I want to urge all Fayette Countians to remember the Confederate soldiers from the county.

In the past year I have been researching the burial places of those who came home and those who didn’t.

We have found in doing this research the terrible loss and suffering of the men and families of this county: Wives (widows) with many children who now had no breadwinner, living in a devastated land and no assets or hope of income.

Fathers and sons at times died in the same battles. Even several brothers have been found to have died on the same day on some faraway battlefield.

Many of the families of these soldiers never knew what happen to them, only they did not come home.

Now we are engaged in another great war and many of our Fayette sons again find themselves on a faraway battlefield.

Many of these brave boys (now men) can trace that bravery back to a long-ago boy who wore the gray.

So please, take a moment on Confederate Memorial Day [April 26] to remember the boys who wore the gray.

Terry Smallwood
Genpatton1944 (at) aol.com