Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1900-05-16
ARP ON VETERANS.
Let That Manned Battalion Go TO the
Reunion.
THEY WILL BE TREATED WELL.
Bill Feels Happy, Now That the
Woods Are Green and the Birds Are
Singing.

OF course Atlanta will raise the
money to uniform the poor confeder-
ate veterans and pay their way to Lou
lsville. That battalion of one-armed.
one-legged, One-eyed heroes of the lost
cause will be the most significant
feature of the reunion and will make
more lasting impression upon the
rising generation than anything else.
That is genuine" they will say.
Those old fellows were certainly there
and they have not repented of it. In
fact, they are proud of it. Ii will
teach the youth of the other side that
our boys were terribly in earnest anu
that neither time nor poverty has OBJ
liberated Il single feeling of emotion
that possessed them when they faced
the guns of the enemy nearly forty
years ago. They are established in
the faith and will die. not believing
they were right, but knowing it. That
word believing is misnomer. 4
kind OF compromise. 1t does not fit
us. We knew we were right then and
we know it yet Relieving is a word
that fits the other side 4 good many
OF their soldier boys believed they
were right and knew no better. for
their politicians fooled them. but more
than half of them didn't believe any
thing about it and didn't care. for they
were hirelings and fought for $40 4
month and nothing else. They were
hungry. IL seems to me If | was i
northern man ! would say to my peo-
pie I'VE can't do anything with those
confederate veterans. Just let them
alone. They were conquered and that's
all. We piled four to one on them
and wore them out, and that's all. but
such fighters the worldncver saw The
never had but 100000 men in the field
all told. from the beginning to the end
of the war, and they have put a mil
lion of our folks on the pension rolls.
besides all that they killed Good gra-
cious. boys Let's quit talking and
quit Dragging. and when them fellows
down south want Il reunion let's bid
them godspeed and say, Go it, boys!
We are betting on you. Get together
by your campfires, as it were. and re-
tell your old war stories. and let the
tears from your old watcry eyes glis-
ten again, and after it is all over then
go back home and tell il all to your
wives and children, and then-yes. AMI
then-and then lay down and die. 80"
Well. that's just what the old vets are
doing. They arc dying pretty fast now
and there will hardly he enough lett
for another reunion. Our hope and
faith is that our boys will keep the
campfres burning and gather around
them and tell what their fathers did
Let those memories survive the flight
of time. just like the historic and he
roic deeds we read Of. The older the
better We have in our family an old
paper that gives an account of the bat
tie Of Lexington during the first rcvo-
luton and along the margin across
the top are pictured seventeen cofiins.
and on each coffin is a name. and one
of these names is very dear to us. for
IL is the name OF an ancestor who fell
in that fight That ancestor never
fought for Il juster cause or on greater
proyOcation than we did. and our chill
dren should be proud of it.
And so let the old battle Scared vet
Grams go to Louisville and have per-
haps their last lOvcfeast. Atlanta will
raise the money. We love to look
over the published names of the con.
tributors and to rejoice that there are
noble men and women left who may
have forgiven but have not forgotten
We measure people by their charities
their willing responses when called on
for cause like this. and | would be