Purple Heart heroes: Stories of courage and sacrifice
Memorial Day is a day to honor veterans who have died in service to the United States. We salute the flag and many courageous veterans from various wars. I will share the stories of three remarkable veterans who have ties to the Deaf community and Georgia. They received the Purple Heart for their injuries or deaths in service.
Elisha Melton Hughston Jr. was born on May 4, 1836, in Hobbysville, South Carolina. He had 10 siblings, two of them Deaf. His father founded a private South Carolina School for the Deaf, where Elisha and his Deaf siblings studied. Elisha became a teacher and a director at the Alabama
School for the Deaf. He joined the Confederate Army in 1862, when his father’s school closed.
Elisha and his two hearing brothers fought in the Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia, where George was killed and Elisha and Thomas were wounded and captured. Thomas was later freed and returned home. Elisha’s fate was uncertain, as he was believed to have died from his severe injuries.
However, Elisha did survive the war, but lost his leg due to amputation. He returned home and married Laura Owens, an alumna of the Georgia School for the Deaf, on Nov. 12, 1868. They had a son, Thaddeus, who sadly passed away after a year. Elisha died at age 38 on Oct. 27, 187 4, and is buried at the Magnolia Cemetery in Greenville, Alabama, with his wife and her family relatives.
My uncle, Charles Thomas Ward, the eldest son of Charles Forney (later Franklin) Ward and Lillie Esther Allen, was born on Nov. 24, 1921, in Scott, Virginia. His family moved to Cedartown and lived in a two-story house on King Street that still stands today. He had 8 siblings, the youngest being my mother.
During World War II, Charles was drafted in 1941, the year my mother was born. He joined the Army as a sharpshooter at Fort Mcpherson in Atlanta, in 1942, a week before turning 20.
A bullet went through Charles’ chest and out of his back during the D-day invasion in 1944 and he lay on the ground in the dark near Normandy Beach, France. A German soldier found him and gave him aid. He kept him company all night and guarded him from harm. The US could not get to him until morning. The German soldier slipped away unseen when he heard the US helicopters. Charles was taken to a hospital in Paris.
My mother said a neighbor, Augustus C. Duke, took Mama (my grandmother) to town where she heard the upsetting news about Charles, and that he might not survive. Mama cried, and asked her relatives and friends in her Southside Church community to pray for Charles.
Charles underwent surgery and survived. He eventually returned home to the US, where his family received him joyously. Charles got married on Oct. 21, 1947, in Cabarrus, North Carolina. They moved to Cedartown and had a son, Charles William “Gene” Ward. After their marriage collapsed, Charles took Gene to live with Mama on Fairview Avenue and to work as a shoemaker.
He was 81 when he passed away peacefully on Jan. 13, 2003. His funeral service was held at the Gammage Funeral Home chapel. He is buried with full military rites at Polk Memorial Gardens in Cedartown, next to his parents, other relatives, and my father. His gravestone bears the inscription of the Purple Heart.
Lance Herman Vogeler, a hearing son of Deaf parents, Timothy and Donna Vogeler, was born on Aug. 9, 1981, in Westminster, Maryland, and grew up bilingual in American Sign Language and English. He lived in Frederick, Maryland, and graduated from Gov. Thomas Johnson High School.
Lance was a sergeant in the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment in Georgia. He served 12 deployments — 8 to Afghanistan and 4 to Iraq — and earned many awards including a Purple Heart. He was killed at 29 on Oct. 1, 2010, in Afghanistan, where his unit was attacked. At that time his wife was pregnant with two children.
He is laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memory Gardens in Savannah A bridge on Opossumtown Pike over US 15 was named in his honor on July 8, 2017, in a ceremony attended by his family, friends, and comrades.
Those veterans — Elisha, Charles and Lance — truly deserve our salute for their sacrifice during the wars and we honor them on Memorial Day. By learning about their experiences, we can appreciate their legacy and value their contributions to our history and society.
Adonia K. Smith is a Cedartown native who resides in Cave Spring. She owns ASL Rose, a company that serves the heart of Deaf education, and is active in the Georgia School for the Deaf Alumni Association.
Email her at adonia@aslrose.com.