FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26  
27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   >>   >|  
BOYS IN GRAY 194 CHAPTER XII. THE BATTLE FLAG 219 SOLDIER LIFE IN THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. CHAPTER I. A VOICE FROM THE RANKS.--INTRODUCTORY. We are familiar with the names and deeds of the "generals," from the commander-in-chief down to the almost innumerable brigadiers, and we are all more or less ignorant of the habits and characteristics of the individuals who composed the rank and file of the "grand armies" of 1861-65. As time rolls on, the historian, condensing matters, mentions "the men" by brigades, divisions, and corps. But here let us look at the individual soldier separated from the huge masses of men composing the armies, and doing his own work and duty. The fame of Lee and Jackson, world-wide, and as the years increase ever brighter, is but condensed and personified admiration of the Confederate soldier, wrung from an unwilling world by his matchless courage, endurance, and devotion. Their fame is an everlasting monument to the mighty deeds of the nameless host who followed them through so much toil and blood to glorious victories. The weak, as a rule, are borne down by the strong; but that does not prove that the strong are also the right. The weak suffer wrong, learn the bitterness of it, and finally, by resisting it, become the defenders of right and justice. When the mighty nations of the earth oppress the feeble, they nerve the arms and fire the hearts of God's instruments for the restoration of justice; and when one section of a country oppresses and insults another, the result is the pervasive malady,--war! which will work out the health of the nation, or leave it a bloody corpse. The principles for which the Confederate soldier fought, and in defense of which he died, are to-day the harmony of this country. So long as they were held in abeyance, the country was in turmoil and on the verge of ruin. It is not fair to demand a reason for actions above reason. The heart is greater than the mind. No man can exactly define the cause for which the Confederate soldier fought. He was above human reason and above human law, secure in his own rectitude of purpose, accountable to God only, having assumed for himself a "nationality," which he was minded to defend with his life and his property, and thereto pledged his sacred honor. In the honesty and simplicity of his heart, the Confederate
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26  
27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Confederate

 

soldier

 
country
 
reason
 

mighty

 

armies

 
justice
 

CHAPTER

 

strong

 
fought

section
 

malady

 

pervasive

 

result

 

oppresses

 

insults

 

hearts

 

resisting

 

defenders

 

finally


simplicity

 
suffer
 
bitterness
 

nations

 

instruments

 
restoration
 

honesty

 

oppress

 

feeble

 
corpse

define
 
pledged
 

thereto

 
greater
 

property

 

accountable

 
assumed
 

purpose

 

rectitude

 

defend


minded

 

secure

 
actions
 

demand

 

nationality

 

bloody

 

principles

 
defense
 

sacred

 

health