Columnist's review of Crawford-Burnside duel brings grave reminder

Editor:

Re the May 4 column by Barbara Seaborn on the Crawford family:

A few years ago a friend of ours took us to an abandoned burial site in the Cobbham area. There we found two flat-type tomb stones; I had to get down on my hands and knees to scrub off all the many years of leaves and dirt. A name finally became readable; it was:

"Mrs. Mary A.C. Crawford B. MAR. 31, 1829 D. JUNE 20, 1856."

As I was cleaning the other stone, which read Wm. A.L. Collins, "B. SEPT. 18, 1802 D. APR. 28, 1885," our friend told he was a doctor. I was a little skeptical; it didn't have a Dr. in front of his name or a M.D. behind it, but I kept my thoughts to myself.

Some time later, I was reading a Crawford genealogy book that Nick Crawford had given us before he passed away. As I read about the duel between George Crawford and Thomas Burnside, a name flew off the page at me: The story told of the dying Burnside being attended by a Dr. Wm. A.L. Collins -- the same name we found there in the woods. I'm glad I kept my thoughts to myself; my friend was right and I was wrong.

As the man says, "Now you know the rest of the story."

Bill Blackard

Appling

(Bill Blackard, a member of the Columbia County Historical Society, currently is working on a book cataloging Columbia County's cemeteries.)