The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-08-09
How are You Colonel %

Potter the PRINTER, III the alden RecorC.I
How it CRATES Colonel" Ma
jor," " Captain" scattered about like
shot out OF shovel Applied to every
body and anybody-men who could not
have beer pulled into fight by yoke OF
oXen--men who never knew which end OF
a musket TO put a bayonet on--men who
staid severely at home in time of need,
and took care of the women and children.
And last of all comes the newspaper
colonel Communicated chief of little
print shop, and colonel by newspaper
Drevet Rank of literary loafer and
pay at which washerwcman would turn
UP her nose With what satisfied smrk
one of those roosters will accept the title
of q colonelp How they love to write
bogus communications addressed Dear
Col" Oh bosh! We are tired of it !
We are sick We want it stopped We
are going to stop it The publisher of
this paper is not colonel-never was,
and if his splendid military genius is as
strangely overlooked. in the future as in
the past, he never will be a colonel. He
never was a major--nor captain-nor
a lieutenant. No, we were never hon
ored with any rank whatever, saue
once. In 1861 we We're made corporal
by brevet, and given charge of file of
men for one night only. We verify be-
lieve now that the jealousy of our then
Secretary of War, and the schemes of
tho5e who wished to prolong the war pre-
vented us from being raised to the actual
rank of corporal, with Its attendant com
mand, etc. OF course we should have
wound up the business in about ninety
days, and hence--well, we were not pro-
NOTED, and the war went on. We don't
want anything under false pretences
We won't have a title, because we have
no right to one. Give the titles to those
who earned them. Don't bestow them
carelessly, and make them reproach in
stead of the honor they should be.
There was a time when military title
meant sOmeInlng--wnen IL Was an EVIL
dence that the person SO addressed, by
reason of popularity among g bullet
shoppers" or for courage on the field, had
gained the right to be so distinguished.
In the one case it was a mark of conf
dence-trust in ability and resources
and as such was indeed an honor to be
coveted in the other, it was won in
those trials which tested every quality Of
manhood to the very bottom-under fire
and where blood flowed like water. If a
man gained rank or promotion through
the terrible baptism of the battlefield it
was something to which, with pardonable
pride, he could point in times Of peace,
when he 9 fought his battles DER" and
which he should wear through his life,
bv general consent, as fairly earned, and
freely accorded by grateful people as a
right. What badge~Qf l.onGt shonld
be the empty sleeyeF How we should
honor the man who halts through life on
crutch as fife long reminder to those
around him that he offered his hearts
blood as freely as he gave the missing
limb How we should reverence those
men who were brought 10 deaths door by
wounds received in action How we
should, night and morn, mention with a
prayer the names of the lost! Who has
seen go down into the dust a friend and
messmate Who has gone forth cheer
fully in the morning and returned in the
evening bearing the margled corpse of
brother-in- arms7 Soldiers have done
these things, not stay-at-home colGnels,
majors and captains. And yet the daily
and hourly facing Of death was not all Of
their duties, Or their sufferings-the hum
ger and thirst of the march, the fierce
southern sun, or the piercing Virginia
winters, also filled part in the times
which indeed ;. tried mems soHls. Tp
the officers who led, to the heroes who
followed, let us forever do honor. Do
we owe them less because of their fail
ure? Are they less entitled to that which
they fairly won on an hundred fields, be-
! cause cf the disaster which finally over
took them : because their sacrifices aud
sutferings went for naught aye we to re-
proach them? We don't want to live
long enough to see the time when the
distinctions won by men on battlefelds
made glorious by lie pest hl9o4 Of the
/ South no longer commands the deepest
reverence of the surviving soldiers of the
Confederate armies, and at least the res
peot of those vino were fortunate enough
to escape part in our immortal but vain
struggle. Don't let US hear any more OF
g How are YOU Colonel ?"