The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-31
ATLANTA Constitution.)

| am not well and may not write many
more letters for your readers and there
fore write this one TO you to enlist your
interest and hearty cooperation IN
matter that is very near my heart and
am sure would be as near to yours if you
were twenty years older and had more
time.
have received the five volumes of his
tory compiled and edited by Judge Walter
Clark, now the Chief Justice of the State
Of North Carolina. This is no ordinary
work. 1t is on a higher plane than any
/ have ever seen and is to the land
what Service Afoat' is on the sea.
For seven years of unremitting toll
Judge Clark has worked on this labor of
love without pay or reward save that
which comes from the accomplishment of
sacred duty faithfully performed. OF
course he has had capable and willing
co-operators who out of the 254 sketches
wrote 10 of them. Judge Clark wrote
all of the others besides full half vol
ume fifth of graphic events and COM
ments that concern all the Southern
States as much as North Carolina and
which includes the first published history
OF the North Carolina navy-the Abe
marie and Shenandoah and Florida and
some other smaller cruisers and block
AIDE runners. 1t is worthy of mention
just here that Commander Waddell of
the Shenandoah, was the last man to- keep
the Confederate flag at the masthead, for
his vessel was in the mid -Pacific ocean
and he did not know of the fall of the
Confederacy until the 18th of August,
1865, and had sea fight with the enemy
on June 4. The volumes are beautifully
bound in gray and gold. The paper and
the printing is of the best quality and
their pages embellished with over 900
portraits and battle scenes. These por-
traits are, of course, a reproduction,
eight to a page, of the old time photo
graphs that the mothers of the dead and
living boys furnished to the engravers.
These engravings were reproduced by
that patriotic Southerner, Major Patton,
president of the University Publishing
Company, New York, without cost. The
volumes are quite large, containing 500
pages each. Judge Clark selected the best
men TO write the sketches of their reg-
ments.
What a guaranty of truth and culture
when we see in this list of contributors
such eminent and patriotic names as Gen
eral ID. II. Hill, General Clergyman. Gov
ernor Vance and his brother Robert,
General Toon, Colonel DeRossett, Major
Graham Major Moore (who compiled the
roster twenty years ago., DR.. Moses
Hoge, of Richmond, and captains and
lieutenants by the score. And there are
ministers and privates mingled in whose
work is we'll and ably done. There were
eighty-four full regiments and twenty
eight battalions besides the State troops
(home guardsl and every regiment and
battalion had one or more historians. 1t
is a magnificent work and if i were
North Carolinian and lived far away ]
you'd purchase a set if l had to do with
MT tobacco and whiskey for a month, for
he price is only So. There are 1900
Ynames indexed in these volumes and
would be sure that some of them werf
kin to me or my folks. What wonderful
State. Their long forbearing people twice
sent a commission to Washington Il
plead for a peaceful solution and avoi(
war, but got no promise or consideration
and then they made war as one man-ant
all the women. They had only $4,000 o
full grown men of Il in the State, bu
they could not keep the boys out and 1885,
coo troops were enrolled. What sat
comment must come in here, for it is
matter of record that of these troops fl,
coo were killed or died in the service.
have the old roster before me in fou
volumes containing 125000 names and ar
pended to every name are significant lei
tiers telling when he enlisted and wher
and what became of him.
But why am | writing so earnestl
about this? Because l wish our ow
State to do something of the kind befor
it is forever too late. 1t is alarming
read in Judge Clark's Review and Con
clusion'' how many of his contributor
died before they had finished thei
sketches and either he or some other ha'
to take it up and complete it. Now tn
cost of this work to the State is 81 pc
volume, which is the actual cost OF Tn
paper. printing binding and engraVlnt
The greater portion is as readable an
fascinating as a romance and will bright
en- up and fasten the patriotism OF GU
young men, whether they be from Nortl
Carolina or Georgia.
Now. some of us old veterans wish The
Constitution to start this ball in mo-
ton. Your great paper can do 1T. Flna
cut how many veterans are members OF
the Legislature and how many outsiders
like Tip Harrison and Charles Edgeworth
Jones and Governor Gambler and General
Evans and Evan P Howell you can en-
large and complete a book as Judge
Clark has made, but we can certainly
make a roster, even though Senators
Clay and Bacon and Lon Livingston nave
to have a bill passed giving our agent
the use of the Confederate archives.
Judge Clark had to do that. Now please
take the lead in this matter, for it is
sacred duty we owe to our children and
their children. l asked an old private
the other day how he could prove his
service. "Oh." said he, there are a
dozen comrades l can prove it by But
when they are all dead and you are dead,
how will the children prove that their
father or grandfather was a Confederate
soldier?" He looked thoughtful and said:
Il reckon Major, the thing would be lost
then.
Let's let the niger and Teddy alone
for awhile and work on a bigger thing.
But l am not done with Teddy yet-not
until he retracts and apologies.
Your friend,