The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1907-05-24

1CtliSli oIl 0iSSps
And thus they are falling, my
comrades, one by one, and soon
will the sacred cause be trusted
entirely to the Sons and Daugh-
ters of the Confederacy.
Respectfully submitted by
VIC. THOMPSON HOYLE.
More History of the Town Creek
Rifles.
The Confederate sun which rose
in the morning of it's life so beau
tiful and has shone so resplen-
IDENTIFY with so much vigor from
it's rising up through the galaxy
of its heaven and past the zenith
has begun to descend in the west,
and its glory and beauty has be-
gun to fade as the evening of its
life draws the mantle of dark
ness closer around it;when Grant
with a largely increased army,
with a continuous flow drawn
from all the nations of the earth
as we'll as the runaway negro of
the South. crosses over the plac-
i'd waters of the James river and
extends his lines far below Pc
tersburg and beginsa campaign
now which means exhaustion
from starvation, worry, and
eventually capitulation; which
forced Lee also to divide his rem
nant of a once noble, grand and
victorious army, leaving a por-
ton of it in the defenses in front
of Richmond and a portion in the
trenches in front of Petersburg
and still another small part, kept
back for reinforcement of any
point wherever needed.
And now opens up the cam
paign for the final crushing of
the so-called rebellion and at this
the sun is more than half way
from the zenith or meridian
heighth to the horizon; when
dependency ,discouragementa and
gloom, produced by hunger, rags
and the cessation of expectancy,
the death knell of hope ran
through the army and caused
many heretofore brave, patriotic
men to resort to desertion, and
continual receipt of tales of a
suffering mother, daughter, Sis
ter. wife or daughter, caused by
exhaustion of food supplies and
and ravages of a vandal horde
perpetrated by pillage and torch
upon helpless old men and de-
fenseless women and children,
who had refuged until they had
no other plan of refuge, caused
many others to Il will not say
DESERT to leave the post of duty
to their country. How often
have thought since then how
false is the sentiment expressed
in the old poem, My Country,
IT'S of Thee l Cry" which
learned when was a lad in school
and how true, how noble the SEN
t'ment expressed in the poem,
"Mother First and Country
Next" based upon the words OF
| a boy when he was to be shot for
leaving the post of duty to his
country and going to see a moth
er who had already sacrificed two
boys on the altar of her country,
lay upon her death bed and wrote
her baby boy to come home.
In this campaign there were
many battles fought too many
to be newfoundland we lay un-
der heavy picket and skirmish
fire for about sixty days contin
uously .and withstood heavy
cannonade by seige guns at night
and many nights the armament
was so lit up by the bursting of
large mortar shells weighing
from 60 to 100 pounds directly
over us, that we could see small
pocket knife on the ground.
When we were not under fire,
we were kept on the march from
Petersburg to the front of Rich
mond forth to meet a heavy dem
onstratio.. against Richmond and
back the next day to meet a
heavy massage against Peters
burg or go on farther to repel a
flank on the Weldon r. R., which
was our next to last means of
transportation, as there was only
one more the South Side r. R.
and as we knew that there was
no longer any chance for rations
in front. the boys fought like tt
gers in defense of the Weldon R.
R., for at that time we were
more friendly with railroads than
we are now.