FLAMES OF WAR

There has never been a War so devastating to the United States of America as the Civil War. There were over six hundred thousand killed during those four long years of slaughter between our Northern and Southern armies. How many hundreds of thousands were left with one or more of their limbs on those battlefields that ran red with their blood. Their young men left with the idea that they would whip those yanks or rebels (depending on the army they joined) in a few months and come back home to their families. Those months turned into a year, a bloody year. The year stretched into four gruesome years for all. Those boys, men learned that war was not a glorious affair. It could be a blood bath with death. There has never been a more destructive force that swept through our nation. Many of the railroads were pulled-up, the rails heated and twisted around a tree in a bowtie. Cannons with their monster noises hurled their cannon balls at their targets. Many were cities and they leveled them. Fires destroyed crops, homes and anything in their path. How many soldiers cried when the bugler played “Taps” for their dead comrades? How many times was it played before that horrendous War ended? How long did a family have to wait before they knew what happened to their loved ones? Some never did. It took the Civil War to set the slaves free. It was taken another one hundred and forty-four years to grant real equality and respect.