The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-11


nificant in history; as the incident
around which the history of the great
est war of the times coagulated and
took, form it was pre-eminent.
Consider this about Bethel: That
twelve hundred Confederates whipped
forty-five hundred Yankees.
The theory dof war as we'll as the
material advantages for waging it, was
at this time clearly with the North.
The North had four recognized ad-
vantages over her adversary. She had
more men, more wealth, better educa-
tional facilities and better training in
the science of war.
Bethel showed to the country that
there was another factor in warfare,
that determination, the mysterious
strain of patriotic desperation which
does not count the costs or the odds,
was a factor in the game.
The Union troops engaged in this
first battle represented fairly the ad-
vantages of the North. They out
numbered their opponents four to one,
they included men trained to war in
the regular service, they were the pick
of the flock.
The Bethel regiment was, almost,
regiment of students. Theoretically,
there was nothing practical about it.
1t was ideal, and thus it won. 1t fall
ed utterly to recognize it's weakness;
and thuS was II victorious
Soswas the first battle significant.
Its result made history. To the
South, plunged unknowingly into war
and dreading the effect of'its action as
a child shudders at a dark room, 1t
brought the mead of confidence. An
arithmetic, about this time, doubtless
got its inspiration from Bethel:
''If one Confederate can whip five
Yankees 2" asks one of it's examples"
"how many Yankees can five Confed
crates whio?"
The determination of that problem
in the Southern mind made possible
the future of Cold Harbor, of Chan
cellorsville, of Spottsylvania and the
Wilderness and the desperation of
Gettysburg. It served to make Rich
mond seem to the North to be the
South pole in inaccessibility. 1t cost
millions of treasure, lives by the tens
of thousands. sent up burnt sacrifice to
the God of War from hundreds of
homes. 1t tried women in the fire of
circumstances until they took on the
quality of saints and martyrs. 1t en-
nobled common men of the fields, I'M
til they shone as Hectors fighting on
the field of Troy. 1t made of a lazy,
happy, contented region a Sparta re-
vised until the descriptive word fails
utterly to indicate the condition.
Bethel electrified the South. 1t
gave it an infusion of confidence last
ing for four years. 1t created heroes,
made generals, put precedent to
shame. -.9f q.
In the North it brought a holiday
war back on it's startled haunches
with a start of surprise.
E The North had not counted the cost;
the South had not realized it's capacity.
Both parties to the controversy were
surprised. The one. in it's citation,
thought all things possible; the other,
in the shock of it's awakening, re-
pented of it's bargain, but determined
to pay. the price. So, with Bethel as
the opening gun, history progressed to
First Manassas. That battle accentu-
ated the shock, increased the conf
dence. So was war of four years
manufa ctured ort of a skirmish!
In this day it is popular and pleas
and to applaud the Japs They par
ticularly appeal to the South. We
know what it was to have fought
against odds, but our reasoning in the
present instance depends too much
upon figures. Russia has so many
million inhabitants; Japan so many
less. We raise eyebrows in surprise at
Port Arthur, Lao Yang and Mukden.
We throw up hats at the battle in the
Korean straits We imagine a com
parison that only in part exists. The
Russians must come ten thousand
miles to fight; the Japs with all the
advantages of transport nearer to
home, with a Government recognized
in the money markets of the world,
fighting in addition for existence as
we'll as territory against an autocracy
which has mellowed through centuries
of oppression until it has commenced
to rot, win battles and we of the
South go mad with praise
Why? Because the JaPs are doing
successfully that (which the South
tried to do, which fate, which is the
Odds insulted by the audacity of the
attempt, inexorably beat back! No
where save in the South could the idea
of the war of the sixties have been
born; nowhere could it have pro-
crossed to greater proportions than
joke among the nations. Never was a
tragedy constructed out of so meagre
supply of stage trappings. The
ability to fight is a strain of the blood.
A diagnosis would show in the man
nine parts gall and one part pride set