The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1906-02-02
Pathetic Passing.

= H't' 10 WV f'llh+l'illR "ipNi nun III
the passing OF men from the scenes Of
activity to retire into forgetfulncss.
The most pathetic thing to me is the
passing OF the old X-COnrederates from
the light Of honor to the state Of dis
honor in which some would place them,
With the few generals who commanded
them mostly sitting at the federal pie
counters, n the g who carried the
guns grown too few in number to amount
to anything with the politicians, the
tOttering rank and file camping near
the silent river, owe which they soon
must pass, are told to be content to eat
the hoe cake Of humiliation, while the
fields on which they lost are decorated
with monuments to mark their defeat,
While the fields on which they won are
to be left unmarked and soon to become
only the fields for commerce, that our
children may learn the fact that we
were but rebels who never had a princi-
pie or won a battle. Yes, we must
mark Gettysburg, Shiloh and Vicks-
burg, and Chickamauga, because it is
combined with Missionary Ridge, but
put no markers on any field where the
gray lines won, and the gallant thous-
ands yielded their lives for principle,
What is principle today when the gem
erals have found p~erquisite and the old
men have grown too few to be feared by
the political parasites whose aim is to
ever feed upon the great body polite?
All Of this is pathetic as the old gray
line yanishes, denied a place of honor as
they go. But why should we old men
complain, when our going is but the in
eyitabIe drift of used and now worth
less age toward the ocean of fOrgctful-
ness, in the waters Of which we must all
M or later be lost?
We are now only good to act as monk
eys to the annual reunion show when
the generals may parade and the sons
dance with the sponsors and maids of
honor. Really, has not the whole thing
become a farce, and had we not better
return our crosses of honor to the
Daughters of the ~Confederacy, admit
that we were wrong and that we always
had twice the number of the enemy, but
never o a battle?
In demonstration of this there will be
no field marked on which we were vic
%tOriOus, while those on which we lost
be marked with the monuments furnish
ed by Southern states 20 commemorate
II ~dishonorable defeat. We dreamed
that at Bull Run, Seven Pines, the Will
dtrness, Charlottesville and on other
fields we won, but it seems that really
we did nothing but run and leave our
generals in the hands of the enemy.
where they still c%onteutedIy remain,
while on four great fields the glory of
federal achievements, crushing the mex
cusable rebellion, are marked and pre-
served as object lessons to the children
of the Southland.
Shades of Robert T.. Lee, S~toncwall
Jackson, A. p. Hill and of all the dishon-
Ored dead, look not upon the scene lest
shame and sorrow come to your gallant
souls, as you look upon the cringing
remnant of your once grand commands,
fawniug at the feet of the conuueror
and asking aims TO cover the n~akcdness
of their dishonor, while ONE have fall
en- until they are willing to wear the
livery of servants to the arrogant vic
tors who claim mastery on every field.
Let the curtain slowly fall upon the
last sad scene relating to the bloody
drama, and let the thinning gray line
move on to the mystic river to find
bivouac of honor with those who mid
the storm Of battle, and since, went ont
while yet no fallen South dishonored
their names and no living conrade had
betrayed them.