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Date Posted: 11:13:26 05/20/02 Mon
Author: Pvt. CL Engleman, 9th Texas
Subject: CROSSPOST: Re: It's Time We All Did Some Writing!

Sirs,

This is a cross post of a message from the 9th Texas Message Board, I believe that this is of interest to all Living Historians.

Original Message to follow--

Gents,

Attached is a link to an article that recently ran in the "Frederick News." I think it's clear to any of you who care to read it that the author has a flimsy grasp on history and its importance. I took it upon myself to write the paper to share my thoughts with them and I hope that you do too. Not surprisingly, the old boy that wrote it didn't allow his name to go up with his fine bit of writing so you'll have to respond to the paper in general. There's a handy link at the bottom of the page for you to send comments to the editorial staff. We probably won't change any of their corrupt Yankee minds but we can sure as Hell tell them what we feel about history and its worth.

Here is the link:

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/display.cfm?storyid=20229&from=currentsearch§ion=jlaughlan

Just copy and paste it to your browser and go get em!

Just for chuckles I'm attaching what I wrote them. Perhaps some of you agree...

See you all at Gainesville!

Fred "Hillbilly Fritz" Baker

To who it may concern:

Greetings. My name is Fred Baker and I live in the small town of Conway, Arkansas, located about 30 miles west of Little Rock. I am directing this note to you in response to an article you recently ran entitled "War Treasures or Scrap." Since it was not seen fit to publish the author's name, I am forced to respond in a more general manner.
In reading the article I was both offended and shaken by the author's brazen disregard for history and I believe that the author's argument is flawed on a variety of levels. Aside from the indications that his education most likely ended at the eigth grade, his powers of "reason" left me with the distinct impression that he (or she) was also a hypocrite. After attempting to scare readers with an NRA-type "this could happen to you..." approach in which the National Park Service and other parties interested in the preservation of history came accross as demonic groups bent on gobbling up the smallest acreage of land or shard of lead, the author purports that none of us are safe. Indeed, the NPS, and the government in general are actually called an "imperialist power." The author's phobia regarding the NPS is evidently so severe as to dilute his mind with the idea that all artifacts are linked to a central command post wherein a red light flashes with each report of discovered Civil War plunder and within minutes agents quickly descend upon the happless individual who has unwhitingly signed the death decree for his own property and freedom. I would argue that the opposite is in fact true. Rather than plowing under earthworks or recyling Minie balls I believe that as Americans we should all seek to explore our history. And contrary to the author's claim that "you can't save everything" I would argue that we haven't saved much at all. Although old bullets and the like are fairly common, a great deal of the minutae that Civil War soldiers carried are extremely scarce. Canteens, buttons, buckles, muskets, spurs, and a thousand other items exist in extraordinarily small numbers. Clothing is even more rare. Indeed, only 200 garmets exist in the nation's museums out of the tens of millions of jackets, trousers, shirts, and coats produced in the four bloody years of the Civil War. I speak from my own experience on this point; I interned in a museum not long ago and we would have given a great deal to display the items that the author so calously threw away. Yet, he may take comfort in the fact that his position may yet win. With every passing day rust and corrosion claims another piece of our past. What nature doesn't dispose of, man does. Scores of Civil War battle sites are now covered in urban sprawl. Not pastures where two yanks once traded shots with a scarecrow, but battlefields where dead and wounded American boys once covered the field in such profusion that one could walk across the scene without setting foot on the ground. The battlefields of Manassas and Fredericksburg have virtually ceased to exist underneath gas stations, mini-malls, and housing subdivisions. In Franklin, Tennessee, a small burg just south of Nashville where the Confederate Army of Tennessee made a charge even more devastating than George Pickett's storied advance, the site where thousands of men were struck down in rows lies beneath the parking lot of a Pizza Hut. Now don't get me wrong- I'm not seeking to be an alarmist on the opposite end of the spectrum. Instead, I cite Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Franklin as examples of exactly what happens when we as a society and as individuals take a "you can't save everything" attitude. Like it or not, America is a land of history. Whether it's arrowheads, Minie balls, or old Edsels, our land teems with evidence of our past. Tragically, with each day, one less link to the past remains and as that happens one more citizen will never learn the lessons it holds. In a day and age when fewer than half of all American teens can identify "an important event that took place in Philadelphia" I believe that we cannot afford to adopt a "you can't save everything" approach. Simply because something happened many years ago does not mean that it should be forgotten and evidence of it dispossed of. It is unthinkable for us imagine building a Pizza Hut on top of the World Trade Center site or chunking remnants of the planes into the recycling bin. However, this is precisely what we have been doing in recent years. Unfortunately, our nation has a short consciousness. The equivalent of the population of Little Rock died in the Civil War and young men in numbers the size of the population of New York City were maimed, wounded, or crippled from disease and battle. The loss in this country generated by the four years of the American Civil War was nothing short of a holocaust. The South in particular was gutted of men between the ages of 15 and 50 and the North was little better. Yet, because it happened "a long time back," those losses are neither recognized nor remembered. The same fate is befalling the World War Two generation and before too many years, the same will be said of us. Violence, death, and suffering should not be celebrated but they should not be forgotten either. With every bullet we recycle, buckle we discard, and battlefield we build over, we grow one step closer to repeating those same terrible mistakes. Such is the lesson of history. But alas, perhaps if you can't save everthing you should try to save nothing...

Respectfully,

Fred Baker
Conway, AR

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