Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-02-24
49, 81, = ~
SOME FACTS THAT MUST
BE WRITTEN.
BY j. Russell Wright.

! j u q *
Editor Keowee Courier: 1t has
been stated that in nearly every bat
tie fought in the Civil War, the
Federals claim that the Gonfederates
soutnumbered them. If, that was the
case, why did the Federal Govern
ment have so many soldiers in the
field? We shall give a few figures,
based upon history, and we stand
ready to produce the proof whenever
called upon:
! We were outnumbered by over
two and one-fourth millions. To put
1t another way, they had four and
three-fourths men to our one. Of
the millions against us 494,900 were
foreigners. This number only fell
short Of our entire number 11O,1OO,
and was more than made up by the
1S6,017 negro soldiers enlisted in
the Federal army. SO you will see
that we were outnumbered by for
eign and negro soldiers, and had to
contend against surplus Of 2,2O3,-
215 loyal, patriotic soldiers Of our
own country.
New York, Iowa and Connecticut
furnished more men than were in
our entire army. They had an army,
navy and ordnance to begin with,
while we had neither. They had
money and credit abroad, but we
had none. And yet, in spite Of all
these things, it took four long years
for the North to oyerpower the brave
South.
History presents no grander page
than is written by the Confederate
soldier. We have right to point
our children and the young people OF
to-day to the sanguinary conflict
which we passed through and teach
them that their fathers were not
traitors, but brave, patriotic soldiers.
There is not in my breast to-day
an unkind feeling toward any brave
Federal soldier. 1t is not to create
hate or discord that we write of the
great Civil War. What we want l.,
facts. I am ready to take all hon
orable, true eX-Federals by the hand
and bid them welcome and God
speed in the race of life. The war
closed more than forty years ago;
the passions engendered thereby
have died out We are friends, we
are comrades, now. We believe we
were right, and have not changed
our minds; they believed they were
nf ha
still. We cannot agree upon this
question, but since the close of the
war the Confederate soldier has been
true to that starry flag, and is ready
to follow 1t with the same patriotic
heroism with which he followed that
one with the stars and bars. That
flag was ours. We stained it with
our blood, we upheld it as long as
We could. We love it yet-we love
the memories that cluster around it
but In '65, with sad hearts and
weeping eyes, we furled it forever.
If the total strength of the South
ern armies was less than 100000
men, and that of the Northern
q,
let it be SO written. If the smaller
army resisted the greater for four
years, and was the victor in nearly
every contest where the forces We're
anything like equal-if these are
facts, then by all means let the gen
Grafton growing up be duly informed
If 1T is true that the Rebels killed
more men than they had in their
own entire army before they surren-
dered, let 1t be SO written. The time
now is near at hand when a happy
solution will be reached, and that
ours will be an ideal republican,
North, no South, no East, no West
but there will be in every section a
happy, prosperous, independent,
free, liberty-loving people
February 10, 1909.