Remembering An Old Soldier, Erath County, Texas

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Submitted by: William E. Porter <onecoolporter@msn.com>
        Date: 2005
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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Photograph located at
http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/erath/military/civilwar/csa/csa.htm
More information at
http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/erath/military/civilwar/csa/porter1.htm

MONUMENT DEDICATION
DECEMBER 19, 2004 ~ 2:30 PM.

Remembering an old soldier
By Joyce Whitis
Contributing Writer

In the past few months I have been privileged to connect with the families of
two old soldiers, Raymond Maxwell who served in WWII, and Charles Hampton a
soldier in the War Between the States. Both soldiers lived in Stephenville and
both are buried here yet they lived and fought in very different wars some 80
years apart. There are many facets in the stories of these two soldiers to
intrigue the mind and being granted a small part in their proper memorials makes
me very proud.

This newspaper has published stories concerning Raymond Maxwell, gunner on a
Flying Fortress that was shot down in November 1942 and only recently had his
remains returned to Stephenville for burial. That service took place yesterday
at East End Cemetery in the Field of Honor reserved for soldiers. It was an
emotional experience.

The memorial for Charles Hampton, Co. H 35th Alabama Infantry and Co. F. 5th
Alabama Cavalry, will be next Sunday, Dec. 1 9, at 2:30 p.m. in Ramsey Cemetery
on the Lingleville Highway, three miles from Stephenville. Charles died in 1909
but it is only after the perseverance of his great-grandson and others that his
final resting place is now marked with a headstone. On Sunday he will be given a
service fitting for an old soldier. This is an opportunity to honor a soldier
who fought for his country.

I am always proud to honor our soldiers. My heroes are the soldiers who put
their lives on the line for the rest of us. They are the defense that surrounds
us always and keeps us safe. My hero is that soldier from Texas with the 4th
Infantry division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He
could have been met with a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he found the grizzled
and dirty former dictator, Saddam Hussein. There could never be enough gratitude
shown for all our soldiers in all our wars. Yet, because the South lost the war,
those veterans are sometimes ignored. Those gallant men fought to defend their
country and are deserving of our honor and respect.

Charles Hampton, veteran of the bloodiest war this nation ever experienced,
enlisted March 11,1862, at Moulton, Alabama. On Jan. 28, he was a patient at the
Confederate hospital at Enterprise, Alabama with “swamp fever.” After the fall
of Vicksburg, Charles joined the 5th Alabama Cavalry and fought under the
command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was captured in 1864 by General W.
T. Sherman’s army and taken to Union military prison Camp Douglas, Illinois. He
was discharged June 17, 1865, several weeks after the war was over. He was on
his own to find his way home, sick and without any money or food, he began to
walk from Illinois eventually arriving home in Alabama.

Finding his home and land in ruins, he came to Texas and settled on a farm
between Stephenville and Lingleville where he died in 1909.

Until just this month, his grave was marked with a rock. On Sunday his white
headstone will be revealed, there will be a flag presentation, firing of rifles
and cannon and speeches. You all come.

•••
STEPHENVILLE EMPIRE - TRIBUNE NEWSPAPER