The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1889-06-13
ls65.lsS9.
SOUTHERN WOMEN DECO
RATE THE GRAVES OF
THE BLUE AND THE
GRAY.
This Act Turns the Tide of Popular
Feeling.

AhiS MT fui hS aafo tio0 VI foPoiot
Feeling.
1t was, / think, Church, who
during our civil war, painted the
picture of "Onr Banner I'm the
Sky" Loyal people everyw here
straightway went mad over it.
1t showed a pale sunrise, barred
with crimson clouds, parting
over an area of SKY still dark
blue with night, and gemmed
with stars. From mountain
below lowered a dead pine that
supplied the shaft of the flag.
AS with all popular RACES, this
one palled upon our taste, by
and-by. 1t was sharply CRITICS.
ed as unnatural and impossible,
laughed at as a trick of art, and
finally went out Of fashion.
[ had not seen reprint, even in
shop window, for six months,
when, ON April 9Th. 1866, | threw
open my window before sunrise,
to let in the morning freshness,
and behelG the picture itself!
Against a dim blue black
ground, streaked with rose, the
slender gray spire Of a venera-
BILE church shot high toward
heaven, and from the summit
streamed straight and steady,
the "Stars and Stripes" So
straight, that the flag might
have been painted upon the dim
blue with Venus, mild and lus-
trous, in the lead of the fading
train of night-stars; SO steady,
that not a fold crossed the sur
face of the level bunting.
. It was the embodiment Of the
Nations sublime triumph; the
visible expression Of her solemn
joy in a restored Union; the har-
binger of a reign of peace and
goodwill. Hour and scene were
never to be forgotten. The city
had not awakened from slumber;
the still heavens seemed, to my
thrilled imagination, bending to
join in the matin-service of holy
praise held by the old church
and Our Banner in the Sky.
The Great Calm after a four
years night of storm, and wreck,
and blood, was only the begin
ming of the real end Of the war.
How often during the decade
that followed tie evacuation of
the Confederate capital and the
declaration of peace, did our
hearts fail us for fear that the
gaping wound left by the fratri-
cidal strife would never heal
over-at least in this, our gene
ration? How often we heard
from one side and the other,
nuttered through clenched
teeth, the ominous reminder,
"The blood of the conflict is on
me still %
Wise men, North and South,
deprecated the institution of a
stated season for decorating the
graves of those who had fallen
in the war. It were better, rea-
soned the peace-lovers, to make
haste to forget that which had
ploughed such long furrors in
our burial fields. "Best," )" retort-
ed the anpacified, "that the
South be interdicted from pub
lie commemoration of those she
called heroes hom Justice
branded rebels" When Virgin
ia women drew to their bosoms
the cherished stars and bars, and
set them in fearful defiance over
dead sous, brothers and hus-
bands, upon the recurrence of
each Memorial Day;when South
ern orators embraced these oc-
casions to eulogize jackson,
Hood and Lee; when war-scar-
red veterans marched yearly,
with spade and mattock, to re-
new the sinking mounds that
marked the resting places of
their slain comrades, it was be-
Iieved by reconstructionists that
the Government ought to inter
fere, as for the suppression of
treason.
For few years we mourned
our dead apart, and, to the SUI
perficial eye, it seemed that each
anniversary Of Memorial and
Decoration Day now jeaiously
we kept the names distinct!) =
widened, not lessened, 1.-THE
bloody chasm."
Is was, il / mistake not, nine
years after the close of the war,
that the papers on the morrow
of the Memorial Day ceremo-
MES in a southwestern city, and
this notice:
ssThe graves Of Confederate
and Federal soldiers were deco
rated alike yesterday, by the
hands Of Southern women"
That little sentence marked
the turn of the tide, the parting
OF the bitter-salt ooze to show
the spot where the divine dove
of peace might find rest for the
sole of her foot. 1t is not sc
nominated in National annals
but the truth remains that, from