Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1902-05-28

The peaceful agencies had used thei
efforts in vain. The srbitrament Of
war was necessity. 1.-The contes
which followed, was simply q trial Of
strength, in which the weaker fell. ;
| That was all.
Ii is difficult in the compass of 9
short article to touch on all ID,
battles of that struggle. Its glory
has never yet been tittingly recorded
Ii remains for the Sons and Daugh.
tiers to do this. And they will do it
Ii was a hopeless struggle from
First Manassas to Appomsttox. Yet
ne has been truly said, Its champions
ever appeared to pluck success from
the very abyss of impossibility." They
reversed the laws of nature by sheer
force of unconquersble valor.. A,
hrst, they secured the contamination
of most of their plans in the face Of
insuperable force. But afterwards
the tide turned against them.
Every life that participated in the
war now reels its formative force. II
has left Its stamp on the faces of all
It's participants. They left the
mountains and meadows. the forests
and fields of the Southland to enter
into 1t. They went in boys and came
out men: striplings and came out
heroes. But the eye once fastened
on that flaming fire, has been blinded
for any lesser light" 1t is impossible
now, under the changed conditions,
for such passage of arms to occur
again.
The recent war with Spain proves
this. 1t is not to be compared with
the Civil War in purposes, conduct,
or results. But it does serve as an
item of proof. Despite the improved
fire arms aud machine guns, the
total loss of life for the entire war
does not equal the loss sustained in
twenty minutes of actual fighting at
Cold HarbOr. In one war, it was a
fight for conquest: in the other it
WAS for hearth and home.
Briefly pass the great battles in
review, and see the tide of victory
run full, ebb, and then flow out
again. At First Manassas the troops
from Washington arrived in all the
grand psnOply of war: they retired
in all the degradation of iguominOus
defeat. They came with the inso-
Ience of victory, and went back in
tears; and the North awoke to fuller
appreciation of the stern qualities of
the men who wore the gray.
Next followed seven days of fight
ing around Richmond, in which Lee
drove Mcclellan from his assault on
the Confederate Capital to the pro-
lection of his own. There was 4
quick succession of attacks aud re-
pulses; but the thin line Of gray held
taut, and the bravery of the
men whose memory we honor
on memorial day again sbone
out superior to all difficulties.
1t was the same spirit of bravery
that shone out at the battle of the
Cowpens, at Eutaw Springs, at Bun
ker Hill, at Yorktown. And it was
a spirit strong to save.
At Second Manassas, victory again
perched upon the Confederate arms.
The fields of Sharpsburg, in the
heart of the enemy's country, were
ploughed with shot and shell. and
fertilized with the blood of men on
both sides; whilst the beautiful blue
mountains, which rise above that
fertile plain, seemed to protest to
heaven against that fearful carnage.
To the student of history, This battle
stands monument to human vslor
and tactical genius.
The true picture of the Southern
lighting man in sction here presen Il
itself. He wears sn old SLOUGH hat.
His eye glistens with excitement. His
face is powder stained. His Jacket
is rent and ragged. His feet are
shoeless. He has no pay: no rations.
He stands and loads like q piece of
machinery, until his body stops an
enemy's bullet; and he falls and il
buried where the battle wAged in an
unknown grave. He has no hope of
reward, save q heavenly crown, and
that his children will rise up some
day and call him blessed.
The next milestones in his four.
years journey, are Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, and then-the Water
loo of the COnfsdersoy-Getty
Here the tide ebbed and flowed out,
till 1t was lost in the hills of Apo