Video from our Roof

Here is a video Stephen took of our house from the roof when we were cleaning the gutters a few weeks ago.

Family Pictures

Yesterday, we had Thanksgiving dinner with Mammaw (our maternal grandmother) and our cousins. After dinner, I took family pictures. Here are some of the best. You can click on any of them for higher quality.

Everyone


Aunt Teri, Mammaw, and my Mother


Mammaw and the Grandchildren


Mammaw, Aunt Teri, Mommy, Alyson and Rachel

Mammaw and her grandsons

Rachel, Joshua and Stephen

Why the Army of Northern Virgina Surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse

by Joshua Horn
from Lee's Lieutentants by D. S. Freeman

Buy the Books Here

On April 9^th, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virgina to U. S. Grant near Appomattox Courthouse. This was the same army that for the past four years had defeated army after army. It was the same army that had won brilliant victories such as Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. What caused this army to be forced to surrender? Douglas S. Freeman says this in his book, Lee's Lieutenants, “Wherever the blame might be placed, it did not rest on the men in the ranks.”¹ If it was not the soldiers' fault, what was the cause of this defeat? There were three main causes: lack of troops, inadequate command, and the troop's hunger and fatigue.

As the Civil War progressed, the Confederate army began to have less and less troops. They had been outnumbered throughout the whole war, but as the war neared its close, the Confederates had the recurring problem of not being able to replace the troops that they lost. For example, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, in the middle of the war, the Union Army numbered about 114,000 while the Confederates numbered 72,500. When the siege of Petersburg was finished, just a few weeks before the end, 45,000 Confederates were opposing over 100,000 Federals. When the Army of Northern Virgina surrendered, only 27,000 troops were left.

Near the end of the war, the Union's cavalry sent raids to destroy all the railroads running to Richmond. The goal of these attacks was to cut off supplies and reinforcements to the troops defending the Confederate capital. While the infantry was trying to hold an eleven mile front of trenches against the more powerful Union infantry, it had to send out more troops to defend attacks at the railways it still had in operation. This weakened the meager forces holding the trenches, until they had only 1,000 troops per mile of trenches. Because many of the railroads were captured by the enemy, and also because of the incompetence of the Confederate quartermaster department, the soldiers were very short on food and other supplies that were necessary for the army to operate.

Much of the hard, constant fighting near the end of the war was at close quarters. Several times the troops were driven back from their positions, and the commanders had to lead their troops forward personally to retake the ground they had lost to the enemy. This created many casualties among the command. Douglas S. Freeman writes, “More frequent battles at close quarters had prompted officers to take more desperate personal risks when their men fought somewhat less well and the Federals fought better.”² As an example, there were only eighty-five colonels with Lee when he surrendered, even though 200 were required to command the regiments he had.³ Because of this killing off of the officers, fit officers of lower rank could not be found to replace those who were killed in higher positions. This resulted in men being put in positions that they were not fit for. Inexperienced or incapable generals did not lead the soldiers as well, which resulted in more defeats for the army.

On April 2, the Union army penetrated the thin Confederate line, forcing the Confederate army to abandon Richmond and retreat. They tried to reach to one of the few railroads in operation, to receive rations and travel down to North Carolina to join up with another army. They were forced to march quickly, so that they were not caught and pinned down by the powerful Union army. Because of this need for speed, the soldiers were ordered to march all day and night. Added to this hardship was the fact that they did not have any food for several days. One soldier said, “The constant marching and fighting without sleep or food are rapidly thinning the ranks of this grand old army. Men who have stood by their flags since the beginning of the war fall out of their ranks and are captured, simply because it is beyond their power of physical endurance to go any farther.”⁴ All but the most tough and loyal troops fell out of ranks from hunger and fatigue.

