V * ., 
 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE SPIRIT OF 
 THE SOUTH 
 
 Orations, Essays and Lectures 
 
 By 
 COLONEL WILLIAM H. STEWART 
 
 NEW YORI AND WASHINGTON 
 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1908
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY 
 THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
 
 To 
 
 My Comrades-in-Arms of the Firing Line
 
 F 
 
 zo (, 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 FADE 
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH . . 9 
 WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT, UNDER Two FLAGS . 36 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA, 1775-81 ... 47 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 63 
 
 UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT AT FORT NELSON 85 
 e THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH . . . .88 
 
 S^"* 
 
 t EULOGY ON GENERAL LEE 98 
 
 ^ A SOUTHERN GIRL AND MAJOR VON BORCKE . 108 
 
 < : HUMOR OF CAMP AND MARCH . . . .107 
 
 ~3 THE BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA . . . .110 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 130 
 
 CXI 
 
 " THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MATTHEW FONTAINE 
 
 MAURY 142 
 
 5 
 
 THE PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE MAURY, FOR R. E. 
 
 LEE CAMP, No. 1 164 
 
 THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH 175 
 
 o HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY OF ROBERT E. LEE . .181 
 ~ THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA . . .188 
 
 j MAHONE'S BRIGADE 195 
 
 -'J THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER . . . .201 
 
 FITZHUGH LEE 208 
 
 "* STONEWALL JACKSON 210 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS 224 
 
 APPOMATTOX 226
 
 The Spirit of the South 
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH 
 
 IT is a commonplace tale I have to tell, an old, old 
 story often related before, but it is good to sing 
 over the old songs. They are sweetest, after all. It 
 is right to keep alive the history that tells of our 
 national birth. It is justice to rehearse the part our 
 ancestors acted in their wars, and wise to learn from 
 simple lessons the ways of honor, patriotism, and 
 virtue. 
 
 The history of war is too often made by the pen, 
 not by the sword, and American historians seem to 
 locate almost all of the glorious achievements of the 
 revolution between Yorktown and Lexington. But 
 now let us stand upon the banks of the York and 
 look for the Southern Cross, whose bright stars will 
 tell how the South suffered and struggled for the 
 independence of the united colonies. 
 
 The annals of war do not relate a detail of more 
 savage brutality on the part of its enemies and of 
 more gallantry, skill, and fortitude on the part of 
 the Southern soldiers, and of more self-sacrificing 
 devotion on the part of the noble women of the 
 South, than does the history of our Southland's share 
 in the great struggle for American freedom. 
 
 The savage cruelty of Dunmore and Tarleton 
 united the people for resistance and aroused the sym- 
 pathy of liberty-loving Englishmen across the ocean 
 to open declarations against the coercive policy of
 
 10 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 King George's government. The Earl of Effingham, 
 Thomas Howard, was conspicuous in his sympathy 
 for the American colonies, and interposed able and 
 eloquent arguments in Parliament for the rights of 
 the colonies. When a boy he had strong military 
 inclinations and his youthful bent carried him into 
 the British army as an ensign in the celebrated Cold- 
 stream Guards. 
 
 He was not prompted to the profession of arms by 
 a desire for the tawdry trappings of an officer's 
 uniform, but wished to test the metal of his manhood 
 on the firing line, and volunteered for service in a 
 war between the Russians and Turks. When the 
 American Revolution began he was fully equipped for 
 a military career, but he could not consent to enforce 
 with his sword measures which he had opposed as a 
 legislator, and, as he did not wish to resign from the 
 army, when his regiment was ordered to America he 
 wrote a letter of resignation to the Secretary of 
 War. In this letter he set forth the willingness with 
 which he could sacrifice his life and fortune in sup- 
 port of the safety, honor, and dignity of his majesty's 
 crown and person, but declared that the same prin- 
 ciples which had inspired him with these unalterable 
 sentiments of duty and affection to the king would 
 not suffer him to be instrumental in depriving any 
 part of his people of those liberties which form the 
 best security for their fidelity and obedience to his 
 government. He further expressed the deepest regret 
 at being obliged to quit a profession which had been 
 that of his ancestors for many ages, and to the study 
 and practice of which his life, from childhood, had 
 been applied. He waived the advantage to which the
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 11 
 
 custom of the service entitled him, the right of sell- 
 ing the rank that he had bought, and requested that 
 he be allowed to retain his rating in the army, in 
 order that, whenever the envy or ambition of foreign 
 powers should require it, he might be enabled to serve 
 his majesty and his country in that way in which, of 
 all others, he thought himself best fitted by natural 
 inclination and by training. 
 
 In this line of action the Earl of Effingham dis- 
 played more courage than it takes to stand up on the 
 line of battle, where bullets whistle and thundering 
 shells explode. At a great meeting in London held 
 in the Common Hall one midsummer's day, resolutions 
 of public thanks were ordered to be given to the 
 Right Honorable the Earl of Effingham, for having 
 consistently, with the principles of a true English- 
 man, refused to draw a sword which had been em- 
 ployed to the honor of his country, against the lives 
 and liberties of his fellow-subjects in America. Soon 
 after similar resolutions of thanks in fuller terms 
 were presented to him from the Guild of Merchants 
 in Dublin. 
 
 Thomas Howard was a grand Englishman, a lover 
 of truth and virtue, a friend of liberty and justice, 
 and Americans should honor his name until that day 
 when time shall be no more. 
 
 What a striking contrast to the character of Lord 
 Howard is that of Lord Dunmore, who was com- 
 pelled by an incensed populace to flee from Williams- 
 burg and seek safety on board of a man-of-war, for 
 Dunmore had prosecuted an infamous and piratical 
 war on the people for whose liberties the eloquence 
 of Effingham pled in the Hall of Parliament. He
 
 12 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 attacked Hampton, Va., October 26, 1775, intending 
 to establish his camp there, but was driven back 
 upon the water by Woodford's Riflemen. On the 
 7th day of November, 1775, he issued a proclama- 
 tion establishing martial law, requiring every person 
 capable of bearing arms to join the standard of King 
 George, or be considered a traitor, declaring all 
 indented servants that were able and willing to bear 
 arms, whether negroes or others (appertaining to 
 rebels) free, upon joining His Majesty's troops. 
 The Provincials were greatly incensed upon seeing 
 this proclamation, since it encouraged slaves to free 
 themselves from their masters by taking up arms 
 against them. This was a measure more drastic than 
 any government on the Continent of Europe had 
 hitherto ventured to grant. Dunmore's efforts to 
 incite the slaves to the midnight murder of innocents 
 and also to set Indian warriors on the warpath for 
 indiscriminate scalping resulted in making his name 
 a synonym for horror and loathing everywhere. 
 An English authority says : " His proclamation was 
 received with the greatest horror in all of the 
 colonies, and was severely condemned elsewhere, as 
 tending to loosen the bonds of society, to destroy 
 domestic security, and encourage the most barbarous 
 of mankind to the commission of the most horrible 
 crimes and the most inhuman cruelties ; that it was 
 confounding the innocent with the guilty and expos- 
 ing those who were the best friends of the government 
 to the same loss of property, and danger, and de- 
 struction with the most incorrigible. It established 
 a precedent of a most dangerous nature in the New 
 World, by giving legal sanction to the arraying and
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 13 
 
 embodying of African negroes to appear in arms 
 against white men, and to encounter them upon an 
 equal footing in the field." 
 
 This proclamation produced disastrous results in 
 Eastern Virginia, until the British Grenadiers, 
 Norfolk Volunteers, and the motley mixture of 
 blacks and whites who had responded to Dunmore's 
 call were defeated by the patriots under General 
 Woodford at Great Bridge, Va., where the brave 
 Captain Fordyce fell leading his redcoats in the 
 charge over the causeway. Another plan of action 
 on the part of the ruthless Dunmore was to induce 
 the Indian nations on the back country of Virginia 
 and the Carolinas to penetrate towards the coast and 
 form a junction with him so as to cut off the South- 
 ern -colonies from the Northern colonies. This move- 
 ment was frustrated by the capture of his agents 
 who were bearing his letter to the Indian chief, by 
 the vigilant committee in Maryland. 
 
 Lord William Campbell in South Carolina tried to 
 incite the back settlers, called " Regulators," to ally 
 themselves with the Indians for war against the 
 patriots, but this aroused so much excitement and 
 indignation in Charleston that Campbell deemed it 
 prudent to retire on board of a man-of-war for his 
 personal safety, and soon after sailed away to disturb 
 no more the patriotic Carolinians. To offset this 
 contemplated coalition, Judge Dayton, with a strong 
 armed force of leading citizens, marched to the back 
 settlements and made a treaty with the Regulators. 
 
 The patriotic government of South Carolina was 
 at this time lodged in a council of thirteen persons, 
 with the occasional assistance of a committee of
 
 14 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 ninety-nine, which exerted every means to fortify 
 Charleston Harbor, to procure arms and gunpowder, 
 and to drill troops for defense. Governor Martin of 
 North Carolina, in his attempts to stifle the liberty- 
 loving spirit of the colonists, was more active and 
 vigorous in his proceedings than Lord Campbell, but 
 not more successful. The Assembly committee of 
 correspondence and General Ashe, on the other 
 hand, were even more vigorous and ardent in the 
 defense of the colony, and the Assembly therefore 
 declared Martin an enemy to America in general 
 and to North Carolina in particular upon a num- 
 ber of charges, particularly of fomenting civil war 
 and exciting an insurrection among the negroes, 
 and it forbade all persons holding communication 
 with him. Martin replied in a long proclamation, 
 which the Carolinians declared to be a false, scan- 
 dalous, malicious, and seditious libel, and ordered it 
 to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. 
 It may have been that the high-handed measures 
 of these three British governors helped to increase the 
 anti-war party in England and Ireland, so as almost 
 to over-balance the coercionists and to force the 
 latter to resort to appeals for the widows and orphans 
 of British soldiers killed at Boston to counteract the 
 effect of the party of conciliation, and to arouse the 
 public feeling to sustain the war. The effect in 
 America was to unite the colonies for more vigorous 
 efforts in behalf of complete independence, enflaming 
 the Southern heart with an all-consuming enthusiasm 
 for the cause, and bringing to the forefront some of 
 the most skillful and daring heroes of the Revolution- 
 ary period.
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 15 
 
 On the 28th day of June, 1776, Admiral Parker of 
 the Royal Navy, commanding a fleet of eleven large 
 vessels of war, sailed into Charleston Harbor and 
 commenced a tremendous attack upon Fort Moultrie, 
 located on Sullivan's Island. The fort, constructed 
 of soft palmetto wood, in which the cannonballs 
 buried themselves without throwing off splinters to 
 injure the gunners, mounted sixty guns, and as ship 
 after ship poured in its terrible broadsides, the whole 
 harbor seemed one sheet of flame. The Americans 
 aimed well, and every shot had its effect, and soon 
 several of the British ships were stranded. The 
 Thunderer, after firing more than sixty shells, was 
 disabled; the Bristol was almost destroyed and a 
 great number of sailors was killed. The fire from 
 the fort suddenly ceased, the powder having been ex- 
 hausted, and the British, sure of victory, moved their 
 ships nearer with drums beating and flags flying. 
 However, the Americans soon received a new supply 
 of powder and the battle raged fiercer than ever, 
 until seven o'clock in the evening, when the fleet re- 
 tired under cover of night. This defense of Fort 
 Moultrie was one of the most brilliant actions of the 
 war. Every man fought like a hero and Congress 
 passed a resolution of thanks to the whole garrison. 
 During the fiercest part of the engagement, when the 
 flag was cut down, Sergeant Jasper leaped upon the 
 ramparts, fastened it to a rammer and hoisted it in 
 the face of the enemy. He was presented with a 
 sword for his brave conduct, and Colonel William 
 Moultrie, the victorious commander, was promoted 
 to brigadier-general. 
 
 The next engagement of importance in the South
 
 16 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 was the signal defeat of General Robert Howe and 
 the capture of Savannah, Ga. The Americans lost 
 550 men killed, wounded, and captured, with artillery 
 and baggage ; while the British lost only seven killed 
 and nineteen wounded. General Howe was greatly 
 censured, but was afterwards acquitted by a court 
 of inquiry. The British were remarkably kind and 
 lenient to the inhabitants, but, by pressing their 
 military advantage, in the period of one month had 
 restored the whole State of Georgia to the British 
 Crown. The one ray of light amid the disasters in 
 Georgia was the victory of Colonel Pickens over the 
 Loyalists at Kettle Creek, where Colonel Boyd, their 
 commander, was killed. 
 
 General Benjamin Lincoln was made commander- 
 in-chief in the South, but the fortunes of war were 
 against him, too. He was baffled at Stono Ferry, 
 repulsed before Savannah, and on May 11, 1780, he 
 was captured at Charleston with his whole army. 
 General Woodford, the hero of Hampton and Great 
 Bridge, with 700 of the Virginia line, recently 
 arrived, were included in the surrender. The loss of 
 the metropolis of South Carolina was a sad blow to 
 the South, as it was the depot of its commerce, the 
 unrivaled seat of Southern beauty, taste, art, science, 
 and wealth. Charleston had been the pride, the boast, 
 and the delight of the high-spirited gentry and 
 gallant yeomanry of that country, but it was now 
 under the heel of the conqueror. 
 
 Following the fall of Charleston, on the 29th of 
 May, came the horrible butchery at Waxhaws, S. C., 
 where Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton suddenly charged 
 upon Lieutenant-Colonel Buford, routing his forces
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 17 
 
 and killing many of his soldiers while asking quarter. 
 By official report 113 were killed, 150 so badly 
 wounded as to be paroled on the ground, most of 
 whom died, and 53 prisoners were marched to Camden. 
 Colonel Buford with a few of the cavalry escaped. 
 To offset this disaster, the defeat of the British at 
 Hanging Rock, S. C., by Major Davie was a gleam 
 of hope in the struggle which had almost wrested two 
 States from the Confederation. Andrew Jackson, 
 at the age of thirteen, commenced his career as a 
 soldier in this fight. 
 
 The hero of Saratoga, the conqueror of Burgoyne, 
 was ordered to succeed the unfortunate Lincoln in 
 command of the Southern forces, and General 
 Horatio Gates' arrival in the South was hailed with 
 universal acclamation. The advance of his army 
 into South Carolina roused all the latent energies of 
 the State, but his great haste so overleaped cautious 
 judgment that it brought about the terrible defeat 
 of Camden. A second time the army of the South 
 was nearly annihilated, and General Gates retreated 
 to Hillsborough, N. C., where he decided to collect 
 his shattered forces. The victory at King's Moun- 
 tain over Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson was one gleam 
 of light in the darkness of the defeat at Camden, and 
 it relieved North Carolina from the invasion threat- 
 ened by Lord Cornwallis. 
 
 Although Gates was reorganizing his army with 
 commendable zeal and skill, neither Congress nor the 
 people were satisfied to allow him to remain in com- 
 mand. Congress resolved a court of inquiry and 
 authorized Washington to appoint a commander in 
 the place of Gates. Washington promptly selected
 
 18 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 General Nathaniel Greene, who reached the army on 
 December 2, 1780, being greeted with the utmost 
 cordiality and respect by General Gates, who turned 
 over his command in general orders the next day. 
 
 Under a heavy burden Gates proceeded to meet the 
 inquiry ordered by Congress. When he arrived in 
 Richmond the Legislature was in session, and a com- 
 mittee of the House of Delegates was unanimously 
 appointed, with Mr. Henry as chairman, " to assure 
 him of the high regard and esteem of this House; 
 that the remembrance of his former glorious services 
 could not be obliterated by any reverse of fortune; 
 and that the House of Delegates, ever mindful of his 
 great merit, would omit no opportunity of testifying 
 to the world the gratitude which as a member of the 
 American Union this country owed to him in his mili- 
 tary career." It was a noble and just tribute to a 
 vanquished hero whom misfortune had overtaken. 
 General Gates in his answer said : " I shall remember 
 with the utmost gratitude the honor this day done 
 me by the honorable House of Delegates of Virginia. 
 When I engaged in the cause of freedom and the 
 United States, I devoted myself entirely to the service 
 of obtaining the great end of this Union. The having 
 been once unfortunate is my great mortification ; but 
 let the event of my future services be what it may, 
 they will be as they always have been, directed by the 
 most faithful integrity, and animated by the purest 
 zeal for the honor and interest of the United States." 
 
 Washington's magnanimity was no less than that 
 displayed by the noble and generous-hearted members 
 of the House of Delegates. He delayed the order for 
 a court-martial, and the speedy close of the war
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 19 
 
 avoided the humiliation of the inquiry to the proud 
 soldier. 
 
 General Greene found his forces consisted of but 
 a small army, poorly clad, with only three days' 
 rations and a very scant supply of ammunition. 
 Having called together all the reinforcements at his 
 command, he decided to divide his army, and make a 
 bold movement on each flank of the enemy. His policy 
 was to harass and divide the royal army, intimidate 
 its partisans and cut off its supplies, but to avoid a 
 general engagement. He sent General Daniel 
 Morgan, with 400 Continental troops under Colonel 
 Howard, Colonel William Washington with his corps 
 of dragoons, and a few militia, to a position near 
 Ninety-Six in order to overcome the Tories, who were 
 committing great ravages in this section of the State. 
 Lord Cornwallis at once detached the bloody and 
 indefatigable Tarleton to pursue Morgan, who boldly 
 came to a halt at the Cowpens and most skillfully 
 arrayed his forces for Tarleton's attack. On January 
 17, 1781, Tarleton, with his usual impetuosity, 
 charged Morgan's men, who were posted on the slope 
 of a hill. Colonel Pickens' militia delivered a number 
 of deadly volleys, retired behind the lines, and 
 Howard's regulars then met the enemy with murder- 
 ous fire, followed by a bayonet charge, while at the 
 same time Washington's Dragoons struck their right 
 flank. The rout was complete, and Tarleton with a 
 few men fled to carry the news to Cornwallis. The 
 British loss was 230 killed and wounded, and 600 
 taken prisoners a number equal to the whole 
 American force engaged. In point of military tactics 
 this was one of the most brilliant battles of the war.
 
 20 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 The triumph over an enemy the terror of the whole 
 country, so long dreaded for his fiery courage and 
 merciless severity, not only animated the Americans 
 with enthusiasm, but was the proximate cause of all 
 the difficulties of the British during the rest of the 
 campaign. 
 
 Cornwallis, converting his forces into light troops, 
 undertook to intercept Morgan and prevent his junc- 
 tion with Greene, but skillful tactics and providential 
 freshets in the rivers frustrated his efforts. Greene 
 outmaneuvered Cornwallis until his succors arrived, 
 then he determined to offer battle, and the two hostile 
 armies met on March 15, 1781, at Guilford Court 
 House in North Carolina. It was a hard-fought field, 
 and Greene retired after a loss of 400 men, while the 
 British, with a loss of 600 men, were too crippled to 
 renew the battle. It was really a strategic victory 
 for the Americans, and Cornwallis retreated and 
 abandoned the Carolinas. Greene now resolved to 
 march into South Carolina, where he was surprised 
 and defeated by Lord Rawdon at Hobkirk's Hill. 
 The New York Volunteers here formed the center 
 column of Rawdon's victorious troops. Greene re- 
 trieved this repulse, however, for on September 8, 
 1781, he fell upon the English at Eutaw Springs and 
 fought one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The 
 American loss was 554, and that of the British, 1000. 
 Again a tactical defeat proved a strategic victory, 
 for during the night the British retreated in such 
 haste to Charleston as to leave their wounded on the 
 field. 
 
 The duties of General Greene continued to be 
 arduous and exacting, as may be seen from the
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 
 
 following extracts from his correspondence : " I 
 have been seven months without taking off my clothes 
 one night," and on August 12, 1782, he wrote: " For 
 upwards of two months more than one-third of our 
 army was naked, with nothing but a breech-cloth 
 about them, and never came out of their tents ; and 
 the rest were as ragged as wolves. Our condition 
 was little better in the articles of provisions. Our 
 beef was perfect carrion, and, even bad as it was, we 
 were frequently without any. An army thus clothed 
 and fed may be considered in a desperate con- 
 dition." 
 
 The last engagement of the war was on August 
 27, 1782, at Combahee Ferry, S. C. (seven years, 
 four months, and eight days after the battle of 
 Lexington), where Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens, 
 having risen from a sick bed to hasten to the field, 
 fell leading a charge on the retiring enemy, " thus 
 closing his short and splendid life in the luster of 
 heroism." After the evacuation of Charleston, on 
 December 14, 1782, General Greene entered the city 
 at the head of a body of cavalry. The spectators 
 at first gazed in silence upon the brilliant hero of the 
 South, the deliverer of Carolina, and then one 
 universal shout arose from the vast assemblage. 
 Every kind of festive entertainment in his honor was 
 tendered to him and substantial rewards from a 
 grateful and generous people were bestowed on him. 
 South Carolina gave him an estate worth $50,000, 
 Georgia another of half of that value, and North 
 Carolina gave him an extensive tract of land in 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Athough Greene deserved great credit for his skill-
 
 22 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 ful maneuvers, the hardest and most effectual blows 
 for liberty were dealt by his subordinates, than whom 
 more faithful and skillful officers never drew sword 
 in any cause. The great victory at the Cowpens was 
 due to Morgan's tactics, for Morgan always cau- 
 tioned his sharpshooters " to aim at the epaulets and 
 not at the poor rascals who fight for a sixpence 
 a day." It was in this battle that one of his soldiers 
 by the name of Manning found himself surrounded, 
 and, being a large man, he seized a small British 
 officer, placed him upon his shoulders and safely 
 retreated, the English not daring to fire upon Man- 
 ning for fear of killing their officer. The little officer 
 was terribly frightened, but Manning took good care 
 of him. General Morgan's former services had 
 placed him high in public estimation, but now he was 
 deservedly ranked among the most illustrious de- 
 fenders of his country. 
 
 Congress passed a resolution of thanks to the 
 principal officers, and presented a gold medal to 
 General Morgan, a sword to General Pickens, a silver 
 medal to Lieutenant-Colonel Washington and to 
 Howard, and a sword to Captain Triplet. 
 
 In this summary of intrepid deeds of American 
 officers, mention should be made of one of the 
 most extraordinary enterprises of the war, executed 
 by Colonel John White of the Georgia Line. 
 
 While the allied army was engaged before Savan- 
 nah, he, with Captain Etholm and three soldiers, ap- 
 proached in the night the camp of Captain French, 
 who commanded a small detachment of British 
 regulars about twenty-five miles from Savannah, and 
 enkindled a number of fires in the semblance of a
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 
 
 camp of considerable strength. The ruse was a 
 complete success, for the British troops, seeing the 
 illumination, believed they were assailed by the enemy 
 in a body. Immediately on the completion of this pre- 
 liminary act, Colonel White and his four comrades, 
 imitating the manner of the staff, rode in apparent 
 excitement and haste about the British camp, giving 
 orders in a loud voice to the soldiers whom he led the 
 English troops to believe had surrounded them. 
 These stratagems convinced the enemy that they were 
 confronted by a large force, and, on being sum- 
 moned by Colonel White, Captain French surren- 
 dered his regulars, the crews of five vessels, forty in 
 number, with the vessels and one hundred stand of 
 arms. Colonel White, to successfully carry his en- 
 terprise to a fulfillment, assured Colonel French that 
 the animosity of his troops had been greatly aroused 
 by the recent atrocities of the enemy and that he had 
 to keep them from meeting the British, to prevent 
 indiscriminate slaughter. Therefore, he said, he 
 would send three guides to conduct Colonel French 
 and his surrendered men to good and safe quarters. 
 He then hastily rode off, and collecting the neigh- 
 borhood militia he soon overtook the guides with 
 their prisoners, happy in the good treatment they 
 had received. 
 
 General Andrew Pickens, whose spirited service 
 with his South Carolina militia contributed in a great 
 degree to the liberation of the South, rose succes- 
 sively from captain to major, colonel, and briga- 
 dier-general. He displayed conspicuous valor and 
 activity at the Cowpens, at Hawk River, at Augusta 
 and at Eutaw Springs, at which last place a musket
 
 24 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 ball, by striking the buckle of his belt, was prevented 
 from terminating the career of this intrepid officer. 
 At Kettle Creek he defeated Colonel Boyd, a very 
 brave officer who commanded a body of Tories and 
 Indians double the force of Pickens. 
 
 General Francis Marion was a great partisan 
 soldier, and his heavy blows were not less effective in 
 the cause of the South than those of the bravest of 
 his compatriots. He served in the rank of major 
 under Colonel Moultrie in his gallant defense of Fort 
 Moultrie against the combined attack of Sir Henry 
 Clinton and Sir Henry Parker, and afterwards he 
 was given command of a regiment as lieutenant- 
 colonel. Marion was a man of vigorous intellect, 
 and of quiet and reserved manner. He was virtuous 
 and ever endeavored to do right, and was beloved by 
 his friends and respected by his enemies. He 
 possessed a strong head, a good heart, and mind 
 devoted to the welfare of his people and their cause. 
 It is said that on one occasion a British officer with 
 a flag of truce, proposing an exchange of prisoners, 
 was brought blindfolded into Marion's camp. The 
 exploits of Marion had made his name now widely 
 known, and the officer felt great curiosity to see the 
 invisible warrior who was so often felt, but never 
 seen. On removing the bandage from his eyes he 
 was presented to a man rather below the middle size, 
 very thin in person, of a dark complexion and 
 withered look, dressed in homespun coat that bore 
 evidence of flood and field, and his other garments 
 being much the worse for wear. " I came," said the 
 officer, " with a message for General Marion." " I 
 am he," said Marion, " and these are my soldiers."
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 25 
 
 The officer looked around and saw a number of rough, 
 half-clothed fellows, some roasting sweet potatoes, 
 others resting on their dark muskets, others asleep 
 with logs for their pillows. The business being set- 
 tled, the officer was about to go when Marion invited 
 him to remain and dine. Not seeing any preparation 
 of dinner, he was inclined to take the invitation in 
 jest, but on being again pressed, curiosity as well as 
 hunger prompted him to accept. The General then 
 ordered his servant to set the table and serve up 
 dinner, upon which the man placed a clean piece of 
 pine bark on the ground, and, raking away the ashes, 
 uncovered a quantity of sweet potatoes. The British 
 officer, after partaking of the modest meal, and learn- 
 ing that these potatoes constituted the whole com- 
 missariat of Marion and his men, returned to his com- 
 mander and said : " Sir, I have seen the American 
 general, his officers, and soldiers, serving without pay, 
 without shelter, without clothing, without any other 
 food than roots and water ; and they are enduring all 
 these for liberty ! What chance have we of subduing 
 a country with such men for defenders? " 
 
 Another name sounds " down the corridors of 
 time " with that of Marion General Thomas Sum- 
 ter, a soldier of stern aspect, insuperable firmness and 
 lofty courage. Like Ajax, he relied more upon the 
 fierceness of his courage than the results of unrelax- 
 ing vigilance and nicely adjusted tactics, and risked 
 his own life and the lives of his soldiers without 
 reserve, bearing himself with distinguished gallantry 
 in every combat. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel William Washington, a distant 
 relative of the commander-in-chief, greatly con-
 
 26 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 tributed to baffle the skillful display of military tal- 
 ents and enterprise exhibited by Cornwallis. Colonel 
 Washington had a stout frame, being six feet in 
 height, broad, strong, and corpulent. At Guilford 
 Court House, while charging at the head of his 
 dragoons, he nearly captured Cornwallis. In one of 
 his contests with Tarleton's cavalry, Washington's 
 impetuosity separated him from his troopers and he 
 was furiously attacked by an officer and a dozen 
 British Dragoons. While defending himself he broke 
 his sword and was in a most perilous situation. The 
 enemy pressed upon him with the fullest confidence 
 of killing him, when Sergeant Everhart, of Frederick 
 County, Maryland, gallantly rushed up to him and 
 handed him his well-tried sword. Washington now 
 extricated himself from his hazardous situation, cut- 
 ting down his antagonists and was soon joined by his 
 troops. Colonel Washington ever afterwards at- 
 tributed the preservation of his life to the timely 
 relief afforded by Everhart, and gratefully acknowl- 
 edging it, he enrolled him on the list of his dearest 
 friends. He never passed through Frederickstown 
 without spending a day or two with his faithful 
 sergeant, who was a zealous and pious minister of the 
 Methodist Church. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel John E. Howard of Maryland 
 was one of the five lieutenant-colonels on whom Greene 
 relied throughout the hazardous operations to which 
 he was necessarily exposed by his heroic determination 
 to recover the South or die in the attempt. At the 
 battle of Cowpens Colonel Howard seized the critical 
 moment and turned the fortunes of the day. Alike 
 conspicuous, though not alike successful, at Guilford
 
 and Eutaw, he was at all times and on all occasions 
 eminently skillful and zealous in the discharge of the 
 duties assigned to him. Trained to infantry service, 
 he was invariably employed in that line and was 
 always to be found where the battle raged fiercest, 
 pressing into the close action that the bayonet charge 
 demands. He was placid in temper and reserved in 
 deportment, and General Greene said he was as good 
 an officer as the world afforded ; that he had great 
 ability and the best disposition to promote the service ; 
 that his own obligations to him were great, and those 
 of the public still more so ; that he deserved a statue 
 of gold no less than Roman and Grecian heroes of 
 ages long ago. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel William Richardson Davie and 
 General William Davidson of North Carolina were 
 heroes distinguished for brilliant service. The for- 
 mer, although a splendid officer at the head of a cav- 
 alry regiment, was induced by General Greene to 
 assume the head of his commissary department. 
 Though most reluctantly accepted, he contributed 
 greatly by his talents, zeal, local knowledge, and his 
 influence toward the maintenance of the difficult and 
 successful operations which followed. General Da- 
 vidson fell on the field of battle and the Congress of 
 the United States passed the following resolution: 
 " Resolved, That the Governor and Council of the 
 State of North Carolina be desired to erect a monu- 
 ment, at the expense of the United States, not exceed- 
 ing in value of five hundred dollars, to the memory of 
 the late Brigadier-General Davidson, who com- 
 manded the militia of the District of Salisbury in 
 the State of North Carolina and was killed on the
 
 28 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 first day of February last, fighting gallantly in de- 
 fense of liberty and independence of these States." 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lee, " Light Horse 
 Harry," the father of the illustrious Robert E. Lee, 
 was another one of the noble band of heroes who 
 served the cause of independence with great courage 
 and noble self-sacrifice. His great patriotism was 
 exalted by the misfortunes of his country, and he 
 freely gave his private fortune to equip his dragoons. 
 As he said : " Public virtue is best proved by private 
 sacrifice," thus testifying that true glory is insep- 
 arable from virtue. He believed that clemency 
 adorned heroism, and his heart went out to sufferers 
 everywhere. In a letter to General Wayne he said: 
 " I feel most sensibly for the situation of the 
 refugees from South Carolina, their distresses are 
 only equaled by their virtues. No situation of any 
 inhabitants of the above description in the Northern 
 States can give you even a faint idea of what these 
 people suffer." 
 
 Lee's Legion was a powerful factor in Greene's 
 Southern campaign. In less than two months it made 
 an extensive sweep from the Santee to Augusta, act- 
 ing in conjunction first with Marion, afterwards with 
 Pickens, and sometimes alone, and it constituted the 
 principal force which carried five British posts and 
 made upward of one thousand prisoners, about four 
 times its own number. A very extraordinary and 
 ridiculous occurrence took place on the night Lee's 
 Legion was encamped on the south side of Drowning 
 Creek, a branch of the Little Pedee River. Between 
 two and three o'clock in the morning the officer of the 
 day was informed that a strange noise had been heard
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 29 
 
 in front of the picket station on the Great Road 
 near the creek, a noise resembling that occasioned by 
 men moving through a swamp. Presently a sentinel 
 fired, which was followed by the bugle calling in the 
 horse patrols, as was the custom on the approach of 
 the enemy. The troops were summoned to arms and 
 deployed for defense. The officer of the day reported 
 that several of the sentinels heard plainly the move- 
 men of horsemen, evidently concealing their advance 
 with the utmost care. Colonel Lee, knowing that no 
 enemy could be near him, unless it was that Lord 
 Cornwallis, divining Greene's plan, had pushed a body 
 from Wilmington with orders to proceed until it 
 reached Drowning Creek, therefore considered the 
 intelligence as untrustworthy and false. In a few 
 moments, however, another sentinel fired in a different 
 direction, and soon afterwards the same report was 
 made from that point that had just been received 
 from the other. Appearances were not so strong as 
 to dissipate the first conclusion, and what had been 
 deemed imagination was felt now to be real. A 
 change in the formation was ordered to correspond 
 with that last announcement of the approach of the 
 enemy. This was not completed before a third senti- 
 nel fired from a different direction, and now the most 
 bewildering sensations were experienced : It appeared 
 as if different positions of attack were wisely and 
 dexterously made, preparatory to a general assault, 
 to take effect at daybreak. All that could be done 
 was done. The pickets and sentinels held their sta- 
 tions, the horse patrols were called in, and the corps 
 changed its position in silence and with precision 
 upon every new report, having in view the conjoint
 
 30 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 object of keeping the fires between the Legion and 
 the enemy, and holding the horse in the rear of the 
 infantry. During the last evolution to this end the 
 troops were again interrupted by the discharge of the 
 line of sentinels in their rear, along the Great Road. 
 The enemy had traversed the major segment of the 
 Legion's position, and had fixed himself upon the road 
 of march ! No doubt now remained, not only that the 
 enemy was upon them, but he was in force and he 
 thoroughly understood his object. He had recon- 
 noitered with penetration and perseverance, and had 
 placed himself in the very spot that promised most 
 certain success. Reviewing the situation, the gallant 
 Lee could not hope for aid from any quarter and had 
 to rely upon himself and the soldiers at hand. Pass- 
 ing along the line of infantry he made known the con- 
 dition, reminding his men of their high reputation, 
 enjoining profound silence throughout the approach- 
 ing contest, and assuring them that, with their cus- 
 tomary support, he had no doubt that he could force 
 his way to the Pedee. To the cavalry he briefly com- 
 municated the dangers which surrounded them, and 
 expressed his confidence that every man would do his 
 duty. He concluded by urging the officers not to 
 permit any partial success to tempt pursuit without 
 orders, or to relax circumspection, but to bear in 
 mind that the contest before them was not the affair 
 of an hour, but that it might last for days. Then, 
 having formed in two columns, one of horse and the 
 other of foot, Lee waited anxiously for the dawn of 
 day, the presumed signal for action. At dawn the 
 columns advanced to the Great Road, infantry in 
 front, baggage in the center, and cavalry in the rear.
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 31 
 
 As soon as the head of the column reached the road 
 it turned to the left, pursuing the route to the Pedee 
 River. The van officer, proceeding a few hundred 
 yards, got up to the sentinel who had fired last, and 
 received from him the account so often given before. 
 The enigma still remained unexplained and the 
 corps continued its slow march, expecting every 
 moment the fire of the enemy. While in this state of 
 suspense the van officer directed his attention to the 
 road for the purpose of examining the trail of this 
 active foe, when, to his astonishment, he found the 
 tracks of a large pack of wolves. It was now evident 
 that the presumed enemy was a troop of wild beasts, 
 collected together and anxious to pass along their 
 usual route, when, finding it obstructed, they turned 
 from point to point to pass through the field ; every- 
 where fired upon, they continued widening their circuit 
 until they reached the Great Road from which they 
 had been originally turned. Agitation among the 
 soldiers, upon this discovery, was succeeded by the 
 highest spirits. Never was a day's march more 
 pleasant. It was one continued scene of humor, and 
 for a time the restraint of discipline ceased. Every 
 soldier, not excepting Colonel Lee himself, considered 
 himself a dupe, and all laughed at their own credulity. 
 It was wonderful, they said, that not one of many 
 could distinguish between the movement of wolves and 
 soldiers ! Arriving at a settlement, the Legion was 
 halted. Here what had passed was told to the inhabi- 
 tants and the mystery of the adventure was very 
 satisfactorily solved. There had been in the field 
 where the Legion had encamped a store of provisions 
 collected for the army, but these had never been con-
 
 32 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 veyed to camp, being too distant from the line of 
 march. Having been neglected, the provisions be- 
 came putrid, and the wolves soon profited by the 
 neglect, nightly enjoyed the food intended for the 
 soldiers. Having encompassed within the range of 
 sentinels this abandoned store, the Legion had in- 
 terrupted the usual visits of the wolves, and the circle 
 which they nearly completed was from anxiety to find 
 access to their nightly repast. I have related this 
 incident as nearly as may be in the language of 
 General Lee himself. 
 
 When " Light Horse Harry's " Legion was ordered 
 South, General Washington wrote : " Lee's corps 
 will go to the southward. I believe it will be found 
 very useful; the corps is an excellent one and the 
 officer at the head of it has great resources of 
 genius." This prediction was true, as is evidenced by 
 the accounts of his service, confirmed by General 
 Greene. On Lee's departure from the South General 
 Greene wrote him : " Substantial service is what con- 
 stitutes lasting reputation, and your reports of this 
 campaign are the best panegyrics that can be given 
 your actions." Colonel Lee was not only a grand 
 soldier, but he was a man of splendid literary attain- 
 ments. A speaker " with a force of eloquence wholly 
 his own," and the memorable sentence in his eulogy 
 on Washington, " First in war, first in peace, first 
 in the hearts of his countrymen," will be quoted as 
 long as this Republic stands. 
 
 After the unsuccessful attack on Fort Ninety-Six, 
 General Greene encamped his army in Newberry 
 County, South Carolina, near the home of John 
 Greiger. Lord Rawdon decided to evacuate Fort
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 33 
 
 Ninety-Six, march to Orangeburg and thence to Fri- 
 day's Ferry. This seemed to give an opportunity for 
 Greene to strike a decisive blow, but he feared to risk 
 the trial without the aid of General Sumter, who was 
 one hundred miles away on the Wateree. The country 
 was infested with Tories, so bloodthirsty that it was 
 as much as a man's life was worth to attempt to pass 
 through it. Therefore the American commander 
 could find no man willing to take an order to Sumter. 
 Emily Greiger heard her invalid father lamenting this 
 fact, and she decided to undertake the dangerous 
 journey. Without consulting her father she went to 
 General Greene and offered to convey his message to 
 General Sumter. At first he refused to accept her 
 offer, but on her urgent solicitation he yielded and 
 placed his instructions to General Sumter in her 
 hands. She committed the dispatch to memory and 
 started out on a swift horse on the perilous journey. 
 She rode the first day without molestation, and spent 
 the night at the house of a friend, but the next after- 
 noon was captured by the British soldiers and carried 
 to Lord Rawdon. He sent her to a room in the house 
 of his headquarters and ordered two Tory women to 
 search her; but before they came to fulfill their er- 
 rand she took the letter from her bosom, tore it into 
 small pieces, chewed them up one by one and swal- 
 lowed them. The women found nothing, in conse- 
 quence, and about nightfall she was discharged. 
 Lord Rawdon's gentlemanly courtesy sent an escort 
 with her to the residence of her relatives, about six 
 miles away, but she only halted there long enough to 
 mount a fresh horse and gallop on. She pressed for- 
 ward without rest, and that afternoon repeated
 
 34 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Greene's dispatch to General Sumter. No decisive 
 battle resulted from the junction of Greene and Sum- 
 ter, but the English were gradually forced towards 
 the coast, until after the Battle of Eutaw Springs, 
 when only Charleston remained to them in South 
 Carolina. This fearless deed of the patriotic girl is 
 a glorious star in the .crown of Southern woman- 
 hood, and its brightness is not rivaled in all the dar- 
 ing deeds of the Revolution. 
 
 Another instance of heroic devotion and sacrifice 
 was exhibited by Mrs. Motte, in assisting to burn 
 her own beautiful mansion at Fort Motte, which was 
 necessary for the reduction of that post by Marion 
 and Lee. The suffering and sacrifice of the noble 
 women of the South, often subjected to insulting 
 indignities by vindictive enemies, were the most severe 
 penalties and pains in the disasters of the Revolution ; 
 but ever true and faithful were those household 
 queens, whose " sway was over fond hearts, generous 
 sensibilities, and immaculate honor," and so their 
 daughters reign to-day over the hearts of men in 
 Southern homes. 
 
 We are distant enough from the scenes of the 
 Revolution not to be hampered by such modesty of 
 speech in recounting their deeds, as those who have 
 gone before us, and we should now present and pub- 
 lish the exploits of our ancestors before all the world, 
 so that their heroism and patriotism may neither be 
 overshadowed by the oft-repeated and republished 
 history of the North, nor forgotten by the people of 
 the South, who should be too proud of the glorious 
 achievements of their fathers to allow the records to 
 be buried and forgotten without monuments or
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION 35 
 
 epitaphs. The patriotism and heroic privations of 
 these soldiers should be heralded as they deserve, for 
 the men of no army dared more or suffered more than 
 they. Under all conditions they upheld their flag 
 and, on the soil of South Carolina, poured out the 
 last blood of the war as a libation for liberty and 
 independence. 
 
 The greater part of the North, so far as its indus- 
 trial pursuits were concerned, did not feel the sting 
 of war; but its ruthless arm swept over the whole 
 inhabited portions of the Carolinas, Georgia, and 
 eastern Virginia, and left the people in a most de- 
 plorable condition at the close of the conflict. The 
 sacrifice of blood and property so freely offered on 
 the altar of independence furnishes a glorious record 
 for the South, a record which should be shouted on 
 the hustings, printed in the schoolbooks, and lettered 
 on monuments of granite and brass.
 
 WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT, UNDER 
 TWO FLAGS 
 
 HUMAN hearts have always been moved to sympa- 
 thy in honoring great heroes and patriots. There are 
 many shining names on the pages of American his- 
 tory, but the one bright, particular star, the day- 
 star of American liberty, is George Washington. 
 
 His ancestors were polished Englishmen, esteemed 
 gentlemen among the British nobility. They were 
 loyal to the House of Stuart and emigrated to the 
 loyal dominion of Virginia when Cromwell established 
 his Commonwealth. Washington was a Virginia 
 gentleman, distinguished by good breeding, modesty, 
 politeness, and a high regard for truth. The 
 characteristics of chivalry and manhood were ances- 
 tral heirlooms, and they made him the greatest of his 
 name. 
 
 Washington was born near the banks of the Po- 
 tomac, where he could hear the murmur of its waters 
 and their rush to the sea in Westmoreland, a name 
 significant of our Republic's westward march to 
 where Philippine stars hold midnight court. 
 
 Washington's father died when he was young, 
 which left the boy to the sole care of his mother. 
 It takes a mother's heart to train a hero. At home, 
 by the fireside, the silent battle is fought and there 
 the victory is won. 
 
 Washington did not have such educational ad- 
 vantages as are now afforded by our public schools. 
 
 36
 
 WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT 37 
 
 His instruction was of the simplest kind only pri- 
 mary English, arithmetic, and surveying; and he 
 commenced work as a surveyor one month after he 
 was sixteen years old, in the valley of Virginia on 
 the vast grants of Lord Fairfax, watered by the 
 Shenandoah. His success was phenomenal, and the 
 rough work fitted him for the life of a frontier sol- 
 dier. 
 
 At this time France owned Canada, claimed the 
 great Ohio Valley, and intended to connect its north- 
 ern possessions by a chain of military forts with 
 Louisiana. To this end Indian allies were courted. 
 The French called themselves fathers of the Indians, 
 and the English called themselves brothers of the 
 redmen. An intrepid pioneer planted the British 
 flag in the interior of the present State of Ohio, and 
 the adventurous traders who followed it were made 
 prisoners and their flag struck for the banner of 
 Louis Fifteenth. The claims of the French aroused 
 the war spirit in the English colonists, and Virginia 
 was divided into military districts for the organiza- 
 tion and equipment of the militia. 
 
 Governor Dinwiddie appointed Washington, at 
 the age of nineteen years, to command the northern 
 district, as adjutant-general with the rank of major. 
 The sickness of his brother and other personal mat- 
 ters engrossed his attention for several years, but 
 on the failure of Trent to submit Dinwiddie's protest, 
 against the capture of the traders, to the French 
 commander, Washington was called upon by the 
 Governor for that duty. On October 30, 1753, at 
 the age of twenty-two years, Washington set out 
 from Williamsburg, Va., on the perilous expedition,
 
 38 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 delivered the communication to the commander of 
 the French fort near Lake Erie, and returned on 
 January 16, 1754, to Williamsburg, with the an- 
 swer of the French commander. 
 
 The success of this great adventure through a 
 wilderness beset with treacherous savages made him 
 the rising hope of Virginia. 
 
 The French commander's answer was evasive, and 
 Dinwiddie saw the impending dangers. He offered 
 Washington the command of the provincial troops, 
 which the latter modestly declined; but he was in- 
 duced to accept second in command, with the rank 
 of lieutenant-colonel. On April 2, 1754, he started 
 from Alexandria, Va., with 150 men under the Brit- 
 ish flag, for the new fort at the fork of the Ohio 
 River. Besides the hardships and difficulties which 
 beset the way, dissatisfaction arose because of the 
 difference in pay between the provincial and the reg- 
 ular officers. Washington, with that imperial man- 
 liness which makes a true patriot, said : " The mo- 
 tives that have led me here are pure and noble. I 
 had no view of acquisition but that of honor, by serv- 
 ing faithfully my king and country," and every 
 word came burning from the patriot's heart and the 
 hero's love of country. George II. was his king and 
 Great Britain was his country. For this king and 
 under the flag of this country Washington first un- 
 sheathed his sword in the wilderness near Great Mead- 
 ows in western Pennsylvania, and the morning of his 
 military glory dawned. On May 23, 1754, he estab- 
 lished a camp at Great Meadows, and from thence, on 
 the 28th, with a reconnoitering party of 40 men, he 
 engaged the French and brought in 20 prisoners.
 
 WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT 39 
 
 This was the first time he heard bullets whistle in bat- 
 tle, and he was reported to have said " there is some- 
 thing charming in their sound." But when asked 
 about this remark in after life, he said : " If I said so 
 it was when I was young." He built a fort at Great 
 Meadows forty by one hundred feet square, and 
 called it Fort Necessity. The French were estab- 
 lished at Fort Du Quesne, and from thence marched 
 an overwhelming force against Fort Necessity and 
 compelled Washington to capitulate. He lost 12 
 killed and 43 wounded out of his force of 305 men. 
 
 The House of Burgesses, notwithstanding this 
 defeat, voted thanks to him and most of his officers 
 for their bravery and their gallant defense of their 
 country. 
 
 Washington was so annoyed by the question of 
 military rank between regular officers and provin- 
 cials, and also between provincials of the different 
 colonies, that he resigned his commission and re- 
 paired to Mount Vernon to engage in farming, for 
 which he had a great fondness. In the meantime the 
 British ministry being aroused by the affair of Great 
 Meadows, the government prepared a plan for mili- 
 tary operations in America for 1755. 
 
 Major-General Edward Braddock, a veteran in 
 service, was appointed commander-in-chief of all the 
 forces in the colonies. Alexandria was made the mil- 
 itary rendezvous for the expedition designed to be 
 led in person by the generalissimo. 
 
 At Mount Vernon Washington heard the stir and 
 din of warlike preparations, and his military ardor 
 was again so aroused that, when offered a volunteer 
 position on the staff of Braddock, without pay or
 
 40 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 command, he did not hesitate to accept the invita- 
 tion. Braddock's forces were assembled at Fort 
 Cumberland, Md., by May 19, but his dogged ad- 
 herence to European tactics, totally impracticable 
 for a campaign in a mountainous wilderness, made 
 his advance so slow that murmurings of dissatisfac- 
 tion came from the ministry in England. However, 
 he reached the Monongahela in July, crossed the 
 river, marched down its banks, and recrossed to as- 
 sault Fort Du Quesne. His army was marching in 
 brilliant uniforms, drums beating, flags flying, col- 
 umns in exact order, an inspiring sight in the great 
 forest, shadowed by the beautiful foliage of splendid 
 trees, when the French and Indians, who had silently 
 sallied forth, opened such a deadly fire from ambush 
 that these serried columns fell into inextricable dis- 
 order. The demoralization of the British regulars 
 was beyond control of their brave officers, nearly all 
 of whom were killed or wounded in their desperate ef- 
 forts to rally the disorganized battalions. 
 
 Washington, although two horses were killed under 
 him and four bullets penetrated his coat, escaped 
 unhurt, while every other officer on horseback was 
 either killed or wounded. Braddock had three horses 
 killed under him and two disabled. About five o'clock 
 in the afternoon, while in the act of giving an order, 
 he received a mortal wound and fell from his horse 
 to the ground, surrounded by the dead of his army. 
 
 Virginia provincial soldiers bore him off the field, 
 and on Sunday, July 13, 1755, at Great Meadows, 
 brave Braddock died, and next morning he was in- 
 terred near Fort Necessity. The proud British gen- 
 eral was buried with the honors of war, and as the
 
 WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT 41 
 
 chaplain was wounded, Washington read the burial 
 service at the open grave of as courageous a soldier 
 as ever led a king's army. 
 
 Washington's great gallantry on the field of Mo- 
 nongahela and his tender .conduct towards his dying 
 commander greatly enhanced his reputation ; so 
 through this sad and bloody disaster was his open 
 road to fame. 
 
 The field behind was left strewn with dead and 
 wounded. The huzzas of the French soldiery were 
 mingled with the terrible war-whoop of the savages ; 
 plunder and murder were rife. Twelve British regu- 
 lars, naked, their faces blackened, their hands tied 
 behind them, were carried by a band of Indians 
 to the opposite bank of the Ohio River and burned 
 to death, with every circumstance of studied bru- 
 tality and inhuman torture, while the French garri- 
 son crowded the ramparts of Fort Du Quesne to wit- 
 ness the horrible spectacle. 
 
 Washington, after his return, went to Mount Ver- 
 non to recuperate his broken health, but he was soon 
 called away by the Assembly of Virginia as com- 
 mander-in-ehief of all the forces of the colony. He 
 had been importuned by friends to seek this place, 
 but his modesty and pride forbade. Notwithstand- 
 ing the colonial lawmakers, fully appreciating his 
 worth, tendered it to him, the office sought the man 
 most eminently qualified for a position surrounded 
 by innumerable difficulties. 
 
 After Braddock's disaster Indian depredations on 
 the frontier assumed alarming proportions, and the 
 difficulty of suppressing them, not being appreci- 
 ated, caused much criticism of the commander-in-
 
 42 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 chief. Washington's extremely sensitive nature 
 made this harder to bear than defeats by the com- 
 mon enemy. However, he met the emergencies with 
 all the means at his command, and directed the erec- 
 tion of forts on the frontier for the protection of 
 the inhabitants. He had also been much annoyed by 
 the piques of Dinwiddie; but happily the Governor's 
 administration ended in 1758, and a new era dawned 
 for the British army in America. 
 
 Washington was assigned to the lead in Forbes's 
 expedition against Fort Du Quesne, and on that 
 march he saw the bones of those brave men who had 
 been massacred in the defeats of Braddock and 
 Grant scattered about the battlefields, whitening in 
 the sun. He advanced cautiously, using every safe- 
 guard against surprise; but the British victories in 
 Canada had so disheartened the French that the gar- 
 rison evacuated Fort Du Quesne the day before 
 Washington arrived with his advance guard, and he 
 marched in and planted the British flag on the ram- 
 parts of the smoking ruins, on November 25, 1758. 
 
 The British forces first gathered the bones of their 
 comrades who had fallen with Braddock and Grant 
 and buried them in one common grave. Then they 
 reconstructed the fort, renamed it Fort Pitt, in 
 honor of the illustrious British Minister, and garri- 
 soned it with two hundred Virginians from Wash- 
 ington's regiment. 
 
 This terminated the troubles and dangers of the 
 frontier, and Washington's career as a British sol- 
 dier in the colonial army was ended. He had aspired 
 to attain rank in the regular British army, but he now 
 abandoned all hope, gave up his provincial commis-
 
 WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT 43 
 
 sion at the close of 1758, and retired from the serv- 
 ice. He had fought loyally, faithfully, and bravely 
 under the flag of the British crown, and left its ac- 
 tive service with the honor of a patriot, the love of 
 his fellow-soldiers, and the gratitude and admira- 
 tion of his fellow-countrymen. He had a deep affec- 
 tion for Great Britain, its laws, its customs, its man- 
 ners, and its traditions. His ancestors had been 
 loyal to the crown in the days of the Lord Protector, 
 and his love for its flag had been strengthened by 
 the strife and danger he had experienced under its 
 folds in the battles of the western wilderness. Now 
 he retired when its victories had snatched an empire 
 from France and its folds spread out over Canada 
 and all the great Ohio Valley to Louisiana. Under 
 the British flag he won undying fame, and that which 
 is more desirable to a patriot's heart the love of 
 the people. Perhaps with some reluctance he again 
 turned from military life to the peaceful pursuits at 
 Mount Vernon. 
 
 The years passed on, and the encroachments of 
 the crown upon constitutional rights stirred the 
 blood of the colonials. Washington hoped his king 
 would let justice rule in his colonies. His great love 
 for his country made him realize the situation, for, 
 as true and great as was his love of his country and 
 its flag, he loved justice and equity more. When the 
 issue came he turned to the standard of his country 
 and unsheathed his sword for the liberty and inde- 
 pendence of America. Under the British flag he had 
 fought for the protection of frontier homes ; and 
 now, under the other flag, with a higher patriotism, 
 if possible, he would fight for liberty. The ever fa-
 
 44 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 vorite object of his heart was the benign influence 
 of good laws under a free government. His motives 
 attained the highest standard, when he gave up the 
 flag he first loved for the flag of the rebels, which 
 had such weak physical support as might seem to 
 invite disaster in the face of such tremendous odds 
 in soldiers and all the equipments of war. He was 
 a patriot under the British flag, and now we see him 
 a patriot under the new standard. 
 
 The American Congress in session at Philadel- 
 phia on June 15, 1775, by unanimous vote, given by 
 ballot, elected him commander-in-chief of the Army. 
 He accepted, but to demonstrate the fact that no 
 pecuniary consideration could tempt him, he de- 
 clined all pay except actual expenses. He was com- 
 missioned on June 20, at the age of forty-three, as- 
 sumed command of the army at Cambridge, Mass., 
 on July 2, and at once bent all his great energies 
 toward perfecting its organization. The British 
 and Tories were very bitter in their denunciation of 
 the colonists who had been in the English service and 
 were now enlisted under the flag of freedom ; every 
 indignity was heaped upon those who sympathized 
 with the cause of independence, and those they made 
 prisoners were thrown in jails as common felons. 
 Even General Gage, Washington's old comrade in 
 arms, who commanded the British troops in Boston, 
 in reply to a polite protest, answered with insinuat- 
 ing insults : " Britons, ever prominent in mercy, 
 have out-gone common examples, and overlooked the 
 criminal in the captive. Upon these principles your 
 prisoners, whose lives by the law of the land are des- 
 tined to the cord, have been treated with care and
 
 WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT 45 
 
 kindness, indiscriminately, it is true, for I acknowl- 
 edge no rank that is not derived from the king." 
 
 " Rebel " and " hangman's rope " were bitter and 
 stinging words, but they were answered with the 
 temperate dignity of the great commander. These 
 were favorite terms of the bloodthirsty fanatics of 
 the North during the Confederate War, which is still 
 termed a " rebellion," but the same principles which 
 induced Washington to fight under the Stars and 
 Stripes made Robert E. Lee fight under the Southern 
 Cross. The battle-flag of the Confederacy was the 
 emblem of justice and equity to those who followed 
 its fortunes to death or defeat. 
 
 Washington encountered many perplexities at 
 Cambridge, but the one sorest of all, greater than 
 the disasters in Canada, or the after defeats in New 
 York or New Jersey ; greater even than the suffer- 
 ings at Valley Forge, was the lack of public patriot- 
 ism in some of his Northern soldiers. Their merce- 
 nary spirit utterly disgusted him, and he trembled 
 at the prospect before him. On November 28, 1775, 
 he said : " Could I have foreseen what I have expe- 
 rienced and am likely to experience, no consideration 
 upon earth should have induced me to accept this 
 command." 
 
 It was hard for an officer of such patriotism to 
 realize that any soldier could be governed by any 
 other consideration than that of honor. I shall not 
 attempt to follow the line of Washington's military 
 career under the Stars and Stripes or from the Brit- 
 ish evacuation of Boston to the resignation of his 
 commission December 23, 1783, at Annapolis, Md. 
 Under all the disasters, defeats, trials, and victories
 
 46 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 he bore himself as the unyielding hero of liberty. 
 We can learn from Washington's life that true char- 
 acter is disclosed in disappointments and disasters, 
 and that honor is the priceless jewel of a patriot. 
 
 As a statesman he was as true to honor as he was 
 to his country. In his farewell address he invokes 
 cultivation of an honest and enlightened public opin- 
 ion. Honor, morality, and religion, he says, are the 
 bulwarks of free government. We should endeavor 
 in political affairs to mold public opinion by his 
 standard. Let the office seek the man, and make 
 vote-beggars and vote-buyers things to be scorned 
 by liberty-loving Americans. 
 
 Washington died Saturday, December 14, 1799, 
 but still his life is in every true American heart which 
 throbs for the benign influence of good laws under 
 a free government.
 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA, 1775-'81 
 
 [An address delivered before Fort Nelson Chapter, Daughters 
 of the American Revolution, January 8, 1897.] 
 
 AN invitation to address the Fort Nelson Chapter 
 of the Daughters of the American Revolution is a 
 distinguished honor which I appreciate. 
 
 The aims of the order are along the lines of the 
 highest human endeavor they are evidence of self- 
 denying character and beautiful womanhood. The 
 idea of brotherhood, over the crimson ashes of the 
 intersectional war, limited only by the boundaries 
 of the Union, comes from the love of God's Com- 
 mandments. 
 
 It is to fix the hearts of Plymouth Rock, Manhat- 
 tan, Jamestown, and Sullivan's Islands in one mold 
 of patriotism as true and firm as the Colonial sister- 
 hood which was born out of the trials of British op- 
 pression and cruelty. 
 
 " The love of the people is the king's life-guard," 
 is an old adage, which I would reclothe for this new 
 application. 
 
 Woman's patriotism is the life-guard of the state 
 and the safeguard of the American Union. 
 
 In a feeble effort to encourage your noble inspira- 
 tions, I ask you to follow me for a short time along 
 the warpath in Virginia from the fall of 1775 to the 
 glorious autumn of 1781. 
 
 When Earl Dunmore abandoned the ancient capi- 
 tal of the Old Dominion and took refuge on a British 
 
 47
 
 48 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 man-of-war, royal rule ended in Virginia, and her 
 sovereignty reverted to the will of the people. Dun- 
 more's conduct excited their indignation to that point 
 of determination which " firmly resolved to resist all 
 attempts against their rights and privileges, from 
 whatever quarter they might be assailed." 
 
 Democracy was the revealed ideal of government 
 in the Fredericksburg address which appealed to God 
 to save the liberties of America. 
 
 The battle of Lexington incited the patriotism of 
 Williamsburg citizens to resolve unanimously to sub- 
 scribe money for the aid of the sister colony Mas- 
 sachusetts in her struggle for liberty. From April 
 to October, 1775, the clouds of war were gathering 
 over Virginia. Then the outbreak came in the out- 
 rage at Norfolk on the liberty of the press. Under 
 cover of the guns of the men-of-war in the harbor, 
 a British officer with a squad of soldiers and sailors 
 landed at the ferry wharf and marched to the print- 
 ing office of the fearless patriot editor, Holt, on 
 Main street, from whence they carried off the type 
 and two printers. When the corporation authorities 
 remonstrated, Dunmore replied that he had rendered 
 great service in depriving them of the means of hav- 
 ing their minds poisoned and of exciting in them the 
 spirit of rebellion and sedition. 
 
 On October 15, 1775, soon after this episode, a 
 body of British troops was dispatched to Kempsville, 
 in Princess Anne County, where they destroyed some 
 firearms which had been deposited there, and cap- 
 tured Captain Thomas Matthews, of the minute men, 
 the first patriot prisoner of war taken on the soil of 
 Virginia.
 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA 49 
 
 On October 26 an attack was made on Hampton. 
 A fierce bombardment was opened, and under cover 
 of the cannonade six tenders full of men, commanded 
 by Captain Squires, rowed into Hampton Creek with 
 the purpose of sacking and burning the town, but a 
 shower of bullets from the Virginia riflemen stationed 
 in houses and in the bushes along the creek forced 
 a hasty retreat of Squires' forces. At the next sun- 
 rise the British fleet was again standing in for the 
 shore, and after maneuvering into position reopened 
 a furious bombardment. The local patriots had 
 been reinforced by Woodford's forces, and they 
 made it impossible for men to live at the helms of the 
 incoming vessels. They picked off the sailors aloft 
 in the sails, and the schooners drifted ashore, while 
 all the rest slipped cable and retreated with loss. 
 Not a single Virginian was killed. Hampton saw the 
 first victory in Virginia for American independence. 
 
 On November 7 Dunmore proclaimed martial law, 
 declaring all able to bear arms who did not rally to 
 King George's standard to be traitors, and offering 
 freedom to the slaves of rebels who would join his 
 Majesty's troops. All this only intensified public 
 irritation and increased the ardor of Virginians in 
 the cause of freedom. 
 
 On November 16 Dunmore invaded Princess Anne 
 County again, surprising and defeating the militia 
 who were on their march to join the patriot troops 
 for the defense of the Tidewater country. 
 
 John Akiss, one of the minute men, was killed on 
 the field, and Colonel Hutchings and eight others 
 were wounded and taken prisoners. So, on the soil 
 of Princess Anne the first Virginia soldier gave his
 
 50 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 life for the independence of our State. Stirring 
 events were now at the culminating point in Princess 
 Anne and Norfolk Counties. The British were for- 
 tifying Norfolk and gathering to the royal banner 
 all the Tories and all the negroes who could be se- 
 duced from their masters. These were armed for 
 incursions into the country to destroy commissaries 
 collected for the subsistence of the Virginia troops. 
 Suffolk, where most of the provisions were .in store, 
 was the objective point of Dunmore's designs. Colo- 
 nel Woodford, anticipating these, dispatched 215 
 light troops under Colonel Charles Scott and Major 
 Thomas Marshall to that place, and on November 25 
 the gallant Woodford arrived there with the main 
 body of the Virginia troops. 
 
 Colonel Scott was one of the unique characters of 
 the American Revolution. He was born in Cumber- 
 land County, Virginia, and raised the first company 
 of volunteers south of the James River which en- 
 tered into actual service. He was promoted until 
 he reached the grade of major-general, and received 
 the thanks of Congress for gallant and meritorious 
 conduct. Subsequently he was Governor of Ken- 
 tucky. While Governor he announced that he was 
 going to Philadelphia during the session of Congress 
 to visit his old commander. He was told that Wash- 
 ington had become stuck up with the importance of 
 his high office, and was too much of an aristocrat to 
 notice him in his hunting shirt, buckskin leggins, and 
 long beard. Notwithstanding this, Scott went, and 
 as he approached the house Washington and his wife, 
 recognizing the old hero, both rushed out and each 
 taking him by the arm escorted him in. Governor
 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA 51 
 
 Scott said that he was never treated better, and he 
 found Washington " Ole Hoss " still. The soldiers' 
 pet name for Washington was " Ole Hoss." 
 
 Lord Dunmore had fortified himself on the Nor- 
 folk side of the southern branch of the Elizabeth 
 River at Great Bridge, and Colonel Woodford 
 marched his forces from Suffolk to within cannon shot 
 of the works on the south side, where he constructed 
 a formidable breastwork. On December 9 Captain 
 Fordyce led his British grenadiers to storm these 
 works, only to receive a signal repulse. The assault 
 was marked by great gallantry on the part of the 
 British soldiers, and brave Fordyce fell within fifteen 
 steps of the breastworks. 
 
 Thirty-one killed and wounded were left on the 
 field, and it was estimated that a greater number 
 were borne on before retreat. This victory was 
 gained by Woodford's men " at no more loss than a 
 slight wound in a soldier's hand." The British has- 
 tily retreated to Norfolk, and Dunmore, fearing 
 pursuit, abandoned his entrenchments there and em- 
 barked his troops on his man-of-war for safety. 
 
 On the night of December 14 the victorious Vir- 
 ginians entered Norfolk, and on the 15th Colonel 
 Robert Howe, who had hastened with his regiment 
 of brave North Carolinians to reinforce Colonel 
 Woodford, assumed command. 
 
 Colonel Woodford issued a peaceful proclamation 
 to the inhabitants of Princess Anne and Norfolk 
 Counties, and consequently many resorted to his 
 camp; but the Tory Virginians taken in arms were 
 each coupled with handcuffs to one of his negro fel- 
 low-soldiers, as a stigma on his traitorous conduct.
 
 52 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 The vigilance of the Colonial troops kept the enemy 
 close to their ships, preventing foraging in the coun- 
 try, and consequently hunger soon invaded the 
 enemy's army afloat. Dunmore sent a flag of truce 
 on shore to notify the inhabitants that they must 
 furnish provisions for his troops and prevent the 
 minute men from firing upon his boats, or he would 
 bombard the town. The demand was refused, and 
 notice was given the patriots that he would drive 
 them out with his great guns and burn the houses 
 situated on the river. 
 
 Between three and four o'clock on the afternoon 
 of January 1, 1776, the frigate Liverpool, two sloops 
 of war, and the ship Dunmore opened their broad- 
 sides against the town. Under cover of the guns 
 parties of sailors and marines landed and set fire to 
 the houses on the wharves. The wind blew from the 
 water and the flames spread so rapidly that all the 
 efforts to stop their progress were ineffectual. The 
 conflagration raged for nearly three days, and its 
 horrors were distressing. The great clouds of smoke, 
 the thunder of the cannon, and the cracking mus- 
 ketry made a scene of indescribable terror. Every 
 attempt of the English to make lodgment on shore 
 was met at the landing and was uniformly repulsed. 
 In all these conflicts the Americans lost no men, and 
 only five or six soldiers were wounded. It was, how- 
 ever, reported that some women and children were 
 killed. The most flourishing and richest town in 
 Virginia was now in ashes. 
 
 On February 6 Colonel Howe abandoned Norfolk 
 and stationed his troops at Kempsville, Great Bridge, 
 and Suffolk. The people of Suffolk received the dis-
 
 *THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA 53 
 
 tressed fugitives from Norfolk with unbounded hos- 
 pitality, and every building was crowded with the 
 unfortunate homeless wanderers. 
 
 Although Dunmore was left free to occupy the 
 ruins of Norfolk, the energy of the American troops 
 prevented him from obtaining supplies from the 
 country, and at last, pursued by hunger and disease, 
 he burned his quarters on shore, re-embarked his 
 troops, and, leaving Hampton Roads with his fleet 
 on June 1, landed and erected fortifications on Gwin's 
 Island, in Matthews County. On July 9 he was at- 
 tacked by the Virginians under Brigadier-General 
 Andrew Lewis, and forced to abandon that island 
 with considerable loss. He dispatched a part of his 
 fleet to the south, and sailed to the north with the 
 remainder, thus departing forever from the shores 
 of Virginia. Only one man was lost on the side of 
 the patriots Captain Arundel and he was killed 
 by the bursting of a mortar of his own invention. 
 
 The London Gazette dated Wednesday, Septem- 
 ber 18, 1776, says : " On the 10th instant the Polly, 
 Captain Stewart, arrived at Greenock from Virginia, 
 by whom are received the following advices : That 
 the Americans had raised a battery opposite to 
 Gwin's Island, which greatly annoyed the fleet under 
 Lord Dunmore, and obliged the little army to em- 
 bark and the shipping to move off with seeming pre- 
 cipitation. 
 
 " It is said that the battery of the Americans was 
 aimed particularly at the quarterdeck of Lord Dun- 
 more's ship, and that his lordship received two 
 wounds, one in the face and another in the leg; sev- 
 eral of the crew are said to be killed and wounded.
 
 54 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 The fleet thus driven off proceeded to Potomac River, 
 at the mouth of which they met with a very severe 
 gale of wind, which drove on shore several small ves- 
 sels with the friends of the government on board, 
 who were taken prisoners. With the remnant, Lord 
 Dunmore proceeded to George's Island, where he 
 landed and remained several days. In the meantime 
 the Roebuck, man-of-war, with transports, went up 
 as high as Dumfries to get fresh water. They were 
 fired upon on their way from Colonel Brent's house 
 in Virginia, upon which a party landed and burnt it. 
 During the absence of the Roebuck, the Defiance, an 
 American privateer, with four tenders full of men, 
 came in sight of Lord Dunmore's fleet, seemingly 
 with the design to attack the Liverpool, the only 
 man-of-war there; at the same time a battery was 
 opened against her from the shore, but fortunately 
 the Roebuck coming in sight at a critical moment, 
 the Defiance retired, and could not be overtaken. 
 The fleet suffering greatly for want of fresh water, 
 and a contagious distemper having broken out among 
 both the whites and blacks, out of 1300 of the latter 
 only 80 surviving, his lordship determined to aban- 
 don George's Island ; and being encumbered with 
 many vessels without hands or tackling, he burnt 
 several to prevent their falling into the hands of the 
 Americans, and ordered that part of the fleet, con- 
 sisting of forty or fifty sail, occupied by friends 
 of the government, to proceed under convoy of the 
 Otter sloop to St. Augustine, to which place they 
 sailed on August 5, his lordship remaining in Lyn- 
 haven Bay, near the entry to Chesapeake, on board 
 the ship Dunmore, accompanied by the Fowye and
 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA 55 
 
 Roebuck, men-of-war, three transports, three victual- 
 ers and two hospital ships. From hence Dunmore 
 sailed to New York." 
 
 Out in the west the town of Wheeling contained 
 twenty-five log houses, and a place of refuge for the 
 inhabitants when threatened by savages was located 
 down by the mouth of Wheeling Creek and named 
 Fort Henry for the eloquent Virginian and fiery 
 tribune of freedom in the east. 
 
 The war policy of royalty was not only to arm 
 black slaves against the people, but to incite the hor- 
 rible butcheries of Indian warfare, which considered 
 quarter neither for helpless woman nor innocent 
 childhood. Hamilton, the British Governor at De- 
 troit, armed between four and five hundred Indians 
 and in September, 1777, dispatched them under com- 
 mand of Simon Girty to reduce Fort Henry. Colo- 
 nel Shepherd commanded the garrison of forty-two 
 men all told when their approach was discovered. 
 This force was ultimately reduced to twelve from 
 losses sustained by sorties which were made in at- 
 tempts to drive off the savages before they could 
 surround the fort. 
 
 The annals of history have not recorded more 
 thrilling bravery and superb heroism than marks 
 the conduct of the forty-two defenders of Fort 
 Henry. Twenty-six were killed and four or five 
 wounded during the siege ; and the women were as 
 heroic and brave as the men, inspiring them by acts 
 which lifted their hopes and strengthened their arms 
 to desperate resolution. While the sanguinary strife 
 raged the women molded the bullets and prepared 
 the cartridges for the riflemen. When the fate of
 
 56 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 the fort seemed under the very shadow of the toma- 
 hawk, a heroine, whose name should be honored as 
 long as the Star Spangled flag inspires the senti- 
 ment of liberty in the land of the brave, made an ex- 
 ploit of self-devotion and moral intrepidity not ex- 
 celled in all the bloody trials of human experience. 
 The gunpowder was nearly exhausted and the only 
 source of supply was a keg at a house about sixty 
 yards from the gate outside of the fort. The com- 
 mandant called for a volunteer to undertake the 
 perilous task of procuring the keg of powder. Three 
 or four young men promptly came forward, but 
 Colonel Shepherd explained that only one could be 
 risked. During the controversy a young woman 
 came forward and requested to be allowed to execute 
 the dangerous mission. It appeared so extravagant 
 that it met with prompt refusal; she, however, in- 
 sisted against the remonstrances of the colonel and 
 her relatives, who told her that either of the young 
 men would more likely be successful because swifter 
 and more accustomed to danger. She replied that 
 the danger of the enterprise was the reason which 
 induced her to offer her services, for the gar- 
 rison was too weak to lose a single soldier's life ; 
 therefore no one of them should be placed in need- 
 less jeopardy, and that if she were killed the loss 
 would not be felt. Her request was ultimately 
 granted and the gate opened to pass her out. She 
 rapidly ran over the open space to the house, barely 
 attracting the attention of the savages, but when 
 she reappeared from the house with the keg of pow- 
 der in her arms, the Indians fired a volley at her as 
 she swiftly glided towards the gate, but the bullets
 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA 51 
 
 flew wide of the mark and the brave girl reached the 
 fort safely with her precious prize, saved her people, 
 and enabled the men to hold the post until Major 
 McCulloch, with forty mounted men from Shore 
 Creek, came to the relief of the heroic little gar- 
 rison. 
 
 Elizabeth Zane's heroism is but the exemplification 
 in its fullness of the womanly patriotism which in- 
 spires the Daughters of the Revolution to teach the 
 people love of liberty and devotion to the constella- 
 tion of stars which glitter on the blue field of the 
 American flag, as well as reverence for the fathers 
 whose blood purchased the independence of Ameri- 
 can colonies. 
 
 During the siege of Fort Henry the blood-thirsty 
 savages ambushed and surprised Captain Foreman's 
 command in Marshall County, about four miles from 
 the village of Grave Creek, and a monument on the 
 banks of the Ohio bears the following inscription : 
 
 " This humble stone is erected to the memory of Captain 
 Foreman and twenty-one of his men, who were slain by a 
 band of ruthless savages the allies of a civilized nation 
 of Europe on the 25th of September, 1777." 
 
 Earl Dunmore's departure from the Chesapeake, 
 with the exception of Indian hostilities in the west, 
 left Virginia free from armed enemies, until May 
 9, 1777, when Sir George Collier's fleet from 
 New York anchored in Hampton Roads. A force 
 from his fleet under command of General Matthews 
 landed at the mouth of the Western Branch, now 
 the site of Port Norfolk, to advance on Portsmouth.
 
 58 
 
 Fort Nelson was garrisoned by about 150 men under 
 Major Thomas Matthews, who, finding such a heavy 
 force on his flank, withdrew his men to the south 
 before the British could get in his rear. The British 
 troops occupied Portsmouth on May 11, and from 
 there detachments were sent to occupy Gosport, 
 Norfolk, and Suffolk. General Matthews burnt Suf- 
 folk, destroying upward of one hundred vessels at 
 Gosport and Norfolk and all the military and naval 
 stores which they could not take away on the fleet. 
 After this work of plunder and destruction he re- 
 embarked for New York. 
 
 Brigadier-General Leslie, with 3000 troops from 
 New York, landed at Portsmouth in October, 1780, 
 capturing vessels and other property, but soon sailed 
 to join Cornwallis at Charleston. 
 
 On December 30, 1780, the traitor Arnold, with 
 fifty vessels, arrived in the Chesapeake, and embark- 
 ing in smaller vessels, sailed up the James River, and 
 on January 4, 1781, landed with about 900 men at 
 Westover, and marched to Richmond without oppo- 
 sition, where he plundered stores and archives. He 
 sent Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe to Westham, where 
 he destroyed the only cannon foundry in the State. 
 He spent two days in pillaging Richmond, and 
 returned to Westover, from which place, on Janu- 
 ary 8, he dispatched Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, with 
 a detachment of the Queen's Rangers, to Charles 
 City Court House, where he surprised a party of 
 Virginia militia, killed one, wounded three, and took 
 several prisoners. 
 
 On January 10 Arnold re-embarked and descended 
 the river. He landed detachments at Mackay's mill
 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA 59 
 
 and Smithfield to destroy public stores. He arrived 
 at Portsmouth on January 20, where he located his 
 headquarters. 
 
 Major-General Phillips reinforced Arnold while 
 here, and the united commands formed a body of 
 about 3500 men. Leaving a garrison of 1000 men 
 at Portsmouth, General Phillips proceeded up the 
 James River and landed opposite Williamsburg, 
 sending a detachment to destroy stores at York- 
 town. 
 
 The Virginia Continentals were in South Carolina 
 under General Greene and at the North under Wash- 
 ington, and Virginia was thus left in a defenseless 
 condition. She had in service in the Revolution 
 twenty-one regiments, viz. : Sixteen on the conti- 
 nental establishment, three regiments of the State 
 line proper and two western regiments. 
 
 Phillips ascended the river to City Point, where he 
 landed and marched on Petersburg. On April 25, 
 1781, after a spirited engagement with the militia 
 under Baron Steuben, he captured the city, and there 
 remained until about May 1, when he evacuated 
 Petersburg, raided Chesterfield Court House and 
 Manchester for pillage and destruction, then pro- 
 ceeded down the James River to Bermuda Hundred, 
 where his fleet awaited him, and there re-embarked 
 ostensibly to return to Portsmouth, but suddenly 
 relanded one column of his forces at City Point and 
 one at Brandon and returned to Petersburg, arriving 
 there late at night on May 9. General Phillips was 
 then sick with bilious fever and died on the 13th and 
 was buried at Blanford. Jefferson said of him : " He 
 is the proudest man of the proudest nation of the
 
 60 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 earth." The command devolved upon Arnold, who 
 awaited the arrival of Cornwallis from the South, 
 and sent Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe with the Queen's 
 Rangers to gain information of him. At Hicksford, 
 Simcoe's command captured a company of militia, 
 which he decided to parole, and when he announced 
 to them that they would be paroled, one in great ex- 
 citement asked, " What kind of death is thajt ? " 
 
 On May 20, 1781, Lord Cornwallis entered Peters- 
 burg from Wilmington, N. C., but he rested there 
 only four days, when he proceeded down the Appo- 
 mattox and James Rivers to Westover, whence he 
 pursued Lafayette across the Chickahominy River, 
 endeavoring to bring him to battle; failing, he en- 
 tered Richmond, and from there he sent expeditions 
 to the interior of the State. Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Simcoe drove Baron Steuben's militia from Point of 
 Fork, at the junction of the Rivana and James 
 Rivers, and destroyed the stores there ; while Colonel 
 Tarleton advanced on Charlottesville for the pur- 
 pose of capturing Governor Jefferson and the legis- 
 lators, who were there in session ; but they were noti- 
 fied by a gentleman, who, with a fleet horse and by 
 a short road, arrived there two hours in advance 
 of Tarleton, and all but seven escaped. Thirty thou- 
 sand slaves were taken from Virginia by these raids, 
 of which 27,000 were said to have died of smallpox, 
 or camp fever. The whole amount of property car- 
 ried off and destroyed during the half year preced- 
 ing Cornwallis' surrender was estimated at fifteen 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 After perpetrating wanton depredations, the raid-
 
 THE WARPATH IN VIRGINIA 61 
 
 ers returned to Richmond, and resumed their march 
 towards the coast. CornwalhV forces arrived at Wil- 
 liamsburg on June 25 ; from this point he sent Sim- 
 coe to destroy stores at Spencer's Tavern, where 
 he encountered Colonel Butler, of Pennsylvania, and 
 a detachment of American soldiers. A severe conflict 
 ensued, and both sides claimed the victory. After 
 remaining nine days at Williamsburg, Cornwallis 
 advanced to Jamestown Island July 4, 1781, where 
 an attack on him by Lafayette was repulsed with 
 a loss of 118 to the Continentals and 75 to the 
 British. From this point Cornwallis proceeded to 
 Portsmouth, where he remained until July 9, and 
 having been ordered to concentrate his forces either 
 at Portsmouth or Yorktown, he decided upon the 
 latter place, where he repaired with all of his men. 
 Washington in the meantime had been maturing 
 plans to strike a blow at the enemy encamped at 
 Yorktown. A junction of all his regular forces in 
 striking distance, amounting to about 12,000 men, 
 was made. And this army, with the aid of the Vir- 
 ginia militia under General Nelson, pressed to the 
 siege of Yorktown, assisted by Count de Grasse's 
 fleet on the eastern waters. 
 
 On October 6 the approaches were advanced to 
 within 600 yards of the British breastworks, and the 
 work of bomb-shells and bullets began, continuing 
 day and night until the memorable 19th of October, 
 when Lord Cornwallis and his army surrendered to 
 the combined forces of America and France, and the 
 war of the revolution virtually closed, with the thir- 
 teen American colonies free and independent sov-
 
 6S THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 ereignties. Yorktown was the crowning achievement 
 of Washington's splendid leadership. 
 
 He left us free: thus will we live or die! 
 
 One other word, Virginia, hear thy son, 
 
 Whose filial service now is nearly done 
 
 Hear me, old State! Thou art supremely blest, 
 
 Oh, Mother! If the ashes of a king 
 
 Could nerve to deeds with which Fame's trumpets ring, 
 
 What glove of challenger shall make thee start, 
 
 When thy great sun lies sleeping on thy heart!
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 THE lives of American statesmen gild the pages 
 of America's history as the setting sun tints the 
 clouds of the western sky, and sound the way of its 
 progress as the sailor's lead line ripples the water 
 where the moonbeams silver the waves. Some states- 
 men are great and some are not ; and while all men 
 are in some respects born equal, they come out at 
 the end of life with emphatic inequality. How few 
 attain to greatness ! How few leave an impression 
 deep enough to bear the waste of time! How few 
 live in the chronicles of their country ! Yet, the few 
 statesmen show by the wisdom of their works the 
 national progress, the national integrity, the public 
 virtues. Great statesmen are to the state as the cor- 
 ner-stones, braces, and pillars to the temple. 
 
 One hundred and sixty-five years ago an American 
 statesman was born, who, during a long and useful 
 career, received the severest criticism and more vitu- 
 perative abuse than any of his illustrious compeers, 
 yet to-day is looked up to as the loving father of 
 patriotic political action and classed as the firmest 
 corner-stone of the temple of Liberty. All politi- 
 cal parties extol his virtues and term him the ideal 
 leader; Democrats, Republicans, Populists and So- 
 cialists these words sound the keynote of the action 
 of Jeffersonian principles. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson is now generally acknowledged 
 as the most eminent statesman of all who have made 
 
 63
 
 64 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 American history. He demonstrated that the pen 
 is mightier than the sword, for with one stroke he 
 doubled the territory of the infant Republic without 
 spilling a drop of blood. Napoleon saw his own 
 splendid military achievements turn to ashes, while 
 Jefferson beheld the fruit of his pen establish a solid 
 foundation for the greatest Republic of the world. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell in Albe- 
 marle County, Virginia, on the 13th day of April, 
 1743, and educated at the College of William and 
 Mary ; studied law in the office of George Wythe and 
 was admitted to the bar in 1767, practicing for seven 
 years, when he relinquished the profession to devote 
 his time to statecraft. He lived and labored in an 
 atmosphere of thrilling events. The people of the 
 colonies were agitated over the encroachments of 
 the crown upon the rights guaranteed by the great 
 charter of English liberty when he was elected to the 
 House of Burgesses. Washington, Dabney Carr, 
 Richard Henry Lee, and Francis Lightfoot Lee were 
 among his colleagues. 
 
 When the Grand Assembly met, Jefferson was re- 
 quested to prepare a reply to the address of the Gov- 
 ernor, Lord Botetourt, but it was not accepted by 
 the Burgesses, and resolutions from another hand, 
 denouncing taxation without representation and re- 
 monstrating against sending accused persons away 
 from the colony for trial, among other things dis- 
 tasteful to the king, were adopted. The Governor 
 stamped his disapproval of the proceedings by dis- 
 solving the body, and Jefferson's legislative duties 
 were limited to three days, during which he experi- 
 enced the mortification of seeing his first state-paper
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 65 
 
 consigned to the waste basket by his friends. He 
 was not daunted by the mandate of Botetourt, nor 
 was he disheartened by the .criticism of his fellow- 
 members; but joined that self-appointed committee 
 of arch rebels of the Revolution which met in a room 
 of the Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg and pro- 
 posed a general congress of all the colonies, at Phil- 
 adelphia. The proposition being accepted, it was 
 agreed to meet on September 5, 1774. So it turned 
 out that in that little room in Raleigh Tavern was 
 conceived the congress of colonial statesmen whose 
 declaration separated the American colonies from 
 the kingdom of Great Britain. 
 
 Jefferson was not one of the first members of the 
 first congress. He was elected to fill the vacancy 
 occasioned by the recall of Peyton Randolph to pre- 
 side over the House of Burgesses. Jefferson was 
 thirty-two years of age when he took his seat, on 
 June 21, 1775, and the great John Adams said the 
 new member from Virginia was welcomed, " as he 
 brought with him a reputation for literature, sci- 
 ence, and a happy talent for composition. 
 It was said that he could calculate an eclipse, survey 
 an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a case, 
 break a horse, dance a minuet, and play a violin." 
 He was elected to prepare a reply to Lord North's 
 " Conciliatory Propositions," and William Wirt says 
 " the answer stands upon the records of the country, 
 cool, calm, close, full of compressed energy and keen 
 sagacity, while, at the same time, it preserves the 
 most perfect decorum. It is one of the most nervous 
 and manly productions even of that age of men." 
 
 This congress adjourned in August, but Jefferson
 
 66 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 was re-elected and returned to Philadelphia in Sep- 
 tember, where war agitation was at fever heat and 
 active preparations were in progress. The Sove- 
 reign Convention of Virginia passed resolutions of 
 independence in May, 1776, and June 7 Richard 
 Henry Lee submitted them to Congress, and moved 
 a formal declaration of independence; thereupon 
 Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and 
 R. R. Livingston were elected by ballot to submit 
 a form. Jefferson was at once designated to draft 
 the paper. After completing it, he submitted it to 
 Adams and Franklin, who suggested some verbal 
 changes before it should be offered in Congress. 
 
 When it came up before Congress it was criticised 
 and discussed with great vigor, but John Adams, 
 whose courage and patriotism was tested when he 
 voted for George Washington for commander-in- 
 chief of the American Army against General Ward 
 from his own State, so ably defended it that late on 
 Thursday evening, on July 4, 1776, it was passed; 
 and on Monday following, Captain John Hopkins, the 
 commander of the first armed brig of the navy of the 
 United States, read it publicly from a stand in Inde- 
 pendence Square. 
 
 So the acclaim was passed from colony to colony 
 until the people from Massachusetts to Georgia sealed 
 it as the title-deed of liberty. It overshadowed 
 Magna Charta granted by King John on June 15, 
 1215. It forced King George III. to grant a greater 
 and higher charter of liberty than ever yielded by 
 human scepter. It is the master instrument in the 
 literature of republican constitutions, the highest 
 inscription on the shield of freedom in the temple of
 
 67 
 
 liberty, and the author of the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence will be honored as long as popular govern- 
 ment exists. 
 
 After this great achievement Thomas Jefferson 
 resigned his seat in Congress to become a member of 
 the House of Delegates of Virginia. Think of a 
 Congressman resigning for a seat in the legislature ! 
 He went to his legislative duties on October 7, 1776, 
 and began the work of adjusting the crown laws to 
 conform to the new order of government. 
 
 Jefferson was a cultivated and high-born gentle- 
 man ; his accomplishments in science and literature 
 were recognized by the most learned of the times ; 
 but his bearing was entirely devoid of haughtiness, 
 and his official demeanor was so plain, unassuming, 
 and unpretentious that Jeffersonian simplicity is now 
 a favorite term in the vocabulary of politics. His 
 most enthusiastic efforts were for giving the people 
 equal opportunity to elevate their station in life, and 
 he was the friend of the poor man ; he always endeav- 
 ored to advance the humble and lift the unlettered to 
 self-respecting manhood. He despised the proud 
 aristocracy of the landed estates and sought to make 
 an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, 
 though his views brought upon him an avalanche of 
 abuse from those who held to the old laws of England 
 which prevailed in the State. The wealth and learn- 
 ing of the Commonwealth combated his innovations 
 with powerful influence and seductive arguments, but 
 he stood up as a master of principle and held its 
 shield against all the arrows of hate and malice which 
 his enemies could hurl. 
 
 Three days after Jefferson entered the legislative
 
 68 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 hall he offered a bill for the establishment of courts 
 of justice, which bill was subsequently passed. His 
 next bill was to convert estates in tail into fee-simple. 
 The general reason he gave for this was " to annul 
 this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of wealth, 
 of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to 
 make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and 
 talent, (which nature has wisely provided for the di- 
 rection of the interests of society, and scattered with 
 an equal hand through all its conditions), deemed 
 essential to a well-ordered republic." The bill was 
 passed after a desperate fight. Jefferson conquered 
 the aristocracy of wealth as it then existed in Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 Oh, for a Jefferson in these times, when we have 
 tyrants of wealth in the coal " barons," wheat 
 " kings," and meat " czars," who can freeze or starve 
 the people by an edict of an hour ! The gambling 
 mandates of these imperial plutocrats bring ruin to 
 men, women, and children which should shame the 
 soul of Herod or sicken the heart of a Sherman, who 
 said war was hell. Rosebery says : " A plutocracy is 
 one of the most detestable of all dominations." 
 
 Jefferson secured the passage of a bill abolishing 
 primogeniture, the cognate principle of entail, which 
 made the elder son heir to the landed estate of his 
 father as the elder son is the heir to the throne of 
 England. These changes in the tenure and holding 
 of land were the great levelers which gave equal 
 chance for energy, talent, and virtue, whether in the 
 tobacco roller, backwoodsman, or in the gentleman of 
 genealogy. Jefferson helped manhood to assert itself, 
 no matter in what class or condition it might be found.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 69 
 
 He put self and his own fortune behind him to help 
 those who needed justice and an opportunity to un- 
 fetter the shackles of poverty. His very soul seemed 
 to be imbued with the idea of helping others who 
 might be deserving. 
 
 The Church of England was established in Vir- 
 ginia from its first settlement as a colony, and some 
 of the ancient laws were severely exacting, to say the 
 least. Every person who refused to have his child 
 baptized by a lawful minister was fined two thousand 
 pounds of tobacco, one-half of which went to the 
 parish and one-half to the informer (1662). No 
 marriage was valid in law except such as was made 
 by the minister, according to the laws of England, 
 and a minister could not marry persons without a 
 license from the Governor or his deputy, or thrice 
 publication of bans, according to the rubric in the 
 Common-Prayer Book. Any minister who performed 
 the ceremony contrary to law incurred a fine of ten 
 thousand pounds of tobacco. It was enacted that 
 the Lord's Day should be kept holy; that " no jour- 
 neys be made on that day, unless upon necessity ; and 
 all persons inhabiting in this country, having no 
 lawful excuse, shall every Sunday resort to the parish 
 church or chapel, and there abide orderly during 
 the common prayer, preaching, and divine service, 
 upon penalty of being fined fifty pounds of tobacco 
 by the county court." Officers on qualifying swore 
 that they would be conformable to the doctrines and 
 discipline of the Church of England. The inhabited 
 parts of the colony of Virginia were laid off into 
 parishes, in each of which was a minister, who had 
 a fixed salary in tobacco, together with a glebe and a
 
 70 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 parsonage, and there was a general assessment on 
 all of the inhabitants to meet the expenses. 
 
 Other sects sprung up, and this assessment was a 
 grievous tyranny upon them during the regal gov- 
 ernment, a tyranny without hope of relief. Now, 
 however, Jefferson drafted and supported a bill for 
 the relief of dissenters, which he said brought on the 
 severest contest in which he was ever engaged. The 
 advocates of religious freedom finally prevailed, and 
 after five suspending acts the laws for the support 
 of the clergy were, at the second session of 1779, un- 
 conditionally repealed. And all religious sects do 
 honor to the memory of Thomas Jefferson, the author 
 of the statute for religious freedom in Virginia. 
 
 Jefferson was a great leader of men. He said: 
 " Men are divided into two parties by their constitu- 
 tions, those who fear and distrust the people and 
 wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of 
 a higher class ; and second, those who identify them- 
 selves with the people, have confidence in them, cher- 
 ish and consider them as the most honest and safe, 
 although not the most wise depository of the public 
 interest." 
 
 I take issue with this. I think the people are not 
 only the most honest and safe, but the most wise de- 
 pository of the public interest, when they think and 
 deliberate upon the issues in a patriotic spirit. The 
 greatest evil in republican institutions is the poison 
 which selfish demagogues inject into the minds of the 
 people, inducing them to act and vote without care- 
 ful and honest investigation a duty which every 
 person owes to the community before he deposits his 
 ballot in the ballot-box. When the people are aroused
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 71 
 
 and agitated over a question at issue they will decide 
 with wisdom and patriotism, if left to their own un- 
 biased judgment. The downfall of the plutocracy 
 which now threatens the happiness of our country 
 will come when the wrath of the people is fully stirred 
 by its shameless oppressions. A fearless and incor- 
 ruptible statesman like Jefferson will arise to lead 
 the suffragans against the plutocrats, whom they 
 will rout by sweeping from the halls of legislation 
 the demagogues and hirelings in purifying the law- 
 making departments of the government. 
 
 Jefferson was a partisan of the people, and they 
 entrusted to him the highest honors under their gov- 
 ernment. He was in public life sixty-one years, and 
 actually in office thirty-nine years. He was elected 
 to the House of Burgesses in 1769, when he was 
 twenty-six years old, and served continuously until 
 1775, when he was elected to Congress. At the same 
 time he was a member of the Virginia legislature 
 until 1779, when he became Governor and served two 
 years. In 1781, and again in 1783, he was elected 
 to Congress. In 1784 he was sent as Minister to 
 France, and returned in 1789 to become Secretary 
 of State in the cabinet of President Washington, 
 which office he resigned in 1793. While in Wash- 
 ington's cabinet a bitter feud sprung up between 
 him and Alexander Hamilton, which grew out of di- 
 vergent political opinions. Notwithstanding, when 
 the great contest for the Presidency between Jeffer- 
 son and Aaron Burr occurred, Hamilton threw the 
 weight of his great influence for his bitterest enemy 
 rather than for Burr, and in this was the loftiest act 
 of Hamilton's great patriotism. Jefferson was elected
 
 72 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Vice-President in November, 1796; elected President 
 in 1801, and re-elected in 1804. 
 
 The question of the free navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi River had been for a long time a source of 
 great annoyance ; at one time it even threatened war. 
 The Mississippi, including the Missouri, from source 
 to the Gulf, is 4100 miles, the longest river in the 
 world. What a wonder is this majestic stream! This 
 great river with fifty-five tributaries is navigable for 
 steamboats 16,500 miles, and drains that vast ex- 
 panse of territory between the Alleghany and Rocky 
 Mountains into the Gulf of Mexico. The control of 
 this river was of vital importance to the United 
 States, and the people appreciated the situation, and 
 were ready to hazard war. Jefferson's policy was 
 thought by many to be weak and even cowardly ; but 
 he knew the value of peace to the infant republic at 
 this time, and showed great moral courage and 
 strength of character in steadfastly maintaining a 
 peaceful attitude. Napoleon gave the opportunity 
 for a peaceful solution, and Jefferson grasped it with 
 prophetic foresight. He signed the Louisiana Treaty 
 on May 2, 1803, and thus consummated the purchase, 
 for fifteen millions of dollars, of the great West- 
 Mississippi territory out of which has been carved 
 Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minne- 
 sota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South 
 Dakota, Wyoming, the Indian Territory and Okla- 
 homa, embracing a million square miles. 
 
 The Louisiana Purchase is a domain with great 
 natural resources, inhabited by fifteen millions of 
 sturdy and thrifty English-speaking people. From 
 its hills came shining silver to make fields from
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 73 
 
 forests ; from its river beds, glittering gold to gladden 
 the hearts of the settlers whose labor made arid 
 deserts rejoice and blossom as a rose. The fruition 
 of this first expansion has been marvelous, and the 
 hope for its future is boundless. This A. D. 1903 is 
 the one hundredth anniversary of its acquisition ; let 
 all the nation rejoice in its great achievements; let 
 all the country give thanks to the Almighty Ruler 
 for its wondrous wealth; let the voice of the people 
 be raised in praise of Thomas Jefferson ; let this be 
 the jubilee year of the American Republic! 
 
 The great Napoleon said, when he signed the 
 treaty : " This accession of territory assures forever 
 the power of the United States, and I have given 
 England a rival who, sooner or later, will humble her 
 pride." His action was opposed by his ministers, 
 but he argued : " To free the world from the com- 
 mercial tyranny of England it is necessary to oppose 
 to her a maritime power which will one day become 
 her rival. It must be the United States. The 
 English aspire to dispose of all the riches of the 
 world. I shall be useful to the entire universe, if I 
 can prevent them from dominating America as they 
 dominate Asia." In this transaction he declared 
 himself, for the first time, independent of his family, 
 of his parliament, and of most of his advisers, and 
 grasped the imperial scepter, of which a few months 
 later he was in full possession. This was Napoleon's 
 first edict as an Emperor. 
 
 Envoy R. R. Livingston, in expressing his satis- 
 faction, said : " The treaty we have signed has not 
 been brought about by finesse nor dictated by force. 
 Equally advantageous to both the contracting
 
 74 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 parties, it will change vast solitudes into a flourishing 
 country. Moreover, if wars are inevitable, France 
 will have in the New World a friend increasing year 
 by year in power, which cannot fail to become 
 puissant and respected on all the seas of the earth. 
 These treaties will become a guarantee of peace and 
 good-will between commercial States. It will prepare 
 centuries of happiness for innumerable generations 
 of the human race. The Mississippi and the Missouri 
 will see them prosper and increase in the midst of 
 equality, under just laws, freed from the errors of 
 superstition, from the scourges of bad government, 
 and truly worthy of the regard and the care of 
 Providence." 
 
 Although there was violent opposition in this 
 country to ratifying this treaty, Jefferson's skill as 
 a politician and his broad statemanship overcame all 
 difficulties. It was a great triumph for him, and it 
 was the beginning of territorial expansion. Since, 
 there have been eleven other additions to the territory 
 of the United States, all making an area of about 
 five times that of the original thirteen States and, as 
 predicted, the nation now stands in the front rank of 
 the powers of the world. As a maritime power it is 
 about equal to any save England, and although our 
 navy is out-weighed in tonnage and guns by hers, 
 our expansion from Porto Rico to the Orient has 
 made it necessary for us not only to rival the navy 
 of England, but to stand up against the allied powers 
 of Europe. 
 
 Jefferson always gave his occupation as that of a 
 farmer. He was passionately fond of country life, 
 and talked much about retirement from politics and
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 75 
 
 the enjoyment of the tranquillity of the farm and 
 communion with nature. He believed the cultivators 
 of the soil made the best citizens the most vigorous, 
 the most virtuous, and the most independent. " They 
 are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty 
 and interests by the most lasting bonds." He believed 
 in an agricultural republic as the safest repository 
 of liberty. He was a firm friend of popular govern- 
 ment, and public education as a basis for a firm and 
 stable foundation of good government. Abolition 
 of entail and primogeniture placed the people on an 
 equal footing so far as the acquirement of property 
 was concerned; the disestablishment of the church 
 secured for them liberty of conscience; but public 
 education was the mainspring for the enthronement 
 of that aristocracy of virtue and talent with which he 
 desired to supplant the landed lords of the royal 
 colony. He was the father of the first general law for 
 public schools, but the prevailing sentiment among the 
 magistrates, who were to put it in force, was so 
 much against it, that the law became a dead letter, 
 and not until many years after his death did the full 
 fruition of his ideas come. I may say even yet they 
 have not fully ripened into that state which insures 
 a wise, just and pure government. 
 
 He believed the schoolhouse was the fountain-head 
 of happiness, prosperity, and good government, and 
 education was " a holy cause." " First, to give to 
 every citizen the information he needs for the trans- 
 action of his own business ; second, to enable him to 
 calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his 
 ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; third, 
 to improve, by reading, his morals and faculties;
 
 76 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 fourth, to understand his duties to his neighbors and 
 country, and to discharge with competence the func- 
 tions confided to him by either; fifth, to know his 
 rights; to exercise with order and justice those he 
 retains, to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those 
 he delegates ; and to notice their conduct with dili- 
 gence, with candor and judgment; sixth, and, in 
 general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness 
 all the social relations under which he shall be 
 placed." 
 
 He prepared a comprehensive educational plan for 
 the State of Virginia. It provided first for ele- 
 mentary schools in every county, which placed every 
 householder within three miles of a school ; district 
 schools, which would place every father within a day's 
 ride of a college where he might dispose of his son ; 
 a university in a healthy and central situation. " In 
 the elementary schools will be taught reading, writing, 
 common arithmetic, and general notions of geog- 
 raphy. In the second, ancient and modern languages, 
 etc., mensuration, and the elementary principles of 
 navigation, and in the third, all the useful sciences 
 in their highest degree." He laid off every county 
 into districts five or six miles square, called " hun- 
 dreds," the teacher to be supported by the people 
 within that limit ; every family to send their children 
 free for three years, and as much longer as they 
 pleased, provided they paid for it ; these schools to 
 be under the charge of " a visitor," who was annually 
 to select the boy of best genius in the school, whose 
 parents were too poor to give him an education, and 
 send him to a grammar school, of which twenty were 
 to be erected in different parts of Virginia ; and of the
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 77 
 
 boys in each grammar school the best was to be 
 selected to be sent to the university free. It is said 
 that he was elected and re-elected to the Legislature 
 for twenty years, chiefly to champion his three great 
 ideas popular education, free local schools, and a 
 State University. 
 
 Jefferson's purpose in founding the university is 
 shown by his classification of the objects of higher 
 education : 
 
 " 1. To form the statesmen, legislators, and 
 judges on whom public prosperity and individual 
 happiness are so much to depend; 
 
 " 2. To expound the principles and structure 
 of government, the laws which regulate the inter- 
 course of nations, those formed municipally for our 
 own government, and a sound spirit of legislation, 
 which, banishing all unnecessary restraint on indi- 
 vidual action, shall leave us free to do whatever does 
 not violate the equal rights of another ; 
 
 " 3. To harmonize and promote the interests of 
 agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and by 
 well-informed views of political economy to give a 
 free scope to the public industry ; 
 
 " 4. To develop the reasoning faculties of our 
 youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, 
 and instill into them the precepts of virtue and 
 order ; 
 
 " 5. To enlighten them with mathematical and 
 physical sciences, which advance the arts and ad- 
 minister to the health, the subsistence, and comforts 
 of human life; 
 
 " 6. And, generally, to form them to habits of 
 reflection and correct action, rendering them examples
 
 78 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 of virtue to others, and of happiness within them- 
 selves." 
 
 One of his biographers says: "Jefferson con- 
 sidered the University of Virginia the greatest 
 triumph and the proudest achievement of his life, 
 and measured its influence upon the generations that 
 were to come after him as more important and 
 effective for good than any other that might arise 
 from all of his public services. The institution was 
 the dream of his youth, and throughout his busy life, 
 filled with cares, responsibilities, and labor, his 
 fidelity to the idea kept his mind always ready to 
 grasp and utilize any opportunity which might pro- 
 mote its fulfilment. His desire was accomplished 
 after a long struggle and the exercise of remarkable 
 patience and perseverance. He met with stubborn 
 opposition from the very people it was intended to 
 benefit, and although the Legislature of Virginia has 
 made reasonable grants of aid from time to time, 
 the institution has been kept alive and its influence 
 extended by the generosity of people outside of the 
 State." It is a shame to Virginia that this great- 
 est gift of her greatest statesman should have to 
 struggle for existence at this time. 
 
 Jefferson held in his mind an ideal government for 
 all the citizens of his country, placing all on an 
 equality as to the acquirement of property and giving 
 all equal opportunity to cultivate the natural gifts 
 with which God had endowed them. The first general 
 opportunity was based on the free schools ; the next, 
 on the university ; and, embracing the idea which 
 made the heathen dedicate the temple of the Pantheon 
 at Rome to all the gods, he conceived a non-sectarian
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 79 
 
 institution, consonant with religious liberty. He 
 enforced the idea by a like design in architecture 
 for the high seat of learning, centrally located on a 
 beautiful plat of land, as the capital of the public 
 schools. 
 
 What love for humanity ! What affection for the 
 people, clung deep and fast in the heart of Thomas 
 Jefferson ! It was the self-sacrifice of enlightened 
 manhood; it was man's humanity to man falling like 
 the showers of spring on the fields of rich and poor 
 alike ; it was the sacred spirit which stirs the ambition 
 of man to labor for the victory which his Creator 
 placed for his goal ! Highest aim of man ! I appeal 
 to Virginians ; I call upon all the voters ; I invoke all 
 the people to let their spirits flame for the ideal 
 university of Jefferson ! Not for yourselves, not for 
 a memorial of my hero, but for right, pay the debt 
 you owe to future generations by making for them 
 the opportunity for a higher life ; for a station in 
 the ranks of that aristocracy of virtue and talent 
 which God says they may claim, and Jefferson urged, 
 to uphold a just government by the people! 
 
 Yonder in grand old Albemarle County, abound- 
 ing in fair landscapes and majestic scenery, is located 
 the University of Virginia, potent in architectural 
 beauty and embracing all that Jefferson desired in 
 material development and appliances but lacking 
 in means to give it broad and lasting life. It needs 
 an endowment to make it fulfill the purpose of its 
 founder. Are we never again to have statesmen in 
 the legislature like Jefferson to husband the public 
 revenues and economize public expenses so as to endow 
 its university on an ever living basis?
 
 80 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Virginia cannot afford to have her highest seat of 
 learning languish for want of money. Jefferson said 
 over one hundred years ago that free schools are an 
 essential part one of the columns of the republican 
 edifice, and that without such instruction free to all 
 the sacred flame of liberty cannot be kept burning in 
 the hearts of Americans. The university is the cap- 
 stone of our public schools, and should be kept 
 burnished as of gold and held firmly in place by the 
 strong arms of the whole people. Count what the 
 institution has already accomplished. It has had 
 more graduates in the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives than any other institution in the 'Country ; 
 more than Yale or Harvard or Princeton, the greatest 
 institutions of the wealthy North. Over four hun- 
 dred of its alumni sleep in soldiers' graves on the 
 battlefields of the South. What a mighty record in 
 statesmanship and chivalry ! What a glorius Virginia ! 
 
 As Jefferson believed ' in free government and 
 freedom of religious thought, so he believed in free 
 choice in the direction of educational achievement 
 and gave the student at the university freedom in the 
 choice of lectures he should attend; thereafter he 
 was treated as a man of honor. All examinations are 
 conducted on the honor system, and it rarely occurs 
 that students prove unworthy of confidence. It 
 excites in them a reverence for the highest standard 
 of manliness, which has great influence upon their 
 conduct at college and in their intercourse with men 
 in after life. There is no espionage either within or 
 without the classroom ; perfect probity is conceded to 
 every man, and his statement on any subject whatever 
 is received without the attestation of an oath.
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 81 
 
 Examinations are free from surveillance, and when 
 the papers are handed in the student indorses over 
 his signature that he has neither received nor given 
 assistance, and this pledges goes unquestioned. There 
 are a few instances on the records of the university 
 where men have abused this confidence and blackened 
 their good names by dishonesty in examinations, and 
 the punishment has been swift and effective. No 
 meeting of the faculty was necessary in any of the 
 cases ; official action was forestalled by the voluntary 
 action of the students, for the offense was not only 
 against the regulations of the university, but a crime 
 against the honor of the student body, which they 
 avenged in a quiet but effective manner. The offender 
 is informed that a man guilty of such perfidy cannot 
 remain as their associate, and in all cases on record 
 he has not failed to leave on the next train. A clean 
 character and honorable life is thus firmly planted 
 in the bloom of manhood to beautify and enrich what- 
 ever course may fall to his lot. " Godlike, erect, with 
 honor clad," man adorns his life, his kinsman, his 
 country ! Our university stands in a beautiful and 
 picturesque natural location, with imposing archi- 
 tectural effects, a curriculum which embraces all 
 branches of human knowledge, and a code of laws 
 which recognizes that young men as well as old men 
 are capable of self-government and are controlled by 
 the instincts of honor. The University of Virginia 
 is a little republic where self-government prevails 
 and personal honor is sacred, and this was the greatest 
 work of the greatest statesman America ever 
 produced. 
 
 Jefferson declared that " the true theory of our
 
 82 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Constitution is surely the wisest and best ; that the 
 States are independent as to everything within them- 
 selves, and united as to everything respecting foreign 
 nations." He was pre-eminently a man of peace, " the 
 most successful war seldom pays for its losses," he 
 said. He was a benefactor in many ways ; he invented 
 a plow for which he received many medals ; a folding 
 seat ; a revolving chair ; a copying press ; the coinage 
 system, and recommended the mint at Philadelphia. 
 He tendered Congress Virginia's deed ceding the 
 Northwest Territory to the United States, and pre- 
 pared the plan of government for that region ; he 
 imported the first full-blooded Merino sheep and 
 Calcutta hogs, and he introduced a new kind of rice 
 for South Carolina. 
 
 Although he owned over one hundred slaves, he 
 favored their freedom, not like that which came 
 years ago, in the thunders of war, like the booty 
 of a burglar's pistol; but gradual and peaceful 
 freedom and to the end of colonizing the freedmen 
 under the protection of the United States. He be- 
 lieved " that two races, equally free, cannot live in the 
 same government " ; that it would produce convulsions 
 ending in the extermination of the one or the other 
 race. The trial is on now, and I hope mutual for- 
 bearance and reason will solve the problem to the 
 credit and honor of both races. I believe our new 
 constitution will effectually solve it in Virginia. The 
 suffrage clause is the great safeguard for the people. 
 
 Jefferson favored restricted suffrage, commending 
 Spain in this respect : " There is one provision which 
 will immortalize its inventors it is that which, after 
 a certain epoch, disfranchises every citizen who can-
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 83 
 
 not read and write. This is new and is a fruitful 
 germ of the improvement of everything good." He 
 was in favor of a clause in the first constitution of 
 the Commonwealth of Virginia restricting the suf- 
 frage by educational and property qualifications. 
 He was opposed to a candidate for office expending 
 money to aid in his election, and in his draft of a 
 constitution, which was too late to be offered in the 
 convention, he inserted a paragraph that " no person 
 shall be -capable of acting in any office, civil, military, 
 or ecclesiastical, who had so expended money." This 
 principle has been recently engrafted in the laws of 
 Virginia. He was an earnest advocate of a canal 
 across the Isthmus, a project now undertaken by the 
 Government of the United States. 
 
 He was deeply affectionate in his family relations, 
 sincere in his friendship, strictly honest in business, 
 eminently patriotic in public affairs, most charitable 
 to the needy, and affable and unostentatious in per- 
 sonal intercourse. He was hospitable even beyond 
 Southern precedent, and his generous roof-tree was 
 to his unnumbered friends as their own ; but beneath 
 its reducing process his fortune vanished and poverty 
 shadowed his way to the grave. He died on 
 July 4, 1826. 
 
 Cicero has said : " Of all human things, nothing 
 is more honorable or excellent than to deserve well of 
 one's country." Thomas Jefferson, the sage and 
 prophet of Monticello, deserves well of his country, 
 and his memory should be cherished by the people 
 in everlasting gratitude. He is the largest and 
 brightest fixed eternal star in the political firmament 
 of the United States. Inspired by an innate love of
 
 84 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 justice, Jefferson was swept into intense hatred of 
 the oppressive policy of government prevailing in 
 the colonies, and his wonderful wisdom, driven by the 
 strenuousness of youth, evolved a form of govern- 
 ment befitting a virtuous people. Although this 
 country now boasts of the noblest polity ever evolved 
 in the progress of mankind, his ideal has not yet been 
 attained. We have seen that his first step was to 
 destroy class privilege and establish that equality 
 which gives the right of way to the aristocracy of 
 virtue and talent. He saw between a government 
 by king and lords and the savage liberty which roams 
 the wilderness with unrestrained license, a happy 
 medium, where reason rules, where peace governs, 
 where right prevails, where patriotism serves. Labor, 
 the creator of property, has made all our heroes who 
 rise above the centuries like powerful waves on the 
 mighty sea, and those good men who link love with 
 labor are the aristocrats whom Jefferson wished to be 
 fiduciaries of the Republic. 
 
 Let labor and love be the motto of men. Then 
 demagogues will die and righteous government will 
 prevail in the land. Let us all pray that the Almighty 
 Power which numbers the sands of the sea, the drops 
 of rain, the days of eternity, which compasses all 
 space and rules all of the great worlds of infinity, 
 will vouchsafe to us a Jeffersonian Government !
 
 UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT AT 
 FORT NELSON 
 
 [An introductory address at the unveiling of the Monument 
 at Fort Nelson by the Daughters of the American Revolution 
 on May 10, 1906.] 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
 
 I am proud to witness this gathering of the people 
 of Portsmouth. I am proud to know my city feels 
 such interest in the patriotic work of our Daughters 
 of the American Revolution. I am exceedingly 
 rejoiced at this splendid display of civic pride, and 
 I am glad to see these dear school children here to 
 imbibe patriotic inspiration and learn to love pure 
 and high motives. 
 
 The monument which the Fort Nelson Chapter of 
 the Daughters of the American Revolution has called 
 us to dedicate, is a memory of patriotism. It is a 
 guard of honor at the gateway of our city, and 
 exemplifies one of the noblest sentiments which ever 
 burned in the hearts of noble men and women the 
 sentiment which moves men to die for God and 
 country, the sentiment which makes virtue rule human 
 emotions, honor and truth govern human actions, and 
 which tramples upon sordid selfishness and forces 
 men to commemorate high ideals in brass and marble. 
 
 This place, with its history of 130 years, sets an 
 honored name in the annals of Portsmouth; and the 
 monument, commemorative of true men who have 
 trod its soil in the days hid behind the clouds of 
 
 85
 
 86 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 centuries, emphasizes the individuality of our city 
 and teaches fidelity to its corporate existence. 
 
 If selfish commercialism should blot out the City 
 of Portsmouth by consolidating it with another city, 
 then upturn the foundations of your monuments, 
 burn your ancient landmarks on the altar of the 
 money-changers, and let the virtue and honor of your 
 statesmen and soldiers be known no more in the city 
 of their birth. 
 
 Fort Nelson has tender associations for me. It 
 was here that I first learned to keep step to martial 
 music and pull the lanyard of great guns under the 
 blue banner of the Old Dominion. Here thousands 
 of soldiers marched in response to the call of our 
 State of Virginia, in 1861. Here the garrison of 
 Fort Nelson, under the glorious Stars and Stripes, 
 on June 22, 1813, stood to their shotted guns ready 
 to meet the invaders, who were defeated yonder at 
 Craney Island by our Captain Arthur Emmerson and 
 other gallant heroes. 
 
 During the Revolution sovereign Virginia erected 
 Fort Nelson to resist Dunmore should he ever attempt 
 to return to the harbor of Portsmouth and Norfolk. 
 It was named for the patriot, Governor Nelson, who 
 gave his private fortune to aid the credit of Virginia, 
 and risked his life and sacrificed his health on the 
 battlefields of the American Republic. 
 
 On account of its location it was never the scene 
 of any bloody battle, but like the " Old Guard," it 
 was always held in reserve for the emergencies of war. 
 
 On May 9, 1779, a great British fleet, under Ad- 
 miral Sir George Collier, entered Hampton Roads, 
 sailed up the Elizabeth River and landed 3000 royal
 
 MONUMENT AT FORT NELSON 87 
 
 soldiers under General Mathews in Norfolk County 
 where Port Norfolk now stands, to flank this fortifi- 
 cation and capture its garrison composed of only 150 
 soldiers. Major Thomas Mathews, the American 
 commander, frustrated the design of the British 
 general by evacuating the fort and retreating to the 
 southward. On May 11 the British took possession 
 of the two towns of Portsmouth and Norfolk and 
 gave free hand to pillage and destruction. Sir 
 George Collier, after satisfying his wrath, sailed 
 back to New York. Varying fortune befell Fort 
 Nelson during the remainder of the war, until the 
 evacuation of Benedict Arnold, after which no British 
 grenadier ever paced its ramparts. 
 
 After the close of the Revolution it was rebuilt and 
 for many years was garrisoned by regular soldiers of 
 the United States ; but sin-ce abandoned as a forti- 
 fication it has been a beautiful park and a home for 
 the sick officers and sailors of our navy. 
 
 The unique monument, a genuine Revolutionary 
 cannon mounted on a granite pedestal, which we are 
 about to unveil, is an appropriate memento of Fort 
 Nelson's history, and the thanks of the people are due 
 to the ladies of Fort Nelson Chapter for this imper- 
 ishable landmark. All honor for their patriotism and 
 devotion.
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 
 
 [Address delivered before Stonewall Camp, Confederate Vet- 
 erans, April 6, 1900.] 
 
 MY COMRADES : 
 
 It is always a pleasure to meet my old comrades- 
 in-arms and I am glad of this opportunity to speak 
 to you on the " Evolution of the South." Tolerant 
 of themselves, intolerant of all others, the Pilgrim 
 Fathers who landed on Plymouth Rock, planted seeds 
 of sectional strife as vital as those which fed the feud 
 between Lancaster and York in England's war of 
 thirty years, and they were the cause of our Con- 
 federate war. 
 
 These seeds were so latent that, as the colonies 
 grew, other interests overshadowed them and welded 
 a common cause when Boston defied the assertion of a 
 right of taxation without representation. 
 
 There was freedom's cry ! The blood of Lexing- 
 ton's minute men thrilled the manhood of the North 
 and South to unite in the war against Great Britain ; 
 and the soldiers of the South, in the language of 
 General Morgan, " marched in a bee-line " to Bos- 
 ton's aid, standing thenceforward shoulder to shoul- 
 der with the sons of New England until they won 
 independence at Yorktown, under the sun of the 
 South. 
 
 The second war with England closed in the glory 
 of Andrew Jackson's victory over Wellington's 
 
 88
 
 EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 89 
 
 Waterloo veterans at the Crescent City of the South, 
 after Key, of Maryland, had written the " Star 
 Spangled Banner " from the porthole of his prison 
 ship at Baltimore. 
 
 The South brought Texas to the galaxy of stars 
 on the old flag ; and the soldiers of the South rallied, 
 two to one of the North, to capture the capital of 
 Mexico and add golden California to the American 
 States. 
 
 Along the line of territorial expansion sectional 
 hatred grew, and disease of the body politic spread 
 almost as rapidly as the growth of the country, which 
 was principally achieved by Southern valor. 
 
 The people of the North and South were so 
 radically unlike in tastes and interests as to become, 
 at least in spirit, different nations. 
 
 The South had faults ! There was the cruel " code 
 of honor " which forced politeness between gentlemen 
 that should have been given from love. The South 
 had slavery ; but it was not all herself that gave it to 
 her soil. 
 
 The North assumed censorship over the common 
 domain and invoked Higher Law to abolish slavery at 
 the hazard of fundamental rights which common 
 blood had gained from the British Crown. Hear the 
 treaty: " Article II. His Britannic Majesty acknowl- 
 edges the said United States, viz. : New Hampshire, 
 Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Province 
 Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
 Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia to be free, 
 sovereign and independent States ; that he treats 
 them as such, and for himself, his heirs and successors,
 
 90 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 relinquishes all claims to the government, proprietary 
 and territorial rights of the same and every part 
 thereof." 
 
 Afterwards the sovereign States united under a 
 constitution executed on September 17, 1787 ; but 
 what was not granted to the general government 
 under this fundamental compact was denied; and all 
 other rights of sovereignty continued in the States 
 as surrendered and relinquished to them by the 
 sovereign of England. 
 
 This constitution was the agreement of partnership 
 between the States, and even Robert Ingersoll said 
 that this expressed the original idea of government. 
 
 When the North broke the covenants, the South 
 threw down the gauntlet, and the great war came 
 upon us with destruction and blood unforeseen and 
 undreamed of. 
 
 The South was overpowered, slavery was lost, 
 billions of property destroyed, and the right of 
 State secession forced to surrender to a dominant 
 national union. 
 
 However, these results do not forfeit any other 
 reserved rights, which are now as firmly sovereign as 
 King George III. declared in the name of the Most 
 Holy and Undivided Trinity on the 3d day of 
 September, 1783. The South loved the principles of 
 that reserved sovereignty more than she loved terri- 
 tory or the sentiment which called millions of North 
 men and aliens to arms for an indissoluble Union. She 
 gave all her wealth and rivers of the best blood of 
 her sons a willing sacrifice. Her maimed and her 
 150,000 slain soldiers make up a record of valor and 
 virtue as fair as nation's honor ever claimed.
 
 EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 91 
 
 BOTH STRONG AND WISE. 
 
 In the future some historian shall come forth both strong 
 
 and wise, 
 
 With a love of the Republic, and the truth before his eyes, 
 He will show the subtle causes of the war between the States, 
 He will go back in his studies far beyond our modern dates, 
 He will trace our hostile ideas as the miner does the lodes, 
 He will show the different habits of different social codes, 
 He will show the Union riven, and the picture will deplore, 
 He will show it reunited and made stronger than before. 
 Slow and patient, fair and truthful, must the coming teacher 
 
 be, 
 To show how the knife was sharpened that was ground to 
 
 prune the tree. 
 He will hold the scales of justice, he will measure praise and 
 
 blame, 
 
 And the South will stand the verdict and will stand it with- 
 out blame. 
 
 I am thankful to have been spared to hear Spain's 
 cruel policy of starvation in Cuba -condemned by 
 those who countenanced Sheridan's waste in the valley 
 of Virginia, so that " a crow flying over would have 
 to carry its rations " ; Sherman's march to the sea 
 with wanton desolation in its wake; Ben Butler's war 
 on non-combatants, even to a convict guard for a 
 minister of the gospel while compelled to labor in the 
 streets ; quinine contraband of war, and prisoners 
 unexchanged as a military necessity for a civilized 
 nation, and then, after success in arms, san-ctioned the 
 fetters on President Jefferson Davis to break the 
 spirit of a proud people. Thank God their spirit 
 could not be broken ! And thank Him that no Arnold 
 ever disgraced the name of any of the generals of the 
 South ; but she has given Robert E. Lee as the
 
 92 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 grandest military chieftain and Stonewall Jackson 
 as the greatest field marshal ever listed in the cata- 
 logue of fame. It has been truly said that since the 
 foundation of this Government men of the South have 
 demonstrated in every line of action, in political life, 
 on the battlefield, in literature, in science, in great 
 business undertakings, in every sphere of life, that 
 they are the peers of the most progressive men of the 
 world. 
 
 Jefferson, Clay, Calhoun, and Judah P. Benjamin, 
 as statesmen ; Washington, Lee, and Stonewall Jack- 
 son, as soldiers ; Buchanan, Maury, and Raphael 
 Semmes, as sailors; Poe, Timrod, and Barron Hope, 
 as poets, lift her up to a standard not outshone along 
 time's hoary centuries. 
 
 There was an era in the South when the sunbeams 
 of contentment gilded the pillars of her homes, which 
 were real palaces of hospitality and pleasure. 
 
 Her fertile fields charmed the vision of master, 
 mistress and slave when green wheat spread over 
 vast areas, and cotton was the wealth of the great 
 planters. It was her peace, when agriculture gave 
 toil for all her laborers, and her wealth marked forty- 
 four per cent, of the whole country. Then came her 
 discontent in the throes of war, when the tread of 
 soldiery wasted her products, and shot and shell tore 
 the furrows which had been dressed by the peaceful 
 plow. The blood of her soldiers ran down into the 
 ragged holes which made unmarked graves for her 
 uncoffined dead. The sunlight of her wealth faded 
 out and darkest poverty covered the face of her fair 
 farms. Then in the sorrow of defeat her independ- 
 ence died !
 
 EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 93 
 
 She sat tributary to that part of Washington's 
 country which had always fed and fattened from her 
 plantations. The yoke was heavy and its bows were 
 as strong as the riven oak ; but it chastened the souls 
 of her sons to a victory which has made her the beauty 
 of the nation. The evolution came in glorious 
 splendor. Her fields bloom again as of yore, her 
 iron, coal, and all the ores of her hills turn to gold 
 at the stroke of the strong arm of her sons. Her 
 daughters, refined, gentle, sweet, beautiful women, 
 with the loftiness of soul and nobleness of heart which 
 sustained them in the terrible times of war, grace her 
 homes as lovely queens ; and her children grow strong 
 and rich in the land of their father's graves. 
 
 The South to-day is as a princess in the palace of 
 the forefathers who broke England's yoke. The fair 
 land of flowers is rich in mining and manufacturing, 
 as well as in agriculture, while the Merrimac's grand 
 water power is wasting in the silence of spindles and 
 unemployed laborers cry for bread in the shadow of 
 New England's great factory buildings. If the 
 South has suffered for slavery, the North has now its 
 turn at the mills of the gods, which grind slowly but 
 surely. 
 
 There is the meddler's fate ! There is the fanatic's 
 bitter fruit ! There is the result of the wild unreason- 
 ableness which poisoned the Northern mind to pull 
 down the pillars which upheld their industrial temples 
 and sustained their commercial power ! It is the 
 ordinance of events which called forth the hidden 
 resources of the South to the destruction of those 
 who forced them. 
 
 The injured may cry aloud and invoke lawmaker's
 
 94 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 aid, but the logic of climate and conditions is now the 
 Higher Law. The frozen hills of Massachusetts' 
 Bay must bow to the inevitable ; her industrial profits 
 must fall, and the commercial activity of her ports 
 must be given to the seaboard cities of the South. 
 The greater commerce the most profitable mining, 
 the most prosperous manufacturing and the most 
 advantageous farming must henceforth be under 
 the sun of the South. 
 
 The Boston Herald, expressing amazement at the 
 recent progress of the South, says : " And yet, 
 whether considered as the seat of agriculture, mining 
 or manufactures, the South is still virgin soil. Its 
 possibilities are yet more remarkable than its recent 
 progress, and as the one is developed and the other 
 expands, it is destined to add in the near future more 
 than any other part of the country to the aggregate 
 wealth of the nation." 
 
 This generation has seen many marvelous changes 
 in national history ; but nothing has compared in the 
 century with the rise of the South from the incal- 
 culable calamities of war and its results ; and she has 
 paid her proportion of the pension roll of the North, 
 which costs yearly nearly as much as the greatest 
 imperial standing army on earth. The manhood of 
 the sons of the South has already brought her up to 
 the standard of prosperity as wonderful as the 
 strength of her armies against the fourfold cohorts 
 of the world's recruits. While Northern money has 
 been invested in Southern enterprises, it is admitted 
 that by far the greatest part of the increased wealth 
 is due to Southern intelligence and energy. An in- 
 vestigation will reveal the fact that the head-masters
 
 EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 95 
 
 in the line of development are mostly Confederate 
 soldiers. 
 
 Her banks, her mines, her manufactories, are 
 guided by the men whose hands struck hardest for the 
 " Cause " which Twitchell said was shot to death in 
 '65. Yes; good St. Stephen was stoned to death; 
 mighty Socrates was poisoned to death ; great Caesar 
 was stabbed to death; patriot Isaac Hayne was 
 hanged to death; Marshal Ney, the bravest of the 
 brave, was shot to death, thus forcing mortals to 
 ashes and spirits to immortality, which are more 
 powerful now than in the noonday of their manhood. 
 
 Columbus suffered in chains and died in poverty ; 
 Napoleon, the military master of Europe, died in 
 exile, but their fame lives the one in the greatest 
 discovery and the other in unrivaled martial splendor. 
 
 Ireland may be bound in -chains to Britain's crown ; 
 Cuba was held in bloody fetters to Castilian royalty, 
 but the pure spirit of liberty lives in the chain-meshes 
 of imperialism, like fair lilies bloom on the death-dark 
 waters of stagnant lakes. You may declare it shot 
 to death in '65, but it will live in its glorious chivalry 
 as long as the cypress sighs, the willow bows, or the 
 aspen trembles. You may proclaim it dead at Appo- 
 mattox, but its splendid spirit still retains the magic 
 power of constitutional liberty. Its influence will 
 flourish as the leaves of summer, and its cherished 
 memories shall survive, ever green, as the cedars of 
 Lebanon. Its principles will rescue our dual Govern- 
 ment from Federal imperialism. 
 
 Ex-Senator Ingalls, of Kansas, is reported to have 
 said that " State lines are fading out " under the sun 
 of the South. Heaven forbid ! Shall the heart of
 
 96 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 America repudiate " Sic Semper Tyrannis " or " E 
 Pluribus Unum " ? Shall the stars fade from the 
 American flag and State boundaries be blotted out? 
 The States must live, for they are the safeguard of 
 the Union ; and let them be as distinct as the lines 
 of the great river in the sea, which takes the blue, 
 warm waters from the Gulf of Mexico through the 
 bosom of the ocean to bloom flowers on the Norwegian 
 coasts ! Yes, States forever, indestructible States 
 ever with the indissoluble Union ! As the Gulf Stream 
 goes to make life in frozen lands, let the State give 
 life to the nation as Washington and Lee loved it. Is 
 it possible that State lines are fading out in the 
 heart of America? fading out in the land of which 
 the Philadelphia Ledger, in the lifetime of Editor 
 George Washington Childs, said : " When ancestry 
 is taken into consideration, the South is to-day the 
 most truly American section of the United States. 
 The blood of its whites has run in the one channel 
 since colonial days. The other States have been 
 largely built up by foreign immigration since the 
 formation of the Union. 
 
 " The armies of the North had a large proportion 
 of men of alien birth. The Confederates were almost 
 entirely of American birth and of a line of American 
 ancestry. One reason why the South to-day exerts 
 such force in Congress is that she sends her best men 
 to the front, and they possess the heritage of Ameri- 
 can descent." Shall Virginia, the two Carolinas, and 
 Georgia be as indistinct on the map of the Union as 
 Alaskan ice fields ? Shame upon such a thought ! It 
 is a disgrace to American descent ! Valley Forge and 
 Yorktown could not hide it.
 
 EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH 97 
 
 The Southerners will never blot out State lines, 
 nor let them fade under the sun of the South ! 
 
 Give us back the ties of Yorktown ! 
 
 Perish all the modern hates! 
 Let us stand together, brothers, 
 
 In defiance of the fates; 
 For the safety of the Union 
 
 Is the safety of the States.
 
 EULOGY ON GENERAL LEE 
 
 [An address before the United Daughters of the Confed- 
 eracy, January 19, 1901.] 
 
 MKS. PRESIDENT, PORTSMOUTH CHAPTER, U. D. C., 
 AND THEIR FRIENDS: 
 
 The centuries have given many men to measure up 
 to the standard of greatness ; many men worthy of a 
 place in the temple of fame; many of prodigious 
 valor ; many of thrilling chivalry ; many of brilliant 
 intellectual attainments ; many of splendid virtues ; 
 but, as I see, no single character is or has been so 
 deeply loved by the people whom he served, and few 
 more generally admired by the world, than Robert 
 Edward Lee. His very name is inspiration to the 
 hearts of Southerners ; his conduct a model for their 
 children ; his great goodness like a ceaseless prayer 
 for their welfare. 
 
 General Lee was great and good, brilliant and 
 modest, humble and true, faithful to his God and 
 fellows. His life is a picture of love and beauty ; 
 and all his actions from youth to old age were infused 
 with the highest ideals of duty. No considerations 
 could turn him from its path ; no inducements could 
 swerve his inflexible devotion to truth. 
 
 A cavalier ancestor of the eleventh century left 
 him lessons of true pride, honor, self-sacrifice, and 
 generous nature, and a father like " Light Horse 
 Harry " gave a light, which must have in a measure 
 guided his conduct. 
 
 98
 
 EULOGY ON GENERAL LEE 99 
 
 Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807, in 
 the same house and same room in which Richard 
 Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, two signers 
 of the Declaration of Independence, were born. 
 
 It might be said that he inherited honor and fame ; 
 nevertheless, he held them not as an idler's toy, but 
 applied his vigorous energies and imperial intellect 
 to emulate his forefathers in all their courageous, 
 virtuous, and noble characteristics. 
 
 He commenced his boyhood in the line of merito- 
 rious manhood. When he entered West Point he took 
 the head of his class and held it until he was 
 graduated in 1829, never having received a demerit 
 or reprimand during his term there. He entered upon 
 the duties of an army officer with the highest honor 
 of his military school, and afterward, in the fiery rush 
 of battle, held fast to his attainment and was thrice 
 brevetted for gallant and meritorious conduct in the 
 Mexican war. 
 
 He served thirty years in the United States army, 
 and was considered by all officers, almost without 
 exception, to be, by many degrees, the most accom- 
 plished soldier in the service. 
 
 The commander-in-chief, General Winfield Scott, 
 entertained such an opinion of him, and said : " Lee 
 is the greatest military genius in America." 
 
 He undoubtedly stood highest on the military 
 record of the United States army when Virginia 
 seceded. Had rank, self-aggrandizement, success 
 and wealth been his dream of life, he would have re- 
 mained in the old army. 
 
 All the allurements of power and place a mighty 
 nation could tender were in the request to unsheathe
 
 100 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 his sword as commander-in-chief of Lincoln's armies. 
 But the metal of the man was not poured in that mold 
 which turns out the creature for the dazzling equip- 
 ments of success at the sacrifice of honor. No place 
 could win and no power could tempt him from that 
 path of duty which led him to draw his sword for 
 Virginia. 
 
 Here his mighty character unfolded itself to the 
 world, and it stood the test under every condition. 
 
 General Lee was high in the opinion of the people, 
 and their expectations were great when he was ordered 
 to -command the defeated army of the slain Garnett ; 
 but he failed to retrieve the disasters in western 
 Virginia, and the indignation of the inconsiderate- 
 public arose against him as the cruel blasts of a de- 
 structive cyclone. 
 
 His military reputation fell as fevered mercury on 
 Arctic ice, and popular prejudice retired him to the 
 list of inefficient officers. Had its verdict held, no 
 great general, no illustrious military leader, no loved 
 hero for the South, would be personified in Robert 
 E. Lee. 
 
 But the hand which guided the helm of the Con- 
 federacy knew the man, and the fickle public could not 
 deter or restrain its judgment. Therein was the man- 
 hood and statesmanship of Jefferson Davis. He 
 deserves a monument from the South by every con- 
 sideration of patriotism and justice. 
 
 Say what you may of President Davis, we owe to 
 him the rescue of our beloved Lee from the merciless 
 oblivion of unjust and cruel public opinion. Mr. 
 Davis leaves us a great lesson of charity, to restrain 
 our prejudices and govern our judgment. The hero
 
 EULOGY ON GENERAL LEE 101 
 
 and the man were there, although the shadows of 
 pitiless night concealed the majestic form. 
 
 After General Joseph E. Johnson was incapacitated 
 by wounds at Seven Pines, Jefferson Davis made 
 Robert E. Lee commander of the army in spite of 
 misfortune. There began a career so brilliant as to 
 entitle him to be -classed with the greatest generals on 
 the lists of renown. 
 
 He took but one week to defeat McClellan's great 
 army, relieve the siege of Richmond, and reinstal 
 himself as the best loved hero in all the South. Then 
 followed in the course of time the great battles of 
 Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Get- 
 tysburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, 
 and Petersburg, in which his matchless leadership 
 thrilled the world. 
 
 But perhaps the true greatness of the man was 
 more vividly displayed after his surrender at Appo- 
 mattox, when he said : " I have led the young men of 
 the South in battle ; I have seen many of them fall 
 under my standard. I shall devote my life now to 
 training young men to do their duty in life." 
 
 Lord Wolseley said : " I have met many of the 
 great men of my time, but Lee alone impressed me 
 with the feeling that I was in the presence of a man 
 who was cast in a grander mold and made of different 
 and finer metal than all other men. He is stamped 
 upon my memory as a being apart and superior to all 
 others in every way, a man with whom none I ever 
 knew and very few of whom I have read are worthy 
 to be classed." 
 
 Modesty, gentleness, simplicity, benevolence and 
 Christian humility added to Robert E. Lee's military
 
 102 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 genius made him the man whom the South prizes as 
 its individual and national exemplar. 
 
 Notwithstanding international edict and national 
 law, to all of which I yield perfect obedience, there 
 is and will be a national South in the hearts of her 
 true people ; and may God let it live, because it 
 symbolizes chivalry, truth, honor, pride, patience, and 
 self-abnegation, as the life of Robert E. Lee exempli- 
 fied ; not only by our estimation, but by that of the 
 London Standard: " A country which has given birth 
 to men like him, and those who followed him, may look 
 the chivalry of Europe in the face without shame, for 
 the fatherlands of Sidney and Bayard never produced 
 a nobler soldier, gentleman, and Christian than Gen- 
 eral Robert E. Lee." 
 
 And the honor of his birthday by the Daughters of 
 the Confederacy must stimulate the virtues of the 
 people, enkindle the patriotism of the men, and make 
 these noble women sponsors of Christian knighthood 
 in our Southland.
 
 A SOUTHERN GIRL AND MAJOR 
 VON BORCKE 
 
 A SOUTHERN girl Southern in beauty Southern 
 in principle, Southern in heart, like a lovely flower, 
 came to grace a home and adorn the traditions of a 
 chivalric people. Her life was a lesson of beauty, 
 and it passed on to God in the glory of youth. The 
 hearts of the people sank in sorrow when the shadows 
 of the dark river obscured her light, and the loving 
 mother of an only child wept till tearless eyes gazed 
 in despair on a hallowed tomb ; but the hope of meeting 
 angels before the King's throne lifts the hearts of de- 
 voted parents to His abiding love and wisdom ; and 
 now they cherish her memory as Heaven's jewel and 
 their glory. The dead was a child of the South. The 
 Southern Cross was her flag long after stern dragoons 
 who bore it over many victorious fields were crushed 
 in defeat. Her admiration for Southern soldiers was 
 marked in her daily devotions, and her ideal cavalier 
 centered in the dashing Prussian dragoon who rode 
 with Stuart and " shared the sufferings and glory of 
 the unfortunate people of the late Confederacy." 
 The inspiration of the " Memoirs of the Confederate 
 War for Independence " prompted Margaret Mur- 
 daugh Maupin to write to the author, of her grati- 
 tude for his services to her beloved country, and of 
 her admiration for his matchless gallantry on Vir- 
 ginia's battlefields, with request for his picture to 
 hang on the walls of her home with those of Lee and 
 
 103
 
 104 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Jackson and Stuart. The faith and pride of the Vir- 
 ginia maiden in the cause of her people touched the 
 knightly soul of the noble soldier, and from the depths 
 of his heart came the reply following : 
 
 " GIEZENBRIGGE, near Adamsdorf, 
 
 " Newmark, Prussia, April 4, 1890. 
 " DEAR Miss MARGARET Your charming letter of 
 January 4 I received but a few days ago, and I 
 hasten to send to you (inclosed) the wished-for 
 photograph in Confederate uniform, hoping that you 
 will send me yours in return, so that I may be enabled 
 to recognize my new friend among the many old ones 
 I have in dear old Virginia. I feel much flattered by 
 your kind words and am very glad that the glorious 
 times of the war for independence are so vivid in the 
 memory of the new generation. Supposing that it may 
 be of interest to you, I will tell you about my present 
 life. I am living on my old family estate and am 
 married to a dear wife. I have four children three 
 boys, Erich, Wener and Wulf, the two elder ones 
 being cadets of our great military institute, and a 
 sweet little girl, three years old, the sunbeam of my 
 home, named Virginia, in memory of the land which 
 has become so dear to me, where I suffered most and 
 where I was most happy. My old wounds trouble me 
 sometimes a good deal, but my health is generally 
 tolerable. I am corresponding frequently with my 
 friends on the other side of the ocean, and sometimes 
 I have the great pleasure to see one or the other as 
 a dear, honored guest with me. A few years ago 
 Colonel Archer Anderson, of Richmond, Va., paid me 
 a visit of a few days with two of his daughters, being
 
 A SOUTHERN GIRL 105 
 
 with them on a trip to Europe. You may have heard 
 of my visit to America in 1884, which gave me so 
 much satisfaction, and which I hope to be able to 
 renew before death comes. I would be much pleased 
 by hearing from you again, and remain in the mean- 
 time, with my kindest regards, 
 
 " Very truly, your friend, 
 
 " HERDS VON BORCKE." 
 
 The touch of nature leaped impulsively from two 
 hearts, which clasped in friendship from congenial 
 sentiments carried thousands of miles across the ocean 
 from Virginia to Prussia. 
 
 The girl, proud of the tender recognition of the 
 dashing soldier, replied to this letter in a spirit of 
 loveliness which won a crown of friendship in the 
 nobleman's household, where little " Virginia " was 
 queen. 
 
 On October 31, 1890, another appreciative letter 
 came, begging pardon the delay, caused by illness, 
 saying: 
 
 " I have been suffering a good deal of the summer 
 by my old wound, and had to be a long time absent 
 from home on account of it. ... Be assured, 
 dear Miss Margaret, that I feel very proud by the 
 gain of your friendship, and that it gives a great deal 
 of satisfaction to the ' wounded warrior ' that a fair 
 daughter of dear old Virginia thus keeps him in kind 
 remembrance. . . . Hoping that it will please 
 you, I inclose a photograph of my third boy, Wulf, 
 and our little daughter, Virginia, the sunbeam of the 
 whole house."
 
 106 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 What greater love could a soldier have had for 
 Virginia than to spill his blood on her fields and to 
 name his only daughter, the sunbeam of his house, 
 for our dear old State ! The beautiful Virginia girl 
 wove a laurel crown for the hero who held the hand 
 of the dying Stuart, which made him glad in the home 
 of his fathers ; then she was called to heaven. Only 
 three years followed when the wounded warrior went 
 to meet her. 
 
 Here was womanly devotion and manly courage in 
 superb exemplification chivalric heroism rewarded 
 by the smiles of beauty as his sun goes down for the 
 night to rise again in greater glory. 
 
 Let Virginia maidens emulate the patriotism of this 
 loyal girl in cherishing the heroism of Southern sol- 
 diers ; and Virginia horsemen testify their admiration 
 of their Prussian comrade by placing his bronze 
 figure at the right hand of General J. E. B. Stuart's 
 monument in Richmond, so that these two tried 
 friends and distinguished cavalrymen of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia shall stand together there, to tell 
 the story of Virginia's martial fame to the new gen- 
 erations as they arise along future ages.
 
 HUMOR OF CAMP AND MARCH 
 
 THE Confederate soldier was distinguished for his 
 cheerfulness, and I cannot look back on the scenes 
 around the Confederate campfires without amaze- 
 ment at the temper of the men who carried the mus- 
 kets. I wonder how hilarity and sport could animate 
 bivouacs in an atmosphere of discomfort and danger. 
 
 Around a campfire, feasting on an ounce of raw 
 pork and cornbread made of unhusked meal, jokes of 
 striking humor and sallies of keen wit always light- 
 ened the gloomy hours ; on the march every passing 
 person caught shots of ridicule which would almost 
 make a mule laugh; and a line of soldiers on the 
 march, halted for a tardy commissary train, gave 
 occasion for merrymaking and fun as sparkling as 
 rippling water dancing in the sunlight. 
 
 At one of the great corps reviews in Culpeper 
 County, Virginia, I saw an officer off duty ride out, 
 in a white suit, to see the formation, and as soon as 
 the troops spied him battalions of throats yelled, 
 " Come out of that shroud ! " and that man retreated 
 as a rabbit runs from a beagle hound. 
 
 A Congressman dressed in faultless black cloth, 
 with a shining silk hat, riding in company with a 
 general officer along a line of soldiers resting on the 
 roadside while the forward regiments were deploying- 
 in line of battle, was mercilessly ridiculed and doubt- 
 less felt small enough to hide in a rathole. " Come 
 out of that hat, I see your boots," was the refrain 
 
 107
 
 108 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 which followed him as far as could be heard down the 
 road. 
 
 Around the campfires counting on new clothes from 
 the next fight was as common as the calculation of 
 children on Santa Claus for Christmas toys. 
 
 When we marched into Pennsylvania General Lee 
 issued strict orders against unnecessary and wanton 
 destruction of private property, laying stress on the 
 disgrace of outrages on innocent and defenseless 
 people. Notwithstanding, at the very first bivouac 
 in Pennsylvania some fellows chased a goose into our 
 major-general's headquarters tent, but they begged 
 off by declaring that they thought the order did not 
 apply to stray geese. 
 
 A veteran recently told me he went into a jewelry 
 store in Chambersburg and asked to see the finest 
 gold watch in the establishment, which was promptly 
 handed to him. He had in his mind to confiscate it, 
 but he thought, " I may be killed to-morrow with the 
 stolen watch on me ; " then he handed it to the owner 
 and walked out. He was not killed nor did he possess 
 a stolen watch. 
 
 On the right at Petersburg the picket lines ex- 
 tended through a field set in broom straw, and there 
 the opposing sentinels became so friendly that they 
 met halfway between the outposts, formed circular 
 groups on the ground in Turkish style and played 
 draw poker in the sunshine during their whole beat. 
 It could only be broken up by orders to keep on con- 
 stant firing. 
 
 In front of the " Crater," or Burnside's mine, the 
 lines were very close, firing was incessant, and no one 
 dared to show his head above the earthworks, but the
 
 HUMOR OF CAMP AND MARCH 109 
 
 men would trade tobacco for coffee by tying a rock 
 to a string and throwing it over into the opposite 
 works, then fastening a plug of tobacco to the string; 
 the Yankee would haul it over and send in return its 
 value in coffee. They were never known to defraud 
 one another in this traffic. Honor on the firing line 
 was the law of the Gray and the Blue. 
 
 We were once on a forced march trying to cut off 
 a cavalry raiding party. We were without any cook- 
 ing utensils, and when halted for the night rations of 
 flour were issued. As necessity is the mother of in- 
 vention, the soldiers made up the dough on their oil 
 clothes, rolled it out in long snake-like strings, which 
 they twisted around the ramrods of their muskets, 
 and stuck up before the campfire to bake. So they 
 fed on snake biscuits and marched on in a snowstorm 
 next morning as merry as basket picnickers on a May 
 day. 
 
 Do you wonder that men with such spirits were not 
 easily subdued? They made a glorious fight for a 
 noble cause, and deserved to succeed; although they 
 lost their nation they won the respect and honor of 
 all brave people. The chivalry of the Confederate 
 private soldier characterizes the ideal knight of the 
 American age.
 
 THE BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 
 
 SPOTTSYLVANIA is a county full of historic glory 
 colonial, revolutionary, and intersectional war 
 events thrill its story and encircle its name with a 
 halo of fame. It is said that Captain John Smith 
 engaged the hostile Indians near the falls of the 
 Rappahannock in 1608. 
 
 The mansion of Governor Spotswood was in that 
 county ; also the home of the mother of Washington, 
 and there she is buried, and a beautiful monument has 
 been erected to her memory by the Daughters of the 
 American Revolution. The first iron mine ever worked 
 in America was in that county also, and from its 
 products were made cannon and cannonballs used in 
 the Revolution. And in our Confederate war four of 
 the twelve greatest battles were fought on its fields, 
 in which half a million of troops were engaged, among 
 them soldiers from every State, almost every nation ; 
 and 52,673 Federals fell, killed and wounded, in its 
 battles. 
 
 On December 10, 1862, our (Sixty-First) Regi- 
 ment, Virginia Infantry, was as comfortably en- 
 camped in winter quarters on the hills of Fredericks- 
 burg as circumstances would permit. Our tents had 
 outside clay chimneys with barrel tops, which the 
 devil-may-care fellows in the darkness of midnight 
 enjoyed stopping up, to smoke the inmates out just 
 to hear them " cuss." No one dreamed that an event- 
 ful battle would occur before gentle spring could 
 
 no
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 111 
 
 bring blooms and beauty and glory to the earth ; but 
 about dawn on the llth two loud reports of heavy 
 ordnance pealed out from Marye's Heights, and re- 
 verberated among the hills the signal for the battle 
 array of the Army of Northern Virginia. 
 
 On every hand the drums beat to arms, and we 
 marched down the plank road towards the doomed 
 city, until within a short distance, when we filed to 
 the left behind a hill, where the sharp crack of the 
 rifles of our pickets, in their gallant efforts to drive 
 back General Burnside's pontooners, could be dis- 
 tinctly heard. 
 
 Marge's Hill was only a short distance to our 
 right front. The stone wall in front of it was held 
 by the brigades of Cobb and Kershaw, of McLaw's 
 Division. The public road was cut through the foot 
 of the hill, with this wall next to the city, and from 
 the top of the wall the land sloped gradually to the 
 river, and therefore the wall was protected from 
 the artillery of the enemy on Stafford's Heights by 
 the natural slope of the land. On the semicircular 
 crest above, and stretching on either hand, was the 
 corps of Longstreet. The two brigades behind the 
 stone wall held the most advanced position of our 
 army. Our Mahone's Brigade, in reserve, formed 
 the left of the corps. Three desperate attempts to 
 throw a pontoon bridge across the river were de- 
 feated by Barksdale's brave Mississippians, and then 
 Burnside, about 10 o'clock A. M., commenced the bom- 
 bardment of the town with 147 guns, and each gun 
 fired fifty rounds a grand, magnificent spectacle, 
 but a cruel and heartless work of destruction. For 
 several hours the fire was incessant, and the sharp
 
 112 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 crack of the rifled guns and the heavy boom of the 
 larger ordnance mingled with the echoes from the 
 woods and hills, until we could no longer distinguish 
 separate sounds, and the roar became continuous ; 
 clouds of smoke rolled back from the massed artil- 
 lery, the air became loaded with the odor of gunpow- 
 der, the fog was heavy over the river, the water mar- 
 gins, the lowlands, and the city were hidden from 
 view. One of the church spires shot up through the 
 mist, glittering in the sunlight, and a few of the 
 tallest chimneys and buildings struggled into sight. 
 Tons of iron were hurled into the town : shells, solid 
 shot, shrapnel, and canister raked and swept the 
 streets. We 'Could hear the walls crumbling and tim- 
 bers crashing; then a pillar of smoke would rise up 
 above the fog, another and another, increasing in 
 density and volume, ascending skyward and hanging 
 over the doomed city like a pall. Flames leaped high 
 out of the mist the city was on fire! 
 
 The fourth attempt was made by the enemy to 
 bridge the Rappahannock, but the Mississippians 
 were steady amid the hell of shot and shell and 
 flames, and met them at the brink of the river with 
 steady rifles, which again made the invaders recoil. 
 Finally three regiments embarked in boats, and these, 
 after a desperate struggle with our pickets, effected a 
 foothold, which gave them the opportunity to con- 
 struct their bridge ; but the wrecked city was not yet 
 captured. No troops ever made a more determined 
 and heroic stand in such an unfavorable locality 
 against such great odds, as the one brigade which 
 held our outposts along the river bank. The first sol- 
 diers of the enemy who crossed over that bridge had to
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 113 
 
 fight for every foot of ground, and it was not until 
 dark, and after a sharp contest through the streets, 
 lanes, and alleys, met at every step by the fire of 
 Barksdale's men from every available point, that the 
 enemy halted for the night on Carolina Street. The 
 dead were everywhere, in the streets, in the cellar 
 doors, in the yards of the houses, in the gardens by 
 the river, silent as the water. Some of the citizens re- 
 mained in the city during the bombardment, taking 
 refuge in the cellars and some of them were killed. 
 
 During all these terrible hours our regiment lay 
 on its arms behind the ridge, and sometimes an elon- 
 gated shell from the heavy siege guns on Stafford 
 Heights would roll carelessly down the side of the 
 hill, in uncomfortable proximity. On the morning of 
 December 12 the body of Burnside's army com- 
 menced crossing on the pontoons into the city, and 
 that day was consumed in maneuvering for their as- 
 saults the next day. 
 
 The cannonading was continued through the night. 
 Fires still lit up portions of the town, the firmament 
 was aglow with a magnificent aurora borealis, the 
 artillery strove to rival the glories of nature and illu- 
 minated the sky with scores of shells whose trailing 
 fuses filled the air with streams of light, as grand and 
 beautiful as a shower of meteors. Next morning one 
 hundred thousand Federals were in battle array, and 
 about half-past seven o'clock they advanced on the 
 right of our army at Hamilton's Crossing. This 
 movement was gloriously repulsed, resulting in a 
 great victory for Stonewall Jackson, and " the gal- 
 lant Pelham " there won that undying name from 
 the lips of Lee. About noon Meagher led his cele-
 
 114 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 brated Irish brigade to its desperate charge on the 
 stone wall, and then the thunder of cannon and roar 
 of musketry poured out the hail of death, and the 
 smoke rose from the valley of the Rappahannock in 
 heavy and ominous clouds as if from the vale of 
 Tophet. Scores of his brave men fell at every pace, 
 but the living pressed onward until within a few yards 
 of our stone wall, then too few were left to make a 
 step further forward. Again and again fresh col- 
 umns moved on to the charge, as if numberless battal- 
 ions of men had determined to rush onward through 
 the jaws of death until all were dead, or the hill cap- 
 tured. 
 
 Some officers (who had never before doubted the 
 prowess of our arms), witnessing these assaults from 
 a distant hill, for the first time trembled for the cause 
 of the South; but they saw no faltering in our in- 
 fantry line, no cessation by our batteries on the hill, 
 and as many times as the hosts of the enemy swept 
 forward with their rows of glittering bayonets and 
 flaunting flags, so many times did their lines wave 
 like corn in a cyclone, recoil, then break, and fall 
 back amid the shouts and yells of the brigades of 
 Cobb and Kershaw. Georgia and South Carolina 
 won the glories of that day. 
 
 Hancock and French charged, passing the farthest 
 point reached by the preceding troops, impetuously 
 rushing on, past the brick house so conspicuous on 
 the field, on, on, until their flags waved within twenty- 
 five feet of the fatal stone wall. More than half their 
 numbers killed and wounded, the line faltered under 
 the murderous fire and retreated to cover. Thus 
 ended the carnage for a time, but a long, long, long,
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 115 
 
 dreadful afternoon awaited the thousands of wounded 
 who lay scattered over the sad and ghastly field, for 
 the only protection for them was that brick house 
 not very far from the stone wall. To this house hun- 
 dreds of the wounded dragged themselves, and a 
 great mass of sufferers huddled together and strug- 
 gled to get near the house to escape the fire of our 
 infantry. 
 
 All around great heaps of dead bore testimony of 
 the fierceness of the battle, and they laid in successive 
 alignments as they fell in their desperate charge 
 toward the stone wall. A color bearer lay stark and 
 dead with the flag of his regiment covering him, 
 while just in front of the stone wall lay a line of 
 soldiers of the Irish brigade, with the green boxwood 
 in their caps, sleeping their last sleep in the dressed 
 fore-front line of battle. Leaning against a wooden 
 shanty off to the left of this house in a standing po- 
 sition was a soldier stark and cold, struck through 
 the brain by a bullet as he looked towards our line 
 from his cover behind the shanty. 
 
 A Northern soldier who was in the charge, describ- 
 ing the scene, said : " Every little while we could see 
 other columns emerge from the city, deploy upon the 
 plain, march forward, but never go so far as the 
 brick house. The appearance of these troops would 
 draw the fire of the batteries on the hills above us, 
 and hundreds of deadly projectiles would go scream- 
 ing over us, and we could see them bursting in the 
 midst of our friends. 
 
 " Evening came at last ; the sun went down behind 
 the terrible heights, and we anxiously watched the 
 shadows lengthen and steal across the field of blood,
 
 116 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 creeping slowly over the plain, through the houses of 
 the city in the shade, then up the church tower, until 
 the only object that reflected the rays was the cross 
 of burnished gold which sparkled a moment against 
 the purple sky, and then the twilight was upon us 
 and deepened until it was difficult to discern objects. 
 We thought the battle ended, when through the dark- 
 ness loomed up the division of Hooker. Nobly they 
 came to the work, with empty muskets and orders to 
 carry the position with the bayonet. The dark mass 
 passed the brick house and almost to the point that 
 Hancock had reached, for they had come up through 
 the gloaming unseen and surged against the base of 
 Marye's Heights. Again the hills flashed fire, again 
 they shook, rocked, roared, and belched forth more 
 tons of iron on the red plain more minutes of use- 
 less carnage. The somber wave rolled back, the last 
 and most absurd attempt of the disastrous day had 
 come to naught, and seventeen hundred more had been 
 added to the ponderous list of casualties. 
 
 " Clouds overshadowed the skies, and guided by 
 the lurid fires still smoldering through the ebony 
 darkness, the immense throng of wounded began 
 crawling, struggling, dragging themselves towards 
 the city : those who were slightly hurt assisting others 
 who were more seriously injured; those with shat- 
 tered limbs using muskets for crutches, many faint- 
 ing and falling by the way. And when in town how 
 hard it was to find a spot to rest or a surgeon to bind 
 up the wounds ! There were more wounded than the 
 city had inhabitants, and every public hall and every 
 house was filled to overflowing, the porches of the 
 residences covered with bleeding men, the surgeons
 
 busy everywhere. . . . Nine thousand the tale 
 of the wounded nine thousand and not all told." 
 
 Yes, the Federal wounded all told in the battle of 
 Fredericksburg was nine thousand and six hundred. 
 
 The loss of our force behind the stone wall was 
 insignificant, but the chivalrous Cobb, over-anxious 
 to be an example of bravery for his men, unnecessa- 
 rily exposed himself and was slain. The position held 
 by our troops was not only impregnable, but afforded 
 almost complete protection from the shells and bul- 
 lets of our assailants. The night was dark and 
 dreary, for I well remember it. Although the bloody 
 work had ceased and the victory was ours, no one 
 knew at what moment the desperate and reckless com- 
 mander on Stafford Heights would summon fresh 
 legions and hurl them against the stone wall. The 
 lull of the brazen-throated monsters of war seemed 
 to bring a weird, ominous silence. The darkness, 
 death, and stillness broken only by the cries of the 
 wounded and shrieks of the dying chilled one with 
 terrible apprehension and startling dread. 
 
 The troops who had borne the heat and burden of 
 the day had to be relieved, and our brigade was 
 quietly marched in and silently dressed behind the 
 stone wall, which had that day been made famous by 
 the slaughtered thousands now dumb and dead be- 
 fore it. Reports of the movements of the enemy were 
 quietly discussed all along our line, till came the 
 rumor that our artillery was to be opened on the town 
 for a time and a corps of picked men, stripped to the 
 waist, were to charge upon the place and drive the 
 defeated enemy into the river all of which brought 
 unrest and desperate dread. But the night passed
 
 118 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 without event, and day quietly dawned on the ghastly 
 field in our front. There was no renewal of the bat- 
 tle, and the nights of the 14th and 15th covered the 
 retreat of Burnside's army to the hills of Stafford, 
 and subsequently our picket line was re-established 
 on the shores of the Rappahannock. 
 
 And now passing into another year, just four 
 months over the boundary, .comes the great battle of 
 Chancellorsville, that most brilliant strategic vic- 
 tory of the war between the Dis-United States a 
 battle in which the Northern General Hooker, com- 
 manding 132,000 men, met defeat at the hands of 
 our General Robert E. Lee, with only 41,358 men, a 
 battle in which over 21,000 were killed and wounded. 
 
 As I remember, two roads led from Fredericksburg 
 to Chancellorsville one the plank road, one the old 
 dirt road or turnpike. Mahone's Brigade, to which 
 I belonged, marching along this old dirt road early 
 on the morning of May 1, 1863, was thrown across 
 or at right angles to it, in line of battle, somewhere 
 between the two places above mentioned. On the 
 left side of the road was an old church, time-worn 
 and deserted in appearance. Its boards were paint- 
 less, weather-beaten, storm-stained, and its shingles 
 wore the moss of age. No enclosure surrounded this 
 unpretentious tabernacle, but a few shrubby trees 
 grew within its shadow to serve as hitching posts for 
 the horses of its worshipers. I always feel that such 
 plain, undecorated structures, where the tillers of the 
 soil gather in His name, are sanctuaries of peace and 
 love, higher in the sight of the Master than the great 
 cathedrals which display grand architectural beauty
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 119 
 
 on the avenues of wealth. Soon after we had been 
 settled in battle array, and the pickets had gone for- 
 ward to the firing line, all in sight across a small field, 
 known as McCarty's Farm, Lee and Jackson galloped 
 up and halted in the road near the old church, whence 
 they observed our position and the outposts of 
 Hooker's army. 
 
 You have seen the pictures of the last meeting of 
 Lee and Jackson. While I am not sure, I believe the 
 artist had that scene near the old church in his mind 
 when he painted it. I shall never forget it; I shall 
 always be glad that I saw these great soldiers and 
 heard their voices order the beginning of the Jbattle 
 of Chancellorsville. I was standing on the roadside 
 not far away when I heard General Jackson say, " I 
 favor an immediate advance," or words to that effect, 
 when General Lee ordered our commander to forward, 
 and the two generals turned their horses and rode 
 away. I saw Jackson no more, but Lee was with us 
 next day. The soldiers were inspired by the presence 
 of their two greatest leaders and moved forward in 
 brilliant style to meet the enemy, who resisted stub- 
 bornly, giving way sullenly for half a mile, when they 
 made a desperate stand. The bright bayonets glit- 
 tering and gleaming, for the sun now shone in all its 
 glory, the lumbering of the artillery, the sharp crack 
 of the pickets' rifles, the puffing and drifting smoke 
 from the musket muzzles at intervals along the lines, 
 were but too significant signs of the bloody work at 
 hand. Sykes' division of regulars and Meade's old 
 battery of artillery were advancing in our front, and 
 but a moment elapsed before the roar of small arms 
 and the thunder of artillery broke a slight lull in the
 
 120 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 early battle. The air was filled with shrieking bullets 
 and screaming shells, and the volumes of smoke made 
 midnight of noonday. The fight lasted with the fury 
 of maddened opponents for long hours, and the light 
 of day closed forever on the eyes of many brave and 
 gallant men. The fiercest period of the contest lasted 
 probably two hours, when the enemy began to yield 
 ground, and when night came we were a decided dis- 
 tance in advance, threatening the Chancellor House, 
 where the legions of Hooker were massed for the 
 battle. 
 
 We slept in line of battle on our arms, and at day- 
 light on Saturday we moved from the right of the 
 turnpike, over the plank road, to a temporary earth- 
 work on the north side of the Catharpin Road. All 
 day there was heavy skirmishing in our front, and 
 several vigorous charges were made upon the enemy 
 to conceal Jackson's maneuver. He commenced his 
 last and most wonderful flank movement early that 
 morning, and Lee listened anxiously through every 
 hour of the day for the roar of Jackson's guns on 
 the flank of the enemy. As the afternoon wore on a 
 sound as of distant thunder was heard, and many 
 listened to discover by the sound the fortune of the 
 masterly evolution. General Lee rode up to our 
 front and inquired if it could be distinguished 
 whether the roar of the battle was advancing or re- 
 ceding. An officer replied, " Evidently advancing, 
 General." 
 
 About night the steadily approaching cannonade 
 confirmed the success of the maneuver Jackson had 
 fallen upon the enemy unaware and rapidly doubled 
 their flank upon the center. When darkness came
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 121 
 
 he halted his troops to re-line his columns, and, avail- 
 ing himself of the opportunity to survey the front, 
 he was mistaken for an enemy and shot down by his 
 own soldiers. This irreparable catastrophe checked 
 one of the grandest military conceptions in the an- 
 nals of the war, and the greatest genius of the Con- 
 federate War was borne bleeding, mortally wounded, 
 from the field of victory. He died on May 10, near 
 half a 'Century ago, and on that lovely Sabbath day 
 he said, " Let us cross over the river and rest under 
 the shade of the trees," and his soul went to his God. 
 
 When the news of his victory came to us on the 
 night of May 2, many shouts for its success arose 
 for a time from rejoicing hearts; but when the low 
 whisper crept along the line, and declared the great 
 and irreparable disaster, our general's death, the 
 hearts of officers and soldiers in the ranks bled as 
 deeply as had the wounds of their slain captain, and 
 thousands of tear-filled eyes told that the victory of 
 that day was won won at too great a cost. Lee in 
 his anguish declared : " I have lost my right arm ! " 
 
 Again we slept on our arms, and at dawn on Sun- 
 day morning, May 3, our whole army was ordered 
 to make a general advance. General A. P. Hill being 
 wounded, General Lee ordered General " Jeb " Stuart 
 to lead Jackson's corps. He made a desperate onset, 
 and carried the fortifications on our left, McLaws 
 with his heroic division drove the enemy on our right, 
 and our Anderson swept down upon their center. 
 The formation of the line in battle order was only 
 the work of a moment, and at the command, " For- 
 ward ! " our men impetuously rushed through the 
 woods and thick undergrowth up to and over the
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 bristling and tangled abatis, and headlong into the 
 earthworks of the enemy. Their batteries fired wildly 
 and their shells flew high over our heads. Enveloped 
 in the sulphur-laden smoke, which had densely settled 
 amongst the trees and over the field in front, our 
 yelling soldiers plunged onward, guided by the quick, 
 irregular glare of the cannon's blaze, the cracking 
 musketry and puffing flames of exploding shells, heed- 
 less of the cries of the wounded and groans of the 
 dying. One is apt to be scared when the enemy stands, 
 or advances and shoots ; but when they break and 
 run there is an indescribable, exhilarating delight 
 which makes soldiers happy, and now we broke out 
 in the wide open-mouthed exultant whoop which the 
 Yankees called the " Rebel yell." 
 
 The flames broke out from the celebrated Chan- 
 cellor House, and dense blue masses of men there- 
 about swayed back and forth in utter and hopeless 
 confusion. A battery at that point still continued 
 to belch its fire as rapidly as the gunners could ram 
 home the charge, but its shots went over our heads 
 and landed far in the rear. Our men pressed forward 
 this time from the captured earthworks, and dashing 
 over the open field, in the usual disorder occasioned 
 by a forest charge, for there was no time to re-form, 
 they reached the hotel, now enwrapped in roaring and 
 relentless flames. The bluecoats were swept back as 
 autumn leaves before a fierce tornado, and, scattering 
 in groups, they wildly retreated through the bushes 
 and woods towards the Rappahannock River, except 
 two brave gunners, who stood to their posts and 
 worked their solitary gun till the determined hands of 
 the victors were almost upon its muzzle.
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 123 
 
 Anderson's men brought up the center as Stuart 
 with Jackson's brave battalions came rushing for- 
 ward upon his left and McLaws' gallant division 
 swept in on the right, all uniting on the field in the 
 vicinity of Chancellor House, the late pivotal center 
 of the operations of Hooker's grand army. Amid the 
 intensest excitement of the terrible battle a great 
 shout of victory went up from these three corps of 
 the Army of Northern Virginia, and then, just as the 
 smoke from our own and the enemy's guns lifted 
 from the heads of the triumphant legions, General 
 Lee rode up on his war horse to the very center of the 
 broken ranks of the rejoicing Confederates, and was 
 greeted by a great simultaneous outburst of yells 
 from many thousand throats, such shouts as only 
 the bounding hearts of soldiers prompt and joyful 
 souls draw forth. The great chieftain lifted his hat 
 in recognition, but sat upon his famous horse as se- 
 rene and 'Calm as if on a holiday review, the personi- 
 fication of magnificent manhood. Doubtless his bo- 
 som heaved with gladness, too, but the goodness of 
 his heart checked its manifestation, for victory ever 
 lifted his thoughts in silent prayer to God, to whom 
 he and Jackson, with steady Christian faith, inva- 
 riably awarded all praise and glory. 
 
 I have been in many engagements, and have par- 
 ticipated in six of the twelve greatest battles of the 
 war between the States, but of them all, Chancellors- 
 ville was the most perfect picture of war that I ever 
 saw. I stood upon the plank road beyond the hotel 
 while our troops were re-forming after their wild 
 exultation over the triumph and the heartfelt greet- 
 ing of Lee, and looked, for a short while, over the
 
 124 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 captured field. The Chancellor House was enveloped 
 in flames the long, lapping, licking tongues of fire, 
 curling before a strong easterly wind, were sweeping 
 overhead. Near by were unlimbered cannon, muzzles 
 blackened with powder stain, some careened on crip- 
 pled wheels, some altogether wheelless and blood be- 
 spattered. The limber chests were broken and shat- 
 tered by explosions, the surviving horses were run- 
 ning wildly about the bloody field, trampling the dead 
 and dying under hoof. Some of these animals were 
 frantic with broken limbs, while others lay sprawling, 
 gurgling out their last breath, tossing and striking 
 their distracted heads against the ensanguined earth. 
 Dead and wounded soldiers were scattered all over 
 the field. 
 
 On both sides of the road were strewn loaves of 
 bread, empty haversacks, broken cartridge bpxes, 
 bushels of loose hardtack, hundreds of knapsacks, 
 some filled with clothes; thousands of muskets, 
 broken, bent, and injured in many ways, and thou- 
 sands uninjured ; bayonets, pans, plates, broken wag- 
 ons, swords, picks, spades, axes, canteens, and tin 
 buckets, numberless, all without order. The leaves 
 of the trees in the woods around were rent and per- 
 forated, the limbs bent, as could have been done only 
 by such a storm of lead and iron hail. The bodies 
 of the larger trees were spotted with bullet marks 
 and shivered with shot and shell, while the shrubs and 
 vines about the stumps were wilted, warped, and bent, 
 and even the undergrowth of bushes and briars was 
 beaten down by the feet of the soldiers and crushed 
 by the fallen limbs of the trees. The utmost confu- 
 sion prevailed rags, torn coats, shirts, pants, socks,
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 125 
 
 blankets, tents, drums, fifes, horns, shoes, and other 
 debris all thrown aside with the disregard of des- 
 perate and reckless men. The stragglers were com- 
 ing up with broad smiles on their faces, while the 
 fast-retreating enemy occasionally fired a parting 
 shot, with the sullen grumness of defeat. 
 
 Our soldiers hastily re-formed their scattered ranks 
 and the head of the column was pressed forward in 
 pursuit. Soon, however, the movement was reversed 
 and the victorious columns were countermarched. It 
 had been decided to fall upon Sedgwick at the Salem 
 Church before sunset, and repeat the lesson of the 
 morning. That night our troops sent up another 
 yell of victory. 
 
 And now, passing over the great events of our 
 Northern invasion, and leaving nearly a year behind 
 us, again, in May, when flowers put forth their buds, 
 perfuming the breezes, and " the whole leafy forest 
 displayed in full luxuriance to the sighing gales," we 
 marched down from the hills of Orange into the 
 green wilderness of Spottsylvania, which was already 
 smoking from the great cannonless battle between the 
 infantry of Lee and Grant. Here Grant commanded 
 the largest army ever assembled in America. Off to 
 the right of the road we were deployed in line of bat- 
 tle to wait, wait for the order to forward ! What an 
 anxious time! to wait, wait for the order, 
 " Charge !" The roaring musketry rolled heavily 
 on our left, where Grant, the hero of Donelson and 
 Vicksburg, was pressing our troops so hard that Gen- 
 eral Lee felt the moment so perilous and critical that 
 he must lead the charge of the Texans.
 
 126 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 " ' Follow me ! Steady ! We'll save the day ! ' 
 This was what he seemed to say; 
 And, to the light of his glorious eye, 
 The bold brigades thus made reply: 
 
 " ' We'll go forward, but you must go back.' 
 
 And they moved not an inch in the perilous track; 
 
 ' Go to the rear, we'll send them to h ! ' 
 
 And the sound of the battle was lost in their yell. 
 
 Turning his bridle, Robert Lee 
 
 Rode to the rear. Like the waves of the sea, 
 
 Bursting the dykes in their overflow, 
 
 Madly his veterans dashed on the foe. 
 
 " And backward in terror that foe was driven, 
 His banners rent and his columns riven 
 Wherever the tide of battle rolled 
 Over the wilderness, wood, and wold." 
 
 The bullets came nipping the leaves and barking 
 the trees around us, and still we waited, waited on 
 the edge of the forest in the circle of battle. Our 
 sharpshooters reported that regulars from the West- 
 ern army, who had never known defeat, were in front 
 of us, behind breastworks improvised from old logs 
 and dead limbs. The order, " Charge ! " was given, 
 and onward we rushed through woods and bushes, 
 firing and yelling, driving the regulars from their 
 works, and dashing over the forest fortress the 
 dead leaves, afire, smoked and burned in our faces, 
 scorched the wounded and parched the dead. Still 
 onward, onward, till the confusion from the tangled 
 brush and briars forced a halt to re-form the line. 
 Now Longstreet and Jenkins rode to the front, drew 
 the fire of friends, one was wounded and the other 
 was killed the battle of that day was over, and
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 127 
 
 Grant was defeated. Onward we strove, fighting 
 through the Wilderness, where General Grant's loss 
 was 17,666 men killed, wounded, and prisoners, to 
 Spottsylvania Court House, where his loss was 
 18,396. 
 
 It was May 11, 1864, that the " Grand Old Di- 
 vision," now commanded by Mahone, had a hard 
 day's marching getting out of the Wilderness, arriv- 
 ing at Spottsylvania Court House a few hours before 
 sunset. The enemy had planted a battery in a strong 
 position on his right, and the guns were smoking, 
 and sending their thundering missiles over our heads, 
 every one almost making my heart jump out of its 
 place. It fell to the lot of Weisiger's Brigade to 
 charge the position. An open field intervened, and 
 on entering it the brigade was carried through a reg- 
 ular brigade drill, performing every evolution in 
 beautiful style, while the shells were cracking and 
 bursting overhead. The brave veterans dashed for- 
 ward with their bullet-riddled, battle-smoked ban- 
 ners proudly floating above them, in almost perfect 
 alignment, until it was discovered that the battery 
 could not be reached, on account of an intervening 
 stream. Then " Right about in retreat " was per- 
 formed as orderly and perfectly as when on camp 
 drill. I was frightened, but forgot myself in ad- 
 miration of the gallant brigade to which I belonged 
 my pride was aroused, and it is pride that makes some 
 of us brave. 
 
 About twilight we were ordered in position on the 
 extreme left of our army, which we fortified during 
 the night. Early next morning marching orders were 
 received all the work of fortifying to be lost, as it
 
 128 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 was always, for our men never had an opportunity of 
 receiving a charge behind breastworks ; and we moved 
 to the right, just in the rear of the line of battle, on 
 the right and nearly opposite to the court house 
 building. The bloody angle had been captured and 
 Johnson with his division were prisoners. 
 
 This was the morning of the memorable twelfth day 
 of May, 1864, the day of the great battle of Spott- 
 sylvania Court House. As our men lay in the line of 
 battle on the brow of a slight elevation in the open 
 field, the batteries of the enemy opened a terrific fire, 
 and for over one hour we were subjected to the severe 
 ordeal of shot and shell, and several soldiers of our 
 regiment were wounded, including our colonel. I 
 shall always remember our matchless chieftain, Lee, 
 on this occasion. Shot and shell were falling all 
 around like hailstones, plowing deep in the earth and 
 scattering pebbles in the air, but he rode up on his 
 famous iron-gray horse to survey the position of the 
 enemy, sat there the peerless soldier in his saddle, as 
 faultless in symmetry as if strung with iron nerves, 
 calm, quiet, and indifferent to the storm of death- 
 dealing missiles, thinking only of duty. It was an 
 awe-inspiring scene, and I am sure that every soldier 
 there remembers how, forgetting self, he trembled 
 and prayed for the life of Lee, and how his heart 
 throbbed with joy and gratification as he saw the 
 old war-horse reined to the rear, for all believed that 
 the cause of a dear country hung on the life of the 
 great leader. 
 
 About one o'clock that afternoon we moved still 
 farther to the right to support a brigade charging 
 that terrible battery. We moved forward through
 
 BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA 129 
 
 the woods with orders not to fire, as friends were in 
 the front. After marching some distance, a line of 
 battle, lying down, was discovered in the front, only 
 a few paces distant, and we halted, supposing it was 
 the brigade we were supporting; but we soon saw 
 that they had blue coats, whereupon we fired a volley, 
 which scattered them and left us masters of the 
 woods. Again, about an hour before sunset we suc- 
 cessfully charged earthworks, still farther to our 
 right, held by pickets, and this closed our work for 
 the day. Next day we moved again to the right, and 
 fortified, to remain until Grant left the -county, on 
 May 20. These last days in Spottsylvania witnessed 
 furious fighting and tremendous losses, and there 
 commenced the last great struggle against over- 
 whelming odds for the life of the Confederacy. 
 
 Not one day were we out of the sound of musket 
 or cannon ; not one day out of danger from minie 
 ball or shell from the day we charged over the burn- 
 ing leaves of the Wilderness till the 9th of April, 
 1865. There was a continuous thunder and blaze of 
 war all along the bloody and tortuous tracks of hos- 
 tile armies from Wilderness to Appomattox, where 
 our banner was furled forever. 
 
 Furl that banner, softly, slowly, 
 Treat it gently it is holy 
 
 For it droops above the dead: 
 Touch it not, unfold it never, 
 Let it droop there, furled forever, 
 
 For its people's hopes are dead.
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 
 
 " THE FIELD OF BLOOD " 
 
 THE mine under the Confederate fort in front of 
 Petersburg, Va., was constructed by the Forty- 
 Eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, under Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Henry Pleasants. It was commenced at 
 twelve o'clock noon, on June 25, 1864. 
 
 The main gallery, 510.8 feet long, was completed 
 on July 17. The left gallery, 37 feet long, was fin- 
 ished at midnight of July 22, and the right lateral 
 gallery, 38 feet long, at 6 P. M. July 23. The 
 amount of material excavated was 18,000 cubic feet. 
 
 The charging with 320 kegs of powder, weighing 
 about 25 pounds each, was commenced on July 27 
 at 4 p. M., and finished at 10 p. M. The tamping was 
 begun at 10 p. M. July 27, and completed at 6 P. M. 
 July 28. 
 
 The fuse was lighted at 3:15 A. M. July 30, but 
 did not explode. At 4:15 A. M. Lieutenant Jacob 
 Douty and Sergeant Henry Rees, of the Forty- 
 Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, went into the gal- 
 lery and found that the fire had stopped where the 
 fuses were spliced. These daring men relighted it 
 and at 44 minutes past 4 A. M. the powder exploded. 
 
 This was under Elliott's Salient, held by Pegram's 
 Petersburg Battery of four guns, and the Eighteenth 
 and Twenty-Second South Carolina Regiments of 
 Elliott's Brigade occupied the parapets in the fort 
 and the earthworks adjacent to it. 
 
 130
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 131 
 
 The earth rocked and waved from the explosion, 
 and then went up a great cone-shaped mass of earth, 
 about one hundred thousand cubic feet, through which 
 the exploding powder blazed like lightning playing in 
 a bank of clouds. In this column of earth and fire 
 were seen the bodies of men, arms, legs, pieces of tim- 
 ber and a gun carriage. The immense rounded pil- 
 lar of earth and dust, flame and smoke, rose slowly 
 some two hundred feet in the air hanging for a few 
 seconds, and then the earth dropped in a great rim 
 around the excavation, burying the dead and wounded 
 men who had been hurled up in the blazing column. 
 As the dust subsided and the red glare of the blazing 
 powder died out, a heavy cloud of black smoke floated 
 off with the wind. Two cannon were thrown out in 
 front of the fort and only 6 men out of 28 men and 
 2 officers of Pegram's Battery escaped alive and 
 unhurt. 
 
 The Twenty-Second South Carolina Regiment lost 
 170 killed and wounded, and the Eighteenth South 
 Carolina Regiment 86, of whom 43 were killed and 
 43 wounded. 
 
 The accounts of the size of the crater vary, but 
 Colonel Pleasants, who constructed the mine, says: 
 " It was at least 200 feet long, 50 feet wide and 25 
 feet deep." (" Official Records," series 1, vol. 40, 
 part 1, page 558.) 
 
 The contour of the excavation was in the shape 
 of a long Irish potato, the sides of loose pulverized 
 sand piled up precipitately, from which projected 
 huge blocks of clay. This great fresh earthen cavity 
 was like the mouth of a volcano with a rim around 
 about twelve feet above the natural land. The siege
 
 132 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 guns and field batteries on both sides thundered out 
 and rained solid shot and shell like hail in a wind 
 storm. 
 
 As soon as the startling effects of the upheaval had 
 subsided, our troops having abandoned the vicinity, 
 the troops of Burnside and Ord moved forward and 
 occupied the crater, about 200 yards of our works 
 to the north and 50 yards to the south, as well as a 
 rear line or trench cavalier, which the Confederates 
 had constructed to command our front line, and the 
 Federal works at a distance of from 150 to 200 yards 
 in our front. 
 
 The troops of the Ninth and Eighteenth Federal 
 Corps held these places until the advance of the negro 
 troops started out of the trench cavalier, when they 
 were charged by Mahone's Brigade, which had just 
 formed and was lying down in a ravine about 200 
 yards below, and after a hand-to-hand fight the Fed- 
 erals were driven out of the trench cavalier, and then 
 out of the front line for 200 yards up to the 
 crater. 
 
 Speaking of the occupation of the Crater by the 
 Federals, Colonel W. H. Powell, the judge advocate 
 of Ledlie's division says : " Little did these men 
 anticipate what they would see upon arriving there; 
 an enormous hole in the ground about thirty feet 
 deep, sixty feet wide, and one hundred and seventy 
 feet long, filled with dust, great blocks of clay, guns, 
 broken carriages, projecting timbers, and men buried 
 in various ways some up to their necks, others to 
 their waists, and some with only their feet and legs 
 protruding from the earth. 
 
 " One of these near me was pulled out and he
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 133 
 
 proved to be a second lieutenant of the battery which 
 had been blown up. The fresh air revived him, and 
 he was soon able to walk and talk. He was very 
 grateful and said he was asleep when the explosion 
 took place, and only awoke to find himself wriggling 
 up in the air; then, a few seconds afterwards, he felt 
 himself descending, and soon lost consciousness." 
 
 When the explosion occurred Mahone's Brigade 
 occupied breastworks on Wilcox's farm about two 
 miles distant in a direct line ; but the course taken to 
 reach the ravine gave it a march of two miles and a 
 half to the point from which it charged. 
 
 It is well known that soldiers carry all their chattel 
 property in knapsacks on their backs, and whenever 
 ordered to march all things go along with them. 
 
 So when we were ordered to get out of the works, 
 about an hour after the eruption of the powder 
 volcano, scattering back to a cornfield to deceive the 
 enemy about our movements, every man took all his 
 property along. When hid from the enemy's sight 
 the men were formed in regiments. Colonel George T. 
 Rogers and Lieutenant-Colonel Harry W. William- 
 son, commanded the Sixth Regiment, Major R. H. 
 Jones, the Twelfth Regiment; Lieutenant-Colonel 
 R. O. Whitehead and Major John T. Woodhouse, 
 the Sixteenth Regiment, Major William H. Ether- 
 edge, the Forty-first Regiment and Lieutenant- 
 Colonel William H. Stewart, the Sixty-first Regi- 
 ment. Colonel David A. Weisiger of the Twelfth 
 Regiment commanded the Brigade and Brigadier- 
 General William Mahone commanded Anderson's 
 Division. 
 
 The Brigade followed by Wright's Georgia
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Brigade then marched towards the " blow up " ; 
 reaching a field where some apple trees stood, the 
 men were ordered to throw off their knapsacks, 
 blanket rolls and other luggage, placing them in piles 
 to be guarded by details from the sick and weakly 
 men. Then with only muskets and cartridge boxes, 
 the men knew they had stripped for the fight. Thence 
 marching on the banks of Lieutenant Run with hills 
 to our right for protection against cannonballs and 
 bombshells, finally going into a covered way and 
 debouching into the ravine, we filed into line of battle, 
 advanced a few yards up the slope of the ravine and 
 were ordered to lie down. 
 
 Here the commanders of regiments gave directions 
 to the men, cautioning them to rush with arms at trail 
 and not to fire until they reached the ditch occupied 
 by the enemy, then fire one volley, and use the bayo- 
 net and butt. 
 
 We could see that our works were crowded with 
 troops, and their beautiful silken banners were float- 
 ing over rows of glistening steel bayonets. I com- 
 manded the center regiment of the brigade and 
 counting seven flags in its front, I said : " Boys, we 
 must have all of those flags," and they did take five 
 of them. 
 
 While waiting for the Georgia Brigade to form on 
 our right, just as its head was coming out of the 
 covered way, the negro regiments fronting us started 
 forward from the trench cavalier then " Forward " 
 was shouted, and every man sprang to his feet and 
 rushed up-hill two hundred yards without firing a 
 gun, in the face of furious fusillades from the crater. 
 When at the brink of the trench cavalier the negroes
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 135 
 
 cried no quarter, our line fired one volley and 
 jumped in. 
 
 " Hand to hand, and foot to foot; 
 Nothing there, save death, was mute; 
 Stroke, and thrust, and flash, and cry 
 For quarter, or for victory, 
 Mingle there with volleying thunder." 
 
 Men fell so fast and thick that the dead and 
 wounded were, trampled by the fighters ; and pools of 
 blood made red mud in the trenches shoe-sole deep. It 
 was quick and desperate work, but the victory was 
 ours. Captain W. Gordon McCabe, whose battery 
 had unlimbered on Blanford heights, and was looking 
 on from the Gee House, said : " From this position I 
 saw Mahone's men lying down in the ravine ; I saw 
 no troops to the right or left. Suddenly they jumped 
 up and with a wild yell charged and carried the posi- 
 tion occupied by the enemy north of the crater. I 
 never saw a thing done so quickly." 
 
 Our men were maddened and wild with rage deep 
 and loud curses were hissed between clinched teeth as 
 bayonets were thrust into men and drawn from the 
 bleeding bodies of the dying or as the butt thud 
 brought strong men to their knees. There were all 
 around daring acts of nerve and bravery. The odds 
 were heavily against us, but the fire of determination 
 and desperation was strongest in our men and they 
 won the field of blood. 
 
 Listen to the evidence of those who fought against 
 us: 
 
 Colonel H. G. Thomas, who commanded the second 
 negro brigade of Burnside's corps, says : " Whether
 
 136 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 we fought well or not, the scores of our dead lying as 
 thick as if mowed down by the hand of some mighty 
 reaper and the terrible loss of officers can best 
 attest." (" Official reports," idem, page 599.) 
 
 Burnside says that the colored Fourth Division was 
 disorganized by passing the pits, crowded with men 
 of other divisions, re-formed as well as possible 
 beyond the crater and attempted to take the hill; 
 that they were met at the outset by a counter-charge 
 of the enemy, broke in disorder to the rear, passed 
 through the crater and lines on the right, throwing 
 into confusion and drawing off with them many of 
 the white troops, and ran into their own lines ; and 
 further says : " The enemy regained a portion of 
 his lines on the right. This was about 8:45 A. M. 
 But not all the colored troops retired ; some held the 
 pits, from behind which they had advanced, severely 
 checking the enemy till they were nearly all killed." 
 (" Official Records," idem, page 528.) 
 
 This counter-charge spoken of by General Burn- 
 side was made by Mahone's Brigade, and of its 
 desperate fight after reaching the trench cavalier, 
 Captain Theodore Gregg, of Company F, Forty-fifth 
 Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, says: 
 "A major of one of the negro regiments placed his 
 colors on the crest of the crater, and the negro troops 
 opened a heavy fire on the rebels, who were at that 
 time charging on the ruined fort. In a few moments 
 the rebel force, headed by several desperate officers, 
 dashed into the pits among us, where a desperate 
 hand to hand conflict ensued, both parties using their 
 bayonets and clubbing their muskets. . . . Many 
 of our men being killed and wounded, and the enemy
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 137 
 
 pressing us hard, we were compelled to fall back into 
 the crater in order to save our little band." (" Official 
 Reports," idem, page 554.) 
 
 The Federal General R. B. Potter says : " Shortly 
 after the arrival of the colored troops the enemy 
 made an assault on us, when these trops fled in con- 
 fusion, sweeping a portion of my line back into the 
 crater and pits in its vicinity. On the left of my line, 
 held by the second brigade, my troops repulsed the 
 enemy's assault and the troops of the first brigade 
 held their position. The assault was quickly renewed 
 and the fighting was hand to hand and desperate. 
 One regiment lost its colors, the color bearer being 
 wounded and taken prisoner ; the colors of two regi- 
 ments were entirely torn to pieces and the staves 
 broken. My division had thus far suffered severely. 
 All the regimental commanders of the second brigade, 
 seven in number, were disabled, three killed and four 
 mortally wounded and one of the latter a prisoner. 
 No regiment had an officer left of higher rank than a 
 captain, and scarcely four hundred effective men 
 were left in the brigade who were now forced back 
 into the crater and into the pits on the right." 
 (" Official Records," idem, page 548.) 
 
 These reports tell us that Mahone's Brigade had 
 hard hand to hand fighting to drive them out of our 
 trench cavalier and our main line north of the crater ; 
 but it will be observed that they retreated into the 
 crater and there continued the fight. The gallant 
 Colonel Weisiger, our brigade commander, was 
 wounded in the charge, and the command developed 
 on Colonel Rogers of the Sixth Regiment. 
 
 The Georgia Brigade twice essayed to charge the
 
 138 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 crater, but failed; the second time the men obliqued 
 to the left, deflecting from the point, coming into the 
 works already held by Mahone's Brigade. General 
 Mahone came into the works which we held, made a 
 careful and thorough examination, and ordered us to 
 keep up a constant and sharp fire on the crater and 
 the enemy's works in our front ; then he went out and 
 sent in Major Haskell with two small mortars to drop 
 shells into the excavation, and one of these tore off 
 General Bartlett's wooden leg. 
 
 Major Haskell's mortars and our rifle fire on the 
 enemy did great execution, as will be seen from the 
 reports of the Federal officers, and although orders 
 to retire had reached them they were unable to obey 
 on account of our raking rifle fire, which swept the 
 space between the crater and their main line. 
 
 Captain Gregg says that he found General Bartlett 
 inside the crater and told him that we had gained the 
 entrenchments on the right of the fort and were 
 preparing to drive them out of the crater. 
 
 " Through the exertions of General Bartlett, 
 myself, and other officers we succeeded in forming 
 most of the men around the crest of the crater and 
 all were determined to defend the fort to the last. 
 The crest of the fort was swept with canister and 
 grape shot from the batteries of the enemy. In the 
 meantime the enemy opened a heavy bombardment 
 with their mortar batteries. They had perfect range 
 of the crater; therefore, almost every shell exploded 
 in the midst of the dense mass of men, killing and 
 wounding many of our brave soldiers at every ex- 
 plosion. [These were evidently Haskell's mortar 
 shells.] It appeared in a short time impossible to
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 139 
 
 hold the fort, as our men were overcome with excessive 
 heat, and the negroes were almost destitute of 
 ammunition. 
 
 " We succeeded in getting several hundred rounds 
 from the dead and wounded in the fort. ... I 
 was ordered by General Bartlett to have a stand of 
 colors placed on the fort to show our friends our 
 position. At one o'clock p. M the bottom, sides and 
 nearly all parts of the crater were strewn with the 
 dead, dying, and wounded soldiers, causing pools of 
 blood to be formed at the bottom of the crater." 
 ("Official Reports," idem, page 555.) 
 
 Captain Gregg left the crater just before it was 
 captured, saying that the loss of life was terrible. 
 " There was death below as well as above the ground 
 in the crater. It seemed impossible to maintain life 
 from the intense heat of the sun." 
 
 Speaking of the conditions inside the crater Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Powell, says : " There was no means 
 of getting the food or water to them for which they 
 were suffering. The midsummer sun shone upon their 
 heads until waves of moisture produced by the 
 exhalation from this mass slowly arose in perceptible 
 horizontal layers ; wounded men died there begging 
 piteously for a drink of water a drop of which was 
 not to be had, for the men had long since drained 
 their canteens. Soldiers extended their tongues to 
 dampen their parched lips until they seemed to hang 
 from their mouths like those of thirsty dogs, and 
 yet they were kept waiting in this almost boiling 
 cauldron, suffering with thirst and worn out with 
 their all-night preparations and their fearful morn- 
 ing's work."
 
 140 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 About the hour of 2 p. M. the Alabama Brigade 
 under General John C. C. Sanders, with colors flying 
 over a perfect alignment, rushed uphill from the 
 depression from which we had charged in the morning 
 and reached the rim of the crater in good order, 
 driving the Federals from the trenches on the south, 
 and after a short and desperate contest over the 
 crater forced its surrender. 
 
 After the evacuation I went down into the excava- 
 tion to see the death-hole which had belched out from 
 the bowels of that hill in the early morning. The 
 bottom was layered with mangled men, the dead 
 trimmed the sides, and the groaning wounded all 
 about cried out now and then for help and mercy. 
 The hot sun bore hard down in their faces, and parch- 
 ing thirst forced piteous yells for water. It was a 
 veritable inferno filled with sounds of suffering and 
 paved with the rigid dead. Horrible to look upon 
 and impossible for description to picture. 
 
 As soon as possible the wounded were borne out to 
 our field hospitals, but the dead had to be buried in 
 the pit ; so details of men were made to throw those 
 lying on the sides down to the bottom and dirt was 
 shoveled down to cover the hundreds of dead in the 
 powder-dug grave. 
 
 The crater which the morning sun had seen them 
 claim as victors was their sunset grave. Alas, for 
 human hopes ! 
 
 How many had Mahone fought with his three bri- 
 gades? The "Official Records" must answer: Series 
 1, vol. 40, part 1, p. 178: " Ninth corps, July 81, 
 9127 men"; p. 60: "Lost 3584, July 30"; p. 67: 
 " I put every single man of the Ninth corps in ac-
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CRATER 141 
 
 tion." P. 83 : " Had two divisions to aid in the as- 
 sault, Ames of Eighteenth corps, with 3500 available 
 muskets, and Turner of the Tenth corps, with 4000 
 muskets 20,211 muskets. Then, three corps, Han- 
 cock, Birney and Warren, were on their arms in sup- 
 porting distance." 
 
 Our total assaulting force, which was directed in 
 every movement by General William Mahorte, num- 
 bered 1800 men, rank and file. It captured 1101 
 prisoners, 1965 small arms, 19 flags 15 by Mahone's 
 Brigade, 3 by Sanders's Brigade, and 1 by Wright's 
 Brigade. The loss of the enemy was between five and 
 six thousand. 
 
 A new line of battle was adjusted around the rim 
 of the crater next to the Federals and each side kept 
 up continuous rifle firing, forcing the soldiers to keep 
 down in the trenches for safety. 
 
 Sunday was a day of hot sunshine and sickening 
 odors from the three hundred dead lying between the 
 hostile lines. Monday morning there was a truce of 
 three hours to bury these dead. That night Ma- 
 hone's Brigade was relieved and silently moved out of 
 the blood-soaked trenches to return to the fortifica- 
 tion on Wilcox farm.
 
 THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MATTHEW 
 FONTAINE MAURY. 
 
 THE force of noble example shines for us as an 
 everlasting Pharos, directing life towards the stand- 
 ard of ideal manhood. The young man who begins 
 life with goodness in his heart and greatness in his 
 mind, guided by duty as his polar star, will grow in 
 wisdom as the years go by, and scatter rich treasures 
 along the pathway of those who follow. If you de- 
 sire to mold heroic character, to make a character 
 around which the tendrils of the unstained heart of 
 youth can cling unsoiled, you must plant your first 
 steps upon the rock of truth, and carry God's ban- 
 ner with the unfaltering grasp of your strong right 
 hand to the goal of your ambition. Only One Life 
 has molded a perfect model, but those great men 
 who have watched nearest the gateway to God's 
 throne are highest in the standard of manhood. 
 
 I am here to present one of the great men of 
 Virginia, illustrious as a scholar and scientist, a 
 patriot of unfaltering courage, a man for the glory 
 of manhood a man for the love of Americans, a man 
 worthy of the gratitude of the world Matthew 
 Fontaine Maury. His life was marked by the highest 
 integrity, the strictest honor, the most attractive 
 simplicity, the most charming modesty. He was 
 always and everywhere a noble, wise, true man, 
 governed by the exalted sentiment written to his 
 mother while at his post of duty on the high seas: 
 
 142
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 143 
 
 " My greatest ambition is to be a useful man in my 
 day and generation." 
 
 Oh, young men, open your hearts to love him ; lift 
 your ambition to be useful men in ypur day and 
 generation ! It was his brain that sounded the depths 
 of science, and spread the knowledge, without price 
 or patent right, which has rescued thousands of 
 human lives and saved incalculable wealth from the 
 bottomless waters. 
 
 Matthew Fontaine Maury was born in the dawn of 
 the nineteenth century, on the 14th day of January, 
 1806. He was born in the county named for the 
 ablest Colonial Governor, Alexander Spotswood, 
 whose enterprising hand erected, near the birthplace 
 of Maury, the first iron furnace in America ; whose 
 energy led to the discovery of a passage over the 
 Blue Ridge, when, accompanied by John Fontaine, a 
 kinsman of Maury, and other brave men, they were 
 the first whites who ever beheld that beautiful valley 
 the pride and glory of Virginia. 
 
 In Spottsylvania County, the birthplace of John 
 Forsythe of Georgia, the home of General Hugh 
 Mercer, the hero martyr of Princeton's bloody battle- 
 field; the grave of Mary, the mother of Washing- 
 ton ; the scene of four of the greatest battles between 
 the Confederate and Union armies ; almost in the 
 shadow of the enchanted castle where John Fontaine 
 received his golden horseshoe from the chivalric 
 Spotswood ; near where the earth drank the life blood 
 of Stonewall Jackson ; was the first home of Richard 
 and Diana Minor Maury, parents of the great 
 " Pathfinder of the Seas." 
 
 The blood of Protestant England and Huguenot
 
 144 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 France coursed in the veins of Maury. Pride of 
 lineage may be scorned, but surely there should 
 exist in every home reasonable regard for family 
 traditions ; and the beacon lights of chivalric ancestry 
 should blaze the way along the pathway of the lives 
 of children. There is a virtue in blood that stimu- 
 lates the energies and preserves the honor of men. 
 Why should we not be proud of forefathers who won 
 fame on glorious battlefields, or gained immortal 
 glory in a Christian martyr's death? 
 
 In the year 1563 in the ancient province of Maine, 
 near the borders of Normandy, in France, Jean Fon- 
 taine and his wife, ancestors of Maury, were 
 murdered for their zealous faith in our Protestant 
 religion ; but their sons survived, to rear a noble 
 progeny. 
 
 Maury was the great-great-grandson of the exile, 
 Rev. James Fontaine, whose only daughter, Mary 
 Ann Fontaine, married Matthew Maury. 
 
 Rev. James Maury, their son, was the Episcopal 
 clergyman and teacher in Walker Parish, Albemarle 
 County, Va., who numbered among his pupils three 
 boys who were afterwards Presidents of these United 
 States Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, all twice 
 elected and five signers of the American Declaration 
 of Independence. 
 
 Richard Maury, his son, married Diana, daughter 
 of Major John Minor, of Carolina County, Virginia, 
 in 1790, and twenty-one years afterwards, when 
 Matthew was in his fifth year, they packed all of their 
 chattels in wagons, left their Spottsylvania home, and 
 emigrated to far off Tennessee. They settled on a 
 farm near the village of Franklin, where little
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 145 
 
 Matthew, as he grew up, hoed cotton and plowed 
 corn and attended the old field school as occasion 
 permitted. 
 
 Once when he went to a shop of a neighborhood 
 cobbler (Neal), he saw the shoe soles scribbled over 
 with little " x's " and " y's " and this, he said, first 
 excited his ambition to become a mathematician. In 
 that dingy shop, on the firm, hammered soles of the 
 customers' shoes, this humble and obscure man wrote 
 lessons which inspired the plowboy to reach out for 
 that knowledge which was, in after years, to make his 
 name known throughout the world. 
 
 Accidentally falling from a tree, he was so injured 
 as to be unable to perform farm work, and then his 
 father acceded to his earnest soli-citations for an 
 education, and Maury was entered as a pupil in the 
 village academy. The ambitious youth soon gained 
 the friendship of his teachers, one of whom, J. H. 
 Otey, was afterwards Bishop of Tennessee and the 
 other an eminent lawyer of the State of New York 
 (W. C. Hasbrouck). Through their influence, 
 rugged Sam Houston, the hero of Texan independ- 
 ence, then Congressman from Tennessee, had Maury 
 appointed a midshipman in the United States navy 
 (1825). 
 
 Maury's father rather disapproved of the selection 
 of this profession, because the perils of the sea had 
 already claimed his eldest son, a distinguished officer 
 in the naval service. Notwithstanding, the dauntless 
 youth of nineteen years set his face to the sunrise, 
 and, on a horse bought on credit, with thirty dollars 
 in his pocket, borrowed from his under-teacher, he 
 rode over the rugged mountains of Tennessee and
 
 146 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 southwest Virginia, along the bridle paths and rocky 
 roads for thirty days. 
 
 When he reached a cousin's home, near where the 
 University of Virginia now stands, he had fifty cents 
 in his pocket, and when he arrived at Fredericksburg 
 this was reduced to twenty-five cents. He there sold 
 his horse, and sent the money thus obtained to his 
 creditor in Tennessee. 
 
 At " Laurel Hill," the home of his aunt, Mrs. 
 Edward Herndon, in Spottsylvania, the stout-hearted 
 naval cadet first met the little maiden who, " with 
 eyes that look'd into the very soul," brought love to 
 his heart. A few years after, while in New York, 
 he sent this little maid a little glass seal with 
 " Mispah " engraved on it, requesting that she should 
 always use it in writing to him. 
 
 The Naval Academy had not yet been established, 
 therefore the young cadet had to commence the active 
 duties of his profession on the deck of a man-of-war, 
 and his strict attention to his duties soon won the 
 respect of his superior officers. 
 
 In the narrow quarters of a cadet, and assisted 
 with no other text-book than an old Spanish work on 
 navigation and a dictionary, he applied himself to 
 the task of acquiring a new language and such 
 nautical information as it contained. He chalked 
 diagrams in spherical trigonometry on the round shot 
 in the quarterdeck racks, to enable him to utilize 
 time in mastering problems while pacing to and fro, 
 passing and repassing, on his watch. 
 
 The Brandywine, on which Midshipman Maury 
 made his first cruise, conveyed La Fayette back to 
 France after his visit to the United States. From
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 147 
 
 this ship Maury was ordered to the Constitution, then 
 cruising in the Mediterranean. 
 
 On his third cruise (1831) Maury's attention was 
 taken and his interest aroused by the curious 
 phenomenon of " The low barometer off Cape Horn," 
 and it was upon this subject that he wrote his first 
 scientific paper. 
 
 When he returned from a three years' cruise in the 
 Pacific, after passing his examinations he went to 
 Fredericksburg (1834) and was married to Miss Ann 
 Herndon, " the little maid " whom he met when he 
 came first to Virginia. She was the sister of the peer- 
 less hero and noble sailor, Commander William Lewis 
 Herndon, who sank to his death with his ill-fated ship 
 Central America. After struggling for days in the 
 tempest with his leaking ship, after saving all the 
 women and children, and when all hope had perished, 
 Herndon went to his stateroom, put on the full uni- 
 form of an American naval commander, took his 
 stand upon the wheel-house and lifted hjs cap as the 
 ship went down. 
 
 Quoting my hero : "A cry arose from the sea, but 
 not from his lips. The waves had closed about him, 
 and the curtain of night was drawn over one of the 
 most sublime moral spectacles that the sea ever 
 saw." 
 
 Maury upon the occasion of his marriage gave as 
 a fee to the clergyman who performed the ceremony 
 the last ten dollars he had in the world. Soon after 
 his marriage he left for Philadelphia to make 
 arrangements with the publisher to bring out his 
 first book on navigation, and here his struggles with 
 poverty were simply heroic, for in such dire straits
 
 148 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 was he that he was forced to live in a garret room 
 and subsist on crackers and cheese. 
 
 It was a bold step for an officer of no higher grade 
 than a passed midshipman to write a book on nautical 
 subjects, but it made its way in spite of all obstacles, 
 and was favorably noticed by the highest authorities 
 in England and France, and was soon made a text- 
 book for the United States navy. This marked a 
 long strjde up the ladder of fame, for it was the first 
 nautical work of science to come from the pen of a 
 naval officer. 
 
 Soon after this work on navigation was published, 
 Maury was attached, as astronomer and hydrog- 
 rapher, to the South Sea Exploring Expedition, 
 then fitting out under command of Commodore 
 Catesby Jones. But as Captain Wilkes was after- 
 wards appointed to succeed Commodore Jones, and 
 as it was understood that the new commander wished 
 to reorganize the expedition, Maury, with great 
 delicacy, resigned his position. He was then assigned 
 the duty of making a survey of southern harbors, in 
 which he was engaged for more than a year, when he 
 obtained a leave of absence of a few weeks to visit his 
 parents in Tennessee. On returning to New York 
 from this visit, he gave up his seat inside of the stage 
 coach in which he was traveling to a poor woman who 
 could not stand the exposure of the cold night air, 
 and while riding on the top was thrown off, and his 
 leg broken at the knee. Bad surgery caused him to 
 suffer from this a long time, and lamed him for life. 
 
 While confined with his broken limb he turned his 
 attention to writing a series of articles on " Naval 
 Reform," under the title of " Scraps from the Lucky
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 149 
 
 Bag," which were published (1836) in the Southern 
 Literary Messenger, under the signature of " Harry 
 Bluff." He at this time urged the building of forts 
 at Key West and Dry Tortugas. The " Scraps from 
 the Lucky Bag " attracted so much attention, and 
 were so universally approved by naval men, that they 
 had large numbers of the papers printed and circu- 
 lated, although the author was unknown to them. 
 When it was learned that Maury was the author, his 
 great ability was generally acknowledged, and he was 
 urged to accept a station to which his talents en- 
 titled him namely, Secretary of the Navy in Presi- 
 dent Tyler's cabinet. This he modestly refused, and 
 in 1842 he was placed in charge of the Depot of 
 Charts and Instruments at Washington. This office 
 soon developed into the world-renowned National 
 Observatory and Hydrographic Department of the 
 United States. He received this appointment in the 
 seventeenth year of his service, and the thirty-sixth 
 year of his age. 
 
 In 1831 Maury was appointed master of the sloop- 
 of-war Falmouth, and ordered to the Pacific Station. 
 Here was brought home to him his need for explicit 
 sailing directions, but he searched in vain for this 
 information as to the winds and currents to be 
 encountered and the best path for his vessel. He 
 doubtless then resolved to supply the want, for on 
 the voyage he conceived the idea of the celebrated 
 " Wind and Current Charts " and " Sailing Direc- 
 tions " which have accomplished so much for the 
 commerce of the world. His station at the National 
 Observatory gave him the opportunity of developing 
 his great idea. From the information extracted
 
 150 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 by hard labor from the old log books which had been 
 stored away as rubbish, and from data made by him 
 on his route from New York to Rio De Janeiro, 
 Brazil, the first chart of his series and the first sailing 
 directions were made. 
 
 They were unappreciated at first, but Captain 
 John J. Jackson of the Baltimore, clipper ship, de- 
 termined to trust the new chart, and follow the path 
 directed. The experiment was a wonderful success, 
 and after this there was no hesitation about the use 
 of the charts and sailing directions. An active 
 interest in Maury's work was soon excited in all parts 
 of the world, and the originator became known as the 
 great " Pathfinder of the Seas." 
 
 The results of his discovery were so wonderful that 
 his praises were sounded to the ends of the earth. 
 Boston merchants offered to buy a ship for him to 
 try new routes, and President Fillmore and the 
 Secretaries of the Navy, Dobbin and Graham, gave 
 enthusiastic expressions of approval, and resolutions 
 were offered in the Senate of the United States 
 acknowledging that Maury's discoveries had reflected 
 honor upon himself and upon his country. In this 
 day, however, he is denied credit by the United States 
 Navy Department for his genius, because what should 
 be Maury's charts are now published monthly by the 
 Hydrographic Office under the name of the United 
 States Pilot Charts. Julius A. M. Palmer of Boston, 
 in our centennial year, said : " We find absolutely 
 but one name worthy of mention in the same breath 
 as that which applauds the genius of Columbus 
 that name is, Matthew Fontaine Maury. No less a 
 scholar than the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain remarked
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 151 
 
 to me with that calmness which distinguishes from 
 impulse; a judicial opinion: ' I do not suppose that 
 there is the least doubt that Maury was the greatest 
 man America has ever produced.' 
 
 " Such judgment does not ignore the discoveries 
 of all our eminent men, each remarkable in the field 
 of science to which his studies were devoted, but just 
 as Columbus stands by himself, a creative genius in 
 the midst of many others, these latter perhaps 
 having given to the world good works as abiding as 
 his, so with all that has been done for America by 
 workers in steam, in telegraphy, in electrical science, 
 there stands over and above them all the creative 
 genius of Maury. Enter any library and discover if 
 you can what was known of the trade winds, the 
 monsoons, the Gulf Stream, the prevailing winds, the 
 currents and the general circulation of the ocean, 
 all the essentials for navigating the globe, before 
 the day of Maury. . . . Could you by miracle 
 be put into the possession of all that was known 
 before his day, ignoring that for which we are in debt 
 to him now, it would be comparatively nothing. 
 There is not a book on sailing directions published in 
 any of the languages of civilization but what is 
 dependent upon Maury for its facts and its 
 principles." 
 
 These acknowledgments of justice from Northern 
 men should send a thrill of delight to the hearts of 
 Virginians and lift us to hope that over and beyond 
 the veil of prejudice which has covered the land will 
 come the recognition deserved by the greatest man 
 born on the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 While analyzing and tabulating the millions of
 
 152 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 observations that were reported to him at the observa- 
 tory, he wrote the " Physical Geography of the Sea," 
 which Humboldt pronounced one of the most charm- 
 ing and instructive books in the English language. 
 Twenty editions were sold in England alone, and it 
 was translated in six different languages. 
 
 " The American Scientist " attracted so much at- 
 tention, that at his solicitation a congress of the -chief 
 nations interested in commerce was called, in 1853, 
 at Brussels, under the auspices of King Leopold, 
 with the object of the further development of 
 meteorological research, which resulted in recom- 
 mending the establishment of investigation boards 
 throughout Europe and a uniform system of 
 observations. Maury also insisted that the same 
 principle was applicable to the land as to the sea. 
 
 He was now full of honors, rich in fame, and the 
 best-known American in the world. Humboldt de- 
 clared that he had founded a new science, and John C. 
 Calhoun said " he was a man of great thoughts." 
 Sixteen learned societies in Europe and America 
 made him honorary member of their bodies, orders of 
 knighthood were offered him, and many medals were 
 struck in his honor. No other American was ever so 
 honored by foreign potentates, and no other man ever 
 received any decorations of honor with more becom- 
 ing modesty. 
 
 After Maury returned from Brussels he continued 
 to push his scheme for meteorological co-operation 
 on land as well as on sea. He was the originator in 
 design and detail of the present system of weather 
 observation, now generally taken all over the country. 
 
 Maury first demonstrated the practicability of his
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 153 
 
 grand conception of harnessing the lightning and 
 coursing it along the floor of the great sea from the 
 New to the Old World. He insisted that whenever a 
 survey could be made of the bottom of the ocean 
 between Newfoundland and Ireland, it would be 
 ascertained that such were the moderate depths, such 
 the perfect repose there, and absence of disturbing 
 currents, that telegraphic cables could be as safely 
 and successfully laid there as upon land. The deep- 
 sea soundings in 1849-50 established the truth of his 
 predictions, for they brought up little shells in a 
 perfect state of preservation. If these shells could 
 rest on the bottom of the sea undisturbed by the 
 waves or currents, a telegraphic cable once laid there 
 would remain as completely beyond the reach of acci- 
 dent as it would be if buried in air-tight cases. 
 
 He said in 1850 that the true character of a cable 
 for the deep sea should not be an iron rope as large 
 as a man's arm, but a simple copper wire coated with 
 gutta percha, and not larger than a lady's finger. 
 After two disastrous failures of other plans, Maury's 
 ideas were accepted, and carried into effect with 
 success. 
 
 At a dinner given in New York in 1858 to cele- 
 brate the arrival of the first message by the submarine 
 cable across the Atlantic, Cyrus W. Field said: 
 " Maury furnished the brains, England gave the 
 money, and I did the work." 
 
 In 1855 he published a chart with two lanes laid 
 down, each twenty-five miles broad, for the use of 
 steamships in going and returning across the Atlantic 
 Ocean to avoid the danger of collisions in fogs. 
 These were generally adopted by larger steamship
 
 154 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 companies, and in consequence of their satisfaction 
 the merchants and underwriters of New York pre- 
 sented him with five thousand dollars in gold and a 
 handsome silver service. 
 
 When the war between the North and the South 
 opened it found the famous scientist in the midst of 
 his useful labors. The National Observatory under 
 his wise management was daily increasing its useful- 
 ness from nothing it had leaped into the foremost 
 rank of all nations. 
 
 He had been long engaged on a work enti- 
 tled " Astronomical Observations Cataloguing the 
 Stars," which was progressing satisfactorily ; and 
 other projects for the advancement of science seemed 
 on the point of realization when the war came, like 
 the rushing of mighty winds, to sweep all in ruin. 
 
 He made earnest efforts and eloquent appeals to 
 Northern statesmen to throw their influence in the 
 breach to avert war, for he was a man of peace, a 
 student and philosopher opposed to the war. But 
 when Virginia called for her sons he turned his back 
 upon his 'Congenial scientific labors, upon all plans 
 that he had organized for the good of mankind, and 
 all his splendid discoveries and achievements were 
 sacrificed to the inexorable law of duty, though his 
 heart was torn by terrible throes at this, his noblest, 
 greatest, act of self-sacrifice. 
 
 Admiral Fitz Roy of the British navy said : " One 
 of his most distinguishing traits was personal dis- 
 interestedness." Yes ; his self-f orgetfulness was a 
 crowning virtue of his life. He had every inducement 
 to remain at the Observatory no personal ad- 
 vantages to gain by serving the Confederacy. Both
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 155 
 
 President Davis and his Secretary of the Navy were 
 unfriendly to him, yet as a duty to Virginia he did 
 not hesitate a moment to espouse her cause. 
 
 He resigned on April 20, 1861, went to Richmond, 
 was appointed Commodore in the Virginia Navy, and 
 selected by the Sovereign Convention as one of the 
 " Advisory Council " of three to Governor Letcher ; 
 and its first order was to advise the appointment of 
 Colonel Robert E. Lee as commander-in-chief of the 
 military and naval forces of Virginia. 
 
 As soon as it became known in Europe that Maury 
 had resigned from the service of the United States, 
 autocratic Russia invited him to become her guest 
 until war was over and peace had come to America, 
 tendering ample means to pursue his researches and 
 to make a pleasant and comfortable home on the Neva 
 for his family. 
 
 How variable are the edicts of time ! France, the 
 nation that had murdered some of his ancestors and 
 banished others to America, Imperial France, ten- 
 dered him a like invitation, but the path of duty and 
 honor was plain to him he stood by Virginia in her 
 need, turning away from wealth, luxury, and safety 
 for poverty and danger. 
 
 On June 10, 1861, the Advisory Council was abol- 
 ished, and the same day Commodore Maury was made 
 Chief of the Sea Coast, Harbor, and River Defenses 
 of the South. While acting in this capacity he in- 
 vented the electric torpedo, both for harbor and land 
 defense. However, he failed to impress the Confed- 
 erate naval authorities with its usefulness, until sturdy 
 John Letcher prevailed upon them to witness experi- 
 ments on the James River, and the next day the sum
 
 156 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 of $5000 was placed at his disposal to plant the tor- 
 pedoes in the river. His effectual blockade of the 
 James River at the bend gave General Butler the idea 
 of Dutch Gap Canal. 
 
 While engaged in developing this great engine of 
 defensive warfare, Maury was ordered to Europe as 
 Naval Agent of the Confederate States, in England. 
 Accompanied by his son, he sailed on a blockader 
 from Charleston, S. C., on October 24, 1862, pur- 
 chasing munitions of war and naval cruisers while 
 in England, where he resumed the work of perfecting 
 his torpedo invention. He sailed from England under 
 orders from the Secretary of the Navy, and received 
 the crushing news of the collapse of the Confederacy 
 on his arrival at St. Thomas in the West Indies. 
 
 " My friends, I saw the sun rise at Appomattox on 
 the ninth of April, 1865 ; then there were only 
 two divisions of the Army of Northern Virginia in- 
 tact, with 7697 ready rifles in their hands. We 
 heard Gordon's guns and saw their smoke linger in 
 the tree tops across the field, and these divisions (Ma- 
 hone's and Field's), with steady eyes and anxious 
 hearts, awaited the order of the Chieftain to forward 
 and to fire. They were patriots with undaunted 
 courage set for dangerous duty. While the tide of 
 disaster had swung all around them, no power but 
 the irresistible death bullet could break their steady 
 purpose to march to the strife, hand to hand. The 
 thought of capitulation could not come to these men, 
 yet unconvinced that their flag could be touched by 
 the conqueror's heel. A moment after those guns 
 were hushed we saw a horseman with the white flag 
 riding across the field, and our country was dead. At
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 157 
 
 that instant our hearts sank with the indescribable 
 humiliation of countryless soldiers, and leaning on 
 loaded muskets, strong men wept. 
 
 " When Cornwallis gave his sword to Washington 
 at Yorktown his soldiers went back as cherished chil- 
 dren to the British kingdom, which had sent them to 
 its service. 
 
 " When Lee surrendered, his soldiers had no coun- 
 try, no homes to call their own a life in exile and 
 poverty seemed sweet to that in one's native land 
 where black slaves could be masters and masters 
 felons. 
 
 " As the .cyclone's wings swirl wreck over the land, 
 so came the destruction of the Confederacy to its sol- 
 diers, and the hearts of those in the vortex went into 
 bottomless despair, and but for the touch of General 
 Grant's chivalry the ordeal would have been more 
 terrible than death." 
 
 This scene came upon Commodore Maury like the 
 sudden death of a heart's idol, and no human lips can 
 tell the sorrow of his heroic heart. The extermina- 
 tion of his country without the knowledge of the cir- 
 cumstances, flashin-g upon him while on the sea, 
 brought excruciating distress. 
 
 The true man lifted his torn heart to God, and 
 wrote on the leaf of his Bible : " Sunday, May 7th, 
 1865. At sea again. My son and I without a home, 
 and bound, I know not whither, save to ' that 
 bourne.' ' He went to Cuba, wrote a letter to the 
 Admiral commanding the Gulf Squadron, surrender- 
 ing his sword, in which he said : " In peace or war, 
 I follow the fortune of my State, Virginia ; as she 
 has laid down her arms, I will ground mine also."
 
 158 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 In this extremity Maury sent his son to the United 
 States, to look out for his mother, and he cast about 
 for a new home and country, not so much for himself 
 as for his people those glorious Virginians, who, 
 from that distance, appeared to him as galling under 
 the yoke of relentless conquerors. 
 
 The Emperor of Mexico made him Imperial Com- 
 missioner of Colonization, and he set about planting 
 a new Virginia in that beautiful land of perpetual 
 harvests. His friends advised him to give up the 
 scheme, but his heart was set upon it, and his hopes 
 went out only with the fall of the empire. He had, 
 however, in the short interval of his Commissioner- 
 ship of Colonization conferred one blessing upon 
 Mexico the introduction of the chinchona tree, 
 thereby reducing the price of quinine for the world, 
 which benefaction will last as long as Mexico's em- 
 pires, kingdoms, or republics live. 
 
 Maury arrived in England from Mexico on March 
 29, 1866, to join his family, almost penniless. Op- 
 portunely, the unforgotten services of the great man 
 to mankind brought a " Maury Testimonial " from 
 the hearts of Englishmen and other Europeans, which 
 relieved his immediate necessities. The noble man did 
 not lay down his armor in despair, but struck out 
 with wonted energies to build up his broken for- 
 tunes. 
 
 Napoleon III. invited him to instruct a board of 
 French officers in his system of defensive sea-mining, 
 and paid him well for it, for the French were de- 
 lighted with his instructions. He, however, preferred 
 Old England, and afterwards opened, in London, a 
 school for instruction in the use of electric torpedoes.
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 159 
 
 At the same time he was occupied in the preparation 
 of a series of schoolbooks, to be published by a New 
 York house, and are the same used in some of our 
 schools to-day. 
 
 The fame of Maury's great scientific labors had 
 not faded in his adversity, and, in recognition thereof, 
 in 1868 the University of Cambridge conferred upon 
 him the degree of LL. D., at the same time Alfred 
 Tennyson received this great honor. 
 
 He then returned to Virginia to accept the chair 
 of physics at the Virginia Military Institute, having 
 declined the Directorship of the Imperial Observa- 
 tory of France, and the superintendency of the Uni- 
 versity of the South. He preferred a place of use- 
 fulness with his own people in his native State, with 
 a small salary, to a high position and large salary 
 in a foreign land, or even in another State. 
 
 Much of his time was occupied in the physical sur- 
 vey of Virginia, and plans for establishing direct 
 trade between Hampton Roads and Europe. 
 
 " Naturally," says Maury, " and both in a geo- 
 graphical and military point of view, Norfolk, with 
 Hampton Roads, at the mouth of the Chesapeake 
 Bay, as its lower harbor, and San Francisco, inside 
 of the Golden Gate, in California, occupy one on the 
 Pacific, the other on the Atlantic the most impor- 
 tant maritime positions that lie within the domains of 
 the United States. Each holds the commanding point 
 on its sea front; each has the finest harbor on its 
 coast, and each with the most convenient ingress and 
 egress for ships each as safe from wind and wave as 
 shelter can make them. Nor is access to either ever 
 interrupted by the frosts of winter. In the harbors
 
 160 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 of each there is room to berth, not only all the ships 
 of commerce, but the navies of the world also." 
 
 His last labors were the series of lectures in the 
 South in behalf of agriculture, from the exposure 
 and fatigues of which he was made sick unto death, 
 and, when arrived at home, he met his wife on the 
 threshold and said : " My dear, I am come home to 
 die." 
 
 The last production of his pen for publication was 
 " A Vindication of the South and of Virginia." It is 
 a masterly paper in which he begins with remon- 
 strances of the thirteen British Colonies with the 
 Mother Country, tracing the origin of the Revolu- 
 tion and success of the American rebellion to inde- 
 pendence ; then following with the political controver- 
 sies in the States which culminated in our bloody sec- 
 tional war and the overpowering of the Confederacy, 
 and concludes with this noble sentence : " Her sons 
 who fell died in defense of their country, their homes, 
 their rights, and all that makes native land dear to 
 the hearts of men." The principles for which their 
 lives were given must be the basis of republican gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 It is the most compact, complete and convincing 
 vindication of the Confederate Cause which adorns 
 the pages of its brief, brilliant history. The South- 
 ern soldiers did not die in vain, and history will so 
 record it. 
 
 In 1866 Maury was offered ten thousand pounds 
 in cash for the mere use of his name in connection 
 with a telegraph company, but after looking into it 
 he said : " I cannot touch it as it stands, for my pre- 
 cious good name is the pride of my children and my
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 161 
 
 particular jewel, therefore I must honor it, and not 
 lend it, except for wise, good, and useful things." 
 He made the same noble reply when offered a salary 
 of thirty thousand dollars by a great lottery com- 
 pany. Satan was tempting him with all the power 
 of flattery and gold, but he turned his back upon all, 
 to write attractive schoolbooks for children, and 
 afterwards to teach young men at our Virginia Mili- 
 tary Institute. He said, " I could not wind up my 
 career more usefully than by helping to shape the 
 character and mold the destinies of the rising genera- 
 tion." 
 
 Like few great men, the nearer you get to him, 
 the greater he is. The Dean of Cambridge in con- 
 ferring the degree of LL. D. upon Maury truly 
 said : " Nor is he merely authority in nautical sci- 
 ence. He is also a pattern of noble manners and 
 good morals, because he has always shown himself a 
 brave and good man." 
 
 He counseled tenderness, pleasant manner, and 
 kind words ; and his doctrine of great men was that 
 all useful men are great; that the talent of industry 
 makes a man ; that not so much depends upon intel- 
 lect as is generally supposed, but industry and steadi- 
 ness of purpose are the things. The pure and simple 
 religious influence of his boyhood marked his daily 
 walk, and the precepts imbibed in youth followed him 
 through life. With him religion and science never 
 conflicted. " The Bible is true and science is true, 
 and therefore each, if truly read, but proves the 
 truth of the other." 
 
 His devotion to his immediate family was sublime. 
 He said : " My sweet wife and dear children make
 
 162 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 home the sweetest place on the face of the earth." 
 " These precious children, I am so proud of them, 
 their praises, coming from the heart, are more than 
 music to my ears; 'tis joy and comfort to my soul." 
 His great desire was that they should treat him not 
 only as their father and their friend, but as their 
 companion too. As busy as he was with scientific 
 problems, he always found time to teach them, amuse 
 them, and counsel with them. When absent, he wrote 
 his wife every day a great philosopher yielding 
 daily homage to the throne of love. 
 
 His friends were legion and his warm heart .linked 
 them " with hooks of steel." His honor for his par- 
 ents, his attachment for his brothers and sisters, his 
 steady friendship, his devotion for his wife, his love 
 for his children, his affection for mankind, his good- 
 ness in all, cannot be excelled by his knowledge in 
 science, for his heart and his head always worked in 
 harmony, like sailors under one flag. No higher 
 order of patriotism ever crowned a hero's name. As 
 the Dean of Cambridge declared : " No one can with- 
 hold his admiration from the man who, though num- 
 bered among the vanquished, held his faith pure and 
 unblemished even at the price of poverty and exile." 
 The force of Maury's example will grow stronger 
 as the searchlight of time reveals the wisdom of men, 
 for manliness in all its beauty rounds up the life of 
 this mighty man of science. The strong magnetism 
 of his sincere and simple manners draws us to him 
 with an irresistible attachment, and the man of heart 
 in every age must love the life of Maury. Matthew 
 Fontaine Maury, illustrious scholar, incomparable 
 scientist, incorruptible hero the rich memorial of
 
 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 163 
 
 his great name gives our State a crown star for- 
 ever ! Virginia owes him a monument for his self- 
 sacrifice to her cause, and every State and nation of 
 the earth should add a stone for his services to man- 
 kind. He traced the course of the winds, marked the 
 currents of the sea, delineated the unseen floors of 
 the ocean, mapped the skies, catalogued the stars, 
 trained the lightning to pierce the deep of the ocean, 
 forecast the dangers of the great waters and the 
 whirl of the cyclone, the melting of the frosts, the 
 advance of the floods, the coming of the " beautiful 
 snow," and when and where the sunshine would bless 
 the earth, and the clouds would cover the mountains, 
 or soften the valleys with their raindrops. He in- 
 vented the electric torpedo, invisible, silent barrier to 
 guard the sea coasts and harbors and natural bound- 
 aries of nations from hostile invaders. Although he 
 neither owned nor cultivated the land, he loved agri- 
 culture because it is the indestructible source of pros- 
 perity for the people. His last labors, enthusiasti- 
 cally pursued to his death hour, were for a plan of 
 forecasts to warn the farmer when the atmosphere 
 would blight or bloom his crops. 
 
 Noble impulses, pure motives, unselfish manhood! 
 He learned the harmony of religion and science from 
 the grain of sand on the sea shore and the dew drop 
 on the flower. He saw God in the calm of the sea, in 
 the tremble of the mountain, in the smoke of the vol- 
 cano ; blessed Him for heat and cold, light and dark- 
 ness, and simply clung to the cross of Christ for the 
 eternal life promised in His blood. In this faith he 
 quietly died on the first day of February, 1873, at 
 Lexington, in his beloved Virginia.
 
 THE PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE MAURY, 
 FOR R. E. LEE CAMP, NO. 1 
 
 [A handsome three-quarter length oil portrait of Commo- 
 dore Matthew Fontaine Maury was formally presented to 
 R. E. Lee Camp, Confederate Veterans, on February 25, 1905. 
 Hon. W. A. Anderson, Attorney-General of Virginia, made 
 the presentation address, and the speech of acceptance was as 
 follows:] 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : 
 
 My heart throbs are doubly quick and I tremble 
 because I feel my weakness in the presence of so great 
 a theme. 
 
 Oh, that I were capable of filling the place of your 
 distinguished and beloved .citizen, Virginius Newton, 
 who would have spoken to you with a nearness of 
 heart beyond my power had not God called him from 
 earthly labors to eternal rest ! I therefore crave 
 your indulgence for my poor effort. 
 
 Mr. Commander, I regard your Camp as a halo of 
 civic virtue for the capital of the Southern Confed- 
 eracy. R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1, is an institution 
 which has provided bread for our comrades, and given 
 our spirit nation this hall of fame. I have been hon- 
 ored by you with the duty of formally receiving the 
 portrait of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, 
 the greatest scientist of America and the wisest sailor 
 of the world, and I assure you I am appreciative of 
 this distinction. 
 
 This portrait of the "Pathfinder of the Sea" 
 comes to your hall of fame from a modest, generous, 
 
 164
 
 PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE MAURY 165 
 
 noble-minded, and patriotic citizen of Richmond, 
 through the faithful Confederate soldier and eminent 
 Attorney-General of Virginia, with eloquent and 
 burning words striking deep into our hearts. 
 
 Major Anderson, I am commissioned to accept it 
 and through you to express to the donor the grati- 
 tude and loving thanks of Lee Camp, and of all who 
 love the memory of Maury. 
 
 The soldiers of the Mikado believe that the spirits 
 of their slain comrades are unhappy until the pur- 
 pose for which they sacrificed their lives is accom- 
 plished. The bliss of the departed depends upon the 
 success of the living. They fight while yearning 
 spirits hover over the battlefield watching their faith- 
 fulness and admiring their valor. Their desperate 
 charges are made in the presence of the unseen, 
 whose approval they desire above life, and their ef- 
 forts are given in an idealistic unselfishness for the 
 happiness of those who have gone before into the 
 spirit land. 
 
 It is a beautiful sentiment, and it makes one feel 
 that he is doing that which our God, His angels, and 
 saints approve; and it is not unseemly to imagine 
 that the spirits of those represented by the pictures 
 on these walls look on this scene with gracious ap- 
 proval, and welcome the advent of the portrait of 
 one of the foremost of the splendid galaxy. 
 
 Here is heroic comradeship, which speaks only of 
 lofty ideals ! Here is patriotism of the highest 
 grade ! Selfish commercialism is put behind as an 
 unclean thing, and sentiment sways the conscience 
 as the ruler of hope, hope that we may do good for 
 those about us, hope that we may leave something
 
 166 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 good for those to come after us. Reversing the 
 heathen idealism, we fight with unselfish minds for 
 the living and the unborn. 
 
 Maury said : " The true secret of happiness is oc- 
 cupation for some useful end." He once wished 
 riches to build colleges for the youth of the land, 
 and " be happy as the angels are in the conscious- 
 ness of doing good." The useful ends to which he 
 devoted his life have borne glad tidings to the world, 
 and the nations of the whole earth are thankful for 
 his gifts. 
 
 He was born in the beginning of the last century, 
 a century which has evolved the greatest events in 
 America, in the county in which her greatest armies 
 have striven in bloodiest contests, where Stonewall 
 Jackson made his greatest maneuver and spilled his 
 life-blood to consecrate an undying cause; and he 
 grew to boyhood in the mountains where Hood's 
 legions of the Western army made Franklin the 
 s-cene of the bloodiest battle in Tennessee. 
 
 There dreams of greatness pressed his ambition 
 to conquer the sea, and " call the roll of worlds " ; 
 thence he turned to learn the ways of the winds and 
 waves without a teacher, outside of the walls of a 
 college, with his own self-reliance to govern and 
 guide his aspirations. 
 
 " What thrill is his who scans the boundless skies, 
 And calls the roll of worlds; or his, whose greed 
 Can fancy earth's domain to him decreed ! 
 
 But thou, with all the treacherous sea thy prize, 
 
 Writhing and fretting 'neath thy searching eyes, 
 Thus chid the captive pleading to be freed, 
 
 ' I know thy ways, O Sea ; and to thy sighs
 
 PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE MAURY 167 
 
 My ear is tuned, and to thy savage cries. 
 
 The runes thou writest on the sands I read; 
 
 And to thy vexing I design a chart 
 
 To mark the varied pulsing of thy heart: 
 To show when man may press thy breast secure, 
 And when thou wilt no wanton touch endure, 
 
 And he must contemplate thy wrath apart.' " 
 
 R. A. STEWART. 
 
 Think of the task he essayed when he first put foot 
 on the deck of the man-of-war Brandt/wine! Think 
 of the victory he had won when his work was done 
 and his life went out at Lexington! He lived a just 
 man; he held love for our Lord and Master in the 
 deep of his heart, and he died a Christian. 
 
 Something useful for his day and generation was 
 the boundary of his hopes when he struggled with 
 the problems of life; far reaching, it swept the face 
 of the globe and touched the interests of civilization, 
 aye, humanity, with blessings. Who of all America's 
 workers wrought in a wider field or wrought greater 
 things for the good of mankind, untouched by a sin- 
 gle stain of selfishness ! Every prayer, every aspira- 
 tion, every hope in all his life was to a useful end 
 and for the benefit of those around him, and for 
 those to come after him. 
 
 He did not achieve all the great works which he 
 gave so freely to mankind without pain, physical as 
 well as mental anguish. It is the fate of all human 
 goodness, like the purified metal, to pass through a 
 fiery furnace. The suffering which came to him 
 through a crippled limb and the misery caused by 
 the naval board which retired him from the service, 
 are evidences that he had to battle with the thorns 
 and briars of life to gain the heights of fame.
 
 168 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 His life teaches us how strong we should be when 
 we become the target of the enemy's thundering 
 guns, how watchful when the sharp stiletto of the 
 false friend glistens at our back. It teaches us to 
 marshal our resources and plant, not for ourselves 
 alone, but for humanity, in the ways God has 
 given us. 
 
 There are many soldiers and sailors of the South 
 yet spared to do good, to work for a useful end. 
 The last constitutional .convention of Virginia unin- 
 tentionally erected a monument to its own memory, 
 which rises as the highest memorial for the patriot- 
 ism of Confederate soldiers and sailors. It said to 
 them : " Your sacrifice in war is enough to entitle 
 you to be fiduciaries of our government, without the 
 burden of a poll tax which you may be unable to 
 bear." It is an ideal shaft, stronger than granite, 
 more enduring than bronze, more beautiful than mar- 
 ble, higher than Alpine summit, and purer than the 
 snow on its cap. It is the most admirable sentiment 
 of the heart's pure emotions set in the fundamental 
 law of Virginia. 
 
 My ever honored comrades, how shall we use the 
 privilege so freely given is the problem before us. 
 There is one thing all of us can do, that is to cast 
 our ballots for men who truly promise to place duty 
 to constituents above self interest ; who, like Wash- 
 ington, Jefferson, Lee, and Maury, hold office for the 
 good of the people. If we can prevent corrupt elec- 
 tion methods we will deserve the high place which the 
 architects of our constitution have given us as their 
 crown of fundamental law. Clear out self-seekers, 
 grafters, and lobbyists, and you will have clean poli-
 
 PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE MAURY 169 
 
 tics, giving lessons for the leavening of empires into 
 popular governments in which the people rule. 
 
 The highest ideals of religious and civic duty give 
 the life of Maury its splendid cast, and made it a 
 model for virtuous men of every nation. Maury in 
 the midst of his family makes a picture of the true, 
 the beautiful, and the good. It is enough to tell you 
 that he ascribed his highest triumphs to the help of 
 his wife, and derived his greatest pleasures from the 
 love of his children. 
 
 The Brandywine, on whose decks Maury began his 
 nautical career, sailed from Hampton Roads under 
 Commodore Charles Morris. Her mission was to con- 
 vey La Fayette back to France after his last visit to 
 the United States. The second day out the ship 
 struck a gale and sprung a leak, and a council of 
 officers was called to decide whether to return or pro- 
 ceed, but finding that the pumps controlled the leak- 
 age, the voyage was continued. The rest of the voy- 
 age was uneventful. There were twenty-seven mid- 
 shipmen on board, and it was noticed that when 
 others were at amusements Maury was at the mizzen- 
 top studying seamanship. Then he made his mark 
 among his fellows, and gained their entire respect by 
 his study and studious habits. The monthly pay of 
 these cadets was nineteen dollars. They assembled 
 and resolved to appropriate one month's pay for a 
 testimonial of their regard for the noble soldier who 
 had helped to win the independence of their country. 
 Maury was elected one of the committee to secure 
 the silver urn suitably inscribed, and to present it to 
 the old hero. This gift was the homage of youth to 
 manhood. It was an offering from glad hearts on
 
 170 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 the altar of patriotism, a touching tribute from the 
 young sailors to General La Fayette, and it was most 
 highly appreciated by him. These boys of the sea 
 were heroes worthy of the nation and the flag which 
 their ship bore. 
 
 When we study Maury's writings, he seems to have 
 been gifted with inspired wisdom. Thank God that 
 prophecy about the rise of the conquered South has 
 come to pass ! When the desolation of war was every- 
 where, he foretold that the South would gain the 
 restitution of her strength from the earth. 
 
 Behold its truth! Look at her flourishing fields! 
 See the prosperity of her plantations ! It is with 
 pride and pleasure that we observe the success, not 
 only of her agriculture, but of her commerce ; mining 
 and manufacturing are pouring wealth into the 
 pockets of her people ; and to-day the promise of the 
 South is to be the fairest and most attractive of all 
 the sections of this country. 
 
 The comrades in the Confederate War of this 
 prophet have been the chief instruments which have 
 won the victory from the earth as he foretold. 
 Henceforth the wisdom of the sage will advise young 
 men to go South instead of West. 
 
 While giving his knowledge of the science of the 
 seas to the world, Maury was an enthusiastic worker 
 for the expansion of American commerce, and fifty- 
 six years ago he heralded the benefits of an Isthmian 
 Canal when he wrote : " When there shall be estab- 
 lished a commercial thoroughfare across the isthmus, 
 the trade winds of the Pacific will place China, India, 
 and all the islands of that ocean down hill from this 
 sea of ours. In that case the whole of Europe must
 
 PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE MAURY 171 
 
 pass by our very doors on the great highway to the 
 markets of both the East and West Indies. The 
 great outlets of commerce the delta of the Missis- 
 sippi, the mouths of the Hudson and the Amazon 
 are all within two thousand miles, ten days' sail, of 
 Darien. It is a barrier that separates us from the 
 markets of six hundred millions of people three- 
 fourths of the population of the earth. Break it 
 down, therefore, and the country is placed midway 
 between Europe and Asia ; this sea becomes the center 
 of the world and the focus of the world's commerce. 
 This is a highway that will give vent to commerce, 
 scope to energy, and range to enterprise, which in a 
 few years hence will make gay with steam and can- 
 vas parts of the ocean that are now unfrequented 
 and almost unknown. Old channels of trade will be 
 broken up and new ones opened. We desire to see our 
 own country the standard-bearer in this great work." 
 
 At last our country has undertaken this work 
 promising the great benefits which Maury so long ago 
 described, and President Roosevelt has been commis- 
 sioned by the American people to be their standard- 
 bearer in working out this masterful conception of 
 Matthew Fontaine Maury. We believe the President 
 is a worthy standard-bearer and will urge on the 
 work with the faithfulness which he has always dis- 
 played in his public duties. Not many years hence 
 the commerce of the world will spread its canvas over 
 the waters and fill the skies of our Southern seas with 
 the smoke of its steamships. 
 
 We know that many honors were conferred upon 
 Maury by European Governments in token of respect 
 and admiration, and of the benefits conferred by his
 
 172 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 " Wind and Current Charts," his " Sailing Direc- 
 tions," and his " Physical Geography of the Sea," 
 the suggestions, improvements, and discoveries made 
 by him with regard to the Atlantic cable, his " steam 
 lanes " across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and as 
 the originator of the present system of the Weather 
 Bureau. Twenty-two gold and silver medals were 
 conferred upon him, given by Austria, Prussia, Nor- 
 way and Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France, the 
 Pope, Sardinia, and Bremen ; three copper medals, 
 by England, Belgium, and Batavia ; six decorations 
 the Dannenborg, the Tower and Sword, St. Ann, Our 
 Lady Guadeloupe, St. Leopold, and the Legion of 
 Honor bestowed respectively by Denmark, Portu- 
 gal, Russia, Mexico, Belgium, and France; a dia- 
 mond brooch was given by the Czar of Russia, a dia- 
 mond pin by the Empress Maximilian, and a gold 
 and silver casket containing a gift, by the Lords of 
 the British Admiralty. Honors far above any ever 
 conferred by European nations upon any other Amer- 
 ican citizen. 
 
 Maury's discoveries in science have contributed as 
 much to our national fame as the most brilliant 
 achievements of its most distinguished general, yet 
 we search in vain for any tangible recognition of his 
 achievements by the Government of the United 
 States. 
 
 Have not his works been worth as much to this na- 
 tion as to the European states? Why is it that the 
 hearts of the American people have not throbbed 
 with the same impulse of gratitude as the kings, 
 emperors, and noblemen of the Old World? 
 
 Is this Republic ungrateful to its wisest son? Is 
 it the spirit of that " intolerance and fanaticism
 
 PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE MAURY 173 
 
 which is the bane of free institutions," that would 
 forget his name? I hope not. 
 
 We ought not to attribute to sectional prejudice 
 the failure of the National Legislature to recognize 
 the services of Maury to the American people, when 
 our own State, for which he sacrificed so much, refuses 
 a mere pittance to have his statue created by our dis- 
 tinguished sculptor, Valentine, to stand under the 
 shadow of the Capitol with the effigies of other fa- 
 mous sons. 
 
 His admirers in Congress attempted to reward his 
 genius before the war fumes had stirred the preju- 
 dices of the sections, and the " noes " were not 
 bounded by the Potomac River; besides, the North 
 has done more to recognize his worth than his native 
 South, evidenced by the sum given him by the under- 
 writers of New York. Does it come with grace from 
 us to blame the North? The State which gave him 
 birth and holds his ashes must exhibit gratitude be- 
 fore we can expect that great virtue to expand 
 through all the sister States. If Virginia will take 
 the lead, I believe not only all other American States, 
 but the states of civilization, will join to build a suit- 
 able monument to his memory. That would be an 
 omen that the American hearts, which once burned 
 with hatred and rage, will hereafter glow with mutual 
 respect, confidence, and love. 
 
 Listen, I will tell you something; the women of 
 America are going to build a memorial to the name 
 which history has already placed in the rank of New- 
 ton and Humboldt ! 
 
 The regent of Fort Nelson Chapter, of my own 
 city, Portsmouth, Va., has secured the unanimous 
 passage of a resolution by the National Congress of
 
 174 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 the Daughters of the American Revolution request- 
 ing the United States Congress to appropriate fifty 
 thousand dollars to build a memorial column to 
 Maury. The Daughters of the North, the South, the 
 East and the West with one mind thus paid their 
 beautiful tribute to his name. This Congress may 
 be deaf to their voice, but they will remember, and 
 Matthew Fontaine Maury will have a monument 
 worthy of his fame! God bless the ladies for their 
 exalted sentiments, which drive men to remember 
 manhood and bolt its virtues to the ship of states. 
 
 I cannot tell you why it is ; I cannot explain how 
 it is, but whenever men of mark run in my thoughts 
 the name of Matthew Fontaine Maury is foremost 
 and always suggests to my mind the idea of what- 
 ever is good ; whatever is tender ; whatever is great ; 
 whatever is heroic, patriotic, and illustrious in human 
 nature. His genius blazes on me with a radiance that 
 dazzles and a loveliness that charms. His works 
 spread before my eyes a vista as high as the sky, as 
 broad as the earth, as deep as the sea. His wisdom 
 and unselfishness rise in an overflowing spring for the 
 thirst of ages. His footsteps from childhood to the 
 doorway of death mark a path of transcendent tal- 
 ents, blazed with labor and energy ; glorified through 
 pain and disappointment, and leading into the Hall 
 of Eternal Fame. 
 
 Mr. Attorney-General Anderson, this portrait re- 
 flecting such a life, will inspire men to love honor, 
 live uprightly, walk humbly, and labor assiduously 
 for a good end, and that inspiration will be the pride 
 of those to whom you have committed its keeping, 
 and a happy reward for its generous donor.
 
 THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH 
 
 [An address delivered at the banquet given the Grand Camp, 
 Confederate Veterans, at Charlottesville, on June 4, 1895, in 
 response to the toast: 
 
 " Oh ! the noble, patriotic, 
 
 Glorious women of our land, 
 How they struggled, trusting, patient, 
 
 Soul-inspired, enduring band! 
 Bore the hardships, fought the battles 
 
 Of privation, death and woe, 
 Giving courage, hope and cheer 
 
 In a way that only women know."] 
 
 COMRADES, I wish I had the tongue of Demos- 
 thenes that I might give due response to the senti- 
 ment you have allotted to me. 
 
 Truth and duty, love and faith, incited the noble 
 women of the South from the time when South Caro- 
 lina's palmetto banner was unfurled to the breeze, as 
 notice of the resumption of independent State sover- 
 eignty, until the echo from the last -cannon shot died 
 on the breast of North Carolina's grand mountains. 
 Yea, until Kirby Smith's trans-Mississippi troops 
 furled the last Southern Cross, furled by Lee, furled 
 by Johnston, furled by Taylor, furled by all as a 
 national emblem forever. 
 
 The baptism of the star-set cross in the fire and 
 blood of over twenty-four hundred fields in four years 
 made it dear to all Southern hearts, and still its dusty 
 and tattered folds are sacred and its memories are 
 treasured most by the noble Southern women, whose 
 
 175
 
 176 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 tender fingers gave it form and life and beauty. The 
 women of the South, emulating the patriotism of 
 their mothers and fathers of the Revolution, gave no 
 countenance to kith nor kinsman who failed to take 
 up the gauntlet of war and fight to the bitter end for 
 the rights of the South. No Southern woman said 
 " Stay, and give your gun to a substitute " ; but 
 " You, my father ; you, my husband ; you, my son ; 
 you, my brother ; you, my lover ; you, yourself, go 
 and do your duty ! " 
 
 This spirit wrought an eternal diadem for the 
 women of the Confederacy, and the martial glory of 
 the South is an ornament which each true daughter 
 can wear on her breast better than costly jewels, 
 and forever cherish in her heart with loving adora- 
 tion. When the hour of war came every woman of 
 the South arose with the fire of patriotism in her eye, 
 the resolution of faith in her soul, and undying love 
 in her heart to help her country's cause. In every 
 hamlet throughout the South meetings were held to 
 encourage the men to enlist and to assist in equip- 
 ping the new companies as they were formed. Every- 
 where sewing societies were organized to make the 
 uniforms for the soldiers, and not months, but days, 
 found many 'Companies clad in clothes made by women 
 who never before had plied a needle to cloth for men's 
 raiment. 
 
 I wish I could picture the scenes of those wild and 
 stirring days, when every woman, old and young, 
 gave her time, her influence, and her energies to pa- 
 triotism and country. All Southern men rich and 
 poor, learned and unlearned responded to this 
 spirit, and when they marched to service were clad
 
 THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH 177 
 
 in garments made by mother, wife, sister, daughter, 
 or sweetheart ; and the banner which waved above 
 their ranks was made by these same delicate hands, 
 and given by their loving hearts. 
 
 What an inspiration ! Like a glow, warm from 
 the throne of love, the devotion of the women lifted 
 the men up to the highest standard of chivalry, and 
 counting not the cost nor the odds, Beauregard's 
 battalions laid the foundation of the fame of the 
 South on Manassas' bloody plains, where Jackson's 
 infantry stood " like a stone wall." Then in actual 
 war the offices of the women of the Confederacy came 
 in the tender and noble instincts of sympathy ; 
 day and night, by the side of the wounded on field 
 and in hospital, they dressed the scars and soothed 
 the pains, and with the dying soldiers prayed and 
 wept as Christian faith lifted the departing soul to 
 God. 
 
 Away from the scenes of blood Southern women 
 planted, sowed, and reaped the grain for food; spun 
 and wove and made the cloth into garments for child 
 and maiden, who were as proud of home-spun gowns 
 as king of royal robes. 
 
 This season of adversity implanted deep memo- 
 ries and holy regard for the great cause; and if the 
 infusion of foreign elements should make the young 
 men of other generations forget the virtues of their 
 fathers, all the cruel invasions of progress can never 
 efface their heroic efforts from the hearts of their 
 daughters. 
 
 The convent in Columbia, S. C., was burnt by cruel 
 treachery and the pious nuns with their girl pupils 
 were forced to shiver on the tombs in the churchyard
 
 178 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 through that awful night which saw the destruction 
 of that beautiful city. Next day, by the grace of 
 " the conquering hero," they were assigned quarters 
 in a deserted home, from which these tender girls 
 were regularly marched out to get their rations and 
 required ordered to extend their arms to receive 
 in one hand a piece of bread, in the other a tin cup 
 of coffee thus humiliated, the officer said, to break 
 the spirit of Southern girls. 
 
 Vain effort ! unfruitful insult ! They overwhelmed 
 our armies of men, but no suffering, no humiliation, 
 no insult, no tyrannical oppression, could break the 
 spirit of the heroic daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 I do not recall this event to fire anew the Southern 
 heart, but to demonstrate the depth of suffering en- 
 dured, the climax of insult received, and the loyal 
 heart of patriotism which bore Southern women 
 through the ordeal of war, deserving everlasting re- 
 membrance and perpetual endorsement. Then, even 
 at the end, when desolation and destruction reigned 
 everywhere, the women of the South were imbued 
 with the justice of their cause still faithful to their 
 principles, although all seemed engulfed forever in 
 the grave of defeat. 
 
 When Robert E. Lee surrendered, his soldiers, in 
 the valley of humiliation, lifted up their souls to the 
 Lord for sympathy, and it came through the beam- 
 ing eyes and tender touch of the noble women as 
 sweet messengers from the throne of God. It gave 
 them new hope, new life, new strength, new faith, and 
 made them cling to a great principle which cannot 
 die. That which now as ever and will always underlie 
 true republican government local self-government
 
 makes States sovereigns and not provinces. Upon 
 this our government was founded and must stand. 
 Out of the wrecks of war came the resurrection of 
 this fundamental principle to become firmer in every 
 section of the Union. 
 
 No Southern woman ever uttered the cowardly sen- 
 tence " Believed our cause was right " but our 
 soldiers fought for the eternal principle of justice 
 and inalienable rights ; for the Constitution as our 
 fathers made it ; while the Northern legions of inva- 
 sion fought for sentiment Union, flag, higher law. 
 
 Our women have raised the monuments of the 
 South ; have ever honored the ashes of our dead ; kept 
 green the graves of our heroes ; upheld the pride of 
 our dead Confederacy, and made manifest to the 
 world the character of our soldiers and their fame 
 eternal. Tell it in the east ; tell it in the west ; pub- 
 lish it on the four wings of the winter's rushing 
 winds ; write it on the summer's thundering clouds, 
 and in the flashing lightning's letters, that the women 
 of the South love the memories of the Southern Con- 
 federacy above gold and precious stones. 
 
 What a blessing is woman's love ! It is good and 
 great and beautiful to pierce darkness with sunshine, 
 to turn sadness to gladness, to change grief to joy, 
 to temper a stricken heart with the oil of kindness, 
 to lift a gloomy soul up to the realm of hope, peace, 
 and pleasure. 
 
 All these it has done for us ! Everything in this 
 world would be valueless without the tenderness and 
 sympathy and love of woman. I love the friendship 
 of woman because it is the noblest, the purest, and 
 best. It ennobles man and excites pure aspirations ;
 
 180 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 it breathes softness over a rough nature and blends 
 gentleness with strong character! I know its force, 
 and have felt its touch lift a burdened heart to new 
 hopes ! O woman's friendship, transcendent blessing ! 
 Like the sunlight, it glorifies manhood; like the 
 flower, it beautifies it, and like an angel's prayer, it 
 sanctifies it.
 
 HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY OF ROBERT E. 
 LEE 
 
 [Speech delivered at the Commemorative Service of the one 
 hundredth anniversary of the birth of General Robert E. Lee, 
 Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, Portsmouth, Va., 12, 
 noon, January 19, 1907.] 
 
 WE should rejoice on this hundredth birthday of 
 General Robert E. Lee, and thank God for the blessed 
 privilege of assembling here, in His holy temple, to 
 declare the pride we have in the name and fame of our 
 great military commander, who was ever a consistent 
 and broad-minded member of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church. All of his graces were set in the glori- 
 ous background of Christian manliness ; whether ex- 
 hilarated by victory or crushed by defeat, God was 
 in his mind, and praise for the All Powerful was on 
 his lips. 
 
 If vanity ever entered his heart, no man observed 
 it from his manner or heard it from his tongue. His 
 bearing gave no evidence of boastfulness for his 
 splendid physical development ; his language no touch 
 of conceit for his great victories ; his brilliant intel- 
 lect had no cast of self-adulation. 
 
 Robert E. Lee, when I saw him in life, was my 
 ideal of a Christian commander and a polished gen- 
 tleman. No man whom I have ever met has presented 
 to me such a spotless character, and none has im- 
 pressed me more deeply when the spirit of ambition 
 swells in my bosom. His example tells me that the 
 
 181
 
 182 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 basis of all true greatness is a Christian spirit. I 
 love you, my Confederate comrades, and at this altar 
 I devoutly pray that you will march down the straight 
 and narrow path that Robert E. Lee followed to the 
 new Jerusalem. 
 
 An unbroken thread of Christian faith governed 
 his life from childhood to the end. As a student he 
 was so devoted to duty that he never received a de- 
 merit ; as a young officer in the army on the Texan 
 frontier his heart was always filled with loving kind- 
 ness, so beautifully demonstrated when called upon 
 by his sergeant to perform the funeral rites over his 
 child. Describing the scene in a letter to Mrs. Lee, 
 Colonel Lee wrote : " He was as handsome a little 
 boy as I ever saw . . . about a year old ; I was 
 admiring his appearance the day before he was taken 
 ill. Last Thursday his little waxen form was -com- 
 mitted to the earth. His father came to me, the tears 
 flowing down his cheeks, and asked me to read the 
 funeral service over his body, which I did at the 
 grave, for the second time in my life. I hope I shall 
 not be called on again, for, though I believe it is far 
 better for the child to be called to its Heavenly Crea- 
 tor, into His presence in its purity and innocence, 
 unpolluted by sin, and uncontaminated by the vices 
 of the world, still it so wrings a parent's heart with 
 anguish that it is painful to see. Yet I know it was 
 done in mercy to both mercy to the child, mercy to 
 the parents. The former has been saved from sin 
 and misery here, and the latter have been given a 
 touching appeal and powerful inducement to prepare 
 for hereafter. May it prove effectual, and may they 
 require no further severe admonition ! "
 
 BIRTHDAY OF ROBERT E. LEE 183 
 
 How deep the faith, how pure the heart of Robert 
 Lee, when glittering military ambition might have 
 been his soul's idol! Such glamour never shaded his 
 vision ; duty was his guiding star, and if it led to pro- 
 motion, he gave all credit to the Lord God. 
 
 It was a trial for him to resign from the national 
 service. He loved the Union, and would have given, 
 if he had owned them, the four millions of slaves to 
 save it ; but when its power was invoked to coerce his 
 State, then his fortune and his life were for Virginia. 
 He did not draw his sword for slavery he gave his 
 slaves their freedom, and fought for principles as he 
 invoked his soldiers in his first field order : " That 
 each man resolve to be victorious, and that in him 
 the right of self-government, liberty, and peace shall 
 find a defender." When contentions were rife be- 
 tween his generals in southwest Virginia, he counseled 
 them to overlook all till the enemy was driven back. 
 " I expect this of your magnanimity," he said. 
 
 This most exalted virtue always guided the con- 
 duct of Robert E. Lee, and the spirit of revenge never 
 touched his stainless sword. When his splendid Army 
 of Northern Virginia marched to the invasion of 
 Pennsylvania, he issued orders that private property 
 should be respected with scrupulous care. " It must 
 be remembered that we make war only upon armed 
 men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the 
 wrongs our people have suffered, without lowering 
 ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been 
 excited by the atrocities of our enemy, and offending 
 against Him to Whom vengeance belongeth and with- 
 out Whose favor and support our efforts must prove 
 in vain ! " Although his people were stung, by the
 
 184 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 reckless and wanton destruction of private property 
 in our State, he firmly forbade retaliation. He 
 planted his military conduct on the high ground of 
 civilized warfare, and he is to-day honored by civili- 
 zation for it. 
 
 Immediately after the secession of Virginia he was 
 made general-in-chief of all her forces. He at once 
 set about organizing her soldiers and directed forti- 
 fications on the harbor of Portsmouth and Norfolk. 
 When Virginia joined her forces with the Confeder- 
 acy, Lee was made one of five generals, third in 
 rank, and retained in Richmond as adviser to the 
 President. Afterwards he was ordered to the com- 
 mand of the Northwest Virginia Army. When re- 
 called from that field he took command of the De- 
 partment of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 
 On March 13, 1862, he was assigned to conduct the 
 operations of all the armies of the Confederacy under 
 direction of the President, and returned to Richmond. 
 After the battle of Seven Pines, on June 1, 1862, he 
 was assigned to the personal command of the Army 
 of Northern Virginia, and under him a series of splen- 
 did victories were gained over McClellan, and the 
 siege of Richmond was raised. I cannot now speak 
 of his matchless campaigns with this army, but when- 
 ever he issued a congratulatory order for a victory, 
 he expressed gratitude to the Heavenly Father, the 
 Giver of all blessings. 
 
 On April 9, 1865, the sun of all the glorious mili- 
 tary victories of the Army of Northern Virginia set 
 forever; and then he bore the burden with all the 
 patient graces of exalted manhood. I had often seen 
 him with this army on great battlefields, but when I
 
 BIRTHDAY OF ROBERT E. LEE 185 
 
 saw him amidst the shattered ranks of his hungry 
 soldiers at Appomattox I admired and loved him, if 
 possible, more than before. I heard there his fare- 
 well, which has been appointed to be read at this hour 
 in all the celebrations of this centennial birthday of 
 Robert E. Lee, wherever held. 
 
 " HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, 
 
 " April 10th, 1865. 
 
 " After four years of arduous service, marked by 
 unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of 
 Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to over- 
 whelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the 
 survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have 
 remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented 
 to this result from no distrust of them ; but feeling 
 that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing 
 that could compensate for the loss that would have 
 attended the continuation of the contest, I have de- 
 termined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose 
 past services have endeared them to their country- 
 men. By the terms of the agreement officers and men 
 can return to their homes, and remain there until 
 exchanged. 
 
 " You will take with you the satisfaction that pro- 
 ceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully per- 
 formed; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God 
 will extend to you His blessing and protection. With 
 an unceasing admiration for your constancy, and de- 
 votion to your country, and a grateful remembrance 
 of your kind and generous consideration of myself, 
 I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
 "R. E. LEE, General."
 
 186 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 When some of his men gathered around him to 
 shake hands in farewell, he said : " Men, we have 
 fought through the war together. I have done my 
 best for you, my heart is too full to say more." I 
 saw him ride away from the scene of surrender, and 
 I witnessed with deep emotion that every head uncov- 
 ered as he passed through the broken ranks of sol- 
 diers on his way to Richmond. Stonewall Jackson, 
 whose birthday we jointly celebrate, had " passed 
 over the river and was resting under the shade of the 
 trees " when this solemn separation came to pass. 
 
 After the downfall of the Confederacy General 
 Lee, although tendered a luxurious home abroad and 
 many excellent business offers, declined all to become 
 president of Washington and Lee University, saying: 
 " I have led the young men of the South in battle. I 
 must teach their sons to discharge their duty in life." 
 And in this noble 'Calling he spent the remainder of 
 his life. After the cessation of hostilities he always 
 advised his people to be obedient to the powers that 
 be, to unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects 
 of war and restore the blessings of peace. He said: 
 " I have fought against the people of the North be- 
 cause I believed they were seeking to wrest from the 
 South her dearest rights. But I have never cherished 
 towards them bitter or vindictive feelings, and I have 
 never seen the day when I did not pray for them." 
 
 He was a firm believer that " truth and justice will 
 at last prevail." We observe every day that States' 
 rights are asserted in sections of our country hitherto 
 unknown, and that the fundamental principles of 
 government for which Lee drew his sword are grow- 
 ing stronger and stronger year by year.
 
 BIRTHDAY OF ROBERT E. LEE 187 
 
 Robert E. Lee was born January 19, 1807, and 
 died October 12, 1870. The world paid tribute to 
 his memory and placed him in the highest rank of 
 martial heroes. Our Robert E. Lee stands above 
 Caesar, above Napoleon, above Wellington, higher 
 than Alexander, Marlborough, or Frederick, greater 
 than our own George Washington, and as long as the 
 race of men, as long as the English-speaking people 
 shall exist, so long will the example of Lee and Jack- 
 son give light and glory to the American Common- 
 wealths which sacrificed their children from 1861 to 
 1865 for constitutional liberty. 
 
 " In the valley of Virginia, Lee and Stonewall Jackson sleep ; 
 
 Fame and Memory o'er their ashes aye the guard of honor 
 keep. 
 
 There the mountains of marble, and the South wind's haunt- 
 ing sighs, 
 
 And the pine and palm wreaths mingled, mark where knight- 
 hood lowly lies. 
 
 " In the warm hearts of a nation, in the spirit of a race, 
 There the deathless souls of Chivalry to-day find dwelling- 
 place; 
 
 There it breathes and burns forever in our patriotic pride, 
 Ours, the heirs of Lee and Jackson, while they rest, shrined 
 side by side. 
 
 " One, the Cavalier ennobled, born to counsel and to lead ; 
 One, the Puritan unflinching, holding fast the ancient creed; 
 Each a valiant Christian soldier, wearer of a stainless sword, 
 Deeming, both, in all our language Duty the sublimest word. 
 
 " They together, men and heroes, to the God of Battles gave 
 All the faith of high endeavor, for the guerdon of the brave. 
 Still together, never vanquished, they unfading laurels reap 
 In the valley of Virginia, Lee and Stonewall Jackson sleep ! "
 
 THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA 
 
 [Speech delivered at the seventeenth annual banquet of 
 Picket-Buchannan Camp, Confederate Veterans and Sons of 
 Veterans, in commemoration of the birthday of General Robert 
 E. Lee, on Saturday night, January 19, 1907, at the Monticello 
 Hotel, Norfolk, Va., in response to the toast: 
 
 "THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA!" 
 
 " The peerless host of a peerless leader."] 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I am unable to say anything new of 
 the peerless Army of Northern Virginia, or of its 
 peerless commander, Robert E. Lee, to this audience, 
 and can only hope to refresh your memories with 
 some events which long ago startled the world. 
 
 The Department of Northern Virginia was estab- 
 lished by general orders No. 15, dated at Richmond, 
 October 22, 1861. It was composed of three dis- 
 tricts: the Valley District, commanded by Major- 
 General T. J. Jackson ; the Potomac District, com- 
 manded by General P. G. T. Beauregard, and the 
 Acquia District, commanded by Ma j or-General T. H. 
 Holmes. This department extended from the Alle- 
 ghany Mountains to the mouth of the Potomac River, 
 and was under command of General Joseph E. John- 
 ston. 
 
 It is best for me to repeat the account of an im- 
 partial or disinterested writer as to the sum of the 
 achievements and endurance of our army in its great 
 wrestle for Southern independence. The London 
 
 188
 
 ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA 189 
 
 Evening Herald, an English newspaper, comment- 
 ing upon our army's surrender said : " The South is 
 doomed. With the surrender of Lee ends, not indeed 
 the possibility of military defense, still less that of 
 desperate popular resistance, but hope of final suc- 
 cess. After four years of war, sustained with a 
 gallantry and resolution that have few, if any, 
 precedents in history ; after such sacrifices as perhaps 
 no nation ever made in vain ; after losses that have 
 drained the life-blood of the country ; after a series 
 of brilliant victories, gained under unequaled disad- 
 vantage, courage, skill, and devotion have succumbed 
 to brute force ; numbers have prevailed over the 
 bravest and most united people that ever drew the 
 sword in defense of civil rights and national inde- 
 pendence. To numbers, and to numbers alone, the 
 North owes its triumph. Its advantages in wealth and 
 resources, in the possession of the sea and the com- 
 mand of the rivers, were neutralized by Southern 
 gallantry. In despite of the most numerous navy 
 in the world, half a dozen cruisers drove its commerce 
 from the seas. In despite of its overwhelming 
 superiority in strength of ships and guns, improvised 
 Southern ironclads beat and drove off its blockading 
 squadrons, and Southern cavalry, embarking on little 
 river steamers, captured its armed gunboats. In 
 defiance of all its power, Southern energy contrived 
 to supply the armies of the Confederate States with 
 everything of which they stood in need. 
 
 " When the war broke out, the North had every- 
 thing of military store in abundance, and could draw 
 unlimited supplies from Europe ; the South had 
 scarcely a cannon, had but few rifles, still fewer
 
 190 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 swords or bayonets, and not a single foundry or pow- 
 der factory. All these deficiencies were supplied by the 
 foresight of the Confederate Government and the 
 daring of the Confederate armies. The routed forces 
 of the North supplied artillery and ammunition, rifles 
 and bayonets, to the Southerners. The cannon which 
 thundered against Gettysburg, the shot which 
 crushed the brave mercenaries of Burnside on the 
 slopes above Fredericksburg, came for the most part 
 from Northen arsenals. 
 
 " No Southern failure is attributed to want of arms 
 or powder ; no Federal success was won by the 
 enormous advantages which the North enjoyed in its 
 favor. If their numbers had been equal, long ago 
 would the Federal Government have taken refuge at 
 Boston or New York, and every inch of Southern 
 soil have been free from the step of the invader. 
 Numbers, and numbers alone, have decided the 
 struggle. Almost every battle was won by the South, 
 but every Southern victory has been rendered fruit- 
 less by the overwhelming numerical superiority of the 
 vanquished. The conquerers found themselves on 
 every occasion confronted by new armies, and de- 
 prived of the fruits of victory by the facility with 
 which the broken ranks of the enemy were replenished. 
 The smaller losses of the South were irreparable. 
 The greater sacrifices of the North were of no con- 
 sequence whatever in the eyes of a government which 
 lavished the lives of hired foreign mercenaries in the 
 knowledge that money could repair all that folly 
 and ferocity might destroy. The South has perished 
 by exhaustion by sheer inability to recruit her ex- 
 hausted armies."
 
 ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA 191 
 
 All of this may not be literally true, but few 
 writers, even on the ground, could have more vividly 
 pictured the conditions. Odds did not count with 
 the Army of Northern Virginia. At bloody Sharps- 
 burg 33,000 Confederates repulsed 90,000 Union 
 soldiers ; at Chancellorsville 35,000 defeated over 
 100,000 Federals; in the Wilderness Lee met and 
 whipped 142,000 Federals, the largest single army 
 ever assembled in America, with 50,000 Confederates, 
 and without any reinforcements continued to break 
 and beat back Grant's army, increased by 60,000 
 more. 
 
 Grant's -columns, which fought from the Wilder- 
 ness to Appomattox, splendidly equipped and 
 abundantly fed, including reinforcements, numbered 
 275,000 men, and Lee had to meet this mighty host 
 with not more than 75,000, on short rations, with 
 scanty clothes and poorly armed. At last, during 
 the siege of Petersburg, 33,000 hungry and shivering 
 soldiers held thirty-five miles of defenses from June, 
 1864, until April, 1865, when the overwhelming rein- 
 forcements of the enemy broke the thin line and 
 forced the retreat, leading to the end. 
 
 The conditions of our army are well described in 
 the following extract from a letter of General Lee 
 to the Secretary of War : " All the disposable force 
 of the right wing of the army has been operating 
 against the enemy beyond Hatcher's Run since 
 Sunday. Yesterday, the most inclement day of the 
 winter, they had to be retained in line of battle, 
 having been in the same condition the two previous 
 days and nights. I regret to be obliged to state 
 that under these circumstances, heightened by
 
 192 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 assaults and fire of the enemy, some of the men had 
 been without meat for three days, and all were suffer- 
 ing from reduced rations and scant clothing, exposed 
 to battle, cold, hail and sleet. ... If some 
 change is not made and the commissary department 
 reorganized, I apprehend dire results. The physical 
 strength of the men, if their courage survives, must 
 fail under this treatment. Our cavalry has been 
 dispersed for want of forage. . . . Taking 
 these facts in connection with the paucity of our 
 numbers, you must not be surprised if calamity 
 befalls us." 
 
 Some of you doubtless remember these conditions. 
 I do very vividly, as I happened to be one of the 
 soldiers in the line of battle described by General Lee. 
 It is wonderful with what stout-hearted cheerfulness 
 our soldiers bore their burdens. I remember, while 
 on the retreat from Petersburg, one evening the fires 
 were blazing on a hillside with the men grouped 
 around waiting for their rations, when the com- 
 missary sergeants brought for each man three ears of 
 corn to be parched for supper. A great cry arose 
 everywhere. " Bring the long forage, where is my 
 fodder," all in good nature; and still these dear 
 soldiers obeyed every order with alacrity, inflicting 
 upon the great hosts of their pursuers from the 29th 
 of March to the 9th of April, 1865, a loss of 10,780 
 men. Thousands of our soldiers failing in physical 
 strength, unable to march, fell by the wayside, and 
 were captured. Our depleted army was fighting and 
 marching day and night on the retreat until its ranks 
 had dwindled down to 7892 muskets, which were
 
 ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA 193 
 
 stacked in surrender at Appomattox; virtually 
 crushed beneath ponderous numerical weight. 
 
 A little boy was reading the story of a missionary 
 having been eaten by cannibals. 
 
 " Papa," he asked, " will the missionary go to 
 heaven ? " 
 
 " Yes, my son," replied the father. 
 
 " And will the cannibals go there too? " 
 
 " No," was the reply. After thinking the matter 
 over some time the little fellow said : " Well, I don't 
 see how the missionary can go to heaven, if the can- 
 nibals don't, when he is inside the cannibals." 
 
 Our neighbors over the Potomac with their hosts 
 swallowed us as the cannibals did the missionary, 
 and since they have begun to digest us they have so 
 greatly changed in mind as to conclude that we 
 ought to manage our own internal affairs and even 
 solve the race problem which we shall do with honor 
 to ourselves and justice to the negroes. 
 
 Once on the Petersburg lines two opposite videttes 
 were talking in a bantering humor, when the cook 
 brought up the scant rations of the Confederate. The 
 Federal said: 
 
 " Johnnie, do you get full rations now? " 
 
 " Oh, yes." 
 
 " Get any meat?" 
 
 " Yes ; plenty." 
 
 " Well, be sure to save the fat to grease your body 
 well, so you can easily slip back in the Union." 
 
 This was one on Johnnie, and they joined in a 
 hearty laugh. 
 
 Well, after a long struggle, when we were not 
 only meatless and greaseless, but breadless, they did
 
 194 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 drag us back in the Union, and ever since, according 
 to the advice of General Lee, we have been making the 
 best of the situation and cultivating friendly rela- 
 tions with our late armed foes, working hard to build 
 up the waste places and make our fields bloom like 
 the rose, but we are still proud of the old gray jacket. 
 
 " Then stand up, oh, my countrymen ! 
 
 And unto God give thanks, 
 On mountains, and on hillsides, 
 
 And by the sloping river banks 
 Thank God that you were worthy 
 
 Of the grand Confederate ranks; 
 That you who came from uplands 
 
 And from beside the sea, 
 Filled with love of old Virginia 
 
 And the teachings of the free, 
 May boast in sight of all men 
 
 That you followed Robert Lee."
 
 MAHONE'S BRIGADE 
 
 [The first reunion of the survivors of Mahone's Brigade who 
 were in the charge of the Crater took place at Petersburg on 
 November 6, 1903. Owing to the stormy weather and other 
 unavoidable delays, they did not assemble on the field until 
 three o'clock in the afternoon. Then the Crater Legion 
 marched to the ravine and formed in line of battle where 
 the brigade had formed on July 30, 1864. It knelt in prayer, 
 which was led by Lieutenant John T. West, chaplain, after 
 which the accompanying speech was delivered. At the con- 
 clusion of the speech the order " forward " was given, and 
 the whole line rushed up the hill at a run with the " Rebel " 
 yell, which aroused the ten thousand onlookers. Then fol- 
 lowed the sham battle of the Virginia Volunteers, which 
 made the scene even more thrilling, and so realistic, that the 
 great assemblage of people appeared intoxicated with de- 
 light.] 
 
 MY COMRADES OF MAHONE'S BRIGADE, SURVIVORS OF 
 THE CHARGE OF THE CRATER: 
 
 It is meet to thank God in a grateful spirit and 
 with a loving heart for the privilege of forming again 
 on this old line of battle. I would rather stand here 
 to-day, conscious of having performed my duty in 
 the peril of July 30, 1864, than own thousands of 
 gold and silver. Let us proclaim the Truth in Love ! 
 
 We here declare that we fought for right and jus- 
 tice, for constitutional liberty, for our homes and for 
 our firesides ; and stand up before all men as proud 
 as a king of the uniform we wore in the Confederate 
 ranks. 
 
 The dust of our uncoffined comrades has been 
 stirred in these furrows by the plow of the unthink- 
 
 195
 
 196 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 ing husbandman as the seasons have passed, but we 
 have cherished their memory as the vestal fire of our 
 lives. 
 
 From this line you rose upon your knees, rushed 
 as a whirlwind over this field and crushed the black 
 battalions which had started down the hill in more 
 than fourfold your numbers, hissing " no quarter " 
 in your ears, bent on capturing the city of Peters- 
 burg. 
 
 No wonder Mahone said, " You must save the 
 city ! " No wonder Emmett Richardson shouted, 
 " Now is your time, boys, if you are ever going to 
 do anything for the old Cockade City ! " No wonder 
 all went forward to do or die. 
 
 At nine o'clock in the morning Burnside reported 
 that " many of the Ninth and Eighteenth Corps were 
 retiring before the enemy." You were the enemy 
 who swept them back, and Lee said it was the work 
 of heroes. While at your posts, yonder at Willcox 
 Farm, you heard the tremendous explosion of eight 
 thousands pounds of gunpowder, which had been 
 buried twenty-two feet beneath the surface of the 
 earth, forcing the upheaval of an immense cone of 
 more than one hundred thousand cubic feet of earth, 
 which fell around in heavy masses, crushing and 
 burying alive hundreds of our sleeping soldiers, mak- 
 ing clouds of dust and a great volume of smoke and 
 fire like the outpouring of a great volcano. 
 
 The main gallery of the mine from the enemy's 
 line to the end, under Pegram's Battery, was 522 
 feet in length and the side galleries were about 40 
 feet each. The excavation made by the explosion 
 was 135 feet long, 97 feet broad and 30 feet deep.
 
 MAHONE'S BRIGADE 197 
 
 The artillery opened along the whole line and that 
 day the enemy expended 3833 rounds of ammunition, 
 weighing 75 tons. 
 
 Burnside had planned to rush his negro troops into 
 the breach and throw them into the city upon the 
 sleeping inhabitants, but his superiors, Grant and 
 Meade, made him push his three white divisions, com- 
 manded by Ledlie, Potter, and Willcox, foremost; 
 and they took possession of the Crater and about 
 two hundred yards of our breastworks, including the 
 rear works, termed in the reports " trench cavalier." 
 
 He then put in his negro division of nine regiments, 
 commanded by General Edward Ferrero, to press 
 beyond the white divisions and capture that crest, 
 then the very gateway to the city. 
 
 The enemy held our works from 4 :45 o'clock in 
 the morning, when the mine was exploded, until 8 :45, 
 when the negroes emerged from the trenches, shout- 
 ing, " Remember Fort Pillow ; no quarter for 
 Rebels ! " and coming down this hill, you met them 
 in the open field, hurled them back upon their white 
 supports, recapturing our lines, both " trench 
 cavalier " and the main line up to the crest of the 
 Crater ; and you held on to every inch you gained, 
 and at two o'clock in the afternoon Sanders' Brigade 
 made their splendid charge and finished the work of 
 re-establishing our lines. 
 
 The eight hundred men of Mahone's Brigade who 
 aligned in this ravine on that parching July day, 
 charged into an army corps ! Burnside's Corps re- 
 ported the day after the battle, present equipped for 
 duty, 9555 infantry, and he gave as his loss on the 
 30th of July 3475 officers and men.
 
 198 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 He swore before the court of inquiry that he put 
 every single man of his corps in the fight. Then he 
 must have put in 13,030 men. Now, crediting 3000 
 as his loss up to the time you rose from this place 
 to charge, there were more than 10,000 men of his 
 corps in the works (not counting those of the Eight- 
 eenth Corps he mentions), when you charged up this 
 hill to retake them. Besides there were four army 
 corps (Birney, Hancock, Ord, and Warren) over 
 behind, in supporting distance, aggregating prob- 
 ably more than Lee had in the entire Army of North- 
 ern Virginia, which was stretched out on a line of 
 thirty miles. 
 
 You captured fifteen of their flags, uncounted 
 small arms, and a number of prisoners. General Lee, 
 General Beauregard, and General A. P. Hill looked 
 on from yonder elevation and saw you perform one 
 of the most wonderful feats in the annals of warfare. 
 It sounds like fiction, and although I saw it and was 
 of it in a small measure, I sometimes wonder how it 
 was done. Its magnitude was marvelous ! Its 
 achievement was one of the most thrilling in human 
 experience ! 
 
 Is there any such record in the world's history 
 where five regiments, averaging 175 soldiers, charged 
 an army of 10,000 men and took from them fifteen 
 of their battle standards? 
 
 The testimony of the enemy established the truth 
 of the wonderful victory, and the lamentation of 
 Grant, " It is the saddest affair I have witnessed in 
 the war," re-echoed the praise bestowed on your valor 
 by the peerless Lee. But the cost to you of his praise 
 was the sacrifice of 117 lives of your bravest com-
 
 MAHONE'S BRIGADE 199 
 
 rades, and to them we owe the duty of inscribing 
 their names on imperishable tablets in our temple of 
 fame, soon to be erected in the capitol city of the 
 South, and let us also ask a place for them on the 
 walls of old Blandford Church. 
 
 " For those who fell be yours the sacred trust 
 To see forgetfulness shall not invade 
 The spots made holy by their noble dust; 
 Green keep them in your hearts, Mahone's Brigade." 
 
 A distinguished soldier and eminent citizen of Rich- 
 niond has said, " With the Army of Northern Vir- 
 ginia there were three critical occasions requiring 
 above other occasions, real heroism: 
 
 " First, Jackson holding the line at First Manassas 
 with his brigade from the mountain section. 
 
 " Second, the charge of Pickett's Division at Get- 
 tysburg, composed of Virginians from all sections, 
 most of them from the middle section of Virginia. 
 
 " Third, the charge of eight hundred men of Ma- 
 hone's Brigade, under Colonel D. A. Weisiger, at 
 the Crater, before Petersburg, Virginians from the 
 Tidewater section of Virginia." 
 
 They were all picturesque occasions and required 
 all the courage in men, and Virginians did not fail 
 from any quarter of the dear old State. This is a 
 great tribute to the soldiers of Virginia, which gleams 
 out as the evening star in the shadows of night above 
 surrounding constellations a stone wall at Manas- 
 sas, high tide at Gettysburg, victors at the Crater! 
 
 Soldiers ! nothing in all the earth could bring more 
 honor to your name than the part you acted on this 
 field in throwing yourselves into the breach to save
 
 200 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 the inhabitants of dear old Petersburg from the 
 brutal malice of negro soldiers in the flush of suc- 
 cess, and in saving the Army of Northern Virginia 
 on that critical occasion. Privates ! Soldiers with 
 muskets ! 
 
 " Men of the ranks, step proudly to the front, 
 'Twas yours unknown through sheeted flame to wade, 
 In the red battle's fierce and deadly brunt; 
 Yours be full laurels in Mahone's Brigade."
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER 
 
 [The following address was delivered at the reunion of the 
 survivors of the Battle of the Crater in connection with the 
 Grand Camp reunion in Petersburg, October 26, 1905. It was 
 to have been delivered on the old battlefield that day, but as 
 bad weather broke up the sham battle the survivors heard it in 
 the hall of the reunion instead:] 
 
 MY COMRADES: 
 
 The goodness of God endureth forever. I thank 
 Him for an over-deserving share, and bless His name 
 for this day and this privilege of meeting you. 
 
 Our pilgrimage to this field of blood recalls the 
 eventful times of war, which, although resulting in 
 final surrender, has embalmed its sacred memories in 
 our hearts. 
 
 These sacrificial years will ever be regarded with 
 tenderness and love love immortalized by memory ; 
 for those days of thrilling danger, long marches and 
 short rations invoke the highest ideal of manhood. 
 
 " They say that Hope is Happiness, 
 But genuine Love must prize the past; 
 And Memory makes the thoughts that bless, 
 They rose the first, they set the last. 
 And all that Memory leaves the most 
 Was once our only hope to be: 
 And all that Hope adored and lost 
 Hath melted into Memory." 
 
 I would rather go down to posterity as the 
 humblest private soldier, whose shoeless feet made 
 blood tracks on the soil of Virginia, than the richest 
 
 201
 
 202 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 magnate who ever clipped coupons from corporate 
 bonds. Who would not suffer for the honor of a 
 soldier rather than live in luxury to be the sneer of 
 time? Who would not bear the name of the disarmed 
 Southern soldier fighting with his fists in the bloody 
 trenches of the Crater, rather than that which gath- 
 ered gold from orphans' hunger and widows' tears? 
 
 I speak, now, to demand simple justice at the hands 
 of history for the men who saved Petersburg on the 
 30th day of July, 1864. 
 
 The greatest general of the Federal army, its com- 
 mander-in-chief, was gloomy over the results of his 
 assault upon the Confederate position, which eight 
 thousand pounds of gunpowder had destroyed in the 
 gloaming of that morning. 
 
 The great plan " that was expected to scatter and 
 destroy the army of General Lee " was a failure an 
 utter and disastrous failure; and the Federal corre- 
 spondent who wrote this on August 2, 1864, said: 
 " Often have the Confederates won encomiums for 
 valor, but never before did they fight with such un- 
 controllable desperation." 
 
 Gold went up to its highest notch as compared 
 with greenbacks two dollars and eighty cents in 
 paper for one in gold, which made the average price 
 of gold in July, 1864, the highest during the whole 
 war ; and if the financial thermometer is any guide, 
 the Confederate States were nearer to independence 
 on the day of the Crater than at any other time 
 during the great war between the Northern Nation 
 and the Southern Republic. 
 
 The New York Herald advised that an embassy 
 should be sent to the Confederate Government, " to
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER 203 
 
 see if this dreadful war cannot be ended in a mutually 
 satisfactory treaty of peace." This is evidence from 
 a hostile source of what the artillery and infantry of 
 the Confederates accomplished on this fateful field. 
 
 Yet, when you read some Southern histories, you 
 will find the charge of the Crater entirely ignored or 
 dismissed with a sentence, a paragraph, or perhaps 
 a page. Ex-President Davis's history, after giving 
 a description of the mine and size of the crater, 
 quotes an author who seemed to know nothing of the 
 charge of the infantry of Mahone, only noticing the 
 fire of the artillery and the confusion of the enemy's 
 troops, and then Mr. Davis concludes : " The forces 
 of the enemy finally succeeded in making their way 
 back with a loss of about four thousand prisoners, 
 and General Lee, whose casualties were small, re-estab- 
 lished his line without interruption." 
 
 You might conclude from reading his account that 
 the disordered ranks of the enemy, demoralized by 
 artillery fire, lost heart, retreated at leisure or waited 
 to be rescued from the excavation, but finally made 
 their way back without a bayonet thrust or a sword 
 stroke. The accuracy of this is in keeping with 
 his claim of 4000 prisoners, who actually numbered 
 1101. 
 
 He gives no credit to the men of the three depleted 
 brigades who charged this hill two hundred yards, 
 and fought foot to foot and hand to hand with 
 bayonets and butts, pistols and swords, as desperately 
 and daringly as ever recorded in the annals of war; 
 and took from Burnside nineteen flags Mahone, 15; 
 Sanders, 3 ; Wright, 1. 
 
 Then that voluminuous " Confederate Military
 
 204 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 History," in giving its account leaves out entirely 
 the charge of the Alabama Brigade under the 
 chivalrous Sanders. I shall always remember the 
 splendid manner in which that glorious brigade ac- 
 complished the final act which enabled General Lee 
 to re-establish his line " without interruption." 
 
 Mahone's Brigade had recaptured the works on 
 the left up to the excavation, and I 'Could look back, 
 and see Sanders' Brigade form in the valley and 
 charge in beautiful array up to the rim of the hole 
 held by Bartlett, where, after a short struggle, the 
 white flag went up and Bartlett and his men came out 
 of the hole as Sanders' prisoners of war. No troops 
 ever acted more brilliantly on any field than Ala- 
 bama's faithful sons under the lead of gallant Sanders 
 on that day. 
 
 While speaking of the infantry, I am not unmind- 
 ful of the wonderful work of our artillerymen on that 
 day, and you saw the gallant Haskell with two little 
 cohorn mortars help to force the capitulation of the 
 Crater. 
 
 I must pause here to pay a tribute to that brave 
 Federal general officer, William F. Bartlett, who 
 fought in their front line with the admirable despera- 
 tion that made him the foremost hero of all the officers 
 who commanded the 70,000 troops in our front on 
 that day. Massachusetts never sent out a braver 
 and more dashing soldier to uphold her honor than 
 Bartlett, the Federal hero of the Crater. 
 
 Stung by the unfairness of such treatment from 
 our own historians, I conceived a plan for a reunion 
 of the survivors of Mahone's Brigade who partici- 
 pated in the charge of the Crater, to correct the
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER 205 
 
 injustice to you and to our dead comrades, and it 
 resulted most successfully on that sixth day of 
 November, 1903. I have collected many personal 
 narratives from those who charged with muskets in 
 their hands, but have laid them aside to be read by 
 those coming after us, who may wish to know about 
 the charge of the Crater from the mouths of the 
 participants. 
 
 It was in no spirit of boastfulness that we returned, 
 re-aligned on this battlefield and charged over the 
 same ground where we rushed and fought in the 
 whirl of battle, over forty-one years ago. 
 
 You did no more than your duty ; you did no more 
 than your comrades of other commands who stood 
 to duty ; no more than those who with you won other 
 fields, and I do not claim for you greater honor than 
 for any true Confederate soldier ; but when a feat of 
 arms so brilliant as the successful charge of the 
 Crater, by the three small brigades of Anderson's 
 Division on the 30th day of July, 1864, is brushed 
 aside as a skirmish by those in whom justice is sup- 
 posed to abide, I thought it was time for the par- 
 ticipants to speak out in behalf of the great open 
 field charge, which challenges the world for a parallel. 
 The English historian Gregg says that " the exploit 
 crowned General Mahone with fame that no subse- 
 quent errors can obscure." 
 
 When you helped to defend Petersburg in 1864-65, 
 five times Mahone's Brigade left its place in the 
 breastworks on Willcox farm and twice its winter 
 quarters, and each time successfully charged the 
 troops of the army of the Potomac, and while all 
 reflected great credit on the courage and fidelity of
 
 206 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 the participants, the charge of the Crater was fruit- 
 ful of greater results, and it should be known and 
 will be known if the world will listen, to-day, to the 
 survivors of the men who made this field, saved the 
 Army of Northern Virginia from a fatal disaster and 
 inflicted upon the enemy a defeat that brought the 
 Herald's cry for peace. 
 
 It really seems the irony of fate that you should 
 have to go to your enemies to find justice for your 
 valor ; but it is nevertheless true, for you have to 
 read the " Official Reports " of the Federal officers 
 to know the full force and effect of your prowess on 
 that day. These documents, your written personal 
 experience of the battle, and this demonstration 
 to-day, make me content to rest the history of the 
 charge of the Crater with the historians who come 
 after us. 
 
 The unique feature of a sham battle on a real 
 battlefield will burn your deeds on the ineffaceable 
 tablets of Virginia's history. Between Southern 
 soldiers, who have touched elbows in a charge with 
 bayonets, always exists a brotherhood bound by 
 unwritten and unspoken laws even as strong as the 
 kinship of brothers. While I glory in the everlasting 
 link of kinship between all true Confederate soldiers, 
 1 also thank God that the bond of friendship .has 
 grown between those who held opposite sides of the 
 firing line from 1861 to 1865. 
 
 The old battle-flags given back to us by the 
 unanimous vote of Congress with the willing signature 
 of a chivalrous President are signals of peace and 
 love. They are heralds proclaiming that the veteran 
 soldiers of the North and South love their enemies
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER 207 
 
 for the glory of God and have united in friendship 
 for the honor of the great American republic. 
 
 " Our flag of glory, fly no more 
 Where 'mid mad battle's thunder roar 
 
 We brothers slay ! 
 
 Glow love in souls where once glared ire! 
 Then never will a star expire 
 Until the heavens in final fire 
 
 Have passed away ! " 
 
 We rally again to recount the actions and to re- 
 call the memories of war in a spirit of friendly rivalry 
 which will shed luster on the Army of Northern 
 Virginia and the Army of the Potomac in degrees 
 humiliating to neither. Let the truth come, and the 
 American soldier who stood with Lee and Jackson 
 will be found by the future historian as true and 
 patriotic as the soldier who fought with Grant and 
 Hancock; and the cause of the South shall be pro- 
 nounced absolutely right and just under the Con- 
 stitution to which George Washington affixed his 
 signature.
 
 FITZHUGH LEE 
 
 [A eulogy delivered before Stonewall Camp, Confederate 
 Veterans, May 2, 1905.] 
 
 COMRADES : 
 
 It is a struggle, a continuous battle, to live. It 
 is hard to live. I tremble from dread as I walk the 
 highway of life. I fear more to live than I do to die. 
 God help me to live, and I do not fear death. 
 
 A great man, Fitzhugh Lee, is dead unburied 
 to-night. He nobly fought the battles of life; 
 trouble stood in his way like milestones on a turnpike, 
 but he reached the goal with greater achievements 
 than he reckoned, and his name is burned into our 
 hearts as a hero whom we love. 
 
 We remember that after he sheathed his sword he 
 pursued with his whole soul the teachings of Robert 
 E. Lee, the great leader of the South, and had ac- 
 complished more to make lasting friendship between 
 the North and the South than any other man who 
 has lived to see the twentieth century, except John 
 B. Gordon, of Georgia. He was one of the strongest 
 arches in the bridge of peace across the bloody 
 chasm of the intersectional war. He changed mil- 
 lions of enemies into friends, and chained their hearts 
 in bonds of affection. He accepted the arbitrament 
 of war and made peace the glory of a splendid 
 career. 
 
 As a diplomat in Cuba he gave an enduring name 
 for American history, and as the leader of the inter- 
 
 208
 
 FITZHUGH LEE S09 
 
 national celebration of the settlement of Jamestown 
 he has awakened the enthusiasm of the nation, and 
 died in its harness, with the armor of love over his 
 heart and the whisper of pleasantness on his lips. 
 
 The last time I saw him we spoke from the same 
 rostrum to the veterans and people of Princess Anne 
 for a monument to the hero dead of that county. 
 His eloquent words had the ring of pure metal, and 
 his polished sentences lifted the souls of his audience 
 to do honor to the proud people who had gone before, 
 and to-day a monument to the Confederate soldiers 
 of Princess Anne stands upon the court green of that 
 noble county. 
 
 Fitz. Lee was our comrade in the war for Southern 
 independence. He was one of our brightest lights 
 in the darkness of defeat and reconstruction. He was 
 Virginia's most brilliant Governor. He was one of 
 our greatest fellow-citizens in the reunited United 
 States. He was in the saddle to unfold to the world 
 the proudest sentiment of the English speaking 
 people the sentiment which planted and cultivated 
 the seed at Jamestown of the greatest republic of the 
 world when he fell dead like a soldier on the battle- 
 field. His name needs no encomiums from us, but we 
 need to speak of him for the good to us and to others. 
 We point to him as an exemplar for our lives and the 
 lives of our children. His conduct says : " Fight 
 with cheerfulness the battles of life, having faith in 
 the Redeemer, and all will be well." 
 
 My poor words are but feeble expressions of our 
 feelings on this solemn occasion.
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 
 
 A LITTLE girl after listening to her father relate 
 the story of Gettysburg said : " Daddy, I believe if 
 Stonewall Jackson had been there we would have 
 won." " Why? " inquired the father. " Because he 
 had such a sly way of sneaking up behind the 
 Yankees and scaring them." That was a bright 
 exposition of Jackson's military strategy, and many 
 believe the Confederacy would have lived had not 
 Stonewall Jackson died too soon. 
 
 General " Dick " Taylor said : " Praying and 
 fighting appeared to be Jackson's idea of the whole 
 duty of man." 
 
 General Thomas J. Jackson was a man of intense 
 purpose, consuming earnestness and gentle Christian 
 spirit. There was in him the rare union of strength 
 and simplicity, of child-like faith, and fiery energy. 
 His kindness was like the touch of a woman, for those 
 who performed their duty ; his sharpness like the edge 
 of a sword, for those who failed. He was a thunder- 
 bolt in war, the great Jupiter of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia, a mighty captain who held the 
 hosts of the enemy in the hollow of his hand. 
 
