The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1897-09-03

On tic uloOuy dHeie, lay JHc gdlHnJ
Strahl, and piled three and four feet
deep in the trenches were the vete-
rams who in other days and in other
battles had followed the peerless
Walthall and Tucker to victory. Here
on this fateful corner, the gallant
Ball planted the colors OF the 9th
Mississippi, and with his white girl
isl hand on its riven staff, lay with
his face on the works, pierced with
sixteen bullets, and beside him Capt.
Ben Toomer, "the noblcst Roman of
them all" 1t was a battle OF the
giants, and nature stood aghast. while
from his place by that lone tree Hood
stood and watched his matchless sol
diers melt away. until the murky
clouds OF war and the smoke from the
burning woods below, covered the val
ley and shut it all from view.
Thirty-tlree years have come and
gone, and the stranger who goes there
now cannot imagine all this to have
taken place amid the beautiful, peace
ful scenes that no " rise before him on
every side. A dim line OF yellow clay.
almbstslevel with the surface, is all
that is left to mark the place where
these bloody breastworks stood; and
over this, at the Carter house, few
short weeks ago, Irish potatoes were
growing on Il soil where four hundred
and twcnty-f0ur OF Mississippi'S best
and bravest boys poured out their
life's blood. A beautiful female sem
mary stands on the site of the historic
Old gin house, and near by Missouri,
mindful OF her gallant dead, has erect
ed a chaste marble monument to their
memory. Irish potatoes and gourd
vines mark where Mssissippians fell,
aud other States have nothing Can
it be that it is believed that ingrati-
tude and negligence fosters patriot
ism? Ii 50, let the Southern youth
visit Franklin to-day and grow pa
triOtic. Greece has handed down
through the ages, immortalized in
story and song, her Marathon and her
Therm0pylae, while other grandly
historic mines will 20 ringing down
through all time, but Franklin, crown
ed with the hcrUism and washed in the
blood Of martyrs of human freedom,
will find no place in the record, and
no shaft will rise to perpctuatc the
memory of the Southern soldier there.
1t has been said that the battle Of
Franklin was bad generalship. and IA
mistake. 1t was neither the one nor
the other 1t was the inevitable.
Had Hood failed to attack Thomas
here, the Confederate soldier could
never have been made to believe that
he had not lost his supreme Oppor-
tunity, and that beaten, demoral-
lied and routed foe had been let slip
from his grasp. 1t was the crowning
wave OF Southern valOr, endurance
and vengeance sweeping northward,
that dashed its crest into bloody foam
on the brcastworks at franklin; and
sixteen days later it was the under
tow Of defeat that drove it south
again, beaten, vanquisllcd and dis
comfltted forever.
A fortunate coincidence carried us
myself and wifc) down to Franklin
on the morning after the closing ex-
crciscs of the grand Reunion at Nash
Vile. Here we met the delegation
from Missouri and received gener-
Gus and cordial welcome from Il pcO-
pie as intensely loyal to the Southern
cause, as they were in the days when
the storm OF battle was raging around
them. We were met and taken from
the railroad depot in carriages out to
and around about the battle field, and
from there to the Confederate GENE.
terry, a beautiful spot on tree-crOwn.
cd ridge. TO this peaceful, lovely
spot these great-hearted people have
removed, at their own expense, Cur
dead from their graves on the field,
and marked each soldiers resting
place with a neat head-stOnc. Stand
ing here under the trees and amid
these graves, Major AIKEN, a gallant
, Tennessee soldier, said I'VE could al.
most wish that We, too, nod been kill
j ed in battle, so that we might bt
buried here" Here, George 5. Nichols
OF Co. y, lst Tennessee Infantry
whose war record Is written ali ovcl
his honest, battle.scarred face, has
stipulated that he shall bc laid t.
rest when deaths reveille sounds Il
call him home Mississippi, to hSI
} credit this much may be said, In
paid these people in ample measure
' for their care and trouble for her dead
but Mississippi alone, OF all the ole
0 Confederate States, has done this
: To this people 1t was labor Of low
0 for the old Confederate soldier; the.
G have asked no return, and they neve
d will. But this does not discharge tn
0 debt OF grateful remembrance tina
!, each State owes the heroes sleepin
r here.
= From the cemetery the ridge slope
9 up TO the residence of Mrs. John Nj
!. Gavoek, and here, too, we were cal
= ried to pay just and willing homag
]. to one Of the grandest women of til
j. South, and were received With
!; gracious hospitality. On her wild
i seranda she pointed out the apt
|. xul,arn Avo (yon fodarnfa uonor01o In