On the night of April 6^th, the Confederate column which was marching to the railroad was split up by Federal troops because of a misunderstanding between the tired generals. Greatly outnumbered, half the army surrendered after a short but desperate fight. The other half of the army was finally cut off and surrounded on April 8^th, and Lee realized that the tired troops were too outnumbered to be able to fight their way out. The army surrendered on April 9^th, 1865.

We see that there were several reasons why Lee was forced to surrender. His army was driven back and finally surrounded because of the lack of troops and also because they had been marching and fighting for several days without food or sleep. This situation was worsened by the fact that there were not enough good commanders to lead the troops well. These are the three main reasons why Lee's army was forced to surrender.

1Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants, a Study in Command (New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons) volume 3 Gettysburg to Appomattox, p. 189

2Ibid, p. 547

3Ibid, p. 744

4Ibid, p. 718

Buy the Books Here

Climbing a Tree

Last Thursday we went to our grandmother's house and climbed a tree. It was hard to get up in it, but once you were up it was easy. Joshua got in it easier because he is taller, but I climbed up higher and he went down to get pictures. When I was climbing up I had to wait for Mommy to go inside, because she would have been scared looking at me climbing up so high. After I got down Joshua went up and I took some pictures of him.

This is me in a fork in the tree(which was as far as I got):

Me climbing down

I am still trying to get down


Here is a closeup of Joshua in the tree


Joshua hanging on a tree branch


A shot from the distance of Joshua in the tree(You can not even see in this picture where I was because he was so low)

Reading of Deuteronomy

Our church read through the book of Deuteronomy on Friday October 24. We started at 6:00 pm and went till 9:05, and in the middle there was a twenty minute break for snacks. We did it by each family getting two or three chapters and the families could split them up however they wanted in their family. We got chapters 21-23 and Daddy and Mommy each read a chapter and then Joshua and I split the other chapter. You had to go up to the podium and read there, but since I am not very tall I had to stand on my tiptoes to read the bible on the podium. To understand the book of Deuteronomy you must know how to understand the principles on which the laws were based. We also see Christ and some types of Christ in the book of Deuteronomy. Our church is going to spend about 1 1/2 years doing expository sermons on Deuteronomy which is why we read through it as a church.

Durham Book Sale

Last week we went to the Durham library book sale. This is the second one we have gone to. The first one was in the spring. It is one of the best book sales around. All the hardbacks are $1 and paperbacks are 50 cents, except for some old books. One of the books I got was The Officer's Guide, A ready Reference on Customs and Correct Procedures Which Pertain to Commissioned Officers of the Army of the United States.

Some more books I bought

Here are the titles of the ones I got:

• The Gulag Archipelago
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  
• The Gallant Hood (a biography of the Confederate General John Bell Hood)
• Espionage and Counterespionage

We enjoy Charles Dickens books very much. We listen to them in the car when we go on long trips. My favorite so far is the Pickwick Papers.

Washington Day 2

We slept in the boy's room at the Bradrick's house. Daddy got up at 4:40 am to work on his talk and I got up at 6:00 am. We got showered, ate breakfast and left at 6:55 am for the conference which was an hour away. The Browns, also, were staying at the Bradrick's house and went to the conference with the Bradrick's. We had to set up the building for the conference and then Scott Brown did the first talk at 9:00 am on Acts 20 about Paul's ministry and what we should learn from it. Then, after a ten minute break, Daddy did his talk on Samuel Rutherford which I had helped him prepare while traveling on both days. Then we had lunch which was sandwiches, tortilla chips, celery, carrots, and brownies. Then Scott Brown did a talk on Church Killers from James 3. Thirty minutes after it ended we had to get out of the building because the building needed to be cleaned up, so the men kept talking outside. Some people were offended by Daddy when he said that Arminianism was a heresy. Now we are on our way to the Bradricks to spend the night and get up early in the morning to drive to Seattle for a 7:00 am flight which will put us back at our house about 7:30 pm. Click here to see NCFIC's homepage and here for the upcoming events. To buy CD sets by Scott Brown click here

