In Remembrance

The Peleliu Invasion by Tom Lea

Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it.

It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.

— anonymous —

  

Dreams interrupted

Civil War field hospital

Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
they think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives.
- Siegfried Sassoon -

 

Faceless grief

Memorial Day's cost

But listen. Even that story is made up.

I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.

Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I'm left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief. 

― Tim O'Brien

  

Only a private killed

Wars of America Memorial -- Military Park, Newark, NJ

Only A Private Killed - Hanford Lennox Gordon

"We've had a brush," the Captain said,

"And Rebel blood we've spilled;

We came off victors with the loss

Of only a private killed."

"Ah," said the orderly "it was hot,"

Then he breathed a heavy breath

"Poor fellow! he was badly shot,

Then bayoneted to death."

And now was hushed the martial din;

The saucy foe had fled;

They brought the private's body in;

I went to see the dead;

For I could not think our Rebel foes

So valiant in the van

So boastful of their chivalry

Could kill a wounded man.

A musket ball had pierced his thigh

A frightful, crushing wound

And then with savage bayonets

They pinned him to the ground.

One deadly thrust drove through the heart,

Another through the head;

Three times they stabbed his pulseless breast

When he lay cold and dead.

His hair was matted with his gore,

His hands were clinched with might,

As if he still his musket bore

So firmly in the fight.

He had grasped the foemen's bayonets

Their murderous thrusts to fend:

They raised the coat-cape from his face,

And lo it was my friend!

Think what a shudder chilled my heart!

'Twas but the day before

We laughed together merrily,

As we talked of days of yore.

"How happy we shall be," he said,

"When the war is o'er, and when

With victory's song and victory's tread

We all march home again."

Ah little he dreamed that soldier brave

So near his journey's goal

How soon a heavenly messenger

Would claim his Christian soul.

But he fell like a hero fighting,

And hearts with grief are filled;

And honor is his, tho' the Captain says

"Only a private killed."

I knew him well, he was my friend;

He loved our land and laws,

And he fell a blessed martyr

To our Country's holy cause;

And I know a cottage in the West

Where eyes with tears are filled

As they read the careless telegram

"Only a private killed."

Comrades, bury him under the oak,

Wrapped in his army-blue;

He is done with the battle's din and smoke,

With drill and the proud review.

And the time will come ere long, perchance,

When our blood will thus be spilled,

And what care we if the Captain say

"Only a private killed."

For the glorious Old Flag beckons.

We have pledged her heart and hand,

And we'll brave even death to rescue

Our dear old Fatherland.

We ask not praise nor honors,

Then as each grave is filled

What care we if the Captain say

"Only a private killed." 

 

In remembrance on this Memorial Day

Ghost Trail by Kerr Eby

From the speech of then Congressman, later President, James A. Garfield given in 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery for the first official Decorations Day (now Memorial Day):  

I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung. With words we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be kept; plighted faith may be broken; and vaunted virtue be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue. 

  

In remembrance this Memorial Day

Buttermilk Hill

Here I sit on Buttermilk Hill
Who can blame me, cryin' my fill
And ev'ry tear would turn a mill,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.

Me, oh my, I loved him so,
Broke my heart to see him go,
And only time will heal my woe,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.

I'll sell my rod, I'll sell my reel,
Likewise I'll sell my spinning wheel,
And buy my love a sword of steel,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.

I'll dye my dress, I'll dye it red,
And through the streets I'll beg for bread,
For the lad that I love from me has fled,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.

In Remembrance

The Battle Hymn of the Republic -- Skylar Shupe

In Remembrance

Click image to enlarge

As you enjoy this Memorial Day be sure to spend some time remembering those it honors and the 'last full measure of devotion' they paid to our country and freedoms.

In Remembrance

In Remembrance on this Memorial Day

  

 

A Family Barbeque

This needs no introduction.
  

Memorial Day

Capture of Fort Riviere, Haiti, 1915 (from Military Photos)

Memorial Day is a day to remember all the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who have paid the ultimate price. We tend to think of the major wars, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and WWII, but the U.S. has been involved in a long series of small wars as well.  

Below is a list, taken from Wikipedia and reformatted, of all of the named conflicts the U.S. has been involved in. Each is linked to a Wikipedia article describing the war. The number in parenthesis is the number of killed and wounded. 

Most of the conflicts have been all but forgotten, but still there are the graves. May the veterans all Rest in Peace.

