The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1880-12-02
sARNEs,nl

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is now being assailed in Salina as q
Rebel" history, partial to the South
always making the confederates vic.
toriOus unless overwhelmed by supe.
rior numbers-and the like. 1t may
therefore be interesting to know what
the South itself actually thinks about
this partially. The people of Salina
may then be better able to judge fol
themselves Of the business Of these
criticisms. The following extracts are
from the pen of J. VIM. Jones, Secre-
tary of the Southern Historical Socie-
ty. Richmond, Va, and are officially
Endorsed as correct by the State Su-
perintendent Of Public Schools of Vir-
ginia, July %, 1878:
NO Northern uriter has yet pro-
duced history Of the United Mates
vtich is fit TO be taught in our schools.
l note that in his CBarnesD account Of
| the Kansas troubles he adopts the
border ruffian' theory and makes it
appear that the murders, &C., were all
committed by the prO-slavery men.
He Tugs in the fight between Preston
S. Brooks and Charles Sumner, and
revives the old falsehOod about 1t.
I" He niisrcpresents the whOte history
Of the sidreTy agitation; makes the
South Arrays the -GggrcssOr, and repre-
sents John BrO,Cn az only acting for
himself, scjtite tbs South Wds rOuSed to
frenzy by the false notion that any body
at the North approved Of the act Of
that old fanatic.
He teaches our children that we
stole United States property i'm seizing
the forts, &c, located on our soil that
the South yds the dggressOr III the Fort
.Sttp,pter affair, and fired the first gun.
In his accent Of the battles he nagni-
fies well nigh every successful skirm-
ish Of the federals into u great victory
and dwarfs our victories into defeats,
or ut most slight successes. He makes
no mention Of our brilliant success at
Bull Bun on the 18th Of July, and
makes the hattie Of the 2lst n splendid
victory for the Fetierals until fresh
troops from JOhnsOn's army turned
the tide OF battle by giving us greatly
superior numbers: At Balls Bluff,
again, a federal accommodating party
perc Opcr,chetmcdGy superior numbers.
His narrative of the battle Of Shiloh
makes Sidney Johnston attack Grant
with superior forces, the Union troops
to display unieard of courage, and
Grant 10 hold the cOnfetierates in
check until Buell. came up and drove
Be:luregar,l from the field He makes
Fair Oaks a federal victory, in which
our troops We're repuIscd with heavy
loss. He gives a false statement Of the
fight between the MerriInac and the
Monitor, and makes the battle OF
Williamsburg an attack upon cOnfeti-
crate forts which were carried by AS
sault and the pursuit continued to
within seven miles Of Richmond.
In his account of JacksOn's Valley
campaign he makes no mention Of our
victory ut Mcdowell, Front Royal or
Winchester; gives no intimatiOn that
we captured u prisoner. gun or any
stores, and writes as If Banks simply
fell back before superior forces. But
Jackson in return rapidly retrcdted,'
seeking only 10 escape from his enc
mics and fought ut Cross Keys and
Port Republic only to make good his
escape from the Shenandoah Valley.
Not the slightest hint that Jackson
occupied the valley after these fights
unmOlested, and that the federals re-
treated to Strasburg and were fortify-
ing against US ut the very moment
when the foot cavalry were thunder
ing on McClellan's flank before Rich
mOnd."
After denOuncing the unfairness of
Barnes toward the South, in the ac-
counts of the battles Of Cedar Noun
tain, Antietani, fredericksburg,
ChancellOusrvillc, Gettysburg, and
lastly the campaign of 1864, in which
he says that Lee Outgeneraled Grant
at every point, whipped him where
ever they met and forced him, after q
loss of loo, 900 men, to settle down to
the siege Of Petersburg" IA position he
could have taken, says Jones, without
firing gun or losing inan). He goes
on to denOunce the book i'm the follow
ing terms: i
His whole account of the siege of
Petersburg, Early's Campaign, Opera
tons in the Southwest, and the final
surrender, is unfair, untrue, and such
q narrative as a Southern teacher
should blush to give his pupils and q
Southern parent should absolutely re-
fuse to allow his children to study. A
Southern youth who learns his history
from such books as those, will grow
up with utterly false ideas of the cha
racter, principles and deeds Of his
father, and in my judgment, the use
of such books i'm our schools is u crime |
against the memory Of those who |
''died for u.s." which no school board |
ought to perpetuate and ts which NO |
community ought to submit"
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