Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1901-02-02
THE MEMPHIS REUNION
What the Surviving Warriors
May Anticipate.
Martial Points About MISUNDERSTANDING
Events of the Civn War, of Which
the Bluff City Was the Center
and Its People Were
the Chief Actors.

many more unknown contestants on
the Southern side are buried beneath
Tennessee soil.
On one of its battlefelds So, 900 mel.
fought and $4,000 fell, greater per.
centage of mortality than any shock OF
arms Of equal force in history. On an,
other, at Shiloh, nearly 10000 men
also fought, and $4,000 fell. Other
conspicuous fields might be named
where the loss was immense and the
devastation perpetratod both to human
life and property by the moving forces
of both sides was almost incalculable.
The force turned out from Tennes-
see to fight under the Confederate flag
exceeded 5000 men, while 10000
served as defenders of the National
colors. Our neighbor State Of Ken
tucly sent 5000 men TO fight the Ma
tional battles and 5000 to aid their
Southern brethren. This sums IN a
total of 226,OO0 men who from the two
States in the four years mentioned
stood in the ranks TO contest for their
respective political views-lO2, 900 for
the North and 1920 for the South.
Kentucky and Tennessee we're there.
fore central theaters Of the war. The
sons of each battled for their rights,
and Tennessee was the bloodiest battle
area in the nation next after Virginia.
The two selected leaders of the CON
tending factions of that unhappy period
were natives of Kentucky, born within
less than one hundred miles of each
other, both being the sons of pioneers,
and both were born in the log ca bin--
homes Of the earlier settlers-Jeffer-
son Davis in Christian county, in the
western part, Abraham Lincoln nearer
the center, in Hart county. One was
reared among the warm-hearted people
ofthe South, and won fame and fortune
also by his native industry, ambition
and mental talents, The Other labored
in different school, earned equal or
perhaps greater renOwn by his gifts Of
nature and determination to rise above
the common level by which his early
life was environed. Forrest, the great
cavalry leader, was born barely one
hundred miles from either, and Grant
but little farther from the others.
Memphis, our proud and growing
city by the great rivers shore, lacked
hut one vote Of being chosen for the
clpital of the short-lived Confederacy.
For one short year the stars aud bars Of
the South floated above it as a recog-
nized emblem Of authority. Then the
flag went down to give place to the
stars and stripes, which for the past
thirt5-cight years has never trailed to
otaer flags as far as we here are con-
cerned. 1t was in front of Memphis
city where, on June 8, 1852 the fierce
battle of the gunboats ended in the
destruction of the Confederate fleet.
1t was in the streets of Memphis that
Forests troopers galloped when the
town was taken from the Nations
forces in August, 1861. And it was at
Belmont, 220 miles above Memphis,
where battle, on Nov. Z, 1861, threw
Memphis into mourning for the loss of
her sons.
It has been, therefore, meet and
proper that Memphis should be chosen
for the great Confederate reunion Of
1901, the first to be held in the new
century and the only one likely to be
held here within the lifetime of the sol
diers who fought over Tennessee soil.
For it may be truly said that dozen
years hence there will be very few alive
who bore arms on eithor side during
the civil contest Another thing may
be said: The battles fought over the
two States of Tennessee and Kentucky
were between hosts made up of men of
the West, neighbors and friends, whose
worldly interests were identical, though
they did not think so in the days when
war ragged. Very few fought out this
way from the Eastern and Central
States. Thus, being friends and neigh
bors with trade and business interests
mutual, and which they now realize to
be so, why should they not gather to
greet one another in friendly com
munion, to smoke the pipe of peace and
tell of each Others splendid prowess,
when mighty armies were led by great
military commanders to combat for SUI
premacy, in conflicts that have had no
parallel in the history of wars and by
the side of which the late Spanish
American war as well as the Boer war
in Africa are as skirmishes.
The veterans to gather here will tell
of how each side battled at Belmont,
where Tennessee and Louisiana fought
to kill their Illinois and Iowa brethren
and how each ran the other from the
field. They will tell how 10000 men
marched out from Memphis to Gun
town, Miss, taking five days to reach
the battle-ground at Brice's Crossroads,
on Tishomingo creek, in northeast
Mississippi, where they found Forrest,
for whom they were seeking, and how
they came back in less than thirty-six
hours, over hundred miles of rugged
racing ground; how Ben Whaples, a
social leader among musicians of that
day, and many of his friends aad fell
low society stars marched in gorgeous
to see the Southerners crush
ed into the earth, and how they came
hurriedly back, hungry, muddy and
cold, all in tatters and rags, to be the
laughing stock Of their friends ever
after; how Forrest fought his cavalry
against the gunboats and captured
them on the Tennessee river, ,.s well as
how the gunboats fought Sydney John
stou and Beauregard at Shiloh; also
how both Grant and Sherman narrowly
escaped capture onlya few miles back
from Memphis; how the river boats,
both armed and unarmed, ran the
gauntlet of shore batteries of heavy
cannon at Island No. 10 and other
points along our great water highway,
and many more of such incidents of a
thrilling nature that went to make up
the tragic period Of the sanguinary war
between the States. 1t was here at