journeying to and from the far South:
yet Wilmington is cosmopolitan; There dwells the thrifty Yankee, the
prosperous Jew, the patient and docile Negro, the enterprising, cunning
and scrupulous German; and among her first families are the
Scotch-Irish, descendants of the survivors of Culloden. Wilmington
suckled children who rallied under Scott in Mexico, heard the
thunderings at Monterey, and the immortal Alamo. When the civil strife
of four years was nearing its close, when the enemies to the Union of
States, sullen and vindictive, were retreating before an invading army,
Wilmington, nestling behind Fort Fisher, one of the most formidable
fortresses ever contrived, was shaken by some of the most terrific
bombarding that ever took place on earth.

"Then thronged the citizens with terror dumb
Or Whispering with white lips, 'The foe! they come! they come!'"

Wilmington, the scene of one of the last desperate stands of a
demoralized army, witnessed the "memorizing of Golgotha" as her sons
desperately struggled to resist a conquering foe. In Oak Dale Cemetery
on the Northeastern boundary of the city sleep a few of the principal
actors in that tragedy. There rests noble James; there rests Colonel
Hall--grand old Roman! I am glad he did not live to see the 10th of
November, 1898, lest he should have been tempted to join that mob of
misguided citizens whose deeds of cowardice plunged that city, noted for
its equity, into an abyss of infamy. Southward from Oak Dale Cemetery
awaiting the final reveille, are calmly sleeping not a few of that Grand
Army who fell in the arms of victory at Fort Fisher.

During the slave period, North Carolina could not be classed with South
Carolina, Georgia, and other far Southern States in cruelty and
inhumanity to its slave population; and in Wilmington and vicinity, the
pillage of a victorious army, and the Reconstruction period were borne
with resignation. Former master and freedman vied with each other in
bringing order out of chaos, building up waste places, and recovering
lost fortunes. Up to but a few years ago, the best feeling among the
races prevailed in Wilmington; the Negro and his white brother walked
their beats together on the police force; white and black aldermen,
white mayor and black chief of police, white and black school
committeemen sat together in council; white and black mechanics worked
together on the same buildings, and at the same bench; white and black
teache