RLL 58: Memorial Day 2021

You're listening to Radio Looks Lucid episode 58 and the title of today's episode is Memorial Day 2021. Well hello everybody I'm Steve Matthews. Thanks for joining me for this latest episode of Radio Looks Lucid.

Today's program is going to be a little bit different than most of the other programs that I do. I usually do a fair amount of commentary on ongoing political or things that I think are of interest to Christians and I think just to people in general.

But today I'm going to do things, actually I'm going to do things a little bit differently. I've got a little different program just because it is Memorial Day. I mean this is Memorial Day weekend and today is in fact I'm recording this on Saturday May the 29th.

So it's Memorial Day weekend and I hope all of you have been having an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend here so far. It's a long weekend, an opportunity to take a little bit of a break from our routine and maybe also to remember some things that we ought to remember as well.

I'm going to talk a little bit about that. You know it's one thing that's kind of interesting so far today about this Memorial Day weekend is how cool it is here in Cincinnati. Our high was 55 degrees today which is really unusually cool for this time of year.

I mean generally speaking we get in to this time of year and you're looking at temperatures probably at least in the 70s. I mean that's pretty typical but it was gray out, it was rainy kind of overnight and even on Friday and now here today we've got this cool weather again.

So I'm wondering if you say it doesn't really feel much like a typical Memorial Day. It doesn't really look like a typical Memorial Day and you know the other thing too is I've talked a lot here recently about the cicadas.

We've got our big 17-year cicada invasion going on and we really actually started to really kind of get into the meat of it this past week. Those darn cicadas they get pretty loud when you get thousands and thousands and thousands of them up in the trees in your backyard and they get to they can crank it up and it's pretty loud.

It can be sometimes hard to have even a conversation depending on where you're standing. The sound from those things is so loud but you know the funny thing is I guess apparently they are very temperature sensitive because I was out working in the yard today you know mowing the grass and then and doing all that type of thing and I didn't hear a peep out of so much as one cicada.

I mean they were completely silent so I guess the cooler weather maybe made them a little less energetic. I was supposed to start warming up tomorrow I think it's supposed to get in the 60s and then back on Monday we'll be back in the 70s so I guess they'll probably be back to make it some noise again but today they were pretty quiet.

Pretty quiet indeed. So anyway so I wanted to talk some here about Memorial Day and as many of you know I mean certainly if you're from the United States you're well aware of Memorial Day. It's an American holiday and it's usually one here in the United States we consider to be a sort of the unofficial start of summer because it always comes falls right at the end of end of May and you know that's usually when at least when I was a kid anyway that's when school school got out although I think I don't know it seems like some schools are getting out earlier now than what they used to and they go back earlier too but anyway we always went to school you know usually like into the first week of June but Memorial Day was always kind of a marker that was that was really like when when when summer actually began and when Memorial Day first started of course it's something that started back right after the end of the the Civil War in the 1860s and they called it Decoration Day when it began and Decoration Day it was it was called that because they people would go out and they would put flowers on the the graves of fallen soldiers and this was how that that custom got its start and and over time it became more of a gen it wasn't so much specifically the Civil War it became more of a thing with you know anyone who remembering those who had had fallen in in any war regardless of of what war it was and the the modern Memorial Day I think was actually made official and and regularized regular regularized by Congress in I think it was 1971 so that's really where Memorial Day comes from and what I wanted to do is talk a little bit today since it is Memorial Day and since it of course it is about remembering I want to talk a little bit about my family and tie in my family's history with Memorial Day and I I hope this will be something that'll be be interesting to you.

These are some some men that I'm going to talk about here I think who are well worth remembering and they're people I'm certainly honored to to claim as my forefathers so it's it's my great privilege to be able to to talk about some of these things.

Family Memory and the Origins of Memorial Day

And the the first two gentlemen I'd like to talk about here are William and Henry Bailey. They were they were brothers they were Virginians way back in the day this was before the ever the United States was.

This was back in in colonial Virginia and they were two veterans of the of the Battle of Great Meadows or sometimes it's known as the Battle of Fort Necessity. It was fought on July 3rd 1754 and it was generally considered to be the the first major battle of of the French-Indian War and this the French-Indian War was a substantial conflict.

It was basically the French and the English fighting it out for control over over North America. So there there was a lot at stake for both countries and the the battle itself it was as I said it was fought on July 3rd 1754.

