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FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1910. . , . ' ; . Address By, ; GEHERAL JULIAN S. CARR ; At OH Furnace Picnic, Satardaj, Ja! 30th, 1910. Gen. Julian 8. Carr, who delivered the address at the Old Furnace pic- Dig tail dvuiui - - follows: : -, "-.''"' "'':''- To the really brave, there U some thing higher, better , au& grander than money. Truth, honor,' right. Justice are more valuable than landa and houses, banks,, factories, plan tatlons and farms. The South has resolved that history snau oe true, cti ava for nothing but truth. chA aba onlT that the world should Judge her by what she did, what she dared, and what she endured, ene neither seeks nor desires' exaggera tion nor amplification, but stakes her rightful place in history, upon a true narrative of all that was done during those four " years of darkness and gloom. Truth Is to her. nobler and more precious than all that imagina tion can' bring to crown her life, and she has resolved at every cost and in the face of all difficulties to at least make the effort to be Justified at the bar of mankind and to accept its final decision upon, her history only when mankind fully understand for what she fought and how she fought and the purposes which Induced her io fight. " 7'h - f : ' V" A nation that had Jefferson Davis Jot Its president and Lee, Jackson, the Johnsons, Klrby Smith, the Hills, Breckenridge, Gordon,. Hamp ton, Forrest, Pettlgrew, Taylor, Mor gan, Stuart, Ramseur and hundreds of others equally as brave for their generals and 600,000 heroes In the ranks of Its armies need not fear to stand before the world and appeal to the Judgment or their fellowmen up- ; An tha lumps and Conduct of a mighty war. ' ' This country needs the record of the Confederate soldier to make full and complete the narratlye of its greatness and renown. History now - is bound to say that the men of the Confederacy were neither outfought nor outgeneraled. They were out numbered; they had less of resourc es than those they fought; but In the end the most men, the longest can non, the greatest aDunaance oi iooa - settled the issue. The North had taa In fha flelil pitch of 1 which was equal to all the Confeder ates enlisted and the record in the face of such odds "won oh the battle Held and on the march by. the Con federate soldier is bound to be hon- , ored, because the Confederate sol diers did all that honor could de mand. No armies of which history contains any account ever did such prolonged and desperate fighting. The victors of one great battle were to be the dead soldiers in the next. . - hattipfletd wason- nenown uiuu ly an assurance that in the next, which in the very nature of things v would be only a short time, a ma jority of those who had won the lau rels of heroism must die. The story of the Light Brigade as told in verse has been borne around the world, and wherever it is read, it Inspires and thrills the soldiers of all nations. In the supurb charge nrhiph it won" Immortality, there was a loss in killed and wound ed of 36.7 per cent. There were more than 80 Federal regiments which lost over 60 per cent in one battle. The ' heaviest loss In tne Franco-Prussian War was at Mars La Tour, when the Westphalian Reg iment lost 79 per cent. The First ; : cent; the 21st Georgia at Manassas, 7 ner cent: the 26th North Carolina' at Gettysburg, 87 1-2 per cent; the - 28th Tennessee at stone .iver oa ner cent; the 17th South Carolina at Manassas 6 6 . per - cent. ; the First Alabama Battalion at Chlckamauga 65 ner cent: the 14th, Virginia, at Sharpsburg 85 per cent; the 6th Al abama at Seven Pines, led by Jonn B. Gordon; lost more "than 66 per ' cent of, its men in that action.; In the -Austria War of 1776, the loss in battle in killed ; and those .who died with wounds was 2.6 per cent ; In the ' Franco-Prussian War'lt' was 3.1 per cent..; In the Crimean War l was 3 percent., .iu me iu v the Federals lost 4.7 per cent, while ' the Confederates lost 10 per . cent; ' mvinr . (k lars-est nercentatre : of men In any modern army that died in the battle. . ' "v "h There la something in . the very magnitude of mortality and sacrifice ' during the Confederate War that an neals to the pride of the Southern heart In the American Revolution,' lasting seven years, the killed, were only 3.400. the wounded 6,400. In the war of 1812, covering a period of three years,' 1,834 soldiers were killed! and 4.300 wounded: while the Mexican War of two years duration m AMAfM na 1m4 AVV a t a a alAtl A f am enemy's country. cost