Washington Day 1

Yesterday Daddy and I flew to Washington for a Men's Leadership Conference. We got up at 5:00 am to drive to Charlotte to get on the 1st leg of the flight at 9:40 am to San Francisco. The drive and the 1st leg of the flight were uneventful. The flight was very full and we were at the back so we were the last one's to get off the flight. We only had 22 min to get to the connecting gate which was in a different terminal on the other side of security so we ran through the airport, went through security again, ran through the rest of the airport and got to the gate seven minutes before the plane was supposed to leave but they close the gates ten minutes before the plane leaves so we did not get on. The person at the counter by the gate said that the plane had left when it was still sitting there! One good thing about that was that we got to have lunch and Daddy got to work more on his talk during the three hour wait for the next flight to Seattle. The flight to Seattle was uneventful but since we were late for the rental car we got a eight seater instead of a two seater. We were staying at the Bradricks which was a two hour drive from Seattle. On the way we stopped at an Arby's to get dinner. We arrived at their house about 9:00 pm their time and we stayed up about an hour talking.

20 Years of Marriage

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." Genesis 2:18






On October 9 our family celebrated the beginning of our family, the wedding of Dan and Kendra on October 8, 1988. This was our 20th anniversary, a very significant milestone in our family. If you have been following our blog, you will remember Dan and I celebrated on our own with a trip to Bermuda in January of this year, so we wanted to include the children in the celebration when the actual day arrived.

We chose the 9th to celebrate because the 8th fell on a Wednesday, which is when our local church body gathers for prayer. It was very sweet to have our brothers and sisters in Christ pray for our marriage and blessings on our family on the actual anniversary. Then on Thursday evening, we took the family to the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant, for a 4 course dinner. We started with cheese fondue for vegetables, apples, and bread; then salad; followed by chicken, beef, fish, and shrimp cooked in oil or broth; and finished with a white chocolate and dark chocolate fondue with rice crispy treats, strawberries, bananas, fudge brownies, and cheesecake. I can safely say nobody left hungry!

I am so thankful for the wonderful husband my Father in heaven provided for me. I do not deserve the way he washes me and the rest of the family in the word twice each day and prays for our family and patiently teaches many things to the children. I am so thankful for how he leads us in righteousness and his zeal for the Lord far surpasses mine. I am excited to see what the next 20 years has in store for our family.

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Genesis 2:24

Trip to Pennsylvania

A couple days ago Daddy went on a business trip to Washington, DC and Pennsylvania. This weekend he is going to Washington state for an NCFIC regional men's leadership meeting. He is doing a sermon on the ministry of Samuel Rutherford. Rachel and I went along to read a book he bought in Scotland, Letters of Samuel Rutherford to him. We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and we went to the National Civil War museum with Grandma while Daddy went to a meeting. Here are some pictures:

Rachel reading the Letters of Samuel Rutherford


Pennsylvania Scenery

The Effects of Sin

Last Friday we had something unusual happen to our car at Daddy's office building. Joshua had been sent down to get something out of the car and when he was looking at the ground he saw glass. He thought that someone had broken a bottle, but when he looked up it was our car window! It was the front passenger window on the Volvo. They used a tool that made a scratch in the paint that went down to the metal. The glass was all over the car when we saw it. They had broken in to look for a laptop in Stephen's briefcase, but there was not one so they stole our radio. Too bad they didn't take Stephen's school books (ha! ha!)

The window cost $77 but the radio cost $99! The worst part of it all was that they did not eject the CD (ha! ha! ha!) The CD was the easiest to replace because we just had to burn a new CD from Audible (it was The Civil War: A Narrative (3 Vol. Set) by Shelby Foote). It was very providential that there was not a laptop in the bag or we wouldn't just be spending $176! We did not even bother calling the police because they would of just done a report and nothing else. And guess who gets to pay for replacing the window, but not the radio? You guessed it - the one who left his briefcase in the car.

