Posted on 06/30/2003 10:01:16 PM PDT by carlo3b
Sullivan Ballou's letter to his beloved wife Sarah, July 14,1861 Camp Clark, Washington DC, as it was read on the PBS series The CIVIL WAR by Ken Burns series....
Dear Sarah:The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days - perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes and future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.
If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name...
Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been!...
But, 0 Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you, in the brightest day and in the darkest night... always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again...
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Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the 1st Battle of Bull Run.
Oh, how moving that letter is! What a courageous, selfless man and what a very lucky woman to have had him as a husband for only a short time.
Thank you for sharing that ((((Carlo)))).
I know...I almost tear up every time I read it, and damned near broke down when I heard it read on the movie...sheeesh ...of course real men NEVER CRY.. HUGGG
No, and they never ((((((HUG))))) either!
:-)
I'm not going to beat up the public school system, as so many others do on these boards, but I'm not sure my kids would have ever had the deep appreciation for our heritage without the prodding and almost constant exposure we have given them since birth.
However isn't that our moral duty as parents, to teach our own children what we feel are the priorities we believe is best for them, and our schools are really responsible for covering their education with the broad brush to insure the full breath of knowledge exists before life's journey?
Quite an understatement, but perhaps you have a point, however, that cannot reduce the impact this battle had on the conscience of our nation, or the measure of the resolve it instilled in the Union cause.
"He [Buford] despised the false flourish and noisy parade of the charlatans of the service and avoided, too much, perhaps, the proper praise due to his glorious actions and sought to depreciate, prompted by his inherent modesty, the contemporary glorification which less worthy men coveted. For this reason he was not known to the newspaper world as were many others who will sink into insignificance while the name of Buford will occupy a bright page in the history of his country."
Wesley Merritt, Rock Island Daily Union, July 11, 1895
From a morale standpoint, I will not argue that Gettysburg was important, nor do I completely discount the effects of the victory had on the country. It certainly did. Perhaps I'm going too far understating it's significance, but it's merely because I feel Gettysburg has been overplayed.
That being that it's impact and significance have been, for too long, overstated (or overrated is perhaps the correct term) and the result being that the "glory" and "spectacle" of Gettysburg has eclipsed, unfairly and unrightly, the campaign that truly was the decisive campaign of the war, that being Grant's Vicksburg Campaign, and the resulting siege and fall of the city.
Thank you for posting it.
Well, we will never know, but that would be quite a coincidence!
Thanks very much for the link. I look forward to reading it!
Today is my daughter's birthday, so I have to get out of here early. I'll probably stay up late reading through that site. :)
Regards,
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