Trilogy

By Jerry Stewart Here’s another amazing story. Not because this American was so young, but because he was so old. 72 years old. His name was John Burns. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, John Burns tried to enlist in the Union Army but he was turned away because he was so old. But in July of 1863 as the two great armies, North and South, met near the little town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and prepared for one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on U.S. soil, John asked no man for permission to enlist. He just grabbed up his old musket and headed for the Union lines. Union commanders didn’t know exactly what to do with this old fella because he refused to leave the battlefield. So, they gave him one of their new muskets, a pocketful of cartridges, and allowed him to make his way to the front lines. In the heat of the battle, John was wounded. They tried to send him away, but after having his wound bandaged, John Burns again returned to the front line, and even though he received two more bullet wounds, this 72 year old American stayed there on the front lines until the Union army was forced to pull back. Later that day, the word was passed around that one very old and brave American fought that day, 72 year old John Burns. And today, you can find a monument to him on the Gettysburg battlefield close to where he fought that fateful day. Throughout our war history there have been other unlikely participants. One of these was a minister, Peter Muhlenburg. On January 21, 1776, he delivered a powerful sermon to his Virginia congregation from the books of Ecclesiastes that speaks of a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. When he arrived at verse 8, which he declares there is a time for war and a time for peace, he removed his clerical robe and the startled congregation saw that under his robe he was wearing a continental army officers uniform. He marched to the back of the church, ordered the drum to beat for recruits and that day; over three hundred men joined him. They became the 8th Virginia Brigade. Pastor Peter Muhlenburg, rose to the rank of Major General, and fought in the Revolutionary War until the end. He was at Yorktown, Monmouth, Stony Point, and Valley Forge. Another minister-leader in the Revolutionary War was the Reverend James Caldwell. He pastored a small Presbyterian Church in Springfield, New Jersey. Early in June of 1780, Five thousand British troops made their way through Springfield and came upon a great colonist resistance and they literally drove the British forces back. But sometime during this battle, the Reverend Caldwell’s wife, a mother of nine, was killed in their home and their house burned to the ground. This so inflamed the townspeople that when the British Army returned with reinforcements, there was a bloody battle. At the height of the battle the Patriots ran low on the paper wadding needed to hold the powder and ball in their musket rifles. Without the wadding, they could not fire and they would be defeated. So the Reverend Caldwell ran to his church and grabbed up as many of the church hymnals that he could carry. It was the hymnal published by Isaac Watts who authored many great Christian hymns like "Joy to the World," "Jesus Shall Reign," and "O God Our Help in Ages Past." And my how that hymnal did help the patriots.