Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-21
Highest of all Leavening PowerLaest U Govt Report RNhI Baking
ABSOLUTELY PURE

"Who is it that causes this river to rise
 l in the high mountains and empty itself
 l into the ocean? Who is it that causes 1 to blow the loud winds of winter and
 | that calms them again in summer? Who
 is it that raises up these lofty forests l and blasts them with the quick lightning 1 at His pleasure? The same Being that
 | gave to you a country on the other side l of the great water, and gave this to us, l and by this title we will defend it." | (Throwing his tomahawk on the ground l and raising the war cry of his nation) A true American illustration of this | sentiment is found in the heroic conduct | of Colonel Travis and his 18S Texans at | the Alamo. They resolved to resist Santa | Annas advance with 4000 men. Travis l appeal to his men was brief. He said: | We are Texans. Here are our homes
 | and our loved ones. Let us resolve to l die where we are in their defense. If
 any man fears the responsibility let him | step forward and he shall be discharged | and allowed to retire. ]"
 | One man alone embraced the oppor- | tunity and retired in disgrace, while cape was practicable. All the others, in- | cludng David Crockett and Bowie, fell | at their posts, and today you can read
 the everlasting message to their country | men, engraved upon the little monument | to their m amory in the old capitol of | Texas: "Thermopylae had her message l of defeat the Alamo had none.'' No | where on earth is the love of home and | pride of local government more deeply | implanted, or more potential. than among | the people of the southern states. | Inequality of Forcs. | Conceding equal patriotism and bray | cry to those who bore aloft the stand | ards of the union, the imperishable glory | of the Confederates conspicuously ap- | pears in the inequality of numbers, re- | sources and appliances of war. Just | think of that inequality. Eight millions 1 l on the other, and the whole world to re- | cruit from.
 | You with a government of unlimited | credit, exhaustless resources and ample | supply of the best arms and munitions | of war, and commerce but little dis | turbed. The Confederacy, deficient in all | these and her ports closed and blockaded, l without even a nucleus of an army or | navy; without arms or ammunition; without a commissariat without money; | without credit: without factories, and | accustomed only to the peaceful pursuits | of husbandry, were armed with nothing
 at the beginning save our own stout 1 hearts and the manly resolve to Vindi- | cate our rights at every hazard The records show the total enlistments | in all the Confederate armies during the | war to have been but little more than l 500 900, while in all the armies of the | union there were over 2,800.00 It is fair, l however, to state that a larger percent | age of the latter were re-enlistments than | of the former, and a larger invading | force is often equaled by a smaller one l acting on the defensive.
 | Notwithstanding the great disparity | in numbers and our Restitution of the sin
 l ews of war, for four immortal years our
 | flag f1oated in the breeZes of heaven as l the symbol of the storm cradled nation | But as time rolled on the Confederate
 l lines became more and more attenuated. l When the rolls were called there was no | response to three-fourths of the names | upon them; those who did not answer | were disabled or dead.
 l Superiority of numbers, improved by l discipline and experience, enabled the l union forces to beat us back, until they
 | formed a cordon around the struggling | Confederacy.
 | We were beaten back step by step, but | gave blow for blow as our comrades fell | around us.
 l No more heroic or impressive scenes
 | ever occurred in the history of warfare. But there must be an end to human | endurance, and at last, when all our | strongholdS were captured our rivers | full of hostile gunboats, our railroads | worn out and broken. our soldiers
 starving, or living on half rations, ire l quently sharing the corn with the horses; l when 100000 hiilocks marked the last | resting places of those who had sacri- l feed their lives upon the altar of their | own and their country's honor-God All l mighty forever bless their souls-when l widows and orphans became nufhberleSS, 1 and grief and mourning were visitors to 1 nearly every household, the hearts of our I people sank in despair. Their sublime 1 courage failed them and many wrote to | their loved ones who still survived to give up the hopeless struggle and come home. | To all such this was the supreme trial, l the test of superiOrity-to decide between ] duty and affection to the family, with | subjugation and defeat on the one side, l and on the other an honorable death for | the cause to which they had shown such l devotion.
 1 Many abandoned the cause-I can | scarcely call it desertion, although tech nically it was-but many of the heroes of l 100 battles, veterans of Lee and Jackson l and of Johnston, whose scared bodies, | tattered flags and attenuated ranks told | so eoquently the tale of their doingS. | preferred an honorable death and re- | mained in line still ready to fight and to | die for Dixie.
 l Thus they presented to the world an | example of heroism similar to that of Cambronne, the commander of the last | square Of the old guard of Waterloo l When the pile of corpses around the | square was larger than the bulk of the | living, their comrades grooming in death l agonies, the French army broken and | fleeing, the allies with eighty cannon | shotted and ready to fire on this devoted l group, Generals Colville and Maitland 1 struck with admiration of such heroism, l rode forward and cried aloud: Brave l Frenchmen, surrender
 l The response came back in language IS | defiant and more contemptuous than that l of-"The guard dies, but never surren- | ders."
 | The cannons belched forth their thun- l der and when the smoke lifted a quver- | ing heap of corpses alone remained. l When Lees great brain could plan no more; when Johnston's cunning had giV- l en OCT, and nothing but omnipotence | could have averted the surrender these | ragged veterans were still ready to | march into the jaws of death, wher% the | hellish din of battle drowned the shriekS | of the wounded and the groans of the l dying.
 l An! But who has the language to DOT l tray the heroism of such brave souls? l They stood by their colors unfiinchingly | when carnage, ruin and death reigned |