These are some pictures we took:

This is where the radio used to be

This is where we put plastic over the window

This is the glass on the floor and the book that they left

Father Son Retreat messages and a NCIFC conference

Mr. Scott Brown, an elder at our church along with my father and two others, just put the sermons from the father son retreat in MP3 on his website. You can buy them here.


Our church does a lot of NCFIC (National Center for Family Integrated Churches) conferences. My father has spoken at many of them. We are doing one the first week in December. Kevin Swanson, Scott Brown and the other elders of our church including my father are speaking. To sign up, click here.

My father preaches a lot at our church. You can listen to his sermons here.

Charlie Zahm singing at Bannockburn

We decided to put up another video clip we took of Charlie Zahm singing in Scotland. This clip is at Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce defeated the English. First there are a few speeches, and then Mr. Zahm sings "Flower of Scotland", "Johnny Cope", "Scots Wha Hae", and "Remember the Alamo."



The video is pretty long, if you want to go directly to Charlie Zahm, drag the slider so that it says about 21:00 min on the right.

If you want to see another video from our trip, please click here. To see Mr. Zahm's website, go to charliezahm.com.

Flower of Scotland

O Flower of Scotland,
When will we see,
Your like again,
That fought and died for,
Your wee bit Hill and Glen,
And stood against him,
King Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

The hills are bare now,
And autumn leaves lie thick and still,
O'er land that is lost now,
Which those so dearly held,
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

Those days are past now,
And in the past
They must remain,
But we can still rise now,
And be the nation again,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

Johnny Cope

Cope sent a challenge frae Dunbar,
Sayin "Charlie meet me an' ye daur;
An' I'll learn ye the airt o' war,
If ye'll meet me in the morning."

Chorus
O Hey! Johnnie Cope are ye waukin' yet?
Or are your drums a-beating yet?
If ye were waukin' I wad wait,
Tae gang tae the coals in the morning. *

When Charlie looked the letter upon,
He drew his sword and scabbard from,
Come, follow me, my merry men,
And we'll meet Johnnie Cope in the morning.

Chorus

Now Johnnie, be as good as your word,
Come, let us try baith fire and sword,
And dinna flee like a frichted bird,
That's chased frae its nest i' the morning.

Chorus

When Johnnie Cope he heard o' this,
He thocht it wouldna be amiss,
Tae hae a horse in readiness,
Tae flee awa in the morning.

Chorus

Fye now, Johnnie, get up an' rin,
The Highland bagpipes mak' a din,
It's better tae sleep in a hale skin,
For it will be a bluidie morning.

Chorus

When Johnnie Cope tae Dunbar cam,
They speired at him, "Where's a' your men"
"The de'il confound me gin I ken,
For I left them a' in the morning."

Chorus



Scots Wae Hae

'Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,

Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,

Welcome tae your gory bed,

Or tae Victorie!

'Now's the day, and now's the hour:

See the front o' battle lour,

See approach proud Edward's power -

Chains and Slaverie!

'Wha will be a traitor knave?

Wha will fill a coward's grave?

Wha sae base as be a slave?

Let him turn and flee!

'Wha, for Scotland's king and law,

Freedom's sword will strongly draw,

Freeman stand, or Freeman fa',

Let him on wi' me!

'By Oppression's woes and pains!

By your sons in servile chains!

We will drain our dearest veins,

But they shall be free!

'Lay the proud usurpers low!

Tyrants fall in every foe!

Liberty's in every blow! -

Let us do or dee!'