American Revolutionary War 1775-1783 (~50,000)
Northwest Indian War 1785-179 5(1881+)
Quasi-War 1798-1800 (556)
First Barbary War 1801-1805 (138)
Other actions against pirates 1800-1900 (294+)
Chesapeake–Leopard Affair 1807 (21)
War of 1812 1812-1815 (~25,000)
Marquesas Expedition 1813-1814 (7)
Second Barbary War 1815 (148)
First Seminole War 1817-1818 (83)
First Sumatran Expedition 1832 (13)
Black Hawk War 1832 (390)
Second Seminole War 1835-1842 (1535, not including wounded)
Mexican–American War 1846-1848 (17,435)
Cayuse War 1847-1856 (115)
Rogue River Wars 1851-1856 (489)
Yakima War 1855-1856 (126)
Third Seminole War 1855-1858 (53)
Coeur d'Alene War 1858 (96)
Civil War: 1861-1865 (~625,000, not including wounded)
Dakota War of 1862 (Little Crow's War)  1862 (220–263)
Shimonoseki Straits 1863 (10)
Snake Indian War  1864-1868 (158)
Indian Wars 1865-1898 (919 combat deaths)
Red Cloud's War 1866-1868 (226)
Korea (Shinmiyangyo) 1871 (12)
Modoc War 1872-1873 (144)
Great Sioux War 1875–1877 (525)
Nez Perce War 1877 134 (291)
Bannock War 1878 (34)
Ute War 1879 (67)
Sheepeater Indian War 1879 (11)
Samoan crisis 1887-1889 (62)
Ghost Dance War 1890–1891 (99)
Sugar Point Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians 1898 (23)
Spanish–American War 1898 (4,068)
Philippine–American War 1898–1913 (7,126)
Boxer Rebellion 1900–1901 (335)
Santo Domingo Affair 1904 (3)
United States occupation of Nicaragua 1910, 1912-1925, 1927-1933 (449)
Mexican Revolution 1914–1919 (500)
Occupation of Haiti 1915–1934 (184+)
World War I 1917–1918 (320,518)
North Russia Campaign 1918–1920 (424, not including wounded)
American Expeditionary Force Siberia 1918–1920 (380+)
China 1918; 1921; 1926–1927; 1930; 1937 (83)
World War II 1941–1945 1,076,245)
Greek Civil War 1944-1949 (6)
Chinese Civil War 1945–1950 (215)
Berlin Blockade 1948–1949 (0)
Korean War 1950–1953 (128,650)
U.S.S.R. Cold War 1947–1991 (44)
China Cold War 1950–1972 (16)
Vietnam War 1955–1975 (211,454)
1958 Lebanon crisis 1958 (7+)
Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961 (4)
Dominican Republic 1965–1966 (330)
Iran 1980 (12)
El Salvador Civil War 1980–1992 (72)
Beirut deployment 1982–1984 (435)
Persian Gulf escorts 1987–1988 (70)
Invasion of Grenada 1983 (138)
1986 Bombing of Libya 1986 (2)
Invasion of Panama 1989 (364)
Gulf War 1990–1991 1,231
Operation Provide Comfort 1991-1996 23
Somalia 1992–1993 (196)
Haiti 1994–1995 (7)
Colombia 1994–present (8)
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1995–2004 (18)
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia 1999 (22+)
Afghanistan 2001– present (12,035)
Iraq War 2003 – present (36,395)

In remembrance

"The fallen lay three or four feet deep in some places, and, with but few exceptions, they were shot in and about the head. Arms, accouterments, ammunition, cannon, shot and shell, and broken foliage were strewn about. With much labor a detail of Union soldiers buried the dead by simply turning the captured breastworks upon them. Thus had these unfortunate victims unwittingly dug their own graves. The trenches were nearly full of muddy water. It was the most horrible sight I had ever witnessed."

Memorial Day is a day for Americans to remember their war dead. It was started in the aftermath of the American Civil War. For this post I'm going to return to a Civil War battlefield, if fact to just to a portion of a Civil War battlefield, to remember how much some have suffered and lost in defense of our Nation.

The Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania was the scene of the most ferocious fighting in that most brutal of all American wars. Early in the morning, under a thick mist, Union troops commanded by General Hancock attacked the Southern lines. They broke through and drove deep into the Confederate positions until finally the Southern troops stalled the advance.

The Bloody Angle was some earthworks the Confederates held in the middle of the Yankee advance. Union troops slid along both flanks of the position, creating a horse shoe shaped salient. As a heavy rain began to fall, both sides fed troops into the battle at the salient -- the Union troops to try completely shatter the Southern lines, the Rebels desperately holding as a fallback series of earth works were being prepared.

