Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-06-22
A NOBLE ARMY.

The reunion or the confederate vet
\ Grams of the civil war. held recently at
Louisville, KY, was gathering to-
gether of some of the noblest war
riors who ever shouldered muskets.
The soldiers of the Lost Cause have
no great victory of which they can
boost. Their camp fire stories are not
replete with tales of triumph, but they
are rich in memories of brave deeds.
The army of the south was made up of
the same kind of men who fought on
the side of the north and the union.
The warriors of the confederacy were
Americans, every inch Of them. They
fought for a principle they believed to
be right. Time has demonstrated
even to them that this principle was
wrong. yet they fought to retain the
rights that they believed they were
given by the constitution. They were
defeated but they We're good losers.
After all, the good loser is the true
man, and the southerners, considering
that they lost all, accepted their de-
feat with wonderful grace.
Forty years have elapsed since the
greatest civil war in history came to
close and the country once torn
asunder, was reunited in stronger
federation than had existed before the
war. The men who wore the gray are
today loyal citizens almost without ex-
ception. Thank God for that They lost,
these men of the south, and they &C.
cepted the ruling Of Providence. They
have rebuilt their fortunes, some
of them. Others were never able to
regain what had been lost in the war.
And now, long after tine struggle has
ended, these one-time rebels" gather
together to talk over the old days of
the war. The memories of that time
are sweet to them because they in
clude memories of brave deeds and
brave men. Like their old enemies of
the blue ranks, these veterans of the
every years. The Lost Cause is
but memory Who will criticise be-
cause they cling to it in affectionate
remembrance, while in truth and fact
they are loyal and true to the stars
and stripes? The confederate SEN
timent, the feeling of the veterans
of the only American army that was
ever vanquished, was clearly ex-
pressed few days ago at Louisville,
in an address by General Stephen D.
Lee, who said:
1--WE come together because we love
the past, because our lives have been
linked together by great experience
by the richest, deepest experience
that has come to any generation of
Americans; by a common story SO rich
in heroism, in sacrifice, in patriotism,
that everything else we remember
grows cheap when we think of the
confederacy.
eve go to our graves feeling that
we were right. We are sure we did
our duty. We have through all our
lives and under every condition main
tanned our self respect, and in old age
now, we see we have the respect not
only of those who fought against us,
but of the whole world.
I'VE have taught our children to
honor the flag Of our reunited coun-
try. In the Spanish war we sent our
sons and grandsons to follow the flag
that our forefathers filled with stars
and to which we now again give our
unstinted loyalty. Best of all we re-
stored our beloved land as an integral
living part to the union of our faith
ers. With us now, all passion and bit
terness have passed away. We are
holding only to all that is sweetest
and best and tenderest in living"
The south is coming back into its
own. The devastating hand of civil
strife left land of desolation and de-
spatr in the wake Of the armies of
forty years ago, but Improvement is
being made at a rapid rate now Com
merce and industry are awakening
from the lethargy into which they
were plunged by the events of the
war. In the two decades following
1880 the Louisville Courier-Journal
shows that the value of farm products
increased 90 per cent, the capital in
vested in southern manufactures in
creased 34S per cent, the value of man
ufactured products 220 per cent, and
the value Of mineral products more
than SAT per cent The consumption
Of cotton by southern mills, in
1900 was more than six times that
OF 1880, the pig iron nearly seven
times as great and the coal production
more than five times as great. An
other industry numbering - showed
similar increase. for the capital in.
vested in 1t in 1900 was greater than
the capital invested in the whole
country in 1880 and the value of its