Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-05-02

Tor aye,
The victor and the vanquished side by
side,
Where none will ask who wore the blue
or gray,
But who best fought best loved-and
noblest died.
M. T. HUTsoN.
sHERMAN's INFAMOUS CHARGE.
~tRalesgh POST
In the short sketch of Gen. Wade
Hampton, which appeared in the
papers yesterday in connection with
the announcement of his death, ap-
pears this sentence:
'In 1865 Gen. Hampton attempted
to arrest Sherman's advance north
ward from Savannah, the effort
resulting in the open charges Of each
geLeral that the other was response
BILE for the wilful burning of
Columbia"
While this is strictly true so far
as it goes, the failure to add the
whole truth leaves the statement an
implied imputation upon Gen. Hamp-
ton. 1t should have been said also
that Gen. Sherman, in his memoirs
published after the war, not only ad-
mitted that his charge made at the
end of the war against Gen. Hamp-
ton was not true, but was made
deliberately and with the knowledge
that it was not true, his language
being (as near as We can recall it now)
that he (Sherman) regarded Hamp-
ton as an upstart and braggart and
he wished TO destroy his influence
with his own people. Thus while
Sherman vindicated Hampton against
the aspersion and false charge he,
Sherman, had wilfully uttered, no
one has yet arisen to relieve Sherman
of the responsibility for that coward
ly, unsoldierly, inhuman piece of
vandalism inflicted upon a helpless,
defenceless and a surrendered CON-
munity. Those acts which occurred"
on the march of Sherman from At
lanta to North Carolina and on
Sheridan's raid in the Valley of Vir-
ginia never punished" the South in
the sense desired and intended, but
did exhibit the brutal and low-bred
instincts of her enemies; and remains,
and will ever remain, a foul blot
upon the American escutcheon. His
tory and a patriotic Americanism
will let the stigma rest where it
primarily belongs-with Sherman
and Sheridan.
Gen. Hampton was never anything
but the honorable, brave soldier in
war, the gentleman at all times and
places. He never permitted Gen.
Sherman to speak to him after 1855,
as we have been informed, and no
decent man ever blamed him.
PRAISE FROM A QU0NDAM FOE.
tSprinafeld, Mas, Republican
To the Editor of the Republican:
Your editorial notice recently of the
death of Wade Hampton leaves little
to be said by Others. My own rela-
tions to him were, of course, pecu-
liar, and may possibly give ali interest
to my view and estimate of him. /
have in other places and on other
occasions spoken of him, and what |
shall now say will not be new. Force
of character and finely balanced
judgment were, as / see it, the lead
ing traits of Hampton. AS you re-
mark he was not Calhoun or Clay.
lie does not belong on the roll of
great orators or statesmen. But to
say this is not to disparage or disrate
Hampton. / venture to say that
South Carolina has never had great
orator or statesman who could have
done what Hampton did; could have
led the State so wisely and master
fully as Hampton did in the circum.
stances under which he did his most
conspicuous and valuable work. The
great orator or statesman has his
place, but it is properly not higher
than the place of the greater leader
of the people who by force of will
and the genius of command guides a
State in stormy and trying times.
Hampton, therefore, ought to stand
among the very foremost of the men
of his State who have acted high
parts.
In saying this am not saying
that what Hampton did was the
wisest thing that could have been
done. l AN only expressing my con-
viction that as the leader of his peo-
pie in a great, vital political and
social struggle he played high part,
part which no other citizen of the