The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-31
UNDER TWO FLAGS.
A Southern Paper Recalls Memorie. -,
the Civil War.
Charleston News and Courier.


We may be excused perhaps II we s,,,.
partial expression 10 a reflection which va
are sure must have come TO very, very man.
people in this part Of the country durng.
the past six weeks or since the current was
began, and ii is generally to the effect WIZ
mild, comfortable sort of war it is for
most of us; that is, for all of us who ave-
not in II" strictly speaking.
1t has been source of profound amaze.
ment to those of us who have visited tha
North much during the past thirty-tbraS
years and talked with average people t tbs
about their experiences" from 1861 to 1SsS
and learned how little they know in fact ~
did mean to some of the people engaged in
1t. On our side all the people We're engaged
in it. Every family was represented in fhS
army and every family had it's part of thS
privations and sufferings incidental to war
to endure When a great battle occurred
every neighborhood was called on to mourn
the loss of some familiar resident and tba
furloughed wounded were in evidence every
where. There was not city or town ~
hamlet in the South where the lists of the
casualties were not scanned with anxiou.
eyes to discover names which anxious hearfs
hoped were not there. And in the intervals
between the many bloody fights every
household felt in many ways the effects Of
the ever present and pressing conditions OF
the state of existing war. The ''bockade'
was in force from Norfolk to Galveston. and
its results were apparent and experienced
and every member of ii. Food was scarce
and some of 1t was strange; clothing was
unusually unreasonable and Outlines
unique; medicine was a luxury which onlv
the rich or well-to-do could afford to buv.
the prices of everything-from the most ia
miliar to the least familiar articles Of
lously high, and for the most part beyond
the reach of the would-be purchaser Even
salt and sugar, flour and cotton cloth, Shoes
buttons and sewing thread were suddenly
translated into unobtainable things, and the
list of such things was of infinite length.
On the other side, as we learned later, the
not greatly concern those who were repre-
scented in it, and represented only Inter-
course with the rest of the world was barely
clothing and food and medicine were album
dant and to spare. There was no evidence
o. the struggle in the family accounts; there
were many industries and individuals who
profiteds by reason of its continuance. The
curious thing to the Southern inquirer was
left only such impressions in the experience
of the mass of the Northern people as might
have been made by one in which they had
in fact little or no concern, except as to its
results.
We can understand 1t better now. 1t is
with novel sensations, certainly, that peo-
daily the reports. of the fighting at the
'front.'" in which they may or may not have
personal representative, while. the Incl
dents and affairs of their daily life scarcely
reflect the conditions which such a fight
involves. There is no enemy in their terri
tory or off their coasts, no blockade no war
prices, no scarcity or anyLnlng-nOthlng, in
short, to indicate that they are in a condi-
ton OF war except the demands for war
taxes and the daily dispatches from the
far-off scene Of contest Thirty-four years
ago yesterday occurred the fall Of Vicksburg
and the check at Gettysburg, and every
home in the South was darkened and de-
pressed by the news. Yesterday every
household was on the qui vive for the news
of the fall of Santiago, while not ripple
in the usual life of any household was oc-
casioned by the bloody events leading up
to its expected overthrow. 1t is curious
change of position for the people Of this
section, surely, but they can understand
now, as they have never understood before,
the position of their fellow-citizens in the
North in like circumstances, a third Of
century ago.