Civil War – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

Mother’s Day Thoughts 2021

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “The Love Of Giving 42821” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Tiny feet make their way carefully along the forest path and bright eyes search diligently for just the right flowers. One by one the little fingers pluck the blooms and judge each specimen for smell and color. There will be wild geraniums, Daisy Fleabane, violets and of course Dandelions. A young voice hums “You Are My Sunshine” as each flower is carefully placed in a soda bottle full of creek water. The whole thing is carried back along the trail with great caution so as not to spill a single drop of water from the nearly overflowing bottle. The arrangement is placed on the kitchen table as droplets roll from the sides of bottle to form small puddles on the polished wood. A simple crayon drawing on a sheet of notebook paper portrays green grass, a tree with a songbird with both eyes on the same side of it’s head. A rainbow graces the top of the page and hovering in special place near center of the page is a stick figure with long hair and a triangle dress. Asymmetric letters on the page spell out the words “I Love You Mommy” and is surrounded by red hearts for emphasis. There’s no floral shops anywhere in America that could duplicate the specialness of the bouquet and not a card shop in the world can touch the heart in the way that a child can. The gift is pure desire and love. The flowers and simple drawings are only symbols of it.

Mother’s Day was actually born right here in West Virginia. But what most people don’t remember is that it was born out of the tragedy of the Civil War. West Virginia was politically allied with the North but families and friendships were divided between the Union and the Confederacy. As in any war the biggest loses were in the hearts of the people. Everything else is statistics. Bridges and buildings are easier to rebuild than relationships. After the war there was a lot of anger and distrust that was still smoldering even into my own childhood. It was amid all that division that Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis and her daughter Anna Jarvis conceived the “Mother’s Friendship Clubs”. The story goes that the clubs would meet for a picnic and prayer and that Auld Lang Syne was sung. The legend says that it was after the singing that the politically divided people began to tearfully reconnect and put their differences aside. In those days even the bitter grudges couldn’t withstand the unity of faith in God. And although I’m sure that some of those emotional wounds took longer to heal than others the process worked. It worked so well that even into the early 20th century veterans of both North and South would come together for reunions and reenact charges that this time ended in handshakes and Christian brotherhood. The life of Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis is worth reading. During the Civil War she refused to take a side and provided medical care for all.

It was after her death that her daughter Anna Jarvis worked to make Mothers Day a national holiday. On Mother’s Day it’s right to honor our mothers but while doing so maybe it’s a good idea to consider how it started as a movement to bring peace after the treaty was signed by politicians.

Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.

Announcement 2.0

For those who have been following me on Facebook and know of the struggle content providers have to get circulation from big tech I’ve been recommending for people to adopt MeWe as a social media platform. One of the problems I’ve run into on MeWe is that people don’t know how to navigate the platform. So to help with that I’ve created a permanent page on my website as a basic Basic Beginner’s Guide To MeWe I’ve tried to anticipate all basic questions there and You can bookmark the page to have as a reference and if you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me. I do still have a day job and I help admin several pages on both platforms so replies might be a little slow but I will answer you.

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Forget-Me-Not

Color Photography

Elkanah Devine sat on the edge of the little stream that fed his farm. He tossed small pebbles into the as he thought. He’d spent several years hacking brush piles and cultivating the soil. The modest log cabin was built by hand with the help of his father and brother. Having received the land and cattle from his father as a start in his own life he had no debts on his farm. He had managed to make a decent amount of profit in his first year and in his second season he purchased the wedding ring. Adelaide was a good wife. They had grown up together and the relationship had come a long way from their first encounter when he dipped the very tip of her braid in the inkwell on his school desk. He was pretty sure that she had forgiven him by their first dance at the harvest party. The trickling of the stream continued to be a hymn in his ears as he contemplated the choices that would change their lives forever. Being a godly man he had spent the past several days in prayer and he knew what he had to do. What he must do. With a heavy heart he pulled out silver locket from hos shirt pocket. He’d dug into his savings on his last trip off of the mountain and purchased the gift to soften the blow when he told her. He spotted the small blue flowers near the water’s edge. He had presented her with a bouquet of these very same flowers when they started courting and again when he proposed. A tear fell into the mud as he plucked a few.

