American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-05-03

Blue Flag" and history
has already written its verdict
that the soldiers of Lee, Johnston,
Beauregard and NJ. l.. Smith were
unequaled for soldierly qualities the
world over. 1t Is true, in fact, they
were ragged and war-worn; bot
their muskets were always bright,
their aim always true, and their
nerves always steady. In the camp,
they were boys, in the field, soldiers
of the Old Guard, who had sustain
ed the shock of many battles, the
conouerors of Bull Run, the Will
derness, SpotsylvanIa Chickamauga,
and Murtrecsboro. They, like us,
were men and to error given, but
as soldiers they had but two equals,
one, the Cause for which they
fought, the other, the noble Chief
of the Confederacy. TO them, prl-
walton and danger was daily por-
ton, the bloody scenes of the battle
field a daily experience. They
knew that war was a dangerous re-
atty, carrying in its train all the
horrors of wounds, suffering and
lingering death. They were not
fair-weather christians, basking in
the sunshine Of bomb-prOofs, but
like the soldiers of Ceur de Leon,
they knew but one faith-it was
the CROSS against the CRESCENT; it
was what they believed the only
hope for friend and for foe, the
hope OF a Constitutional Republic;
for this principle they enlisted, for
this principle they gave up home,
mother, wife, sister, for this princi-
pie they encountered all the hor
rors of the battlefield, for this prin-
clple they died, martyrs to consci-
entious convictions. Conquered
they were, yet in justice to their
memory, write not their epitaph in
the Nineteenth Century; but in the
year Two thousand, a monument
will, by general consent of our
phole Nation, be erected in the
hearts of the people. and that mon
ument will bear the inscription
that the blood of martyrs is the
seed of the church, and that the
"Bonnie Blue Flag" represented
a genuine salvation in the princi-
pie of pure Confederat ID Rcpub-
lie. Before this monument of i'm
partial justice and national affection
has been erected, l hope and believe
that the Gray and the Blue will
have mingled into a national color,
and that The hearts and hopes of
our people, the land over, will beat
in unison to the one thought that
this is our country, the country OF
the Gray, the country OF the Blue,
where all national differences, all
animosities, having disappeared be-
fore the benign influence Of hap
py and lasting reconciliation, We
shall have but one feeling, one re-
public, aye, one national cemetery,
g By the flow of the inland river.
Whence the fleets OF iron have fled,
Where the blades of the green grass culver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray.
a" These. in the robings of glory,
All, with the battle blood CORY,
In the dusk of eternity meet;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Under the laurel. the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray.
- From the silence of sOrrowful hours
The deSOlate mOurncrS go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray.
So, with an equal splendor,
The morning sun-rays fall,
With a touch impartiaIly tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all.
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day,
Bordered with gold, the Blue.
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.
So, when the summer calleth,
On forest and field and grain,
With an equal nurmur falleth
the COOLING drip of the rain;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgment day.
Wet with rain, the Blue,
Wet with rain, the Gray.
Sadly, but not with upbrsiding,
The generous deed was done:
Ia the storm Of the ye,rs now fading,
No drawer battle WAS won;
Under the sod and the dew,
WAITING the judgment day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlaujs, the Gray.
No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They bAaish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our desdi
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray"
Yes, the time will come when the
posterity of the Gray and the Blue,
describing all sectional animosities,
will glory in the fact that the blood
of South Carolina and Massachu-
sets, Virginia and New York, Ma
ryland and New Jersey, mingled on
the great battle-fields of our first
Revolution, and our children, uni
ted and happy, will jointly claim
their birth-right in the blood of
Bunker Hill, of Eutaw and Cow
pens. This time will surely come
and then will also come the vIndica-
ton and justification of the Gray
and the cause they loved SO we'll
then will be recognized the princi
pie of our forefathers, that the
States, sovereigns themselves,
formed the national government