The times., 1899-01-19
THE CONFEDERATE DEAD.
Total Number Impossible to Re
Known.

Washington Jan. 1.-THE Southern
wave of passionate response to the Prcs-
dents sentiment in relation 10 the Confed-
crate dead was an unexpected and remark
able manifestation, seemingly out of all
proportion in volume and depth to its
| cause. But its proffer from such quarter
from the leader of the party which had
carried on the war for the Union with
such answering persstency, a party
which presumptiyely embodies all the re-
naming sectional ranCor toward the South
was is itself also an extraordinary thing.
In face of Republican opinion and poll
cies interpreted by the superficial and
shallow he was bold politician, indeed,
albeit intrenched in the White House, who
could make the overture to the Southern
people that the President did in his Allan
ia speech of December II. This is what
President Mckinley said:
The time has now come. in the evolution Of
sentiment and feeling. under the pTOvidenCeS Of
God, when, in the spirit Of fraternity. should
share with you IN the care OF the Confederate
soldiers.
Under the circumstances this seems a
small thing for the President to have said
at a public reception in a Southern State,
yet ii had deep Significance coming from
such source. and was surprise to the
southern people undoubtedly. But as a
matter of fact, as all intelligent observers
have long been aware. there is not now ana
never has been rancor at the North toward
the South
The ebullitions of demagogues in po-
liticai campaigns for personal ends. main
iy mere fuStian, sometimes warped pubic
judgment for the moment and Temporal
riiy gave Northern opinion that appear
ance OF supersensitive Southern obserya-
tion. But the course of events since the
war is proof that the bloody shirt appeals
had but transitory influence even upon
eX-Union soldiers They bad fought for
the Union, and WY down deep in their
hearts understood better than all the
bloody shirt spouterS the true philosophy
that there could be no solid, permanent
Union based on suspicion, hate and ostra-
cism, but that it was wholly dependent
for existence upon a united, homogeneous
and contented people.
Like other students OF the time the
President, himself n soldier of the civil
war, had fully penetrated the true state
of Northern opinion, and especially his
partyS opinion, in relation to the late
enemies of the Union. Taking advantage
OF an immense personal popularity with
the Republican party, well as the new
era of robust nationalism produced by the
! IL.
mulated what was apparently mere for
NAL, matter -of-course sentiment which
under ordinary conditions would have
passed unnoticed, but which to the public
astonishment and perhaps his own. too
has taken hold like wildire and touched
all Confederate hearts.
Coming from a Republican President
who more fully represents his party than
any other since Lincoln, perhaps, il is
--sv,rr
taken for years to mellow If not wholly
obliterate Southern pro- slavery and war
time hatred of the North He not only
formulated fact but its courageous ex-
preston at such juncture in the heart
of the late Confederacy was dictated by a
keen comprehension of the national aspi-
rations and quick sense of the unities.
1t was a great stroke, and its effect has
been marked. By one short sentence the
President has been enabled to demon
strate to an infinitesimal band of profess
sonal irreconciliables both North and
South that the country at large is ready
TO bury the hatchet and come together
again III good national faith. He app5ars
to have the almost unqualified approba-
tion of the press and people of the North
regardless of party. while the South has
met his proffer more than half way
But what does the President aim at
manifest good will and sympathy for the
South? How can the idea he suggests be
made effective? Where are the Confed-
crate dead and what has heretofore been
done to care for them? These are gues-
tiOns that naturally occur to the mind,
/ but they are not propounded here to
found objections or present obstacles 10
| any proposed action to share in the
care but rather for discussion and the
"a
the entire subject
II the President means by caring for
the Confederate dead that national Gene
teries shall be provided for them as in
the case of the Union dead Of the war
then the question, Where are the Confed-
, crate dead? becomes one of vital imuo.t-
ance. So does another: How many Con-
federItes died and were killed during the
Civil War? These are not only important
questions in view of the Presidents ut
terance but they are historically inter-
esting in themselves.
The official returns of death losses in the
Confederate armies on file in the War De-
partmcnt in Washington are incomplete
and unsatisfactory. Nearly all the rolls of
Alabama troops are missing, and those OF
none of the States are complete. The ac-
tual extent of their losses by disease and
casualties in battle must ever remain a
matter Of Onjecture. The losses in the
Union armies from the complete rolls ar-
cordine TO the original tabulaton sup
posed to have been accurately kept. were
subsequently largely increased in the item
of killed or died of wounds, based upon
the papers officially known as final state
ments.' and through the investigation of
pension claims. This tabulatiOn as finally
revised and corrected shows that those
who died Of disease i'll the Union armies
were in the ratio OF > to | of those killed
in battle or died OF wounds. That is to
say, 109,6S9 men We're killed or died of
wounds, while 22i,JS6 Union soldiers died
of disease.
Almost Immediately after the war vas
over the National Government set on coot
measures to identify its vast army OF dead
in so far as it was possible to collect the
remains in national cemeteries and mark
their graves. SeventysiX cemeteries were
established throughout the Union, which
includes one in the City of Mexico where
the dead of the Mexican war are collected
Northern and Southern lying side by side
in that far-off cemetery. The majority of
these beautiful cemeteries, carefully cared
for and upon which large sums of money
are annually expended. are in the Southern
States. But thousands of the Union dead
lie buried in the North where they died
in hospital and while at home on sick
leave. In nearly all cases the Government
owns the ground. and all the improvements
are of 4 lasting character. There has been
an endeayor to erect grave markings which
would last for ages. In these cemeteries
the soldiers grave is marked by u small
marble block projecting about foot above
ground, sometimes with his, name carved