April 15, 2023 - The Political Cesspool - James Edwards
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You're listening to the Liberty News Radio Network, and this is the Political Cesspool.
The Political Cesspool, known across the South and worldwide as the South's foremost populist conservative radio program.
And here to guide you through the murky waters of the political cesspool is your host, James Edwards.
I don't care if I'm in a box or not when they lay me down.
Just bury me in Southern Ground.
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, our Confederate History Month series continues here on TPC this Saturday evening, April the 15th.
James Edwards and Keith Alexander now very pleased and honored to welcome to the program, even after all these years of doing Confederate History Month series, a brand new guest making his debut appearance.
His name is John Hill, and he is, as we mentioned at the top of the show tonight, the closest living descendant of General Ambrose Powell Hill, A.P. Hill.
John exhumed General Hill's remains in Richmond, Virginia on December the 13th of last year.
He was the pallbearer at his reinterment in January of this year, and he is now also his national guardian.
John Hill travels the country, giving speeches and memorials for General Hill.
He also flags graves and clean cemeteries along the way.
You're going to learn a lot more about John Hill's work.
No relation to Michael Hill, at least not that we know immediately, but John Hill's work tonight and a lot more about one of the heroes of the Confederacy, General A.P. Hill.
John, it's great to have you tonight.
Thank you for taking the time.
Yeah, thank you for having me on.
Well, you're very welcome.
I look forward to hearing some of the presentation that you give to the different groups that you speak to.
A little made-for-radio version of that.
But first, let's talk about, well, we're going to talk about your ancestor for sure, but let's talk about your ancestry in general.
When did you first find out about your lineage here?
I got into genealogy back in May of 2020.
Yeah, April or May of 2020.
And I just saw that all of my ancestors were from the South.
And I traced them all the way back to my 12th great grandfather was George Hill.
He came on the first supply to Jamestown of 1608.
And he is the great-grandfather of, I think great-grandfather of Edward Hill, who owned Shirley Plantation.
So the Hill Carter family of Shirley, I'm a direct descendant of the Hill Carter family of Shirley Plantation.
And my 14th great grandfather is Humphrey Lee.
So I traced my Hill and Lee lines down to Robert E. Lee.
And I'm also related to Lee through two other lines, the Augustine Moore and Elizabeth Todd lines.
So I got four of my family lines that go directly to Robert E. Lee, but I also traced my Hill lineage directly to A.P. Hill.
But you really do.
It's not like this creep that claims he's Robert E. Lee's nephew and he goes around preaching against him everywhere.
He goes, you heard of that guy, Keith.
But no, you actually do.
And so you're telling me, though, as I often joke, I descended from the only private in the Confederate Army, but I knew about that even growing up.
You just found out about this within the last couple of years, or did you know about it before then, but you only recently connected the dots through the historical research?
I never really, me and my dad were never really into genealogy and stuff before, but he passed away in 2014.
But he always told me growing up that we have a lot of Confederate ancestors, and he said probably hundreds, which he was right.
And he said he just doesn't know names.
He just said our whole family's from the South.
He said, I know we have a lot of Confederate ancestors, and he just never knew who exactly who it was.
Well, how then did you get into it?
This is Keith.
John, did you get into it through Ancestry.com or something like that?
Or did you just have a maiden ant that kept up with that stuff?
Yeah, the funny thing is I'm a steel worker.
And actually, the reason why I got into it is I got laid off because of COVID.
And they laid us off for a couple months.
And I was, yeah, I was bored.
So I decided to get Ancestry.
And that's how I started with Ancestry.
And then I actually became a genealogist for the SCV.
I've done genealogy for about 24 or 25 people now.
I do it all for free.
But I started with ancestry.com, but then I went to Family Search.
I went to WikiTree, Genie, Find the Grave, Fold 3.
I use all of them now.
I know how to confirm documents.
And, you know, you don't just want to go on one source.
You want to have multiple sources to make sure it's accurate.
That's incredible.
So God's hand.
And boy, does he work in mysterious ways through COVID?
There's a silver lining in every dark country.
How about that?
That's what got you, that's what gave you the time and opportunity to really dig in deep on this.
And you knew that you had descended from Confederate veterans or that you had Confederate blood in you, but you didn't know that it went all the way necessarily to the top.
What was your reaction in this day and age when, of course, our history and our ancestry is so besmirched and ridiculed?
And of course, not deservingly so, to say the least.
But what was your reaction to finding out that these are your guys?
I honestly couldn't sleep the first night.
I was so excited.
I mean, my dad, my dad was like a Confederate soldier transported from 1861 or something just growing up.
