Post 320 Chaplain
Brother David
St. Demetrios Orthodox Christian Monastery
Chaplain’s Corner:
Our Memorial Day was originally known as “Decoration Day,” an opportunity to decorate many graves of the over 600,000 men who died in the Civil War. It was, by far, our nation’s costliest war in terms of human life, about 2 percent of the entire population. Today, that would translate into 6.5 million people.
The sacrifice of the Civil War is especially felt by the members of Post 320 who are surrounded by the bloodiest battlefields in America. The Confederate General Longstreet on marched his troops past the where Post 320 is, while the Union General Hancock marched from Chancellorsville toward him. To lay east and south, General J.E.B Stuart, while the main action of the Battle of the Wilderness was engaged along the Plank Rd. The battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness, were bloody, difficult encounters in a brutal war that pitted brothers against brothers.
To quote President Roosevelt on Memorial Day in 1904, “Here fought the chosen sons of the North and the South, the East and the West. The armies which on this field contended for the mastery were veteran armies, hardened by long campaigning and desperate fighting into such instruments of war as no other nation then possessed. The severity of the fighting is attested by the proportionate loss, a loss unrivaled in any battle of similar size since the close of the Napoleonic struggles; a loss which in certain regiments was from three-fourths to four-fifths of the men engaged. Every spot on this field has its own associations of soldierly duty nobly done, of supreme self-sacrifice freely rendered, The names of the chiefs who served in the two armies form a long honor roll, and the enlisted men were worthy of those who led them.
All are at one now, the sons of those who wore the blue and the sons of those who wore the gray, and all can unite in paying respect to the memory of those who fell, each of them giving his life for his duty as he saw it.”
The bodies of our war dead lie buried in hallowed plots throughout this land, and it has long been our custom to decorate their graves on Memorial Day in token of our respect for them as beloved friends and kinsmen and of our aspiration that war may be removed from the earth forever.
Let us as Legionaries make this day one of twofold dedication. Let us reverently honor those who have fallen in war, and rededicate ourselves through prayer to the cause of peace, to the end that the day may come when we shall never have another war—never another Unknown Soldier.
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant That we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
R/. Amen
To quote President Roosevelt on Memorial Day in 1904, “Here fought the chosen sons of the North and the South, the East and the West. The armies which on this field contended for the mastery were veteran armies, hardened by long campaigning and desperate fighting into such instruments of war as no other nation then possessed. The severity of the fighting is attested by the proportionate loss, a loss unrivaled in any battle of similar size since the close of the Napoleonic struggles; a loss which in certain regiments was from three-fourths to four-fifths of the men engaged. Every spot on this field has its own associations of soldierly duty nobly done, of supreme self-sacrifice freely rendered, The names of the chiefs who served in the two armies form a long honor roll, and the enlisted men were worthy of those who led them.
All are at one now, the sons of those who wore the blue and the sons of those who wore the gray, and all can unite in paying respect to the memory of those who fell, each of them giving his life for his duty as he saw it.”
The bodies of our war dead lie buried in hallowed plots throughout this land, and it has long been our custom to decorate their graves on Memorial Day in token of our respect for them as beloved friends and kinsmen and of our aspiration that war may be removed from the earth forever.
Let us as Legionaries make this day one of twofold dedication. Let us reverently honor those who have fallen in war, and rededicate ourselves through prayer to the cause of peace, to the end that the day may come when we shall never have another war—never another Unknown Soldier.
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant That we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
R/. Amen
In Christ,
Chaplain David
Chaplain David is available @ miazgatyler@gmail.com
