The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-25
THE CONFEDERATE FLAGS.
Sensible Views of the Man Who Com
piled Newspaper History of the War.

piled Newspaper History of the War.
Thomas A Townsend in New York Tribune.
In this hour of overpowerng patriotism,
when sectionalism, If not wiped OUT en-
tirely, is silent during wars alarms one
dfscordant note strikes me as marring the
general harmony. / refer to the action
taken recently looking to the return of
flags captured during the war for the Union
to the regiments from which they were
taken. This, it seems to me, is a mistaken
policy, that tends to minimize and detract
from some of the bravest deeds of that
gigantic struggle.
And this leads me to say as the creator
of the Townsend Library, now owned by
Columbia University, and as a student for
nearly forty years of the annals of that
period, that If we are to be in the future
really united country-united in fact as
view in recalling the events of the four
year tragedy than has been generally taken.
The North must do homage to the heroes
of the South; the South must admit and
emphasize the bravery of those who fought
against them The North must learn to
glory in the rugged valor of Stonewall jack
son, the calm strategy of Lee, the hopeless
heroism of Pickett and his men in his i'm
mortal charge at Gettysburg, the skill and
bravery of those great warriors, the john
stons and Longstreet, and the exploits of
Wade Hampton, Joe" Wheeler (who never
lost a fight, and other Confederate heroes,
not because they were Southerners but be-
cause they were Americans, and because
their valor reflects credit on our common
country, equally with that of Grant, Sher-
We of the North must remember and
teach our children that the South, with not
more than 100000 men, StroVe Valianty
against over 100000 volunteers enlisted by
the North. 1t was no blot on her escutch-
cen that she had finally to succumb against
odds so tremendous. but infinitely to her
credit that she was able to prolong the
struggle through years and months many
of which must have been darkened in all
Southern homes by the blackness of de-
spair.
When L speak of the South, however, it
should not be forgotten that the States
south of Mason and Dixon's line were not a
unit in favor of secession. Three hundred
thousand Southerners fought in the Union
ranks, and gloried in Union victories, every
Southern State except Georgia and South
Carolina furnished men who followed the
stars and stripes, and even those two States
each gave 5000 colored troops to the Union
army.
1t may not be generally known but it is
fact, that in proportion to her population
East Tennessee sent twice as many of her
sons to battle in the cause of freedom as
any other State In the Union. 1t was a son
of Virginia, Gen. George H. Thomas, who
ville-a victory that General De Peyster, the
well-known military historian. has charac-
terized as the finest achievement of the
war strategically and tactically considered
the very Waterloo of the rebellion" 1t
was, too, a native of Tennessee, Admiral
Farragut, whose naval record has electrified
So far as bravery is concerned, there is
little choice between the two sections. The
regiment that lost the most in killed and
wounded during the war, on either side, was
the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Confed-
crate Regiment, and no noble deed in the
ranks of the Northern army but was du-
plicated by our brethren of the South.
Coming to the present war, we note that
the South is stin well to the front Thus
Hobson, who sunk the Merrimac, is a son
Of a Confederate soldier, and Ensign Frank
lin Buchanan Sullivan, now serving on the
Marblehead, is a grandson of the famous
Confederate seadog Admiral Buchanan,
while sons of Generals Pickett and Long
street have applied to President Mckinley
for staff appointments.
We cannot ignore these facts, nor, even
If we would, wipe out the annals OF the
war for the Union. Its history is written in
the blood of the bravest and best of the
citizens of all sections. The struggle was
apparently foreordained by the Almighty
national sin for which all of us were in
some measure responsible. We must, there
fore, teach our children how this inevitable
cataclySm, while leaving ruin in its path,
developed in the stricken South the civic
virtues that make States great, while the
necessities of the hour aroused equally in
the North a spirit of patriotism and self
sacrifice unfelt before Forgetting, there
fore, the bitterness and short-sightedness
that prevailed at times in both sections,
remember the manful endurance of hard
ships, the unselfiSh valor, the heroism
among the lowliest seen on every battlefield.
And these are the lessons of the captured
fagsl They should not be returned to
former owners either at the South or in the
North, but be assembled in some place pro-
vided by the government at Washington,
each duly labeled with its story, to which
we and those who come after us may from
time to time resort, and learn the priceless
lore they teach. And so long as pilgrims
shall repair from all sections to view these
relics of a glorious past-these unfading
mementoes of American valor-so long viii
the heroic virtues they commemorate be
kept alive, and shine as beacon lights