Bisbee daily review., 1905-06-14
REUNION OF THE JOHNNIE REBS.

JOHNNIE REBS.
 In the city of Louisville this weel the latch string is on the outside anC the metropolis of the south is extend ing the glad hand to the Confederat, veterans of the civil war who art holding their annual reunion in tha city. The old rebel veterans bent with the weight of years and griz zled and gray with the frosts of many winters are holding their annual con clave and around their mimic tents and camp fires will again recount the hardships and the glories of that never to be forgotten struggle, the civil war.
 It is now more than forty years since the last battle of that momen- tous war was fought and time has not dealt lightly with the old guard.
 The vast majority of that great army of 60O,0O0 men, gathered from the flower and chivalry of the south have long since been gathered unto their fathers and those who are left to us are not only few in numbers but are rapidly approaching the time when they must answer the final bu- gle call. It is the impartial judg- ment of history that no more splen- did body of soldiers were ever martial ed under any flag than the Coafejer- ate soldiers who marched and fought hn AF They were mostly young men ;n the first blush and strength of manhood. They fought and died for the cause they loved and believed was right That they were wrong in fact and lost in the fight they wageI detrac.s noth- ing from the military glor5 they won. a glory more imperishable than the thousands of bronze and marble mon uments which have been erected on a hundred battlefields to commemo- rate for all time their deeds Of glory President Roosevelt in his book deal ing with the facts of the war says that Robert E. Lee was the greatest gen eral of the eighteenth cantu-y and one of the grea.9sI of all time What was true of Lee as a soldier and a military chieftian was true in no less degree of the common soldier who fought with him in the ranks
 When the war was al aD eild and the South hopelessly beaten, her homes laid waste and her business paralyzed the rebel soldier accepted in good faith the arbitment of the sword and. recognized the new con ditions in which hc and his country was placed. Raggel sT.t dirty and penniless he returned to his home where he found hie N;fo and chil- dren n poverty and his lands laid waste; tut with tee same courage he hal shown to the world amid the carnage of Shiloh and Stone river, Antietam ana Gettysburg he set to rebuil1 lis shattered fortune and to make home and liv;rg fer the loved ones on whcm the 3urden of war had fallen all too severely.
 How well he nas succeeded the world knows. He rebuilt his cities larger and better than ever before Catching the sunshine in brick and mortar he builded hope for the New South with every stone he laid. The land which had echoed to the foot steps of marching armies, and iron which all agricultural prospects had been swept by the sword, he reclaim cd and planted to fruitful crops.
 He has in forty years made the New South a thousandfold greater anC more prosperous than the old Soutl ever was weighted down with the in cubus of slavery. Out of the carnage of conflict and the blood and dust o battle he learned the lesson of trutl that this country must forever remain one country with one government ant one flag. To that sentiment he hai been true and there is scarcely rebe soldier to be found today who woult if he could change the results of thu civil war in which he fought and lost Not because he did not believe h. was right then but that he know that he was wrong now.
 In every walk of life he has mad' an honest and deserving citizen He has held positions of place an' power and everywhere has given good account of himself. As private citizen humbly doing his humble part