Abingdon ceremony honors veterans, past and present

ABINGDON, Va. – With trumpets, bagpipes and cannon fire, Abingdon paid tribute Wednesday to centuries of veterans who have served this country.

With the dedication of a historical sign to the Veterans’ Memorial Park, the focus of Wednesday’s ceremony was on the 200 citizen soldiers who marched from here in 1780, heading over the mountains to a battle that helped turn the tide of the American Revolution.

Mention also was made of those who fought in all American wars leading up to the present, and the shooting death of 13 people, including a soldier from the Tri-Cities region, at Fort Hood, Texas, a week ago.

“Today we are engaged in a great war unlike any we have known before, waged by cowardly terrorists who challenge the very existence of our nation,” said Emmitt Yeary, president and chairman of the Veterans’ Memorial Park Foundation.

“An unwitting ally of the enemies of this or any nation is the complacency or indifference of its citizens,” Yeary said. “We cannot afford to forget that the price of freedom is constant vigilance.”

Paul Carson, superintendent of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, said Americans also should remember those who stood up for freedom in another time of fear and trepidation: the nation’s war for independence.

“There are no living veterans of the American Revolution, but their service and sacrifice made our country a reality,” Carson said. “There would be no Veterans’ Day today if they had not given their time and lives for the cause of independence.”

Carson read from a letter penned by a young soldier following the Battle of King’s Mountain, which he said tells a universal story of all veterans who have fought to defend American freedom.

“The sky was overcast with clouds, and at times a light mist of rain falling,” Carson read from the letter written by 16-year-old James Collins. “Our provisions were scanty, and hungry men are apt to be fractious. Each one felt his situation … everything was at stake. Life, liberty, prosperity and even the fate of wife, children and friends seemed to depend on the issue. Death or victory was the only way to escape suffering.”

Carson described the battle where about 900 patriots, many of whom had marched all night in the rain, took a hill occupied by a superior force of loyalist troops in just over an hour – a victory that inspired many to join the patriot ranks and began the unraveling of British occupation.

“The dead lay in heaps on all sides while the groans of the wounded were heard in every direction,” Collins wrote. “I could not help turning away from the scene before me in horror, and though exulting in victory could not refrain from shedding tears.”

At Wednesday’s Veterans’ Day ceremony, Vice-mayor French Moore, a U.S. Army veteran, read a proclamation from the Abingdon Town Council commending the men who marched over the mountains from “the backwater country” to victory.

He said the citizen soldier “is one of the foundations upon which the continued survival of our republic is built.”

“We can never fully repay our debt of gratitude to those heroic men and women who served, were wounded or even died in battle,” said Supervisor Tom Taylor, who read a proclamation from the Washington County Board of Supervisors, also honoring America’s veterans.

“We continue to draw inspiration from the heroism and dedication of those who currently serve and sacrifice.”

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