Whitt’s Allegiance

Our faithful part-time reporter Half Whitt has taken the week off. He isn’t sick or on vacation, he is pouting. Last week we assigned him to report on the reenactment of the 150th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox. Half went to the reenactment, wrote the story, and has been pouting ever since.

Half, being a good old Southern Boy, had been taught a different version of the “Great War of Northern Aggression” than you might find in the history books. He thought General Grant surrendered to General Lee at Appomattox. He is having a hard time resolving this new version with his history.

Half grew up playing on the battlefields of Appomattox and Saylers Creek. He visited Missionary Ridge and Chickamauga Battlefields. He played on the Cannons in Buckingham Courthouse and Appomattox. He heard his grandmother complain about losing the family home in “The War.”

Her biggest complaint wasn’t the home it was her grandmother’s tablecloth. This wasn’t some distant war fought in a distant land. This was home.

Family reunions were held on battlefields. The entire Whitt family would picnic and discuss family history. Half, his brother Quarter, and his sister Tiny, would re-inact battles, The South always won.

Half had heard of Lee’s retreat to Appomattox but it was explained in good Southern fashion. A retreat is when you go back the way you came. Lee was going to Appomattox for the first time, that’s not a retreat. In the South, it is called Lee’s pursuit.

Regarding the surrender it was only natural to assume Grant surrendered. After all, in a war, the winner takes the land and the loser leaves. Keep in mind this was before the UN where the winner rebuilds the country of the loser and then pays them for the trouble.

Half isn’t one of those who is still fighting “the “War.” He is an American and damn proud of it. He loves this United States of America, “from sea to shining sea” and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. He is just surprised about that Lee-Grant surrender thing. It is a hard thing to lose your childhood illusions when you are 50. If you see him, be kind, he’ll get over it. It just may take some time.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.