

"If the National Park Service wants to honor blacks being free from slavery and blacks getting the right to vote, that's fine," said Michael Givens, first lieutenant of the state division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "Just don't do it under the pretenses of Reconstruction."

. . .Givens, of the SCV, said Reconstruction was a terrible time for Southern whites, who he said were "punished" by Northern whites, or "carpetbaggers," who came South. "The genesis of bad relationships between the races is Reconstruction," rather than slavery, Givens said. [Emphasis mine.]

. . .Recently, the park service included an explanation at a new exhibit at Fort Sumter, which it operates, saying slavery was the underlying cause of the Civil War. Southern groups, such as the SCV, maintain the war was fought over "states rights."

The SCV wrote Wilson, drafted a resolution against the Reconstruction study and put it on the group's Web site. Reconstruction study supporters countered by also writing Wilson.

People are focusing on Rep. Wilson because he epitomizes the conflict. Not only is he is a legislator needed to get the bill passed and program funded, he is a member of the SCV. When SCV members have refused to toe the party line in the past, they have been ejected from the group. Among ejectees is filmmaker Ken Burns, who neo-Confederates deride as much too affectionate toward Yankees and "the Negroes."

Ken Burns, Ex-compatriot

"Compatriot" Ken Burns has been stripped of membership, largely as a result of one man's courage and devotion to integrity in our ranks. Virginia's General Hank Morris, a camp commander and retired Army Brigadier, demanded that the little mop-headed anti-Southern snippet with a penchant for mentioning Robert E. Lee and Adolph Hitler in the same sentence be defrocked by the Virginia Division. Over the whining objections of J.E.B. Stuart Camp Commander Phil "Sheridan" O'Neill, who called for his own ouster should Burns be removed, the Division muckety-mucks voted to give the nasty little excuse for humanity the heave-ho.

It seems, however, that J.E.B. Stuart Camp officers tried to procure an 11th hour transfer of the miscreant to an obscure camp in New England. However, Burns' status as not being a member in good standing (i.e. facing charges), as well as the fact that the transfer papers were not signed, did not allow the cowardly shell-game tactic to go through.

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