Letters From The Battlefield
As we get older, our memories fade, eventually dissolving into smoky recollections, if we don’t preserve them in writing.
What
price would you pay for a diary written by your
great-great-great-grandmother or -grandfather? Imagine how priceless it
would be.
Ancestors on my mother’s side, Sgt. George Davidson
Bailey and his brother, Cpl. Council Walker Bailey, fought in the Civil
War – on Oct. 19, 1864, at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia. They,
along with 11 other of my Bailey relatives, were part of the
Confederate Army, Company H, 60th Infantry Regiment.
I have a
book containing two letters written by my great-great-great-grandfather
George to his mother from the battlefield. I have read the letters many
times and wish he’d written more.
From his letters, I find he
was a very strong-willed and principled man. He often wrote about honor
and duty to his country, the beloved South!
In one letter, he
told his mother that his brother Council was safe and asked her to
please not worry. In another, he longed to return home to the farm and
kiss his momma on the cheek. He wanted so much to plant crops and just
sit on the porch.
George was killed in action; his brother lived. George was buried about 15 miles from where he fell. I found his gravesite.
I
walked the same field where he fought. I sat on the split-rail fence
overlooking the battlefield, and read his letters again. It was a
moving experience.
But what wouldn’t I give for a daily diary of his experiences?
My wish is in vain, there are no more.
Our
budding nation learned a great deal from the journals of Lewis and
Clark. They detailed their expedition as they navigated this vast
uncharted continent.
Here is one such entry:
January
8, 1806: “From this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing
prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in my frount a boundless Ocean
... the coast as far as my sight could be extended, beholding with
astonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks of this emence
ocean … the expedition had reached its destination ... the Pacific
Ocean!”
Unlike rings of gold and silver, land, cars, stocks
and bonds, houses and such, passed along from one generation to the
next, a personal journal has no real intrinsic value. And only those
closely connected will realize or appreciate its worth.
Remember,
your experiences, if recorded, will provide important insight, and
serve as a bridge connecting the past to the present. And that alone
makes your story priceless and relevant no matter what time period one
lives.
By writing down your experiences, you are giving your
loved ones something more valuable than gold and silver. You are giving
them ... you.
Imagine reading the words of an ancestor who might have lived during World War I or the Great Depression.
Think for a moment how valuable your thoughts, motivations and interest will be to your progeny 100 years from now?
Who
cares if you cannot write or spell perefctly? Your ancestors will not
care about a misspelled word or improper grammar. Please don’t let that
stand in your way of recording your thoughts, feelings and emotions of
the day.
I believe those who read your words will cherish and hold them dear, warts and all.
Each
of us is part of a genetic pool that reaches back thousands of years.
Who you are, the tendencies you have, your personality – all – you have
inherited from your ancestors. I believe that the more we discover
about our ancestors the more we are uncovering about ourselves.
We
know from a visit to the doctor how invaluable family medical history
is to our treatment and health. The same holds true about understanding
personality makeups of those who have gone before us.
I must
admit, after some genealogy searching – reading letters and diaries of
my ancestors – I was afraid to look any further up my family tree. I
feared a jug of white lighting would fall downward and hit me on the
head.
But who cares? Someone once said that we should not throw stones at our ancestors. That is good advice.
During
your life, you may have experienced deep inner tugging, beckoning you
in a certain direction or path in life, and you may not know why; only
to discover through the writings of an ancestor that they were very
accomplished in the very field tugging you.
Journals offer
connection, continuity from one generation to the next. There has been
a yearning to record history since the days of Adam and Eve.
The
craving to write and record has been a driving force for mankind. When
they didn’t have paper, they wrote on the walls of caves. There have
been messages placed in bottles, flung to the mercies of deep hoping a
loved one might discover.
There have been aching love notes written to sweethearts.
How precious could your words written on a few scraps of paper be to a loved one?
“Tell all I’ll see them on the other side. It wasn’t bad. I just went to sleep. I love you.”
Those
were the last written words of West Vrginia coal miner Martin Toler Jr.
He, along with 12 others, was never seen again alive.
Why not make today the day you start a journal? It’s not too late to start.
Resolve
today to leave behind something for your family far more valuable than
gold and silver. Leave them more than just a footprint in the sand.
Your life’s story is unique and only you can tell it.
When your loved ones read your story, they will not only be discovering you, but uncovering more about themselves.