The National tribune., 1910-05-26

Rebel Flags.
Editor National Tribune: I have just
read the letters of Comrades q. w.
McGillen and /. w. B. on the live flag
and the dead flag. 1 am in most hearty
accord with the two comrades in claim
ing that there is only one National
Flag for the United States, and that
Old Glory 1t is a good Flag. 1t Is
the best ever made. 1t is the Flag OF
the best country in all the world, and
one of the happiest thoughts we old
fellows who have had a part with the
Union army in preventing that Flag
from trailing the dust is that We were
born in time and were disposed to offer
our services to the country that is much
| dearer to us than our lives.
1t was no easy task that fell to the
lots of the boys in blue. The Ameri-
cans in blue met Americans in gray
who were as brave and skillful as them
selves, and it is satisfaction in our
declining years to know that they, too,
fought man fashion. They offered their
lives and their services for that which
their flag stood, as readily as our boys
offered their lives and gave their blood
for the Government of the United
States. Their flag went down in 1865,
when the framework of their hoped
for Government was eternally wreck
ed When the Southern Confederacy
went to its grave the Stars and Bars
were equally dead, as eternally dead.
1 may be all wrong, but now that the
trouble is over-has been ever since
1861 feel like wanting that brave
old enemy of the SOS to enjoy life as
much as possible during their remain
ing few years. Our Flag is their Flag.
| Our country is their country, and both
are as much theirs as they are ours.
| Now. comrades you surely agree with
me that the Confederacy is dead.
There is no more danger of its sprout-
| ing again than there is of the suns
changing places with the moon. The
Stars and Bars was the flag of the Con-
| federacy that they didn't establish.
There is no real life in a flag that
has no country. Is it menace? Is
there any real danger in it? Isn't it
mere relic, a keepsake. a memory?
Can you blame those brave old john
MES, as old and mellow of heart as
yourselves, for having a tender feel
ing for the flag under which they made
such sacrifices? Can't you call to mind
an old grandmother who now and then
went to the bureau and took an old,
faded dress that was worn by her
grandmother at her wedding, kiss it,
wipe away a tear. and then put it
back for another year? The old dress
is dead. 1t has served its purpose. No
one wants to wear it, or would wear
it. 1t has had its day. So with that
old dead flag, that some of our boys
seem to have such intense hatred for,
and some Of whom still fear it, as we
used to fear It when we saw 1t waving
over the heads of charging lines
Are their fears well grounded? Surely
not. You love our Flag better than
you would If you had not fought for
It. Those old men in gray loved their
flag. I should deem them little less
than human If tender memories did not
come as they looked upon the old relic,
the dead flag of a buried Confederacy,
IL they did not now and then bring il
forth and show affection for it. Would
you have them forget their dead?
There was a time when officers in
high positions, and hundreds of thou
sands at the North, thought there was
great danger that the Government of
the United States might lose out in the
contest. Let US, for arguments sake,
suppose that we had lost out the third
or fourth year Of the war; lost out
after we had gone through the battles
whose history will never die. Do you
think that If the country of which our
Flag is the emblem had gone down we
would have ceased to love the Flag,
and that 1t would not be a source of
delight to US all our lives. even tho
1t were dead Flag, as dead as the
Stars and Bars?
1t was given to me to serve in the
= W
pine insurrection. I saw tens of thou
sands Of the sons and grandsons of old
Confederate soldiers wearing the uni
form of the American Army, serving
under the one Flag, glorifying the one
country; men from the South marching
shoulder to shoulder with tens of thou
sands of the sons and grandsons of
Union soldiers. 1 saw brigades, divi-
sions, and even corps, under the COM
mand of men who had commanded in
the Confederate army. 1t is possible
that these later army experiences,
things that I saw and heard then, may
have warped my judgment and softened
my heart, so that 1 look with less fear
upon the dead flag of the dead Confed-
eracy than some do. If so. boys. over
look It, for ] certainly mean WE'LL
]. A. Watrous, Lieutenant-Colonel, u.
8. Army, Retired, Milwaukee, Wis.
IT. w. b." is not a-"comrade." but
the daughter OF as good and brave a
comrade as ever lived, James Purcell
Worrell, Captain. Co. B, S6th Ill. If the
Confederates will lay their dead flag
away and embalm It in tears and laven-
der and only take II out once a year to
look at II and then put 1t away again,
nobody will object, not I, certainly. But
do object, ] shall always object, to the
display of the new flag anywhere, any
time The battle-scarred flag is relic
and holds a sentiment to men who de-
Tended 1t. But what about the millions
of Confederate flags made every year?
They mean treason and disunion, and
can mean nothing else to the men and
women who wear and carry them. There
is no other sentiment that can possibly
hang about a new flag of the Confeder-
acy. The South had few of its
old battle flags till the Posts of the
North began to send back the captured
ones, and now we who have to teach
love and reverence for the Flag are
confronted on all gala and festive occa-
sions by these returned rebel banners,
around which school children are
grouped, to teach them that the South
was eternally right. A flag which re-
wives memories of treason's dread reign
in this country ought to be buried un-
der Pixies Peak. There is no room for
it here. 1t taints the air.-I. w. B.
The 9Th Tenn. Cav.
Editor National Tribune: Please give
short history of the 9Th Tenn. Cav
]. ]. Griffin. Adamsville. Tenn.
The 9th Tenn. Cav. was organized at
Bethel and other places in the State
from Aug. II, 1862, to July 1, 1863, for
three years, and mustered out July 26,
1865. 1t was commanded by Col. Field
| ing Hurst, who resigned Jan. s, 1865,
succeeded by Col VIM. ]. Smith, in
command at muster-out The 9Th was