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The Official Legal Organ of Chattooga County Georgia
WINSTON E. ESPY DAVID T. ESPY, JR. TOMMY TOLES
PUBLISHER GENERAL MANAGER EDITOR
WILLIAM T. ESPY
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Our Opinion
Smooth, Wet Reenactment
Aside from persistent rain and several
inches of mud, thousands of Civil War
reenactors and spectators enjoyed a warm
reception from Chattooga Countians this
past weekend.
Fewer participants and spectators
showed up for the 125th anniversary
reenactment of the Battle of Chickamauga
at Pennville than had been expected.
Moisture forced into the Southeast by
Hurricane Gilbert began falling as a
steady rain at midafternoon Friday. It
didn’t stop until a couple of minutes before
the first engagement Saturday afternoon.
Although there were a few gripes, most
reenactors appeared to have enjoyed both
battles. One official who had the oppor
tunity to talk with several hundred battle
weary reenactors Sunday afternoon said
they were impressed with the friendliness
of Chattooga Countians.
Several local farmers brought their
tractors to the water-soaked grounds and
hauled reenactors and their vehicles out of
the quagmires for a nominal amount.
Chattooga Sheriff Gary McConnell and
Sgt. Joe Gossett of the Georgia State
Patrol did a superb job on almost no notice
in arranging for new parking areas and
shuttle transportation to the site for the
spectators who showed up Saturday and
Sunday.
City’s Wise Step
The City of Summerville made a wise
decision when it agreed to ask its engineer
ing firm to determine what state grants
are available to study how to protect the
city's main water supply.
The state is cracking down on water
systems that reduce the flow of streams
significantly by withdrawing significant
amounts of water during periods of
drought.
A study on the water situation in Chat
tooga County has indicated that there will
be a million-gallon per day shortfall of
water by the year 2020. That sounds like
a long time but it's less than 32 years
away.
Long-range water problems aren’t solv
ed overnight. It would be very difficult, for
example, to develop a study on the need
Teaching To Read
A proposal that volunteers be trained
to teach people how to read is one of the
best ideas to come along in years.
It was broached at a recent meeting of
educators, industrialists and businessmen
at the Chattooga County Chamber of Com
merce office.
The success of Best Manufacturing Co.
at Menlo in holding adult education
classes at the plant lends credibility and
enthusiasm to the proposal. It can be done.
It would be almost impossible for a
plant, business, church or volunteer
organization to hire a teacher, buy all the
materials and then recruit potential
students to learn to read. But if volunteers
in those organizations — especially in local
industries — could be trained to teach
basic reading and writing skills in those
organizations, it would be much easier to
recruit students.
Most plants have adequate conference
rooms and many churches, of course, have
plenty of space. Most volunteer groups
could arrange for needed space for such a
worthy effort without too much cost or
difficulty.
The odds are that if a business or in
dustry would sponsor such classes, staff-
Deputies with the Chattooga and Bar
tow County Sheriff's Departments and
Patrol troopers worked long, wet, hard
hours under difficult conditions to make
sure that gridlock didn’t result from the
thousands of extra vehicles pouring into
the Trion-Summerville area.
Volunteers with the Chattooga Coun
ty Historical Society did a good job tak
ing care of inquiries and spectators.
Things appear to have gone as
smoothly as they could have under the cir
cumstances, thanks to a cooperative at
titude and hard work by a lot of Chattooga
Countians.
The battle scenarios were spectacular
on both days as Union and Confederate
reenactors fought to re-create the original
Chickamauga battle of Sept. 19-20, 1863.
The Southern and Northern camps were
authentic to the last campfire and the par
ticipants didn’t seem to be daunted in the
least by the weather.
We're delighted that the Georgia Divi
sion -Civil War Reenactment Assn. Inc.
and the American Civil War Com
memorative Committee Inc. decided to
stage the reenactment in Chattooga Coun
ty. We hope you’'ll consider us for future
reenactment events...maybe it won’t
rain next time.
for a reservoir, determine its location,
design the facility, arrange financing and
then build the structure in less than five
to 10 years.
The state has recommended that one or
more reservoirs be built in the county to
store water. Two could be used to increase
the flow in Raccoon Creek, the city’s main
water source, during periods of drought,
and to provide a 60- to 90-day supply of
water.
