'Tis the Season

We all have much for which to be thankful, some of us moreso than others. Most of us have our health and our families, upon which we may rely and, God willing, our future days, filled with the blessings of a bountiful harvest, rendered by a loving Father.

Now let's travel back nearly 15o years, to a war-torn yet optimistic Confederacy. Nashville, New Orleans, Vicksburg and Mobile already in Federal hands, and Atlanta soon to fall, our forebears clung tenaciously to Richmond, Petersburg, Raleigh, Tallahassee and other cities, towns and hamlets throughout the South, facing long odds and short provisions.

They could not have been blamed for being pessimistic, even fatalistic. Yet, even up until the last grim days, when the major forces of Southern liberty were smitten, the troops and the folks at home hung onto grim hopes that their cause might yet prevail, and that peace might still be attained, at the earliest hour. Amidst all the foreboding signs of defeat, starvation parties were held in that last winter, as if to mock those Northern cousins who were poised to end the grand experiment.

Make no mistake; we are not them, not in any way or shape, as we try to keep alive their memory and their courage. Even in the darkest of days in this dying recession we now endure, have we come close to their privations, their despair and their pathos. We will continue to complain about gas prices, registration fees and the like, as being impediments to enjoying the hobby we love; the hobby that compels our presence. Yet we need to pause upon our Christmas season and reflect upon all that is good in our hobby.

Longstreet's Corps is as strong as ever, with new friends and new units joining our ranks, every new year. The vision of ours and brother organizations is forging higher callings and newer horizons than many of us ever dreamt of. With willing hands, patience and cooperation, we will take our hobby further into the future. The coming five years are exciting times for all of us.

We have many to thank for our continuance in this hobby, this love affair with the past which so consumes us. Certainly our families are to be thanked, for all their tolerance and patience with us, especially when we get that far-off wintertime look, waiting for the first event of the new year. Our co-workers need to be thanked for not snickering too loudly, as we try to describe for them, some grand and glorious charge we participated in, at the last event; even though they secretly brand us as crazy, for what we do.

Don't forget to thank the father of seven kids, and his wife, as they trapse through our camps and our battlefields; they are the ones for whom we passionately labor, though many of them spend exorbutant amounts of needed family money, so that we might teach them what happened during the birth throes of one country and the death throes of another.

Lastly, and most prominently, let us all pause to reflect upon the birth, tumultuous life, passion and death of the One Who Came To Rid Us of Sin and Death. Let us also, in this joyous season, thank our God, for His omnipotent beneficence which allowed that same Son of Man, to rise triumphantly from the grave, to sit at His Father's Mighty Right Hand. Without that gift, so long ago, nothing we do would even be possible. As I like to tell my students, "Let's get our priorities straight."

'Tis the Season.