The news & observer., 1905-12-17

resulted in Southern independence.
1t is true that Prof. Dodd gives this
as the opinion of others. But he gives
this opinion his implied sanctnon as
understood him.
There is another phase of this
question-that is of the relations Of
North Carolina 10 the Confederacy-
which should be carefully dealt with
while those cognisant of all the facts
are living. This is the deserter QueS-
ton We are justly proud of the
courage and courtesy With which the
best element of our population upheld
the great struggle for Southern Inde
pendence and for the true construc-
ton of the compact WhicS we had
entered into i'm the formation of the
Union. Against this the future his
torian will cite the fact that North
Carolina had more deSerterS from the
Confederatee army than any other
State. But the future historian will
not give all nor probably not the
strongest reasons why so many Of our
men deserted. TO those who passed
through the war it is all very clear.
First we had more men in the army.
Second cCnscriotion was far more
rigidly enforced in this State than in
any other, dragging to the front many
l6luCldutS. IIllIu, lilC liSOl VI IlIC
tithing and impresslnent system bore
harder here than any where else in
the South.
The needs of the great army In
Virginia were urgent, transportation
was poor and supplies were taken
where they were most convenient.
This was a great hardship on the
class from which the private COnfed-
crate soldier mostly came. Countless
poor women and their children were
reduced so close to starvation that the
husband yielding to the strongest Of
human motives. and the most lauda-
BILE, came to their rescue.
The sacrifices that the working
women Of this State then made and
the heroism that so many Of them
displayed seem to have been for
gotten. We have duly recorded the
energy and resourcefulnVs of the
Southern lady. her ingenious make
shifts in the preparation of food and
raiment from seemingly impossible
material. We are fast forgetting the
immeasurably greater hardship Of her
humble sister who had material for
neither food nor raiment. This came
into my possession last spring and |
had it printed in this paper, a half
articuate, though most realistic bit
Of the war life of one OF these poor
women. wildly expressed i'm her own
vernacular. 1t appealed to me forci-
bly, as a strong genre picture of the
hard life that / know So many Of our
women lived for four years.
In our neighbOrhOOd was a strik-
ing instance Of this kind. She was
poor and iliterate. Her husband was
dead and all Of her sons in the army.
She had to toll for her own bread and
that Of her small children. But She
waa cheerful and patriotic, finding
time somehow i'm her toilSome life to
do much work for the soldiers. /
used to meet her trudging to mill
with q bag Of corn on her shoulder.
Knitting as she Knitted socks to be
sent off in the next box TO the army.
But to return 10 the subject in hand
The nearness of their homes was
doubtless no small factor in tempting
the men from this State to desert. The
soldier from a State further south,
therefore much harder to reach had
not the same temptation to desert and
go home that our men had around
Petersburg and Richmond, where
most of the desertons occurred. The
war being clearly hopeless and the
men desperate from their own suffer-