Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1899-10-20
WHEN JOHNNY WENT HOME.
Former Confederate Tells OF the
Return of Southern Soldiers
from the War.

Az u uluHeI purity uplOWh tuS OthGG
night several former union soldiers and
one ex-confederate sat down. The lat
ter had ridden with j. e. b. Stuart.
He is now riding" about for q northern
concern. The talk turned on the home
coming of military heroes, and the
southern man said:
81 was asked the other day in Pitts
the people to the Tenth Pennsylvania
back from the Philippines what SORT
of reception we Johnny Rebs got when
we went home after the civil war.
Whipped soldiers are not often re-
quired to march in bodies when they go
home. The confederates did not, as a
whole. They did not in any way so far
as 1 ever heard. They went back in
twos, or threes, but oftener one at a
time. You will know some day that the
civil war was unlike any other war of
history. When the confederates real
lied they were whipped they were heart
broken. am not making any argument
for the cause. But you must consider
the temperament of southern man to
understand what defeat meant to him.
you people in the north would have
recovered if the north had been
whipped. You would have been at
Richmond, if we had succeeded, with
your Yankee inventions and schemes.
You would have got the contracts for
the confederate states public works.
You would have had the contracts for
building our navy, for making our guns.
You would have built our railroads.
You would have revived your industries
from our Golfers. You would have be-
come partners in our commerce. All this
would have been Characteristic of you.
With the southern man it was diff
.ferent. He was whipped, but he was
sullen. He moped and would not play.
Ybu people had the advantage in the
play, of course, but you might have
'given the sulker show for his white
alley if he had shown n disposition to
let you inside his yard. But he barred
the gate and scowled at you through
knot-hole. And this trait clung to him
for years, and he awoke one morning
to find some of you folks in his field,
and on his plantation, working his soil,
while he was starving. Then he quit
looking back and went to work. And
now when you have a trade with a
southern man you do not take advan-
tage of him as you did.
But just after the surrender he was
in no mood to be received. The town
from which he had enlisted was in no
condition to turn out in welcome and
hurrah, even if a regiment had re-
turned, or any body of men. Gentle
men, believe me, there was not a healthy
hurrah in the whole south after Lees
surrender. 1t was nothing to brag
about for some time before that. Some
of us saw the handwriting six months
before the meeting of Grant and Lee at
AppomattoX.
Your soldiers returned home in
companies, battalions and regiments.
They were received by the populace, as
we are now receiving our returning
soldiery from the Philippines, and as
we recently received them from Cuba.
But the confederate sneaked back, not
because he was ashamed of what he had
done, for to this day we are mighty
sensitive on that point, but because he
had been whipped. 1t takes brave
man to acknowledge licking such as
you gave us. We acknowledged it all
right to you, and at home, but we did
not want any hurrah made about it.
Our people were in no mood to ring the