How he acted, he was so old-fashioned, and he acted literally like he was a Confederate soldier.
I mean, he had the same mindset, you know, freedom, states' rights, all that growing up.
And I was never into any of the liberal stuff or anything.
So when I found out that my whole entire lineage was from the South, I don't have one Yankee in my family tree.
And I was so excited when I found out about Lee and Hill.
I couldn't sleep.
Well, there's a lady, somebody before I got permanently banned on Facebook over two years ago for being a domestic terrorist or whatever the heck they wanted to call me.
But before I got banned on there, I was on a genealogy on a genealogy page.
And a lady, I forgot who it was.
Some lady was a professional genealogist said, there's no way you don't have a Yankee.
You know, everybody has somebody in both sides.
So I gave her my information.
I said, here, you can look at my family tree.
Here's my login information.
She came back to me two weeks later and she said, sir, you have not one Yankee in your family tree.
I said, I told you.
Yeah, I don't know how uncommon that is, to be honest with you.
I mean, my folks came in through South Carolina down to Mississippi.
My first ancestor was 1659 in Culpeper County, Virginia.
And, you know, it's just The only really distinguished one I have was General William Alexander in the Revolutionary War, who covered Washington's retreat from the Battle of Long Island and basically is responsible for Washington not being captured and killed and ending the revolution.
So that's good.
I'm big in the SAR and the DAR.
I'm like James, though, when it comes to the Federacy.
I'm the only person descended from a private.
And he had a very colorful name, IES Alexander, who's in Forest 15th Tennessee Calvary.
And IES stands for Independence Ellen Schuler Alexander.
You know, we were in South Carolina.
I know, John, I actually got John Hill's contact information, our guest tonight, from Dixie Republic when I was there a couple of weeks ago.
Just saw his card sitting on the desk.
I said, hey, what's this about?
And I said, I got to get this guy on the show.
But any event, we will be back.
We will be back so much more to talk with John Hill.
You're going to learn more about his activism and how you can support it and more about the great AP Hill when we come back.
The Honorable Cause, a Free South, is a collection of 12 essays written by Southern Nationalists Authority.
The book explores topics such as what is the Southern nation?
What is Southern nationalism?
And how can we achieve a free and independent Dixie?
The Honorable Cause answers questions on our own terms.
The book invites readers to understand for themselves why a free and independent Dixie is both preferable and possible.
The book pulls in some of the biggest producers of pro-South content, including James Edwards, the host and creator of the political cesspool, and Wilson Smith, author of Charlottesville Untoad, Arkansas congressional candidate and activist Neil Kumar,
host and creator of the dissident mama podcast, Rebecca Dillingham, author of A Walk in the Park, My Charlottesville Story, Identity Ditches, Patrick Martin, and yours truly, Michael Hill, founder and president of the League of the South, as well as several other authors.
The Honorable Cause is available now at Amazon.com.
True Passover versus Easter.
The Catholic Church and most denominations follow the Jewish Passover.
Here is the Jewish tradition.
The Passover takes place 14 days after the new moon, after the equinox.
But what does God say?
In Isaiah 1, verse 14, quote, your new moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being.
Unquote.
Now notice God's word versus Jewish tradition.
Quote, in the first month on the 14th day of the month, at twilight is the Lord's Passover.
Unquote.
That's from Leviticus 23, verse 5.
God's year begins on the spring equinox.
Passover is always on the 14th day of God's year, the 14th day after the equinox.
The Sunday after the Passover is Resurrection Sunday.
None of this is about fertility, which is exactly what Easter is all about.
Easter bunny and eggs, fertility rights, are paganism.
So hurrah for our southerns who all took their stand to fight to defend their family's homeland for the blood and the price they paid for us all.
Hurrah, hurrah for you all.
Hurrah for the mothers of all the brave sons.
Hurrah for the brothers who all became one.
For our valiant countrymen who answered their charms.
Hurrah, hurrah for you all.
Hurrah for the wives left widowed and alone.
Hurrah for our heroes who never came home.
For our warriors who watched their fathers fall.
Hurrah, hurrah for you all.
Hurrah for the future.
They dream they all sleep.
Old time's not forgotten and never will be.
For the fold in allegiance to uphold our cause.
Hurrah, hurrah for you all.
That's beautiful.
I had never heard that before.
I want to thank the audience who never lets us down.
This is always such a well-received special series that we do every April here on TPC.
And that was sent in to me by a listener.
And you can find that.
That's more contemporary Southern music.
That's by Rebel Son.
The name of the song is the Final Confederate.
You can find that on YouTube, if you could believe it.