Elkanah made his way into the house and explained his decision to join the other soldiers from their area and fight for Virginia. War was coming wether they wanted it of not and the only thing he could do was defend the land. Adelaide resisted but she knew that what he said was true. As they cried together she opened the silver locket and placed a few of the flowers inside and then she noticed the inscription. “Forget Me Not”. Adelaide had no words. She didn’t need to speak for Elkanah could read her heart in her eyes. She left the room for a moment and returned to present Elkanah with a lock of hair bound with red yarn. The hair was stained with ink and looked to several years old. Tugging at the chain on Elkanah’s belt she pulled his watch from his pocket and placed the hair in the chamber on the back.

The next morning Elkanah rode out to the soldier’s camp and signed up to fulfill gi s duty.

At their first engagement Elkanah heard the pop of a rifle and the hiss of a minie ball before it impacted his left leg in the thigh. The world went dark as he lay on the forest floor bleeding from the snipers shot. He remembered the voices in the dark and the doctors debating if they should remove the leg. Eventually, he woke up in the prison hospital and there he would spend the rest of the Civil War. But as far as prisoners of war go he was treated well. The doctor managed to save his leg and had even arranged for him to spend most of the war right there in prison hospital. Elkanah’s knowledge of the Bible and general good nature allowed him to serve as a minister for the other prisoners.

When the war ended Elkanah found himself limping home. A lot of the landmarks had changed but the terrain was the same. His beard had grown long and streaked with grey. He weighed about 2/3 what he did before he left home and a good portion of that was recovered weight gained on the voyage home. As he walked he heard the sound of a wagon roll up behind him. A woman and her daughter were out alone. The child was very young. She couldn’t have been any older than 5 years. But Elkanah was looking into the sun and couldn’t really make out much detail about them. The woman spoke and offered Elkanah a ride and a meal in exchange for few chores at her homestead. Elkanah agreed as he climbed up in the back of the wagon. As he road along the little girl climbed into the back with him and gave him a small blue flower. It was a little ragged from being handled by such a young toddler but it made Elkanah smile in earnest for the first time since he rode out on that fateful morning. “Forget-Me-Not” the little girl said. That’s what mommy calls them. They go in her locket. Elkanah gasps and called for the woman to stop the wagon which she did. “Adelaide!?” He cried as he ran around to the font if wagon. Adelaide leaped from the driver’s seat and met him halfway. His long hair and beard had hidden his face from her but when he called her name she knew his voice. “But your daughter?” He stammered with his eyes on the child still in the back of wagon. “Your child.” Adelaide replied. “I didn’t know until a month after you left.” Elkanah embraced his whole family and when they got to the modest cabin and it’s farmland the little blue flowers were planted everywhere they would grow. Elkanah learned that every night at bedtime Adelaide had opened the locket and told their daughter stories about her father so that if the worst happened he would not be forgotten.

The flowers in tonight’s feature image are Forget-Me-Not. There’s several stories about the origin of the name and the most popular ends with a man whose last act as he drownds is to toss the flowers to his lady in the shore and cry out “Forget me not!” I don’t really like sad endings so I created my own version based on a young husband in the American Civil War.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

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To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook

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I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.

Thank you again for your support of my page!❤

The Little Brick Church

Church, Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

Tonight’s Feature Image is Virginia’s Chapel in Cedar Grove West Virginia. The link will take you to the Wikipedia article. The article is short but states that the Church (also known as the Little Brick Church) was built in 1853 and used by both sides of the Civil War And that’s in the national registry of historic places. But, is that all that history is? A few facts and dates can’t tell the whole story. I often pass through when a wedding is taking place and the Little Brick Church is all decorated. I see friends and family gathering on the walkway and occasionally see someone taking care of the cemetery on the other side of the chain link fences. I have to wonder about the memories that were made here when the lot was more open and cemetery less full. Back in days when the roads were not paved. I imagine that the fields were open and picturesque. The church was full of live music and joyful noise. I imagine that a few sour notes were sung as the rest of congregation gave each other “that look” and continued to worship God in earnest.

