"The Bloody Lane"

Such a beautiful, pastoral scene.  This is quite probably what it looked like on that September morning in 1862 - until the cacophony of war broke loose!  Over to the right is where a peaceful farm lane would be transformed into what the soldiers who fought there would describe as the "road of death."

Confederate forces of over 2,200 men hunkered down (as we say in Texas) in this sunken road and, over piled-up fence rails, faced a Union force of first 5,000 men.  An hour later those 5,000 were reinforced by an additional 4,000.  The fighting was so fierce and "the missiles of death were flying so thickly," that an attempt to reinforce the Confederate line with 3,800 men failed.

The Union attack began about 9:30 in the morning.  By 1:00 in the afternoon the Rebels retreated under "minnie balls, shot and shell (that) rained upon us from every direction except the rear."

The lane began the day as you see it on the left.  In a little over three hours it was transformed into what you see on the right.  When the fighting eased, 5,500 soldiers lay dead or wounded in the road or on the field in front of the road.  To this day it is known as The Bloody Lane. 



As a result of all this carnage, neither side gained a decisive advantage.  When I think on this, I believe that wars will never be fought like this anymore.  There are aircraft and missiles and drones.  There will still be combat, but not with folks lining up in rows to be shot down in huge numbers.  The bravery of the Rebels to stand up against enormous numbers of the enemy, battle after battle after battle, is admirable.  The fact that they won a number of those battles is amazing.  But the days of that kind of war are over.

That's the good news. The bad news is, that the kind of warfare being fought now - across the world - has very little heroism with it.  It seems the attacks are against civilians by terrorists who seek change, not by war, but by killing non-combatant civilian working men and women and their children in marketplaces and neighborhoods and offices. The heros show up after the fact, trying to save the innocents. 

The Confederates fought to save their way of life; today's terrorists fight to change a way of life that doesn't even touch their "countries."  The Bible says that there will always be wars and rumors of wars.  I suppose that's just the way mankind is, but I hope we never ever get used to it...