Rebel Son is the name of the band, and the Final Confederate is the song.
And yes, indeed, we salute them all, not just the men who fought and died, but their wives and their children and all of the people of the South during that time and beyond, all of us still today who suffer as a result of it.
Hurrah to them all.
And I love what Mark Tommy said on the show a couple of weeks ago.
Yes, we honor them during Confederate History Month, but certainly we fight to finish the job as well and see through their vision.
Well, back with us right now is John Hill, the closest living descendant of General A.P. Hill.
I really enjoyed, John, listening to your story in that first segment, how you began to research your background, your reaction to finding out who your ancestors were, and then, of course, all of the work you've done since finding out.
I mean, it wasn't enough for you just to connect the dots of your lineage.
And we'll talk a little bit later this hour about how you carry on the fight in your own way.
But first, let's talk about General A.P. Hill.
I think even after nearly 20 years on the air, he has been one that we haven't really detailed a lot on this program.
So we're happy to have you do the work for us here.
As so many of the Confederate veterans, the leaders, the generals at least, they were Army men before enlisting with the Confederate States Army.
And so too was A.P. Hill.
Give us a little bit about his background, his early life, and his years before 1861.
I can actually tell you in his own words.
I have a letter here written by A.P. Hill October 25th, 1863.
It says, General Hill was once asked for a sketch of his life.
His answer is contained in the following letter, which is preserved in the State Library.
Headquarters, 3rd Army Corps, October 25th, 1863.
My dear sir, your letter has been received, and I cheerfully give you such information as I can.
I was born in Culpeper County, Virginia on the 9th of November, 1825.
My father was Major Thomas Hill of the same county.
My mother was Fanny Russell Baptist of Mecklenburg County, Virginia.
In 1842, I was entered as a cadet at West Point, graduated in 1847, and was appointed brevet second lieutenant in the 1st Regiment United States Artillery and assigned to the light battery of Captain Frank Taylor.
Marched from Veracruz to the city of Mexico with the command of General Joseph Lane, acting as adjutant of an infantry regiment commanded by Major Henselmann, it's a hard name to pronounce.
Engaged in the battles of Human Luckta, Puebla, and Atalexo by promotion of Major T.J. Jackson, who was Stonewall when he got promoted to first lieutenant, I was promoted to second lieutenant 20th of August and assigned to Magruder's Battery in 1849, ordered to Florida, promoted first lieutenant September 1851, and served in Florida and Texas until the winter of 1856.
When my health became, when my health became very much impaired by the kindness of Secretary Davis, who is Jefferson Davis, detailed for special duty in the United States Coast Service or survey, and was upon this duty when the war broke out.
I resigned my commission on the 1st of March, 1861, was appointed colonel of the 13th Virginia Regiment, May 9th, 1861, and ordered to Harper's Ferry.
Brigadier General, February 26, 1862.
Major General, May 26, 1862.
And Lieutenant General, May 26, 1863.
Very respectfully, A.P. Hill.
Well, he did a very nice and concise job of detailing his life there in that one letter.
That was impressive.
Let me ask you this, John.
This is Keith.
Tell us a thumbnail sketch of how he distinguished himself in the war, major battles he was involved in, roles that he played in those battles.
He was actually in every battle.
He was a very aggressive leader.
And when he got promoted lieutenant general, his rank actually kept him out of the battles with his men, and he didn't like that.
But when he was brigadier general, major general, he actually used to ride so far out in front of his men that he almost got captured many times.
And one soldier estimated he was about 600 yards ahead of his men during a charge.
And yeah, he one time.
Imagine what Hill and Forrest could have done together with that kind of aggressiveness.
Oh, yeah, I've said that for a long time.
Him and Forrest, if Stonewall would have never died and Hill and Forrest were together, we would be singing Dixie right now.
I mean, we wouldn't have to say.
Yeah.
We'd be singing it.
That'd be the national anthem of Dixie.
Yeah.
Just to tell you a little about him, like he had a lieutenant who was towering behind a tree, and Hill rode up and he tried to break his sword on him.
And the sword just bent when he hit him with the sword.
He hit him on the leg with the sword.
So Hill reached down, grabbed his rank off his collar and ripped it off and said, I reduce you to the ranks, sir.
And he says, if you don't go fight with your men, I'll have he was going to order a firing squad at the end of the battle to kill him.
He was very, he was a very aggressive leader, and he also really loved animals.
Anytime he ever caught anybody, any of his men or anybody abusing a horse, he would ride up and he would use the handguard on his saber, his brass knuckles, and punch him in the back or the back of the head with it.
