My First Christmas Present Of 2019!

Greetings and Happy Holidays, Y'all! 

I wanted to start out this month -- the final month of the year, as well as the final month of this decade! -- to personally thank a certain individual for giving me a rather unique early Christmas present. 

Mr. Brian K. also known in some circles by the awesome handle "SouthernFriedOtaku" (or SFO82) has graciously given me his account at the American Civil War Talk forums. 

I met Brian about two years ago at the Battle of Aiken Reenactment of 2018 -- please check out my photos of the event HERE. Since that time he and I have been trading correspondence off and on. Brian is from Georgia, but lives somewhere around Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and three awesome children -- not to mention at least three Basset Hounds. 

Over the last five months, or so, Brian has been a member of the Civil War Talk forums defending the stories of Black Confederate Veterans from those who deny their existence, and at times their humanity. And he has done so very well from what I have read. 

He also sited me as a source frequently, or rather my article Busting The Myth Of Black Confederate Denial -- which I am told has made the rounds, and caused some haters to really go nuts. Not my goal, but let's just say I am not entirely unhappy that happened either. 

Well, recently Brian has informed me that he will be taking on a new job as a truck driver and won't be able to be online for awhile. So he generously offered to allow me to take over for him on the page -- which I accepted. 

On December 4th of this year, I joined the site creating my new account under his -- which prompted the site administrators to inform me that I had the option of combining the pages under the same IP address, or something. Sorry, not very computer savy here. I told them to go for it and now yours truly is the newest member of that forum. 

I confess that public forums, much like public speaking, isn't exactly my bag. But I will endeavor to do my best to continue Brian's defense of the good name of Confederates of Color.  

It is my hope to see Brian again in person this year at a reenactment in North Carolina he is scheduled to attend and personally thank him for this gift. 

Good luck and God Bless with your new endeavors, my friend, and thank you once again. I hope to live up to even half of your good work.  

Thanks for the early Christmas present, brother!