It was fought in what's today southwest Pennsylvania near a town called called Farmington and without going into a lot of detail on this there was a force of about 300 Virginians and it was also a about a hundred or so regular British troops that came from South Carolina and they were all under the command of a a rookie colonel a young guy with just just kind of getting his start by the by the name of George Washington and this was actually Colonel Washington's first first command first battle as as the as the commander as the one who was was running the show and among those Virginians were two brothers as I mentioned William and Henry Bailey.

Now in that battle they actually fought. I had the opportunity last summer in August of 2020 to actually go up there with with my dad and mom and and we went up to the the battlefield there's a park it's a it's like a national you know historic battlefield there and they have a visitor center and the like and they they've actually had a reconstruction of the fort and it's kind of interesting the fort that they built they built it on fairly fairly quick order it was it was kind of a rush job they put this thing together and it was a round fort interestingly enough and a lot of people didn't realize that I guess they in past times they've tried to have reconstructions of the fort and they always kind of built it as a square for it kind of something you may be more typically think but the fort and in fact this goes back to even eyewitnesses that were there at the time although they were ignored for a long time and it was also in part from I guess some archaeological expedite excavations they did they they did determine that it was a round fort and they have a replica of the fort that that was that Washington built there you know Washington and his men it was very interesting to go up and to see this and the the fight took place so there were about 400 or so British and American you know together about 400 or so British and American troops there under the command of George Washington and there were a four they were opposed by a force of approximately around 700 or so French and their their Indian allies and the the French and the Indians got the better of the the British and the Virginians and the the next day on July 4th 1754 the the French offered them terms of surrender and and Washington accepted and they they marched off well during the battle I mentioned there were these two Virginian brothers who had come up William and Henry Bailey well well William was killed in battle and William was and Henry was was injured but he lived and in fact Henry came back the next year and there was a a battle the the following year that took place and this time it was under the command of General Edward Braddock who was a British general and the British got crushed again by the uh by the French in that that next battle and and Henry was wounded in that second battle in 1755 and apparently that was the end of his military career.

I don't think he went back and fought after that I guess he'd gotten uh gotten the worst of it in two battles and maybe enough was enough for him which is certainly understandable. But uh William was killed and when I went up to the uh the uh the historical site uh last August you know there's a visitor center there and there was a plaque that was made and this was back in the 1930s and it listed all the names of the men who were had been killed and buried on the premises and in one of those was William Bailey and I'm going to explain to you in a minute why that that's important for my family.

Now although William was killed he was survived by a son by the name of Josephus Bailey and about 20 years later Josephus served under George Washington only this time it was General George Washington of the Continental Army.

So Josephus Bailey was a Revolutionary War soldier and he died in February of 1777. Now I've seen the I there's a a uh oh it's a I guess a copy some kind of official army record that shows his date of death and the like so he died in February of 1777 very early on in the American Revolution and we don't know at this point what the the nature of you know what what caused that.

I'm I'm gonna guess here I don't know this for sure but it would seem likely that it probably was not a combat death most soldiers back in the day and I know this is even true into the Civil War and probably up until you know maybe the last hundred years or so a pretty even most deaths in war were actually not due to combat.

They were due to you know illness and you know various other you know things that that happened to uh to people in in uh in war situations and I remember a few years ago I went up to the uh it was Valley Forge and I took a tour of Valley Forge where Washington wintered uh one I think it was uh 1777 1778 I think it was that winter and and you know one of the things they talked about was that you know a lot of these guys that were there didn't even have shoes.

I mean can you imagine trying to survive the winter in an army camp in Pennsylvania where it's cold and snowy and nasty uh with no shoes you know and and that just is astounding to me but apparently that was fairly common and you can see why men would die in circumstances like that because you know they probably the sanitation wasn't great but then you had severe lack of supplies as well and just things that you and I would consider to be very basic they didn't have so whatever circumstances that whatever the circumstances were Josephus died in in February 1777 but he was survived by a daughter by the name of Marianne and Marianne Bailey married John Matthews of Amherst County Virginia my my family you can probably get from the last name there this is a family here my family were Virginians as well the Matthews were Virginians they go way back in the day and again the Matthews family was came to the United States before there was the United States but Marianne Bailey married John Matthews of Amherst County Virginia and John and Marianne Matthews are my five times great-grandparents so that's my connection I I'm actually a direct descendant of a veteran of the French Indian War and also the the American Revolution and interestingly those are two generations of the Bailey family that fought under the command of George Washington so you know that's when I think about that that's that's quite an honor to have and I'm you know that you know it's it's always interesting sometimes when you hear you see see how your family sort of relates to to history and I think I've talked about that before I know several months ago I did have a chance to talk about that on a podcast but I thought it'd be something to talk about here again again just because this is Memorial Day and you know we want to remember the efforts of the Bailey boys in this case it was William Bailey and Henry Bailey and William's son Josephus you know they you know William and Josephus you know paid the ultimate price in defending what you know in defending the the country even before and in William's case even before there was a country so so we want to remember and honor the the work that they did.

