One hundred fifty years ago today, America experienced the first military incident of the Civil War. A devoted Lincoln buff, I have read extensively on the conflict. My grandparents told stories of the Civil War days, and those have had a profound impact on me.
Because my mother’s ancestors lived along the Ohio River, they found themselves but a short walk (in dry weather) from Kentucky and Confederate sympathies. Long before the locks were installed, it was not unusual to wade across the Ohio in the summer. As a young girl, my grandmother did it routinely. When the war broke out, her family — like many others, split allegiances and fought against one another.
One old family residence still sits along the river and sports a patched roof — evidence of a cannonball launched from the Kentucky side.
We see many people disagree violently along political lines these days, but nothing we witness now approaches the virulent tempers that boiled over in the early 1860s.
The loss of life is hard to get one’s arms around in retrospect, but one visit to a National Cemetery gives pause. As we look back on the seminal events that transpired between the onset and the signing of the peace at a small rural church, it is important to remember those men — young and old — who gave their lives in defense of firmly held beliefs and loyalties. Pray that we never revisit such a conflict in America.