The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-30
more glowiag th9 usually are
wnen he speaks sss, Pom. OF the
SenfsasTaGy 6e io%es 50 aRe Mall ke1. n ~nlSn
years he has shown for 7. Do.

years ne mas SHOWN LOT an.
ate soldier d practical kindn~ ~
sympathy that has won for him +
heart of every veteran. On no occa- !
sion when he had the opportunity tol
do so, has he failed to speak in their
behalf and in their praise. There
G. Uld not have been a more appro
pllate selection of the speaker of the
day.
AS he stood on the platform, erect
(rInwirg With health ana Vigor, his eyes
shining with the never forgotten
grIrit of the men who made the early
sixties glorious years of Time, as he
spoke passionately, yet with pride OF
their deeds of war and hopefully at the
even more valuable example of Yirr'Ic|
that they had set for their race and
for the world, he made an ideal pic
ture Of the veteran of the South taxi
iny on years of honor, holding old age
at arms length. Except for the way
ing silver hair that emphasizes the
rudy color of his face, there is no
mark of age about Gen. Carr. He
speaks with the yigor and enthusiasm
Of one of the boy soldiers of Lee. with
the understanding and the thoughtful
sympathy of one who knew the trials
and the suffering5 to which he SO ten
Gerly referred.
Monuments to the Confederate SOL
Carr. by those who love and know
his worth for those of far-off genera
tons to whom they would be an in
ccntiye to the full knowledge of what
was the grandest heritage OF the
South-the devotion, the praise-com-
pelling courage of her patriotic sol
diery.
He described wildly the opening
days of the war, it's progress through
Of n
domitablc determination to ultimate
defeat and spoke feelingly of the
quality of greatness that had enabled
the broken men of the South TO lay
down their arms at the command of
Fate and to rebuild and revivffy. the
desolated land. He paid an eloquent
tribute to the women who needed the
highest courage of all to stay at home
and bear in patient silence the prlva-
tions of their life and the dread un-
certainty of impending news from the
front-who, at the close Of the war
raised their men-folk and comforted
them, leading the way by their ercour-
agement by the brave quality of their
divine hope towards a Renaissance of
Peace.
1t was the women who staid at
home. declared the speaker, who pre-
served the morale of Lees army by
their belief in the justice of the cause
Of the South, who in reality, fought
he war.
referring to the lack of military
training or instinct in the Southern
people, Gen. Carr described the old
South at the beginning of the war,
showing that the armies We're compos-
ed of independent and intelligent units
that went to make Lees infantry in
comparable. not because of training
or discipline, but for the fact that each
soldier fought to the death from n
sense of principle and patriotic duty.
He wildly described the first battle
at Bethel in which Edgecombe county
took SO conspicuous part and traced
the course of the war from the bud at
Bethel, to the flower of the charge at
Gettysburg, to the final tragedy at APP
pOmattoX
"It was at Bethel" he said. "where
| in the death of young Henry Wyatt,
Of Edgecombe county, the South got
It's first lesson from the book of hor-
rors it was to read so long and so pa
tiently. Bethel. Itself, as You Ill know,
was a victory that served summons on
the overweening confidence of the
| North that the South was in earnest.
| 3utler's order to burn up both the
Betheis-"blow up, if brick"-was a
| far sample of Yankee assurance in
| the first days of the war. Little did
ne know that among the despised
handful of troops in the fortifications
at Bethel Church was q Tar Heel col
onel. d. II. Fill, fated to be among
| the fore with those who gave to Nc
| Clelland, to Hooker, to Pope, to silent
Grant, whose one word as he gathered
his broken army was ever "more
troops crushing defeats which
| furnished in the chivalry of a people
weak alone in numbers and equipment
a new definition of valor''
At Bethel, even, victorious through
| they were they saw their mistake.
| The Edgecombe Guards, under that
Isoldier-gentleman, Capt. John L. Brid-
gers, with Lieutenants w. p. Lloyd,
William S. Long and w. c. Lewis little
| foresaw in the moment when by a
| gallant charge they routed the enemy
! and recovered a hoWitzer which had
been disabled and abandoned, that
other fateful moment when, in rags
and tatters, starving. a heroic remnant
| hunted by the sleek Dutchmen of
! Grants Incompatible commissary,
the tired soldiers of Lee stood once
| more at AppomattoX and showed their
teeth in the faces of their pursuers,
and another Edgecombe man, the gal
| liant Gen. w. r. Cox, gave the order for
! the last VoIley which dropped the cur
! tain on the drama to which the music
of Capt. Bridger's rifles had rung the
rising bell.
"They did not foresee, I say, those
| Intervening years of suffering and pri-
vation and hope sinking slowly out of
| sight like a waning moon, but what
| they did see was the cold white body
OF Henry Wyatt, a boy in the morning
| red-cheeked, full of life and spirits d
plain. high hearted boy-at night a
corpse, the first offering of the bravest
people that ever contended in the clash
| cf arms-today the figure behind the
! first of that Trinity of phrases which
we have chosen to place on our monu-
ments as the packed epigrams of a
story that, reading like the deeds of
| Hercules was wrought by a people
who did them because they did not
measure their patriotism by rule
| First at Bethel, Farthest to the front
at Gettysburg and Chicamauga, Last
at Appomattox
Typical of the South and the epic
page of her history in the war it
might have been written of your coun>
| ty-Bridgers at Bethel, Cox at Appo-
mattox!
1T is needless for me to repeat to
| you the retails of that fight Unaware
as both sides were of the magnitude
/ tgf h.