The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-09-04
CROSSING THE RIVER

the mysterious river, leaving General
Simon Boliver Buckner of Kentucky
as the sole survivor of his rank of
that tremendous and most memorable
era.
How long, and yet how short, it
seems!
II was all so sudden, so unexpect-
ed, so unreal, so like the phantasma-
gOria of a dream.
The country was so prosperous, so
apparently happy!
Up TO that time trampism, strikes,
lOck-outs and labor unions were I'M
known
Want. nor the fear Of want, were
not then stalking over the land with
his skeleton fingers threateningly
lowering over eveTy business ven
ture.
The south particularly was a quiet,
peaceful section. Having few news
papers and few railroads and a rural
population, We knew very little of the
strenuous life" AS a whole the peo-
pie were contented and tranquil.
Suddenly, like a blazing meteor, the
quiet south became a military en-
campment!
There was the tread of armed bat
talions, the fash of saber, the rattle of
musketry, the roar of heavy guns. the
wailing and weeping of the women
for those slain in battle.
War, with its excitement and its
horrors, was actually upon us.
And what a war it was
For more than four years, ten
states, sparsely populated and totally
unprepared for so tremendous a con-
fiict, held at bay all the balance of the
Union. whose ranks were constantly
recruited from the outside world.
From start to finish it was a fierce,
but an unequal, contest
Those ten sparsely populated states,
besides keeping up their own armies,
without aid or any hope of aid from
any outside source, strange to say,
helped recruit the armies of the enc
my.
Think of it,
All the while confronting and beat
ing back its invaders it had to keep in
subsection four million of its slaves,
which at no time. however, threaten
ed uprising or revolt.
Naturally the south became the
theater of the sanguinary struggle
and stood the four years snock of bat
tie; fate decreed that it should feed
the armies of both sides, and in the
end its all was sacrificed to feed the
lust of the war god.
The homes that were not destroyed
We're desOlated: the slaves were made
free. its moneys and its bonds were
repudiated. and yet that were not all.
Reconstruction. with its greed, fol
lowed
To rehabilitate this land, to beat
every sword into a pruning hook un-
der the then cherries conditions, was
the work Of those men who are now
so rapidly passing away.
The birth and splendor of the new
south reads almost like a fairy sto-
| ~.
HerOically the eyes of those men
were turned towards the rising, not
the setting. sun.
Let the dead bury their dead" was
the motto they early adopted. The
war and its memories were folded
into a scroll. immigration was invit-
ed. The right hand of fellowship was
extended 10 those recently in arms.
/ Capital was safeguarded. They asked
for a restoration and reconciliation of
/ the sections. They asked for a parti-
cipation in the government. "a place
! I'm our fathers house" is the way
/ Ben Hill expressed it, There was a
/ dawning of a new day. Cities sprang
z into existence and the south is now
so far on her way towards CONNER
cial empire that she bids fair to be-
come the chief stone in the edifce.
So reads and so the story goes.
Those brave old men who bore such
a conspicuous part in this perilous
period in the nations history. and
left their imprint so gloriously among
its annals. are rapidly taking their de-
! parture.
But one lieutenant general is left
and he almost ready to be called to
his reward
! In a little while the skeleton of
death will reach his bony fingers for
the major generals and the brigadiers
will quickly follow, and soon the vast
army will bivOuac on the other side.
The last chapter is now being en-
acted, and like the Visions of Mira"
/ the last brOnzed fp11re iS tofteriDor