The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1902-06-21
A CRITICISM OF Mr.. TOOMBs
ON GETTYSBURG.

liClO WI OcttJ SDuIH lOI ni9o'o-
sippi paper without mentioning
the part taken In that great battle
by Mississippi troops, never en-
tered my mind, and when / read
Mr.. Ray Toombs' article on Get
tysburg In the last tissue of the
Times, l confess that i was
shocked.
If there is anything in the mar
tial history of Mississippi of which
she can boast; if there is one
bright page in .all her annals; If
there is inspiration for the youth
of our state to be gathered from
the heroic deeds of her sons at all,
certainly Gettysburg furnishes
the theme.
The history of Gettysburg with
no mention of Mississippi, is the
story of the Alamo without Crock
EFT, Thcrmopolae without Leono-
das.
Had Mr.. Toombs consulted the
records at Washington City,
where he has been for the past
few years, the most casual perusal
of the list of the killed and wound
ed would have shown him the name
of Mississippi written all over
that tateful field IN the blood of
her brayest sons.
He would have ascertained that
the Federal command which was
driven through Peach Orchard
lost more than sixty-two per cent.
in killed and wounded, and if he
had examined the battlefield close
" when he was there, be would
have Dissolved higher up the ridge
behind the Peach Orchard a beau
tiful monument erected by the
state of Massachusetts to mark the
spot where Bigelow's Battery was
destroyed; and then had be con-
suited any history of the battle he
would have learned, what all the
world knows, that it was the Dist
Mississippi Regiment that swept
through that Peach Orchard and
up the hill behind and annihilated
that battery. This was the farth-
est point reached by any Confed-
crate regiment upon that bloody
field.
If he had consulted the Confed- |
crate Military History, Vol. VII,
PIP 232, he would have found this
reference to this charge. Quoting |
a speech made after the war by |
Gov. Ben g. Humphreys, who, as
colonel, lead the Dist Mississippi
IN this charge, it says:
" The governor who uttered
these sentiments was the man who
so distinguished himself at Gettys-
burg on July End, 1862, that his
great commander, Longstreet, in
referring to the battle afterwards
Southern Historical Papers, Vol.
V. PIP. 65) singled him out from
thirteen thousand of his comrades
= Georgians, South Carollnians.
Alabamlans and TeXans-to Illus
trate the intrepid daring of all the
rest. IN what he did not hesitate
to pronounce the best three hours
fighting eyer done by any troops
Cd any battle field"
Had be even scanned the list of
the killed and wounded he would
have seen in cold but awful Fl e.
ures, more eloquent than words
can tell, that John NJ. Stone and
his End. Mississippi Regiment
were at least IN the fight.
| am not writing the story of
Gettysburg from my "recent Oh
SCI vations on the battle field, bat
| believe If l were, being Missis-
sippian, | could tell something
Of Davis and Posey's 0Brigades.
Bnt last of all: last only because
the Book says the FIRST shall be
last, can it be that Mr.. Toombs
mas never heard of William Barks-
lale! Longstreet says in his
Manassas to Appomatox' that
Barksdale was 1.-The guiding spirit
If the battle" In all the history
If the Confederacy no grander
charge was made than Bar ksdaIe S
asst change at Gettysburg, and
hough no stone marks the spot
where he fell that day, the story
# him, her knightliest son, will
Ne told by Mississippians in all
he years to come, as long as man
ind tell of gallant deeds and her
isn is virtue.
Let us hope that Mr.. Toombs,
hen he writes of his visits to
Their battle fields, will at least do
ustice to Mississippi, remember
lg the fate of him
With souI an dead ,rbo ,,a,-ar ., tT,o.oir So.