A gentleman named Emerson Williams was in Buzzy’s Country Store this week having just visited the Confederate Monument. He was pleased to note that one of the quotes he’d authored in an historical novel some years ago was now inscribed on a sign at the Confederate Monument. He had written his novel in 2007 about his great grandfather Clarke Lewis who fought in the Civil War. Mr. Williams enjoyed the fact that the quote attributed to his Grandfather Lewis and posted at the Monument was actually one that he had made up when he wrote the novel about his Grandfather. Here is Amazon.com’s description of the novel:
“Clarke Lewis is caught up in the war fever that sweeps across Virginia in the spring of 1861. He leaves his wife and home in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) and enlists in the Confederate army as an infantryman. He and his brother leave for the war together and their adventures are intertwined for the next four years. You will experience the shock of his first battle and see him conquer his fears as he performs his duties time and again. See his guardian angel and be amazed at its appearance on the fields of battle. Feel the despair and hopelessness of being a prisoner at Point Lookout, Maryland where starvation and cold threaten to rob him of his life and dignity. Go to his final battle at Winchester and you will never look at the Confederate soldier the same way again.”
Mr. Williams told me that he resides in Goochland, Virginia which is the hometown of Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander who will be pitching in Wednesday’s World Series.