My Own Thoughts on a Memorial Day Holiday

[Guest]

I recently had the privilege of visiting Antietam National Battlefield. 

 

The Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862, near the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle itself is named after a local creek, and was fought at the height of the Civil War. Notable about the battle is that it has the unfortunate distinction of being the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. It’s the bloodiest day in U.S. military history. Over a twelve-hour period, 23,000 soldiers fell dead or wounded.

 

If one stumbled upon the battlefield unaware, one would never know what happened there. The setting is so peaceful, so idyllic. It consists of a simple cornfield, a dense thicket of trees, a humble one-room church building, a few rolling ridges, and an old stone bridge running across a meandering creek. As I walked around that historic place, hearing nothing but the singing of birds and the hum of a distant lawnmower, I found it hard to believe that so much bloodshed had occurred there.

 

"I was lying on my back, supported on my elbows, watching the shells explode overhead and speculating as to how long I could hold up my finger before it would be shot off, for the very air seemed full of bullets, when the order to get up was given. I turned over quickly to look at Col. Kimball, who had given the order, thinking he had become suddenly insane."

 

Lt. Matthew J. Graham, Company H, 9th New York Volunteers

 

"Such a storm of balls I never conceived it possible for men to live through. Shot and shell shrieking and crashing, canister and bullets whistling and hissing most fiend-like through the air until you could almost see them. In that mile's ride I never expected to come back alive."

 

LtCol A.S. "Sandie" Pendleton, CSA

 

I often hear words like “brave” and “courageous” to describe men and women who died in the line of duty. Walking in Antietam, my every step following the paths that better men had trod, the word that came most to my mind was “generosity.” We usually think of generosity in terms of our money, time, or talents. But the men and women who fought and fell at Antietam, or at Bunker Hill, Cantigny, Okinawa, Ia Drang, Fallujah, or wherever, displayed generosity on a much higher level. These soldiers gave up all that they had, all that they were, and all that they wanted to become.

 

“I tried to save my country, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. All that I had and might have had I leave to you.”

JRR Tolkien, himself a veteran

 

Despite any political feelings I might have, and knowing that uttered words no matter their eloquence can be sufficient, I can have no other thought at the moment I reflect upon these things than to bow my head and to say “Thank you”. 

 

-mb

 

[NeuroTypical]

My dad was a WWII vet who saw much in the final stages and afterword in occupied Germany.  He spent his entire life making fun of people trying to ascribe nobleness to anything that happened in war, or anyone who happened to be unfortunate enough to be there.  I can still channel his likely response: "Oh ****, all the smart ones were just staying down trying to keep warm."

 

I never managed to pin him down and make him admit that freeing that POW camp full of starving people was a good thing.  Or that his stories about breaking the rules of the occupation to help some poor s.o.b. feed his family through the winter, indicated something noble.

 

He did bring home some pretty cool stuff.

Edited May 25, 2015 by NeuroTypical

[Still_Small_Voice]

I visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the District of Columbia once.  I watched the change of the guard done by the Marines and was very impressed.

 

I had two grand fathers that served in World War II in the Pacific Ocean in the American military.  One was a Navy airplane pilot and the other was assigned to a gunner on a Navy ship.  I am also thankful for their military service against the Axis powers.

[Just_A_Guy]

That's an interesting set of orders, NT.  I wonder what Gen. Bradley thought of the Marshall Plan?

 

Starscoper, many thanks for the thoughts.  My wife and I visited Virginia last month, and it was interesting.  We saw Fredericksburg--the downtown is largely preserved from Civil War days--and imagined armies pouring through the streets and fighting house-to-house.  We saw the slaughter field at the base of Marye's heights where thousands of Federal soldiers fell in rows three or four bodies deep, and where--beyond what was once a sixty-foot strip of no-man's land adjacent to the stone wall--it's all full of houses now.  We visited my sister, whose house was built--about ten years ago--in some woods right on the battlefield at Chancellorsville.  It was very easy to think about the utter desperation that those civilians must have felt a hundred and fifty years ago as armies came rampaging through and they were forced to confront the question of where do I go now?  Where can I be safe from all this?

 

It was a very surreal feeling, especially for a guy like me who grew up in California and lives in Utah--places with almost no Civil War history whatsoever.  And it was a stark reminder that, illusions of security aside, this kind of thing can happen in America.  It has happened in America. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by Just_A_Guy

[Palerider]

Where I live in Missouri they have a Civil War Renactment every other year in a town not far from us. It's very touching to see this.

[paracaidista508]

I visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the District of Columbia once.  I watched the change of the guard done by the Marines and was very impressed.

FYI- The Tomb is Guarded by the US Army, not the Marines. There has been a guard posted there continuously since 1937------------even in rain, shine, sleet, snow, hurricane 

 

https://tombguard.org/society/faq/ 

[hagoth]

When I was young, my father brought me to Gettysburg museum and Gettysburg cemetery. Both sites left a lasting impression on me.