The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-14
DIXIE DURING WAR TIMES.
HOME IdTE OF THE SOUTH WHILE
THE CIVIL STRUGGLE WAS on.

Rev. DR.. s, II. Steeie's Lecture on
Life in the south During the War
as He Saw It-IVar Is "a Terrible
Thing, DIR. steele said, ana Yet He
Kept his Hearers COnvulsed With
Laughter With the Humorous In
cidents of His Experience.
Those who are so anxious to 'jine- the
army" in order that they may get
chance to do some fighting In the war
with Spain should have been present at
the Guards Hal last night and heard Rev.
DIR. s. A. steeles lecture upon Home
Life In Dixie During the War"
The hardships and the heart-breaking
scenes of those years were wildly depict
ed, and yet Mr.. Steele drew so freely upon
an inexhaustible fund of humor that his
audience was kept In an almost contin-
uous roar of laughter and applause. As a
humorous lecturer Mr.. Steele easily takes
rank with any that have ever appeared
before a Savannah audience.
The vivid contrasts of the scenes of
those days, beginning with the enthusias-
tic and eager manner in which the men
enlisted for the war, down to the hard
ships which marked the closing years,
when the people learned what war meant
in all its terrible reality were wonderfully
depicted
The lecturer was introduced by Judge
Robert Falligant, who alluded eloquently
TO the old home life of the South. No one
loves a good joke better than Judge
Falligant and as he sat near the speaker
on the platform he was seen frequently
convulsed with laughter.
DR.. Steele's lecture consisted largely of
his personal "reminiscences Of the war as a
boy, he being just at the age TO take an
eager interest in everything that passed,
but too young TO take an active part. be4t
ing only fifteen years of age when the war
closed.
The home life of the South
during the war. DR.. Steele
said, is a subject of which the
young people of this general ton know
nothing at all. 1t Is an unwritten side Of
the story of our great civil struggle. The
experiences of those who staid at home
were just as real and just as vivid as the
experiences of those who went to the front.
DR.. Steele gave a vivid picture of the
old Southern home life in the incident in
which he related how he first heard of
the war, when the preacher visited
his father and spent the night and the
two sat around the open fire place with
other members of the family and dis
cussed it. The preacher was satisfied that
Lincoln would be elected, that the South
would secede, and that the Yankees would
not fight. DR.. Steele's father thought
otherwise. The neighborhood rally when
war was declared and the enlistment of
the men was described with many little in
cidents which made the description enjoy
able. The speaker declared that one
Southerner with a cornstalk could run a
dozen Yankees Bull Run had just been
fought and the speaker gave his audience
to believe that all the Southerners would
have to do would be simply to follow the
Northern troops until they cornered the
whole lot at Niagara Fails. Such was the
character of the speeches and the senti-
meuts of the day. 1t was different later
when the wounded men began coming
home and occasionally a coffin with the
body of some poor boy. There was ter
rible disilusionment then.
He who has once seen war
face to face and has heard its
horrid sounds shudders at the very
thought of war; said DR.. Steele He
spoke of the state of suspense in which the
families of those at the front lived and
expressed the hope that the day would
come when the barbarous art of war would
cease among civilized nations.
DR.. Steeles description of how he
changed his opinion of the Yankees, whom
he had held in great contempt at first,
was quite humorous, and his description
of the fight and terror and general de-
moralizatien resulting from the capture of
island No. 10, followed by the fall of Mem
phis, near where his father lived was
ludicrous, Notwithstanding the seriousness
of the event.
Coffee and tea and practically every
other luxury became unknown in the
.1gFr inc he xrrar md
even many of the necessities were almost
unobtainable towards the close For cof-
fee the faVorte beverage of the South
parched okra, parched peanuts and sweet
| potatoes cut into small cubes and parched
were used as substitutes the latter being
the .favorite. They spun their own wool
| and cotton, wove their own cloth and dyed
IL and made their own clothes.
The Federal lines were established
around Memphis and no favors were
| shown to any who would not take the
| oath of allegiance.
| DIR. Steele told a number of interesting
anecdotes of his experiences in running
the blockade, with quinine, calomel and
morphine and other things needed by the
Confederate soldiers, sewed up in patches
| on his clothing and in his saddle blanket
His first experience was when the salt
gave out and his mother made the trip
| into Memphis taking him with her His
mother would not take the oath OF, allie
| glance, but she outwitted the provost and
got her salt anyway. One of his best am
! ecdotes was how he drew the fire of a
Yankee gunboat for a day and half He
| had gone with his father to get some APP
| pies from neighboring place on the riv-
! er. Seeing a gunboat coming, they start
| ed to leave. He had never seen a gunboat
| and was determined to see this one He
| crept down to the waters edge and hid in
| the bushes The gunboat came slowly
! along until it reached a point opposite
where he was. 1t seemed deserted. There
| was not a soul on deck and not a man
to be seen at the portfolios. He could not
understand this. Suddenly. in a spirit of
boyish mischief he jumped up and point
! ed a crooked stick at the boat In imitation
| of firing gun. In a
moment he thought the heavens
| had fallen in. Every gun on the boat
belched forth in flame and thunder He
scrambled up the bank and ran like
scared deer to where his father was watt
ing for him, and the two lost no time in
getting away from the neighborhood But