Lost Bodies

I've been thinking a lot about the boys who fought both on the North and South. These guys were just normal everyday people just like the rest of us. They had families, jobs, responsibilities. But they did something that I don't know if I could do....they went off to war. And some of these guys never returned.

Most of these men and boys returned home....in coffins....but some have remained where they fell. And some of these guys are just now being found.

About thirteen years ago, a Confederate soldier was unearthed in Gettysburg. Just last October a New York soldier was discovered in Antietam. And now I read that a body was located in Franklin, Tennessee. Only this time, they have no idea which side he was on.

Every time I hear about a soldier's body being found, there is also a report about a funeral for him. Gettysburg buried him with military honors at Gettysburg National Cemetery. Antietam had him reinterred in New York....right where he belongs....but not without a ceremony in Antietam and then again in New York. Franklin had a grand funeral for him, but it wasn't just for him....it was for all the soldiers. I'm so glad that these boys, regardless of which side they were on, are receiving the proper burials that they deserve.

Going off to war today is a little different than it was 150 years ago. The chances of being killed in a war today are quite a bit slimmer than they were during the Civil War, although those chances still exist...and the weaponry is quite different. But these men stood, literally, in front of these muskets, rifles, and cannons and, more or less, dared them to shoot them. And many did get shot....and many died. I could not do it. I am too much of a wimp to allow myself to be put in a situation like that. These men were anything but wimps. Even the shirkers were still braver than I could ever be.

I will never look down at any soldier, Union or Confederate, who fought. These men are my heroes....every single one of them (even the guys I don't like....like Dan Sickles....are still my heroes). I'm so glad that the National Parks are getting involved in the reinterment of these men and that they are allowing us, the civilians, to get a glimpse of what and who these men were.

Like I said before, these guys are my heroes and I'm so glad that we can be apart of honoring them for what they did!