Today we honor the brave men and women who have given their lives in all the wars since our nation was founded, and I can't help but think of the horrors of war, especially the War Between the States when so many lives were lost as our nation was torn apart.
I am looking at the commemorative stamps issued this year by the US Postal Service, honoring the battles of New Orleans and Antietam, Here are some quotes that accompany the new stamps that seem appropriate for Memorial Day.
"The shrieks of the wounded and dying was terrible, but they rallied and came at us again and our men again awaited until they came in range and again arose and mowed them down...but they came again." (James C. Steele, 4th North Carolina)
and another "Mr. Brady had done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along the streets, he has done something very like it." (New York Times).
I close with this one: "Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background of countless minor scenes...and it is best they should not - the real war will never get in the books." (Walt Whitman)
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