The Oskaloosa herald., 1906-11-29
IN THE SOUTHLAND.
viii Beckman Writes an Entertain
ing Letter.

| companied Lander's band OF Center
vile to the Iowa monument dedica-
lions in the south, writes entertain
ingly of the trip. In a letter to
! friends here he says:
Going up south sounds queer,
but that is what we are doing at
present aboard the steamer City of
Saltillo, on the Tennessee river. We
arrived at Jacksonville this morning
at six o'clock from Chattanooga and
transferred Immediately to this boat
which win be our home until Satur-
day night, when we reach Paducah.
Pittsburg Landing is our destination,
or in reality Shiloh battle ground. 1t
seems strange that river OF the
magnitude of the Tennessee is so
seldom heard of in the north. You
ought to see the people line up along
the landings. We just went out on
deck and played Dixie" for a bunch
of them and when we were through
they stood there like bunch of cigar
store Indians. The postmaster of the
place Ga republican, asked the purser
of the boat what tune that was!"
This is the literal truth. The first
time ever saw a crowd below the
Ohio river that would not or did not
know enough to applaud Dixie"
There are two boats chartered for
the party and there are about 200 on
this one including the governor and
his staff and the band.
The monument at Vicksburg is
magnificent and the dedicatory exer-
cises were well attended and very
impressive. Gov. Cummins does nim-
self proud every time he speaks. The
National cemetery (16,600 buried
there) and the park, which includes
the Vicksburg battle field, are beau
tiful, very extensive and finely kept.
We went from Vicksburg to Ander-
sonville, and owing to the heavy
freight traffic at present in the south
they are short of motive power, and
our party was just day late at that
place. AS a member of the band l
have been to a great many memorial
exercises, but as we gathered our
little party together in that dull, misty
morning, in that poor, struggling viii
lage and marched down beneath those
pine trees through sand red as blood,
the music seemed to break us all up
and when we reached the cemetery
and prisoners of war were ordered
to open file in front of the monument
l don't thinh there was dry eye in
the party.
AS stand here in my place with
the band l see $4,000 (known and
unknown) headstones, of men who
with very few exceptions died lin
gering ueaths, too horrible to describe,
and did it "preferring death to dis
honor" which is the prevalent motto
of the cemetery, and means that any
one of them could have had his lib
erty by swearing his allegiance to the
Confederacy. Did they do it?
guess not! Not % out of the $4,000
that were, you might say, entombed
there. And / also see again this
double file of prisoners of War"
standing with barred heads and be-
tween them the beautifully significant
monument. On a book of granite
kneels a weeping maiden Qowa weep
ing for her dead soldiers), the most
appropriate memorial l have ever
seen. Iowa depicted in every line
even to the beautiful bowed head, anu
the face buried in her hands. 1 am
not sentimental, but this one exer-
else and monument shall never for
get.
In the afternoon l went to the
Stockade. Nothing much left but the
MARKERS and Providence spring"
memorial, but such a desolate placeI
On my way back to the train l met
an elderly lady resident of the Wiz
lage and as l enjoy talking to south
erners l started a conversation with
her. asked her if she thought that
the spring of water came in answer
to prayer, and this is about the glst
of her talk: my father built the
stockade. The spring had always
been there. know family that had
carried water from it for years be-
fore. In digging the five-foot trench
for the stockade logs the spring was
clogged up and ran under the sand,
but the excessive rains at that period
of the year caused it to burst out
again. No sab, doan think it was
in answer to prayer. If it had been
1t would have been in the prison, and
not outside of the dead line, as it was.
| think God wanted the Yanks killed
and put it outside the dead line so
they would get killed trying to get
the water. OF course ics all over
now, but you Iolks were wrong,-they
were our niggers, we bought and paid
for 'em and they're no good any
more" said GOODBYE, madam"
The three monuments at Chatta-
nooga are fine, the one on Lookout
Mountain being above the clouds.
am 40 years of age and this is my
longest letter. w. NJ. Beckman.
you're a Goat"