Alexandria's Veterans #4

The ABOLISTIONIST MOVEMENT, Part   I I

An 1838 Abolitionist broadside.

In the 1830s, a group of my ancestors sold their farms in Kentucky and moved to Knox County, Indiana.  There, they formed the Mariah Creek Baptist Church.  They did this because Kentucky was a slave state and they rejected slavery.  My uncles well remembered attending this church and who sat where.  These uncles are now gone, and Mariah Creek Baptist Church was moved and refurbished.  It is now the Chapel at Vincennes University.

Why would they do this?  There is but one answer, these Kentucky farmers objected to slavery to the point of giving up their farms and starting all over.

In 1990, the US Air Force sent me to Montgomery, Alabama for a couple of months. While there, Phil and I became fast friends and one Saturday he offered to give me a tour of downtown Montgomery.  We had a quick, early lunch at Wendy's, then walked over to the Statehouse.  On the northeast corner of the square sat the Jefferson Davis house.  Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederate States of America (CSA), "The South."  While explaining the concept of a 'dogtrot' house, Phil pointed to a painting of Jefferson Davis on the Statehouse balcony proclaiming the CSA.  Phil told me to remember that painting.  I did

When we finished touring the house, Phil took me to the west side of the Statehouse.  We had stopped and stood in the exact spot the artist of that painting had stood.  I was looking at the very same balcony that Jefferson Davis stood when announcing the formation of the CSA.  Then Phil had me turn around and look down Dexter Avenue that was behind me and asked what I saw.  There, on a corner a couple blocks away stood the Ebenezer Baptist Church, home to Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the Civil Rights movement of the early 1960s.  This stark contrast of a century of difference in time left an indelible mark in my mind.

In the 1960s, Martin Luther King said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

By and large, this is what my generation was taught as fact.  By and large, this is what Alexandria believed as fact before the Civil War.  That is what our young men gave their lives for...

• Corporal Henry Rose, Company B, 76th OVI - died February 15, 1863, Milliken Bend, Madison Parish, Louisiana  [Killed by lightning with Sergeant Rufus Buxton]
• Captain Ira P. French, Company B, 76th OVI - died November 27, 1863, [Battle of Ringgold Gap,] Georgia
• Sergeant Rufus Buxton, Company B, 76th OVI - died February 15, 1863, Milliken Bend, Madison Parish, Louisiana.  [Killed by lightning with Corporal Henry Rose]
• Private Dwight Follet, Company D,  22nd OVI - died January 3, 1862, St. Louis, Missouri
• Private Joseph Lyman, Company B, 76th OVI    
• Private John I Quincey Merrill, Company B, 76th OVI - died October 6, 1863
• Private Samuel Jones, Company F, 135th OVI - died October 10, 1864, Georgia
• Henry Vail, [Rank and Service Record Currently Unknown.  There are at least two Henry Vails in the records of the Regiments of the Ohio Infantry]
•  Private Reuben Sinnett, Co D, 22nd OVI - died January 20, 1862, Missouri
•  [Rank Unkown] Benjamin Strothers, Company A, 22nd OVI    
•  Private Jasper Monroe (Munroe), Company B, 76th OVI - died July 29, 1862
• [Rank Unknown] Arthur Wamsbrough, Company H, 5th OVI
• Private Edelbert H. Cooley, Company H, 76th OVI - died September 2, 1862

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The term OVI refers to Ohio Veteran Infantry.  Once the unit was mustered out, the veterans retained their unit identity more as a social organization.  Today we might call it the National Guard.   The number refers to the regimental number.

On Monday, May 31, 1869, Captains J. M. Scott and (Rev) Simeon Seigfried along with Corporal Newton Parker led the first Decoration Day Service at Maple Grove Cemetery.  During this service, people were led through the cemetery to each Civil War marker.  There, young ladies, dressed in white, laid flowers on the grave while one of the leaders said some words about the fallen hero.  The service ended with the hymn "O not in vain, ye called us forth."

If we accept the premise that the American Civil War was fought to end slavery, then we have to admit that Alexandria and St. Albans paid a great price towards that end.  I would like to quote Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., one last time, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."