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THE GRAY AND THE BLUE
IN PRAYER AND SONG •
By General Clement A. Evans
I earnestly invite the assistance of the surviving
chaplains and soldiers of both armies to furnish
The Golden Age with incidents and other informa
tion through which the people of our country may
learn that the religious life of the men who offered
up themselves in battle was not neglected. The
subject, by its very nature, is exhaustible. Within
a year the story can be told. Soldiers who were
witnesses are passing away. I beg that this call
for assistance may be heeded in the spirit in which
it is given.
Clement A. Evans.
Requiescional.
"While musing in the gloaming like one entranced
in dream,
The Sunset throned in crimson, and robed in golden
gleam;
When memories were making my heart strings softly
Play;
There came to me a Soldier in full Confederate
gray.
His form was truly martial, his manner Southern
bred;
And white as snow when drifting, his hair dropt
o’er his head;
He set my whole soul thrilling as thus he spoke to
me—■
“I soldiered with your father; we fought with
Robert Lee.”
“0 tell me something,” I cried, and clasped his
hand,
‘ ‘ 0 tell me of the glory of dear old Dixie Land ! ’ ’ —
“I’ll tell,” he said, “the story of Appomatox
field,
When Southern hope, despairing, drooped on its
bloodied shield.
“From Petersburg and Richmond, —both burning,
both in woe,
Six days we fought retreating, outnumbered by the
foe,
Till Appomatox reaching; worn, wasted by the
fray,
We slept that night determined to fight again next
day.
“And when the morn was breaking; the sky a gray
ish flake, —
Lee’s men in arms were waking, the desperate
charge to make,
Each man a Southern hero with glory in his eye,
None dreaming of surrender, and each resolved to
die.
“Forward! The lines are moving; the battle has
begun,
The bugles softly sounding; now fires the signal
gun;
0, see the star-cross banner! It waves o’er that
brave band!
Look! Look! For they are charging! Hurrah for
Dixie Land!
“Lour father, child, was with us; we drove dear
Dixie’s foe,
Nor knew we had surrendered, till orders told us
so.
Sad, sad indeed, the message that bade us cease to
fight,—■
But, after all, I reckon the Lord and Lee were
right. ’ ’
The soldier moved off slowly with tear mist in his
eyes,
I saw him upward gazing toward the Sunset skies,
And then I mused: “They’re going! soon, soon,
we’ll no more see
The * en of glorious mem’ry who fought with
Robert Lee!”
The Golden Age for April 26, 1906.
Georgia Relief Association in 1864
1864 was the darkest year of the war in Georgia,
a large portion of the State was overrun by the
vast armies of the enemy. Our sick and wounded
soldiers increased in numbers daily, our resources
grew less every day. Rev. C. R. Jewett at Griffin
was the leader of the Relief brigade. We collect
ed what supplies we could and carried them to the
front. The fighting was daily and deadly all the
way from Dalton.
Our last work "was done at Bates, distributing
hospital between East Point and Atlanta. The city
was then almost completely beleaguered. The heart
of the city was deserted as a grave yard. I was
at the carshed a little while one evening not a soul
astir. The enemy was shelling then. The picket
fighting was heavy and many of the wounded were
brought in every day.
On the 28th of July, a bloody battle was fought;
the deadly firing of the musketry was about 3 p.
m., and lasted nearly an hour. All who know of
a battle with small arms, when close together, know
what awful results follow such a fierce conflict. As
soon as the battle ceased we were with the men.
Os a mess of seven every one was bleeding from
wounds.
Lieutenant-General A. P. Stewart, corps com
mander, was struck in the forehead by a ball, not
serious, but disabled. Major-General Lowring was
pierced in the chest with a ball. I bound up Gen
eral Stewart’s head and gave them coffee next
morning. We were on the battle field till late in
the night, and close to the enemy’s fire lights. The
cries of the poor, helpless ones as they begged the
artillery men to not drive their horses and wheels
over them.
One regiment was so cut to pieces a second lieu
tenant in a company was lieutenant-colonel, all the
officers between them were killed. Two days after
we left with the wounded; got to Jonesboro, heard
the road had been cut at Lovejoy’s. Soon after
Atlanta fell and Sherman’s army marched through
the State to the sea.
—Dr. Cotter, in Wesleyan Christian Advocate.
The Patriotic South.
