The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-11
Memorial Day Thoughts
BY THOMAS B. GREGORY

az 9ioolllS 1t Dack TO the Old allie
giancei,
And SO. the real cause of the war
SO far as the South was concerned
was the invasion OF its soil by the
armies Of the North. There was nc
alternative but to fight. to the last
ditch and the last man. for it's most
sacred rights. Not to have Tough;
would nave oeen to admit to the
world that they were a lot OF craven
towards and cringing slaves.
And what a fight it was that the
men in gray put up! Their valor was
as true as THEN cause was clean; and
while the world endures their heroism
Will be the admiration and delight of
al noble souls.
Think of il for a moment. With
their ports blockaded, an almost pure
~ agricultural people of but a little
Owe six millions, without manufac-
lures. Without mechanical training,
without credit, and with but six hun
6rcd thousand fighting men as com
pared with near;y three millions i'll
the North, formed a hollow square
against the world. held its own for
tour years. and succumbed at last
only to the remOrselesS pressure of
overwhelming numbers!
An eX-UniOn General once said to
bluff, glorious old Robert Toombs,
well, sir, you must admit hat we
whipped YOU to which the great
Georgian replied: mo, sir: we wore
ourselves out whipping you"
And Toombs told the truth. In
most Of the great battles Of the war
:nen in gray were the v~ictOrs; but they
were, as a rule, so greatly outnum-
bered thai they were nab to reap
the logical fruits of their victories by
destroying the armies they had de-
feated.
At charlottesville. for example,
Lee. with 10000 men. whipped to q
finish Hooker. with $4,000, and the
only thing hat saved the Federals
from sheer humiliation was the fact
that the vastly inferior Confederate
force had spent itself in defeating
them. and was, therefore, unable to
the work by destroying
them. What would have happened
Hooker provided Lee had had, not
1890 men, but Ven 1OO,0O0 men?
But one answer is possible-Hooker
would have been annihilated root and
branch.
And what was true of Chancellors-
Vile applies to first and sseond Man
assas. the Seven Days, Antietain,
Fredericksburg, the Wilderness.
Spo~ttsylvan:a Court House. the North
Cold Harbor, Shiloh, Chicka-
uSd, " LIL oSDoIOUS IT, ana I1ioSl u
other big fights. Handicapped by
inferior numbers, the men il
gray. after defeating the enemy, were
in no shape to follow up the defeat
with disaster.
Put even as it was-With It's ports
sealed up, and the tremendous odds
hat it had to face, and the great
'~StonewalI' taken aWay-the South
would have won out had it not been
- T. ~ E n,,a WAN a11
he INSTRUMENTATION of another. The
'atal and d~isgraceful surrender Of
Fort Donelson, which was the enter
ng wedge that split our Sovereignty
,ver the Mississippi, would eve
been had Nathan Bedford For
est commanded there in place OF
simon Bolivar Buckner; and Gettys-
,urg would certainly ave been a Con
rather than a Union victory
f Longstreet had Obeyed General Lee
" charging hen he was ordered to
barge, instead of waiting until it vas
late to charge.
Yes, it was with valOT unsurpassed
hat the men of the South fought
throughout those four ever m
BILE years. They were finally defeat
d, but in q va ythat left with them
II the glory of the battle. With their
altered banners trailing in the dust,
nd their cause lost, there yet shone
pom their ~foreheads the light of the
rictory which had followed them
rom the first battle-clash right down
, the close.
And now It is your glorious priVl-
,ge. as we'll as your high and solemn
utv. to keep with all loving Venera-
on the m Of those brave AND
althful men.
Never permit your children t. for
49, o& - l0 n MORT Of ,-011rf
to show the rising generation
no those men were, and what they
id, and why they did it.
Look we'll to the history books that
re used in the schools, and see to
that they hall teach no lies about
re glorious men who followed Lee
I'd Jackson.