It may be months or years before the
city decides what action it wants to pur
sue and whether it should be in concert
with other local governments. But it has
wisely decided to go ahead and take the
first step toward addressing that pro
jected water shortfall.
ed by its own trained volunteers, many of
its employees would jump at the chance to
gain the essential skills of reading and
writing.
We look forward to the further develop
ment of this concept.
News Clips—-
DEFINITION
Miser: A person who lets the rest of the
world go buy. — Detroit News
* * *
NO CLOUDS
Keep your face to the sun and the
shadows will fall behind. — Grit
* * *
AT LARGE
A delegate at large is a man who goes
to a convention without his wife. —
Detroit News
* * *
ALWAYS
Housework is what a woman does that
no one ever notices unless she doesn’t do
it. — Des Moines Tribune
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Going Back In Time
IF ROD SERLING had appeared out
of the fog next to the Chattooga River
Saturday morning and started talking
about how I had wandered into the
“Twilight Zone,” I wouldn’t have been
overly shocked.
Water was standing throughout the
Confederate encampment. A heavy mist
hovered just at treetop level. White tents
were planted on the cool, humid plain as
far as eye could see. The only sounds were
of drilling, wood being chopped, bacon fry
ing and muted conversations.
MANY SOLDIERS were still trying to
coax flames out of sodden wood. Others
were standing inspection or drilling in
ankle-deep mud. Wives were frying bacon
and eggs and making coffee over sunken
campfires that seemed to smolder more
than roar.
Almost 17 hours of steady rain had
pounded the Southern and Union camps.
Some of the sutlers (traveling merchants
of that era) awakened to find themselves
sleeping in muddy water. But life went on.
A battle was to be fought at Chickamauga.
I WANDERED through the camp,
camera in hand, with the eerie feeling that
I had somehow stepped through a door in
time and back to 1863. I felt almost invisi
ble; no one paid the slightest attention to
the photographer in rain gear. There was
no mugging for the camera, no waving.
Remarkable.
The soldiers were dressed in homespun
cotton shirts, wool pants and jackets, and
brogans that fit either foot. They carried
g &
Reflecting On Reenactment
IMPRESSIONS of the 125th Anniver
sary Reenactment of the Battle of
Chickamauga:
Waking up to a dreary and overcast
day on Saturday morning, realizing how
much fun taking pictures of the battle
would be.
Looking at the muddy parking area at
the reenactment site, again realizing how
much fun taking pictures would be.
DISCUSSING with Tommy Toles and
David and Jason Espy how much fun tak
ing pictures would be.
Walking up the seemingly endless
prison road to the entrance of the
battlefield.
Trying to stay as neat as possible while
in transit to the battle area.
THE NEARLY-DISASTROUS
descent down the extremely slick hill
leading to the Confederate camp.
The smell of bacon frying over an open
fire as the reenactors prepared their
breakfasts.
Watching the reenactment companies
go through drills and combat inspections.
THE SURREAL feeling we all had
Viewpoint
By Tommy Toles, Editor
Civil War era firearms. The women wore
ankle-length camp dresses and aprons. No
modern conveniences were visible.
THE SERGEANT MAUJOR yelled at a
couple of soldiers who couldn’t seem to put
their feet in the right place for the drilling.
When he was satisfied, he turned the unit
over to the officer in command.
My early-morning visit to the Con
federate camp was a personal highlight of
the 125th anniversary reenactment of the
Battle of Chickamauga at Pennville.
IT WAS IN the camp, before any spec
tators arrived, that I had that brief ex
perience of having traveled back through
time. That, of course, is what reenactors
also strive for in battle, sans the specter
of a horrible death or a disfiguring wound.
Reenactors on the battlefield tell of
that same experience: explosions of can
non fire reverberating through the trees,
the acrid smoke from thousands of rifles
obscuring the landscape, comrades falling
“dead” at their feet, and charging the
enemy with a determination to take his
position at any cost.
WALKING THROUGH the camp, I
had a better appreciation, for the first
time, of the hardships and terrible dif
ficulties that faced my great-grandfather
at Chickamauga 125 years ago. It was
“living history" at its best. The battles
Saturday and Sunday were just icing on
the cake.
I can’t wait for the next reenactment
and encampment.
