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


have gathered here, not Northern, not
Southern, but all American, bridging
the bloody rift of the sixties with
fraternal 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 accommodations of all the
Rockefellers the world will ever pro-
duce
Where did you lose your arm ?"
|. asked of one melancholy faced SOL
der in blue, who walked a little
lamely 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 us all and l lost my
right arm. Did you ever see Long
street?' he inquired pathetically
How sorry 1 am that he did not live
to 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.
"Oh, isn't it glorious," l said to a
veteran in gray. How could you
look on the old flag and know its
meaning and fire on it?"
The veteran in gray said, brokenly,
as he looked with me upon the shin
ing Colors of our Countrys standard:
That's My Flag Forever"
1 didn't stop to think so much
about what we were fighting about;
my land and my people called to me.
They were in trouble; it was about
the same as if it had been my
mother Right or wrong, l would
rush to her rescue"
But now you are glad" I said.
glad that you didn't win; glad that
the American Union lives"
He barred his head and, pointing
to the glorious sweep of color, said
reverently:
That is my flag, the flag of my
fathers, the flag of my country, my
children's flag forever. God keep it
in the skies. II means strength and
progress and peace that will endure.
1t blazed the only road to 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" l said at is best for us all
that you didn't whip them; and they
are no longer Yankees, just Ameri-
cans; and, looking toward the East,
shoulder to shoulder, heart beating
close to heart, our cOuntrys mighty
destiny is our common hope and
glory"
81 know all that" he said, but 1
just sometimes can't help feeling
powerful sad when l think of them
brave boys who had to die out there
for 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
in all directions, it is learned that no
provision whatever has been made
for the participation in this greatest
event in the country's peace history
of the women who sent husbands
AMI fathers and sons and sweethearts
to answer the call at the first tap of
the drum in 1861. The hardship, the
suffering, the agony of the women
who waited in the war homes of the
nation may never be told.
Veteran Longs for Wife.
Some day a grateful Government
will erect a monument that will
pierce the blue heavens from Gettys-
burg's stateliest, sunniest slope, and
on it 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 it to the front when
the first gun was fired on Fort Sum
ter.
A veteran, stumbling rather defect
eddy along up Emmitsburg Road,
overlook me. He was hot, dusty,
tired. I said: DO take my UNI
brella. I really would rather walk
without it."
the old fire and vigor.
"Pshaw. l was fighting up this
road before you wuz born. l guess
l kin stand a little sun now. But
how l 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
I just couldn't help coming Jim
was killed along here somewhere. l
think it must have been about here"
Pausing at a Clump of trees, she
rested a thin hand on one of the out
stretched branches.
Going to Her Sweetheart.
''Your husband?" | said.
"Oh, no, he was just my sweet
heart, but l told him that l would
wait until he came back. l won't
have much longer to wait now. He
did not come back to me, but l am
going to him"
Some time there will be another
and a greater reunion on this field
The next time it will include the
real soldiers who made the four years
of fighting possible.
On that day, a rich, grateful Re
public will pour out its millions, and
all the gray, bent James who had "a
harder time" than their husbands on
the field, and all the sad-eyed Sarahs
who are still waiting for sweethearts
that never came back will gather
here on the scene of a Republics
trials, tribulations and sufferings,
and that will be a real reunion of
the white souls that laid the supreme
Offering on the altar of country, of
the tortured hearts that wrestled
with the accomplishing pain through
the long four years when the nations
harpstTingS We're tuneleSs because her