The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-03
arrrrsBura WEEK.

The Hartford courant, noting that ''this Is Gettysburg week." indulges in some reflections thereon. It declares that the country-meaning the North-"was holding it's breath in an agony of doubt and fear" in those days just before the great conflict at Gettysburg, and contin. ues:
 Grant beyond all expectation. The victo- rious troops of Lee. flushed with their successes. believing themselves invinci- ble. worshipping their leader with de- votion akin to that which the veterans of Austerlitz gave to Napoleon, were on Pennsylvania soil. Another such victory as the Fredericksburg one, and PhiladeI- phia would be at their mercy. The Fed- srai era ., Government would be insecure at would become a probability, if not a cer- tafnty. In those first July days of 1883 the very Rfe of the republic seemed to
 But that agony was not confined to the North. All over the Confederacy the prayers and the hopes of brave people were for the success of Lees army. The siege of vicksburg had been prolonged and the most hopeful of our people had lost faith in the ability of our forces to hold 1t. What was large army for the confederacy was cooped up on the banks of the Mississippi. Rations were scarce. ammunition almost exhausted, men worn out from constant watching, fighting and fasting. That army had in 1t some of the bravest and best soldiers of the young nation, but they could not accomplish the impossible. and all over the Confed- was very near at Vicksburg.
 It was at such a time that the eyes and hearts of the Confederate people turned towards Lee and his immortals. On al- most every field they had proven them selves invincibie. It was believed that wherever and in whatever direction Lee turned the head of the army it would go, in spite of all obstacles. It was not known to the people of the Confederacy what Lees designs were. It was known that he was going North. but whether he
 would continue in that direction was not known. If Southern people had been told that he was going to hang his flag on Fanueil Hall. they would have believed it. If 1t had been announced that he intended to form his army and hold dress parade in front of the national Capitol the people would have shouted, "Marse Bob will do itv'
 But there were days of waiting and sus- pense. Then rumors of defeat, and then the crushing certainty that Lee and his veterans, decimated and unsuccessful. were returning to the Confederate lines. vicksburg had fallen sund Lee defeated it was vital blow to "the star-cradled nation," and thousands who, a week be- fore. had thought independence assured
 now felt that the end was but little way off. But. as The Courant says:
 It Is idle to speculate, forty years after. as to what would have happened if Lee had had Stonewall Jackson with him at Gettysburg, or if this or that had oc- cured. The thing that was to be came to pass, and South and North are one country today.
 Yes, it Is perhaps idle to speculate on
 what might have been. Had Lee succeed
 ed at Gettysburg. it is hard to see how | he could have been stopped. Washing | ton would have been at his mercy, or
 he might have swung around through the rich middle States and have given those people a taste of what our own after
 wards endured. "It might have been, II Ebtt fate decreed otherwise. and the be-
 ginning of the end was at Gettysburg.