While deployed in combat zones abroad, Eanes said, he carried a small Confederate battle flag next to his heart in memory of his Confederate great-great-grandfathers, Pvt. John Daniel Kirby, Company C, 8th Virginia Calvary; and Pvt. James Eanes, Company K, 21st Virginia Calvary. Both men escaped from Appomattox and never surrendered. Kirby later was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor by the Wytheville Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

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