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. LoNesTREET.


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
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 accumulations of all the
| Rockefellers the world will ever pro-
duce.
Where did you lose your ARM"
! asked Of one melanchOly-faC sol
der i'm 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 kin Longstreet
He captured us all and ] lost my
right arm. Did you ever see Long
street, he inquired pathetically
| How sorry / 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 1t glorious ! 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 CountTys standard
That's Nv EIau EoreVeru
Il didn't stop to think so much
about what we were fighting about.
my land and my people called to me.
They We're 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" 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
childrens flag forever God keep il
in the skies. II means strength and
progress and peace that viii endure.
II blazed the only road to national
happiness and greatness"
A melancholy 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 ubllvious of surround
ings, he said sadly:
Mourns over Pckett's Charge
"lf Pickett hadn't made that charge
we stood a good chance of whipping
the Yankees"
But ! said, lit is best for us all
int 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 Couutry's mighty
destiny is our common hope and
glory"
81 know all that" he said. but |
Just sometimes can't help feeling
powerful sad when ! think of them
brave boys who had to die out there
for nothing
"Oh." l 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 II is learned that no
provision whatever has been made
for the participation in this greatest
event in The Countrys peace history
OF the women who sent husbands
and fathers ana 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 Toe told.
Veteran Longs for Wife.
Some day a grateful Government
viii erect a monument that will
pierce the blue heavens from Gettys-
hurgS stateliest sunniest slope, and
on il will 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 i'm 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 / said: DO take my UNI
brella. I really would rather walk
without it
He Strengthened up with some Of
the old IRE and vigor.
"Pshaw! was lighting up this
road before YOU wuz born. l guess
1 kin stand "a little sun now But
how ! wish Jane wu2 here She had
a harder time than l did enduring
the war"
Later a little woman with faded
eyes overlook US up Emmitsburg
| Road"
! WASH expected she SAID. nut
/ lust couldn't help coming Jim
was killed along here somewhere. /
think il must have been about here"
Pausug at a Clump of trees. she
rested a thin hand on one of the out
stretched branches
Going to Her Sweetheart.
Your husband 2' / 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 lie
did not come back TO me. but / am
going 10 him"
Some time there viii he another
and a greater reunion on this field
The next time II will include the
real soldiers who made the four years
of fighting possible
| on that day, a rich, grateful Re
public VIII pour out its millions. and
all the gray bent James who had "a
harder time" than their husbands on
the field, and an the sad-eye SarahS
who are stiu waiting for sweethearts
that never came back viii gather
here on the scene OF "A Republics
trials fluctuations, and sufterlugs.
and that win be real reunion of
the white souls that laid the supreme
offering ON the altar of country. Of
the tortured hearts that wrestled