The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-12-25
Christmas, 1863.

This day four years ago q brigade OF Caro-
lima troops lay in bivouac among the snow
covered mountains of Eastern Tennessee. In
their fervor, their courage, their enthusiasm,
and their suffering, they were fit representa-
tiyes of the armies of the South. These men
had lain in the marshes of the Chickahominy,-
had seen the campaign around Richmond
had folio wed on the heels of PIPE as he fed
from the field of Manassas,-had built their
rude and cherries huts on the hills of Fred
ericksburg,-had marched along the fertile
plains of Pennsylvania and Maryland,-had
fouyht in the memorable "Peaoh Orchard,
and borne the fire of hell that was vomited by
the hundred iron mouths that covered the
heights of Gettysburg. They had faith and
hope, though LEE had Withdrawn within the
| Southern borders; they were trusty and strong,
though JACKSON had fallen; they were confident
and firm though, day by day, another form was
missed from the ranks, and another name was
stricken by the hand OF war from the muster
roll of time. Cheerily had they tramped to
Chickamauga, and resolutely had they borne
the brunt of the fight in the IFc6ches at Sthass-
t~arooga. They had Climbed the rugged sides
of Look Out" gid fought hand to hand on
rock and hssh, in gully and ravine. In the
smiling autumnal weather, they had passed
though the valley Of the Sweet-water, and
heard the strains of martial music that were
waited from the forts of Knoxville. They had
marched once more towards Virginia, and,
upon the Christmas day of 1868, they were
striving against wintry blast and pinching
hunger; they were feasting on the memory of
what had gone icfore, and were patient in
their trust for the future.
No matter to these Carolinians that their
bruised and naked feet, cut by the sharp
stones, had left bloody imprints upon the roads
Of icy Tennessee; no matter that neither over
coat nor mufler protected them from the bit
ter, searching cold. They remembered who
they were and what they were; they thought
of their own sunny homes in the distant South
and of those who wept for them that day; they
knew that upon the manner in which they did
heir whole devoir, depended the honor and
the fame of those who to them were dearer
far than beauty and wealth and fortune.
Suffering but patient, but conn.,
dent,-battered and worn but true and brave
the Carolina troops stood by their %colors; and
when the picture of home, and mother, child,
or afisnced wife was most vivid in their minds,
they most felt that there was no turning back
in the path that they were treading, -that for
them there must be, in all coming time, a grand
historic name, or the silent honor Of the SOL
dier's bloody grave.
As these men felt-so felt the men and women
of the South. There had been defeat and VIC
tory, victory and defeat; leader after leader
had waved his sword had died; colonel and
captain, sergeant and private, had rested side
by side in camp and breathed out their souls
amid the crash of muskets and the numerous
roll of cannon. But there vas still room for
confidence and trust. The banner of the South
was the cross; and by the South the cross must
be borne;-the stars that spangled its field
were the emblems of the shining Immortality
that should ever attend the valiant men who
bled and fell, under the folds of the Southern
cross,-the starry banner Of the struggling and
heroic South.