And they knew it became very well known not to ever abuse an animal in front of A.P. Hill.
You're talking about he was in every battle.
I mean, certainly he wasn't in every battle that was fought.
I know you didn't mean it that way, but when you say he was in every battle, every battle that he was at, he fought in.
He wasn't, you know, back in the tent or back in the mess hall or anything like that.
He was there and he was there with his men.
But Mike, I mean, it almost is if he was literally in every battle, especially on the Eastern theater, he was at 1st and 2nd Manassas.
He was at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the wilderness, on and on.
The siege of Petersburg.
Of course, we'll get to the third battle of Petersburg in a moment, but he was at all of those and so many more.
I mean, imagine what he would have had to have seen during those four years because he was part of it until the very, very end.
Was he involved in Gettysburg?
And if so, what role did he play?
Yeah.
Yeah, he was pretty sick during the Battle of Gettysburg.
He kept trying.
He was actually riding in an ambulance wagon for a lot of the battle.
He didn't like to be down and out, but sometimes he got so bad off that he couldn't even walk.
But, I mean, even when he was on a furlough, he would always come back early from the furlough.
He never wanted to be out of the battle.
Nothing could keep him down.
And I actually got to see the hat that he was wearing during the Battle of Gettysburg.
They have it at the – used to be the Museum of the Confederacy, and now they turn it into a liberal American Civil War museum that's all about slavery and everything.
But I contacted the guy, the director of the museum, and he gave me a private viewing of Hill's items.
I don't mean to interrupt this, but we had on our very earliest series of, I believe it was back in 2007.
I mean, one of the very early installments of Confederate History Month on this program, we had the then director of the Museum of the Confederacy on it.
It was certainly not like that.
It was called the Museum of the Confederacy.
Who is in charge of it now?
It's probably not the same guy.
Well, I don't know who's in charge of it.
I know there's different names on there.
The guy who I talked to, I think he's the director of the relics.
I don't know if he actually runs it.
His name was Mr. Hancock.
He was nice and everything.
He gave me a private viewing of Hill's items.
Their excuse, I think it was Robert Hancock.
His excuse was that they have over 15,000 items in the back, and I guess they said the new building is not big enough because all of Hill's items are in the back.
They're just in storage, basically.
So he let me come in the vault and he had everything laid out for me.
And I got to see A.P. Hill's vest, one of his shirts.
I got to see the spur, one of the spurs he was wearing when he died.
The hat he was wearing when he died.
The hat he was wearing in Gettysburg.
I got to see all that stuff.
Perfect viewing.
Incredible.
Incredible.
Well, listen, folks, I am fascinated.
I'm sure you are as well.
We've got two more segments with John Hill, the closest living descendant of General A.P. Hill of the Confederate States Army.
We'll learn more about A.P. Hill on the stages removed.
Exposing corruption.
Informing citizens.
Pursuing liberty.
You're listening to Liberty News Radio.
USA News.
I'm Richard Johnson.
Inflation may be slowing down.
The Consumer Price Index rose by one-tenth of one percent from February to March, thanks to lower grocery and gas prices.
But the Labor Department's top gauge of inflation is slowing down in the long term.
The CPI rose by 5% from last March to last month.
February's year-over-year rise was 6%.
President Biden's praising the progress in Northern Ireland.
25 years since the Good Friday Agreement that ended most of the violence between Catholics and Protestants.
But I believe Democratic institutions established through the Good Friday Agreement remain critical to the future of Northern Ireland.
Biden spoke in Belfast, which he says is poised to drive new opportunity and investment that will benefit Northern Ireland, the UK, and the U.S.
A massive fire at a plastic recycling facility In the town of Richmond, Indiana continues to burn and produce a plume of smoke so large it's showing up on weather radar.
As for when firefighters might control the blaze.
We're estimating into Saturday morning at this point.
It depends on whether we can get back to where we need to get to the seat of the fires, to the hot spots.
Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown.
The EPA is monitoring the scene of a truck accident outside East Palestine, Ohio.
A truck carrying 40,000 pounds of toxic soil from the site of that train derailment overturned on a state highway.
Former President Trump's lawyer in the New York Hush Money case is asking for a one-month delay in the start of the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit now due to start in about two weeks.
E. Gene Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in the mid-90s and attacking her credibility over the incident that he denies ever happened.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott says he's thinking about running for president and has formed an exploratory committee.
If he runs, Scott would be the second South Carolina Republican to do so after former Governor Nikki Haley.
This is USA News.
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For the men we wish we could have known, For every cross of honor on every tombstone, For our guns in gray who stood gallant so tall,
A fitting song for our guest right now as we learn more about his ancestor, Lieutenant General A.P. Hill.
