In the book Across 5 Aprils, one of the characters, Bill Creighton, left his home to fight for the South. The question is whether or not Bill was a hero. Today many would say that he was not a hero based solely on the fact that he fought for the Confederacy. What about Robert E. Lee? Was he less brilliant or heroic because he fought on the South's side? No, I believe he was not.

Another Confederate soldier comes t mind when you talk of Civil War heroes, and that is the name Richard Kirkland. Richard was a 19-year-old sargent at the Battle of Fredricksburg. After some of the firing had ceased, Richard repeatedly climbed over the wall to bring water to "enemy" Union soldiers. Later he was remembered as the "Angel of Marie's Heights." Maybe he, like Bill, had a brother fighting somewhere wearing Union blue.

Now Bill was not Robert E. Lee or even Richard Kirkland, but he was doing what he saw as right and was just searching for the truth. There are not many reasons Bill was a hero, but there are a few. One of the reasons being that he fought honorably in battle, and he did not run away. Soldiers in all wars have seen, heard, smelled, and endured things people should not have to, and to be able to stand that makes them hero enough.

Another reason which could also be sued against him was that Bill did not believe in slavery. Now, you could say, "Well, why did he fight for the South, then?" The answer is Bill believed in states' rights and popular sovereignty. He felt the North was a trying to take away those rights.

Bill might not have been called a hero, but what of the thousands upon thousands who have fought for their own causes and were killed, wounded, or captured: Weren't they brave and scared and maybe confused: Is it right to judge someone who has stood for what he believes in as anything but a hero?