Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-10-14
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THE SOUTHERN ARMY AND
IT'S HISTORY.
For The Keowee Courier.

the descendants OF those English
speaking people who had along the
stream of history fought many nota-
BILE battles for human liberty. Many
of the ancestors Of the men who
composed that army had suffered and
bled at Valley Forge with Washing
ton, the first great rebel in American
history, and had won with him their
independence at Yorktown. Their
blood was as pure American strain
as ever lived in the nation.
The South had played a conspicu-
Gus part in the history Of the repub
lie. It's influence had largely domi-
mated it's councils and shaped it's poll
cies. Blot from our history the pages
written by Southern hands, and erase
from the record the deeds performed
by her sons, and the brightest chap
ters and the grandest events in our
national life would be eradicated. No
honest minded man now questions
the sincerity and honesty of pur-
pose of the men who wore the gray
any more than he does that of the
men who wore the blue. Both were
American citizens, fighting with hero
ism and de- otion. The records G 40
country show better soldiers. Alex
ander never led such men at the bat
tie Of Issus; Caesar did not cross
the Alps with men of Sternor Will.
Bonapart's Old Guard never faced
foe with calmer mien, nor stood with
more undaunted courage amid the
storm of battle; Leonidas, when he
defended the Pass against the invad
ing host Of Persia; Horatius, when
he stood on the banks OF the Tiber
and defended the bridge against the
overwhelming enemies Of Rome,
Wallace, when he battled for Scot
tish Independence; Sewer and his
riflemen, from the banks of the Wa
tauga, as they climbed the sleeps O.
Kings Mountain, and turned back the
tide Of war in our own revolution
all these displayed a splendid valor,
but it was left for the American SOL
der of the Civil War to bring out all
there is ir American valor, heroism
and endurance, when he charged with
Pickett up the death-laden heights
of Gettysburg, and when, in gray
and in blue, he struggled for the
mastery around Snodgrass Hill, Oh
the bloody field of Chickamauga.
Painters have pictured, and poets
have sung the fame and glory of
our leaders; of Lee, so pure in life
and soul, SO calm, SO lionhearted-
"a blended image of Caesar and
Paul, a model of glory and grace"
of Sidney Johnston, Joseph Il. John
ston, Stewart, Jackson, Lorgstreet,
Hill, Polk, Hampton, Morgan, and
Forrest. But, splendid and glorious
as a.! :Tw!y are, they owe It to him
who sleeps, perchanCe. in n nameleSS
grave, whose very name is remem-
bered only by a few comrades and
the widow, who, through all these
weary years, has waited to join him
in q better land-the PRIVATE SOL
DER, THE MAN BEHIND THE
GUN.
That peace which came after Apo
mattoX brought rest to a sorely-
taxed and bleeding land, but with it
came problems appalling in their
magnitude. The slaves had been
freed, but the black man remained,
and with him a problem unparalleled
in its dinlculties. The Southern SOL
diers returned to their homes poor
yea, pennilesS-many shot and maim-
ed and limping, to face these liffi-
culties and meet and solve these
problems; to build up the waste
places, to reorganiZe labor to adjust
the new conditions of citizenship un-
wisely forced upon the neg.o. These
problems demanded the highest pa
triotiSm and brOadeSt craftsmanship.
The men of the South met them
with the same GOODNESS and fearless
courage which had characterized
them in the shock of battle. They
have reorganized labor, and with wis
dom and justice guided it, till the
South produces many times more
cotton and cereals under free than it
ever did under slave labor. They
have opened the mines that the South
may pour forth her hidden treasures
of coal and iron, copper and lead,
gold and silver, zinc and phosphate
and oil. They have built factories
and have started the spindles and
looms till the South is about to
snatch from New England her un-
challenged supremacy In the manu-
facture of cotton goods. They have
built cities and churches and school
houses.
And when at last war was dcclar-
ed against Spain for the liberation
OF the struggling patriots OF Cuba.
the hour had come, and the South.
true to her great history. and hallow-
ed h. the memory of her heroes, and
regenerated by the blessings of peace,
gave her sons freely to uphold the
honor and defend the flag of a re-
united country. When the North
sent her DewCy into the Bay OF Ma
nilla, the South sent her Hobson into
the harbOr Of Santiago: when the
North gave her Roosevelt with his
Rough Riders, the South gave her
fighting Joe Wheeler. with his Rebel
record and his dauntiess courage;
when the North gave he" Admiral
Sampson, ten miles away when the
first gun was fired, the South gave
her Admiral Schley, in the thick of
the fight, winning the great battle OF