The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-23
laIORKS REFLECTINC GLORY
UPON NORTH CAROLINA.
BY Dr.. T. B. Kingsbury.

It is a pity that all Southern peo-
pie, and Northern people also, have
not read Wyeth's Life of BEDFORD
Forrest of whom Lord General VOL
sey, COMMUNICATIVE Chief of the Brit
ish Army, at the time, writes in his
latest work, that he was the greatest
Cavalry leader known to history. The
book is eminently fair, giving no little
of both sides with ample documentary
proofs. You can learn much of Gen.
eral "Cump" Sherman that will neith-
er exalt your conception of his military
ability nor enlarge your admlratlon
and confidence in the Federal Com
mander. Read also General Bradley
T. Johnson's work on General Joseph
E. Johnston. You will see from 1t
why referred to him and other Yam
kee soldiers of his kind as Vandals
He sent to General I. >. Grant dis
patch that he had marched through
Georgia burning forty miles wide as
he marched with his army. Grant no
doubt liked the news and rejoiced in
it. Wyeths work gives you some his
toric glimpses of Grant that helps TO
understand that greatly overrated sol
der 'up North" He was brave and
had great army If General Lee
could have confronted him with an
equal force there would have been but
one battle. l have been reminded OF
Sherman and Grant by an editorial
see copied into the Raleigh News and
Observer, by that clear-headed, vlgor-
Gus editor, Mr. Archibald Johnson,
that appeared in his excellent weekly
published at the Baptist Orphanage at
Thomasville NJ C. 1 did not see the
article referred to by Mr.. Johnson
from the pen of personal friend Of my
own. Rev. M. Il. Plyler, on Sherman
In Wars Last Days in North Carolina.
I have long known something of its
ravages and robberies and rapes. Mr.:
Johnson refers to The Climax OF
Cruelty in Sherman's outrages only
worthy of some Goth in the far away
past. 1 quote from Mr.. Johnson:
1.-The object in the mind of Sher-
man was to destroy everything in
sight so that the people not only could
not give assistance to General Lee,
but that on account of their helpless
and suffering condition the soldiers
would be induced to desert and fly
to the aid of their loved ones The
march became reign of terror and
the country was stripped of actual ne
cesSities of support. In addition to
this the hordes of the enemy could
be traced on it's way through South
Carolina by the fires that consumed
residences, barns, villages, towns and
cities. Sherman was not SO handy
with fire after he crossed into North
Carolina, but the pillage and piunder
and highway robbery of his unbridled
troops went ruthlessly on. 1t was a
grim carnival ofadestruction and ruin
left in it's wake a sad wreck of what
had been a glorious and happy coun-
try"
General Bradley Johnson's book
gives a great deal of proof that fndites
Sherman as bushwhacker and brute.
His march through Georgia was ter
rife. But General 10. Johnston made
him pay high for his cruelties and
outrages, for, as a soldier of his said
to me in 1865, you fellows never did
know how great losses he inflicted
upon Sherman's army" If he could
have wiped it from the face of the
earth it would have been a most
righteous retribution. l must draw
upon Mr.. Johnson for another pass
age:
This needless and criminal robbery
and arson by General Sherman was
the monumental blunder of the war.
1t was wholly unnecessary as the Sc
quel showed-the plans of the march
being broken up by the surrender of
General Lee. 1t was the most amaz-
ing folly, as no glory could come to a
great army trampling on a fallen foe,
and it was an act of brutality upon
which the civilized world long ago set
the seal of it's condemnation and
years roll away"
If General Forrest had been put in
command of the army in the third
year of the war there would have
been no march through Georgia and
South Carolina by Sherman, and no
hellish displays of Northern rapacity
and unmitigated deviltry, and Sher-
man would have been saved from
much of the infamy and obloquy that
hi lob OF
recently a gallant Confederate Colonel
to me, speaking of the outrages per-
petrated against the South by the
brutal hordes that pillaged and de-
stroyed Some foreign writer must
give a correct history of the war" j
added: Yes IL is a pity that a great
war writer like Colonel Henderson, Of
the British Array, did not live to per-
form this laost important work for
the vindication of the truth of history
AS the years roll by more and more
of the tremendous crimes of the
North will be uncovered, and the civ
ilized world will at last learn what in
Spired the South to engage in such an
unequal war, and how barbaric it was
conducted on the part of the North
that was so overwhelming in resources
and in numbers of men. When Gen
eral Lee invaded Pennsylvania he is
sued an order to his army that should
be known and read of ALL and should
be craven deep on lofty pillar of
marble in Washington. 1t is in glori-
GUS and humane contrast to anything
that was ever done by Grant, Sher-
man, Sheridan and the others. But,
I'm vain doth valor bleed
With avarice and rapine share the
land"
In common with many others 1 re-
GREETED to learn of the demise of that
faithful Southern citizen, very gallant