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This page is part of The Georgia GenWeb Project a AHGP Project and is hosted by USGENNET |
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Confederate Veteran Misc Confederate Veteran, Vol. VIII, No. 1 Nashville, Tenn., December, 1901. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKED HIS WAY THROUGH Chaplain J. Wm. Jones - Chapel Hill, N. C. WORKED HIS WAY THROUGH How a Poor Orphan Boy Became One of the Immortals In the picturesque and beautiful region of what was then called Northwest Virginia, in the little town of Clarksburg, there was born on January 21, 1824, a boy who was destined to win for himself great fame and widespread renown, to perform mighty deeds, and to write his name on the brightest pages of the world's history; to become, indeed One of the few immortal names that were not born to die. Of intelligent, honorable parents, he had received the rudiments of a common school education, when the death of both father and mother left him, at the age of seven, a penniless, helpless orphan boy. Cared for by an uncle, he showed an indomitable purpose to help himself, and at the age of twelve went off with a brother of fourteen to the famous "Blennerhasset Island," in the Ohio River, which the graceful pen of William Wirt has immortalized, and supported himself by cutting cord wood for steamboats, and learned to endure other hardships until sickness forced him to "work his passage" back to the home of his kind uncle. Leading in all manly sports at school, an accomplished rider of wild horses, a famous driver of teams of oxen, and a manager of hands who prepared the immense logs that were hatiled to his uncle's sawmill, faithful in every duty, he was made, at the age of sixteen, constable for the northern half of Lewis County, Va., his district being so large in extent that five counties have been since carved out of the territory over which this youth discharged his duties with a persevering energy, pluck, and, when occasion demanded, manly courage which were the prophecy of the coming hero. At the age of eighteen years, learning that there was a vacancy from his district at the military academy at West Point (caused by the resignation of a youth who was unwilling to endure the hardships and work necessary to success there), the orphan boy sought the position, made a journey to Washington to obtain the appointment, was introduced to the Secretary of War by the Congressman from his district, Hon. Mr. Hays, and, although he appeared before that August official in a suit of homespun, and was subjected to the most rigid examination, his manly bearing, quiet ambition, and emphatic expression of a purpose to succeed so impressed the Secretary that he ordered the appointment to be made out for him at once. Declining the invitation of Mr. Hays to bearing, quiet ambition, and emphatic expression of Washington, and contenting himself with a panoramic view from the dome of the Capitol, he left that evening for West Point, barely passed the entrance examination, and in July, 1842, was enrolled at the famous military academy as Thomas Jonathan Jackson, of Virginia. His previous preparation was so defective that he took at first a low stand in his class; but by hard study and indomitable perseverance he gradually worked himself up until he graduated number seventeen, and it was said of him that if the course had been two years longer he would have graduated at the head of a class that had in it such brilliant men as Gens. McClellan, Foster, Reno, Stoneman, Couch, and Gibbon, of the Federal army, and Gens. A. P. Hill, Pickett, Maury, D. R. Jones, G. W. Smith, and Wilcox, of the Confederate army. I cannot, of course, enter into any details of Jackson's life at West Point, nor oi his subsequent brilliant career in the Mexican war and in the war between the States. For these I refer the reader to Dr. R. L. Dabney's able and admirable "Life of Stonewall Jackson," John Esten Cooke's popular memoir, the very able military biography of him by Col. Henderson of the British army, and especially to that charming book, "Life and Letters of Stonewall Jackson by His Wife;" and I do not hesitate to insist that all of our young people, especially our boys and young men, ought to read these books. But I desire simply to bring out what seems to have been the secret of the wonderful success of this great man. While at West Point he wrote in his blank book among other "Maxims," these words: "You may be whatever you resolve to be." And after he had professed faith in Christ and united with the Presbyterian Church, in Lexington, Va., he adopted as his motto: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." These two maxims, combined with his simple faith in Christ, his soldierly and implicit obedience to every command issued by the Great Captain in so far as he understood the order, and his unwavering confidence in God's overruling Providence as expressed in his favorite text. "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose"---these were the controlling principles of his life, the secret of his success. It was my proud privilege to know Stonewall Jackson personally, and to see a good deal of him during the two years of the war into which he crowded illustrious deeds which have filled two continents with his fame, and make him one of the greatest soldiers of all history. I confess that I love sometimes to recall some of the great battle pictures in which he figured---Manassas, where he replied to the despairing cry of the gallant Bee, "They are beating us back!" "Sir, we will not be beat-en back. We will give them the bayonet." And where Bee, about to yield up his noble life, rallied his shattered legions by exclaiming: "Rally behind the Virginians! Look! there stands Jackson like a stone wail! Let us determine to die here, and we shall conquer!" and changed the name of Jackson from Thomas Jonathan to Stonewall. Many scenes in that famous "Valley Campaign," and especially that one at Winchester, when, driving Banks pellmell through the streets, he was surrounded by beautiful women, who hailed him as their deliverer, and cut off, as souvenirs, every button on his old gray coat; Gaines's Mill, on the evening of June 27, 1862, when he sat on his old sorrel horse sucking a lemon and gave the laconic order: "Tell every one of my brigades to advance and sweep the field with the bayonet;" Cedar Run, where he rallied his broken legions and offered himself to lead the charge; second Manassas, where, cut off for a time from the main army of Lee, he was everywhere among his troops, the very personification of the genius of battle; Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, at all of which he proved himself worthy to rank among the great captains of history, and justified LeeÆs noble letter when he wrote his wounded lieutenant : "Could I have dictated events, I should have chosen for the good of the country to have been disabled in your stead." But, while vividly recalling many of these battle pictures, I prefer to think of Stonewall Jackson as the humble, devout Christian, the "soldier of the cross," and to recall him as he appeared in that attitude, the deacon of his Church who "had no time to attend to anything else" when his duties demanded his attendance at a deacon's meeting, the Church collector who got a contribution from every one on his list, the teacher of the negro Sunday school so devoted and true, the man of humble prayer, and the diligent student of God's Word. I love to recall him as announcing his great victories, "God blessed our arms with victory," and halting his victorious legions for a "thanksgiving service;"as sitting among his ragged soldiers and drinking in with kindling eye and beaming face the simple truths of the gospel; as dismounting one day from his war steed and walking with me for two miles to talk on the religious interests of his men and the subject of personal religion; as conducting a prayer meeting at his headquarters, and making one of the most appropriate and fervent prayers I ever heard; as delighting in religious conversation, as active for the salvation of others, and as so fully committing into the hands of Christ his interests for time and for eternity that when cut down at Chancellorsville, in the full tide of his brilliant career, he could calmly say, "It is all right; I would not have it otherwise if I could unless I knew that it was my Heavenly Father's will," and could leave behind a record of his last days that showed beyond all peradventure that he had been taught by God's Spirit how to die, as well as how to live, and that he spoke a prophecy of his own end as well as a stirring exhortation to his followers when he uttered those last famous words: "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." Determination to use his own best efforts, combined with his simple trust in Christ, and full confidence in the promises of God's word---these were the silent, potent influences which raised the penniless orphan boy into the world-famous Stonewall Jackson. "Be ye followers of him, even as he also was of Christ." Confederate Veteran, Vol. IX, No. 1 Nashville, Tenn., January, 1902. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR L. J. Storey In an address by Hon. L. J. Storey, Railroad Commissioner of Texas, delivered at the San Antonio International Fair, October 23, 1901, he said: It is meet that on all proper occasions the remnant of Confederate soldiers still left in the land of the living should assemble themselves together, and in the presence of a new generation discuss the issues of the past, to the end that history may be vindicated and that posterity may not be deceived and taught to believe a lie. My Comrades, nearly forty-one years ago the tocsin of war was sounded throughout the length and breadth of this once happy land of ours. The ordinary pursuits of life were abandoned, the wheels of commerce for a time ceased to roll, the streets of the towns and cities were crowded with anxious inquirers for the latest news from political centers and official circles. To the forum and the press the people looked for news and for advice. War and rumors of war were almost the only topics of conversation. Secession from the Union on one side was threatened as the only means of preserving constitutional rights. On the other side war seemed to be welcomed, and coercion of sovereign States, for the first time in the history of the government, seemed to be seriously contemplated. The Southern people believed that the constitutional rights of the South were held for naught by a number of the Northern States, while the laws of Congress, passed in strict accordance with a plain provision of the Constitution, were nullified and publicly denounced by the press, pulpit, and statesmen of the North. The excitement ran high. The military arm of the general government began to move; while in the South military companies, regiments, and brigades rapidly formed, and soon the roar of cannon, the rattle of musketry, and the tread of armies declared that the day of compromise had passed, and that the struggle of the South to maintain its constitutional rights bad been transferred from the halls of Congress to the field of carnage, where the sword was to be the only arbiter; and for four long and weary years two of the grandest armies that ever trod the earth marched under their respective flags, and on many fields of blood those mighty men of war fought, bled, and died as only heroes can fight, bleed, and die. The first hostile gun was fired at the bombardment of Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, and the last battle was fought at Palmetto Ranch, Tex., May 13, 1865, where the soil of Texas was once again bathed in the blood of her gallant sons in defense of her constitutional rights as a sovereign State, and to drive from her soil a hostile invading foe. But why, we are asked by the misinformed of this day and time, did the South rebel and bring on that cruel and disastrous war? The story is a long one, and yet the truth, without details, can be told in few words. I would that I had the attentive ear to-day of the sons and daughters of every Confederate soldier in the land, for I have no apologies to make for the South or for the manner in which I shall deal with this subject. No true son of the South should treat the case with sugar-coated pills. History has been so grievously perverted that every true man in 17 must, on this subject, dare to speak the truth, "though the heavens fall." We owe it to ourselves, to posterity, to truth, and to justice to "hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may." A few days ago in the capital city of Texas I stood, with uncovered head, at the base of a splendid monument being erected to the memory of the Confederate dead, and upon its most prominent front I read this inscription: "Died, for State Rights, guaranteed under the Constitution. The people of the South, animated by the spirit of 1776 to preserve their rights, withdrew from the Federal compact in 1861. The North resorted to coercion. The South, against overwhelming numbers and resources, fought until exhausted. During the war there were 2,257 engagements. Number of men enlisted: Confederate armies, 700,000; Federal armies, 2,859,132. Losses from all causes: Confederates, 437,000; Federals, 485,216." That monument, my countrymen, quotes history. No well-informed patriot of this day and time will deny the doctrine of State rights under the constitution of the United States as it was from the foundation of the government down to the close of the war. If this doctrine was not supported by the constitution and laws of the United States, then the people of the South were rebels and traitors to their country; but if, as the South has always contended, the doctrine of State rights was supported by the constitution, the people of the South were true patriots, devoted to the constitution and laws of the land, and to maintain them in 1861, like their patriot fathers of 1776, "pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor," and for four long and bloody years they did sustain their cause against overwhelming numbers and boundless resources. Our armies were made up of resident citizens of the Southland, the best Anglo-Saxon blood that ever traced through human veins. without a navy and our ports all blockaded, our intercourse with the outside world was meager indeed. For new recruits, army supplies, and munitions of war we had to look, almost entirely, to our own people and territory; while the Federal government, with her free and unrestricted intercourse with every nation on earth, from all of whom she drew supplies, munitions of war, arid new recruits for her armies at thirteen dollars a month, the conflict, indeed, was an unequal one. And again, the policy of the South was to withdraw from the Union, peaceably if possible, and stand on the defensive on her own soil with no thought of invading the North, while the policy of the North was to invade and coerce the South. Thus the policy of both governments, from the beginning to the close of the war, was to make of the South the battle grounds, where the tread of mighty contending armies and booming cannon shook the very earth, and where devastation, rapine, and murder inevitably follow where such vast contending hostile armies march. I have to some extent recently reviewed that part of our history which relates to the cause of the war, and 1 commend to you the facts as recorded by Hon. J. L. M. Curry in his new book, "The Southern States of the American Union Considered in Their Relations to the Constitution of the United States and to the Resulting Union." Let me remind you in the outset that this question of State rights, over which the war was fought, is no new question. It began at the formation of the government, and upon the adoption of the constitution was, by the then contending parties, considered settled. The great Alexander Hamilton and followers, on one side, opposed the doctrine of State rights and contended for a strong Federal government, centralizing all power in the general government and making the States mere dependencies. He believed that a monarchy such as old England was the best form of government, "the happiest device of human ingenuity." Thomas Jefferson led the State rights party, and in that conflict the Jeffersonian doctrine of State right prevailed, adopting that form of government, and submitted the constitution, which was in due time adopted by the States, and it thus became the organic law of the United States. Hamilton admitted his defeat in the convention, and advocated the adoption of the constitution by the States, expressing, however, his "doubts as to the success of the experiment," as he called it; and later, in 1791, he said: "I own it is my opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government is not that which answers the ends of society by giving stability and protection to its rights, and that it will probably be found expedient to go to the British form." The doctrine of State rights thus recognized of course carried with it the right of each State to regulate its domestic affairs in its