Battles

Our day started with an 8 AM phone call giving the good news about my car problem.  Just a fuel pump.......  I suppose after 208,000 miles it deserves a new fuel pump.  I have a new knee as well as Gene.  Maybe the car was just jealous and wanted something new, too.  Sure hope nothing else gets jealous.

As we are watching tv tonight, I realize it is the time of year for hearing cannons being fired.  We live just a few miles from the sight of an important Civil War battle.  North against South.  Rebels against Unionists.  Brother against brother.  The Battle of Wilson's Creek was the second major battle of the Civil War.  The battle marked the first Union general, Nathaniel Lyon, to be killed in that war.

In my little part of the world I wonder if any of the soldiers crossed this section of modern Springfield area going to that distant battle.  After the battle Wilson's Creek was so contaminated by the dead and dying that typhoid fever broke out in the area within a few weeks.  This was a second set of causalities to this battle.

When you tour the NPS Wilson's Creek Battlefield you can see the Ray house where wounded from both sides were treated.  Or hike around Bloody Hill where so many lives were claimed.  Blue, grey and red lay strewn all over the area.  Bodies were buried on the battlefield.  Years later the remains were moved to the Springfield National Cemetery.   


Thinking about all this past history and the carnage of August 10, 1861, it makes the challenges of fireplaces, leaks and non functioning cars seem insignificant.  Even the challenges of recovering from knee surgery for myself and now Gene are as nothing in comparison to soldiers recovering from injuries incurred during battle.

We may notice a few rumbles on Saturday and Sunday as infantry and artillery are demonstrated.  I simply pray that in this election year we do not find our nation so divided that we lose sight of the importance of lives over ideals.  May this land never again be soaked with the blood of battles.