November 24, 2016 – Thursday
Thanksgiving has always been my favored holiday and I always loved being able to spend it with family. However, that was rarely possible when we lived overseas. Our first year overseas we were invited by our friends, Candi and Bob, for Thanksgiving dinner with several military families and I realized that celebrating with family, longstanding friends, new friends, and sharing traditions and friendships are what is important.
Today we celebrated with new friends. Before dinner, we each shared what we are most thankful for, as I reflect on the information shared, we are all thankful for our family and friends that have made us what we are today…thank you!
Today’s celebration began with our outstanding cooks Phyllis and Alyce.
The beauty of our surroundings…
Civil War History (April 12, 1861 – May 9, 1865)
Columbus, MS had an arsenal that made gunpowder, handguns, and a few cannons. Wanting to seize the arsenal, the Union ordered an attack on Columbus, that attack was stopped by General Nathan Bedford and the arsenal was moved to Selma, Alabama, which provided a more strategic location for the confederate army.
Many of the casualties from the Battle of Shiloh, both confederate and union, were sent to the make-shift hospitals at Columbus. At Columbus, many of soldiers perished and were buried in the town’s Friendship Cemetery. On April 25, 1866, ladies from the Annunciation Catholic Church, one of the make-shift hospitals, decorated the Union and Confederate graves with flowers, and the poet, Francis Miles Finch, commemorated the occasion with the poem “The Blue and the Grey.”
The Blue and the Grey
By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray
These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day
Under the laurel, the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray.
From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe;