The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-04-09
DAYS THAT TRIED
The SOULS OF men
The New South, AS 1t is Seen Today
FortyFour Years of Glorious
Achievement Under the Flag of a
Reunited Country.

is he torty-fOurth anniversary Oh lne
lrfouder at AppomattoX, Va, by Gen
aral Robert e. Lee of the army cl
..ol thern Virginia. In his last order
through years c. varying fortunes Gen
raj Lee assured them that they could
20 70 II cir boHes with the conscious
~3s Of duty well and faithfully pc.
-.-,lG. lie c@ioiled chem to accept
&c rcsul;s CT their resort to the arbi-
iamcat Of arms ia sood faith ana {.
lcro.- their en-; les theEce.ouA Id
,cs;oripg the waste places il The
cuth and 10 dcy.loph : is Ie4ourcc.
-,Ac.al Ice was not a man CT iAGny
Lil. ptt what 90 SAD came ltJ-
ltht cnd We strengthened By
calm judgement and exalted purpose.
1is Oocns,l sank ueep into the hearts
Z he Southern people. He was, alter
Appomattox, as well as in the days OF
his greatest triumpL5 ii the fed, ,Et
most powerful influence for peace ana
rehabilitation in the South. Charles
Francis Adams, of Boston, an officer
in the Northern army, a student of his
tory, a deep and broad-minded thinker
has in several addresses declared that
the nation owes an almost incalcula-
BILE debt of gratitude to General Lee
for his refuse to encourage guerilla
warfare after the South was no longer
able to maintain organized armies
The force which General Lee sur
rendered at AppomattoX was only
tattered remnant of the once powerful
army of Northern Virginia-that army
of which Swinton, the historian of the
federal army of the Potomac, wrote in
terms of discriminating praise and ad-
miration. 1t is said that Stonewall
Jackson declared on one occasion that
General Lee was ''the only man he had
ever met whom he could follow blind
folded" That spirit appears to have
animated every soldier in the army of
northern Virginia. The last charge
Lees soldiers made, when surrender
stared them in the face, was as bril-
liant and valorous as the charge
which made the army of northern
Virginia famous when victory seemed
to be assured After having followed
Lee to the last extreme of loyalty and
courage to the climax at Appomattox,
they followed his counsels faithfully
in the years succeeding the war. The
survivors of a four years war proved
to the admiration of the world and to
their everlasting honor, that the sol
der who has done his duty faithfully
in war will not shirk his duties and
responsibilities in the trying times fol-
lowing defeat. But it should be said
that the personnel of the army of
northern Virginia and of the other
Southern armies was probably super
ior to that of any other army of mod
ern times.
Having demonstrated its prowess in
war, the South has equal cause for
pride in the inflexible doto~niration !
with which to Ii CO. the |
havoc wrought b. Va. .... as |
been written of t. years about t.,
New South" The men who laid IT, I
foundations of the South's rehabilita-
ion after the civil conflict were the
men who fought under it's flag and sur
'endered with Lee and Johnston. In
certain sense we have a New
SOUTH but the energy, the grit and
osorrcefulncss which contributed so
argely to its upbuilding were the at
ributes of the Confederate veterans
f the Old South. Practically every
nan in the South who was able to
boulder the musket was a soldier in
he Confederate service. AS has been
rimly said, "The cradle and the grave
ere robbed" to fill the depleted
rmies of the South. It is estimated
lat more than 100000 were killed in
ltle died of wounds or in prison or \
ON disease. Those who survived set
work, after the war, in the face of "
ghtful odd and disheartening condi.