The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-07-18
THE LESSON OF FTETY YEARS
One-half Century Ago at Gettysburg the Southern
Confederacy Received it's Death Blow But Found
It's Grave in It's Own Virginia


smooth it as we may, it was defeat,
cannon's breech April, 1861, and died
at cannon's mouth, April, 1865. It's
short history is one of tears and
blood.
Appomattox! History contains no
parallel to April 9, 1865. Explain,
sooth it as we may, it was defeat,
What that means is determined by
the character of the defeated. A
people of higher character and great
er courage than those which compos-
ed the army of the South probably
never lived. They were the flower of
sun-kissed land, the product of long
years of high breeding, the aristoc-
racy of noble manhood.
They had followed Robert E. Lee
on many weary march and bloody
field and on that fatal day when he
offered his sword in surrender they
furled their tattered banners, stack
ed their arms and with sad hearts
and fearful eyes bade farewell. They
went to what remained of the happy
homes they left four years before.
What they saw and what they felt
is needless and impossible to tell. All
weri. home to toll and suffer, some
to toll and think. Let it be said nov
and ever, there was one thing not
surrendered to Gen. Grant, one thing
left unburied at Apprenticeship
spirit of Southern manhood. That
was the one thing not included in
the terms of capitulation; it did not
die, it could not die; Immortal is
writ upon tit is among the things
which "crushed to earth will rise
again"-unconquere because uncon-
querable.
The spirit which never surrendered
was needed and revealed itself in the
coming years.
The problem of the South was
one of mighty and significant pro-
protions, building a new country and
new civilization on the ruins of one
gone to never return. The task be-
fore our people was that of recon-
struction and rehabilitation along
nearly all lines. Our home life and,
in measure, our social life was
about all that was left of antebellum
days. Our business, industrial, edu-
cational and political life must all be
projected along new and untried
lines. We were to undergo an evo-
luton which was a revolution in the
of obstacles such as had never tried
the souls of men. Coupled with the
dire poverty of our people was the
presence of millions of newly enfran-
chised freedmen, who were supported
by the strong arm of the govern
;ment. Such a condition called for the
herioc in men. Nothing short of an
invincible spirit combined with un-
common wisdom was equal to the de-
mands of that tragic hour. But the
men who had followed Lee and john
ston were on hand. They and their
sons said: eve can, and we will"
And they did. The most marvellous
thing in this land of marvels is the
South of today built upon the founda-
tions of 1865. If strategy, patient
endurance and courage were attri-
butes of the South in the dark days
of war, they were, if possible, mag
nified and emphazied in the darker
days of reconstruction.
This paragraph is written with
hesitation and fear, lest I be misun-
derstood. Elsewhere have said that
from Appomattox Southern men
went home to toil-some to think
while they toiled. We had just
emerged from bloody war and the
mind naturally averted to it, espec-
tally the why of it. was Is years
old when Sumter's gun reverberated
around the world. Like a multitude
of others l had no personal knowl-
edge of what it all meant. / was
carried away by the enthusiasm of
the hour, intensified by the impul-
siveness of exuberant youth, and
June 1, 1861, found me in Columbia,
having run away from ,.ome to join
the Hampton Legion. Three years
were spent in the Confederate army
and all except six months in Virgin
la. Not for moment of that time
and period after the war did Il
have the shadow of doubt as to the
truth and right of the South's posi-
tion as to secession, slavery end ell
right" When 1 reached mans estate
the rest. l simply knew 1--WE were
where impulse was succeeded and su-
perceded by sober reason, began to
study the war, not in it's conduct, but