own way, and Congress possessed no power not delegated to it by the constitution, or in the language of the constitution itself: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people." The domestic affairs of a State could not therefore be interfered with by Congress, nor by the act of any other State. To illustrate: It will be admitted by every intelligent, honest man that each State had the constitutional right, for itself, and by its own laws prior to the war, to determine whether or not the institution of slavery should exist within its borders. This has never been denied by any one, except by the fanatic who appealed to a "higher law" doctrine, declaring that the constitution was a "league with hell," and should not be obeyed. A provision of the constitution of the United States, then and still in force, reads as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." Seeking to enforce this plain provision of the constitution of the United States, Congress enacted what is known as the Fugitive Slave law. The State of Pennsylvania, as did fourteen other Northern States, sought to nullify this clause of the constitution and law of Congress, and passed laws forbidding the execution thereof in their respective States, and in the celebrated case of Prigg vs. the Common-wealth of Pennsylvania (16 Peters's Reports, pages 611, 612), the Supreme Court of the United States, by a unanimous opinion, upholding the constitution and laws of Congress, said: "Historically it is well known that the object of this clause was to secure to the citizens of the slaveholding States the complete right and title of ownership in their slaves as property in every State of the Union into which they might escape from the State wherein they were held in servitude. The full recognition of this right and title was indispensable to the security of this species of property in all the slaveholding States, and, indeed, was so vital to the preservation of their interest and institutions that it cannot be. doubted that it constituted a fundamental article without the adoption of which the Union would not have been formed. Its true design was to guard against the doctrines and principles prevalent in the nonslaveholding States by preventing them from interfering with or restricting or abolishing the rights of the owners of the slaves. This clause was therefore of the last importance to the safety and security of the Southern States, and could not be surrendered by them without endangering their whole property in slaves. The clause was therefore adopted in the convention by the unanimous consent of the framers of it, a proof at once of its intrinsic and practical necessity. The clause manifestly contemplates the existence of a positive, unqualified right on the part of the owner of the slave which no State law or regulation can in any manner regulate, control, qualify, or restrain." Thus spake the Supreme Court of the United States. Human language could not have more emphatically declared the true intent and meaning of the constitution. Daniel Webster, the greatest lawyer and statesman that Massachusetts or New England ever produced, is quoted as saying: "I do not hesitate to say and repeat that if the Northern States refuse, willfully and deliberately, to carry into effect that part of the constitution which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, and Congress provides no remedy, the South would no longer be bound to observe the compact. A bargain broken on one side is broken on all sides." Again, in 1851, he said: "In the North the purpose of overturning the government shows itself more clearly in resolutions agreed to in voluntary assemblies of individuals, denouncing the laws of the land, and declaring a fixed intent to disobey them. I notice in one of these meetings held lately in the very heart of New England, and said to have been numerously attended, the members unanimously resolved, "That as God is our helper, we will not suffer any person charged with being a fugitive from labor to be taken from among us, and to this resolution we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." And Mr. Webster proceeds: "These persons do not seem to have been aware that the purpose thus avowed by them is distinctly treasonable. If any law of the land be resisted by force of arms or by force of numbers, with a declared intention to resist the application of that law, in all cases this is levying war against the government within the meaning of the constitution, and is an act of treason drawing after it all the consequences of that offense." From the foundation of the government down to 1861 the State rights doctrine was recognized by the party in power, by the Supreme Court of the United States, in fact by statesmen of all parties, as constitutional. The difficulty was not in the construction of the constitution, but whether or not it was binding and should be obeyed or held for naught. It was perfectly natural that every Federalist, being opposed to the State rights doctrine and favoring a strong centralized government, should gradually fall into line with the abolition party, that claimed the right in Congress and in other States to nullify the constitution and laws that sustained the doctrine, and as that party grew in numbers it became fanatical and more defiant of the constitution and laws of the land. Mr. Edward Quincey said: "For our part we have no particular desire to see the present law repealed or modified. What we preach is not repeal, not modification, but disobedience." Another said: "The citizens of a government tainted with slave institutions may combine with foreigners to put down the government." The constitution and laws to which we have referred were denounced by such leaders as Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison as "a covenant with death, an agreement with hell." And as early as 1848 Mr. Seward declared that there was an "irrepressible conflict" between the sections on the question of slavery, and that the government could not exist in peace "half slave and half free," an expression so often used by Mr. Lincoln in his memorable canvass with Mr. Douglas in the State of Illinois in 1858. And when it became apparent that no honest judge of the Supreme Court could ever be found to declare that the constitution of the United States did not protect the rights of the people of the States in their local and property rights, many of them became so fanatical as to appeal to the higher law doctrine, and Mr. Seward himself is quoted as saying: "There is a higher law than the constitution which regulates our authority over the domain. Slavery must be abolished, and we must do it." Here was one of their political idols, who afterwards became Secretary of State under Mr. Lincoln. He here advocated the abolition of slavery, not by the States where slavery existed, the only constitutional way it could be done, and the way it was finally done, but in obedience to the higher law---that is, in spite of the constitution and the rights of the States thereunder. And then follows the demands of une of those "more-holy-than-thou" creatures, who was not satisfied with Almighty God. He said: "The times demand and we must have an antislavery constitution, an antislavery Bible, and an antislavery God." They had neither then, and wanted a change. Such language, if used to-day in denunciation of the government, the constitution and laws, would be justly and vehemently denounced as the utterances of crazy anarchists, and yet at the time used they were the utterances of beloved and honored leaders in social, political, and religious circles of the North, and whose memory is still cherished thoughout that section of the country. As one of the many evil fruits of such teachings the sovereign State of Virginia was invaded in October, 1859, by an armed band of cutthroats, murderers, and conspirators, led by John Brown, a Northern fanatic, against the government of Virginia and the constitutional rights of her people. Such an open and deliberate act of treason, rapine, and murder ought to have received the emphatic and unanimous condemnation of 19 the people of the North as it did in the South. But not so. Appeals were made for the remission of the punishment prescribed by the laws of Virginia, and at the North this ungodly traitor, this foul murderer, has been canonized (declared a saint), and Mr. Curry said that "Hughes, in his "Manliness of Christ, places John Brown almost on a level with the Son of God." Well, the time did come when this nullifying sectional party secured an antislavery candidate for President, who