War is ugly

 Many years ago, I got to know Charlie as he invited me to join him on the porch at his farm in Fulton County. He was a few years older than my dad and had served in the Navy in WWII. Charlie loved to tell stories and share his favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. It was not my favorite beer but I never turned him down because I knew he was in that story telling mood.

He talked a little about the war and once told me how his arm had been so badly injured in a truck accident. He drove a dump truck for a local sand and gravel and took great pride in his ability to perfectly spread a driveway controlling the dumping.

His favorite topic was civil war history of the area including the confederate march through McConellsburg toward Gettysburg. He gave great context to the history having known a woman who was 10 years old when they came through the area. Perhaps he sat on her porch just as I was, listening and asking questions, happily soaking it all in. 

So close to the Mason Dixon line, families divided. Charlie explained that they would often change the spelling of their last names to designate their allegiance - North or South. In his own family history, Cutchall's were north and Gutchall's were south. There were Smiths and Smyths. The war pitted brother against brother.

As the confederates marched through Fulton County, they burned and pillaged. The woman he knew said there was just one egg they didn't find on their farm. They took everything they could find. They burned McConnallsburg. In the south, Union troops did the same. War is ugly. 

Those stories follow me anytime I explore the site of a battle. Standing beside the creek at Antietam, my stomach churned to imagine it ran red from the blood of the wounded and dead. People knew one another. Opposing officers often went to West Point together - served together once. They became enemies. War is ugly.

Too often movies and history books romanticize war. The horrors and pain are softened. Those who live through it can barely speak of it. Charlie could talk about the civil war history but not so much his experiences in WWII. His ship was part of battles in the far east but that's about all he would say and he'd get quiet a while. War is ugly.

The south argued and some continue to say, the Civil War was about state's rights. That's a way to hide the ugly truth. It was about state's right to allow slavery. The current calls for insurrection are hiding behind something as well. History will reveal it. Hopefully, before it's too late truth will lead us to a greater way because War is ugly.