Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-12-01

and was In turn hOnored by his gov
ernment and his comrades, and was
held in honor by people of his own
State. Virginia had presented him
! q splendid sword as recognition of
his high qualities and gallant con
duct in the Mexican war, and the
proud aristocracy of Southampton,
to which he and his family belong
ed, esteemed him rs bright orna-
meut of their society. He had
scarcely reached home when the
fearful porteEts Of The stu,m began
to appear. Sharing in the tradition
al sentiment o: the army that q soI-
dier should take no part in politics,
he had never identified himself with
any political party, and probably
had never cast vote. Bnt we have
no reason to doubt that he had
shared in the general sentiments of
Virginia, and deprecated any agita-
ltion which should disturb her social
institutions.
During the winter of 1S61-62 he
watched the elimination ofthat con-
h;ct of opinion which succeeded the
war, with most painful anxiety, and
regarded the growing political strife
as measurelcss outrage, in which
both contestants were wrong, but in
! rhich ;he Northern agitators were
the first aggressors. Before the
middle Of February seven States had
passed oru.ndnccs ofsccession. The
Confederate government was actu
ally set up at montgomery. The
Southern leaders declared the Union
lawfully dissolved, and thai there
would be no war. Looking back
from our present standpoint, we can
hardly understand how widespread
was the opinion, both North and
South, tia; The uaion was gone, and
thrt III g0yern:nent Tas powcrlcss
10 lto.3:: =. "a. AL, - an officer OF
the army, tie situation was painful
and pcrpltXing to the last degree.
The dissolution of The Union with
out war would carry with it the in
cvitable dissolution of the army,
and be i,i,s tie shame and humilia-
ton which an ollicer must feel at the
ruin of 4 nation whose honor he had
so long defended in his arms, he
saw lie mus; look about him for
e3:ne new pursuit by which to earn
his bread. WLE3::t vii! Thomas do !?
What path to follow through this
bcwi.dcring maze? His State had
not yet seeded, but her heart was
or fire, and no one knew how far
she would go, nor how many would
follow her in her work of ruin.
On the 23d of May the people of
Virginia enacted the mockery of an
election to ratify her secession from
the Union, against which she had
already taken up arms. Their over
whelming vote in favor of secession
swept away from our army nearly
all the VirgiuiaIo who had not left
in April. With the news of this
election there came TO Tiomas the
passionate appeals of his family and
friends, the summons of his State,
to join he armies, and The threat
ening anathemas of them all in case
he should refuse, He answered by
leaving Carlisle Barracks on tie
9th Of May, and leading a brigade
from C.amLcrsbarg across Mary
land to Williamsburg: and on the
10th of June rode across the Poto-
mac in full uniform at the head of
his brigade to invade Virginia and
fight his old commanders, and few
days after he led the right wing of
General Patterson's army in the bat
tie of Falling Waters, and defeated
the rebels under Stonewall jackson.
Such was the answer. that Thomas
made to the demands of the rebel
lion.
Before leaving this period in his
life, it is due to his memory and to
the truth oftrhistory that / should
notice an attempt which was first
made in the South amidst the pas
sions of war to throw a shadow on
his good name, by declaring that he
sought service on the rebel side.
and only determined to stand by the
Union when he failed to receive sccl
rank rs hedesired am eng Ia 5 e enies.
When peace reopened intercourse
between the North and South, these
voices of calumny were silent, and
remained so as long as Thomas was
alive to answer. But when he was
dead his deramers yentured again to
speak. The spectacle of u grateful
nation standing in grief around his
honored grave awakened to new en-
ergy and envy the malice of those
who had staked all and lost
all in an attempt to destroy that Re
public which Thomas had so power
fully aided in saving. Ishould dis
honor his memory were 1 even to
notice the wicked writers who with
held their names or shielded them
selves behind the impersonality of
newspaper editorial. One attack,
however, and so far rs i know, the
only ore, had the Endorsement of q
responsible name.
The Richmond (Ya Dispatch,
of April 90, 1870, contains a letter
from Fitz Hugh Lee, late general
in the rebel army, and before the
war lieutenant in the regiment of
which Thomas was major. In this
letter Lee asserts that just before
the war Thomas feelings were
strongly Southern; that in 1861 he
expressed his intention to resign,
and, about the same time, sent 4
letter to Gov. Letcher, offering his
services to Virginia To this state
ment ] invite the most searching
scrutiny. That prior to the war the
sentiments of Thomas were gener
all in accord with those which pre-
vailed in Virginia, and that he
strongly reprobated many of the
opinions and much of the conduct