(photo credit here)
About 3 miles from my home, some 147 years ago last week, shots were fired in anger. Grown men were making war on one another. Two men were shot, one of whom was killed with a bullet in his brain, William Rihl.
Now, one man’s death didn’t amount to much amidst the carnage that characterized the American Civil War. But William’s life certainly mattered to him, and to his siblings, and to his mother and father, who had raised him, as would any parent, with hopes and dreams and plans for a happy life.
Rihl's death is memorialized with a monument as shown in the photo above. You should click on the link to see some additional photos of the site and read the description of this small unit action.
Whenever I run by the monument, I try to remember William Rihl and the waste of how his life was cut short, ultimately, by politicians from both sides who found it easier to start a war than negotiate a peace....
No comments:
Post a Comment