only ' 1,482 men killed and 3,450 wounded. How Insignificant' are these mortalities compared to , those' the. two- armies suffered between the Utfted States and the Confederate Stat u. In the battle of the Wilderness and Spott sylvania the Confederates kllkll and wounded 5,000 . more- in General Grant's Army than were killed In all the wars In which the English speak ing people In America were engaged since its discovery in 1492,' In six battles Sharpsburg, SeveU Days, Stone River, Gettysburg, Chick amauga ' and the Wilderness the Confederates ' killed and : wounded 81,308 Federals, four times as many as had been killed and wounded In the 370 years of American wars pri or to 1861. The war lasted 1,520 days; more than 2,200 battles, great and : small i were ' fought Three quarters of a million men either went down to death' In the war or died as the result of Injuries and ex posure during its continuance. We need no longer fear the story of the past The only thing we need, fear is that it shall not be truly told. We can lift up our heads and with calm ness - and confidence declare that from defeat we have won , Imperish able renown; that, while we have lost, we have crowned our dead na tions, its heroes, and its living peo ple with a glorious immortality. There are no stains on the South ern shield. They Were defeated not because they were wrong or unfaith ful in any respect, but because provi dence decreed their downfall in the solution of a divine policy for the government of the world, Into which human ken cannot pierce or even dare critically to venture. But this does not dim the splendor of their heroism, the glory of their patriot ism, or the grandeur of their sacri fice. When -history comes to deal with these times It will deal impartially. It will be no respector of persons. All the armies of the South shall be crowned with equal praise. 'There will come a time when we shall have a true and correct history written of all that was said and done. When the bias and the prejudice, which al ways accompany participation in any struggle, shall have passed away and It shall be asked, "Whence came those Confederate soldiers?" the an swer shall be; "From. the homes in Florida, where the rosea never fade and the flowers never cease - to bloom; where men are valiant and intrepid; from the mountains and the bills of the great Empire State, Georgia, always patriotic and true; from the valleys and plantations of South Carolina, where mingle In such richness the blood of the Hug enots and the Anglo-Saxons, creat-, lng a knightly manhood worthy of every call, which duty makes; from North Carolina, whose soldiers on all the battlefields exhibited a cour age and heroism and suffered a dec imation that stands' unparalleled, and whose Tar Heel soldiers were first at -Bethel, furthest to the front at Gettysburg and Chlckamau ga and last at Appomattox; from Virginia, whose soil drank so much of the blood of our precious dead and whose sons portrayed a chivalry worthy of the cavaliers from whom they sprang and worthy of her, who has given .to her country boundless wealth In military and civil patriots; from Tennessee the great voluntter State; the spirit of whose people no calamity could -break and whose love of country shone with a lustre that no misfortune could (dlm; they came from the plains of Alabama, whose offering of morethan 40,000 gal lant soldiers attested, the seal and the1 loyalty of . the commonwealth within which was organized the Con federacy; from DeltaB of 'Mississippi, whose soldiers by their heroism on so many battlefields from the Father of Waters' to the Atlantic bave made a glorious memorial which will abide forever; from the prairies of Texas, whose children breathe ' freedom's air and who catch unsurpassed cour age from the chainless winds that sween her boundless 1 plain. ' From A rtannaa. whose soldiers at home and abroad 'filled out the highest measure of manly devotion and un faltering bravery in the defense of the Southern rights. They came two from Louisiana, where the fire and dash of the French quickened by the dogged determination and unfail ing patience of the Anglo-Saxon, won renown and glory upon every field upon which they fought: from Missouri, : whose ' men. expatriated d exiled, never ceased to love that ily, cause to which they consecra- their splendid manhood and ose suffering on 100 battlefields slewed the Mostly sacrifice men coald make for liberty and right; and Maryland, chivalrous Maryland whoVe horsemen and footmen always i - ' sought the head of the column, who TIII3 CAST0X1A