Let me ask you this, John.
It's Keith again.
Was your ancestor buried on Monument Avenue?
Was there a statue there for him?
Yes.
And that was his headstone.
That's what we're in.
That goes all the way back to May 2021 when I contacted the city of Richmond when I heard they wanted to take it down.
And they put me in contact with Andrew Moorhead and a lawyer, Perrier.
And I've been in contact with them since.
And then I went to the actual court case in Richmond on September 29th of last year.
I proved my lineage to Hill, and I told him, you know, that's my family name.
That's a headstone.
That's not a monument because he's buried underneath it.
And we lost that case.
So we filed a motion to stay and they denied it instantly.
So then that week before December 12th, I forgot what day it was.
They told me that they're taking the monument down on Monday, which is December 12th.
So I drove eight and a half hours straight and was there the day they took down the monument, did a bunch of news interviews and stuff.
And then the second day was the day we finally got down to his remains.
He wasn't buried standing up in the base of the monument like some there were some rumors that I don't know when that started, but he was actually in the mound underneath the monument.
And once we got down to the dirt and the mound, we found his grave, the three big capstones that were over his grave.
I had the city workers get a tarp to hold up so nobody could see his remains.
And I exhumed his remains with the funeral home director.
And I couldn't believe I was actually holding the remains of a Confederate general.
But we were putting his remains in the body bag, and there was dirt in the bottom of the grave because it was stone lined.
So we were putting some of the dirt in the body bag too because there were smaller bones and other DNA that's in the dirt.
And while I was going, you know, we were gently shoveling the dirt in the body bag.
I was looking through the different shovel, the dirt in the shovel, and I actually found three pieces of his uniform and three of his buttons.
Dan, these people.
One of them, you can see it was a Virginia button.
Yeah, I don't go to Richmond.
I'll only go to Richmond to defend Robert E. Lee's house there, the one he was at, the smaller brick house after the war, or I'll go there to defend Hollywood Cemetery or visit Hollywood Cemetery.
But I don't go to Richmond.
I won't give them any of my money.
I won't shop there, eat there, nothing.
And this level of savagery to dig up the remains of men so far better by every standard of measurement to those who would attack their character and what they stood for today.
Let this be remembered to everyone as we continue their struggle for a free and independent South.
And if you want a photo, of course, we had that here with Forrest, although we have no direct relation to Forrest as John Hill does with A.P. Hill.
I mean, he's still our hero and he's still our countryman.
And for that indignity, let it be remembered as we continue the struggle.
You can see a photo on our Twitter handle tonight for the weekly show promo of John Hill with In This Moment that he just described.
And thank you, John, for being there for General Hill in that moment.
Keith.
Well, what happened to Richmond and the Confederates buried there is like what's happened in a lot of southern cities, Memphis included.
You know, they removed Forrest's and his wife's body and probably what I think is the finest equestrian statue ever cast of him.
It's moved up now to the SCV headquarters in Middle Tennessee.
But this is all a result of white flight.
You know, if white people had stayed in Richmond and Memphis and not moved out to the suburbs because of the integration of the public schools and rising crime rates, things like that, we would have had people in these cities that could have voted against what has happened, you know, removing all Confederate monuments and whatnot.
But, you know, as these cities turn black, they got the population in solidarity with the leftist leaders that wanted to get rid of this.
It's really kind of a sad story.
That's what's happened in the South.
Although you have to certainly be able to understand why the people left these very dangerous areas now.
But anyway, let's not focus on the current politics of it.
This is about General Hill.
This is General Hill's hour.
We've got about five more minutes before the break, John, and I want to, of course, wrap up in the next segment with some of the places you're speaking to and some of the other things you're doing and how people can support that work.
But when you're giving these presentations, Did Hill himself ever write, or is there any record of what he said he was fighting for?
We know what the world says our heroes were fighting for.
Did Hill himself ever document the reasons why he himself was fighting for the Confederate cause?
Yeah, there's actually two things I can get into about that.
One was in the 1850s when he wrote his brother.
He detested slavery.
Hill never owned a slave.
He didn't like slavery.
His uncle, his father, other family members of mine did.
In the 1850s, he wrote his brother Edward Baptist Hill, who was a prominent citizen in Culpeper.
There was a young Negro that was proven innocent after, but he was mob lynched in Culpeper for the alleged murder of a white man.
Hill fumed to his brother and wrote a letter to Edward Baptist Hill.
And A.P. Hill said, Virginia must crawl unless you vindicate good order or discipline and hang every son of a B-word connected with the outrage.