Service in the Civil War and the Jackass Regiment

Now the the next one I next man I want to talk about here is Hiram Bennett Matthews. Now Hiram Bennett Matthews is actually the grandson of John and and Mary Ann Matthews and Hiram Bennett Matthews is a is a Civil War veteran he was fought on the Union side and he was 15 years old when the the war broke out in 1861 and he tried to join up and I guess they they kicked him out because he was underage and he went away for a little while he came back and he joined up again he was still underage but I I guess they they took him the the second go-round and at the time the Matthews family was living in Hendricks County Indiana.

Now Hendricks County Indiana is just a I believe it's just the county immediately west of of Indianapolis and the regiment that he served in during the Civil War was the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery and it's kind of interesting it was known it was known as the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery but the regiment he was in was also known as the Jackass Regiment.

Now I now it's not what you're thinking the reason they called it that isn't because the the men were jackasses but it was because of the the mules that they used to haul their guns. Remember this is back in the 1860s and there wasn't a whole lot in the way of mechanized transport I guess you know obviously they had railways but you know in terms of hauling heavy guns across across fields and roads and this kind of thing well you didn't have a you know a jeep or some kind of a vehicle like that that you could do that with you know you had to you had to do it by some other means and in this case they used they used mules for this in fact let me I've got a picture here and I'd like to go ahead and to share that with you here here's a picture actually of the of the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery and I don't know for all I know maybe Hiram Bennett Matthews is in this picture I don't know that for sure one way or the other but this was his regiment and this is a picture taken in Baton Rouge Louisiana and that's where they served they kind of served on the sort of the western side you know a lot of times you hear about some of the famous battles in the Civil War you know it's always places like Gettysburg or you know various you know battle sites in in Virginia what have you but you know Bull Run um but but this was a particularly but but he wasn't in that theater so he was over you know down in the uh kind of the uh I guess well I've been in the southwest uh part of the uh of the theater the war theater so this was a photo taken in Baton Rouge Louisiana and there's a second picture that I have here too that I thought I'd share with you this is a picture and you can see here view of the Indiana Artillery Port Hudson Louisiana so there was a siege that they were part of a siege of Port Hudson and this is the the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery you can see over here if you can can see that at all in the on the live stream there's a one of the the guns they call them parrot rifles by the way and I looked up parrot rifles and sometimes you think of a rifle you know you think of maybe something you hold in your hand but in this case it was rifled artillery so they had the the the rifling inside the barrel of the the gun and what that does you know what the rifling does is it imparts a spin on the on the shell when it shoots it out and that spin makes it more accurate than than if you didn't have that spin on that that's what that's what a rifle is it's that's got that that twist on the inside of the barrel that that imparts a spin to you know whether it's a bullet or maybe a bigger gun like like these uh like what they used and they were called parrot rifles and I looked this up one time and I guess one of the things that was noteworthy about the parrot rifles you can't see it as well here in this picture but there's like a heavy band that they they learned how to how to manufacture these these can I guess you call it a cannon uh maybe that's not the uh that's probably I would think that's a a reasonable term to use it for it but when these these heavy artillery pieces they would put this this heavy band uh around the outside of the gun near down near the breech and what that did apparently is it strengthened the artillery piece probably allowed them to use a bigger charge um and it kept the gun from blowing apart um and I guess it gave more integrity just to the the structure of the gun so it's kind of a it was at the time anyway it was a new and somewhat revolutionary way of of uh constructing artillery pieces but they use these these heavy parrot rifles um and they they hauled them around on on mules so that that was um Hiram Bennett Matthews war experience and what I understand I've been told this I don't know if this came down to the family or what but the the first Indiana heavy artillery mustered out in January of 1866 and when when Hiram Bennett Matthews mustered out he walked all the way back to Hendricks County Indiana uh on foot so you know he did didn't hop on a train didn't uh didn't ride a horse apparently he walked um if most if not the whole way and I think about that and that's just that just blows my mind that's that's an amazing thing.