The South is well satisfied with the sound pa
triotism of its old ideas, with the purity of its sen
timent, with the general course of its record, and
with its heroes living and dead. It is also as well
satisfied with the Union, the Constitution, the flag,
the army and navy, and with the present power and
glory of our country. The attempt to reconcile the
South is a waste of philanthropy. It reconciled it
self nearly forty years ago with very little help, and
now hails all reconciliation, let it come as it will.
The Southern people of these United States are
quickly and warmly responsive to generous consid
eration. They appreciate the national demonstra
tion of regard for General Wheeler. Their hearts
responded warmly when their old captured flags
were restored to the States. They are deeply affect
ed by the purpose of the government to care for
the Confederate soldiers’ graves. They appreciate
the giving of facilities for completing the rosters
of Confederate armies. They welcome heartily the
present investigation of the needs of their rivers
and harbors; they have manifested with enthusias
tic Southern cordiality their delight at the visits
of the Presidents of their country; they expect in
creasing sympathy of their countrymen for them
in dealing with their peculiar local problems, and
they participate in every demonstration that can
secure by strong fraternal pressure that solidarity
of the people of the United States which will leave
no line or plane of cleavage anywhere. The South
recognizes its share of responsibility for the good
government of the Union. It was never so much in
earnest in effort as now to have “a perfect Union,
to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, pro-
vide for the common defense, promote the general
welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for our
selves and our posterity.” The 'South would have
the entire land to be all South from Canada to the
Gulf of Mexico, all North from the Gulf to the
Lakes, and all the States and territories to be one
rich realm of liberty, fraternity and equal prosper
ity from ocean to ocean.. C. A. E.
Let Us Be Free From the
Rum Curse.
One fond mother’s son is worth more than all
the gold coined in all the saloons in the world.
Yet men insist that for blood money these infernal
liquor mills shall grind up our precious children,
and break hearts, and wreck our homes.
Now, the country cannot be saved by the saloon
or dispensaries, any more than can a home or an
individual. And he who would for gold or political
preferment, set up, or give his influence toward,
the establishment of a dram shop, is a menace to
public good, and a wrecker of human happiness.
Now, the Anti-Saloon League stands for home,
and so for the State. There is nothing on earth
that can bring such shame and sorrow and degrada
tion to a people, as the legalized liquor traffic.
Almost every murder springs from the saloon.
Here, indeed, it gets its hot blood and its poison.
The gambler, the highway robber, the house-breaker,
the bomb-thrower and all the world’s vile criminals
are all better equipped for their infernal business
on account of the accursed dram shop.
We cannot dodge the issue; we cannot compro
mise; we cannot avoid the fight. The battle is on,
the war has begun, and, gentlemen, we must take
sides. What will the ministry do? Can we con
fidently rely upon you men of God? I pray you
give us your cordial grasp of the hand, put your
great hearts down by the side of ours, and let us
feel the warm, sympathetic throb of a brother’s
love.
Let God’s foes oppose. His friends cannot afford
to stand in the way of the kingdom. Let the min
isters of Christ give out no uncertain sounds. They
ought to cry aloud and spare not. They ought to
unsheathe the sword and strike for God, and home
and native land.
The women of Georgia are on their knees cry
ing for help. Will we disappoint them? Will we
vote for the hearthstone or the rum throne, the boy
or the bar? Let us answer the calls of these
broken, pleading, helpless women.
Let us take the boys and girls on our hearts and
march to the polls and vote “NO.” There is much
fine gubernatorial timber in Georgia, and doubtless
the six candidates aspiring to the high and honora
ble place of governor, are all clean and capable,
but before high Heaven, to-day there is no plank
in the gentlemen’s platforms so strong, so abso
lutely needed in the moral uplift of this great com
monwealth of ours as the plank which declares un
compromising, unqualified, and eternal warfare to
the liquor curse in Georgia.
Is there not such a man before the people? Is
he not in the State? Then for the sake of a clean,
economical government—for civic righteousness, and
peace, let us elect that man, and cover the State
with glory.
How about a dry legislature? The churches can
solve that problem. And until Christian men rise
up and take a hand in the political affairs of this re
public, we may expect to witness bloody crimes, see
the tears and rags of orphans, hear the sobs and
wails of women, and live under an outraged and
debauched government.
We want to press the fight in every county. We
want to organize from the mountains to the sea
board. It is our hope and dream now to send “dry”
men to the legislature, but to enter into this happy
realization the churches of Georgia must authorize
us, make it possible for us to go before the peo
ple.
One of our greatest needs just now is men and
money. Give us these and with the smiles of our
loving Heavenly Father, we will wrest this gov
ernment from the hands of the liquor dealer.
J, C. Solomon,