A.P. Hill, he didn't like what happened.
He didn't like the lynching.
He didn't like slavery.
And I don't know if you guys know that his roommate at West Point was McClellan.
And he even stated McClellan didn't want him to leave the U.S. Army.
And in letters back and forth and in talking, he tried to ask Hill not to leave.
And Hill stated in the letter that he could not engage in a war against his native state, but he would defend her to the death.
And that was the reason.
McClellan agreed.
Yep.
And McClellan agreed and said, I cannot blame you.
Very similar to Lee.
Very similar to Lee.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's how, because back then, you know, their states were like their country.
It's different now, but how it was back then.
Virginia was like his country.
He couldn't, he would never fight against his native state of Virginia.
Because as you said, it's so different now in that with travel being as easy as it is between air travel and interstate travel.
Everybody from everywhere lives everywhere now.
But back then, everybody that lived in your state was related to you.
I mean, you would be literally fighting against to subjugate your own family.
Yes.
And there's a couple more things I can tell you real quick before this segment is sure.
You know, he was a very aggressive leader, but he also had a big heart.
And before the light division left Fredericksburg after the Battle of Fredericksburg, Hill and his men donated $10,000 to help the citizens of Fredericksburg.
$10,000 then was over $290,000 in today's money.
Yeah, it's still a lot though.
Yeah, he, you know, he, so many people give him a bad rap.
I mean, people think he was a slave owner.
And the naming committee that's renaming the forts, they pulled up census documents saying Ambrose Powell Hill owned 30 slaves.
Ambrose Powell Hill was his uncle.
He was named after his uncle, his dad's brother.
So they try to use that as A.P. Hill's census document.
A.P. Hill wasn't even in Virginia at that time.
Well, they might as well go ahead and rename Washington, D.C., because George Washington himself owned slaves.
And I don't have any white guilt about any of that.
Yeah, that whole thing, basically, slavery was legal back then.
And quite frankly, all these black people that have benefited from coming to America would never have come here had it not been for slavery.
They didn't have an NBA or an NFL back then.
Well, and of course, the Union, you know, you can look at some of the Union views on slavery.
And if you want to get upset, if anybody's upset about slavery, you can read some of the things they said about it.
But of course, that's just a tool.
If you were a black person back then, would you want to live in a cabin on a beautiful plantation and be taken care of and have food and water provided?
Because they didn't treat their slaves like people nowadays say they did.
No, The most fortunate homes and most fortunate black slaves in the world at the time were the ones that came to North America.
Ones that went to the Arab countries, were worked to death, and the males castrated with a full castration, which led two-thirds of them to die from loss of blood.
The ones in the Caribbean and South America were worked to death.
The very least you can say about slaves in North America is they were treated like prized livestock.
And I hate that so much of what our conversation about these heroes has to be tied into that.
One way to do that.
One way to go.
The ones that said that.
That's a topic that they want.
No, no, no.
Well, I get it.
I get it.
But as John said, I can't post anything without them saying that.
Every time I post something about AP Hill, they just bring up slavery.
And it's not even, I'll post about his daughter's dog and they'll bring up slavery.
As a matter of fact, this is the reason I think that we're even talking about it now.
As a matter of fact, these are the facts, vis-a-vis slavery in AP Hill.
And anyway, we'll be right back.
One more segment with John Hill, host, living descendant of AP Hill next.
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I don't care if I'm in a box or not when they lay me down.
Just bury me in southern ground.
Ladies and gentlemen, every single hero of the Confederacy is deserving of an hour-long spotlight on this program.
I mean, and even that's a filthy offering compared to what they gave us.
But we do the best we can to honor these men, certainly throughout the year, but especially on Confederate History Month.
And every Confederate hero from the general with the most illustrious portfolio down to one of the unknown Confederate soldiers buried in these mass graves across the country whose names are only remembered by God.
Every single one of them are deserving of an hour.
See, we mentioned this the other day.
The Confederate flag is popular throughout the world as a symbol of defiance to tyranny.
And it's not just a southern thing.
It's something that people who are interested in human freedom still flock to to this day.
That is exactly right, Keith.
And that is why this is a series that is so popular, not just amongst our regular listeners, but through our international audience as well.
But what I was saying was, while every Confederate soldier is worthy of remembrance and worthy of an hour-long spotlight, and then some, it is rare that we have the opportunity to speak with a direct descendant, or a living descendant, rather, of someone like Lieutenant General A.P. Hill Jr. and stressed on the junior, as we were just mentioning, as rather John was just mentioning to us in the previous segment.