The church wasn’t fully completed until 1912. A full generation after the Civil War. I don’t think that was a coincidence. It could only be completed those who had put away their harsh feelings about the past and fully committed themselves to becoming one family. And that brings me to main thought for tonight. If we want to complete the work set before us then we have to put aside the outside world and come together as one people. I’m speaking mostly to my brothers and sisters in Christ but this concept goes for secular organizations as well. Time on this earth is finite. Effective time is in even shorter supply. Don’t waste a second of it. Find some middle ground and complete the tasks at hand.

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The Battle Of Carnifex Ferry

black and white photography, Color Photography, Summersville Lake, West Virginia

The long awaited pictures from the reenactment of the Battle Of Carnifex Ferry are finally done! Tonight’s post is going to be more about the pictures themselves than the history. However, I do want to encourage you to Read more the battle here. I also want to encourage everyone to get involved with keeping history alive. If we forget the history then we are in danger of forgetting the hard lessons learned. Too much blood has been shed for us to forget so soon. This goes for my international friends as well. You have your own history that you should be proud of and that should not be allowed to be forgotten.

With that said, let’s get started on the pictures. The turnout was very small. Only fourteen reenactors came out to memorialize the history. When I was a kid you couldn’t find a place to stand and watch the living history.

Above is the Southern camp. The reenactment group has went to great lengths to keep everything period accurate. Canvas tents and breakfast being made on an open fire.

The lady in the picture has to be one of the hardest working people on the face of this earth. She chopped firewood for hours on end. Her clothes are wool. The temperature was in the 80s ( Fahrenheit) and the humidity is very high. I never really saw her take a break.

I imagine that the commanding officer wouldn’t be to happy to have an unmanned weapon in his camp. But, I really liked the Aesthetics of the musket and pistol belt on the wooden table. I began to think about the calm before the storm.

If it weren’t for modern truck in the background I would have thought that I had fallen into a time slip and been transported back to 1861. With the bayonet fixed the musket is a very intimidating weapon indeed.

Another view of the Southern camp and their hard working camp caretaker.

It’s time to inspect and drill the troops. I don’t think that the commanding officer is to easily impressed.

This young man is obviously the camp sniper. All of people involved with the reenactment were very accommodating and ready to give me a great pose.

More close order drill in the Southern camp.

It was about that time I noticed the Yankee spies on the road. Those sneaky devils!

While on my way to check out the Northern camp I encountered a ghost on patrol. I hope my paperwork is order otherwise my accent is going to land me in hot water.

I had actually asked him if I could get view looking down the weapon. He quickly explained that even though the group takes all precautions that it was strictly taboo to point a weapon at an observer. The musket is real and on days when there’s a battle the actors do fire powder charges at each other. (No projectiles ). He did agree to pose as if he was ready to level the weapon.

I was also fortunate enough to encourage a person that I believe is the Yankee General.

On approach to the Northern camp I discovered that they have their own sniper. He’s a dead-eye for sure!

I imagine that in real life the soldiers had this look often. I’m not sure what the actor had on his mind but the image made me think of a young man contemplating his role in previous battles. God be with the “men of conscious”.

The young man here also seems to have that “one thousand meter stare”. I was so pleased with the way the image turned out. He looks like he just stepped out of a tin type.

This is the wall. In the days before tanks these barricades were a mainstay of trench warfare. The logs did a pretty good job of catching bullets.

The cannon seen here is actually part of the park.

I found out a day too late that they wouldn’t be demonstrating the large brass cannon that they brought until the next day. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend due obligations with my day job. As I said before in years past it was standing room only and the reenactment had hundreds of actors and a full scale battle. This year only fourteen soldiers turned out. If you’re a person in the United States and care at all about the history that brought us this far please consider becoming involved with keeping history alive.