The Long, Long Line

In his Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill, Richard Ketchum makes a fine observation about the Massachusetts men who assembled on Cambridge Common on the evening of June 16th, 1775, preparatory to taking up positions on Breed’s Hill. Reading it, I couldn’t help but think of the young man who was at home next door this past weekend, preparatory to being deployed. Ketchum writes:

It is doubtful if the thought occurred to any of the men standing at awkward attention on that soft June evening, but in their own peculiar fashion they were the first of a long, long line of American battle contingents to be sent forth against an enemy in some kind of planned movement. To be sure, soldiers on this side of the Atlantic had been fighting Indians or Frenchmen or both as far back as they could remember, but until two months ago, they had not fought strictly as Americans. Before Lexington and Concord they had been soldiers of the King—not in the same sense as the redcoated regulars, but nevertheless fighters in his name and for his causes. And while April 19 was the first occasion on which men of this land had taken up arms on their own behalf, that day they were reacting to a situation forced upon them—reacting in a manner largely unplanned, unordered, and very nearly uncomprehended until the smoke of battle had cleared. What was happening now was quite different, and whether they knew it or not, the results of their action would take on a significance totally unguessed at, its effects spreading out in ever-widening circles, like the rippled surface of a pond, until everything in their world and that of their contemporaries was touched by the thing they had begun.

Unlike those men on the common, I’m sure the significance of what he is doing has not escaped the young man who grew up next door. And while the results remain unguessed at, they are certainly being prayed for. As he takes his place in that “long, long line of American battle contingents”, may his actions and those of his men spread in ever-widening circles, securing for us his contemporaries and for generations yet unborn the same security and freedom those men from Massachusetts began fighting for almost 232 years ago. Like them he goes of his own free will. May God bring him back victorious.

Mr. Peperium

Comments

[Old Dominion Tory]

Excellent observation, Mr. Peperium, and an excellent sentiment. I'm glad you're finding much to like in Decisive Day.

[Andrew Cusack]

And while April 19 was the first occasion on which men of this land had taken up arms on their own behalf

The first occasion except for, of course, King Phillip's War, the Pontiac Rebellion, King William's War, Dummer's War, King George's War, and Dunmore's War, in all of which colonists fought ("on their own behalf" one might say) against external threats, and not to mention the myriad inter-colonial and intra-colonial violent conflicts in which different colonies or factions feuded with eachother.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Hey, don't forget fighting with the redmen!!! I have relatives who fell in Pequot Swamp so multimillionaires can sail their lily-white boats in and out of that Harbor today...

[Old Dominion Tory]

Say, Mrs. P, I have an ancestor who was killed resisting "Les Bostonaises" [sp?] at Louisbourg as well as some who ran with the Indians on their raids southward. More occasions, perhaps, on which our ancestors "encountered" each other.

[Old Dominion Tory]

Speaking of this era, Mrs. Peperium, someday soon you and Mr. Peperium will need to purchase Bertie that marvelous book, "The Matchlock Gun."

[Mrs. Peperium]

My grandfather:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Seeley

[Old Dominion Tory]

Neat fellow to have in the family tree, Mrs. Peperium!