Pause and remember

It has been traditional on Dec. 7 to pause and take note of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
And that’s both appropriate and meaningful.
But there are other reasons to commemorate with solemnity the military losses of this particular month in this particular year.
Two hundred years ago in the middle of December a band of U.S. troops under the command of Col. John Campbell made its way through what was then the frontier, traveling by foot from Greenville, Ohio, toward what is now Grant County, Indiana, where those troops would later be involved in the Battle of Mississinewa, one of the westernmost military encounters of the War of 1812.
That trek, in lousy winter weather, through difficult terrain, took its toll.
Today, south of Redkey on Ind. 1, not far into Randolph County and not far from the Davis Purdue Agricultural Center, the graves of three soldiers who lost their lives on that journey can be found.
Two hundred years later, the War of 1812 doesn’t make much sense.
But that’s true of most wars when history provides enough perspective.
The sacrifice — the loss of those lives — is, however, no less real.
And today it makes sense to pause for a moment — or maybe longer — to reflect upon those lives lost, so long ago on the banks of the Mississinewa in a natural environment vastly different from the one we have inherited, a harsher and more brutal environment.
Our advice is this: If you find yourself down in that neck of the woods, take a few moments.
Pull over to the side of the road.
Read the historical marker that has been placed there.
Think about the challenges.
And pay silent respect to the lives lost. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]