GAZETTE." gloried in niarchisg where dangers were thickest and in whose Confed erate soldiers, the world has an ex ample of intrepidity and fearlessness vhlch will forever shine on tne es cutcheon of their native common wealth;, and from Kentucky, whose ms feared no foe, who delighted in danger, and who never shrank ne- ore the enemy, but met every con flict and discharged duty with cour ageous Joy. v-f" It was Impossible, humanly speas:- inr. to avoid the war between the State's. There are those who say it Is better that the South had never fought than to have fought and fail ed. That ' she lost la no evidence that ahe was wrong. : History con tains thousands of examples of where the right has gone down be fore force. ; We cannot understand the ways of the Ruler of the Uni verse, but none can deny that in the administration' of human affairs, right and Justice do not at all times prevail. ; The; South shduld "vever treasure the memories of her sons as worth more than all the wealth of this great country, which runs into such figures that all human Imagina tion stands appalled before their Im mensity. ' ' " ' England, with her thousand years of national life and ceaseless con flict and struggle,: with her resting place in " Westminster, for her re nowned dead, which is the highest reward that nation can bestow, has no such riches as those which were laid up in human history by the Con federate States in the four brief years of their existence. There la nothing In Westminster equal to Robert E. Lee. Great soldiers sleep there; great soldiers rest in St. Paul's; - but take man and soldier combined, and the Confederate States hold up Robert B. Lee as their contribution to human greatness and the world la bound to say that his equal does ' not rest in that great structure beside the banks of the Thames. . As one stands In the Hotel des In- valldes, where there has been dis played all that art and genius can devise to create a soft and aentlmen tal halo around the tomb of Napol eon, and where thousands go year by year under the influence and spell created about' the grave of him, who dying; said, "Bury me on the banks of the Seine, amidst the people I love so well." there Is nothing there that is as great as the tomb of Stone wall Jackson In the little city or Lexington. Va., which rests on the side of the Blue Ridge; and neither the tombs in the churches nor the treasures of Montmarte, the resting place of France's greatest dead can produce a genius so brilliant as For est or Cavalry Leaders so renowned as Morgan "and Stuart. You may read all the annals of the world which tell of the exploits of seamen on all the waters that cover the earth, but nowhere can you find any thing that will excel the enterprise, the courage and genius of our South ern sailors, Semmes, Maffitt, Wad dill and their illustrious associates in the navy of the Confederacy. You may Bearch all. the niches In the sa cred precincts of Westminster, and you can continue this search all ovw the capitals and cemeteries of the world, but you cannot find the storV of a nobler character than of Jeffer son Davis or one, who amidst the vicissitudes of a- great war and help less to stay the lrreslstable tide of Fate, saw his nation die with a sub llmer dignity, with nobler grandeur or truer courage. Thank God, no man can change ,the past Its records are written and sealed, and there can be no Inter lineations or amendments. We must operand read the pages as they are recorded by Fate. , Beyond this we ask not to go. The love of truth Is one of the noblestimpulses which can touch the human heart, and by all the glories of the past we demand that the truth shall be known and declared. Any Southern soldier, man or woman, ; who asks less is a craven, and who takes less is a cow ard. With a patience that every where excites admiration, the South waited for a time of vindication. That time has . come. Hundreds of thousands of pages have been writ ten to tell the story of Southern con flict and Southern struggle. More will yet be written, more must be written. The full truth will never be told. We only ask that the full est possible truth be made known, and year by year : the association, with diminished numbers, but with increasing seal, demands from every nossible source that truth shall be gathered. Southern people are will ing to go under the lime-light of History. .There are no stains upon the escutcheon of the Confederacy; and the fiercer the light, the more penetrating the methods of examlna tion and the more powerful the lens through ths ' past shall