Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-04
| ONGSTREET'S
WIDOW TELLS
Of REUNION
Describes Meeting Sharpshooter
Detailed to Kill Husband,
Whom General Captured.
BY HELEN D. LoNGsTREET.

day over reunited nation.
Standing on the borderland Of eter-
nifty with its shadows touching their
bent forms and silvered heads, these
last survivors Of an army the like
Of which the world shall see no more
have gathered here, not Northern, not
Southern, but all American, bridging
the bloody rift of the sixties with
maternal unity more ancient than
sectionalism, more lasting than hate.
To the youth Of this nation the in
spirational value of this day on Get
tysburg's field Will outweigh the
sordid accumulations Of al the
Rockefellers the world Will ever pro-
duce.
Where did you lose your arm ?"
] asked Of one melanchoiy-face sol
der I'm blue. who walked a little
lameiy Notwithstanding his brave eff
forts
Detailed to Kill General.
After the battle Of Chickamauga,"
he said, 81 was one Of twenty sharp
shooters detailed TO Kill Longstreet
He captured as all and / lost my
right arm Did you ever see Long
street," he inquired pathetically.
How sorry / am that he did not live
10 be here"
Gazing over seas Of Old Glory
miles Of which stream from the
houses and dot the hillsides swath-
ing the trees and bridging the
streets, until a loyal canopy Of red,
white and blue almost conceals the
| blue heavens above.
ooh, isn't 1t glorious" I said to a
veteran in gray. How could you
! look on the old flag and know it's
meaning and fire on it?"
The veteran in gray said, brokenly,
as he looked with me upon the shin
| ing colOrs of our Country's standard:
That's Ny Flag Forever"
7 didn't stop to think so much
/ about what we were fighting about;
my land and my people called to me.
| They were i'm trouble, il was about
| the same as If IT had been my
mother Right or wrong, / would
rush to her rescue"
But now you are glad" / said.
| glad that you didn't win; glad that
| the American Union lives"
| He barred his head and, pointing
! 20 the glorious sweep Of color, said
reverently:
THAT is my flag. the flag Of my
| fathers the flag of my country, my
| childrens flag forever God keep it
| in the skies II means strength and
| progress and peace that will endure
! il hlazed the only road 10 national
| happiness and greatness"
A melancholy eyed veteran in worn
| gray, gazing wistfully across Gene
| terry Ridge, had gone back to the
| daring days Of the long past Lost
| TO the present, oblivious of surround
| ings, he said sadly.
Mourns Over Pickett's CHARGE.
! IF Pickett hadn't made that charge
! we stood a good chance of whipping
/ the Yankees"
But" / said, 1T is best for us all
| th-.t YOU didn't whip them: and they
! are no longer Yankees. just Ameri-
| cans, and. looking toward the East.
| shoulder 10 shoulder, heart beating
| close TO heart our Cuuntry's mighty
! destiny is our common hope and
| glory"
81 know all that" ne said. but |
] just sometimes can't help feeling
/ powerful sad when ! think of them
| brave boys who had To die out there
! tor nothing"
oh" I replied. nobody ever dies
for nothing who dies for right
ON this field of fearful memories a
sea of brown tents stretching miles
| i'm all directions, il is learned that no
! provision whatever has been made
| for the participation i'm this greatest
! event in the couutry's peace history
| of the women who sent husbands
and fathers and sons and sweethearts
10 answer the cali at the first tap of
the drum I'm 1861 The hardship, the
! suffering, the agony of the women
who waited I'm the war homes of the
nation may never he told,
Veteran Longs for Wife.
Some day a grateful Government
! viii erect "a monument that win
pierce the blue heavens from Gettys-
burEs stateliest, sunniest slope and
| on II viii stand the figure of one in
| whose courageous soul every battle
was fought and every victory won
the woman who placed the flag of
her faith in the hands of her best
beloved and sent il to the front when
the first gun was fired on Fort sum
ter
\ veteran. stumbling rather detect
cdly along up Emmitsburg Road.
overlook me lie was hot. dusty.
! tired / said. DO take my UNI
hrella | really would rather walk
without it,
He Strengthened up with some Of
the old fire and Vigor
'Pshaw, l was lighting up this
/ road before YOU wuZ born. l guess
! / kin stand a little sun now. But
/ how | wish Jane wuz here she had
a harder time than / did enduring
| the war"
Later a little woman with faded
eyes overlook us up Emmitsburg
| Road"
! Il wasn't expected" she said, but
| / just couldn't help coming Jim
/ was killed along here somewhere. /
| think II must have been about here "
| Pausing at a Clump of trees, she
/ rested thin hand on one of the out
/ stretched branches.
! Going to Her Sweetheart.
y our husband2" l said
oh, no, he was just my sweet
| heart, but | told him that I would
/ wait until he came back / won't
have much longer TO wait now He
did not come back TO me but ! am
| going TO him
Some time there will be another
and greater reunion on this field
, The next time il will include the
real soldiers who made the four years
of lighting possible.
ON that day, "a rich. grateful Re
public VIII pour ont its millions. and
an the gray bent James who had "A
/ harder time than their husbands on
| the field and all the Sad-eyed Sarahs
! who are stil waiting for sweethearts
that never came back Will gather
1 here ON the scene of a Republics
trials. rribul8t.ous and suneriugs.
and that VIII be a real reunion of
I the WhI'e souls that laid the supreme