Never straighten a picture hanging lopsided on the wall, or put right a crooked lampshade. It might cost your life. A.J. Price, 94, still remembers that caution about booby-traps to soldiers tasked with search or evacuation of houses near the front lines. It was World War II, and he was serving in the 63rd Infantry Division. He was “one of the lucky ones” who made it back home, he says. Too many did not.

Price, of Columbus, joins fellow veterans and the nation this Memorial Day in remembering the sacrifice of those who died while serving in this country’s armed forces. The federal holiday originated as Decoration Day in 1868, after the American Civil War. Columbus shares credit for its roots, for it was here that four ladies laying flowers upon the graves of Confederate and Union graves at what is now Friendship Cemetery inspired Francis Miles Finch in New York to pen the now-famous poem, “The Blue and the Gray.”

There are no veterans of the American Civil War or World War I left to recount their experiences, but thanks to the written word and its caretakers, those of us living a century and more later have insight into the lives and actions that shaped history. Locally, war-time stories and accounts preserved in places like the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library archives or the Columbus War Museum at the Municipal Complex are treasure troves of information about how world events impacted even small-town Mississippi.

In the library’s Local History Department, a white, acid-free box holds a thick scrapbook and black-and-white photographs of Lowndes County soldiers who served in World War II. Every clean-shaven, handsome face suggests a story. A handful of War Ration Books local citizens were issued for items like sugar, meat, cooking oil and canned goods would seem unfathomable to generations who never knew such hardship.

These donated items tell some of Lowndes County’s history of military service. Archivist Mona Vance-Ali would welcome more — not just from World War II, but all conflicts.

“We welcome information from all veterans, from Vietnam, the Gulf War and beyond,” says Vance-Ali.

Perhaps the most comprehensive war-time compilation in the library dates back to the early 1900s — to the Great War.

A faithful chronicle

An oversized black book in the archives stands wedged between others the same size. It could easily be overlooked by the casual observer. A history buff fortunate enough to pull it from the shelf, however, will find an authentic record of “Lowndes County in the World War.” In it, numerous newspaper accounts and photographs put faces and personalities to the realities of World War I .

The book is a reproduced, bound copy of an original scrapbook compiled by Bernard Romans DAR Chapter members in Columbus during the war.

“The old scrapbook, completed in 1919, was falling apart and could not be used for frequent research,” says Bernard Romans historian Jane Smith.

The original is stored in the archives’ climate-controlled vault. Thanks to Bernard Romans members, though, the photocopied version is available to anyone interested. They funded the project which was indexed by member Libba Johnson and gifted to the library in 1997.

The pages are informative and often poignant. Clipped snippets from The Columbus Dispatch (now The Commercial Dispatch) carried news from local families:

“Mr. S.T. Pilkinton is in receipt of a letter from his brother, Mr. W. T. Pilkinton, in France stating that he has been promoted to the rank of Sgt. Sgt. Pilkinton was in the thick of fighting in the Argonne Forest … “

“Mr. Sam H. Cox, formerly with the Columbus Railway Company, has arrived in France. Mr. Cox enlisted in the aviation branch of the service some time ago and is now at the front to do his part.”

In the age before television, much less Internet, letters from battlefields abroad were sometimes published in the newspaper, shared with neighbors hungry for information about the course of the war and what their own loved ones might be going through.

“Many nights I have slept on the ground with only two blankets, using my gas mask for a pillow, with shells falling and bursting all around me … ”

James C. Greene, Battery B. 124th

Some passages reveal a soldier’s care not to divulge too much in case his letter was intercepted:

” … the Germans never failed to shell us with solid shells and shrapnel … I moved to the cellar of a chateau where I thought I was safe. This chateau — now if you can get hold of a good map of France you can locate me — bears the name of the old bookkeeper of the Tombigbee Mill, who died in the office … “

Lt. Sam B. Johnson

Sept. 29, 1918

More missives from the front tell of narrow escapes, of company cooks frying eggs on makeshift stoves, of grand homes stripped of their tapestries, furniture and artwork by enemy occupiers.

A Dispatch headline from April 1917 reads: “Home Guard is Organized by Citizens of Lowndes County.” The Guard was charged with “watching out for spies” and “preventing demonstrations by foreigners and malcontents.” Evidence was cited: a German living in Tibbee, “a village 20 miles north of Columbus,” was flying the flag of his nation over his home.

Other articles announce bond rally parades, the formation of a Red Cross chapter or that “Mrs. Battle Bell presided over the organization of the Knifty Knitters for the war effort.”

Many surnames throughout the pages would be familiar to longtime Columbians: Propst, Lipscomb, Egger, Kuykendall, Locke, Lindamood and Rosenzweig among them.

“All these archives are not just city and county history; this is family history, too,” Vance-Ali points out.

Descendants, historians and other researchers find the documentation an important resource.

“Having these records available and allowing students to explore those who stood and served is invaluable for our community,” said Chuck Yarborough who oversees Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science students’ research for Columbus’ annual “Tales from the Crypt.”

Remember

At the Columbus War Museum Wednesday, A.J. Price joined other veterans for a quarterly veterans’ gathering organized by Wayne White. Only three of those present had served in World War II; they are all 90 or older, but young still at heart. They were invited to the front to be recognized, after which White led the 30 or so people in attendance in a hearty “Welcome home.”

Several Army and Air Force veterans briefly spoke with feeling of their deployments in Vietnam or Panama. To a person, they thanked every other vet present for their service. Memorial Day adds an even deeper dimension to the bond they share, no matter the war they served in or the generation they represent.

“I think of the ones that did not come back,” says Price. “I think of the families of those, the sons that went over there, and the families didn’t hear from them — and when they did hear, they got the bad news. All that comes to my memory.”

People then seemed more patriotic, more loving and kind, he says. And they worshiped more. That, he thinks, had something to do with overcoming a foe.

Alice Lancaster, past regent of the Bernard Romans Chapter, stressed the importance of remembering every man and woman who has supported the U.S. in service and lost their lives — in every war, in every branch — this Memorial Day.

“We are so proud of our soldiers. Any little thing we can do to support our active military, our veterans and those who are deceased and buried in our cemeteries, we need to respect and support their families and their descendants, and honor their memories.”

In 2000, Congress established a National Moment of Remembrance. It asks Americans, wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, to pause in an act of national unity to honor those who died in service to the country — “Lest we forget.”

Editor’s note: Learn more about the library archives by emailing Mona Vance-Ali at [email protected] or call 662-329-5304. For information about the Columbus War Museum or quarterly veterans’ gatherings, contact Wayne White at [email protected] or call 205-662-4129.

Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.