By Michael Green
Fifth in a series
MILTON, Ga. | Growing up in rural Gwinnett County in the 1950s and 1960s, I was fortunate to learn about and appreciate my family history. I loved talking to my elders.
My grandmother had interesting historical items throughout her house, and I enjoyed rummaging through bureau drawers. She could make a hundred years ago seem not so very long ago. My sons seem to have inherited that interest in family lore, as well.
It was hard to miss the saber hanging above the fireplace mantel in the Liddell den. Though dulled, there seemed to be glints of gold that would wink from its surface. An old rifle with a muzzle and the horn of a bull that had been used for gunpowder hung below the saber.
I learned about these objects over the years. The military saber descended from Sgt. George Washington Mills in the Mills family of Gwinnett County, Georgia. He was called Wash Mills and was my great-great grandfather. I inherited the saber from my grandmother, Nellie Mae Mills Liddell in 1984.
After the cataclysm of the American Civil war years, Wash Mills made his way home to the farm in Gwinnett County to resume a quiet life. The saber was put in a place of honor, and in time reflected lost dreams and lost causes. The anger, violence, and destruction that threatened to destroy the United States diminished as the years slipped by. The saber’s sheen dulled and it took on the role of a curious relic or a forbidden toy.
The saber is a joy to behold, shining boldly in the home of my family in Milton, Georgia.
I wrote the words above in an unpublished blog in 2011. Some years ago, I decided to move the saber to a less prominent place and hung it in our home office. After 15 years, my feelings about the symbolism of the saber have evolved. It is a material survivor from a dark and brutal time in the history of our country. My words in 2011, “lost dreams and lost causes,” miss the mark in the America of 2026 where racism has been given a pass.
The rhetoric of the President has shown the tendency to use coded messaging signals to his supporters, according to the August 22, 2023 online Politics column from PBS News. His social media remarks have the capacity to embolden individuals to use online vitriol.
I realize that any reverence for Civil War history is politically, socially, and morally tone-deaf. That time in our country’s history evokes disgust from many Americans. I now look at the saber in my office as a valuable object lesson in history.
Remember these words: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. To covet truth is a very distinguished passion.” George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952.
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