had himself declared that "this government could not endure half slave and half free," because he said, in substance, that there was an irrepressible conflict between the sections upon this question of slavery; that both slavery and the Union could not exist, and that the Union must be preserved. And it was too true. There was an irrepressible conflict waged by a sectional party against the constitution and laws of the land and the rights guaranteed by the constitution to the people of the South. I have thus quoted from speeches, letters, utterances, laws, the constitution, and decisions of the court of last resort, not for the purpose of reviving prejudices or sectional bitterness---far be it from me--- hut for the purpose of recalling to the minds of my hearers the signs of the times immediately preceding the war, showing the provocation to the South, the purity of her motives, and to justify her in the efforts she made to peaceably secede from the Union and form a government that would protect her in her constitutional rights. And now, my comrades, since more than forty years have passed away since the clash of arms in that cruel war began, when the smoke of battle has cleared away, and when the mental vision is no longer obscured by prejudice, and when reason is once again enthroned, let me say that when we remember the long years of struggle in and out of Congress to uphold the rights of the States, guaranteed under plain and unmistakable provisions of the Constitution; and when we remember that many of the State Legislatures of the North denounced the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States sustaining the State rights doctrine as an arbitrary power, and therefore null and void; and when we remember that honored leaders of that rapidly growing sectional party, ever opposing State rights, were denouncing the Constitution thus upheld by the Supreme Court as a "covenant with death and league with hell;" and when we remember that "the voice of the law was no longer in the land," but that the Federal government, which prior to 1861 had administered the government in accordance with the requirements of the constitution and laws, was now "browbeaten and defeated;" and then when this sectional party, thus pledged to the destruction of the rights of the South and the centralization of the government, was about to seize the reins of government, what, I ask, was the South to do? She was thoroughly convinced that the constitution and laws of the United States were so despised and denounced by the leaders of the party coming into power that they would no longer be enforced, and knowing that she had the legal and constitutional right to withdraw from the Union when necessary to preserve her rights, no alternative was left her, as a free and sovereign State, but to withdraw from the Union, or to submit to what she believed would be an utter destruction of her rights, and to do so without a struggle was impossible for a brave and noble people through whose veins the blood of patriots and lovers of constitutional liberty flowed. She therefor secceded, and the war of coercion followed. The last almost of the great statesmen and generals who took active, part in that struggle have passed away, and the last of the rank and file of those great armies will have soon crossed over the river to rest under the shade."The Presidents of both governments and the last of their cabinet officers save one are dead. The Hon. John H. Reagan, of Texas, survives them all. An honest man, a true patriot, a wise counselor, and a great statesman, after an active and most eventful life of more than eighty-three years, he stands erect like a giant oak of the forest which has withstood the storms of a century, firmly rooted in the confidence, love, and affection of a great and noble people. But, my comrades, the war was not fought in vain. It is true that the sacred cause for which we fought went down in gloom. The flag and government e sought to maintain we lost forever. With the hallowed dust of our patriot heroes, and the sacred memories of the past, we laid them away with an abiding faith that posterity will yet see and admit what we know to be true—that is, that the South sought to secede for no other purpose than to protect her people in the enjoyment of a plain constitutional right, which the party coming into power had assailed for more than a generation with the avowed purpose of destroying it; that the methods used and threatened to be used up to that time were an open violation of those rights by nullification of the constitution and laws that protected them; that no people up to that time had been more devoted to the constitution and Union than the people of the South; that no people had spent so much blood and treasure for the country's cause as her people; that they had ever been ready to uphold the laws and defend the flag whenever and wherever assailed; that no cause was ever more just than our efforts to peaceably secede from the Union to preserve a constitutional right. No sacrifices so great, no people ever sustained a cause so long against such overwhelming odds and resources. No country so devastated: the resources of no country so completely exhausted, and no victor ever paid so dear for what he won. The flag of no country or cause ever went down in defeat crowned with such a halo of glory. No cause ever had a more devoted, self-sacrificing people to sustain it; while the bravery, the devotion, the energy, the unselfishness, and heroism of the noble women of the South, throughout the entire struggle, is unparalleled in the history of the world. No armies were ever led to battle by greater generals, and no generals ever commanded better, braver, or more patriotic soldiers. And last, but not least, no brighter intellect or purer statesman, no patriot with clearer conscience, purer heart, or more lofty purposes ever wielded power or guided the ship of State than Jefferson Davis, the gifted and noble President of the Confederate States. The war being over, the remnant of the Confederate army, the best that ever trod the earth, disarmed and poorly clad, sought the desolated homes of their loved ones, and began anew the battle f life, little dreaming that the horrors of reconstruction were yet to be endured. I pass over this uncalled for and disgraceful period in the history of our country, except to note as one of the results that at the close of the war the aggregate debt of the Southern States was $87,193,933.33, and at the lose of that period of robbery their aggregated indebtedness had increased to the enormous sum of $380,160,575.13. But finally rid of the oppressors, and her local affairs once again entrusted to her own keeping, she rose from the ashes, Phoenix like, and is now challenging the admiration of the world. Her climate, her soil, her recuperative powers, her patriotism, her statesmanship, her devotion to justice, and her lofty ambition are forcing her to the front rank of every laudable enterprise, and he is blind indeed who cannot see that the time will come when she will, in the future, as she did prior to 1861, become the ruling power in what will then be recognized as the best government the world as ever seen. And then who can say, judging the future by the past, that New England will not again, she did on one occasion when she thought the South was gaining in power, threaten to secede from the Union; for, as it has been said by the distinguished Republican statesman, ex-Senator Ingalls, of Kansas, in discussing the late amendments to the constitution, that "the right of secession, if it ever existed, exists now, so far as any declaration in our organic law is concerned. It has not been renounced, nor is the supremacy of the nation affirmed in its charter." And it is true, but God grant that a cause for secession may never again occur. For the honor that you, my comrades, have conferred upon me, in extending the invitation to address you, I return my grateful acknowledgments. Confederate Veteran, Vol. IX, No. 3 Nashville, Tenn., March, 1902. