Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-02-03
were seldom heard, The musicians
were tending the wounded; The


drums had ceased their joyial rat
tie. and were chiefly used In the
"long roll" which said, Get ready,
boys; they are coming"
So, In the mid9t of smoke and
dust. with yells of triumph or groans
of agony, in place of the gay cheer.
ing, passed that year of battles, 1862.
The South was no longer romantic
and elated on the subject of the war;
the soldiers no longer looked out for
adventures, or for the glorious can
non-ball to carry off their heads and
make their, names immortal. At
home the old mep were arming and
the women sending words of cheer
to their husbands and sons, and
praying. In the camps the old SOL
diers had forgotten the wfeaths o.
roses; their havelocks were worn
out, aud they no longer minded the
sun. Gray flannel had replaced the
tt.ncy' shirt bosoms; they carried
TOBACCO in their pockets, and one
could see them seated on some log,
busy sewing on buttons; the faces,
once so round and ruddy, were now
gaunt and stained with powder.
Then came 1868. And it was an
army Of veterans that struck
Hooker at Charlottesville. 1t was
no longer company of gay gallants,
marching by amid music, waving
scarfs, and showers of nosegays from
fairy hands. 1t wa3 a stormy wave
of gaunt warriors, in ragged clothes
and begrimed faces, who clutched
their shining muskets, rushed head
long over the breastworks, and,
rolling through the blazing and
cracking woods, swept the enemy at
the point Of the bayonet, with hoarse
and menacing cry, Remember Jack
SON."
Gettysburg followed Never was
grapple more fierce than that, as we
have seen; and when the veterans of
Lee were hurled back, the soil of the
continent seemed to shake and trem-
BILE. They were repulsed and re-
treated, but as the lion retreats be-
fore the huntsman, glaring back and
admonishing him not to follow too
closely If he would consult his own
safety. At Williamsport the wound
ed lion halted and turned-his pur.
suer did not assail him-and he
crossed the Potomac and escended
to the Rapidan, to strike in turn that
dangerous blow in October, when
Meade was nearly cut off from Wash
ington.
With that campaign of Bristoe
and the fiasco of Mine Run, the
year 1868 ended. 1t left the South
bleeding, and what was worse, dis
couraged. Affairs were mismanaged;
the army had scarcely sufficient meat
and bread to live on. (Mohun.
The croakers, clad in black coats
and with snowy shirt bosoms, began
to mutter under their breath, at is
useless to struggle longer" and, re-
coiling in disgust from the hard fare
of war times" began to hunger for
the flesh-pots of Egypt. Mamma was
taseteless now; the task-masters
were better than The Wilderness and
the scant fare. OH to sit by the
flesh-pots and grow fat, as in the
days when they did eat thereof. Why
continue the conflict? Why waste
valuable lives? Why think of still
fighting when flower was hundred
dollars a barrel, coffee twenty dol
lars pound, cloth fifty dollars a
yard, and good whiskey and brandy
not to be had at any price? Could
patriotism live amid trials like that :?
Could men cling to cause which
made them the victims of Yankee
cavalry? Why have faith in a gov
ernment that was bankrupt, whose
promises to pay originated the
scoffing proverb, "As worthless as q
Confederate note?" Meat and drink
was the religion Of the croakers in
those days; money was their real
divinity. Without meat and drink
and with worthless money, the Con-
federacy, in their eyes, was not the
side to adhere to. 1t was unfortu-
nate; down with it! Let it be ana
thema maranatha. The croakers
said that, and the brave hearts;
whom they insulted could not silence
them. There were stout souls in
black coats, but croakers distilled
their poison, working busily in the
darkness. 1t was the crofkers who
bought up the supplies, anu boarded