The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-06-10

Your own IetlESOurS ali alouS tuese
twenty wears. Come! And, if 1 can
not spare whole garland for your brow,
| will twist in your locks at least two
flowers, one crimson and one white. the
crimson for tile struggle OF Your lie,
which has almost amounted to carnage.
and the white for the victory you have
gained.
FOR LIVING SOLDIERS.
Before I put the two garlands l am
twisting upon the northern and south
ern tombs, detain the garlands little
while that I may put them upon the
brow of the living soldiers and sailors
of the north and south, who, though at
variance for a long while, are now at
peace and in hearty loyalty to the United
States government, and ready, # need
be, to march shoulder to shoulder
against auy foreign foe. The twenty
six winters that have passed since the
war, think, have sufficiently cooled the
hatreds that once burned northward and
south ward to allow the remark that they
who fought N that conflict were honest
on both sides. The chaplains on both
armies were honest in their prayers.
The faces that went into battle, whether
they marched toward the Gulf Of Mexico
or marched toward the north star, were
| honest faces.
1t is too much to ask either side to be-
lieve that those who came out from their
homes, forsaki 9 father and mother and
| wife and child. many Of them never to
| return, were not il earnest when they
put their life into awful eXlgency. Wit
ness the last scene at ia uily prayers up
among the Green mountains or down by
the fields of cotton and sugar cane. Men
do not sacrifice their all for fun. Men
do not eat moldy bread or 60 without
bread at all for fun. Men do not sleep
unsheltcred IN eQuinoctial storms for
fun. There were some, no doubt. on
both sides who enlisted for soldiers pay,
or expecting opportunity for violence
and pillage, or burning with revenge and
thirst " human blood, but such cases
were so rare many Of you who were In
the war four years never confronted such
an instance Of depravity.
When a New Orleans boy, unable 70
answer my question as to where he was
hurt, took out from the folds Of the only
garment that had not been torn of him
In the battle New Testament, marked
| with his own life blood, and saw the
leat turned down at the passage, MY
peace 1 give unto you, not as the world
eiveth give unto you," it read just as
though it had been northern New les
lament. And when I sat down and
took from South Carolinian dying in
barn at Bonneville his last message to
his wife and mother and child, it SOUND.
ed lust like message that northern
man dying far from home would send to
his wife and mother and child.
And when I picked up from the battle
field of Antietam the fragment OF a letter
which I have somewhere yet, for the
name and the address were torn oit: l
saw 1t was the words Of a wife TO her
husband telling him how The little child
PRAYED for their father every night that
he might not get hurt in the battle and
might come home sound and come home
well, but that if anything happened to
them they might all meet again IN the
world where there are no partlngs, 1t
lead lust as a northern wife would write
to husband away from home and in
peril conveying the messages OF little
children. Oh, yes; they were honest
on Doth sides. And those who lived to
get home and are living yet were Just as
honest, and ought they rot for the sui
fering they endured have a corona OF
some klnd9
COURAGE ON BOTH SIDES.
Yea, there was courage on both sides.
They who were at the front know that.
When the war opened the south called
the northern men ''mudsills" and the
north called the southern men ''braS-
garts'' and ''pompous nothings," but
after a few battles nothing more was
said about northern ''mudsills" and
southern 'braggarts." It was an army
of lions against an army of lions. 1t was
flock Of eagles mld-sky with iron beak
against another flock ofeagles non beak-
ed. 1t was thunderbolt against thrn-
derbolt. It was archangel OF wrath
against archangel of wrath. twas Han
cock against Lonystreet. It was Kill
patrick against Wade Hampton. Itwas
Slocum against Hill. It was o. 0.
Howard against Hood. 1t was Sher-
man against Stonewall Jackson. 1t was
Grant against Lee, and the men who
were under them were just as gallant.
and some Of them are here. and detain
the two garlands that I have twisted for
the departed, and in recognition Of hon
esty and prowess put the corOnals upon
these living Federals and Confederates.
Nortti and south, we Will make a great
fuss about the. when they are dead.
There will not be room Oh their tomb
stones to tell how much we appreciate
them. We shall call out the military
and explode three volleYs over their
graves, mixing all the cemetery ring
under our command of ''Fire!" We
will have long obituaries in newspapers
telling n what battles they fought, what
sacrifices they endured. what flags they
captured, in what prisons they suffered,
but all that will come too late. One
word in the living ear Of praise for their
honesty and courage will be worth to
them more than a military funeral two
miles long, ora pile of flowers half a mile
high, and ten bands Of music playing
over the grave "Star Spangled Banner"
or ''WaY Down South in Dixie"
Now, while they are in their declining |
years, and their right knee refuses to
work because of the rheumatism they
got sleeping on the wet ground Oh the |
banks OF the Chickamauga, or their dl-
gestive organs are OF on furlough be-
cause Of the six months OF prison life in
which their rations were big slices of
nothing, and their ears have never been
alert since the cannonade IN which they |
heard so much they have been able to
hear bat little since-in these cases I |
call upon the people Of north and
south to substitute little ante