Uh one of the interesting things too about uh Hiram Bennett is he lived to be a pretty old age he lived into his 90s and uh what's kind of remarkable my dad who's still alive and and uh in good health uh praise God for that uh but my dad was born in 1939 and I think Hiram Bennett was if I if I remember correctly I believe that that he died I think maybe in 1938 so he almost lived up to the time of of my father uh which is is kind of a remarkable thing I see Hiram Bennett he lived to be well in his 90s and he's actually buried out in in Iowa and I remember a number of years ago my dad found out that I guess the grave out there was unmarked and he contacted there was some organization I want to say maybe it was the maybe the Department of Defense something like that anyway and they uh they provided a headstone so they've they've reinstalled a headstone out there for him and and so there's actually a because he was you know part of the uh part of the army so that's a that's an interesting bit of family history there too so Hiram Bennett Matthews is uh is another name that I'd like to remember and someone who's my great great great grandfather and I'm honored to to be descended from him he was uh was a brave man and um you know did some uh some truly extraordinary things so that's uh that's a name that I want to definitely want to remember here now the the third person the third name that I would like to remember is another family member here and this is uh Paul Maurice Matthews now Paul Maurice Matthews was my great uncle he's my my grandfather Matthews he was his younger brother and he was in the Army Air Corps during World War II and he was a pilot I believe when he started the uh when he when he started in the the Army Air Corps he was flying B -25s which was a medium bomber and then he somehow I don't know what it was but somehow he switched over and he began flying a cargo plane in this particular case it was a C -47 and I'm going to show you a picture here if you've got the live stream yeah here it is it's a C -47 is I guess they called it a Skytrain and it was it was a two engine uh two version of it was the DC -3 and the the military version they called it a C -47 and he flew what's known as the the Burma Hump and I've got a picture of it here on the the live stream here and the Burma Hump you can see down here this is the Bay of Bengal down here and the Burma Hump it flew from they they flew from eastern India over the Himalayas and into China and the the purpose of the Burma Hump was they were supplying uh Chiang Kai-shek's army as well as the I guess there was a an American uh US Army Air Corps contingent there as well so his uh you know what they were doing they were they were the critical supply line for for the forces that were fighting there in in western China against the Japanese and the uh the last mission that he flew he and talking to my my dad about this who's who's researched apparently he went they had a an extra heavy load a much heavier load than what they they normally would and when they would drop their loads what they would do apparently is they would come in low and they push this stuff out the side of the airplane so they just shove this stuff out and when they were loaded the ground they were take they took some uh as I've been told some uh some ground fire and the ground fire knocked out one of the engines well they were already over probably you know overloaded as it was and then knocking out one engine the other uh engine it was a two-engine plane couldn't keep the the aircraft in there and they crashed and the uh and uncle Paul was killed uh Paul Maurice Matthews he was was killed in action in flying the Burma Hump and the co-pilot survived and I don't know if there are any other crewmen that survived as well but I know that uh that uh that he was killed so that's uh that's very unfortunate but you know and that's that's something that you know you you realize you know the cost of war um you really do and and that that drives that home very clearly.

Yeah I think about that a lot you know and you know I never knew uncle Paul I mean he was killed goodness over 20 years uh before I was born but uh yeah still though I mean you think about that I remember seeing a picture of him one time I guess it was taken here in Cincinnati uh it was with uh his uh I think it was with his girlfriend at the time and you know sometimes I thought about that you know I mean they were never married and but you wonder what you know what might have happened for them had had he lived.

I mean there's a whole whole branch of the uh of the Matthews family that's uh that's missing you know because of that uh and that's sad to think about but it really does drive home for you know when we talk about Memorial Day it's especially about remembering those who have fallen and and certainly uh Paul Matthews is is one of those you know he was was a young man he was in his I don't recall his exact age right now but he was in his early 20s and he has whole life ahead of him and uh and he didn't come back now I know that that's not probably the the cheeriest way to to end a podcast but you know again we talk about Memorial Day and and it is a very serious time you know sometimes we think about oh it's oh it's a three day weekend and all these things and and it is that I mean and look I like to have a three day weekend as much as anybody but we also do want to remember you know why it is we have Memorial Day and what it is we're remembering and that's uh certainly uh something that uh that strikes me now I know I've got some people here that are talking about they're not getting any sound on the live stream and I can see that for some reason it's acting a little bit funny and I don't know how to get the sound back.

Um looks like I've got good sound here but for whatever reason I don't know it's uh it's not coming through and I'm not sure I may not be able to get that back on the live stream so we're just gonna have to go with what we've got here.

Memorial Day, Patriotism, and the Christian Battle

Uh so anyway in in closing here I wanted to talk a little bit about just uh just some my thoughts about Memorial Day. You know it's uh it's always been you know as I said it's always been a day about remembering the fallen.

