The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-01-26

courtesy of the representatives of the
people.
They come not as when they hurried
tbitber at the call of the Chief EXecu-
five. and the command of the legislative
body of their commonwealth to enroll
themselves for the march, the trenches,
thc conflict of battle, the horrors If
need be. of wasting disease and dreary
Imprisonment, of the night watch, the
charge and the death stroke.
! But they are here. with kindred pur-
rose and patriotic love for their dear
State. as warm and true as when these
gray heads wore the raven locks of
youth, and ambition warmed their young
hearts. to deeds of valOr which the
trump of fame has blazoned around the
world.
To many. perhaps to most men now,
the war has become a dream. a whole
generation has come and gone, as men
count it. since the day when after en-
during more than mortal army ever UNI
de;rwelit before-of hunger, cold, wounds,
nakedness, anxiety, disease, struggle,
death and the anguish worse than death
the morning of ApDCmattOy came. The
first victim had been laid upon the altar
of our country at Bethel when Wyatt's
young life went up to God-the last
charge had come. and the last gun was
fired by North CGrOlinians. When the
bugle sounded retreat, over the dead
Confederacy, you were its pall-bearers
at the grave of dead hopes. When
North Cardinals brave and gallant sol
diers, grounded their arms, the next
scene in the bloody tragedy was fate
full ATpOmattOX.
You are here now. inspired by the
sacred purpose to seek succor for the
unfortunate who yet survive after more
than third of century since AppOmat-
tOx; many wounded and disabled by sick
MSS or age; many bereft of fortune or of
friends that were once their stay; and
widows of illustriOus dead.
Sometimes | wonder if the young of
to-day have an adequate conception of
the immensely of the four years war
between the States, of the magnitude
of the losses of the South, and the vast
Importance of their mother State in that
struggle?
The immense military power of Ger
many, with short lines to travel and
great railroad systems for strategic
CONF nation, threw TAI, 1850 men into
France, in the Franco German War; col
lapsing French power like an egg-shell.
The Confederates fought three times
that number, for four long years, with
far less men than the French Army, and
without a navy, comparatively, while
the French had navy that was only
second in the world to the English. In
that effort, there were 2S.277 Germans
killed, while in our War Federal authori-
ties acknowledge 110,070 killed outright,
on the field of battle, and a total loss
of 359,2JS men. 1t is well known that
the pension roll of the Union army, num-
bers at this day, nearly a million in
number. including the widows of the
slain. We do not realize numbers like
these. But these facts mean that the
killed of the Union army, if lying head
and foot, and touching each other, would
extend 125 miles.
The Confederate army, although it
reached 100000 men, had little more
than $4,000 at any one time on IFS
rolls. As they fell at their posts others
were found until the whole military
population was exhausted, and, as Gov
"
wont to say, until we were almost
forced to grind the "seed-con."
The death losses in the great modern
wars of Europe have been a trife over
3 per cent of the men; in the Northern
army they were 4.7-10 per cent in the
Southern, almost 10 per cent, as they
stood to their guns. speak of the
whole enrolment, and of the killed on
the field.
Now what part did North Carolina
play? In general terms it is repeated that
our State furnished most men, and lost
the most, in the fearful price paid TO
determine Constitutional questions by
the arbitrament of the sword.
In military population (betwen Is and
"a years. North Carolina was the third
State of the South having in 1861, only
1880 men, yet she sent to the field
about 125,0000 men, making 10000 be-
yOnd every man of the number, includ-
ing all disabled and exempt, made up
from the boys and the old men.
OF these, according - the figures of
the Confederate archives, aud those pub
lished by u. S. officers, there were
killed in battle, 14,522, or 5000 more
than the nearest Stare to her, in the list;
died of wounds, 3, i51, or 1900 more
than the next in order, and 20,602 in
prison. largely i'll excess of any other.
Forty thousand gave up their lives, 4ay-
ing how many widows and children to
struggle alone! Thousands more of the
wounded were left, TO feel with each re-
curing pain, and disabling weakness,
that the war was not to them a dream
but a reality that demands fresh forti-
tude with every recurring day.
If we ask of the bearing of those
starved heroes in gray, when they Were
led into the tempest of death, the reply
/ is given in the most astounding figures
in the worlds history. When the poet
sang,
Unto the jaws of death,
Into the mouth of hell
| While all the world wondered"
he celebrated the exploit of the Light
Brigade at Balaklava, when it accom-
i plished nothing, but to obey an order
that was blunder, magnificent as ii
was. Out of the 673 Of those troopers,
PAT were lost in killed and wounded; a
percentage of 36.7-10. The great
est loss in the German army was al