Editor:

I disagree totally with Dr. Gregory Brock's baseless and false assumption in his letter in the Sept. 28 edition of this publication that the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is a "cult." Members are free to come and go as they please and may offer whichever thoughts and opinions they desire, even if they are contrary to the ones held by other members. The SCV does not force anyone to drink the Kool-Aid.

Dr. Shelby Foote did indeed call the conflict of 1861-1865 the "Civil War." So did Confederate General and later Governor John B. Gordon.

I can call my dog a cat, but that doesn't make him a cat. A "civil war" is when two or more factions are seeking control of the same government. The South did not want to take over Washington City and force the Lincoln administration to abdicate. The South was fighting for its independence just as 13 colonies were seeking their independence from the British Crown in the First American Revolution.

Foote also said, when asked had he been alive during the time of the war, would he have fought for the Confederates. His reply: "No doubt about it. What's more, I would fight for the Confederacy today if the circumstances were similar. ... So I certainly would have fought to keep people from invading my native state."

President Obama's grandfather's and Dr. Brock's grand-uncle were mentioned as members of Gen. George S. Patton III's Third Army in World War II. That is commendable they were serving under the command of an officer whose grandfather, Col. George Patton Sr., was a member of the Confederate army killed at the Third Battle of Winchester (VA) and his great-uncle, Lt. Col. Walter Patton, was also a Confederate officer killed in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.

Michael A. Mull

Ogeechee Rifles Camp #941

Sons of Confederate Veterans