Remember the Alamo
A hundred and eighty were challenged by Travis to die
By the line that he drew with his sword when the battle was high
Any man that will fight to the death cross over
But if you want to live you'd better fly
And over the line went a hundred and seventy nine

Chorus: Hey Santa Anna we're killing your soldiers below
So the rest of Texas will know, and remember the Alamo

Ol' Bowie lay dying his powder was ready and dry
Flat on his back Bowie killed them a few in reply
And young Davy Crockett was laughing and singing with a gallant look in his eyes
For God and for freedom a man more than willing to die

Chorus: Hey Santa Anna we're killing your soldiers below
So the rest of Texas will know, and remember the Alamo

Well a courier was sent from the battlements bloody and loud
With the words of farewell from the men so gallant and proud
Grieve not little darling my dying if Texas is sovereign and free
We'll never surrender and ever with liberty be

Chorus: Hey Santa Anna we're killing your soldiers below
So the rest of Texas will know, and remember the Alamo

If you want to see another video from our trip, please click here. Here is Charlie Zahm's Website.

Father Son Retreat - Day 2

Saturday morning, Daddy got up about at 5:30 (I don't think he actually slept) , I got up at 6:00, and Stephen got up about 6:45. Daddy went to the truck to work on his sermon, and I walked out to watch some of our friends from church fish. About 7:00 they served breakfast, which was french toast and sausage. It was very good! The first message was by Mr. Bradrick entitled "A Young Man's Roadmap for Victory." He spoke on how fathers need to train their sons to fight battles for God. I enjoyed it. After a short break, Mr. Brown gave another message on how sons should relate to girls in the church. Next Mr. Dohm spoke next on purity. These were all the messages for the morning. Here are some pictures:

Mr. Bradrick

Some people from our church listening

Mr. Dohm



Mr. Breagy and his son Samuel

Next we ate lunch, which was sloppy joes and potato chips. After we ate lunch, there was a time for the fathers and sons to be together and learn more about each other.

At 2:30, the games started! We were on the blue team. The first game was tug-a-war. It was the green team vs. the red team. It was really close, and each team won once. Then for some reason they decided to send us off the do different games, and then come back and finish the tug-a-war. This year we did "Highland" games, because we went to some in Scotland with Mr. Brown. First we did the tabor toss, and then we tried to throw a small rock from Iona, Scotland.

Me throwing the rock

After the Highland games, we finished the tug-a-war (which our team lost at) and did a canoe race, and another game where you had to catch water balloons in a tarp. It was a lot of fun, even though our team was not the best. After the games there was a little free time, in which Stephen and I went out in the canoes with a lot of other boys (and men) and tried to tip each other over.

I am the one on the left with the grey shirt on

After the tug-a-war

We had hamburgers for dinner, and after dinner Daddy gave a message on the spiritual, wisdom, and material inheritances that fathers should pass on to their children. It was a good message. After Daddy's message, we had ice-cream, and we went home late at night. I really enjoyed this father son retreat.





You can read the posts about the father son retreat last year here:
Day 1
Day 2

Father Son Retreat - Day 1

Last weekend, we went to a Father Son Retreat at our church (Hope Baptist Church). It started Friday night, and ended Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun! Stephen and I convinced Daddy to camp, so we left from work and arrived after stopping at Walmart to get a tarp, because the weather forecast that it might rain that night. For dinner there was pizza. After we ate dinner, we set up our tent, with the tarp under it. It wasn't too hard, and so we finished right before the sermons started. The first was by Mr. Brown, and he talked about what fathers and sons can learn from the relationship between God and Jesus. Here is a picture of Mr. Brown:



The next message was a short dialogue between Mr. Brown and Mr. Bradrick on how fathers exasperate their sons, and how sons need to honor their fathers.


After a short testimony by a man from Texas, Mr. Breagy, another elder at our church, gave a message about what we can learn from the story of Daniel. He said that we should resist temptation and not be enticed by the evils of the world around us.

Mr. Breagy

After the messages, we got to have smores, and we finally went to bed at about 11:30. We got in our sleeping bags, and then it started raining very hard. As the water poured down the side of the tent, it got caught under the tent by the tarp, so in a few minutes we were in a puddle of water! I got on the huge air mattress we borrowed from Mammaw (with my wet pillow.) And Stephen moved to the back seat of the truck! We spent the rest of the night trying to sleep!

