The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-05-07
it is our duty and the duty of every man
in the South to try and make that coun.
try the field for free men for all time to


try the field for free men for all time to
come. (Applause.) I am loyal citi.
izen, but I maintain that can at all
times express my opinion, whether in
northern presence or in southern pres
ence, and never will I say that my dead
brothers were traitors to their cause.
May my tongue cleave to the roof of my
mouth before I ever utter sentence that
will betray the thought that me and mine
we're rebels. You were doing your duty
as you thought it to the country, but God
has ordered it otherwise and I acquiesced
in the result. I am a citizen of the
United States, and I propose to obey it's
laws, but I will never forget the solemn
duty that I then owed and that I still
owe to the soldiers who, with me, be-
lieyed that our cause of battle was just,
and to those soldiers who have seen 60
down to the dust in battle. (TakiDg q
large book)-
have simply marked a few of the
references to the cavalry corps during
that campaign. I will read first a few
words which will show how and Why 1
happened to recommend the report to
which I refer. The first is addressed to
Gen. Robert Lee and begins:
General-In accordance with your re-
quest that should give you connected
narrative of the operation Of the cavalry
corps of the army of northern Virginia,
I have the honor to submit the following
report: I regret that I have not the data
from which to make it as full and COM
plete as you desire, but when my house
was robbed and burned by Sherman's
troops all my papers shared the same
fate. From copies, however, which
escaped, I endeavored to comply with
your request. The work you ask me to
perform gives me double qualification !;
for while it affords me the opportunity Of
obliging the great captain who so often
led the heroic army of Northern Virginia
to victory, it gives me at the same time
the pleasant but sad duty of paying the
only tribute in my power to the noble,
brave men who clung to their colors and
cause to the last. The men who thus
nobly discharged the highest duties of
patriots and soldiers, deserve the thanks,
not only of the officers, but of every true
hearted Southerner. Gratitude on the
part of their countrymen for their servi.
ces, and q consciousness on their own
part of a duty performed are the only
rewards they can ever receive. The
country for which they fought so heroi-
cally has no recognized existence, the
nationality they sought to establish is
extinct and the government which should
have rewarded them is, like their hopes,
dead. It is therefore eminently due to
them that their heroic deeds, their suf-
ferings and their sacrifices, should be
recorded, so that in after years their
children may be proud to claim their
descent from men who are now denounc-
ed as rebels. Let the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth be plac.
ed upon the record. We may then con-
fdently commit our causet to the impair.
tial judgment of prosterity.
As said, I propose to read only few
of the congratulatory orders issued by
General Lee to the cavalry corps. I turn
now to one order Of the 2ud of June,
1864, to the major general commanding,
You will see that it is to General Rosser,
who had distinguished himself in every
brilliant fight almost in Virginia, and
here is the dispatch I sent to him:
"The major general commanding di-
rects me to express the pleasure he feels
in communicating to you the following
/ extract from note received last night
from Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, Acting
Adiutant General Army N. ": Gen
eral Lee directs me to acknowledge the
receipt of your note of $50, and to ex-
press his qualification at the handsome
conduct of Rosser's command and his
thanks for his having go gallantly de-
feated the enemy. The major general
commanding desires me to add his thanks
for your valuable assistance, and to say
that he deems the success of yesterday
mainly due to your skill and gallantry
end the services Of your command
The next extract in my report relates
to the fight at Trevilyan Station. I will
not read the whole record, but a letter
from General Lee, dated June 2Sth, is as
follows:
"Your note Of to-day from Colonel
Phillips has just been received. am
rejoiced at your success, and thank the
officers and men of your command fo'
the gallantry with which you assaulted
the enemy, and which ended in his de,
feat. (signed) ROBERT E. LEE.
Apropos of that fight, would like tc
mention circumstance which I did no
remember at the time. We moved ou
with 400 men to intercept Sheridan.
have seen from the recent reports a
Washington that in that fight he hat
10000 men. Well, he says that he hat
lost from 900 to 400, but in his reports tt
the war department, which are now there
on file, he admits that in the fight and il
the subsequent movement he lost in th
total as many as 1862 men, so that W
find that. compared with them they los
one man to each one of ours engaged il
the operation, because, as said, we hat
about ZOO men, and he admits g loss o
4,SG2 by his own report. The next lette
to General Lee is in reference to th'
same fight under date of August 10, 1864
1t is directed to me and says: II desire
to express the qualification I have deriv-
ed from the conduct of the cavalry dur.
ing its late operations north of Jane:
river"