OP-ED: Abraham Lincoln: ‘From these honored dead’
The Civil War brought tremendous suffering. The death of Robert J. Brownfield is illustrative. Cpl. Brownfield of Fayette County was shot in the arm near Spotsylvania Courthouse in Virginia. Forgotten or simply overlooked, he went unattended for a full day.
Taken first to Fredericksburg, Va., then to a hospital in Washington, D.C., the young soldier died before his anxious parents could reach his bedside.
One of Brownfield’s regimental comrades, John Inks of “near” Uniontown, died following a fight with Confederate troops on May 31, 1864, close to Richmond, Va., according to a unit history.
Cared for by a Mrs. Morse, wife of a Methodist minister, Inks remained coherent for some days. The soldier’s condition soon worsened and John Inks began to sink. On June 16, he slipped into semi-consciousness.
Mrs. Morse reported that “it seemed hard for the spirit to be free from the body.” He died the next morning in a “scene of great suffering,” Mrs. Morse said, hearing “constantly the cries and groans” of other dying men.
Morris Island, S.C., was a sandy, insect-ridden wasteland. A place of merciless daytime heat and damp, frequently chilly nights, it was also a place of great slaughter. Confederate sharpshooters occupying Battery Wagner on the island, were expert at picking off Union sappers, many of whom were members of the 85th Pennsylvania Regiment composed mostly of men from Fayette and Washington counties.
The danger to Union forces increased as the trench line drew closer to the Confederate emplacement.
George Grim of Springfield Township, Fayette County, died instantly when he was shot through the eye. Lt. Henry Purviance of “little” Washington died when a dud Union shell blew off the back of his head.
Soon a regimental casualty list was mailed to the newspapers back home, in honor of “the gallant heroes who have fallen in defense of American liberty.” Seventy-five names were published of the dead, wounded, and missing.
Recognition and solemn remembrance are wartime perennials. During both World Wars, page after page of news ink was devoted to the fallen. The morgue-like quality of the newspapers at the height of the Second World War could be stunning.
The 58,220 American dead of the Vietnam War are individually enshrined forever on the black granite walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
All of which brings us to this: what was the Pentagon thinking when it deleted the names of four service members from a list of Iranian war dead? The Operation Epic Fury webpage was amended. Eighteen dead in the war was pared to 14.
The missing dead included Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 1st Lt. Tyler James Freehan, Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, and Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad.
Instead of associating their deaths with the ongoing war with Iran, Department of Defense officials created an anodyne-sounding Overseas Operations webpage. Debuted on July 7, the new site was evidently designed to signal the war’s conclusion. The lethality of U.S. military operations in destroying Iran’s capacity for war was thus confirmed.
After the ceasefire, the administration stood victorious. The four dead Americans were inconveniences, at best. At worst, they demonstrated the administration’s failure to kneecap the Iranians, and to end the fighting.
Retired U.S. Army General Paul Eaton commented that reclassifying the four was a “disgrace…. Tell the families of these four Americans that the war is over…. The Pentagon tried to erase them from the record because their deaths didn’t fit … the (administration’s) narrative.”
The Contrarian’s Jennifer Rubin said “the revolting decision to strip the four of recognition” was “one of the most cynical, selfish and petty actions” of the Trump administration. It was like chopping away names on the Vietnam memorial, she said.
The Americans who have given their lives “so that this nation might live” have more than earned a right to sanctified remembrance.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.