Land of the Free Because of the Brave

On Veteran’s Day, we honor all who have served our country in the armed forces, past and present. We all owe a debt of gratitude to these men and women.

Coming from a military family, and with sons and a son-in-law who are career military officers, I’m well aware of the personal cost to the families. “They also serve who only stand and wait” to quote John Milton.

From the earliest days of our new nation, men left the comfort of home to take up arms to preserve the independence our founders envisioned and declared. People from all segments of society put aside their lives, activities, and obligations to train and fight for the freedoms we continue to enjoy.

Throughout our history, many service members lost their lives while others often came home with devastating injuries. Some returned with less obvious wounds facing challenges few understood.

The third story in my Revolutionary War series is now contracted. It deals with some of the invisible wounds of war.

It’s 1781 and the former colonies continue their fight to maintain their independence. Much of the action has moved into the southern states where Donald Duncan is serving with the Continental Army in the Carolinas.

Five years have passed since Mary Stewart last saw Donald Duncan. What impact will the long separation have on their relationship?

The horrors both Donald and Mary have experienced has changed them. Surviving the war and separation is half their battle. The invisible wounds of war will make facing the future an even greater challenge. Learning to live with trauma, and accept them in each other, will require humility and forbearance.

“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, 

forbearing one another in love. ”

Ephesians 4:2

A TRIBUTE ON VETERAN'S DAY and A DREAM REALIZED

 A TRIBUTE ON VETERAN'S DAY

Each year on November 11^th we acknowledge and express appreciation for all the men and women who have served or are serving our nation in the armed forces. This practice dates back to the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month when the armistice was declared at the end of World War I.

As someone who was raised in a military family and with two sons and a step-son-in-law currently serving, it is a day filled with humility and gratitude. As Americans, we enjoy liberty and so many freedoms only because others were and are willing to sacrifice. Many will spend vast amounts of time away from family and friends, work long hours under stressful conditions, and put themselves in harm’s way. Their service has preserved our union and allows us to pursue our plans and dreams. Take some time today and thank them.

A DREAM REALIZED

Five years ago, I was asked to submit a guest post for Colonial Quills.

Coming To America, September 16, 2011.

http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-post-by-janet-grunst-coming-to.html

It was a privilege to be invited to join this esteemed group of writers who love delving into our colonial history and sharing their knowledge with interested readers. In addition to learning so much from them, I’ve made some treasured friends.

Coming To America detailed how many Europeans without funds came to the colonies by becoming indentured servants, serving for a specified period of time in exchange for passage. This was a common method of emigration during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, and it was a subject that has fascinated me for many years. 

In the mid-eighties, I wrote a story about a woman who left Scotland in 1770 and traveled to Virginia as an indentured servant. And now after many years that story is being published. Its theme is forgiveness.

Here’s a peek into A Heart Set Free published by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas.

In 1770, Heather Douglas is desperate to escape a brewing scandal in her native Scotland. Penniless and hoping for a fresh start far away, she signs a seven-year indenture and boards a British merchant vessel headed to Virginia.

Widowed planter Matthew Stewart needs someone to help raise his two young children. The tall blond standing on the Alexandria quay doesn’t look like much after her harrowing sea voyage, but there’s a refinement about her that her filthy clothing cannot hide. Could God be leading him to take this unknown indentured servant as his wife?

When Matthew purchases Heather’s indenture, marries her, and takes her to his farm, she faces new and constant challenges. And Matthew wonders if they can ever bridge their differences and make a life together.

It is in the Virginia countryside that Heather begins her greatest journey, one of self-discovery and of maturing faith. Here, she discovers that her emotional and spiritual scars bind her far more than her indenture . . . and love will finally set her heart free. 

I’m delighted that A Heart Set Free will be released December 2^nd, 2016 and will be found at:

http://Amazon.com

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Janet S. Grunst is a wife, mother of two sons, and grandmother of eight who lives in the historic triangle of Virginia (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown) with her. A lifelong student of history, she has been fortunate to live overseas as well as throughout the United States. Her love of writing fiction grew out of a desire to share stories that communicate the truths of the Christian faith, as well as entertain and bring inspiration, healing, and hope to the reader. 

Janet Grunst
http://JanetGrunst.com                                                                                                                   https://www.facebook.com/Janet-Grunst-Author-385405948228216/                            http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/
Represented By Linda S. Glaz
Hartline Literary Agency

Tribute to an Old Veteran: Alexander Milliner

 

Alexander Millener,
March 14, 1760 -March 13, 1865
Served in Continental Army & Navy.

I'd like to pay tribute to Alexander Milliner who's patriotic life spanned the French and Indian wars, American Revolution, War of 1812, and the Civil War.

Born in Quebec Alexander Milliner moved to upstate New York in his youth where he had countless encounters with the French and Indians in the Mohawk Valley. At the age of 104 he was photographed and interviewed, along with five others, as one of the last surviving veterans of the American Revolution. Milliner served six and a half years in the Continental Army during the War of Independence. His mother had followed him in camp as a washerwoman. Too young to serve in the ranks, Milliner (enlisting under his step-father's surname of Mahoney) served as a drummer boy in Washington's Life Guard for four years.

General and Mrs. Washington were fond of the lad. After playing his tattoo of reveille, his commander would often pat him on the head and call him his boy. Washington also made a personal request of Milliner that he play the drum to impress a guest, for which he received hearty tips with which he purchased tea for his mother. On one bitter cold morning, Washington gave him a drink from his own flask. One time the general even paused to show the boy and his peers how to "jerk" a stone across the river.

Milliner's remembrances of his commander were that "He was always pleasant, never changed in countenance, but wore the same in defeat and retreat as he did in victory." He recalled Lady Washington as being "Short, thick, very pleasant and kind. She used to visit the hospital, was kind-hearted and had motherly care." He observed that she fastened her clothing with "thorns instead of pins" during the winter at Valley Forge.

Spirit of '76 by Archibald Willard

Drummer boy Alexander Milliner is said to be the inspiration for the painting, Spirit of '76. He was present (first as a drummer, later as a soldier) at the battles of Brandywine, Monmouth (where he was shot in the thigh after a bullet passed through his drum), Saratoga, White Plains, and Yorktown (where he was present for Cornwallis's surrender). Milliner went on to serve six and a half more years in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. He served upon the frigate Constitution for three years and was on board during the capture of British vessels Cyane and Levant. Later he was gravely wounded and taken prisoner by the French.

Alexander Milliner went on to become a farmer and married at the age of thirty-nine. He and his wife, Abigail, had nine children, forty-three grandchildren, seventeen great grandchildren, and three great-great grandchildren. He was blessed to have never had a "death in the family or coffin in the house" in the sixty-two years of their marriage. He was able to cultivate his own garden even at the ripe old age of 102. It was said about him that "His temperament has even been free, happy, jovial, careless; and to this, doubtless, is largely owing the extreme prolongation of his life.  He has been throughout life full of jokes; in the army he was the life of the camp; could dance and sing, and has always taken the world easily, “nothing troubling him over five minutes at a time,” care finding it impossible to fasten itself upon him, and so, after trial, letting him alone.  His spirts have always been buoyant, nothing depressing him."

Mr. Milliner remained patriotic until the end of his days, lamenting during the Civil War that it was “too bad that this country, so hardly got, should be destroyed by its own people.” He longed to play his drum for the volunteers at the beginning of the Civil War. True to the Union cause, at age 102, he presided over meeting to raise recruits for a local regiment which was received with much enthusiasm. During a tribute to him upon his 104th birthday he exhorted his community to remain true to their country.