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "UNCLE TOMS CABIN" MISLEADS George T. C. Bryan The press generally at the South, has commented upon and generally commended the action of the Kentucky Daughters of the Confederacy who tried to suppress the play "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Mr. H. H. Gratz, a venerable editor of Central Kentucky, writes most ably upon the subject setting forth the harmful effects of the production upon the negro, and boldly asserting the right of objection. Mr. Gratz is over seventy years old, and is noted for his fearless defense of Southern rights, even when such defense is against personal interest and policy. George T. C. Bryan, of 503 California Street, San Francisco, wrote in January: Editor Bulletin---Sir: Will you kindly find space in your paper for my reply to your editorial, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," in your issue of the 14th inst.? Mrs. Stow's "Life Among the Lowly," has no potency for good, and as a drama has survived its usefulness. Had it been a correct and not a misleading picture of Southern life during the existence of slavery no one could rightfully object to it. Mrs. Stowe lived to see her wishes as to the removal of slavery accomplished. The critical historian will, in seeking for the unsullied truth, search and sift this story along with much other matter when building up a history devoted to the truth, and hence made acceptable to all quarters of our common country. The story of "The Great American Conflict," what led up to it, the aims of the opposing contestants, and the methods they resorted to in war on both sides, will be truthfully told. Organized effort on both sides, left after the closing of hostilities remnants that crystallized into "Grand Armies," "Loyal Legions," "Grand Camps," "Daughters of the Confederacy," etc. The motive for existence that is behind such organizations it is profitable to study, and "By their fruits ye shall know them." One and probably the chief reason for the existence of "The Daughters of the Confederacy" was the desire with all Confederates that a truthful history be handed down to their children and sent out to the world. Such a duty they Owed to their fallen soldiers and to self and all mankind. There can be nothing sectional in this, and that the Southland was the seat of the war made it imperative that those living in its midst and knowing it best should demand a true record of all that transpired. It was not through choice that the "Daughters of the Confederacy" found their homes the centers of strife. That they have taken upon themselves the work of trying to restore their country to some degree of comfort and in educating their illiterates and of collecting facts that make history, and so preserving it from obliteration and falsehood, places the world under obligations to them. Investigation will prove that almost every substantial Southern move inaugurated and aimed to preserve the memorial of the fathers and to relieve distress, want, and sickness, was sustained chiefly by them. Southern men who bore the standard of Dixie, and their children of to-day draw their deepest, best inspiration from the "Daughters of the Confederacy" and thus the purest and best gift of the Creator was in his mercy spared to the Southland. As women, worthy of the lineage of great sires, they selected the name "Daughters of the Confederacy," a name which unmistakably pledged them to the highest line of duty and self-denial. Like a mother's sweet influence, their spirit spread over the South, even before their name and organization was fully established. And they brought comfort to the needy and sick. Though weak in numbers for the work over such a vast area and having been left in desperate poverty by the war, yet they were strong in the resolve of woman's tender, pure, dedicated heart. By studying what these women have accomplished we become confirmed in the conviction that however widely apart the masses of the North and South may have drifted under the distractions of divided interests and from the pressure of sectional differences that brought on the war, it is seen that charitable forbearance and a strict adherence to the truth and to duty will in time reunite the two sections. The sword only severs and bruises; it strikes down and crushes. God's peace comes in other forms than by invasion and war. The Southern Historical Society publications, the reports of the History Committee of the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans, and the reports of the "Daughters of the Confederacy" are fitting supplements to the great history of the "War of the Rebellion," published by order of Congress and compiled from the military reports of participants on both sides---North and South. Asylums for the care of aged and helpless Confederate soldiers and their wives and children were reared by and were dependent chiefly upon the "Daughters of the Confederacy." At Richmond, Va., alone they have assembled the silent ranks of over 15,000 Confederate dead. The care of Confederate soldiers' graves all over the South is left to the tender solicitude and protection of these daughters. Monuments in counties, hamlets, cities all over the South and at points in the North commemorate the love in the hearts of survivors for the "rebel" soldier fathers, brothers, and sons; and these monuments are the gifts from "woman's devotion." A "people without its monuments is a people without a history." Need, then, that the spirit which brought into existence and inspires these "Daughters of the Confederacy" must die? A prominent historian and professor in a great Northern university, and he a Northern man, describes the Southern women as cutting off their hair and selling it along with their jewels and silverware to sustain their soldiers in the field of war; and he declares that the united South underwent greater hardships, and made greater sacrifices for their cause than did the Hero Fathers in the War for Independence in 1776. Who, then, sir, may rightfully deny to them the name they have chosen and the task they have dedicated themselves and their children to? Do they not make the world better for having lived in it as "Daughters of the Confederacy ?" Confederate Veteran, Vol. IX, No. 4 Nashville, Tenn., April, 1902. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEATH OF A UNION SOLDIER AT SHILOH C. L. Gay C. L. Gay, an Alabama veteran, writes that Joe T. Williams, of Montgomery was a member of Company D, Twenty-First Alabama Regiment, and tells this: A comrade and I were searching the battlefield of Shiloh for some missing men of our company, D, of the Twenty-First Alabama Regiment. In passing through a swampy thicket near where that regiment charged the Fourth Ohio Regiment early in the morning, we heard the voice of a wounded man crying: "Boys! boys!" Thinking it might possibly be one of our men we went to him. He first begged for a drink of water, which I gave him out of my canteen. After he was wounded, he had rolled into the edge of this thicket in order to protect himself from being run over by the flying ambulances, artillery, and cavalry constantly passing near. His left knee cap was entirely shot off and he was extremely weak from loss of blood. His pitiful appeal to help him we could not and would not resist after talking to him. His name was John Burns, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Company B, Fourth Ohio Regiment. He begged to be carried to our field hospital where he might receive attention, and if possible get word to his loving mother, being her only son. He had a small Bible in his hand with his thumb resting inside on the fourteenth chapter of St. John. His thumb being bloody it made a bloody spot on this chapter. He desired that this Bible should be sent to his mother, showing where he last read. Our field hospital being a few hundred yards in the rear, we carried him there and requested our surgeon. Dr. Redwood, of Mobile, to examine him, which he did in a few minutes, the hospital being crowded with patients. On examination the doctor found his wound to be fatal and his physical condition too weak for an operation. He was eighteen years old. When the doctor told him there was no hope, he inquired if there were any Christians present. We told him yes. In the meantime several of our comrades had gathered around him. He requested a prayer, to which one of us responded, all being deeply touched, then repeating a few lines of his mother's favorite song: "There is a land of pure delight, Where saints immortal stand;" which he requested us to sing with him. This song begun there was taken up through the entire camps, even back among the Federal prisoners. All around then bid him good by. He handed me his Bible and requested me to hand it to Sergeant Stevenson of Company B, Fourth Ohio Regiment. This sergeant knew his family, and he wanted him to send it to his mother and tell her he "died a Christian." The next morning I went to the hospital and learned that he was dead. As his body lay there I thought his face bore the most peaceful look I ever saw. I learned this Fourth Ohio Regiment was