“To live and die in Dixie”

 

View from the top of the cemetery
looking toward town

A

merican by birth. Southern by the grace of God.

This was the quote hanging over the door to my bedroom when I was in high school. In the intemperance of youth, my reasons for aligning myself with the Confederacy were a bit misplaced. But Dr. Rembert Carter’s Western Civilizations course and his emphasis on studying primary documents rather than the history books written after the fact helped intellectually align my thinking with history, philosophy, politics, and theology. I am now more Southern than ever.

Allow that small bit of trivial context to help you understand why my family feels so at home here in Front Royal, Virginia.

We moved here just one month ago. And we loved the town right from the start. But as we have gotten to know the town and her people a bit better, we have just fallen more and more in love with Front Royal. This past Saturday, despite in impending rain storm, we decided to go exploring a bit more in the town—and our new-found love affair continues to increase in passion.

This is a truly Southern town. As we explored the town, we found the Front Royal Heritage Society, the Civil War Rifle Museum, and the Front Royal Visitor’s Center and Front Royal museum. The visitor’s center is actually housed in the historic Front Royal train station, long since replaced by a more modern train station a little ways out of town. This little museum explains the origin of the name Front Royal, the circumstances that led to Bing Crosby’s building a baseball stadium here, and many other very interesting things.

Mosby’s Monument with a cannon—top left of picture

“Erected 1899 by the survivors of Mosby’s Command in memory of seven comrades executed while prisoners of war near this spot.”

The cemetery, which is absolutely beautiful and is still being expanded and used today, contains many graves from the War Between the States as well as graves from Revolutionary War times. Two Civil War cannons flank a monument at the top of the main hill. This monument is a tribute to a group of Confederate soldiers known as Mosby’s Raiders. Some of Mosby’s Raiders were executed by Yankee troops while being held as prisoners of war. The inscription on the monument is in the callout box to the left.

David posing at some
playground equipment

Front Royal also has a ton playgrounds around the town. David has always loved playgrounds, so this is a feature of particular interest to him. And the best playground in our town is the huge one right next to our house.

So as we were exploring the town this past Saturday, David made use of a playground we had not noticed before while Kim and I took pictures of some of the houses along the street and visited a small shop nestled in the midst of the houses there. The log house you see below is actually one of the residential houses there on the street. The neighboring houses include Colonial homes, grand Victorians, early 20th century farm houses, and homes from the 1950s and 1970s. So Front Royal is Southern and yet eclectic.

Old log home near the center of town

I have a lot of Yankee friends who may not understand the appeal here. And I hope none of you are offended by my deep-rooted Confederate nature. However, I will end today’s post with a quote from Edward A. Pollard, editor of the Richmond Times Herald during the period of the War of Northern Aggression (or as the Yankee re-writers of history have misnomered it, the American Civil War).

A large proportion of the active politicians of the North pretended to give in their adhesion to the State Rights school of politics; but, like all the alliances of Northern politicians with the South—selfish, cunning, extravagant of professions, carefully avoiding trials of its fidelity unhealthy, founded on a sentiment of treachery to its own section, and educated in perfidy—it was a deceitful union, and could not withstand the test of a practical question.

Okay...it’s a written history rather than a primary document. But at least it was written by an eye-witness shortly after the war ended. And you just gotta love the antipathy dripping from the prose.

American by birth—Southern by the grace of God!