New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-08-25
Tho Confederate Heroes Of Louis,an..

! The Confederate Heroes Of LouistAna.
late New Orleans letter to the Chicag,
Times contains the following raoy sketcl
of some Of the surviving Confederate heroes
of the late war:
To the mind of the Northern man there
| will always remain the possession of an in
tAresting sentiment toUching the grea;
soldiers who fought under the gray in tae
late unpIeasantness, and who ". n q fame
which will remain emblazoned upon their
memories long after the present generation
has ceased to exist. The names of John
ston, Longstreet, Beauregard, Hood, aud
many others of the CREST leaders in the lost
cause have been epshrined in song and
pens which traced the bloody history of that
fearful time. when this nation struggled in
the throes of the greatest revolution of the
| age, and engaged the breathless attention
OF the entire civilized world. The dwell
ler Of the North remembers these men
| az great warriors, whe won the greatest
| glories of the battle field, and Who, DO;
were eventually trailed in the dust, became
| greater as martyr heroes than if they had
swept on in their cOnquering march to the
heights Of final victory. Those who have
know them only through the medium of
history behold them surr0unded by the
glamour of romance, and invested with the
halo which a poetic ;deality casts about.
those whom the world has written down IS
warriors, and who are ever .reMembered
with feelings of mysterious revere noe. 1t
Is, however, 1.-THE distance which lends en-
chan snent to the visw.9 and the fancies of
imagination that are largely responsible
for these tender ebullitions OF thought. We
OF the South, who, moro than any other
people, have cause to revere our heroes Of
the war, do SO revere them, but the tinsel
of romance has worn off before the familiar
knowledge we have Of those heroes. and be-
cause We are and have. bsen of them and
with them. They move among .us daily,
and we pay mental tributes to their great.
ness of the past, but the poetry of Thought
and the tender waves of glowing &c ntiment
a a5ide with US in but feeble force.
OF the most prominent leaders in the
Confederate cause, six are now, and have
been since the close OF the war, residing in
New Orleape, peacefully pursuing the Guiet'
paths Of bread-winner's life. The names
OF these six are Beauregard, Longstreet,
Hood, Thompson, Gibson and Hays, and
OF the entire party it. is eminently worthy
Of note that at this day the spirit Of their
politics is not only . mild but broadly
comprehensive one. Thompson and Long
street have even gone SO far IS to lie down.
in the maoser with the Republican party,
and have found their reward in handsome
sinecures under the State government. Gih- 1
son, Hays and 'Beauregard veeret around
so far that the Liberal party Of Louisiana
in 1872 found in them etaunch champions,
and two of the three found also stand ard
bearers, although defeated oaes...' >.
Pierre Gustsye Toutant Beauresard !,
owns to very long name, and daily waa-
most quiet and nnobtrusiv6 of gentlemen.
He is now fifty y-eight years of. age, but such |
is bis careful and rigid system Of living that |
he looks to be fifty, apt promises to live to |
ripe old four score or more. Since he |
dotted the gray and yielded to che fates Of |
war, Beaufegard has philosophically' ac.
cepted the situation and has made it o
ruling principle of his later life to shun ss
q plague pelitical discussions, and sternly +
frown upon the slightest incident, dealing
in even the remOtest degcee with the re-
Of tho dead Issues Of the war.
I have said that he is quiet gentleman.
may add that he is intensely 80. To look at
him he gives you the Impression that he
loves not the society of m ankind and pre-
fers to keep himself to himself. Although
exceedingly wealthy at the outbreak Of the
war, he Suffered the reverses of fortune moi
dent to many thousand SQutherners during
derived from hs services as
president Of = street railway company and
The rental of the remnant Of his once vast.l
property. His daily life is q quiet one. and
eads him but little within the ec0pe of pub.
ic ebservati0n; be il simple and unostenta-
;ious in manner, and appears rather. to
avOld than to court popular notice, moving
alopg in the even tenor Of his way, col.
ented TO pursue his peaceful and modest
yrets over the past or longing ambitions
or the fIlt,Ira
General JEFF Thompson, known during
he war as the Swamp Fox, is nov a
taunch Republican, and has for years been
he chief engineer of the river levees, on
he pay roll of the State. jeff delights in |
leing esteemed eccentric, and takes este-
ial care that his reputation in that direc-
ion shall not suffer for want Of material.
ports = hat about "a big as q decent sized
UMBRELLA. He is as full Of animal spirits as !
ONE dogs are of f1eas. He is one of the
reatest and fastest takers in America, if ,
e be not really entitled to the champion ,
hio in that departments; swesrs like
irate; says what he thinks on ali occasions,
nth q reckless disregard Of fine spun sem
ment; and doesn't care three cents for the 6
pipiU9 of any man in creation. OF course :
1e ''chivairy" don't bank en- him now, and ,,
i the contemplation OF what they think !
eff disgrace, in his afhliati0n with the Re-
they have wiped his war record
'om the tablets of memory, and ostracise
i'm as renegade. l don't think, though, &
lat he has ever lost any sleep in coase- /
uenoe Of rem6rselul reflections over his T.
,nduct, and the loss of the sOuthr0ss love. {
1T of the last ditch, and sensibly deter. b
lined that the battle for bread and butter t
ould hencef0rward claim his entire atten-
on. Because he could win it only by sery-
q those who pay only in Republican gold.
wisely preferred that course to starva-
on in the maintenance of q stubborn rt-
stance to the issues of the bloody conflict.
Throughout the war the name of Major
enel al James Longstreet was one of the
slightest in the galaxy of heroes who fired g
10 Southern heart with yorshipful' rever- O
Ice and love. To-day that uaWe is uttered G
= Southern lips only to deride 1t, and its o
among Southern men an OBJ | G
ct to be shunDed; man who has not only q
rfeited every claim upon tie hearts Of his y
but won ikew,s4 the hitterest
ITO OF those who once gloried IN honoring
thompson, Lougstreet ended his rebellion =:
hen the standard of the lost cause was =. =.
,pelessly hung In black, and putting the :. :.
sst behind him as q dead thing, he ! -
+ forward under tho new condition of VI
ipgs to win tho means Of livekhood:
I'd as he happened to find the means in
opportunity to serve the same govern. \
ent a. ievee commissioner, he didn't 81
,sitate between poverty on the ono side h
ID . fat salary under a Republican ad-
inistfation on the other. The Southern
art couldn't forgive him for refusing to f.
aiye rather than live by the favols Of h,
ose agsihst whom. he welded the
7ord, and SO, the idol whom they had
orshiped. was cast ruthlessly from it's 6,
mple, and trampled in the dust. Still -
lives, and enjoys not only most g
ceuent healtb, but bears upon his visage cs
,psfoa& slows <h.S Aa - .o%:,&oA "a al