a part of Gen. Prentiss's Brigade which we had almost entirely captured and had them corralled near our lines. I told my captain about the incident and requested a pass to the prisoners to see if I could find Sergeant Stevenson. He granted my request, and I soon located the Fourth Ohio Regiment and inquired for Company B. On approaching their squad I asked for the sergeant, calling his name. He came forward to know what I wanted. I inquired if he knew John Burns. He said, "Yes; have you all got him?" I replied: "No, he is in glory." I then told him of his death. He was visibly affected, and I could not restrain myself. He said: "Johnnie Burns was the best boy I ever saw; he was a pet with the company. I boarded with his family in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was his Sunday school teacher in the Baptist Church." Other comrades gathered near and heard of his death, all being very much affected, and expressed their gratitude to me for what I had done. During my entire service of three years I frequently noticed the fondness which existed between Ohio and Alabama soldiers. This narrative I have frequently told, and now, in my declining years, I desire it published. After the battles are over there still exists that tender tie between mankind and human sympathy which is wondrous kind. Confederate Veteran, Vol. IX, No. 5 Nashville, Tenn., May, 1902. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNION VETERANS DECLARE THE TRUTH Samuel F. Sweinhart, Company C, Indiana Volunteer Infantry In the March, 1902, VETERAN appears an extract from the Philadelphia Bulletin of February 5, 1902, signed "Promoveo," in which the man with the meaningless non de plume says: "The citizen of a Northern State may go South for pleasure and spend his money, but let him go there to make a home and how quickly the chivalrous Southerners will let him know the conditions under which he may remain among them. If he is a republican he must give up his political faith and vote democratic, or he will find the South is no place for him." Now, Mr. Editor, the writer of this letter was a Union soldier during the war, and the gentlemen whose signatures follow those of the writer of this article were all Union soldiers and they speak by the card and know whereof they speak when they say, as we most emphatically do, that there is not a word of truth in that slanderous article written by "Promoveo." The undersigned Union veterans have lived in the South since shortly after the close of the war; our homes and our business are here; we are Republican in politics, and we hurl the base insinuation back in the teeth of "Promoveo" when he says we must give up our political faith and vote Democratic! Our political faith was never called in question. The most charitable thing we can say of "Promoveo" is that he has tackled a subject on which he is not posted. There is no doubt but that he never was South of Mason and Dixon's line. If he had been his slanderous effusion of base calumny would never have been written. During the decades we have been in the South, we have met and mingled with the men who met us in volleying lines; the chivalrous Southerners who, with bayonets aslant and aglow, contested with us on many a hard fought field in the days of the early sixties! And we can testify to the fact that the men who gave us the hardest blows meet us now at reunions with the loudest cheers and the warmest hand grasps. And this is the people this "Promoveo," with pen dipped in gall, dares to slander! An anonymous writer is generally considered a coward, and when a man hides his identity behind a hidden pen name, if he refuses to come out and reveal himself when called on, he may be spelled coward, too. There are other things in this miserable screed which can be easily refuted; but we take his shallow pated effusion in its entirety and deny in toto every line of it. Apologizing for trespassing on your valuable space, but recognizing in this instance that the end justifies the means, we are, Yours very truly, Signed. Samuel F. Sweinhart, Postman, late of Company C, Indiana Volunteer Infantry; Ed Greenleaf, U. S. Commission, late First Lieutenant Vermont Battery; J. W. Skinner, Carriage Maker, late One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth New York Volunteers, Company C.; J. F. Hummel, Stone Contractor, late of Company A, Seventy-Ninth 0. V. I. Confederate Veteran, Vol. IX, No. 7 Nashville, Tenn., July, 1902. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WOULDN'T SING "MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA" Unknown A strange report comes from a public school in Louisville. It is that "Marching through Georgia" is sung in school there. A special to the Atlanta Constitution states that Laura Talbot Gait, aged thirteen, a pupil, refused to sing "Marching through Georgia," as her teacher, Miss Sue Allen instructed. Miss Galt has been withdrawn and complaint made to the superintendent. She not only refused to sing "Marching through Georgia," but she put her fingers in her ears when the school was singing the song, and was reprimanded. Mrs. Laura Talbot Ross, the grandmother of little Miss Gait, is a Daughter of the American Revolution and a Daughter of the Confederacy. She instructed her grandchild to obey her teacher, but to protest against singing that song. The little girl says that Miss Allen, her teacher, refused to listen to her essays in which she gave the Confederates credit for bravery on sea and land. A characteristic little letter from the heroine to the VETERAN: I can find no words to express how extremely honored I feel when I look at my letters I have received from almost every State, and I think of what those dear old Confederates suffered for the cause they loved so dearly, and yet they praise me so highly for such a little act of duty. They do not know how much pleasure they have given me, for I will always keep their letters among my treasures. I had read many other histories before I went to school, the year before this last school year, and knowing the truth of the battle between the Alabama and Kearsarge, I would not say, as my teacher tried to force the class, that it was a breach of honor in Admiral Semmes to escape on the Deer Hound instead of giving his sword to Captain Winslow, when the Kearsarge had fired broadside after broadside into the Confederate cruiser after the white flag was raised. As for putting my fingers in my ears I did that because I would not listen to a song that declares such a tyrant and coward as Sherman and his disgraceful and horrible march through Georgia and the Carolinas to be glorious. I did not think, at the time, my teacher would think it very bad. I felt that forcing the Southern girls who were in the room to sing or listen to such a song was an insult that I could not stand. And the patriotic "Aunt Edith" wrote as follows: It seems strange that Laura's action should have caused such widespread interest. It was the only thing for her to do. We thought she had done only her duty. But after the papers took it to the old Confederate soldiers and to the women, and those who were children when Sherman was in Georgia, and their letters called her "comrade," our little girl was excited beyond words, recalling forty years ago. When resolutions from John Pelham Camp, U. C. V., of Texas, came, there were shouts of delight. It seemed from old friends sure enough, for many a time has she dashed around on her pony, "a member of Pelham's artillery." Laura's thirteen years should make her almost a young lady, but she is such a child! She has lived without a child companion all her life on the old homestead, which has been in the family since it was bought by Laurence Ross in 1783, in a house full of books, with no children far or near. She has made them her living companions. One day her dolls would be characters from "Hamlet," the next from "The Tempest," the next from "She Stoops to Conquer," "The Courtship of Miles Standish." and "Hugh Whyn," but the oftenest of all, "Red Rock." There is a large picture of "Martial Law in Missouri," with the order signed by Brigadier General Ewing. in the house. This gives her some idea of how Northern battles were fought which they consider "glorious." Confederate Veteran, Vol. IX, No. 7 Nashville, Tenn., July, 1902. