The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-04-02
Confederate Soldier IN
War and Reconstruction
What He Suffered-WhatH He Endured-His Undau1ted
Courage-Hjs Never Faltering Fortitude In War and
In Reconstruction Some Sad and Some Ludicrous
I1,cjdents-Anglo Saxon Must Rale.

VI LHe dUSSLC one.
She grieved and suffered under the
terrible pressure Of uncertainty; not
! knowing at any moment wheter her
soldier boy was marching and fight
ing along with his comrades, or ly-
ing wounded and bleeding upon the
battlefield, Or lying Wit fever and
disease in some crowded hospital, OF
whether ne ad answered It's last roll
call.
In those days the telegraph was by
no means so perfect a system as it is
today, and news was meagre and hard
! to get, and women at home were ig-
rorant of events that were taking
place at the front for days and weeks.
and even months, after t:ey had
transpired. Think of this, young Ia
dies, that for all this time your moth
ers went through that terrible strain
of uncertainty and anxiety-anXious
for information, but dreading it's ar
rival, lest it bring tidings or sorrow
and death; and in this State the news
of tie death angel came to many
homes and crushed many hearts.
Go read the names on yonder monu-
ment, and while standing there in SOL
| emn silence, in mute admiration for
the wonderful courage, sacrifice and
heroism of those whose names are
written there-thinks of what those
lives were to the State and country.
What loss! And as you read and
wonder at their great achievements,
remember it was not all of death for
them to die; remember that as you
! read each name the tidings of his
deat3 broke some loving mothers
heart, crushed the hope and sweet
ness out of some young wife's heart
or caused a vail Of grief and help
lessness to go up to heaven from the
orphans lips.
Think what loss to the State and
country, tie very flower of her man.
hood snot to death in that principle
dear to the heart of every true Amer
ican.
Time is too short for me to go into
details of other sacrifices made by
men and women of those awful days
How in courage and cheerfulness they
braved the cold SHOWS of winter and
tie fierce heat of summer, in hunger
and in rags; they stood true to their
colors, true to their convictions and
kept up the fight until, over Thelmed
by numbers, they were obliged to ac-
knowledge defeat, but with the true
spirit of manhood they adhered to
Il cir principles.
We can never show to the heroes
and heroines of those days the honor
they deserve, but we honor them and
curselve, by being true to the princi-
pies for which they struggled-not in
spirit of disloyalty to the stars and
stripes-but accept the conditions as
they accepted them, in good faith,
with an honest purpose to be loyal
and true to the constitution of our
government, and uphold its just laws.
While it casts gloom to recall the
tardships, sadness and death caused
by that war, we can look back with
grateful hearts and thank them for
the history they have made for South
Carolina
eyes, give me the land of the wreck
and tomb.
tt. ere's a grandeur in graves-there
is glory in gloom;
For out of the gloom, future bright
ness is born,
AS after the night comes the sunrise
or morn;
And the graves of the dead with grass
overgrown
May yet form the footstool of Lib
erty's throne.
And eacn single wreck in the warpath
of right
Shall yet be a rock in the temple OF
Right"
When at last the surrender came,
and at Appamatox General Lee dis
banded the army. there were multi
tudes of sad hearts, defeated, dis
couraged, but undaunted unconquer-
ed and unconquerable; those brave
I5earts turned their faces nomeward
to meet new conditions and issues un-
thought of, and with a problem to
solve fraught with perplexing diff
culties and pregnant with dangers