NEXT MEETING -- TUESDAY, MAY 24
********** ANNOUNCEMENTS
********** IN MEMORIUM Long before we were the Thomson Guards, many of us were members of the Ambrose Ransom Wright Camp in Evans. Bill Berry was a unique character and a very active member. Bill, Rest In Peace. “BILL BERRY left us to be with the Lord on April 21, 2022. Bill was a man proud of his many accomplishments. I was always amused by his personal business card—it listed all his various positions in the community through the years ! Bill was active in the our SCV Camp until just recently, when his health prevented his getting out to the meetings. Besides the SCV, he was a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Knights of Columbus, and St. Mary of the Hill Catholic church. He was President of Irish American Heritage Society in 2007, and he was Grand Marshall of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2010 The funeral is tentatively scheduled for May 9. He is to be a cremated and his remains to be placed in the columbarium at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.” Information: The WigWag newsletter of the E. Porter Alexander camp, Augusta. ********** MAY Events During WBTS
********** APRIL PROGRAM -- Pilgrims and Our Heritage by Alan Smith On April 26, Rev. Alan Smith, dressed in period clothing as a Pilgrim, gave an excellent presentation. Did you know?
Rev. Smith made learning FUN! ********** COMMANDER'S POST Robert E. Lee . . . . As Paul Harvey said on his radio broadcast “Here’s the rest of the story!”
Robert E. Lee is to this day the only person to pass through the US Military Academy at West Point without a single demerit. In the Mexican War General Winfield Scott called him “the greatest soldier I’ve ever seen.” As an Army Engineer he re-routed the Mississippi River and saved the city of St. Louis. When he inherited slaves from his father in law, he educated them and set them free, and he referred to slavery as “a political and moral evil.” He turned down Lincoln’s offer to Command the US Army that would invade the South and his home State of Virginia even though leading that Army would have certainly brought him international fame and likely the presidency. He instead offered his sword to Virginia and fought against that invasion for four years leading an Army that was vastly outnumbered, out supplied and out fed. After the war, as the most beloved figure on either side of the war, he turned down all of the opportunities that would have enriched him by refusing to sell his family name. He chose instead to take a job with meager pay at Washington College because he knew that rebuilding the country meant that we needed to raise men of high honor and character. His first act as Dean of the College was to build a Chapel. On Lee’s last visit to Richmond, a lady approached General Lee with an infant in her arms and asked “Would you please hold my baby?” General Lee took the child, looked the woman in the eye and said “you must teach him to deny himself.” Biographer Douglas Southall Freeman pointed out that this one statement characterized the entirety of how General Lee lived. As the end of his life was approaching Robert E. Lee was asked, with all of his accomplishments, what should his headstone say. He answered “that I am a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for my salvation.” That a monument to this man has been taken down is a monument itself. The barren space where his memorial stood is a testament to the depraved depths to which the morality and character of our society has fallen. Unknown Source -- Information was passed along via email. Possibly from Paul Harvey’s the Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt (Author) and Lynne Harvey (Compiler, Editor), Doubleday, c1977. |