They Face East: A Memoir of Confederates in My Tree

An American archeological discovery hiding in plain sight, they face east. A spiritual compass, the graves of our ancestors provide foundational guidance as the ongoing war for America’s soul rages. A memoir spanning 400 years, Harvard Business School graduate Trae Zipperer dusts off the pages of Civil War history to reconcile the contexts of Protestantism and Patriotism found within his Deep South family tree. Indelible to our shared past, topics boldly include Jesus, persecution, Indians, slavery, the Constitution, Confederate Soldiers, and Yankee prisons. This unbelievable life changing story inspires Trae to launch the veteran headstone cleaning initiative By Memorial Day landing him in the national spotlight! Determined descendant Trae Zipperer travels to ancestor grave sites in search of a Confederacy connection to Civil War Gettysburg. His epic journey to uncover Southern heritage stretches genealogy research, cemetery road trips, and DNA testing to Harvard graduate standards. Trae’s exhaustive efforts reveal an unanticipated family history tree! This American South book articulates United States Southern life before, during, and after an entire generation of Protestant warriors outnumbered 4-to-1 clad themselves in butternut and gray.Trae stops at nothing to find a grandfather who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. Names of his people are found while staring into Ancestry.com, asking family questions, and listening to oral history. Clues are discovered within family history books shelved long ago inside county libraries throughout the Southern states. But Southern graves, white and black, point eastward toward the Christian faith foundation upon which the United States is established. Traveling from one Bible Belt church cemetery to the next, Trae begins to question the demonization placed upon these sources of his DNA. Slavery as the reason the North started the American Civil War did not add up. Read Chapters 21 and 22 for a disturbing U.S. history lesson in chronological order hidden from us by enemies of liberty. Pronounced Fort Sumpter, newly inaugurated President Abraham Lincoln effectively fired the first shots there by sending a resupply armada. Ignoring the fact no injuries occurred during the Southern response, Lincoln rallied 75,000 Northerners to avenge Fort Sumter! Read more