As we celebrate Memorial Day this Monday, we honor all those who have died while in active military duty. This tradition came about just after the Civil War as people began to decorate the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers who had died while serving in this bloody war that resulted in 600,000 deaths. This holiday calls us to remember the profound loss that we, as a nation and as Christians, acknowledge when even one soldier dies. Our hope and prayer is that their sacrifice always leads us into harmony and reconciliation with the world and that we all will know fully the peace of Christ.
I recently remembered a poignant letter that was written by Major Sullivan Ballou in 1861, just one week before the first battle of Bull Run. He writes so eloquently of the impact that his death will bear on his family:
[A week before the Battle of Bull Run, Sullivan Ballou,
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a major in the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers, wrote home to his wife in Smithfield.]
July the 14th, 1861Washington D.C.
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Dear Sarah,
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind, and bears me irresistably with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God, and you, that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing we might still have lived and loved together, and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.
If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you; how thoughtless, how foolish I have sometimes been. But, oh Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you in the brightest day and the darkest night. Always. Always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath. Or the cool air, your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dead. Think I am gone, and wait for me. For we shall meet again.
[Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at The First Battle of Bull Run.]
To hear this letter read click here.
Mary Grace+
