The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-08-09
RALEIGH, N. c.. AUGUST 8, 1892.

Vicksburg, Miss, 16,6OO, of whom
II, 1O4 are unknown.
Antietam, Va, 4, 961, of whom /, ,818
are unknown,
Winchester, Va, 1856, of whom
1855 are unknown.
From the foregoing may be gathered
the facts that 5000 Union soldiers
VINO fought for the old flag have found
graves in our national cemeteries.
Those who perished in Andersonville
and Salisbury repose in cemeteries
bearing the same names as those
prisons, the former cemetery contain
ing 13, IA graves, and the latter IL, 1876,
the occupants of IL, 022 of which are
unknown. Of the total number who
peFlshed, 145, 600 rest in graves marked
unknown In all, 275, 900 found their
last resting places in the soil Of the
southern States.
But of the dead Confederates, of the
5000 enlisted men and boys in grey,
need I speak to this assembly, How
many of them perished in the strife,
and how many of them survived?
Alas there are no reliable and satisfac
tory statistics to be had. AS to them
there are few public cemeteries which
mark their last resting place and few
monuments to their memory have ever
been erected. I say this not by way
Of reproach. Our Southern people at
the end of the war were financially
ruined, and it was with us a fierce
struggle for bread to feed the HUjng,
and we had not the means to pay suit
abl5 hOnors to the dead. The nation
in whose cause they died did not sur
viv.e them, and a totally new order of
things was ushered in. For many
years after AppomattOx, we of the
South, during the dark days of recon
| strIctiOn, many time had good cause
to envy the "boys in gray " Of '61-'65
who laid down their lives with guns in
their hands on the field Of battle. We
| came back again to our desOlated and
ruined homes, to find social chaos
! everywhere, and q land filed with
deepest mourning The flower of South
erni chivalry had been cut down, with
cred and dead in this sunny land of the
| South and in many an old baronial
! homestead the place of the master was
usurped and occupied by his former
slave. But [ need not dwellupon these
melancholy pictures, the bare mention
| Of which recalls to memory an epoch
in history which requires the truthful,
| impartial pen of some future GibbOn
or Hume or MacCauley to paint in his
! tOric language, commensurate with
the facts. This much, my comrades,
I will say, however, that when the i'm
partial history of that time shall be
written, it will be seen that the herOism
shown by the C0nfederates who sur
vjz-s,1, was equal to the emergency and
| equal to, if not superior to, that ever
shown by cavalier upon the field of
battle in this or any other country,
where civilization is known through
out the wide world. There was a duty
before us to be performed and likemen
who followed Lee and jackson, welaid
aside our guns and undertook to per
form it. How well it has been done,
let the South of 1892 be compared with
1865, and any man may run and read
and note the difference. Right here
want to suggest before closing, that
after the lapse of 81 years, one by one,
| the survivors of the war in the South
are passing away, and the number Of
| those who had and still have personal
| knowledge of the men and things Of
that day is yearly and monthly and
even daily becoming. less and less.
Sadly, too, say it, as we have these
re unions we are struck with the newt
able fact that as our comrades fall out
are none to take their places, We owe
it then to ourselves and to our children
and to the country as we'll, that correct
dates shall be preserved in some per-
manent shape to enable history to be
correctly written. It is said Jus North
Carolinians and alas it is too true that
1--WE make history; but we never, or
hardly ever write it." The correct and
impartial history of North Carolina in
! 1780-'81 was not written until after the
lapse of more than one hundred years,
and not until the patriotic Schenck so
nobly and we'll undertook the self i'm
posed task, as a dutiful son of his old
mother State. He it was who resur-
rected from obscurity the noble deeds
of the Revolutionary North Carolina
heroes who gave to GuilfOrd Court
House a niche in the temple of fame,
and induced worthy sons to honor
themselves in pay ing suitable tribute
to the memory of their noble sires, who
then and here gave valuable assistance
at the birth Of American liberty. All
honor to them, and our heartfelt thanks
to him, for his noble work in a noble
cause. Let us as survivors of the
COnfederacy take the lesson home with
us, emulate his example and each in
his sphere do all he can to rescue from
oblivion the patriotic deeds of our dead
comrades and companions in arms, TO
the end that when the time shall come,
truthful and impartial history may be
written.
1 hold in my hand book, which is
the only one of it's kind in existence,
and as furnishing correct data for &C
curate history it is worth its weight in
gold. I have had it bound recently the
better to preserve it. 1t is a collection
of II pencil drawings, made by John J.
Omenhauser, Of Alabama, while a
prisoner of war at Point Lookout
| Mo1vv1onS on6 fhoco HToxuiDorS 1soD1so-