Commentary
By Buddy Roberts
while taking pictures at the camp: that of
actually having stepped back in time, as
if we were in an actual Civil War encamp
ment. (If Rod Serling had appeared and
started a monologue, it wouldn't have sur
prised me at all).
The dampness one feels after standing
in a murky pool of water for several
minutes.
The terribly ‘‘authentic’’ rows of port
a-toilets that stood not far from the
campsite.
* * *
THE LOOK of dread and despair on
the faces of NTI officials when it would
start to rain, again and again.
Hanging around the media tent while
waiting for the rain to stop and the battle
to begin.
The almost miraculous way that the
rain stopped and the sky cleared only
moments before the battle started.
Comparing angles of shots with Jason
Espy, while attempting to anticipate can
non fire before it occurred.
* * *
THE SIGHTS and sounds of artillery
and infantry fire during the scenario.
The sense of trust and friendship
see COMMENTARY, page 5-A
Potpourri §
B Rich Jefferson " /
Latent Socialists
WHILE MANY Chattooga Countians were watching
the reconstructed drama of the Battle of Chickamauga last
weekend, I was in another country, fulfilling an obligation
to my family.
While observers of the battle reflected on the brave
young Confederate soldier, who, when asked by a cocky
Union officer why he and his comrades refused to sur
render even when they knew they would certainly lose,
said, ““This is our land and you're standing on it,”” I was
attending my brother-in-law’s wedding in Fredericton,
New Brunswick, Canada.
* * *
CANADA HAS three major political parties, the NDP,
or New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and the Tories
or the Conservative Party. The NDP seems to this
American to be the Communist Party of Canada, the
Liberals are socialists, and the Conservatives frequently
resemble American liberals.
That is to say, most Canadians assume the government
has cradle-to-grave authority over their lives. That is also
the assumption of American liberals, but not of American
conservatives. That’s what this presidential election is
about this year.
* * *
MICHAEL HARRINGTON, America's leading
socialist, is dying of cancer. At a recent farewell party for
him, several of America's better known socialist, ah,
liberals, including Ted Kennedy, came to pay compliments
and goodbyes.
Harrington is known for his success in making liberals
into socialists, ostensibly without them realizing it, and
later getting them to rfalize they had become socialists.
* *
NOT LONG AGO I heard Harrington say on television
that several members of a union had protested at one of
his speeches, but they came to him afterward and said they
agreed with everything he said, including his position in
favor of nationalized health care and hamstringing the
military.
The union men were socialists but hadn’t yet realized,
Harrington said.
Harrington’s program was used at least inadvertent
ly by former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Starting in the late 19605, Trudeau reigned as prime
minister for more than a decade. He was a member of the
Liberal Party, and was a great admirer of the Soviet
Union.
* * *
CANADIAN ATTITUDES toward the U. S. shifted
under Trudeau’s careful guidance, and now many Cana
dians, who once admired the American way of life, say they
don’t see any difference between the U. S. and the USSR.
This attitude is often stridently expressed in the Canadian
news media.
After Trudeau stepped down from his post, he turned
up on the lecture circuit in Moscow. In America our lef
ties don’t go to Moscow to go to school or to lecture; they
go instead to Harvard, as did Ted Kennedy and Mike
Dukakis.
* * *
WHEN TRUDEAU got finished with Canada in the
early 1980 s, the country had no military worth looking for
(they depend openly on us to defend them), and Canada’s
gun laws resembled those of the People’s Republic of
Massachusetts when Dukakis got done with that state.
Maybe our military will resemble Canada’s if Dukakis
is elected. Maybe we will wake up and see we have become
a country of latent socialists, and see that the great thing
about the “Reagan Revolution” was that, for one brief mo
ment, we fought the latent tendency to believe that
government is the saviour and provider.
WHAT I WANT to know now is why Southern
Democrats such as Sam Nunn, Joe Frank Harris and Zell
Miller are all lining up behind Dukakis?
The trouble with living it up is that so often you have
to live it down. — Havythorne (Nev.) Rocket
- SELF-SELLING
It’s all right to believe in yourself — but don’t be too
easily convinced. — Chicago Tribune
PHONE-AGERS
Youth calls to youth. Maybe that’s why your telephone
is always tied up. — Sheffield (Ind.) Press
ALWAYS