Memorial Page
Remembering Our Fallen Heroes!In the early morning hours of Friday, September 21, 1928, the alarm sounded, calling the brave men of McComb to duty. They arrived to find the McComb Wholesale Co. engulfed in flames. While attempting to extinguish the blaze, three heroic and brave men lost their lives.
These men should be remembered and honored.
The McComb City Enterprise Paper summarized their fight best.
Three heroes went to their deaths Friday - heroes in the truest sense of the word. They were fighting in the defense of their country just as the soldiers upon the fields of battle.
The soldiers face other soldiers, and the conflicts are recorded upon the pages of history. Thus, Washington and Jackson and Lee are known to every school child in America.
The three youths who gave their lives for their country last Friday were fighting against fire - defending the lives and property of McComb.
Fire is the deadly enemy in times of war; it is an constant adversary in times of peace.
No bands were playing when these young men went down to death. No flags were waving as an inspiration to their souls. The fortitude and courage manifested by them was but a simple part of their lives. They saw a duty to perform, a task to be done. And without a whimper, they sought to do the thing that fell within the path of duty...
We are thinking of the price they paid. What a sacrifice! What a gift to the community! The quiet of night was everywhere when the alarm sounded. Men were sleeping. The voice of duty spoke, and out of the joy of peaceful slumber these men sprang. And then in a flash all was over! The Maker of the souls of men reached down and called Charles A. Bedgood, Robert Lee, and Joe Battaglia into a greater world...
A community must be appreciative of such a sacrifice...
Woodrow Wilson filled an untimely grave because of the burden of his fellow citizens that was heavy upon his heart. And yet, in death, Wilson did no more than did these three men-- he gave but one life for his country.
McComb City Journal - September 28, 1928