Confederate History Month

submitted by Darlene Johns

 


On the evening of May 10, 1864 Spotsylvania, Virginia, as the War Between the States ground on into its fourth straight year, 26 year old James Robert Montgomery, a private in the Confederate Signal Corps in Virginia, wrote a letter to his father back home in Camden, Mississippi, dripping blood on the paper as he wrote, from the horrific shoulder wound he had sustained a few hours earlier.

"Dear Father,

This is my last letter to you. I have been struck by a piece of shell, and my right shoulder is horribly mangled and I know death is inevitable. I am very weak, but I write to you because I know you would be delighted to read a word from your dying son. I know death is near, that I will die far from home and friends of my early youth, but I have friends here too who are kind to me. My friend Fairfax will write you at my request and give you the particulars of my death. My grave will be marked so you can visit it if you desire to do so. It is optionary with you whether you let my remains rest here or in Mississippi. I would like to rest in the graveyard with my dear mother and brothers, but it is a matter of minor importance. Give my love to all my friends. My strength fails me. My horse and my equipments will be left for you. Again, a long farewell to you. May we meet in heaven.

Your dying son,

J.R. Montgomery.” James Montgomery’s friend Fairfax, did write soon there after forwarding his effects and assuring his father that he had been conscious to the end and that he died at peace with himself and his maker.

But it was little consolation. Though the grave had been marked, the family was never able to find it, and were thus never able to realize their fond hope of bringing their dead son home.

Such was the plight of many Southern families who’s loved ones never returned home, or were buried to far for them to visit.

Many confederate soldiers that fell on battlefields were hastily buried by the Union in mass graves. One Union burial detail found a way to make their work go faster. They simply threw the bodies of 58 Confederates down a farmers well at Gettysburg.

This is the true reason for the prevalence of Confederate monuments throughout the southern states. After the Civil war there was no Federal budget or even effort to bury Confederate dead. This task was left to the Southern States and often without Federal help. In many cases the widows and loved ones of the fallen took it upon themselves to raise their own money to fund the building of monuments to commemorate their Loved ones who never returned home. Many of these monuments served as the altar to which many would mourn the loved one who never returned or who fell to far for them to visit. On this last day of Confederate history month I remember the thousands who never returned home. May you always be remembered and may you always be honored, our Confederate dead.

 

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