The evening times., 1899-09-26
WHEN JOHNNY MARCHED HOME
No Bells Rang Welcomes to Worn.
Out "Confeds.o

At dinner party uptown the other
night several former Union soldiers and
one ex-Confederate sat down. The latter
had ridden with ]. E. B. Stuart. He is
now riding" about for a Northern con-
cern. The talk turned on the home-com-
Ing of military heroes. and the Southern
man said:
Il was asked the other day in Pittsburg
as We watched the welcome of 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 required to march in bodies when
they go home. The Confederates did not
as whole. They went back in twos. or
threes, but oftener one at time. You
will know some day that the Civil War
was unlike any other war Of history
When the Confederates realized they were
whipped they were heartbroken. l am not
making any argument for the cause. But
you must consider the temperament of a
Southern man to understand what defeat
meant to him.
You people in the North would have
tecovered if the North had been whipped
You would have been at Richmond, if we
had succeeded, with your Yankee inven
tions and schemes. You would have got
the contracts for the Confederate States
railroads. You would have revived your
industries from our Golfers. You would
have become partners in our commerce
All this would have been characteristic
of you.
with the Southern man it is different
He was whipped but he was sullen. He
moped and would not play You people
lad the advantage in the play o; course
but you might have given the su ker a
show for his white alley If he had shown
disposition TO let you inside his yard.
But he barred the gate and scowled at
you through a 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. Ard nov
when you have a trade with Southern
man you do not take advantage of him
as you did
But just after the surrender he was in
no mood to be received. The town fro n
which he had enlisted was in no condition
to turn out in welcome and hurrah, even
if a regiment had returned, or any body Of
men. Gentlemen, believe me there was not
a healthy hurrah in the whole South after
Lees surrender. 1t was nothing to bray
about for some time before that Some o.,
us saw the handwriting six months be-
fore the meeting of Grant and Lee at APP
pomattox.
Your soldiers returned home in COM
paneS, battalions, and regiments. They
were received by the populaca, as We are
now receiving our returning so diery from
the Philippines, and as We recently re-
ceived them from Cuba. But the Con-
federate sneaked back, not because he
was ashamed of what he had done, for to
b;- Iax y,,se
point, but because we had been whipped.
1t takes a brave man to acknowledge a
licking such as you gave US. We ac-
knowledged 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 bells or fire the guns
when we went home. A man going into
his old home in the night, climbing the
| back fence and going through the garden,
making peace with the dog, knocking at the
kitchen door, is not an inspiring specta-
Gle. That's the way most of US went back
VERY often there were no bells to ring.
You Yankees shot them out of the church
! steeples, or our people had to met them
for ammunition. We were mighty short
toward the last. There were few house
guns in the South during the war.
Occasionally Confederate returned t.
find rs town SO battered that he did no.
know II. He met strange faces in the
streets. Familiar landmarks had disap-
peared. Sometimes he found the founda-
tion of his old home, and it was overgrown
with grass. Whole towns disappeared,
| and communities removed, in some sec
tions of the South during the war
Il know many former Confederates to-
day who were never mustered out. They
punched us and told us to- go. and we
scattered in every direction. 1 know a
man in my State who is holding a Federal
Office who never surrendered. and who
was never discharged from the Confede-
rate service. No war had as many stranga
| situations, as many curious results as
| that war"