Supporting Confederate Memorials
Why support Confederate memorials? For the love of family.
My grandfather was born in 1911 and lived almost his entire life in the Possum Hollow community of Dry Creek. He lived in the house that his parents built in 1923. Their home was only a few minutes walk from the doorstep of his grandparent's home on the same farm.
My grandfather's grandparents bought the farm in 1875 and made their home there. They had nine children of which my great grandfather was next to the youngest being born in 1884.
My grandfather's grandfather was born in 1845 in the Temperance Hall community of what was then Smith County. His father died in 1852. He made provisions for the family to move to Alexandria upon his death. And so they did.
War broke out in 1861. My grandfather's grandfather and his three brothers answered the call to arms to defend their home state of Tennessee.
Now, why would a person take up arms against the United States government in defense of a state? To understand properly, one must reason as a person living in Tennessee in 1861, not as a person living today. In 1861, one's loyalty lay with where you lived, Tennessee.
Before the War Between the States, the states were sovereign entities that agreed to come together to form a union. And, each sovereign state held the belief that they could leave this union at any time.
Most documents of the nineteenth century state that the United States ARE (plural) versus the United States IS (singular). After the war, the U.S. became an IS (centralized, taking power away from the states) courtesy of Mr. Lincoln.
One of the brothers was shot through the neck at Gettysburg and lingered for several days before dying. The family to this day doesn't know where he is buried or even if he was buried at all. This brother died leaving behind a wife and children. He has several descendents still living in DeKalb County today.
My grandfather's grandfather was himself shot at the battle of Chickamauga, Georgia in 1863. He and his older brother were captured and sent to prison in Louisville, Kentucky. His brother had typhoid and almost died. He eventually survived the typhoid and lived out his days in Alexandria marrying and raising a family.
The other remaining brother also survived the war, but with hearing loss from exploding cannon. He moved from DeKalb County to Texas and raised his family there.
My grandfather's grandfather died from cancer in 1927.
I remember his log home being on the north side of our farm when I was a small child. The old spring house is still there.
I remember many stories that my grandfather told me about his grandfather.
He was excited to tell his wife about sitting in a horseless carriage (a car) on Snow Hill. Wouldn't let the owner start the engine as he was scared of it running away with him.
When he first moved to Possum Hollow, he used oxen to clear the farm. He purchased mules years later. I still have one of his oxen yoke.
He was a skilled blacksmith and kept an old gourd hanging from a nail in the spring house so that he could drink it's cool water.
He kept his shotgun hanging over the front door and allowed my grandfather to use it to hunt.
My grandfather told that he could remember sitting in his grandfather's lap as a young boy and feeling the bulge of the bullet left in his side from the old wound of the battle of Chickamauga. The bullet was never removed.
When I see these Confederate memorials being spray painted and violently torn from their bases, it is as if someone were walking through a cemetery and turning over gravestones with no remorse. An absolute act of evil.
And politicians stating that anything identified as Confederate is representative of hate and racism is nothing but ignorance and lies.
Hate is when the media broadcasts that being Confederate is equivalent to being a member of the KKK and other extremist, hate groups.
Hate is when someone calls you a Nazi and a white supremacist because you descend from a Confederate veteran and refuse to deny your heritage.
Hate is when you aren't allowed to publicly honor your ancestors, your family.
written by Kevin Bandy
click on "arrow" to go back