He was named after his uncle.
But in any event, you go and you travel, John, across the South, and you give presentations to different groups about A.P. Hill.
Let us just sit back and give you the floor here.
It could be during the war years.
It can be a story or an anecdote from his life before the war.
Of course, he was killed in battle a week before Lee surrendered, literally seven days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox, which is, man, that's something.
But in any event, tell us a story that you'd like to share with the audience.
It could be, again, war years or before, anything you want the audience to know about A.P. Hill that we haven't covered yet.
Okay, I'll probably mix around a little bit.
I can tell you something during the West Point years is that they used to have an annual dinner at West Point for the cadet officers on George Washington's birthday.
Well, one year they didn't invite the cadet officers for some reason to the dinner.
So that made them, you know, they were pretty upset about that.
So Hill, Burns, and Heath, and some of the other cadet officers decided they wanted to ruin the dinner.
So they went down and stole turkey, all the sides, cigars, and wine.
They took it all back and had a big party in Hill's room.
And the men were stated saying that no turkey has ever tasted that good before or since.
That's a pretty funny story.
We were talking about this.
It is a funny story.
And this is something you and I were talking about on the phone.
And please continue.
I'm not going to interrupt you again.
I want you to take these last few minutes to just share some stories like that because, you know, they're always remembered for what they did in the war or by the world they're remembered for other things.
They didn't do in the war.
Yeah, right.
To bring the humanity back to these men, they were men.
They were people who lived and had hopes and dreams and families.
And they were real people, much more than just a soldier that you read about.
I mean, these are people who lived life.
Well, this story had me laughing a lot.
When Hill was in Florida, it was over towards the Tampa area.
He ended up staying at an old woman's house.
Him and a couple other soldiers, they let them stay there for the night.
And the old woman was deaf, almost deaf.
And Hill said he nearly ripped out his throat screaming at the old woman, trying to get her attention and talk to her.
He said, but the whole time he was lusting after the lady's daughter.
And he said, man, how I wish that old woman was blind, not deaf.
Just she kept catching him looking at the daughter.
And he said, I wish that woman was blind, not deaf.
But he hated the bugs in Florida, too.
He wrote letters about that.
I mean, I grew up in Florida.
I lived in Florida for 20 years.
I hated bugs, too.
I don't know if that runs in the Hill family because my dad was.
We have a Confederate general buried in Memphis that was from Florida, Patton Anderson.
And he was like Forrest, one of these guys that was not given enough credit by the Confederate military hierarchy.
He and Forrest, if they had been given broader commands, may have made a big difference.
But he's a, I can take you right to the grave.
In fact, Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis has the most Confederate generals buried in it of any cemetery in the world, with the exception of Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Yeah, you know, as a matter of fact, and we'll close the segment with this, we got to get you to Memphis for some reason or another.
I know all the travel groups around here, and I've spoken to them, and I'm sure they'd love to hear your presentation on your ancestors.
And we'll talk a little bit about those travels and how people can get you to come and speak to the group.
Go ahead, John.
I'm actually coming to Nashville.
My girlfriend has a work event.
They got her salon got an award, and we're going to Nashville for a couple of days.
I think it's on the 26th, I think, of this month.
So if I have time, I'd like to drive out there and meet y'all and maybe go up launch yourself.
Do this all over again.
Yeah, I can take you around.
I can show you the places like on Forrest's second right on Memphis.
He was trying to liberate the Confederate prisoners at the Irving Block prison because they had such a shortage of manpower.
Well, give us one more story, John.
And then, like I said, I do want you to give all your contact information, traveling around the country, raising awareness, flagging graves.
It isn't free.
It costs money to do that.
We want people to support you.
And we want people to know how they can get you to come and talk to their SCV camp or whatever other group may be in store for such a presentation.
Obviously, much harder to give an uninterrupted presentation in commercial talk radio.
It just doesn't work that way.
But give us one more story if you can from A.P. Hill, the life of A.P. Hill.
There's a couple longer stories that I include in my presentations that people find those really interesting.
I actually even pass around some relics for people to hold that were part of A.P. Hill's boyhood home and stuff like that.
Another story that I thought was interesting is during the war, towards the end of the war, Lee stated in a letter to Jefferson Davis when they were needing more generals to the Army of Tennessee.
Lee stated in a letter to Davis that they could send any of his generals to the Army of Tennessee if needed, except for Hill.
Because Hill and Lee became very close.
And a lot of people don't know that, you know, I'm related to both Lee and Hill.
They were cousins through my Hill lineage.
And A.P. Hill's daughter, Lucy Lee Hill, was named after A.P. Hill's sister, Lucy.
