Column: Today is Wreaths Across America, and so much more

Lone Mountain Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 1,700 military veterans dating back to the American Civil War.

Today they are honored this Christmas season for their service and sacrifice with Wreaths Across America, a nationwide event placing wreaths at the graves of fallen military personnel and veterans.

Wreaths Across America is much more than symbolism, though. It is recognition of the American service man and woman's willingness to defend liberty, achieve peace through strength, and make the ultimate sacrifice if need be.

The Christmas season should be a time of peace, after all. And yet, the price of peace has occasionally been bought by war.

Seventy-four years ago, the German army attempted to break through the Allied lines in the forested Ardennes of Luxembourg, beginning the arduous Battle of the Bulge.

The 30-day long German offensive, its last of World War II, came at a high cost to the Allies, which suffered around 75,000 casualties to break the lines that led to Berlin.

After a successful, but enormously costly D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, the Allies steadily pushed inland into Northern Europe's interior, liberating Paris and France, as well as the Netherlands and Belgium before running into stubborn German Panzers in the Ardennes.

The Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last stand, of sorts, its forces being gradually pushed back toward Berlin in an increasingly defensive posture.

But just as a cornered animal will lash out in a last gasp effort to escape its captors, the German army pushed everything it had into the Allied lines, effectively driving a wedge between them before running into Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army and falling back.

Germany lost 120,000 men and countless supplies that it could no longer afford to replace. From then on, it was only a matter of time before Germany would surrender.

The Allies pushed through the Ardennes into Germany and crossed the Rhine River on their way to Berlin, where the war ended on May 8, 1945.

Victory belonged to the Allies, including American forces under Patton's command, but it came at a horrendous cost of human lives.

The United States lost hundreds of thousands of service men and women in World War II. Tens of millions died worldwide.

In the end, though, freedom had its victory and liberty was preserved.

Eighty-two years before the Battle of the Bulge, the United States suffered a costly loss to Confederate forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia, threatening the Union and its Republic.

In early December 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac arrived at the banks of the Rappahannock River in Northern Virginia, meeting the Army of Northern Virginia at the town of Fredericksburg.

In total, almost 200,000 soldiers were concentrated around the little town.

Lt. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, ultimately sought to attack the flanks of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's forces.

But he waited too long to launch the offensive. Instead of fording just a little ways upriver, Burnside chose to build a pontoon bridge directly to the town of Fredericksburg, which the Army of Northern Virginia had been occupying.

Burnside's delay allowed Lee to dig in above the town, securing the high ground and fortifying his army's position.

By the time Burnside crossed the Rappahannock River on Dec. 13, it entered a nearly deserted town and faced a seemingly impenetrable wall of 80,000 troops dug in at Marye's Heights.

Burnside then made another unwise move, dividing his forces to simultaneously attack both right and left flanks of Lee's army, which effectively repelled them.

The Army of the Potomac retreated back across the Rappahannock with its tail between its legs, having suffered close to 13,000 casualties over two days of fighting.

The loss was a massive morale buster, both for Union soldiers and civilians, whose public opinion of the war was spiraling downward.

Five months later, under yet another new commander, the Army of the Potomac was routed at Chancellorsville, Virginia, bolstering Confederate confidence and sending the Union into a tailspin.

Had it not been for Lee's overly ambitious offensive north into Southern Pennsylvania and subsequent loss at Gettysburg, there may well have been a cease-fire ending the war and leaving the Union torn in two indefinitely.

At the end of the day, though, the Union was preserved and our nation exists today because of the service and sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and sailors.

Peace is achieved through strength and sacrifice. It takes strength to endure war and its many battles. But it also takes sacrifice and a willingness to pay the ultimate price to protect and defend the values and principles we all hold dear to our hearts.

We lay wreaths at the graves of service men and women across the country today, because they laid down their lives to achieve peace on earth, good will toward men.

The essence of the season.

Merry Christmas to our veterans and fallen military, all of whom have given some and some gave all.