Jim Pierce and the Radical SCV

Radicalism and extremism can take many forms in today's Sons of Confederate Veterans. One of the most bizarre examples is James Hanbury "Jim" Pierce of the Capt. Samuel McDowell Tate Camp 836 in Morganton, North Carolina. Pierce, sometime commander of the Tate camp, is a fixture on the SCV Dispatch Mailing List and The Echo, the hate forum operated by Chief of Heritage Defense, Allen "Prince" Sullivant.  As a reliable spokesman and apologist for the Wilson/Lyons administration, Jim Pierce is tolerated by the powers in the SCV although he is often considered an embarrassment to the current regime.

In an expansive moment on the Dispatch in February 2002, Jim Pierce told his fans about the day of his marriage:

"Give me a live head of beef or hog before sunrise and I'll process it to mouthwaterin' lip smakin' food in yer belly by sunset . . . . The day I got married I got up at sunrise, went to the pen, slit the boar's throat, gutted and skinned him and beheaded him before quartering and throwing him on the grill.  We then drove to SC to get married, came home, and by 7 PM I was feeding over 200 people.  Somewhere between the 2nd keg of stout and scraping the crispy rinds of the grill of dying embers the whole affair was consummated."

But there is a darker side to Jim Pierce, as evidenced by his behavior, monitored for months on the Dispatch and Echo. In February 2002, a longtime SCV member joined the Dispatch mailing list and asked some tough questions about the influence of the League of the South on the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  The reaction was hysterical, and the new Dispatch member was viciously assailed.  But Pierce went further and in league with Charles Walker, the listmaster, he began a smear campaign against the dissident member who had dared to ask some probing questions about the direction of the SCV. 

Jim Pierce's paranoid-like accusations are commonplace on the Dispatch.  The following quotes are revealing:

March 6, 2002: "The intelligence report on Dees' web site seems to have been penned by one not unlike a certain division's Public Information Officer.  The style of writing, some of the information . . . and the lead paragraph contribute to that impression . . . . I have no proof of this but it is my gut felt impression . . . ."

March 9, 2002:  "I have heard camps discontinuing the display and recital of the 'pledge of allegiance' [to the United States of America].  My great grandmother, grandmother, and mother all refused to recite the pledge out of their undying hatred for the cost to our family from the war of Lincoln . . . . Since when did the SCV ever consider itself 'mainstream'?"

March 10, 2002:  "I think it strange that when 'lively' banter is taking place on the dispatch--that is always when a virus is sent to various members through the dispatch.  I'm beginning to think these virus attacks are malicious intentions of someone--but not the one whose address appears as sending the virus . . . . Am I nuts or have others noticed the same?"

March 26, 2002:  "I've been informed that a candidate for office in NC has notified our CIC that the members of the dispatch are lunatics on the fringe.  It reminds me of the drug induced song about paranoia: 'Lunatic fringe -- I know you're out there . . . . '"

March 27, 2002: "We are on notice that voting fraud will be attempted at Memphis . . . jim pierce . . . and not a drop of yankee blood in me"

March 28, 2002:  "I'd like to nominate Mz. Dust Bunny [Lynda Moreau, SCV consultant] as Colonel Commanding of the Really Dangerous Lunatic HQs Regimental Battery . . . . Humbly submitted to Dept of Insane Comdr. McC and Army Gen. I.B. nonameyet 1st NC Lunatics"

When a SCV member joined the Dispatch in April 2002, and expressed concern about the open racism present in some messages on the Dispatch, Jim Pierce proclaimed him a "mole." 

April 24, 2002:  "I pray he [the mole?] goes to Memphis dear Lord, Amen . . . . Please send your prayers and felicitations to [the mole].  I am sure he is in need of prayer."

Prior to the Memphis convention in the summer of 2002, Pierce sent out via email, a cartoon showing a racist caricature of a black woman containing slave dialect and labeled "Typical Hawks supporter." 

After the Memphis Convention in 2002, Pierce filed a "Reunion report" on the SCV Echo which included the following comments:

August 6, 2002:  "I had a face off with [CIC] Deason, [Chip] Pate and [Gilbert] Jones.  Deason took it like a man.  Pate took it like a sniveling prick.  Jones remained in ignorance.  For good reasons I was not in the room during the oratory contest . . . . I did have one encounter with Jones as he sat on a couch in the hall after the resolution was passed and he whined about it being an 'illegal resolution.'  Unfortunately he was dumb enough to have his wife and children there to guard him.  After all I have put up with him I ignored his guard and told him exactly what I thought of him- he is a pile of dung upon the earth.  His wife and child rose to protest 'but there are ladies present' at which time I said yes, just like a lady, my mother, was present to read what he had put in the Greensboro paper about me . . . and see the other lies and crap from him.  I challenged him to rise from the couch and proceed to the field of honor to settle it once and for all.  He refused to let go of the couch and clung to it as a life preserver telling me I wasn't worth it . . . . "

Jim Pierce continues his tirades on the SCV Dispatch.  As recently as the first week of August, 2003, he had turned his attention to the Military Order of Stars and Bars, questioning the need for such an organization and ridiculing its purposes. 

August 6, 2003: "Y'all keep in mind that there are more descendants of the Confederate Officer corps who are not MOSB than who are . . . . Many of us have simply chosen to be pure SCV . . . . We need no hubcap size gee gaws to broadcast that.  Should we choose to join the MOSB I think you will find it not the same ol' MOSB the eliteists [sic] have become so fond of."

August 7, 2003:  "The SCV never has needed the MOSB as a draft pool of leaders . . . .There are many willing to use the rank badges of their ancestors to annoint [sic] themselves as leaders of those deemed to be of less noble blood."

Pierce's latest target has been Ray Rooks, Maryland Color Sergeant, taunting him about the controversy over the Georgia State Flag.

Why focus on Jim Pierce?  Because this man represents the mentality of the radical elements within the SCV who are attempting to solidify their control over the organization.  Thuggish behavior from their allies and supporters is tolerated and even encouraged.  Character assassination is fine, as long as it is practiced against those who value the SCV's original mission and purposes as stated in the group's Constitution.

-------- Southron