January 7, 2010

My mother’s maiden name is Wenger. Military records, I am told by my brother, the family archivist, show a certain Wenger enlisted in the Army of the Confederate States of America led by General Robert E. Lee. I believe he served in the Division led by Stonewall Jackson, the General who would not march on Sundays, but set that day aside to read his bible. The rest of the week he would go to war.

The Wengers are a huge family. The story is also told of a Wenger who hid in the crawlspace under the house when the Army of the Potomac came marching up the Shenandoah Valley on the way to Gettysburg.

I think of these two men this morning. Depending upon one’s perspective, one would be considered a coward and the other a servant. Or, perhaps one would be considered a mis-guided fool and the other a courageous resistor. War is a terrible thing. Human life should not be treated so inhumanely and yet it continues….

This morning, in the still gray peace of this beginning day, I feel the presence of both of my very distant Virginia ‘cousins’. How much the world has changed since their day…and how much it has remained the same.