So I mean that's why I wanted to talk about those uh those gentlemen that I I mentioned there to you and you know when I think back on you know on on the the sacrifices they made when I think back on the the lives that they led you know it really gives me a strong sense of connection to this country.

You know and I'm a patriot and I don't mind saying so you know the Matthews family's been in this country for some 300 years before ever there was a United States. You know this nation's my heritage it's it's my patrimony and I'm honored to have that as my patrimony.

You know America is a nation as Abraham Lincoln put it was conceived in liberty. That's an exceedingly rare and precious gem and I'm so grateful to God to have that. But you know along with that sense of honor I also feel tremendous obligation to speak out against some of the the really evil stuff uh that's going on in our own time and the evil men who are spreading lies about our nation and trying to overturn and to destroy our remaining liberties.

I take this very personally this is not something that uh that I take lightly you know I think back on on William Bailey and Henry Bailey and Josephus Bailey I think back on Hiram Bennett Matthews I think back on Paul Matthews and I think back on on the sacrifices that they made.

This is just my own family I'm talking about here and you know I I I feel a true sense of outrage when I hear the kinds of things being said about my nation that are being said and you know I'm thinking here of uh especially some of the so-called woke types you know the critical race theory types the uh the socialists who want to destroy our economic liberties the uh say the the wokesters who want to to say that our nation is conceived in racism and that it's filled with terrible people who've done terrible things and that are are some of the most uh terrible people who've ever existed.

I don't buy that for a minute. It's not a perfect nation not even close but it's it's a nation that was conceived in liberty. It's a nation as a product of the protestant reformation and I think I even heard one time that Patrick Henry when he went to sign the declaration of independence he stated he said that the the rule of of political protestantism has begun and and you can really see that in you know just just as the the protestant reformation set men spiritually free it also set men free politically and economically as well.

And you saw that really come to uh to full flower uh with the founding of the United States of America and I'm so honored to be a part of that and to have had uh those who have gone before me be a part of that uh as well.

And you know here we are you know we sit in the year 2021 and you know I'm I've never served in the military um interestingly the last few generations of my family haven't my grandpa you know I talked about Paul Matthews that was my my grandpa Matthew's brother my my grandpa Matthews was of age to have served.

He was 27 when the war broke out and when war two broke out but he was a machinist and he wasn't drafted because of that uh he was considered a war critical industry um my dad had a medical deferment uh for Vietnam.

Thankfully in my case there wasn't a war going on uh at that time although I do remember having to go over and register for the draft when I was was 18 years old I still remember going to the post office and I had to go out and fill out the the draft registration card although I was never never drafted.

You know I've never served in the army um in the military of any sort. But you know you and I whether or not we're actually part of the military you know you and I are in a battle as well you know and and our battle is is a Christian battle.

You know we're we're soldiers of Christ. And you know we think about you know think about what the Apostle Paul said. I mean the Apostle Paul he used that very powerful image in Ephesians. What's that Ephesians chapter 6 where he talks about putting on the whole armor of God.

You and I are in a battle that's every bit as real as any of those fights that were going on that uh that my forefathers were a part of you know whether it was Great Meadows or or the Civil War or or the Burma Hump or or any of these types of things.

You and I are in a fight as well. You know we're in a spiritual battle and you know the only we're in a battle of ideas I mean we're you know this country is really battling for its very existence and you and I are in a battle of ideas and and I feel just a tremendous obligation to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ the gospel of justification by faith alone because that's the only thing that frees men spiritually.

And you have to be free spiritually before you're ever going to be free politically and economically. I feel a tremendous obligation to refute from the pages of scripture all this nonsense whether it's critical race theory whether it's socialism whether it's big government in any in any sense of the term these things need to be refuted.

These these ideas are unchristian and and they are destroying our liberties our our freedoms of speech our freedoms to to move uh to speak to act to do to live our lives. You know are there are so many people out there who want to to take away our liberties our God-given liberties.

And I feel so strongly about pushing back against this stuff of refuting it and refuting it from the word of God. This is my battle and this is your battle. This is the fight you and I are in. But you and I know this too I mean we may lose some battles but we know in the end we're going to win the war because as Martin Luther said the right man is on our side and he must win the battle.

So that's all for today. And I want to say thank you so much for listening. It's always a pleasure to do this. I apologize to those people who watch in the live stream. I know several of you have given me notes that you're not getting any sound but I know the podcast recorder is going so I know that this has been been captured as a podcast.

So that's about all for this week tomorrow. Wish you all a blessed lord's day. And until the next time we speak may the spirit of truth guide you in all truth as you read and study God's word. Good night.