Bob Graham

The cavalry rode and fought by day and night, sometimes in the saddle for sixty hours at a time. They endured weary marches in the mud, rain and snow, often sleeping in the saddle while being unmercifully pelted by sleet, covering rider and horse with a sheet of ice only to bivouac on the soggy ground with soaked oil cloths for a blanket and a saddle for a pillow. There is no disputing that these troopers were brave, daring and self-sacrificing and that they distinguished themselves by their endurance and courage as soldiers.

Detached from the main body of soldiers, this picket patrols the end of the line in the shadow of a small country church. In the comforting light of the church’s window, the soldier takes time to whisper a silent prayer to himself. The trooper’s steady gaze as he peers from beneath his kepi in the fading moonlight tells its own story – days and nights in the saddle without adequate food or sleep, always faced with the danger of an encounter with the enemy. He takes a small amount of comfort from the glowing lights of the church, knowing this is only a short respite from the rigors of battle life.

Broken clouds will soon sweep the midnight moon from the sky and the clashing armies will swirl past this quiet hamlet laying waste to these snow covered fields and become a final resting place for perhaps this brave lad and many others.

“We sleep here in obedience to lay;
When duty called, we came,
When country called, we died.” Inscription on a Confederate soldier’s monument.

The first National Flag of the Confederacy was known as “The Stars and Bars.” Its configuration closely resembled that of the Stars and Stripes of the United States. The first National Flag’s eleven stars symbolized the seceded states and sometimes contained two additional stars representing the border states of Kentucky and Missouri who supplied men to the Confederate Cause even though they still officially remained part of the Union. Patriotic and religious slogans such as “Our Honor and Our Rights,” “Liberty or Death,” and “In God We Trust” were often emblazoned on the colors. The ideals embodied in those flags would motivate Southern soldiers through four long years of suffering, sacrifice and hardship.

These flags instilled in the men a sense of pride in what they had done, what they had stood for, and fought and died for. Failure only ennobled their sacrifice and their cause. Defeat did not mean dishonor. They had fought bravely for a cause which they had believed was just. These men had an overwhelming sense of participating in something larger than themselves. They were to be makers of a new band of states, and they would risk their blood and future to protect this new-found nation. They were mostly farmboys, with a sprinkling of lawyers, students and businessmen. Few were professional soldiers, but they were going to a war – a war for their liberty. In this war these men would become brothers in arms. Their Christian faith was unfaltering. In setbacks they saw God’s providence; in victories, God’s blessing. Through triumph and tragedy these men followed their hearts, minds and their belief in the Almighty. “Blow, Gabriel, blow! My God, let him blow; I am ready to die! Wrote a North Carolina Infantryman, CSA. From the first shots these rebel soldiers had a sense of Southern pride and with their belief in the Almighty, they would not yield without a fight.