On This Day...

1419 - French city of Rouen surrenders to Henry V in Hundred Years War.
1736 James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, was born in Scotland.
1793 - French King Louis XVI sentenced to death.
1861 - Georgia becomes 5th state to secede.
1915 - 1st German Zeppelin attack over Great Britain.

Also, on this date in 1807 Robert Edward Lee was born.

Robert E. Lee for many, many reason is one man that I greatly respect. Not only did he serve his country with respect and honor he took his duty as a soldier in the army to the highest extent. He loved his family and his God even more.

When he turned in his resignation to the US Army at the start of the War Between the States it was not something he did lightly, rather according to his wife he agonized & prayed over the decision before refusing Lincoln and siding with his state since he believed "My loyalty to Virginia ought to take precedence over that which is due the federal Government".

At the end of the war when he realized that there was no way in which he could win the war & seeing that it was not an honorable thing to turn to guerrilla warfare Lee surrendered at Appomattox, thus starting a whole 'nother faze in not only American history but in his life as well.

Not able to return to the family home of Arlington thanks to it being used by the US Government he accepted the position as president of then Washington Collage where he lived out the remainder of his life with his wife Mary Ann Custis Lee.

Lee never regretted fighting for the South, rather he regretted that it came to him having to pick which side of his country he was going to fight for. As with many other families in that trying time he not only fought old friends, but family members as well.

Lee was a man that friend & family alike respected & honored. In a time when he could have been bitter, he rather set an example for his fellow officers, by setting down his gun when he realized he had reached a point of no getting out. (Not that everyone followed it, but he did set the standard.)

Robert E. Lee was and is a man to be respected, as a God honoring and country loving person.

Confederate Heroes Day

Yesterday our country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, today our state celebrates Confederate Heroes Day.

There is no way I can compare with mom's ability to write (as you can probably tell by now).  So, with her permission I have copied her post from last year's Confederate Hero's Day.

Today as a nation we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day. We remember the sacrifices made so that our nation could become more fully what it was intended to be, a place where all men are equal, and are not ruled by others but are the determiners of their own future.

Unpopular tho the remembrance may be, today as a state we also celebrate Confederate Heroes Day. We remember the sacrifices made so that our nation could become more fully what it was intended to be, a place where all men are equal, and are not ruled by others but are the determiners of their own future.

There are some who find the thought of this war distasteful. The thread of slavery is undeniably wound throughout the cloth. The fact that our state was involved in what proved to be a lost cause stings. Almost 150 years have passed since the war, six generations or more have come and gone. Embarrassment and the threat of being called racist or redneck have served well to silence those who find pride in their heritage leaving only those who write the history books to determine how we view our past. I think this is unfortunate. When we deny our heritage it serves to ensure two facts. One, that we will not take pride in and learn from that which is good and noble in our history and two, that we will not sorrowfully learn from that which was ignoble so that it may never be repeated.

To many in the South, the War for American Independence was still fresh in their mind. They recalled the stories told by their grandfathers of the battles and sacrifices made. They knew well the principles upon which the war was fought, to achieve freedom and self determination from a despotic government. Now they felt themselves to be embroiled in the same kind of struggle. They saw the increasingly heavy demands and controls by the federal government as akin to the tyranny that they experienced under England. The pivotal question to be answered was whether according to the Constitution the individual states or the federation of states as a whole were the higher arbiter. This was actually not the first time that states had claimed the right to secede and it would not be the last (if you doubt this, simply google the words "secede" and "states" and you will even find current secession movements).

In this time of questioning many men of Godly character found themselves facing unimaginable decisions. Just as their forefathers had to decide to follow the path of security at the sacrifice of their conscience or to follow what they felt to be right at the risk of their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, a new generation was called upon to make a similar decision. One of the most notable and visible in that generation was Robert Edward Lee. Lee was the son of cavalry officer Light Horse Harry Lee who was decorated by Washington for his service during the War of Independence. Lee was also married to the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. The family history of the Lees was inextricable woven with that of the nation. Lee was honored to be offered the command of the union army against the seceding states. Lee himself did not support secession, indeed felt it to be folly, yet he felt his supreme loyalty lay not with the overarching union of states but with his home state of Virginia. It must have been with an impending sense of doom that he watched support for secession grow, yet he never shirked from what he felt to be his duty, saying “With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword..."

In a time when our society is struggling with many challenges from both within the nation and forces without, what we need are more men who have the moral integrity to stand and do the right thing even at great risk to themselves. Today we honor, in two separate holidays, men who did exactly that, stepped forward to serve in their own ways, forever changing the history of their nation. It would be a grave mistake to paint the sacrifices made with the brush of relativism. Instead I challenge the citizens of our nation to look to the needs of our time and consider the words of Lee when he said “Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.” It is by recognizing honor and duty in those who have gone before us that we will be inspired to serve honorably and dutifully ourselves.