I cannot say in my Marine Corps experience that I ever shed blood for my country. However, on the night of June 27th, I did so for the memory of my fallen ancestors in the War Between the States.
As I look back on my ordeal in front of Awful Arthur’s I am thankful I am in good physical condition to have survived an unprovoked physical assault from a liberal, concerning my patriotic reverence for the Confederate States’ Battle Flag. I am certainly glad I chose not to counterattack my foe, but rather chose the “high road.”
The attacker had slugged me on the right temple, knocking me to the asphalt where I hit my head on the other temple. This was after I simply waved my small confederate flag by my vehicle about two hours earlier. At 71, I certainly needed the eight X-rays that I received at the V.A. Hospital – with many bloody abrasions, the healing still continues.
On behalf of my ancestors, I am proud to have endured this persecution from the cowardly young attacker – someone who would violently go after an elderly man twice his age. That is the least I could do for the immense sacrifice of those who protected Virginians in the 1860’s.
You see I have ancestors who fought for the freedom of the Confederate States and Virginia whom were invaded by northern armies. Most confederate warriors were very upright, law abiding, and sincere in their desire to protect our Commonwealth of Virginia, their families, their homes, and their farms from the Union’s General Grant and other less disciplined northern Generals like “Black Dave” Hunter who rampaged through Virginia targeting men, women and children during 1864 and 1865 in the War Between the States.
But what about other proud southerners who had ancestors that endured much hardship for their cause?
Let’s suppose you had a great grandfather who struggled to survive in a northern prison camp for a year or more. He might easily have eaten maggot-infested food; suffered dysentery 24/7; and/or had no blanket for sleeping in the winter. And suppose he struggled and survived the war only to be forced to live in an old soldier’s home the rest of his life because of poverty or the loss of his family and home due to the war.
Does it not seem reasonable you would want to honor the request of these old, forgotten heroes in town after town in the old south? Or, that you would want to remember and memorialize their flag and their lives? Nothing will prevent me from holding true to these valiant people; and, there are thousands like me. My only regret was that City of Roanoke Police came too late to question and arrest my assaulter who had wandered away fuming and foaming with hatred.
Let us remember these words on the base of a confederate statue at the Floyd County Courthouse: “Stoop, angels, hither from the skies! There is no holier spot of ground, Than where defeated valor lies By mourning beauty crowned.”
Douglas W. Phillips, Jr., a Virginia Tech graduate; is an environmental engineer & Water/Waste water operator; and served in the U.S. Marines