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD Maj. William A. Obenchain In Maj. William A. Obenchain's address, delivered at the decoration of Confederate graves in Fairview Cemetery, Bowling Green, Ky., June 3, 1902, he said, to the "Daughters of the Confederacy and comrades." We are met here again, as is our custom, to do honor to the memory of our Confederate dead. We are met here on this occasion, not only because it is a sacred duty, but also because it is a labor of love; for deeply enshrined in our hearts is the memory of those who, with heroic devotion, laid down their lives in the cause of the Southern Confederacy. There is a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. The events of recent years show us that we were destined as a people to play an important part in the affairs of this world; and so, in order that we might go forth in our greatest strength it was heaven's decree that we should remain one nation, under one flag, and become more firmly united than ever before. Why, then, you may ask, that long and bloody war? Why so much destruction of life and property? Why so great sacrifice and suffering? The story is long, but it may be briefly told. The thirteen original colonies were separate and distinct, and independent of one another---their only bond being their allegiance to the British Crown. A common cause and a common danger united them in their struggle for independence. The war of the Revolution won, each colony was, in its individual right and in its own name, acknowledged by Great Britain as a free and independent State. The old Confederation was a creature of the thirteen original States, each acting in its sovereign capacity. The Federal Government, formed later, and by a process revolutionary in itself, was also a creature of the thirteen original States, each State acting separately through its own people, and in its sovereign capacity, and not a creature of the people of the United States acting collectively, as some have claimed. In no sense were the States the creatures of the Federal Government. The creator must exist before the creature. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and for more than three decades afterwards, national sentiment was very weak; in fact, it hardly existed at all. State sentiment was everywhere predominant. Alexander Hamilton was the most pronounced nationalist of his time, and yet there was hardly a man from Washington and Hamilton down, who did not regard the new government as an experiment, and believe in the right of a State to secede from the union when it so desired. These are not fancies, but historical facts. The men of that time would have laughed at the idea that the Constitution of 1787 gave birth in 1789 to a national government, such as that which now constitutes an indestructible bond of union for the States. The national idea had yet to be developed. The Constitution is a flexible document; and, says Woodrow Wilson: "It is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the English race whose political habit has been transmitted to us through the sagacious generation by whom the government was erected, that they have never felt themselves bound by the logic of laws, but only by a practical understanding of them based upon slow precedent. For this race the law under which they live is at any particular time what it is then understood to be; and this understanding of it is compounded of the circumstances of the time. Absolute theories of legal consequences they have never cared to follow out to their conclusions. Their laws have always been used as parts of the practical running machinery of their politics, parts to be fitted from time to time, by interpretation, to existing opinion and social conditions." The North and the South, differing in religion and in public policy, though of the same race, and with different climates, developed along different lines. The North became chiefly commercial, the South agricultural. The North, as its commercial spirit grew, inclined more and more to nationalism. The regulation of commerce was one of the powers delegated to Congress. Actuated mostly by its own interests, the North came to believe that one of the main objects of government is to aid private enterprise by bounties, subsidies, and protective tariffs. Naturally, then, it fostered the idea of a strong central government, which it expected to control. And so it adopted a loose-construction view of the Constitution. The South, on the other hand, clung to the idea, as enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, that government is instituted to protect men in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It adhered also to the original theory of our government, as understood by the framers of the Constitution, as understood by the people when the Constitution was adopted, and as understood by a majority of the people of both sections for more than a generation afterwards. The South held to conservative views, and believed, then, in a strict construction of the Constitution. It sought no government aid in private enterprise; it was opposed to class legislation, and all undue restrictions of trade. Above all, the South insisted on limiting the Federal Government to its distinctly delegated powers, for, as it believed, it was only by a strict construction of the Constitution that the rights of the States could be preserved. Such were the fundamental differences between the two sections. Such were both the cause and the effect of the different lines of development. The North grew more rapidly in wealth and population than the South did. Foreign emigrants settled mostly on Northern soil. Largely ignorant of our institutions, and un-imbued with the spirit of government as developed among the early colonies, they were, as a rule, national in sentiment. Slavery was a pretext, and not really the cause of the Civil War. The causes of that war lay deeper than slavery. But slavery was used to intensify sectional feeling, and to prepare the minds of the people of both sections for the clash of arms that, sooner or later, had to come. For whatever of sin there was in the institution of African slavery in this country New England was no less responsible than the Southern States, and old England most of all. But while some of us may be unwilling to admit that slavery, as it existed in the South, was a sin, but few, if any of us, will deny that it was an evil, that it retarded the development of the South, and intensified sectional feeling. We must never forget, however, that, originally, slavery was forced upon the South, until by reason of the large increase in the number of slaves it became a political necessity. It was not so much a question of the abolition of slavery as what to do with the negro if emancipated. Self preservation is the first law of nature, and the majority of the Southern people believed, as far back as Jefferson's time, that life and property would be unsafe if the negroes, semi-savages as they were then, were set free and turned loose in their midst. Nor must one forget that slavery had a legal status, that it existed in all the thirteen original States, and that its protection was guaranteed by the fundamental law of the land. Had we all been wise and unselfish, both North and South, and worked along on harmonious lines for the common good, we might, perhaps, though I doubt it, have accomplished peaceably what it took a long and bloody war to bring about. But human nature is very perverse, and God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. I am inclined to the belief that there is a deeper meaning than is generally supposed in the words that "without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." That war had to come, and it had to be fought out, too, to the bitter end. We were destined to be a great nation, one and inseparable for divine purposes. The two sections were drifting farther and farther apart, and there were vital questions that could be settled, and settled permanently in no other way. This is neither the time nor the place to discuss the question as to who was the aggressor in that war, or as to which side was in the right, from a constitutional point of view. Suffice it to say, the only appeal that the North had was the preservation of the Union; the South fought for the maintenance of her constitutional rights. It was not that the South loved the Union less, but States' rights more. We will admit, however, that vital questions may be settled by might, if not by right, for the good, in the long run, of all concerned. Far be it from me to say anything to-day, especially on an occasion like this, to arouse old animosities or revive sectional bitterness. I have grown broader in my views as I have grown in years. I glory in being an American. I believe that, under the providence of God, all has happened for the best; that we are all the mightier as a