HER FATHERS WALKING CANE
By Brockie Virginia Duckworth
As life's most honored heritage
she shrines his walking cane;
It hangs on the four-poster bed
close where his head has laid.
She fondly strokes the aging wood
That served long,crippled years-
From daring youth to eighty nine;
Then wipes away the tears.
Her mind turns back in memory
of thrilling to his stories-
Great victories in civil war;
The Souths' forgotton glories,
When he, a lad of just sixteen,
In Forrest's brave brigade,
Held high the great Confederate flag
and faced the Norths grenade.
"Twas Brices Cross Roads battle field
That stirred her youthful mind
To honor most memory of
The braves they left behind.
The wound he carried from that day
Is why his walking cane
Remains a symbol glorified
No history can profane.
That field now bears a monument
To honor sleeping braves;
Her aged father placed it there
To glorify their graves.
But-minument most dear to her,
Remembering the dead,
Is that old walking cane that hangs
on the four-poster bed.
It concerates his often told truths
Of wealth,-then war and loss,
Defeated cause, the suffering
on destitutions cross,
Ruthless destruction of a land
That blossemed long in glory.
Only an old confederate
Could truley tell the story.
Now from her own three score and ten
she views our land's democracey
And knows there will never live again
The Old Souths Aristocracy.
Written In Honor of Col George Brock Sale
Return To Special Collections Index
Return to Tipton County Main Page
Submitted by Gloria Griffith
© 2003 Tipton County Coordinator