Sands Theater Works "BUS STOP" 1991

Car or Driver?

The picture says it all.

(Click picture to enlarge)

Civil War Head Stones – Part II

I missed one that should have been on the last post.

This headstone was found in Gibson County in a cemetery on Hwy 185 between Hwy 54 (Bradford-Trenton section) and Dyer.  Click on the map below for more detail.

 

 

This is the final resting place of Thomas J. Vickers of Company F, 7th Tennessee Cavalry.  I know many locals like to think that all men in this area fought for the C.S.A., but research shows that this unit was a Union cavalry outfit.  The roster of members for the entire outfit is posted here. 

This proves what a personal type of war this was that pitted brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor.

 

(Click for full size)

Adventures in Waymarking – Civil War Headstones

Along the left side of this blog you may notice a section called Waymarking with some statistics.  Waymarking is going out with your GPS and finding interesting things (that fit into a category), getting the coordinates, taking a few pictures of it, and then posting it at www.waymarking.com.  You can visit the website and check out the categories.

I’ve always liked looking in cemeteries and exploring them.  You can tell a lot about an area just from headstones.  Two categories I’ve found interesting are Woodmen of the World Grave Markers and Homemade Tombstones.  But that is not about those, but it has led me to find many cemeteries around the area.

In looking for headstones that fit into those two categories I’ve also ran into several headstones from the Civil War or The War Between the States or Mr. Lincoln’s War or The War for Southern Independence, ect..   It was that war fought between 1861 and 1865 between the United States and the Confederate States.

Here are a few of the different ones that I have found.

 

 

This is actually a memorial placed to honor 17 unknown Confederate dead buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Brunswick, Tn. 

The text of this memorial reads:

“This Plot Contains the Remains of 17 Confederate Soldiers of Prices Army Names Unknown. Removed from Hospital in Memphis in 1862 and Died
in a Church that was converted to a hospital near this spot.
Erected by Russell Jones 1905.”

Russell Jones is also buried here.

There is a Tennessee Historical Marker at this cemetery that states:

“This cemetery, founded in 1853, grew up around the Brunswick Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which has since moved. During the Confederate War, the church building was used as a hospital, and 17 unknown Confederate soldiers who died there are buried in a nearby plot. Also buried there are many of the region’s pioneers."

This can be seen at Morning Sun Cemetery on Morning Sun Road in Cordova, Tn.  There are 12 unknown Union dead killed in the Battle of Morning Sun.  There is a possible discrepancy as far as the date on the markers goes.  The headstones give a date of June 6, 1862, but all research puts the date of the Battle of Morning Sun as July 1, 1862.  I don’t know.

 

 

 

The final resting place of Peter H. Cole, Jr. can be found at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hickory Withe, Tn.  Mount Pleasant Cemetery can be found at the junctions of Ivy Road and Norse Road in Fayette County.  It says on the head stone that he was born on March 15, 1837 and killed at the Battle of Murfreesboro on December 31, 1862.

 

 

 

 

 

I ran across this one at the Tabernacle Cemetery in Piperton, Tn.  It is located on Hwy 57 just west of where Hwy 385 starts in southern Fayette County.

John F. Reed was born July 17, 1832 and killed at the Battle of Perryville, Ky.  That battle was fought October 8, 1862 and was the largest battle of the war in Kentucky.

 

 

 

Here we have the grave marker of a fellow who actually survived the war and by a good number of years.

1st Sgt J.W. Mewborn was born on October 25, 1843 and died February 24, 1930 at the age of 86.

He was a member of Company B of the 13th Tennessee Infantry.

Sgt Mewborn is buried in the Macon Cemetery in Macon, Tn.  It is .3 miles north of Hwy 193 on Macon Cemetery Road.

 

 

 

Last but not least is the grave of Pvt R. Alexander Carroll.  It gives the year of birth at 1843 and year of death of 1862. 

It states his unit as Eldridge’s Tennessee Light Artillery.  A little research shows it was part of Captain J. W. Phillips' Light Artillery Company.  In 1862 this unit was in Corinth, Chattanooga, and Tullahoma.

Without more details on the gravestone it would be hard to know how he died – was it in battle or was it by disease?

 

 

If you would like to find any of these grave markers and you have a GPS, I may not have the exact coordinates of the grave stone, but I can get you to the cemetery.  Just leave a comment asking for the coordinates.

Supreme Royal Circle of the Friends of the World

In my Waymarking adventures I’ve come across this on tombstones at predominantly African-American cemeteries.

According to one website (http://www.herroncenter.org/stones.htm):

The Supreme Royal Circle of Friends of the World was founded in 1909 in Forest City Arkansas by Dr. Richard A. Williams. This fraternal organization for black men had as its primary goal promoting the moral, physical, intellectual, and material welfare of its members.

The success of the Royal Circle was partly due to blacks' mistrust of government and white owned banks. The Royal Circle of Friends offered great returns for small investments, with the support of friends, neighbors, churches, and respected black business leaders.
The fee for joining the Royal Circle, including a medical examination, was $2.50. Members then paid $1 per quarter, which paid $300 to the beneficiary after the member's death.
For years to come, in rural black cemeteries loyalty to the Royal Circle of Friends was indicated by the distinctive headstones that displayed the organization's symbol of the majestic lion and letters RCF.

 

It’s neat the things you find when you have adventures.

God Bless Our Troops……….

Sometimes you see a sticker and just have to take a picture.

And it reminds me of this:

While interviewing a US Army Special Forces soldier in Afghanistan, a Reuters News reporter asked the soldier what he felt when killing Al Qaeda with a sniper rifle.
The soldier thought for a moment and replied, "Recoil."

I hope the dog is inside.

