The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-08-17

LANES from poem by Margaret
Preston. They were over the gateway
of the Hollywood cemetery at Rich.
mond In 1861
After the procession which followed
the last march of Gordon through the
streets of this city had passed, an old
Confederate soldier, who had fought in
all the battles of Virginia, came to this
office and quoted these lines, and he
said: 81 am full of sentiment today.
We fought the war on glorious senti.
ment. Sentiment inspired the splendid
tribute to Gordon's memory"
To military experts and to philoso-
pliers of history the Confederate army
presents some most interesting studies.
A military man VINO measures the
fighting qualities and the forces of an
army takes into consideration, first,
the leadership, of men; then the cause
for which they are fighting, but, most
of all, he considers the resources. He
measures the quantity and the quality
of the guns; the quantity and the quail
ity of the food; the transportation ia
cilities and the money.
The Confederacy supply of arms was
limited. The resources of the Confed-
eracy diminished every day from the
victory of Bull Run down to Appomat-
tox. At the beginning the Confederacy
had the money of its own people, but
because of the blockade there was no
chance of adding to the wealth of the
country from the outside. Crops were
diminished because many of the tillers
of the soil were away in the trenches.
After the raw material was manufac-
tured into guns there were no more to
be had except those captured from the
enemy, and yet for four years an army,
numbering 10000 to 300, 600 men, was
in the field, and scarcely day passed
that there was not collision.
Blockaded from the beginning, cut
off from communication with the out
side world, outnumbered in men and
physical resources, according to all the
laws of war the Confederacy should
have collapsed in eighteen months. Its
supply of gold and silver was quickly
exhausted, its credit was only with its
own people. The commicsary and
quartermaster's departments, under
modern viewpoint, would have been
pronounced entirely inadequate with
in a year, and yet in the third year of
the struggle Lees matchless veterans
rolled the tide of war out of Virginia,
across Maryland, until it broke on the
hills of Pennsylvania.
In '64 the Confederate army in Vir-
ginia on the defensive was as strong as
ii was ON the offensive in '83.
In '64, three years after the s'cannon S
opening roar" at Sumter, after the
Mississippi had been captured, after
the Confederacy was cut in two, the
army was still dangerous foe.
Sherman consumed all the spring
and the summer in going from Chatta-
nooga to the outworks of Atlanta
distance of $50 miles. His journey was
disputed at every pass and at the cross
ing of every river. Occasionally, under
the brilliant leadership of Johnston,
the Confederates made stand in the |
open and shot away the head of Sher- |
mans oncominE forces.
Atlanta wss not captured until after
siege, and then came the strangest of |
all events in this strange war. The
COnfederacy was in its death struggle. |
The last available man was in the field.
There was none to take the place Of the
killed and wounded. Ola men, lean in ]
shank, who should have been at home
supported by the strong arms Of their
sons and grandsons, and little boys,
who ordinarily would have trembled
in the darkness, filled the ranks that
had been reduced by the killing Of sons
and fathers.
The Confederacy had no allies. No
knightly nation raised hand, and in
the name of humanity, forbade further
slaughter. With poor guns, poor am
munition, with little food, few med
ical supplies, without hope OF final
victory, the spirit Of war in the short
ening days of November blazed up,
and an army started from Atlanta TO in.
wade the north. The rush northward
could not be halted in Georgia, nor In
Alabama. The force swept across the
Tennessee river like flaming meteor.
The generals of the opposing
army could not understand. They on
~ knew they had seen this same spirit
when they faced Pickett's division at
charging into certain de-
sirnction, and going down to death
with the exalted exubeFance of youth
going to a marriage feast.
The first collision occurred At Frank
Iir. Franklin was not battle accord
ng TO the rules Of war IL was the
struggle Of an exhausted
army, determined 70 end Is MI In n