Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I am writing you today with concerns of our dear Mathews County. I am not sure that you realize the meaning of the monument on our historical town square. It was placed there on Sept. 11, 1912 by the Lane-Diggs Camp and the Sallie Tompkins U.D.C.

It was a poor time and most people could not afford to pay for their own tombstone. Women lost their husbands, mothers and fathers lost their sons, children lost their fathers and sisters lost their brothers. War is never pretty.

The women of this county worked tirelessly to raise money. They sold ice cream on the street corner in Mathews, held bake sales and bazaars.

I have no idea what it feels like to lose a loved one in war. Sands Smith’s family did. He was placed behind a horse and dragged from his home in Port Haywood to Foster, where he was hung on a tree.

I am asking you to please leave this memorial to the dead where it is. It saddens me to see this tight-knit community torn apart. We have alwa...