Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-01-16
Forget 1t.
(Communicated)

~ > Wi oi eISiC iloC
week on Ought to be for
gotten" If your utterances
were reasonable then | am will
ling to be branded likewise. Why
keep green the memory of great
est folly OF all ages? What man
or What family which had sever
al brothers many years ago (now
fifty years. who had become in
volved in a family feud, brother
pitted against brother, and had
then fought it out almost to the
point of eXtermination-killed
manned and destroyed their per-
sonal property in a vain idea
that they were getting satisfac-
ton out of each other. Had this
occurred in any of. our families |
ask, you would we gather the re-
mants of these old brothers and
their sons and daughters into
leagues, societies, reunions, ETC.,
etc, to perpetuate that bloody
family row? On the contrary,
would not one and all say, forget
lit?
Well, that is exactly what we
do every time we celebrate or
hold a reunion. A reunion of
what? A reunion of these old
brothers, their sons and daught-
ers-both blue and gray. And
what do these old soldiers talk
about at these reunions? Why,
about the war the family row
and they recount to each other
and to the younger generations
how they shot them down or
bayonetted that other brother
how thick they lay on the battle
field after we got through with
them. Did you say, keep that
memory green-tear open anew
that old wound-inject into the
on coming generation as much
of that old feud spirit-the spirit
that we were right and the other
brother was wrong-it was all
his fault and not ours?
Now in the family row-all
say, forget it but this was war,
brother against brother and
son, and certainly all should at
least have been friends, and yet
we must keep it alive. We must
have daughters of the confeder-
acy and daughters of the grand
army and the most they are
likely 10 do is to keep alive.
fresh and green the memory of
this our national mistake, our
great tragedy. Yes, my dear old
soldier, you was brave, courage
Gus and without fear. History
has no where recorded your
equal. You barred your bosom
to that other brother and said
Shoot" and in turn you killed
as many of them as they did of
you. Forget it! Yes, forget it,
and as the editor has so aptly
said" Let our towering eternal
monuments of marble and
stand guard over this
our great national disaster. Let
these monuments forever per-
petuate the deeds of daring and
courage of those who took part
IN this family row-this bloody
fratricdal war. And as the years
go by and these shafts point in
o the ethereal blue toward
hat heaven to which we hope
.hese dead brothers have gone.
And as the milky clouds-em-
'lems of eternal peace so silently
AXE their course through that
ieep blue sky, may they hover
'round these shafts and per-
'etual only what we should re-
member, how bravely and cour-
lgeous these dead died. No one
forth or south would say one
word that would injure or hurt
he feelings of these old soldiers
till living, or reflect any way on
he dead Brother against brother
lets forget it. The child that I
'as being rocked in the cradle
t the beginning of this most r
Unfortunate war has now passed
ne half mal k, crossed the divide 7
nd his head is now streaked L
ith gray. His step has lost v
'uch of lis elasticity. and he d
as already begun to scan the a
'estern horizon-the setting Il
IN.
If its thus with the child S
ow must it be with the soldier :
no went fort!h. in the sixtys? 4
l-eady the greater number by I
II. have answered roll call on I
e other side of the river. And {
those that remain" go halt |
g and Gripping down toward |
q "0raat hevondD wa would =