The two sides fought for nearly 24 hours over that rain drenched piece of land and both sent hundreds of men into its bloody maw. Many of them fired the single shot from their muskets and then stood upon the dead to fight hand-to-hand using their rifles as clubs, until they too joined the pile of dead and were replaced.

After the war, in the 1880s, Century Magazine published a series of articles about the Civil War written by veterans of the war. These articles were eventually published in the 4 volume set, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (the link takes you to an online version of the entire set).

Most of the articles were written by officers, but an enlisted man named G. Norton Galloway wrote the article regarding the fight at the Bloody Angle. I've reproduced it below. I've removed the footnotes, and a few of the typos, but no doubt many more typos remain.

If you're inclined, there is also a wealth of information about the battles of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania at the blog Mysteries and Conundrums. I recommend a visit to that site for those that like Civil War history, or are just curious to learn more.

(Hellooooo visitors from Instapundit)


Hand-to-hand Fighting at Spotsylvania
by G. Norton Galloway

GENERAL HANCOCK's surprise and capture of the larger portion of Edward Johnson's division , and the capture of the salient "at Spotsylvania Court House on the 12th of May, 1864, accomplished with the Second Corps," have been regarded as one of the most brilliant feats of that brilliant soldier's career ; but without the substantial assistance of general Wright, grand old John Sedgwick's worthy successor, and the Sixth Corps, a defeat as bitter as his victory was sweet would have been recorded against the hero of that day.

The storm which had set in early in the afternoon of the 11th of May continued with great severity, and but little rest was obtained during the night. Soon after dark, however, a remarkable change in the weather took place, and it became ed in small groups about half-drowned fires, with their tents stretched about their shoulders, while some hastily pitched the canvas on the ground, and sought shelter beneath the rumpled and dripping folds. Others rolled themselves up, and lay close to the simmering logs, eager to catch a few moments' sleep ; many crouched about, without any shelter whatever, presenting a pitiable sight.

Throughout the day some skirmishing and sharpshooting? had occurred, but this had been of a spasmodic character, and had elicited no concern.

About dusk the Sixth Corps moved to a position on the right and rear of the army. The stormy night was favorable to Hancock's movement, and about 10 o'clock he put his troops in motion, marching to a point on the left of the Sixth Corps' former position in the neighborhood of the Brown house, massing his troops in that vicinity. [See map, p. 167.]

General Grant's orders to Hancock were to assault at daylight on the 12th in cooperation with Burnside on his left, while Wright and Warren were held in readiness to assault on his right. The Confederate army was composed of three corps-Longstreet (now R. H. Anderson) on their left, Ewell in the center, and A. P. Hill (now under early) on the right. The point to be assaulted was a salient of field-works on the Confederate center, afterward called the "Bloody Angle." It was held by General Edward Johnson's division. Here the Confederate line broke off at an angle of ninety degrees, the right parallel, about the length of a small brigade, being occupied by General George H. Steuart's regiments. This point was a part or continuation of the line of works charged and carried by General Upton on May 10th, and was considered to be the key to Lee's position.

Just as the day was breaking, Barlow's and Birney's divisions of Hancock's corps pressed forward upon the unsuspecting foe, and leaping the breastworks after a hand-to-hand conflict with the bewildered enemy, in which guns were used as clubs, possessed themselves of the ithree thousand prisoners were taken, including General Johnson and General Steuart. Twenty Confederate cannon became the permanent trophies of the day, twelve of them belonging to Page and eight to Cutshaw.

Upon reaching the second line of Lee's works held by Wilcox's division, who by this time had become apprised of the disaster to their comrades, Hancock met with stern resistance, as Lee in the meantime had been hurrying troops to Ewell from Hill on the right and Anderson on the left, and these were sprung upon our victorious lines with such an impetus as to drive them hastily back toward the left of the salient.

As soon as the news of Hancock's good and ill success reached army headquarters, the Sixth Corps - Upton's brigade being in advance - was ordered to move with all possible haste to his support. At a brisk pace we crossed a line of intrenchments a short distance in our front, and, passing through a strip of timber, at once began to realize our nearness to the foe. It was now about G o'clock, and the enemy, reenforced, were making desperate efforts to regain what they had lost.

Our forces were hastily retiring at this point before the concentrated attack of the enemy, and these with our wounded lined the road. We pressed forward and soon cleared the woods and reached an insidious fen, covered with dense marsh grass, where we lay down for a few moments awaiting orders. I cannot imagine how any of us survived the sharp fire that swept over us at this point - a fire so keen that it split the blades of grass all about us, the minies moaning in a furious concert as they picked out victims by the score. [continues after jump]