Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-11-27

Lee surrendered. Family quarrels
are always the bitterest, and next to
them are neighbors' fellus. This was
a war between fellow citizens and
neighbors, and sometimes it was be-
tween kinsmcn-even brothers. 1t
was not a war of races or Of classes.
Proletarians and patricians were
equally divided as to sides. Some of
the largest slave-owners were the
stanchest Unionists and fought for
the old flag: there were not haif a
dozen such cases in the State, while
innumerable men who, if a slave
We're to. be sold by the ounce, could
not buy his little finger, lost limb and
life while lighting for the Confederacy,
whose cornerstone was human slav-
cry. Plenty of men of Northern birth
and lineage wore the gray, and the
guerrilla king, Charlie Quantlill, was
an Ohio man, born and reared.
l do not know what made it so
desperate. l do not know what in
stigated men who believed in God
and the Bible to go about robhing.
plundering, house-burning, and MUIR
dering in cold blood, and this is what
some men Of both sides did. There
were all sorts of transformations
Sundayschool boys, who could repeat
the beatitudes without skipping Il
word. became fierce and cruel as
Comanches, and for years did not see
the Deity in the clouds nor hear Him
| ~ T niy,1y IL ie, only, + l %
truth to say that the pro-Conie;!es-
ates became the more demoraliZed OF
the two parties; perhaps this was be-
cause, after Wilson's Creek and Lex
ington. their cause steadily lost and
the prospects for its ultimate success
daily waned, and desperation comes
oftener than resignation from defeat,
and madness, hot as vitrio], frequent
ly succeeds the coolest despair.
Women became as bad as their
brothers. From the sewing of band
ages and the sclaping Of lint came
the molding of bullets, the smuggling
of caps, the making Of cartridges,
and then lying and spying and the
Turing and betrayal Of men to death.
In the country it was hard to find a
woman. no matter how fair her face
and refined her character, who was
really non-combatant and was not
guilty of numerous acts OF hostility,
covert and overt.
Riding alone from Brunswick to
Laclede in the summer of 1863, Lieut..
William Reeves, OF Davis County, a
Union officer of militia, drew birdie
at little cabin east Of Compton's
Ferry, in Charlton County. A bright,
CHEEKY faced little woman met him at
the door, in one hand butcher
knife, in the other a milestone, iel
face abeam. her eyes aglow. HUSH
she said there's a reb in the back
room. sound asleep: Go in, quick,
and kill him. | told him l was 4
good secesh, too she went on, "anc
he says he is a bllshwhacker and has
been two nights without sleep, and Sc
/ fed him and coaxed him to so TO bed
and he has been snoring over t"'t
hours"
sand what were you going to &c
with that knife?" asked the officer
GAS soon as got it sharp enough,
she calmly replied, 81 was going tt
stick it through his heart.
Think of that! And three years
before this little woman, into whom
the spirit of Jael seemed to have
entered, was a Sunday-school teacher
earnestly impressing upon children
the divine injunction: "All thing:
whatsoever We would that men Should
do unto you do YOU even so untt
them"