L iving in Rockbridge County, I've learned to accept the idea that there are three distinct kinds of "history." First, there's the history of historians, the gentle "arguments" of history professors in the three colleges rooted hereabouts and in the lectures you'll hear in Lee Chapel or Virginia Military Institute's Jackson Memorial Hall reappraising the Civil War. Next, there's public history, the stories and monuments that give educated folks a sense of pride, or guilt, in the grand narratives. We have plenty of that history here too. And then there's what really happened. This is a realm of ghosts and coffins beyond our knowing. I look for that underneath the double-bullseye sidewalk bricks and granite pavers naming the "Righteous and Rascals of Rockbridge." In a ditch dug by a work crew along East Washington Street, below LEXINGTONVIRGINIA.COM 13 LEXINGTONVIRGINIA.COM 13http://www.LEXINGTONVIRGINIA.COM