Appomattox

Today Barbara and I travelled north to the town of Appomattox, Virginia.  For those of you who don’t remember history, this is where General Robert E. Lee, on April 9, 1865, surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant.  General Grant walked in, sat down and began writing out the terms to which General Lee and his men would surrender. This was the beginning of the end to our countries deadliest war, the Civil War.  Approximately 650,000 soldiers died during the Civil War.   

It was very solemn for me being here today.  I remember back when I came to this place 49 years ago at the age of 13.  It still looks pretty much the same as I remember.  While walking the grounds today I couldn’t help but think of all those people who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Civil War and how far this nation has come since that time.  Which make me believe even more that we shouldn’t be taking down statues and trying to rewrite history.  What we should be doing is learning from our history so we can build on what we have accomplished over the years and not repeat the mistakes of the past.  This country isn’t perfect and lord knows we’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I can’t think of a Greater Nation than this one.