The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-30
THE CONFEDERATE REUNION.

Preparations for the reunion OF Georgia
Confederates in This city. on Nov. %. %
and "a are in steady progress. The execu-
tive and various Other committees OF the
reunion. composed Of those citizens who
have been most prominently identified with
this work since its inception, a quar-
ter OF a century ago. are alive to the ne
cessity of making the reunion memorable
and are doing aH that they can 10 this
end.
1t is understood that the various commit
tees charged with making preparations for
the meeting age sanguine of the compietest
success in every particular, hence il is
risking nothing to predict that the forth
coming reunion will be one of the larses,
attended and most enjoyable ever held by
the Georgia veterans Savannah will sus-
tain her reputation for open-handed hospi-
tality and once more demonstrate her at
lection for the gallant men who wore the
gray.
The reunions of the veterans, besides be-
ing socially enjoyable are historically
valuable. in the course % a few years
now the last of the old "Coufeds" viii
have passed away, and those contributions
to The history of the great struggle that
consist Of persona! "reminiscences and des-
cripdons win be left 10 the chance preser-
walton of an unsafe tradition. The inner
life Of the armies, how the man in the
trenches" of that earlier day lived and
breathed and had his precarious being;
tales of camp fire and bivouac. of charge
and retreat, of raid and foray. may only
be rescued from oblivion through these
gatherings of the men who saw and lived
them and played in all brave and gallant
part.
The history of the great strategic opera
tons of the war. the movements of armies
and the conduct of campaigns, has been
largely written, and may be fully written
from the official documents now on file
in the departments. But the humber and
yet not less interesting life Of the Confed-
crate armies, of which the commanding Of
hcers probably knew little, can be TRUTH
fully and Understandings told only by in
dividual participants, who lived the pri-
vate soldiers life and remember but too
well it's hardships and its occasional pleas
ures.
There is often no juster critic of the
good and bad points of a military com
mander than the private soldier Of his
command, who. rough himself perhaps,
judged his officers by his own simple stand
ards of manhood and right. 1t is no little
or light privilege 10 listen to the narration
of the exploit of some favorite general by
some OF his men whom he never knew
personally. and of whom he never heard,
but who loved him then and now with a
devotion that verges on idoatry.
In the cleaning, when the camp fires
brighten, tales of 'tJeb" Stuart and stone
WALL Jackson, of NAT" Forrest and
"Tige" Anderson. follow each other around
the circle. The listener hears of Stuart's
death at Yellow Tavern. and of Jackson's
in the Wilderness; of many a wild foray
of Forrest, with the form of the gallant
leader far in the van of the charge, while
some Scared veteran repeats the celebrat-
ed expression of "Old Tige:" I'm be d.
if my men shall build breastworks for
them to retreat behind
And it is in incidents such as these that
of veterans find at once their
chiefest pleasure, interest and public good