be viewed. the better satisfied wUl be the peo ple of the South. ' Through the gloom And terror of the 'four years of conflict through the horrors and wrongs of recon struction, with its ravages and its crimes, through ths days of misrep resentation sad malicious slander of its acts, the men and women of the South bore themselves with dignity of manner, a' peace of soul, and a calmness and consciousness of right. which commanded, the , admiration and .respect of foes snd friends alike. There are more monuments erect ed commemorating the principles and herpes of - the Confederate States which lived only four years than have been erected or construct ed to any single cause, political, mil itary or religious in the world's his tory. More books must be written, the story of the struggle must be correct, the Judgment of mankind' must: be Just We, the sentinels standing now on the shores, can hear the voices of those who have passed over to be with the Immortals still calling. They bid us to be true to the great principles for which these heroes and martyrs died. The hun dreds of monuments scattered throughout the South with voiceful stone, speak of the matchless cour age and the undaunted gallantry of the Southern soldiers and of the im measurable patriotism of the South ern people. These will live when books are changed,, when, it may be the past may be forgotten, but these Imperishable monuments with their inscriptions will remain for a thous and years; and when they shall have crumbled Into dust before the rava ges of time, others will spring up, and they will be renewed, so that the story which they tell will go down through the ages with undiminished light and with unfading glory. I am vainly proud of North Caro lina and her every element of great ness; but there is nothing in her past or present that appeals to me more than the brilliant record she made and the proud name she earn ed during the war between the States. . The first victim was laid upon the alter of Southern Independence when Wyatt's young life went up to God at Bethel the highest water-mark In the bloody flood of carnage and death was reached when Pettlgrew's Brigade charged the slippery heights at Gettysburg, and by the position of the 6th North Carolina Cavalry and the 58th North Carolina Regiment at Chlckamauga. When the bugle sounded retreat over the dead Con federacy, my fellow comrades, you were Its pall-bearers at the grave of its dead hopes. When North Caro lina's brave and gallant soldiers grounded their arms, the, next scene In the bloody tragedy was fateful Ap pomattox. Upon every Confederate monument erected In the State of North Carolina, to the memory of her Confederate dead, should be carved: FIRST AT BETHEL FOREMOST AT GETTYSBURG FARTHEST AT CHICKAMAUGA LAST AT APPOMATTOX And shall we meet our loved ones again in the Ardens? Shall the mo ther, who with more than Spartan courage, with a hallowed Christian devotion and patriotism, at the cost of Inconceivable pain and suffering, laid her boy as a bloody sacrifice up on the altar of her own historic be loved Southland, ever clasp him again in the arms of maternal love? And shall the devoted wives - and women of the South, who suffered so intensely, whose self-sacrifices are unsurpassed In the annals of human history, see their dear loved one again? O, they are not dead! If they are not here today, I know where they are, fellow comrades, I know where th$y are Just over the narrow riv er, camped in silken tent on the green sward, under the shade of the trees, on the banks of the crystal stream of life. They tell us, the foolish ones tell us, that when Stonewall , Jackson, the world's greatest strategist, and the great-, general and Christian sol dier was dying, he became delirious But he was not delirious. It is true, the light of the world was fading be fore his vision, but as it, faded he caught a glimpse of this beautiful camp In which are so many of his own brave soldiers, and as the light of this world faded away and the vision of that tented field rose be fore his closing eyes, he said: "Let us pass over the river, and rest un der the shade of the trees." Ever and anon, through all the vicissitudes of life, we are prone, to ask ourselves "What am "? Whence did I come and whither do I go? An our lives like' bubbles cast upon the' ocean' of eternity , to float for a moment, then to sink Into nothing ingness? . or lle the islands that slumber on the bosom of the sea for a day and then go down beneath the waters? Or like the . meteors which streak the heavens with their lines of