Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1869-06-25
5Hiscellnau.
Reconstructed.
BY GRACE GREENWOOD.

The nomination and confirmation o.
Gen. Longstreet as Surveyor of the Port
OF New Orleans, was bitter pill for the
loyal to swallow, but now that we have
gulped it down, we begin to feel that il
was, after all, not so bad thing to take.
Perhaps it may prove one of the wisest
acts of the Executive and the Senate.
James Longstreet was rebel by acci-
dent, rather than by nature and malice
aforethought, at least, so his friends de-
clare. He by no means answers Shakes
peare's description of one
Worthy'to be a rebel for to that
The multiplying yillanies Of nature
| Do swarm upon him.
True, when once he plunged into the
Rebellion, it was up to the chin, and he
made gallant struggle of it, breasting
the turbid waves like Leander, or a
Cassius. But when the glorious new
Confederacy he struck out SO bravely for
proved an Isle of evil enchantment a
Fdta Morgaaa, that fled away before
him, when he was flung back on the
hard, dull shore of the old Union, spent
and chilled, he gathered himself up,
thanked Heaven there was firm land for
him, of any sort, and he resolved to
make the best of it.
The Lord loveth a cheerful giver-in,
as well as giver, and it is pleasant to see
one really thoroughly reconstructed reb-
ell chief who neither weeps nor pnasbas
his teeth, sneers at negro-suffrage, nor
scowls at the Union fag,-one who even
in his dreams is loyal, and rides on his
raids no more"
do believe he has heartily forgiven
us for the rebellion, and its painful and
embarrassing consequences,-for the at
tack on Sumpter, for Bull Run, Balls
Bluff, McClellan's campaigns, Libby
Prison, Andersonville-for massacres,
assassinations, burnings and the Nation
al Debt-as he hopes to be forgiven for
the capture Of Vicksburg and New Or
leans; for Emancipation, Sherman's
March to the Sea, and Grants final vic
tories.
A fine photograph of Gen. Long
street, given me by a Washington friend
of his, lies before me. 1t shows good,
strong, evenly balanced head; a genial
face, and full, soldierly figure. 1t is
the portrait of a man sensible and phil
osophic enough to take life easy-to ac-
cept the inevitable; of one not likely to
make bad matter worse by kicking
against the pricks."
From the friend who bestowed upon
me this pleasant picture of one who had
so much to do with the late onpleas-
antness," have received several amusing
anecdotes, related by the gallant prodi-
gal during his recent visit to his fathers
house, to be invested with the ring of re-
newed favor and the robe of Office
| When he laid down his arms, for once
and all, he first undertook he said to re-
construct his own household. Mrs. Long
street did not long hold out, and the
children dutifully accepted the situation,
down to little fellow of some three
years old, born under the Stars and Bars.
Being told to say, when any one should
ask what he was, that he was Yankee,
he accepted it as novel truth, and pro-
claimed it from the housetops. But find
ing that this bold declaration of infant
apostasy shocked some of mammals lady
friends almost to the point of syncope,
he adopted the Yankee trick of answer
ing the test question by asking another,
"What are you ?" If the reply came,
A rebel" accompanied by the flash of
fiery southern eyes, curl of defiant lips,
and an indescribable sniff of unappeasa-
BILE nostrils, his polite answer was, "Ohl
then I am a rebel p
If the boy lives, he will be in the Unit
ed States Senate yet.
Gen. Longstreet says that Lee and
Mcclellan, educated in the same mill
tary school, had much the same system
of military operations. They were al
most equally given to digging and ditch
ing. They dug against each other in
chivalric rivalship. Lee was actually
called by his men " the Jack of Spades" !"
So it seems that both should have for
a new coat of arms, shovel couchant,
and pick-axe r,mpani; for " bar sin
ister." crow-bar, and for the "blot on
| the scutcheon Virginia mud.