Perseverance

Throughout our lives, trials will come, hardships will have to be endured, and problems will have to be solved. Thats simply how it works. Thats kind of what makes the human spirit and God's grace so very cool, in that those are the biggest powers that allow us to over come suffering and tribulation.

On a closer examination of soldiers and their careers, I find that it is those men and women who put their all on the line for others that suffer the most. Soldiers have to put up with some down right terrifying situations to help people, people they often times don't even know, and for what? A paycheck? The pat on a back? I believe that they do it because they know that for them, it is the right thing to do.

But what keeps them going? What helps them keep waking up in the morning, suiting up, and reporting to duty? They know it is the right thing to do, but how to they manage to find the strength to do it day after day?

The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac (or any army during the Civil War) was no different from the armies of today. Sure, the equipment is newer (thankfully), the tactics are switched up to allow for new technology, and thanks to that new technology, we have fewer battlefield casualties than in the times of the Civil War. (Imagine if in one battle in Iraq or Afghanistan we had 50,000 casualties!) Yet all these "improvements" to warfare does not take away the fact that "War is Hell" as General William T. Sherman put it so eloquently. War is the forceful coercion of one power over another, by force of arms and the death of the people of both powers, and as such, the soldiers (and people) fighting a war must put up with hardship, suffering, and deprivations so severe that we can't really imagine, especially here in the United States. After all, it has been almost 200 years since an invading army from a foreign country set foot on our soil.

For the Army of the Potomac, the Civil War was hell itself. For nearly 2 years since the beginning of the war, it went without any victory whatsoever, until the battle of Antietam, and then it went nearly another year until its next victory at Gettysburg. It suffered military setbacks, deprivation of shelter and supplies, and on occasion the derision of its people and its government. It also suffered from a lack of leadership, with going through 6 different commanders before settling on George Meade who won his stripes at the battle of Gettysburg.

The winter of 1862-1863 was described as "The valley forge of the Army of the Potomac". The army suffered from a shortage of food and clothing, as well as a stunning defeat at Fredericksburg, and also a embarrassing and anticlimactic "mud march" provided by Ambrose Burnside, its commander. Desertions soared during this time, due to the fact that the men's war spirit and morale was "all played out" and because there was no such thing has a furlough, meaning that the men could not go home to their families. In short, it had lost confidence in itself and its cause.

Yet, the Army did survive these ordeals. It survived its encampment at Falmouth Virginia in winter of '62-'63, and even survived the battle of Chancellorsville with quite good morale. This is due to Joseph Hooker's reorganization of the army, giving the men a sense of unit pride in their corps badges, and his fighting spirit. He was not called "Fighting Joe" for nothing, yet his pride and boasting eventually DID go before his fall in the wild land around Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863.

The Army would go on to win its own fighting spirit back at Gettysburg, which, while not changing anything militaristically speaking, it did change things for the Army of the Potomac in that it realized that it actually COULD whip Robert E. Lee and his army in a stand up, toe to toe fight. In short, it received its manhood and confidence back, which changed everything. It would go on to suffer even more, beyond our wildest imaginations, at places like the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, in the mud at Petersburg, but it would finally win peace and victory at a little tiny hamlet called Appomattox Court House.

How did they do it? I believe that they, while it disappeared from time to time due to their circumstances, had a undying belief in what they were doing, what they were suffering for, and they weren't willing to give it up. In the motion picture "Gettysburg", Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain makes a speech that, while utterly fictional, is still quite good, and I believe describes the heart of the men in blue that fought from 1861-1865.

"This is a different kind of army. If you look at history you'll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of loot. They fight for land, or because a king makes them, or just because they like killing. But we're here for something new. This has not happened much, in the history of the world: We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, all of it, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow, no man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here is the place to build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end... we're fighting for each other."

To be sure, every man had his prejudices, perhaps against blacks, or immigrants, or what have you. Yet they all stuck together, they all held out and suffered because they wanted something better. They wanted to make their tomorrow better than their yesterday. They didn't know how it would turn out, yet they went through the hell anyway. And to be honest, it did them a favor, because it proved that they could win, they could stand up to whatever was thrown at them, that they could have final victory.

In the book "The Sword of Lincoln" by Jeffry D. Wert, the last line of the book is a quote from the journal of Sergeant Charles Bowen, of the 12th US Infantry, which is fittingly enough a member of the same brigade as the 4th US Infantry. He describes how the Army of the Potomac suffered and suffered reverses, yet was able to win the final victory, in spite of the doubts of its leaders, its people, and its government. I'll let him speak for himself: 

"It is actually wonderful how the Army of the Potomac stand the deprivations, trials, and reverses that have been heaped on them without stint or mercy to meet the foe with undaunted spirits. I do not believe there ever was an army in any country that would endure the same treatment this army has and yet be ready to fight as good a battle, and perhaps a better one than they could when they first came out. Although we have been deprived of the privilege of winning any lasting victories, it has not been our fault, as history in future days will show. I look forward to the time when a man can say with pride, 'I belonged to the Army of the Potomac.' We look to history to give our just due and to place all the blame where it belongs."

So how can we have this same perseverance as the Army of the Potomac? How can we keep getting up to fight our own battles each day, whether they be with family, a co-worker, or what have you?

Being a Christian, I recently came across some verses that have truly encouraged me, since I have many battles I am fighting. If you do not share my beliefs, I respect that, but perhaps you can take these words as encouraging, if not as God's own word. I'm quoting from Romans chapter 8:

"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." KJV

For me, my final victory is not to prove that I'm right and others are wrong, that I'm better than other people, or anything like that. In the end, my final victory is me standing before God's throne in heaven and hearing him say "well done my good and faithful servant". At this point in time, I in no way feel worthy of hearing my Lord and Savior say this to me, such a sinner, but yet I have to cling to the faith that God's spirit has given us and believe that Christ is making intercession for me and washing me clean of all sin so that I may live with him in heaven. This promise holds true for you as well, my friend.

I will close with a short poem that I found in a original copy of "Monroe's 4th reader" that I own, a school book published in 1872.

"Yes, courage, boy, courage! and press on thy way;

Though waves of temptation in anger may roll, 

Let jo light they cheek, then, and hope gild thy brow;

By deeds of the mighty, who struggled and bled,

Then courage, boy, courage! There's light in the sky:

there is nothing to harm thee, nothing to fear:

do all which truth bids thee, and do it today;

Hold on to thy purpose, do right, persevere!

and storm cloud on storm cloud hang dark in the sky,

still courage, boy, courage! There's strength in thy soul;

believing and doing bring help from on high.

ne'er parley with wrong, nor ill stay to borrow;

let thy object be truth, and thy watchword be now!

Make sure of today, and trust God for tomorrow.

be incited to action, and manfully fight:

good is worth doing, boy! and, living or dead,

that good shall reward thee with honor and might.

be humble, be active, be honest, be true;

and though hosts may confront, and though foes may decry,

"I've conquered!" at last shall be shouted by you."

~Monroe's 4th Reader, 1872 

I hope that this post has made at least some sense, and that it has been encouraging to you to read as it has been for me to write. 

Go out today and see what God can do with you!

Cheers.