Amite County Bi-centennial Event

[islandpiper]

After being contacted and contracted over a year ago for this gig it
finally came to pass. it was the Bi-centennial of Amite county and
Liberty Ms. and it was a great time.

Anyway, i lieu of my standard uniform i got to wear someihing closer
to the 79th New York Reg., the only Union outfit that at least started
the war of Northern Agression in kilts.

It was very interesting for this old, yankee-born piper to blend in
with the Confederates for a day. The march to the Confederate
Memorial, the laying of the wreaths and the Toast to the Fallen were
very moving.

In the North, the Civil war was always taught as just some event in
the past. In Liberty, the past has meaning, the fallen are
remembered by name 147 years later, the wrongs committed against a
peaceful agrarian community are still a burden. I've played with
tears on my face before and did it again today.

 

[Steve]

Keith, I would say you do yourself, and the memory of those fallen who are remembered as such events, very proud, my friend.

 

[Wannabe]

Keith,
After reading your post I called my brother in law (we are both members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans). He is the one I told you about that had pipelined in the Iorn River region. We would like permission to reprint your post in our newsletter. Thanks for the post.
Bob

 

[islandpiper]

Mr Williams: sure, go for it. It was a moving experience. The Confederate Monument was erected in 1866, on donated land next to the Presbyterian Church, which had seen duty as a field hospital during the two battles there. Under the carpet in the sanctuary are bloodstains where wounded and dying men were laid out.

In these times of "going with the flow" or total disregard for ideas, principles and liberty we must stand in awe of men, young and old, who took up arms to protect what they treasured, home and family.

Piper

 

[Kayak Jack]

Bob, before you post that picture in your newsletter, you may wanna get an overlay for that one face. Not saying which one.

 

[seedtick]

good on ya Piper

 

[jdupre']

I had a similar moving experience while touring the Vicksburg Mississippi battlefield and cemetary. You can't help but be awed when you walk through the 10,00 graves there. That's just the soldiers that died there and the immediate vicinity to Vicksburg. 10,000 simple stone grave markers, over half of which were about 2 feet tall, and the rest about half that size. The shorter ones are for the unknown soldiers.

 

[gbinga]

In Marietta GA, where I grew up, we have a Confederate and a Federal Cemetery. Huge battles were fought around there, leading up to the battle of Atlanta. Outnumbered and out-supplied, the Confederates fought dogged defensive battles against Sherman, who attacked with the relentless determination that he and Grant used to end the war.

Walking around the Confederate Cemetery, you see sections with troops from a particular company/ brigade / regiment. Guys who all fell at the same time and place in a particular battle. Dozens of them.

These men were organized according to where they lived. They served side by side with other men from their home town or county. It is speculated that the incredible bravery shown by the soldiers in the Civil War was in part due to the fact that a man couldn't stop or run away in front of men he'd been raised with. It just wasn't done.

The way the troops were organized, a town or county could lose most of a generation of men in an afternoon. If the group was in the wrong place at the wrong time, they'd just get cut to pieces. Same deal with the Federals, at least for a large part of the war.

Looking at the markers, seeing one man after another from the same town, killed in the same place on the same day... it is heart rending.

Whether it was a German or Irish immigrant fighting to preserve the Union and end human slavery, or a dirt poor Southern farmer fighting for his State's right to determine it's own destiny without interference from outsiders, it is incredible what people will do for a cause they believe in.

GBinGA