"Will no one speak in defense of our ancestors?"

Jim, last September my Dad's sister passed away. She was the last of her generation and is the one who bequeathed to me my Great-grandfather John Roberts' WBTS diary. She had told me so many stories over the years that I will always treasure. Great-grandfather's wife, Laura Chaddick, was much younger than he and she died in 1940. My aunt remembered her very well as she herself was age 17 in 1940.

One story she told me several times was how when Grandma Laura felt "them boys" of theirs, meaning my Grandfather Jeff and his brother Robert, needed some corporal punsihment she would demand Grandpa John do the honors. She said he would grab the boy in need of correction, pull him close to himself, pull off his belt and then while screaming and yelling like a wildman he would use the belt to beat his own leg. She said this usually scared the boys into better behavior.

It took me a while to really figure this story out. It shows me two things though. One, this veteran of Shiloh, Murfreesboro and Chickamuaga didn't have it in his heart to strike a child, even if it was for the child's best interest. Two, when my Grandpa Jeff passed away in 1970 I forever lost contact with a man who may have been able to tell me what the Rebel Yell sounded like. I would bet a donut that was what he heard during those "beatings" :-)