Picking Apples

Picking apples has consequences, especially when doing it at dusk, like getting bee stings that swell your eye shut. Stephen got two bites right over his eye on his forehead which swelled over his eye, and one on his finger which spread all over his hand. Joshua got one under his ear which hardly swelled at all. Stephen's eye was almost covered before he went to bed and it was covered during the night, but it had gone down some in the morning.

Stephen is thankful that his sister Rachel was quick to get some ice for his forehead, and his mother gave him some 24-hour allergy relief, and later some acetaminophen and ibuprofen for pain. It was less than five minutes after Stephen came in screaming that Joshua came in with with similar screams of pain. As Rachel was getting ice for Joshua, Stephen's finger was stung, and we saw 3 bees buzzing in the house. My mother could not find any flying insect killer, but ant killer stopped them from flying so she could swat them on the floor, then Rachel disposed of the mean critters and cleaned the spray off the floor. After the excitement, Daddy came in with the apples, and we filled the dehydrator and 2 bags to freeze while Stephen read from Usher's The Annuls of the World.

His eye:

His finger:

He can make a good pirate face:

Church Planting Conference

On September 5-6 the National Center for Family Integrated Churches did a conference on church planting. The speakers were Dan Horn, Scott Brown, Steve Breagy, and Jason Dohm. On the first day Scott Brown started out with a talk on the "Centrality of Christ in the Church", which was about how Christ is the center of the church and how it can not go on without him. The second talk was by Jason Dohm titled "Establishing the Elements of Biblical Church Life" on how the church should look and how to do it. Then Dan Horn did a talk on the "Complementary Roles of Church and Home" which was about what roles are the church's and what roles the are the home's and how the church is doing the family's roles and the state is doing the church's roles and what the consequences of this are. Then Steve Breagy did a talk titled "Church Planting Checklist" which was not a checklist, because you can not make a checklist of all of what to do to plant a church. We might want a checklist of everything to do, but all situations are different so there is no right way to do it every time.

Then the second day started out with a talk by Dan Horn on church membership and why it is important to have it, with reasons like "the shepherds need to know who they are to protect." The second talk that day was by Scott Brown on Church Covenants, which was on the necessity to have one and he also walked through the covenant of Hope Baptist Church and why they had certain things in there. Next Dan Horn did a talk on "Issues and Answers for Maintaining Doctrinal Unity" which was about what to do about doctrinal unity to prevent a split. Then Jason Dohm did a talk on "Biblical Church Government" which was about qualifications for elders and deacons and he went through the passages which had the qualifications in them. Then Dan Horn did a talk on "Issues and Answers on Leaving a Church" which was about how to leave a church and why and how to avoid those who have left wrongly from their last church. Then Scott Brown ended with a talk on "The Loveliness of the Church" and about how Christ relates to the church and how the church is the bride of Christ. You should get these CDs if you are going to plant a church or if you already have. To buy the CD set, click here. To see upcoming NCFIC events, click here.

Baseball Game

On Tuesday August 25 we went to a baseball game with Shea, Stephen, and Mr. Breagy. The game was at the Durham Bull's stadium, and they were playing against the Indianapolis Indians.

Shea, Rachel, Joshua, Stephen, and Stephen

We ate dinner at the baseball game, and we got cotton candy too. The Durham Bulls beat the Indians at the bottom of the 10th inning. It was a really close game! We had a lot of fun since it was the Breagys first time going to the Durham Ball Park. They really liked the bull snorting when the Bulls hit a home run!

This is the player who hit the home run.

The bull snorting after they hit a home run.

We did not stay for the whole game because it was going so long, but the Breagys didn't leave right when we did, so they heard when the Bulls won. We tried to find the radio station to listen to on the way home, but we couldn't.