A Trip to Houston & Salutes

Sandy and I took a vacation and went to The Woodlands, Tx last week to visit her Aunt Ethel.  I know it says Houston, but when you travel it’s like telling folks you live in Memphis when we actually live in Cordova.

It was about a 600 miles, two tanks of gas, nine hours, and that one just one-way.  We got to see a lot of scenery throughout Arkansas and Texas.  Most of it looked like Tennessee.

Driving across Texas we went traversed through many small towns with populations under 1,000 and I couldn’t help but be reminded of  Hee-Haw and the salutes they used to do on that show to all the small towns.  All at once as we were coming up to one of these hamlets and saw the town name with the number, I said the town name and “SSSSAAAAAAALLLUUUUTTTTE!!!!!

Sandy immediately know where I was coming from and joined right in.  So here’s a salute to a few of those small towns:

Seven Oaks     population 131

Burke                population 315

Appleby          population 444

Garrison         population 844

 

SALUTE!

Murphy's Laws of Combat

Murphy's Laws of Combat

Today at work I was helping a contractor install one of the multitude of new systems at our new base. The installation was going easier than expected and somewhere along the way Murphy's Laws of Combat came to mind, especially the one, "If your attack is going well, then it's an ambush." Paraphrased to the communications world, "if the install is going too good, there's an option the contractor won't mention until you contact the help desk - after the system blows up."

Enjoy the laws.

Dave

1. If the enemy is in range, so are you.
2. Incoming fire has the right of way.
3. Don't look conspicuous, it draws fire.
4. There is always a way, and it usually doesn't work.
5. The problem with the easy way out is that it has already been mined.
6. Try to look unimportant, they may be low on ammo.
7. Professionals are predictable, it's the amateurs that are dangerous.
8. The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:
   a. when you're ready for them.
   b. when you're not ready for them.
9. Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at.
10. If you can't remember, then the claymore IS pointed at you.
11. The enemy diversion you have been ignoring will be the main attack.
12. A "sucking chest wound" is nature's way of telling you to slow down.
13. If your attack is going well, then it's an ambush.
14. Never draw fire, it irritates everyone around you.
15. Anything you do can get you shot, including nothing.
16. If you build yourself a bunker that's tough for the enemy to get into quickly, then you won't be able to get out of it quickly either.
17. Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.
18. If you're short of everything but the enemy, you're in a combat zone.
19. When you've secured the area, don't forget to tell the enemy.
20. Never forget that your weapon is made by the lowest bidder.
21. Friendly fire isn't.
22. If the sergeant can see you, so can the enemy.
23. Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down, never stay awake when you can sleep.
24. The most dangerous thing in the world is a second lieutenant with a map and a compass.
25. There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.
26. A grenade with a seven second fuse will always burn down in four seconds.
27. Remember, a retreating enemy is probably just falling back and regrouping.
28. If at first you don't succeed call in an air-strike.
29. Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy the battle plan.
30. Everything always works in your HQ, everything always fails in the colonel's HQ.
31. The enemy never watches until you make a mistake.
32. One enemy soldier is never enough, but two is entirely too many.
33. A clean (and dry) set of BDU's is a magnet for mud and rain.
34. Whenever you have plenty of ammo, you never miss. Whenever you are low on ammo, you can't hit the broad side of a barn.
35. The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.
36. Field experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
37. Interchangeable parts aren't.
38. No matter which way you have to march, its always uphill.
39. If enough data is collected, a board of inquiry can prove ANYTHING.
40. For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. (in boot camp)
41. The one item you need is always in short supply.
42. The worse the weather, the more you are required to be out in it.
43. The complexity of a weapon is inversely proportional to the IQ of the weapon's operator.
44. Airstrikes always overshoot the target, artillery always falls short.
45. When reviewing the radio frequencies that you just wrote down, the most important ones are always illegible.
46. Those who hesitate under fire usually do not end up KIA or WIA.
47. The tough part about being an officer is that the troops don't know what they want, but they know for certain what they DON'T want.
48. To steal information from a person is called plagiarism. To steal information from the enemy is called gathering intelligence.
49. The weapon that usually jams when you need it the most is the M60.
50. The perfect officer for the job will transfer in the day after that billet is filled by someone else.
51. When you have sufficient supplies & ammo, the enemy takes 2 weeks to attack. When you are low on supplies & ammo the enemy decides to attack that night.
52. The newest and least experienced soldier will usually win the Congressional Medal Of Honor.
53. A Purple Heart just goes to prove that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.
54. Murphy was a grunt.
    

Ministry of Silly Walks

One of my favorite Monty Python skits.




My favorite line "With government backing I could make it very silly."

Concerts

I decided I wanted to make a list of all the bands I've seen in concert. The basis for the list was that they at least had to have put out an album. Otherwise, there would be too many to remember or name. I'm quite sure that I've left some out. I just can't remember some of the opening bands. Several of these artists I've seen multiple times.

Here's the list:

____________________________________________
Aaron Tippin
AC/DC
Aerosmith
Big Ass Truck
Billy Squire
Black Crowes
Bon Jovi
Bryan Adams
Cheap Trick
Clint Black
Dwight Yoakam
Europe
Fastway
Garth Brooks
George Strait
Hank Williams, Jr
Iron Maiden
Journey
Judas Priest
Keith Whitley
Little Texas
Metallica
Mic Harrison
Motley Crue
Oak Ridge Boys
Patty Loveless
Poison
Queensryche
Quireboys
Randy Travis
Ratt
Saxon
Scorpions
Skid Row
Superdrag
Ted Nugent
The Police
Thunder
Twisted Sister
Van Halen
Vixen
V-Roys
Whitesnake

BHS Homecoming - 16 Jan 09

Here are just a few picture to preview.

Washington Post Reporters Traveling to Inauguration

Can you say: "In the Tank?"