And she was named after Robert E. Lee, Lucy Lee Hill.
And in May of 1864, Robert E. Lee was at the christening of Lucy Lee Hill, and he was also her godfather.
And that was the funny story I had about the dog is that Robert E. Lee would go visit her after the war.
You know, after A.P. Hill was gone, he would go visit Hill's wife and daughter.
And the only way he could get in the house is Lucy would run to the door with her puppy, who she named Bobby Lee, and she would make Robert E. Lee kiss the puppy before he can come in the house.
Can you imagine seeing that?
Imagine having seen that.
I mean, the South was so good and filled with such people.
And it's just what we were saying a moment ago.
I mean, you didn't go to war against your state because everybody in your state was your relative.
I mean, these people were cousins.
You know, Hill was a guy.
Of course, everybody knows Robert E. Lee's heritage and ancestry.
But A.P. Hill was born, raised, and died in Virginia.
So the fact that they would be related by some number of cousins is almost to be expected.
And as we said a moment ago, Hill died just seven days before Appomattox.
Believe he said, I believe I've read in the past that Hill said he did not want to survive in a world in which the Confederacy had capitulated, and God granted that wish.
Yeah, he didn't want to see the fall of Richmond.
I actually have a story about his death.
I don't know if we have enough time on this segment, but I include it in my presentations.
So if anybody would like to hear it, it's a very interesting story.
It tells the actual, I know the true details of how and why AP Hill got shot.
Can you give us a 60-second, a 60-second?
I mean, I know that this is not nearly enough time, but can you give us 60 seconds on how he died?
So he was out with his courier, Tucker, Sergeant Tucker, and they came across a couple of Yankees.
One was Walford, and the other one was Corporal John Mock of the 138th Pennsylvania Infantry.
Well, they try to say that Hill was the one that acted aggressive and wanted to take them prisoner and stuff like that.
But actually, the real account was it was Tucker.
Tucker rode up to them and they raised their rifles.
Hill spurred his horse to go catch up to Tucker.
When Hill caught up to Tucker to, you know, to back him up and they were talking to the Yankees, they still had their rifles up pointed at Hill and Tucker.
Well, Tucker freaked out and he reached over and grabbed the bridle of Hill's horse.
I have horses, you know, everybody knows you grab a horse's bridle, it causes them to spook because they always say that the bullet went through A.P. Hill's thumb and went through his heart and came out his back.
Well, if he was just sitting there on his horse, there would be no way the bullet would go through with his hands down.
The bullet wouldn't go down through his thumb and then up to his heart.
So what people left out of that story is that when Tucker grabbed A.P. Hill's horse's bridle, the horse spooked.
A.P. Hill got distracted and pulled back on his reins.
When he pulled up and back on his reins, that's when the Yankees shot.
Mock's bullet went through A.P. Hill's thumb, went through his heart, and came out his back.
Tucker left that part out of the story.
He just says that he grabbed Hill's horse's bridle after Hill got shot.
But that was actually the reason that distracted AP Hill that got him shot.
Wow.
I include stories like that, like where he was taken after he got shot.
He was taken to his cousin's house in Chesterfield County.
He was buried in Chesterfield from 1865 to 1867.
July 1st, 1867, he was relocated to Hollywood Cemetery in plot N35 until 1891.
July 1st, 1891, he was put in the buried in the mound where I exhumed his remains.
And then the monument was built over that mound and dedicated May 30th, 1892.
So I just give details like that on where he was taken after he got killed.
The wagon that his body was being carried in had four different size wheels on it.
They got a casket for him and his first burial.
They got a casket for him from a local furniture store that was broken into and they couldn't find a casket anywhere.
So they got a casket for him that was too small from a furniture store on 12th Street.
I mean, I give details about personal details about Hill and other details that people don't know about him because he really is Lee's forgotten general.
Unabridged and uninterrupted is the kind of speech which we can't have on talk radio, but that he can give to your group.
John Hill, thank you for sharing with our audience a little bit more about Lieutenant General A.P. Hill, your ancestor.
If people want to contact you, if they want to support your work, if they want to have you come and speak to their group, how can they get in touch with you?
You can find me on Twitter at JohnnyReb1989.
You can find me on Instagram at Johnny underscore Reb underscore CSA.
And then you can also donate to my PayPal at Save Our Heritage.
And my GoFundMe is the A.P. Hill Legacy Foundation.
And that just covers costs for travel and gas.
And we've got it all at the top of our Twitter handle tonight as well at James Edwards TPC and on our website, beatpoliticalspool.org.