Chuck, I know. I didn't take it that way or mean that I though you intended it in that manner.

My comment was intended to say that sometime the proper research of even the littlest of phrases of "family oral history" can and often does open the "door of understanding" to such fantastic and amazing deeds and conditions that these soldiers endured.

I myself in this case thought "Oh well, walking barefoot even in the snow was pretty common". Oh, How easily we discount the price these men paid.

When I discovered that incident in the winter of '64, it hit me like a ton of bricks "That's why it stuck with G-grandpa!!" And this was the surviving memory of a veteran, who had been in the first rush in South Carolina to enlist in 1861. He served the entire 4 years with the Army of Northern Virginia, lost 3 brothers in the war, and laid down his musket with R.E.Lee April 9th '65. He was wounded severely during the 7 Days Battle in a Unit that suffered one of the highest casuality rates of any unit in the Confederate Army. And the only thing that G-grandpa would speak of his experences to his son was, "Leaving Bloodly Footprints in the Snow".

I wished I could have talked to G-grandpa of what he did with the knowledge I have today.