The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-05-23
TESTED.

las II The great war Of secession. I
great speech was one Of the /
&C features Of the Confederate
anion ID New Orleans.
me following extract is taken from
lis speech, which gives some idea Ct
lis magnitude Of that great struggle
sMore than half as many men were
mroIled in the Union Army as the en-
~ white population Of the Southern
states proper, including all the women
anaehldren. The records show that
more than 1850, 600 troops were fur
rbed the Union Army by the states,
and while, for the lack Of official data,
cannot state to a man the enlistment
Il the Southern Army from first to
1a the estimate has the sanction Of
high authority, deemed reliable, thai
re Confederate forces available for
hetion ddring the war did. mot exceed
800 600 soldiers, Of whom there were
nos more than 200, 600 arms-bearing
men at any one time, and when the
war oloaedhaH hatsnumber covered
tie whole eaeotiYe force, Of all arms,
IN al quarters Of the Confederacy
Besides the disparity in the land
forces there was the Federal Navy
the gunboats and i~ronclads, without
which many believe Grants army
would have been lost at Shiloh and
MSgeIlan's on th6 peninsula.
when the Union Army dissolved
400, 600 more men were borne on it
zons than the estimated snlistments q
he Southern Army homthe spring 9
1851 to the spring Of 1865, and. during
chat time there had been go, COO Fed
eral prisoners captured
Three hundred thousand Fedeua
soldiers sleep in eighty-three beautifr
Federal cemeteries, rightly cared fc
by the Government, to tell posterit
the awful story Of that mighty fratr
.Gidal conflict.
How shall we account for the
pgs9 Has all history afforded
paraneI2 What is it that made IL
South unit and nodded its armies f
terrible battle /? Let the non-partisa
and truth-seeking historian Of Il
future answer but whatever his answ
may be, ifhe would challenge the I
sDeot Of mankind, let him not say Il
cause, the sentiment, the convictio
or whatever it was that inspired the
10 brave and noble deeds, did not ha
the abiding faith and solemn sancti,
other armies in the field or her peoI
81 their homes, Until the ragged a
halEstarved remnants Office and JoE
Eon's armies laid down their arms a
accepted the cold, stern award Of,
feat; until the ever-increasing a
oyerpoWering numbers Of Grants 9
aberman's armies made battle
longer possible, unfaltering, they st,
together without a murmur, still h
fna against hope for the triumph
their cause; and when the end cal
and disaster and ruin met the eye
ali sides. and when at every fire.
was 4 vacant chair; when blacks
ebimneys identified spots where ha
homes had stood when poverty
want staIEed abroad; when aliens G.
h rule that they might pluuderi "
ignorance and nudacity Haunted th
selves in high plaoes, and corrup
had its ready and rich rewards
esoy were true; true to themseI
true- 70 their comrades and the N
nv of their martyred dead, tru.
fheir old leaders, true TO their 6
CAPTAIN and true to their States
o. their beloved south. 1helI ar
had gone down in defeat their g
sas lost; their fortunes had been
sway; disappointments and sor
ana strange conditions lowered OF
sides and darkened al the ways,
fsere Nasno treacherous and ccwi
turning 10 fix upon their civil or
tagy leaders The responsibility for
origin OF results Of the
had s6aked everything fora primo
and lost. Courageous and true
accepted their fate, and turned
to build PIP their wasted fortunes
frustrated commonwealth