The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-07-02
Our War Histories


1t has been one of the misfortro
the South that she has vet to produco
Il writer who would describe her ,,.t
in the civil war !ntelligently. fai,hfnlI,
and justly. Nictors chronicles writ
ten while the echo of battles wos s,;n
ringing in his ears, is an absurd nov
forinance, Some critic long ago ro,
marked of him that if he had been to,1
that one Southern soldier had confront
ed Il Union army and had demanded in
Stant surrender. and the army had I'm.
mcdiatcly laid down its arms to him.
Victor would have swallowed the YARN
hook. bait and siniler. Pollard's II cst
Cause" is Il more interesting and battar
written book, but it is infected with
this eXaggerat!on and with partisan.
ship which did the South much harm
when it was published. and which eya,
now. when We can be calm over these
things, seem very foolish. jefferson
Davis history is Il cumbersome affair
which probably not fifty persons have
ever even read after toiling through the
first volume. and Alexander II. Ste.
vcns' narrative is too philosophical for
popular comprehension. There has
been swarm of small writers in the
South who have evidently made Pol
lard their model. ] have come across
one or two of their histories for schools.
or for the people, within year or two
It is impossible to read them without
exceeding anger or COMMISSIONS of
laughter. Dr.. Jones. a clergyman has
prepared one which is a continuous
rhapsody of Southern valor from the
first to the last chapter and Il gross ey-
aggeration of Northern faults. II is
intolel;able that new generation in
the South should be fed on such stuff
as this at the hands of a member of the
sacred profession who has about as
much fitness for writing history as
George Francis Train has to discourse
on the philosophy Of human reason.
1t is a remarkable fact that Horace
Grceley's american Conflict" written
post haste i'll his spare hours from edi-
torial work. and in large part while the
rebellion was still on, and with Frank
Moore's "Record" as chief authority, is
really at this late day the best narla-
tive from the pen OF Il Northern man.
Contentious partisan that he was.
Greeley nevertheless, with his powerful
memory. his comprehension OF tie
whole subject from its beginning in the
early slavery agirations and his news
paper instincts, produced two volumes
which. II they were edited in order to
excise the Inaccuracies OF haSty COM
position. would still be one Of the very
fairest accounts we have as to how we
got into the war and how we got ont Of
it. The truth is that 4 complete, ac-
cuiate and impartial history of the re-
bellicn las Yet to be written. The
Count of Paris has come nearer to it
than any one. but he lacks insight into
the civil and sccfal conditions of the
people, and the great value of his work
is from the standpoint of the military
critic, writing largely for tacticians in
the art of soldiership and for scholars.
The amount of Northern literature ON
the subject from the pen of word mon
gers and partisan hacks is appalling.
but in the past fifteen years. since
Northern newspapers and magazines
began to find that it was safe for them
to give the Southern versions of bat
ties, sieges and campaigns, there has
been i vast winnowin@ OF the chaff, as
we'll ;i$s an accumulation Of Il great re-
Dository Of solid information. There
could be nobler task for scholar Of
leisure than to apply himself to it for
twenty years and evolve from it the
history which both the people of the
North and the South will accept. which
will have the spirit Of the bench and
not the bar in which the author will
look to POGO and not 1900 for his fame,
and which, like Hallam's History of
the English Constitution" will win the
encomium of all parties and sections,
as it did seventy years ago. of being in
its class the most impartial book ever
Written.-Philadelph Bulletin.