light and then go out fore v ev? , Is there no place where the soul can say, "this is my home?" Why were these Instincts of immortality implanted, in our breasts? "Were they placed there to mock us in our desolation? Why were the stars in their unapproachable glory, set in the skies above us, if there Is no hope? , Why was the rainbow ever painted before our eyes, if there is no promise?, , -v' , .There must be. there Is a land that is fairer than day, where the rainbow never fades, where the stars never go down, where these s long ings of immortality shall leap like angels from the temple of our hearts and bring us rest; .where the good and true, who fall before us nere Ilka autumn' leaves, shall ' forever stay In our presence. There, there, fellow comrades, is the Confederate soldiers' paradise, the Confederate soldier's haven of eternal rest , .But I must stop. It would take a thousand volumes to record the he roic deeds of the Confederate sol dier. In my dreams, I see him yet, amid the flame and smoke of battle shout and sabre stroke and shot and shell and cannon roar and leaden hall and bloody "bayonets, as he plants the Stars and Bars on a hun dred fields of victory. The years of the future will laurel the story, How often, the tender, the brave and the true, Stood fast on the fields of their mer ited glory, A thin line of gray 'gainst the le gions of blue. "O what if half fell In the battle In fernal? Aye, what It they lost at the end of the fray? Love gives them a wreath that Is fadeless, eternal, And Glory investeth the thin line of gray. They broke It, the thousands, the might of a nation Hurled back the weak line In its pitiful plght; The deeds that had challenged a world's admiration, Went down 'neath the pall of a pit iless night." The war against the States was fought, really between the women who stayed at home. Had they uttered a cry. had they complained the morals of Lee's army would have dissipated in a day Who can sound to the depth, the aeonv that must have torn the breasts of those brave women, wait ing at home for widowhood? What words can picture the black ness of their nights, the shadow of their dreams, the visions that sprang by day from, the detail , of their housetold task? And yet! they bore It all silently, except for the prayers they uttered and the eob that nature calls from woman's heart, the tears that brighten woman's eyes How many mothers were there in those days of stress and storm like her of that-touching Interlude of Tennyson's? Home they brought her warrior dead, She nor swooned nor uttered cry; All her maidens watching, said, She must weep or she must die.' "Then they praised him soft and low, Called him worthy to be lovea, TniBBt friend and noblest foe, Yet she neither spoke nor moved. Stole a maiden from her place, Lightly to the warrior stepped,- Took the face cloth from the race, Yet she neither moved nor wept. Rose a nurse of ninety years, Set his child upon her knee. Like f summer tempest came her tears, Sweet my child, I live for thee. Ard how she did live for him, that patient widowed mother of the South: what a man she made or nim, how she has kept true in his breast the best traditions of his race, how she has fed him, clothed . him, brought him up through poverty to wealth,' from weakness to strength, to the high honor of hard work, through the Indomitable example that aha set! She has made of the sturdy manhood of the South the highest product which a Christian race has yet attained Nothing In all the marvelous rec ord can equal the fortitude, the con stancy, the devotion of the women of the South. Whatever history has written of Andromache or Penelope, of Virginia, or Lucretla of the Car thaganlan maids whose hair supplied bowstrings of battle, of Boadecla or Helen of Troy, of Elizabeth or Joan of Arc, It was for the women of the Confederacy, our dear mothers, our wives and our sweethearts, God bless them every one, to show forth again, In such resplendent guise, that neither history, nor romance can approach its everlasting glory. . As an evidence of the happy influ ence the women of 'our deaf South land exercised upon the morals of the army in the field, may I relate one Incident as true God knows, as it Is touching. -. !-' . General Cullen A. Battle, of Ala bama, who has only recently passed over , the river to rest under the shade of the trees with the Immor tals. Da-is. Lee. Jac!