The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-06-15
ONE NATION AND ONE FLAG
Washington. D. c.. June Z. 1917.

To the Ocala Banner:
AS time recedes, as the smoke of
the civil conflict vanishes and the ma
ton becomes more united in purpose
and understanding, the more and
more those who participated in the
struggle are extolled
The Confederate soldier is receiv-
ing the greater praise for the reason
that he sacrificed more and his suffer
ings were greater.
The Confederate government rose
like meteor; for four years it shone
resplendant, and was no more.
The Confederate government sprung
into existence out of nothingness. 1t
had no army, no navy, no arsenal, no
munition plants; its ports were all
blockaded; it had no treasury and
could negotiate no loans.
Thus circumscribed it kept at bay
a mighty army, many times more in
numbers, for more than four years.
1t is said on the floor of our con-
ventions that in those four years it
made more history than any other ma
ton that had an existence for four
hundred years.
Its looming up out of nothingness,
almost like a phantom of the night,
and it's brilliant exploits, reads like
fairy story.
The supreme ardor with which the
bone and sinew, the rank and file, car
ried its starry banner to the fore
front of battle and baptized it in the
blood of their comrades, eclipses the
chivalry of any age in any land and
has been a fitting theme for poets
and sages.
The sacrifices, devotion and hero
ism of it's women have won a worlds
plaudits.
Is it any wonder that a federal his
torian should pay it the following trib-
ute:
who can forget it that once look
ed upon it? That army of tattered
uniforms and bright muskets; that
body of Incompatible infantry, the
army of Northern Virginia, which for
four years carried the revolt on it's
bayOnets, opposing a constant front
to the mighty concentrations of power
brought agaist it, which, receiving
terrible blows, did not fail to give the
like. and which, vital in all it's parts,
died only with its humiliation
An imposing and interesting chap
ter will be added to its history today
Ten thousand of the remnants that
are left of this matchless army will
march in the nations capital today
side by side with those they once
grappled, and will have as escorts a
young and militant army that is to
take part in war in which the dem
ocracy of the world is on trial.
1t will be a picturesque as well as
an animating spectacle, and one from
which our young and gallant soldiers !
can draw inspiration.
This fragment of an army will be
addressed by the president of the |
United States, to whom it has pledg- |
ed the same measure of devotion that |
it once pledged to Lee.
Thus will end a program that will |
be memorable in the history of the ma |
ton.
THE Old Confederate Veteran, we
know him as he stands
And listens for the thunder of far-off |
battle lands.
He hears the crash of musketry, the |
smoke rolls like a sea,
For he tramped the fields with Stone |
wall and climbed the heights |
with Lee.
''The Old Confederate Veteran, his !
life is in the past,
And the war-cloud, like mantle |
round his form is cast.
He hears the bugle calling Ger the |
far and mystic sea,
For he tramped the fields with Stone |
wall and he climbed the heights |
with Lee F. H.