nation for the terrible war between the States through which we passed; that we are the better able to take and hold our place among the nations of the world for the world's good. And I am sure that I voice the sentiment of every able-bodied old Confederate now living, when I say of myself that I am as ready and willing to serve under our flag to-day as I was to serve under the Confederate flag two score years ago, and that, too, without expectation of reward, save that which comes from the sense of duty performed. But born and reared on Southern soil, the older I grow and the more I study this question, the prouder I am that I was a Confederate soldier throughout that long and bloody war; that, in a word, I was loyal to my native State and true to my kith and kin. If we were rebels, then was rebellion honored. If we were traitors, then treason meant loyalty to one's State and the defense of one's home. I would not detract one iota from that patriotism and heroism of the Federal soldier, nor underestimate his devotion to his cause. But when we consider the magnitude and duration of the war, the limited resources of South, shut in as she was from the outside world, and the immense difficulties under which she labored; when we recall the privations, hardships, and sufferings of the Confederate soldier---the fact that he was scantily clad, half fed, often ragged and barefoot, staining the snow with bloody footprints on many a weary wintry march; when we remember that he was outnumbered four to one, that the North had not only double the population and unlimited resources, but the whole world to draw from; and that, in spite of all his disadvantages and all this disparity, he won many a hard-fought battle and held out for four long years, the whole world must admit that his devotion to his cause was sublime, and that his heroism was unsurpassed, even if equalled, since history began. Exhausted, he went down finally in. defeat, but unconquered in spirit. Never was there a greater war; never was there a braver and more chivalric people than the Southern people; never was there a more heroic struggle. Although the cause was defeated, as long as men love liberty the principles for which the Confederate soldier fought will never die. While memory lasts, and patriotism and valor are appreciated, the splendor of his deeds will lose nothing of their lustre. And his "fame, on brightest pages, Penned by poets and by sages, Shall go sounding down the ages. And men and women for generations to come will proudly trace their ancestry back to some Confederate soldier. It is meet and right, then, that we should honor the memory of the Confederate soldier; that every year, loving hands should deck with flowers the graves of those who wore the gray in that terrible struggle. There is not a worthier object; there is not a more sacred duty. May each and every one of us here to-day, and generations to come, exclaim then in the spirit of the Jews of old: If I forget thee, 0 Confederate soldier, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! Confederate Veteran, Vol. IX, No. 8 Nashville, Tenn., August, 1902. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SKETCH OF DAVID OWEN DODD Mrs. William Kersh, President David 0. Dodd Chapter, U. D. C., Pine Bluff, Ark. The Youngest known hero and martyr to courage and honor, who died on the scaffold during the "great war of the States." Whoever rescues from oblivion the name of a noble character performs a service to humanity. We commend the memory of that youthful martyr and unknown hero, David Owen Dodd, who was hanged January 8, 1864, by the Federal authorities at Little Rock, Ark., during the "great war" of the States. It has ever been woman's pleasure to honor the brave. In doing so the U. D. C. No. 212, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas Division, decided upon the name of that humble, unknown hero, and youthful martyr to honor and courage for their Chapter---viz., "David 0. Dodd." Selections from an elaborate sketch published several years ago by Mr. M. C. Morris quite revive that of Sam Davis. "David Owen Dodd was a young son of Pine Bluff, Ark., whose parents had refugeed to Texas, and he was sent back to Saline County, Ark.,about fifteen miles southwest of Little Rock, Ark., to settle some business matters. Young Dodd procured a pass from Gen. J. F. Fagan, commanding the Confederate Cavalry in that section, to pass the pickets on Saline River. He jocularly told the boy, whom he had known from childhood, that, as he knew the country, he would expect him to find out all about the enemy and report on his return." With an ambition to comply David went into Little Rock, appearing to be in search of business, and during the time informed himself as fully as practicable, mixing much with the Federals. When ready to go, he applied to Gen. Steele, commanding the Federal army, for a pass to go to the country. The pass was procured, and he left the city on the old military road, going southwest. He passed both the infantry and the cavalry pickets, but the pass was taken up according to rule. Unhappily, he afterwards was met by a foraging party of Federals, who examined him and found, secreted in his boots, papers of importance. He was taken to Little Rock, and Gen. Steele had him placed under heavy guard. He was court martialed, charged with being a spy, and declared guilty. The history compares equally with that of Sam Davis. David was offered his life and freedom if he would give the source of his information, but he with unfeigned courage refused to betray the confidence, and suffered death. On the day appointed for his execution there was anguish among the citizens, for they knew the lad and his family. Gen. Steele in person made a plea for him to divulge the traitor in his camp, but David would not. He could not be influenced to accept the many and corrupt offers---terrible temptations to put before one so young and so full a life. It is stated that ten thousand soldiers under arms were around the scaffold, many of whom refused to witness the scene, turning their backs to the scaffold: others, who saw the execution, have borne witness to the preserved manly courage and sublimity of the action, by which the promise of life was thrust away, because it involved the sacrifice of personal honor. David's letter to his parents and sisters is truly pathetic: "MILITARY PRISON, LITTLE ROCK, January 8,1864. Ten o'clock A.M. "Mv Dear Parents and Sisters: I was arrested as a spy, tried, and sentenced to be hung to-day at three o'clock. The time is fast approaching, but, thank God! I am prepared to die. I expect to meet you all in heaven. I will soon be out of this world of sorrow and trouble. I would like to see you all before I die, but let God's will be done, not ours. I pray God to give you strength to bear your troubles while in this world. I hope God will receive you in heaven, where I can meet you. Mother, I know it will be bard for you to give up your only son, but you must remember it is God's will. Good-by. God will give you strength to bear your trouble. I pray that we meet in heaven. Good-by. God bless you all! Your son and brother, DAVID 0. DODD." Soon after the execution Frank Henry began a subscription to erect a monument in his honor, but he died, and his father took it up, and, being assisted by the patriotic women of Little Rock, procured a modest marble slab, on which is inscribed: "Sacred to the memory of David 0. Dodd. Born in Lavaca County, Tex., November 10, 1846. Died January 8, 1864." The character of this martyred youth deserves greater prominence than this. In a letter to the Arkansas Gazette, inclosing his check for $100, Col. S. W. Fordyce, who was a Federal officer, writes: "It is certainly and ought to he a labor of love to revere the memory of brave and self-sacrificing men the world over." Without detracting any honor from the brave Sam Davis, our Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy thinks that David 0. Dodd was the greater hero because he was the younger, only seventeen years of age, too young to be a soldier, and he was equally a martyr to honor, even without being accustomed and hardened to the terrors of war, or the agonizing scenes of death. All honor and glory to the lasting name of our hero! the youngest known martyr who suffered death on the scaffold during the "great war of the States"---the youthful and unknown, David Owen Dodd. Years and years the grass has blossomed, Faded, died his grave upon; Years and years, yet not forgotten; Memories such as his live on.
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