Hold the Line: We the People Prevailed - Courage Under Fire - From the Civil War to January 6th

by Gregg Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick

Drum Taps

24"x24" oil on linen 2011

 I grew up in a military family. My father was a career officer in the United States Marine Corps. Many of my friends from my school days were also military dependents. In particular, my buddy Mark Stephens embodied the ethos of duty and fidelity that the Corps presented to us. His dad was also in the Marine Corps and fought in Vietnam as an artillery officer. Mark joined the Navy after we graduated from Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. I remember him visiting me while I was a student at UCLA dressed for shore leave in his Navy dixie cup sailor cap and service uniform. Behind his welcoming bonhomie, Mark carries a fierce intellect. Befitting his future position as a history instructor at Chabot College in California, you needed to know your stuff if you were going to engage in debate with Mark. Especially military history, the US Civil War, and Monty Python. Mark would take on our Social Studies teachers if they dared enter into Lost Cause apologetics when it came to the Confederacy. We were in Virginia, but for Mark like me, the preservation of the Union was the real story of the Civil War. 

When I lived in San Francisco and often on return visits, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's bookstore City Lights beckoned. In 2012, I was with Phil Cousineau on a book tour for our joint effort The Painted Word, and Mark Stephens joined us. We were able to stand together in a packed upper room at City Lights and express our deep admiration for Ferlinghetti's inspiration. I presented my painting Drum Taps that night and let Mark expound upon the subject. I was inspired by Civil War era photographs of  young black Union drummers, especially Henry Augustus Monroe and Alexander Howard Johnson. Above the din of battle, the drum beat spoke, carrying orders, warnings, and inspiration. Beats and patterns  commanded the troops to advance, to halt, and above all else to hold the line. 

 Today marks two years since a violent mob of insurrectionists—sanctioned by the former President—descended on the Capitol in an armed and deadly effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power. To this day, Trump continues his attempt to poison American democracy with his Big Lie. In a rebuke to the former guy, President Biden today said “Two years ago on Jan. 6, our democracy was attacked. There’s no other way of saying it. All of it was fueled by the lies about the 2020 election. But on this day two years ago, our democracy held because we the people, as the Constitution refers to us, did not flinch. We the people endured. We the people prevailed.”

Watching the violence unfold at the Capitol via livestream on January 6, 2021, I was struck by the incredible heroism of the Capitol police and the DC police officers who fought against the brutal mob for hours to save our democracy. Our democracy held because they put their lives on the line in service to a positive ideal. During a ceremony at the White House, President Biden awarded a group of those officers with medals as he honored their courage during the January 6 insurrection.  

Thanks to the Capitol and DC police officers, we held the line. 

President Biden Marks the Two-Year Anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection During a Ceremony

President Biden awards s a medal to Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn as he marks the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection during a ceremony at the White House.

President Biden awards a medal to former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone as he marks the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection during a ceremony at the White House.