 Jackson was born at Clarksburg, Harrison County, 
 Virginia, on January 21, 1824. His father died in 
 1827, leaving him a penniless orphan, and he grew to 
 manhood in the hard school of poverty. While 
 struggling in the mighty battle of life he wore the 
 badge of a constable, and when performing the duty 
 
 210
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 211 
 
 he was notified by the village blacksmith of a chance 
 to be appointed a cadet to West Point. The ap- 
 pointment was given him through the influence of 
 his Congressman, and at that renowned school he was 
 educated in the art of war. His first practical 
 experience in warfare was in Mexico, where he won 
 the spurs of a field officer. At the conclusion of the 
 Mexican War he served a short time in the Regular 
 Army, and then became a professor in the Virginia 
 Military Institute. 
 
 When Virginia seceded from the Union he was 
 ordered to Richmond with his corps of cadets, the 
 cadets to be drill-masters for the volunteers who were 
 pouring in from the South to protect our borders 
 from threatened invasion. Major Jackson was soon 
 promoted to colonel and sent to Harper's Ferry, a 
 most important post 6n the upper Potomac at its 
 junction with the Shenandoah River. 
 
 "Who is this Major Jackson, that we are asked 
 to commit to him such an important post? " inquired 
 a member of the State Convention, when his name 
 was up for confirmation. " He is one," replied the 
 Honorable Samuel McDowell Moore, " who, if you 
 order him to hold a post, will never leave it alive to 
 be occupied by the enemy." 
 
 When the Virginia forces were turned over to the 
 Confederate Army General Joseph E. Johnston was 
 put in command of the Army of the Shenandoah, but 
 as no instructions were sent to Jackson from the 
 Virginia authorities, he informed the Confederate 
 General Johnston that he had been placed there by 
 General Lee, as commander of Virginia troops, and 
 that his fidelity as a soldier constrained him to hold
 
 212 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 his position until he should receive orders from the 
 same source to resign it into other hands. It was 
 not long before he was officially advised, and at once 
 became a faithful and zealous supporter of Johnston, 
 ever after their relations being cordial and pleasant. 
 
 His commanding officer ordered him to watch the 
 enemy on the upper Potomac with instructions to 
 retreat in the event of an advance of the enemy in 
 force. The Federals began an advance on July 2, 
 1861, and Jackson made disposition of his forces to 
 check them, and the next day the affair called " Fall- 
 ing Waters " took place. It was here that he ordered 
 Captain Pendleton, with one gun, to open fire at a 
 favorable opportunity. When he found the road in 
 front filled with the enemy the reverend captain 
 opened fire, and as the lanyard was pulled he said: 
 " Lord, have mercy on their 1 souls." His prayerful 
 shots cleared the road, but Jackson, finding that, 
 Avith the superior force, the enemy was about to flank 
 him, ordered a retreat, which was so skillfully and 
 successfully accomplished as to elicit praise from 
 his commanders (Lee and Johnston), who made that 
 date the date of his commission as brigadier-general. 
 His brigade was composed of the Second, Fourth, 
 Fifth, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-third Virginia 
 Infantry, and Pendleton's battery of artillery. 
 
 Jackson was resting with his forces at Win- 
 chester when Beauregard called on Johnston for 
 assistance, and Jackson struck his tents on July 18, 
 and hastened over the mountains to Manassas. Ar- 
 riving there on July 21, while Beauregard and John- 
 ston were galloping up and down the line with the 
 color bearers to encourage their hard-pressed troops,
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 213 
 
 when the tide of battle was going against us, the 
 First Brigade was the first to meet our retreating 
 forces, and take position with the artillery, arrest- 
 ing the victorious progress of the enemy holding 
 him in check until reinforcements arrived, and finally 
 with a bayonet charge piercing the Federal center, 
 which turned the tide and gave the famous victory 
 of First Manassas to the Confederates. 
 
 For over three hours Jackson's men bore the brunt 
 of the fierce onslaughts of the invaders, and his only 
 caution was, " Steady, men, steady." When all 
 seemed lost General Bee rode up to Jackson exclaim- 
 ing, " They are beating us back ! " " Then," said 
 Jackson, " we will give them the bayonet," and Bee 
 rode back to rally his men, saying : " Look at Jack- 
 son ! there he stands like a stone wall ! Rally behind 
 the Virginians," and while leading his reformed ranks 
 back to support Jackson, he fell dead with his face to 
 the foe. What a hero was this grand South 
 Carolinian ! 
 
 After Manassas, Jackson was promoted to major- 
 general and made commander of the Army of the 
 Valley. He made his headquarters during the winter 
 of 1861-62 at Winchester, where he lost no time in 
 training and recruiting an army which made the 
 world marvel at its triumphs. In a midwinter expe- 
 dition, January 10, 1862, he drove the enemy from 
 Romney, but lost the fruits of his victory by the 
 dissatisfaction of General Loring, who induced the 
 War Department to order his command back to Win- 
 chester, against Jackson's wishes. This being too 
 much for Jackson's self-respect, he at once sent his 
 conditional resignation to the Secretary of War, but
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 fortunately through the good offices of his friend, 
 Governor Letcher, he withdrew it. 
 
 After the evacuation of Romney by Loring, the 
 Federals took possession and spread out along the 
 Potomac in such numbers as to threaten Winchester 
 on all sides. Loring with all his troops, except the 
 Virginians, had been ordered elsewhere and Jackson's 
 position was greatly endangered by the overwhelming 
 forces in his front. His regular troops numbered 
 only about four thousand, and he was confronted by 
 two hostile armies numbering forty-five thousand, 
 under Banks and Lander. Under these conditions 
 General Johnston ordered Jackson to engage the at- 
 tention of the invaders without exposing himself to 
 defeat, so as to prevent, if possible, any detachment 
 of their force reinforcing McClellan. It was an 
 important and responsible mission. On the approach 
 of Banks, after making a demonstration, Jackson 
 evacuated Winchester, on March 11, 1862, slowly 
 retreating to Woodstock and to Mount Jackson, 
 forty miles distant, and Shields moved forward in 
 pursuit to Strausburg. 
 
 Believing Jackson was out of the way, Shields was 
 recalled to march to McClellan at Manassas. Jack- 
 son at once pushed his little army forward in pursuit. 
 The cavalry under General Turner Ashby, harassing 
 Shields' rear, erroneously reported that all but one 
 brigade had gone, thus misleading Jackson as to the 
 strength of the enemy. After marching fourteen 
 miles, arriving at Kearnstown at two o'clock in the 
 afternoon, he concluded to make an assault upon the 
 enemy and led his men to the attack ; for three hours 
 the sanguinary and stubborn contest continued, but
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 215 
 
 finally overcome by superior numbers, his brave 
 legions were compelled to retreat. The Federals 
 captured about three hundred prisoners, and although 
 this bold attack was unsuccessful, it led to many im- 
 portant results. It recalled all the Federal troops 
 then marching towards Manassas, and created such 
 consternation in Washington that McDowell's Corps 
 was recalled from McClellan, to protect that city. 
 The Confederate Congress voted Jackson its thanks 
 for his achievement at Kearnstown. 
 
 About the last of April Jackson applied to General 
 Lee for reinforcements, but he could only spare him 
 the commands of Ewell and Edward Johnson. Gen- 
 eral Joseph E. Johnston had transferred the mass of 
 his army to the front of Richmond, where he had 
 command in person. Banks followed Jackson slowly 
 and attempted no serious advance until April 17, 
 when Jackson retired to Harrisonburg, crossing the 
 main fork of the Shenandoah, and took up a position 
 at the western base of the Blue Ridge in Swift Run 
 Gap, and from there moved up the river to Port 
 Republic. He crossed the mountains and ordered 
 Ewell to take his place at Port Republic, and then 
 recrossed the mountains at Brown's Gap, marched 
 rapidly through Staunton, made a junction with 
 Edward Johnson, and on May 8, reached McDowell, 
 securing a commanding position which the enemy 
 saw, if held, would force its surrender, and made a 
 desperate attempt to recover. Milroy and Schenck, 
 having united, fought desperately for three hours 
 in the attempt to recover it, but after a bloody 
 struggle they were forced back, and under cover of 
 night retreated to Franklin, twenty-four miles
 
 216 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 distant. Jackson followed them, but finding Fremont 
 there with ten thousand fresh troops, and deeming it 
 inadvisable to attack such a superior force, he turned 
 back and under cover of his cavalry marched (May 
 13) rapidly within seventeen miles of Staunton and 
 turned towards Harrisonburg, sending Ewell a dis- 
 patch that he was 'Coming to attack Banks with their 
 united forces. The Confederates marched from 
 Franklin to Front Royal, 120 miles, in ten days, ar- 
 riving there on May 23. After capturing Front 
 Royal and while pursuing the enemy, Jackson per- 
 sonally, at the right moment, directed the charge of 
 250 Virginia troopers under Colonel Thomas S. 
 Flournoy, capturing 600 prisoners, including 23 
 officers and a whole section of artillery, performing 
 one of the most brilliant feats of the war. 
 
 Banks, surprised by this fierce and sudden attack 
 on his flank, precipitately retreated from Strausburg 
 to Winchester, and Jackson forging forward after 
 him captured men and stores all along the route. 
 
 When Jackson arrived in front of Winchester 
 about daylight on May 25, he found the Federal 
 forces drawn up across the approaches to the town. 
 Without halting, he maneuvered his army into posi- 
 tion under the mists of the May morning, all the time 
 steadily pressing the enemy, until his whole line being 
 in battle order, just as the bright morning sun dis- 
 persed the veil of mist, they swept forward, ten 
 thousand bayonets glistening in splendid array, with 
 a great " Rebel " yell sounding above the thunder of 
 battle, and the Federal lines broke and the disordered 
 hosts crowded into the streets of Winchester. 
 
 Jackson, riding recklessly with his old brigade in
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 217 
 
 the forefront of victorious battle, raised himself in 
 his stirrups, and waving his cap in the direction of 
 the fleeing foe, shouted to his men, " Press forward 
 to the Potomac ! " With one exception the enemy's 
 regiments lost all order in the streets, and the Con- 
 federates with terrible rushes and fierce yells drove 
 them out, scattering them across the fields beyond 
 the town. As Jackson's soldiers pressed through the 
 streets the citizens, frantic with joy, rushed out from 
 every doorway, and with weeping and with laughter, 
 with the blessings of women and praises of men, the 
 Army of the Valley was urged forward in hot pursuit. 
 
 Jackson, leading the van, continued the pursuit 
 five miles beyond Winchester before he halted his 
 tired infantry for bivouac. Banks continued his 
 flight until he stood upon the northern bank of the 
 Potomac. The Federals were driven between fifty 
 and sixty miles in forty-eight hours, and if Ashby's 
 cavalry had not been forgetful of duty, in gathering 
 spoils, but few of Banks' grand army would have 
 escaped. Jackson was heard to exclaim : " Oh, that 
 my cavalry were in place, never was there such a 
 chance for cavalry ! " As it was, over three hundred 
 thousand dollars' worth of quartermaster's stores and 
 three thousand prisoners were captured. The victory 
 was glorious for the Southern arms. 
 
 Within four weeks Jackson's army had made long 
 and rapid marches, fought six skirmishes and two 
 battles, capturing colors, artillery, numerous pris- 
 oners, vast medical, ordnance and other stores, 
 finally driving the great hosts of hostile invaders out 
 of the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah. After 
 the capture of Winchester Jackson marched his little
 
 218 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 army forward until the gleam of its campfires were 
 reflected in the waters of the Potomac. As Washing- 
 ton was threatened, the enemy proceeded to send 
 heavy columns against him, and finding it prudent 
 to retire, on the 30th of May he set his forces in 
 movement, and in one day marched thirty miles, put- 
 ting his army between Fremont and McDowell, who 
 were hastening to Strausburg to intercept his 
 retreat. Friday morning he was confronting Banks 
 at Harper's Ferry, and by Sunday night, although 
 encumbered by prisoners and captured stores, he had 
 covered a distance of between fifty and sixty miles, 
 passing between his two adversaries and reaching 
 Strausburg, the objective point, before either. 
 
 Jackson 'Continued to fall back to Harrisonburg. 
 On June 6, Sir Percy Wyndham, wishing to show his 
 mettle, made a dash with a squadron of cavalry upon 
 Ashby, who captured the English nobleman with his 
 entire force. Then the enemy threw forward a strong 
 force to retrieve the loss, and while in this fierce 
 combat the gallant Ashby was shot from his horse 
 and killed. The death of Ashby was a sad blow to 
 the Army of the Valley. Jackson rested his tired 
 forces two days, but upon June 8 Shields made a dash 
 upon his camp, which he promptly repulsed, driving 
 the enemy across the river. The same day Fremont 
 attacked Ewell at Cross Keys, who defeated his 
 assailants, gaining a brilliant victory. This em- 
 boldened Jackson to assail his opponent, so he 
 crossed to the opposite side of the river and, making 
 the attack, gained a decisive victory. The next day 
 both Fremont and Shields were in full retreat down 
 the Valley. Now within forty days Jackson had
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 219 
 
 marched four hundred miles, fought four pitched 
 battles, defeating four separate armies, with many 
 skirmishes and combats, capturing many prisoners 
 and valuable munitions of war. This ended his cele- 
 brated Valley campaign, one of the most brilliant in 
 the annals of war. 
 
 Jackson was called from the Valley to help Lee 
 raise the siege of Richmond, and, arriving there with 
 his army, he was ordered to turn the enemy's works 
 at Mechanicsville, and there he directed the glorious 
 charges which drove the Federals across the Chicka- 
 hominy, fighting on with Lee until McClellan gave up 
 his "On to Richmond." 
 
 Meanwhile the boastful Pope had combined 
 the commands of Fremont, Shields, Banks, and 
 McDowell into an army of fifty thousand men, which 
 he had concentrated at Culpeper Court House. 
 Jackson's arm}', reinforced by the Division of A. P. 
 Hill, marched to the fight, and on August 9 met 
 Pope on the borders of Cedar Run. There a deadly 
 struggle ensued. The conflict, fierce and stubborn, 
 hung in the balance for awhile; Winder, the noble 
 leader of the first brigade, was killed at a -critical 
 moment then Jackson for the first time in war, drew 
 his sword, shouting to his broken ranks, " Rally, 
 brave men, and press forward! Jackson will lead 
 you ! Follow me ! " The appeal was effectual, the 
 unexpected rally shocked the enemy, and before re- 
 covering they were routed and driven from the field. 
 That night Jackson with his victorious troops 
 bivouacked upon the battlefield. He pronounced 
 this the most successful of all his exploits. 
 
 Fearing no danger from McClellan on the pen-
 
 220 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 insula, General Lee moved his army to form a junc- 
 tion with Jackson to threaten Washington. Pope 
 retreated across the Rappahannock, and on August 
 20 Lee marched forward to carry out his designs. 
 Jackson was ordered to cross the Rappahannock high 
 up and hasten to get in Pope's rear. This he accom- 
 plished by marching fifty miles in two days, cap- 
 turing Bristoe Station, with a large amount of stores, 
 and then crossing the stream to Manassas, he burned 
 the railroad bridge behind him. On the 29th the 
 enemy offered battle, and about ten o'clock in the 
 morning it was on. As desired, Longstreet came up 
 in good time, and for many hours the conflict raged. 
 Six times the enemy made determined assaults and 
 six times they were gallantly repulsed. Both wings 
 were desperately engaged throughout the day, and 
 not until nine o'clock at night did the battle cease 
 on Longstreet's front. General Lee, having arrived 
 on the field, assumed command on the morning of 
 August 30. He held his lines on the defensive, and 
 not until four o'clock did the enemy move to an 
 assault. They came in three lines a dense mass 
 rushing like great billows against our troops, but 
 every time recoiled before our terrible fire. After a 
 while both wings of Lee's army were ordered to close 
 in upon the enemy, and aided by a terrific fire of 
 artillery, the Federal lines were broken just as dark- 
 ness set in, and about ten o'clock the battle came 
 to an end as a terrible rainstorm poured out its 
 torrents. There the Confederates again slept on the 
 field of victory^ 
 
 And now the armies of McClellan and Pope which 
 had joined issue with Lee at this second Manassas
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 221 
 
 retreated and sought shelter in the fortifications of 
 Washington. Lee decided to invade Maryland, with 
 the hope of arousing her people to join his army, 
 and sent Jackson again to the Valley to cross the 
 Potomac and capture Harper's Ferry, which he soon 
 accomplished, with eleven thousand prisoners, sixty 
 pieces of artillery, thirteen small arms, numbers of 
 horses and wagons and vast quantities of stores. 
 This forward movement of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia brought on the great batte of Sharpsburg, 
 where Jackson's stubborn resistance against over- 
 whelming odds added new laurels to his fame. 
 
 Turning from this battle we next find Jackson 
 directing the right wing of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia in the great battle of Fredericksburg, where 
 was presented the most dramatic and imposing 
 tableau of war ever witnessed on an American battle- 
 field. Jackson, here as elsewhere, was the superb 
 leader, who made Burnside's left wing stagger and 
 recoil to the banks of the Rappahannock. 
 
 And now we come to Jackson's last fight. The 
 great battle of Chancellorsville was opened by the 
 advance of Mahone's Brigade from the Tabernacle 
 church about eleven o'clock, May 1, 1863, supported 
 by others of Anderson's and McLaws' divisions, and 
 they vigorously pushed the enemy back until within 
 a mile and a quarter of Chancellorsville, where 
 Hooker was so strongly entrenched as to make a 
 direct attack too hazardous. General Lee resolved 
 to endeavor to turn his right flank and gain his rear. 
 The execution of this plan was entrusted to General 
 Jackson, with three divisions of his corps. Early on 
 the morning of May 2 he started on the long march,
 
 222 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 and his leading division reached the old turnpike road 
 three miles in rear of Chancellorsville about four 
 o'clock, and as the other divisions came up they were 
 formed at right angle to the road. At six o'clock in 
 the evening the advance in line of battle was ordered. 
 General Lee's official report says : " The enemy were 
 taken by surprise, and fled after a brief resistance. 
 General Rhodes' men pushed forward with great vigor 
 and enthusiasm, followed closely to the second and 
 third lines. Position after position was carried, the 
 guns captured, and every effort of the enemy to rally 
 defeated by the impetuous rush of our troops. In 
 the ardor of pursuit through the thick and tangled 
 woods, the first and second lines at last became 
 mingled and moved together as one. The enemy 
 made a stand at a line of breastworks across the road, 
 at the house of Melzar Chancellor, but the troops of 
 Rhodes and Colston dashed over the entrenchments 
 together, and the flight and pursuit were resumed, 
 and continued until our advance was arrested by the 
 abatis in front of the line of works near the central 
 position at Chancellorsville. It was now dark, and 
 General Jackson ordered the third line, under General 
 A. P. Hill, to advance to the front, and relieve the 
 troops of Rhodes and Colston, who were completely 
 blended and in such disorder, from the rapid advance 
 through intricate woods and over broken ground, 
 that it was necessary to re-form them. As Hill's men 
 moved forward General Jackson, with his staff and 
 escort, returning from the extreme front, met his 
 skirmishers advancing, and in the obscurity of the 
 night were mistaken for the enemy and fired upon. 
 Captain J. K. Boswell, chief engineer of the corps,
 
 STONEWALL JACKSON 223 
 
 and several others were killed and a number wounded. 
 General Jackson himself received a severe injury, and 
 was borne from the field." It was indeed " severe," 
 for it proved mortal. 
 
 A. P. Hill having been wounded about the same 
 time, General J. E. B. Stuart was put in Jackson's 
 place. Early next morning Stuart renewed the 
 attack and effecting a junction with Anderson, the 
 whole line pressed irresistibly forward until by ten 
 o'clock the field of Chancellorsville was in full 
 possession of the victorious Confederates. Jackson's 
 movement turned the enemy's position and decided 
 the fortunes of the day. The matchless energy and 
 skill that marked this last act of his life General 
 Lee said " was a worthy conclusion of that long 
 series of splendid achievements which won for him 
 the lasting love and gratitude of his country." 
 
 The most beautiful characteristic of this dashing 
 soldier was the humble Christian demeanor which 
 shone over all his military victories. Not a plaudit 
 came to him, but he said : " Give the glory to God." 
 His martial life was ennobled by his Christian devo- 
 tion, and from his boyhood to his death he was the 
 very model of a Christian gentleman, and he died as 
 he had lived, clinging to the cross of the Nazarene. 
 His wounds were fatal and on May 10, 1863, the 
 Lord's Day, he went down to the river of death and 
 crossed into the beautiful city, where the throne of 
 God is fixed, and the blessed Saviour sits upon the 
 right hand.
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS is the pearl of Southern pride, 
 a figure which stands for the people's honor, a char- 
 acter of chaste elegance which chivalric men admire 
 the stainless statesman, brave soldier, and Christian 
 patriot whose private virtues and public acts were 
 alike pure and true to God and his country. 
 
 That unflinching loyalty and heroic devotion to 
 duty which made him the symbol of Southern pride 
 is now a living light of our lost nation. Courtly, 
 reserved, firm and true, he has left a brilliant fame to 
 adorn our homes. 
 
 Although his republic was blotted from the maps, 
 it is still imprinted in the hearts of the people, where 
 its eternal principles will live as blessings for the 
 people in the future. 
 
 He resigned his seat in Congress to command the 
 First Mississippi Regiment in the Mexican War, a 
 regiment which won splendid fame in the battles with 
 Santa Anna, and the gallantry of the young colonel 
 was so conspicuous as to elicit the praise of the 
 Duke of Wellington. 
 
 At the battle of Buena Vista his brilliant stand, 
 with 365 men against 2000 well-equipped Mexican 
 cavalry, saved the left wing of Taylor's army. He 
 remained in his saddle from early morning until the 
 battle was won, and though seriously wounded, was 
 unconscious of pain while there was need of his serv- 
 ices on the field. As a result of this wound he was 
 
 224
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS 225 
 
 compelled to move about on crutches for a period of 
 two years. 
 
 As Secretary of War and Senator in the United 
 States Congress he ranked with the most distin- 
 guished men of the nation, and although a true 
 Southerner, he sincerely loved the Union and made 
 all honorable efforts in his power to preserve it, as 
 our fathers intended it to stand; but his earnestness 
 and eloquence could not prevail. He was slow to 
 join the spontaneous uprising of the South against 
 Northern fanaticism, because he hoped to save its 
 cause through peaceful means. His judgment was 
 conservative, and, with a heart full of love for his 
 people, he desired to stay the rivers of blood which 
 he foresaw would flow from the sword of war. 
 
 He was called to the chief office of the new nation 
 by the unanimous voice of the people, and served 
 them with bravery, fortitude, and faithfulness, giv- 
 ing his best energies and great intellect to the cause 
 of Southern independence, and when defeat over- 
 whelmed the Confederacy, he calmly went to prison, 
 reviled, starved, shackled, insulted, and cruelly tor- 
 tured in every way venom could devise or malice in- 
 vent. He suffered all these indignities for his cause 
 and his people. These humiliations were like iron in 
 the soul of the South, but the manliness of Jefferson 
 Davis in his sufferings is a source of pride, and a 
 lesson of honor which will ever be enshrined in the 
 archives of our memory.
 
 APPOMATTOX 
 
 [A speech delivered at the Third Annual Reunion of Ma- 
 hone's Brigade in the Academy of Music, Petersburg, Va., 
 Monday, July 30, 1877.] 
 
 ALTHOUGH this association has always seemed to 
 me one of the most honorable and agreeable that 
 anyone who has a Virginia heart in his bosom could 
 desire to address, I should have been glad, my com- 
 rades, if your . committee had selected some abler 
 mind for the task ; but as they saw fit to bestow the 
 high honor upon me, I felt it my duty to respond as 
 well as I could. I essay the task with unaffected dif- 
 fidence and emotion. 
 
 Oh, my comrades, what proud and glorious asso- 
 ciations surround us to-day ! Holy memories are 
 revived, valorous achievements are recalled, and ten- 
 der affections are renewed ! Petersburg is a magical 
 word, quickening the imagination and filling the mind 
 with vivid recollections of the glorious past ! Again 
 we see the proud columns of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia, with bright bayonets and floating battle- 
 flags, filing through these streets ! Again we hear 
 the beautiful maidens utter fervent prayers for the 
 ragged soldiers, and see their tender hands strewing 
 their pathway with flowers. Here, under the holy 
 spires, ever pointing to the kingdom of the King of 
 Kings, that for so many months withstood all the 
 anger of an enemy's most powerful artillery, in the 
 midst of the devoted women who shared the perils of 
 the great thunderbolts of war with their fathers and 
 
 226
 
 APPOMATTOX 227 
 
 brothers and husbands; encircled by bloody fields, 
 rich in daring deeds and unrivaled chivalry, the sol- 
 diers who made yonder hill as renowned as Ther- 
 mopylae or Balaklava, more than any other spot upon 
 God's footstool, delight to gather in their annual 
 reunions. By the holiest ties that can fasten brave 
 men's hearts, they love Petersburg and its people. 
 
 Besides these and the sacred mission which has 
 called us together, there is social sweetness and charm 
 about this meeting which delights and gladdens many 
 over-burdened hearts. It is pleasant for brothers to 
 dwell together in peace and unity, and a union of 
 brother soldiers, though short as a day, gives the 
 most happy recreation that human nature is capable 
 of enjoying. To meet eye to eye, breast to breast, 
 with hand clasped in hand, brings to the bosom such 
 emotions as no words can express, and tears only tell 
 the deep affection of kindred hearts. 
 
 Of what shall I speak to-day? Shall we touch 
 elbows once more and march with bleeding feet over 
 rough mountain highways under an almost tropical 
 sun ? Shall we recall old reflections around the camp- 
 fires that dotted the hills of Fredericksburg, like the 
 glittering guardians of night dot the dark vault of 
 heaven? Shall we recharge over the blazing leaves 
 of the Wilderness and see brave Wadsworth's sword 
 gleaming high above flying locks of snow-white hair, 
 and tell how hero-like he died, urging his broken and 
 flying ranks to meet us in deadly strife? Shall we 
 look to Spottsylvania, when massed columns were 
 pressing our lines back and the battle raging with 
 doubtful results, and behold Robert E. Lee riding 
 down the front, where the iron hail fell thickest, with
 
 228 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 cool courage and stately bearing arousing his sol- 
 diers to desperate determination? Oh, that grand 
 sight, that made every man experience supreme mo- 
 ments of self-forgetfulness in the very jaws of death, 
 and utter silent and reverent prayers to God for him 
 whom they loved as life ! But let us pass the many 
 fields that crowned your arms with victory and go to 
 the sad scenes which closed your career as soldiers. 
 
 " The very cypress droops to death 
 Dark tree, still sad when others' grief is fled, 
 The only constant mourner o'er the dead." 
 
 The world forgets and gives no heed to the requiem 
 of the dead nation ; but in the hearts of its soldiers 
 forgetfulness is unknown, and from these sacred 
 sanctuaries the mourners' grief flows in everlasting 
 tide, and their heads, like the stately cypress, droop 
 in eternal sorrow. Thither to the grave of their 
 country, Appomattox, their footsteps often turn in 
 sacred pilgrimage, and while retracing, in thought, 
 its death throes, whisperings, " tread lightly, 'tis 
 sacred ground," come trooping up, for there the 
 nation that they loved was stricken down and buried 
 forever. 
 
 The last reveille moved our command from the line 
 of battle where the night of April 8, 1865, was spent, 
 after the hard march from its victorious field of 
 Cumberland. Then, after a few miles' march, a halt 
 was ordered on the now famous fields of Appomattox, 
 just as the sun was throwing his curtains of crimson 
 and gold over the eastern sky and while the newborn 
 leaves were yet burdened with dew. The country is 
 undulating, and an elevated position brings a large
 
 APPOMATTOX 229 
 
 section within view. On the west the Blue Ridge 
 rose in its morning garb, and on the east a broad 
 plateau of green, here and there broken by gradual 
 elevations, appeared under the morning mists. The 
 everlasting artillery was thundering in front; Gor- 
 don's shattered columns were struggling there, en- 
 deavoring to reopen the path of retreat now closed 
 by the Army of the James. Pickett's magnificent 
 division, that had made the hills of Gettysburg trem- 
 ble beneath its terrible tread, the grand Army of the 
 Potomac recoil before its mighty onset, and a world 
 stand with bated breath at its sublime courage and 
 matchless heroism, had been overwhelmed and torn 
 asunder at Five Forks and Sailor's Creek, and only 
 forty-seven men with arms remained for duty. Ma- 
 hone's and Fields' divisions, " staunch in the midst 
 of all disasters," were the only troops ready to be 
 brought into action against the combined Armies of 
 the Potomac and James, numbering probably 140,- 
 000 armed men. 
 
 The blue lines of the enemy, like a huge anaconda, 
 were extending their coils to the right and left, but 
 the troops were ignorant of how closely they were 
 folded. General Gordon, in reply to a message, had 
 said : " Tell General Lee I have fought my corps to 
 a frazzle, and can do nothing unless heavily sup- 
 ported by Longstreet's Corps " ; on receiving which 
 message the great Captain exclaimed, " Then there 
 is nothing left me but to go and see General Grant, 
 and I had rather die a thousand deaths." He had 
 now only 7892 infantry with arms upon the field. 
 About sunrise, in this dire emergency, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Armies of the Confederate
 
 230 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 States summoned to him General William Mahone. 
 He found him with the " Old War Horse," General 
 James Longstreet, at his side. The staff were re- 
 quested to retire, and the three held counsel together ; 
 what transpired between them the historian must dis- 
 close, for the rigid rules of propriety have excluded 
 a witness to-day, but I will say that General Mahone 
 did not propose or entertain a purpose to cut through 
 the enemy's lines, as was attributed to him, by com- 
 mon rumor, at that time. 
 
 Surrender was inevitable, but General Lee had be- 
 fore determined the terms must be such as he felt 
 were due to his army that the soldiers should not 
 be sent to prison, but be paroled to return to their 
 homes ; officers with their side-arms, and men and 
 officers with their personal effects. These terms or 
 fight, then and there, to death. He was determined 
 to preserve, untarnished, the honor of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia. When the last counsel-of-war 
 was over, General Lee mounted " Traveler," saying 
 to General Longstreet, " You take care of the com- 
 mand," and rode off to see General Grant. General 
 Longstreet sent General Mahone to take command 
 of the rear left flank. 
 
 Afterwards General Lee was seen standing alone 
 in the direction of Appomattox Court House, near 
 the celebrated apple tree, with his staff near by, and 
 a few soldiers in the vicinity grouped here and there. 
 He was awaiting a messenger. Soon a Federal officer 
 (General Babcock), accompanied by a courier, came 
 galloping from the enemy's lines. The officer dis- 
 mounted within fifty yards of General Lee, then ad- 
 vanced on foot, and when within fifty feet took off
 
 APPOMATTOX 231 
 
 his hat and placed it under his arm. Colonel Walter 
 H. Taylor advanced and bore from him a note to 
 General Lee. A message was returned, whereupon 
 the officer returned his hat to his head, made for his 
 horse, remounted and rode off to his lines. Shortly 
 after he returned, and in like manner approached 
 General Lee and delivered to Colonel Taylor another 
 note. Upon reading this second communication 
 General Lee, with great deliberation, tore it into 
 many pieces, and threw them upon the ground, after- 
 wards pressing the pieces in the earth with his foot. 
 A message was delivered to the officer, who, in like 
 manner as before, made his exit. Soon after General 
 Lee mounted, and, with Colonel Marshall and a cour- 
 ier, rode off in the direction the officer had gone. 
 It was then that the two opposing commanders first 
 met, after which they retired to the McLean Man- 
 sion, where the terms of capitulation were committed 
 to writing. The reverence displayed by the Federal 
 officer who bore the messages to General Lee im- 
 pressed all with the high sense of the manly propriety 
 of that officer. 
 
 When General Mahone returned from the confer- 
 ence, many of you will remember the cheerfulness 
 with which the division took its position, and the 
 word which ran along its line : " Well, we will get a 
 chance at Sheridan now, and supply Mahone's foot 
 cavalry with horses." Mahone's men cherished an 
 earnest desire to get hold of little Phil. Sheridan ; 
 they had driven his troops handsomely at Amelia 
 Court House, and felt that they would now finally 
 wind up the mad career of his troopers. But it was 
 not long before the spirit which had never failed this
 
 232 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 noble band was suddenly seized with suspicions of 
 surrender. A cavalryman had galloped across the 
 open field from the front and disclosed the startling 
 news, but they had little faith in his tale. They were 
 actively engaged in building the breastworks when 
 the order was passed to stop. This was singularly 
 contrary to the precaution that had always governed. 
 The cavalryman's story was true, and the men's hearts 
 sank in grief, and they wept like children over a 
 mother's grave. They knew all was over, and these 
 manifestations of sorrow and distress sublimely at- 
 tested their fidelity to the Southern cause. If there 
 was a man in the command who did not prefer fight- 
 ing to surrender, emotions which only the heart can 
 inspire are not to be taken as reflecting the sincere 
 sentiments of men. Like the inhabitants of renowned 
 Carthage, many of them would have preferred death 
 rather than survive the subjugation of their country. 
 Our trusted little General's heart sank, too, and he 
 was forced to turn his back upon the scene. To the 
 absolute confidence of the command that clasped the 
 affections of his heart with hooks of steel he gave 
 expression by saying : " I dread war, and do not de- 
 sire it, but I could be content to spend the longest 
 life allotted to man with these soldiers." 
 
 Four years of intimate association in camp and 
 field, of alternate pleasure and pain, of hope and 
 despair, had woven, in warp and woof, the threads 
 of friendship too closely to be rudely torn asunder, 
 and the hour of separation was one of the dark spots 
 in life that leave a lasting impress. The orphan who 
 has lost both father and mother by one fell stroke 
 of the destroyer death could have felt no greater
 
 APPOMATTOX 233 
 
 sense of loneliness and dark despair than the soldier 
 who had followed the starry cross with the heart of 
 a patriot and a singleness of purpose approximating 
 idolatry, as he stood by his last campfire without a 
 musket, without a flag, without a leader, without a 
 country; alas! perchance, without a home! 
 
 On that last march we had hoped to join our for- 
 tunes with Johnston's army and throw all in the scale 
 of one grand trial at arms with the armies of Grant 
 and Sherman, thinking that by generous emulation 
 and rivalry, and one determined effort, with Lee and 
 Johnston clasping hands, we might crush the un- 
 wieldy columns of the invaders ; but Providence or- 
 dained that the Army of Northern Virginia should 
 fall by the wayside, gradually worn out by attrition, 
 and thus the last hope of the Southern soldier fled 
 forever. 
 
 The 10th of April was spent by the soldiers dis- 
 cussing, around the campfires, their gloomy pros- 
 pects, for it was chilly and a drizzling rain was fall- 
 ing; also in foraging the immediate surroundings for 
 scant food, as our commissariat had been long ex- 
 hausted, and the Federals were unable to supply us. 
 Hunger was gnawing sharply in their breasts, and 
 fortunate indeed was the owner of a few grains of 
 corn or a small piece of stale bread. After all the 
 preliminaries were arranged, and General Lee had is- 
 sued his farewell order, formal surrender was made. 
 We had often seen pictures, in our schoolbooks, of the 
 surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, but never 
 dreamed that we should realize a like scene. Craw- 
 ford's Division was drawn up on a hill just in front 
 of Appomattox Court House, when we marched up
 
 234 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 within a few feet, halted, faced them and stacked 
 arms, furling the proud old bullet-torn, battle- 
 smoked flags across the stacks. It was truly a sad 
 mission, as plainly depicted on every countenance 
 in our ranks. Some of the Federals looked glum and 
 sullen, and now and then we could hear the dissatis- 
 fied mutterings from revengeful hearts, but we took 
 no heed of their cowardly insults, and counter- 
 marched to our camp. It is but just to say that most 
 of our captors were kind, courteous, considerate, and 
 charitable. General Grant's conduct was admirable, 
 and his gallant demeanor towards his fallen foes was 
 by them awarded the highest praise. 
 
 When General Lee took his departure the soldiers 
 gathered about the roadside, and as he passed 
 through the broken and unarmed ranks every head 
 was uncovered, and each man was bidding him a silent 
 adieu, with bursting heart and overflowing eyes. 
 Even in disaster and defeat all his manly character- 
 istics stood out in his very appearance, and he seemed 
 created to inspire love, respect, and enthusiasm. His 
 men loved him with a deep and sacred affection that 
 no disaster could dampen, no defeat destroy. Not 
 only his soldiers, but the whole South ; and, as the 
 London Standard has said : " He left behind him no 
 rival of her love, no object of equal pride and rever- 
 ence. Nor is his fame 'Confined to the South. Wher- 
 ever the English tongue is spoken, his name is revered 
 and honored a name which history furnishes few 
 equal in military renown, none in moral grandeur; 
 the name of one who realized in actual life the dreams 
 of ideal chivalry ; so great in victory that none ever 
 surpassed, so much greater in defeat that none ever
 
 APPOMATTOX 235 
 
 reproached him ; the patriot without a thought of 
 self, the hero without a shade of affectation or dis- 
 play; the man who would neither despair of his 
 country nor conspire against her conquerors ; ideal 
 soldier and perfect citizen, a Christian without pre- 
 tensions, and a gentleman without flaw." 
 
 After receiving their paroles the men formed in 
 groups and marched in the direction of their wasted 
 homes, relying upon kind-hearted citizens to supply 
 them with rations on their desolate journey a jour- 
 ney as dreary as a fugitive, through dismal avenues 
 shrouded in the backness of midnight and curtained 
 on either side with the somber forms of full foliaged 
 shrubs and trees ; all surroundings as black as death, 
 terrible as the tornado, awful as the night of cruci- 
 fixion ! 
 
 In company with a few friends I turned my horse's 
 head homeward. Our route was marked by ruined 
 homesteads, and many blackened chimneys stood, 
 monuments of the invaders' malice. I passed a house 
 standing desolate and bleak, the surrounding fences 
 of field and garden having been recently destroyed 
 by the troops, and saw a Federal commissary driving 
 a cow from its rear, and a frail mother, with her 
 infant children, standing on the front steps pleading 
 with him, in most piteous language, to spare this 
 last and only resource of living; but the inhuman 
 wretch sternly refused, and left them to starve. The 
 blood ran thick and fast through my veins, but I 
 was an unarmed prisoner, in the presence of thou- 
 sands of my captors, and forced to witness, in silence, 
 this diabolical deed. Heaven forefend another such 
 scene !
 
 236 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 Numberless have been the humiliations, and many 
 the trials and difficulties of life since the sad day of 
 surrender, but, while struggling through all, the con- 
 sciousness of faithful service to the Confederate 
 cause has been our pride and shield. At last that 
 remorseless spirit and bitterness of heart engendered 
 by war is giving place to noble charity charity, 
 like the dew that nourishes the oak of an hundred 
 years as the plant of an hour's life, that glitters 
 among the thorns and briars, as jeweling the lilies 
 and the roses and we, who suffered defeat and sur- 
 vived the downfall of our country, can tell of devo- 
 tion to the Southern Cross, even under the folds of 
 the Star-Spangled Banner. While you respect and 
 own true allegiance to the Union as it is, what Vir- 
 ginian would not rather leave, as an heritage for his 
 children, the record of duty faithfully performed as 
 a private soldier of the South, than all the gold that 
 ever glittered in California's sands? 
 
 The private soldier of the Southern army was ac- 
 tuated by the most unselfish purpose that ever led 
 men to arms. And, Privates of the old Brigade, 
 while you owe much to the skill and tact of your 
 leaders for the many glories of your arms, you shall 
 wear the richest crowns and the brightest jewels. 
 Let me bear witness, that no one has accorded them 
 more freely and frankly than he under whom you 
 first learned to march the matchless Mahone. You 
 are highest in his esteem, and to you his gratitude 
 is as unbounded as the wealth of his name is re- 
 nowned among the martial people of the world, as 
 sacred as the beads and cross to the holy Sisters of 
 Charity. The private soldiers were the first to learn
 
 APPOMATTOX 237 
 
 his virtues. You have long known his industry in 
 business, his fortitude amid danger, his energy in act- 
 ing, his rapidity in executing, his wisdom in foresee- 
 ing; but modesty veiled his brilliant genius for long 
 years. At last, however, in the hour of despair and 
 gloom, the Confederate authorities were forced to 
 discover his merit, and gave him an insufficient com- 
 mand, sadly deficient in numbers, and even then it 
 burst forth in all its fullness and glory. The world 
 has seen his perseverance and his wisdom, with the 
 valor of his disciplined troops, pluck victory from 
 the most extreme difficulties, and it knows how the 
 sheen of his sword carried success everywhere : 
 through the tangled paths of the Wilderness, up the 
 flaming steeps of Coal Harbor, over the smoking 
 bosom of the Crater, even to the threshold of sur- 
 render, and history will clothe his name in all the 
 grandeur of magnificent purpose and brilliant mar- 
 tial glory. 
 
 My comrades, in conclusion let me say that your 
 historical work appeals to the highest and purest 
 sentiments of men a .duty you owe to Virginia, 
 a duty to the conquered South, a duty to the 
 dead, a duty urged in voiceless eloquence by the un- 
 coffined bones of our brothers, scattered all over this 
 grand old Commonwealth, from where the great ocean 
 billows rush in eternal succession on her eastern 
 sands to the cloud-bathed summit of her mighty hills. 
 
 The history of their brilliant harvest of glory shall 
 be as a sa-cred treasure for their children and widows, 
 and a holy jewel for the living comrades, and they 
 will always sing:
 
 238 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH 
 
 " Yes, give me a land where the ruins are spread, 
 And the living tread light on the hearts of the dead; 
 Yes, give me a land that is blest by the dust, 
 And bright with the deeds of the down-trodden just! 
 Yes, give me the land that hath legends and lays, 
 Enshrining the memories of long-vanished days; 
 Yes, give me the land that hath story and song, 
 To tell of the strife of the Right with the Wrong; 
 Yes, give me the land with a grave in each spot, 
 And names in the graves that shall not be forgot! 
 Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb, 
 There's a grandeur in graves there's a glory in gloom ! 
 For out of the gloom future brightness is born, 
 As after the night looms the sunrise of morn ! 
 And the graves of the dead with the grass overgrown 
 May yet form the footstool of liberty's throne, 
 And each single wreck in the war-path of Might, 
 Shall yet be a rock in the temple of Right." 
 
 THE END
 
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