Final chapter for these soldiers from the american revolutionary war

[spike.t]

 

[Jfet]

I saw this. It is a very emotional story. The American Revolution was a bloody civil war. A war in which both sides fought viciously against each other. Today, though, we have a great lesson in forgiveness and the benefits of making friends with our enemies. A lesson we need to continue to apply.

 

[Daveboone]

And to this day, few nations in the world hold a closer relationship than the U.S. and Great Britain.

 

[Red Leg]

Very moving. We are the only allies referred to as "THE" special relationship.

The war in the South was particularly bitter. British forces were very dependent upon loyalist regiments, and atrocities were committed by both sides.

With the exception of the European wars, the US has tended to bring its soldiers home for final burial. The British Army has tended to create cemeteries where their forces fell. During my second career, we lived in Northern Virginia and almost every year spent a week on the Outer Banks. Those trips always included a day at Ocracoke Island for a great lunch and quiet visit to the British cemetery on the island.

The longest and perhaps most bitter campaign of WWII was the Battle of the Atlantic. In May 1942, only five months since it entered the war, the US Navy was still woefully unprepared to deal with the U Boat threat and much of the escort burden still rested with the Royal Navy. US merchant traffic was taking huge losses off the Outer Banks, and the Royal Navy was doing what it could to help. On the night of 11 May, HMT Bedfordshire was struck by a torpedo and sank immediately. All 37 crewman were lost - the majority trapped within the ship, but four washed ashore at Ocracoke.

The local community buried them in a sperate section of the village's cemetery and the graves were cared for by the town. Eventually, the plot was leased in perpetuity to the UK. The four graves and a monument dedicated to the crew are carefully maintained under the Union Jack. Members of the British embassy hold a ceremony there every year on the anniversary of the sinking.

On the monument are Rupert Brooke's famous lines which one can find in almost all British military cemeteries on foreign soil.

“If I should die think only this of me
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.”

Had to laugh a bit looking at some of those reenactors. Both armies were half starved most of the time. A couple of those fellows would have been lucky to march two miles in a day, much less 20.

 

[WAB]

The war of the Atlantic came right to our shores. My father-in-law was manning the guns guarding Halifax harbor. They had multiple u-boat sightings at the harbor mouth waiting for convoys coming out of the Bedford Basin.

There is a painting of a very famous action on the South Shore of Nova Scotia in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. A Canadian destroyer could not bring her guns to bear on a u-boat attempting to submerge, so the captain ordered full speed ahead and drove her onto the rocks.

My wife’s uncle was in the merchant navy in convoy duty. To say they hated those u-boats and their crews would be a gross understatement.

 

[spike.t]

I saw this. It is a very emotional story. The American Revolution was a bloody civil war. A war in which both sides fought viciously against each other. Today, though, we have a great lesson in forgiveness and the benefits of making friends with our enemies. A lesson we need to continue to apply.

Thanks not something that I had read or heard ....

 

[Jfet]

Thanks not something that I had read or heard ....

In the legendarim of the Fetner Family, we started in South Carolina before the American Revolutionary War. During the Revolutionary War our ancestor served under Archibald Campbell and thought very highly of him. After the war, our ancestor bestowed the name Archibald Campbell on his first born. Through several generations you would see the name Archibald Campbell Fetner appear often in our genealogy. The question is was Archibald Campbell an American officer or a British officer. There are stories for both options.

 

[steve white]

Very moving. We are the only allies referred to as "THE" special relationship.

The war in the South was particularly bitter. British forces were very dependent upon loyalist regiments, and atrocities were committed by both sides.

With the exception of the European wars, the US has tended to bring its soldiers home for final burial. The British Army has tended to create cemeteries where their forces fell. During my second career, we lived in Northern Virginia and almost every year spent a week on the Outer Banks. Those trips always included a day at Ocracoke Island for a great lunch and quiet visit to the British cemetery on the island.

The longest and perhaps most bitter campaign of WWII was the Battle of the Atlantic. In May 1942, only five months since it entered the war, the US Navy was still woefully unprepared to deal with the U Boat threat and much of the escort burden still rested with the Royal Navy. US merchant traffic was taking huge losses off the Outer Banks, and the Royal Navy was doing what it could to help. On the night of 11 May, HMT Bedfordshire was struck by a torpedo and sank immediately. All 37 crewman were lost - the majority trapped within the ship, but four washed ashore at Ocracoke.

The local community buried them in a sperate section of the village's cemetery and the graves were cared for by the town. Eventually, the plot was leased in perpetuity to the UK. The four graves and a monument dedicated to the crew are carefully maintained under the Union Jack. Members of the British embassy hold a ceremony there every year on the anniversary of the sinking.

On the monument are Rupert Brooke's famous lines which one can find in almost all British military cemeteries on foreign soil.

“If I should die think only this of me
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.”

Had to laugh a bit looking at some of those reenactors. Both armies were half starved most of the time. A couple of those fellows would have been lucky to march two miles in a day, much less 20.

When folks were not half-starved, it was the outdoorsman to thank. During Valley Forge one old fisherman suggested they net the shad which were known to him to be running. They had plenty shad to eat!

 

[TheGrayRider]

God please continue to bless America and our veterans of the Revolutionary War. My grandfather’s tombstone (9 generations back) who fought under General Francis Marion “The Swamp Fox” in the South Carolina Militia. Happy hunting, TheGrayRider.

 

[PARA45]

Thank you all for the history lessons.

 

[Jfet]

A very good look at the story of the battle of Camden, the recent archeology, and the ceremony for the fallen.