-son tad the Johnsons, Beauregard and a host of others of our worthy Southern dead, says: ;" v During the winter, of 1862 and , 1863, it was my fortune to be pres ident of one of the , courtl of the army of, Northern , Virginia. One bleak December morning, while the snow covered the ' ground, and; the Ind howled around ths camp, I left my bivouac fire to attend a session of the court. Winding for miles a- round uncertain paths,' I at length arrived at the court ground, Round Oak church. Day after day It had ' been my duty to try the gallant sol diers of that army charged with vlo- UMah. n 9 mUltam law. Kilt' HAVBI had I on any previous occasion been greeted with such anxious spectators as on that morning I found await ing the opening of the court. Case , after case was disposed of, and at length the case of "Confederate States vs. Edward Cooper," was called. Charge desertion. A low . uuruur Biiuuiaucuuoi uuui iu battle scarred spectators and the young artillery man arose from the prisoner's bench to the question, 'Guilty or not guilty," answered Not guilty." The Judge advocate was proceeding to open the prosecu tion, when the court observed that the prisoner was unattended by counsel. Inquired of the accused, Who is your counsel?" He repli ed, "I have no counsel. Supposing it was his purpose to represent himself before the court the Judge advocate was Instructed to proceed. Every charge and spec ideation against the prisoner . was sustained. The prisoner was then told to Introduce his witnesses. He replied, "I have no witness." y , f Astonished at the calmness with which he seemed to be submitting to what I regarded as an evitable fate, I said to him, "Have you no de fense. Is it possible that you have abandoned your comrades and desert ed your colors in the presence of the enemy without any reason," He replied, "There was a reason but it will not avail me before a mil itary court." "Perhaps you are mistaken. You I,, nharcorl with tha hirhexHt OpItTIB known to military law, and It is your duty to make known the causes that influenced your actions." For the first time his manly, form trembled and his blue eyes swam with tears. Approaching the presi dent of the court, and unbuttoning his worn and tattered gray -Jacket he drew from his inside pocket a let-. ter which he presented, saying as be did so, "There, Colonel, is what did it.". I opened the letter, and in a- mo ment my eyes were filled with teaTff, It was passed from one to another of the court until all had seen It and those stern warriors who had pass ed with Stonewall Jackson through a hundred battles, wept like chil dren. As soon as I sufficiently re covered my self-possession, I read the letter as the prisoner's defense. It was in these words: "My Dear Edward: I I have always been proud of you, and since your connection with the Confederate Army, I have been prouder of you than ever be fore. I would not have you do anything wrong for the world, but before God, Edward, unless you come we must die. Last night I was aroused by little Eddie crying. I called and said, 'What's the mat ter, Eddie?' and he said, 0 mamma, I am so hungry'.' and Lucy, Edwardr your darling Lucy, she never com- plains, out sne growiug, uiuu every day, and before God, Edward, unless you come home, we must all die. (Signed) Your Mary." . . i ji . Turning to ine prisoner, i "What did you do when you receiv ed this letter?" "I made application for ' a fur- ; lough, and it was rejected, and again I made application' and was 'reject ed, and that night, as I wandered backward and forward upon my lone ly sentry beat, thinking of my home with the mild eyes of Lucy looking up to me, and the burning words of Mary sinking into my brain, I was no longer a Confederate soldier, but I ,was the father' of Lucy and the husband of Mary, and I would have passed those lines If every gun in the battery had fired upon me. I went home. , Mary ran out to . meet me, her angel arms embraced me and she whispered, 'O, Edward,' I am so hap py, I as so happy that you got your furlough.' She musty have; felt me shudder, for v she turned ;' pale as death, and catching her breath at ev ery word, she said, 'Have you come home without your furlough? O. Edward, go back, go back 1 Let me and the children go down to the. grave, but O, for heaven's sake, save the honor of your name.' And here I am. gentlemen, not brought here by military power, but obedience to the command of Mary, to abide the sentence of this honorable courU" Every officer of the court martial felt the force of the prisoner's (Continued cn page 8.) i
Gastonia Daily Gazette (Gastonia, N.C.)
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Aug. 5, 1910, edition 1
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