Winchester, VA, Confederate Cemetery

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While driving through the Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Winchester on Wednesday, we came upon the Stonewall cemetery dedicated to those Confederate soldiers who died in the battle that took place in that area. Remember, that is only a single battle on one side in a war that killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. This is different from a National Cemetery where soldiers of all wars are buried, whether or not they were killed in war. This just a single battle and a single side in that battle. First, let me say I am in no way sympathetic to the Confederacy or its ideals. Slavery is wrong at any time with any group of people. But, I can't help but be sympathetic to those families whose lives were so disrupted by a country split by ideologies and going to battle to remain intact. It's sobering when you see so many headstones row after row side by side and they represent only a small part of the entire war that took place in this country. It is also sobering when you realize that much of the same animus that triggered that war is still simmering within the very same states that fought to maintain cemetery. We must make sure it cannot happen again!