Prison Life in Andersonville Part 8

The vitality and moral force of Southern chivalry was distinguished even in the remarkable loyalty of the slaves.

If the foregoing briefly stated considerations form a truthful presentation of the case, why, it may be asked, may not the National Government expand the magninimity of President Lincoln and General Grant by engaging with Congress to erect monuments and other memorials to heroes of the army and navy of the Confederacy? The first step towards such procedure has already been taken in the form of proposed legislation at Was.h.i.+ngton.

We would not imply that the most eminent leaders of the Southern forces were personally unworthy of posthumos honor.

On the contrary it is our privilege to bear testimony to the exalted individual worth, the consecrated devotion to country as they understood the duty, and the pre-eminent ability in action that characterized the most noted leaders of the Confederacy.

Nevertheless their relation to national history is determined, not by individual excellencies, but by the fact that they rebelled against the Government they were sworn to defend. To the utmost they did all they could to dismember the Union of which they were an integral part, to dishonor the flag that emblazoned the glory of a common origin and history.

In the interest of perpetuating a far-reaching sentiment of loyalty to national life and well-being we would strenuously deny the moral right of Congress to make appropriations for the erection of memorials that are designed to crown Confederate valor with renown. If by private subscriptions admirers wish to build monuments they undoubtedly will be allowed to do so.

Our Government has wisely extended high courtesies to prominent Southern Generals, and has on many occasions held out the olive branch of peace.

But we must not forget that brotherly kindness and neighborly good-will cannot cancel the fact that the Southern conception of government by state rights, as against National sovereignty, meant the destruction of the Nation as such and was so intended.

Had the war for the Union been a failure this fair continent on which has been nourished the hopes of the world would have been the arena of two general governments separated by no natural dividing lines and probably at last to be succeeded by contending states and communities.

Thus the last condition of free civilization in America would have been more disgraceful than was the situation of the warring princ.i.p.alities of ancient Greece, because we had sinned against a greater light than they possessed.

If National monuments are dedicated to commemorate Southern gallantry will not a subtle influence steadily flow out from these reminders of civil war to the effect that a.s.sault upon the Nation's existence is an offense so trivial as to be expiated by bravery on the field of battle?

Who can tell what crises of peril may in the future break in upon our beloved land? And what if the youth of the North and of the South are, from generation to generation, taught by the influence of public memorials that there is no real distinction between those who fought to save the Nation and those who did all they could "that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall (not) perish from the earth."

We present a quotation from the judgment of the Supreme Court, as given by General N. P. Chipman on page 503 of his recent and informing book on Andersonville:

"The rebellion out of which the war grew was without any legal sanction. In the eye of the law it had the same properties as if it had been the insurrection of a country or smaller munic.i.p.al territory as against the State to which it belonged. The proportion and duration of the struggle did not affect its character. Nor was there a rebel government de facto in such a sense as to give any legal efficiency to its acts.... The Union of the States, for all the purposes of the const.i.tution, is as perfect and indissoluble as the union of the integral parts of the States themselves; and nothing but revolutionary violence can in either case destroy the ties which hold the parties together.

"For the sake of humanity certain belligerant rights were conceded to the insurgents in arms. But the recognition did not extend to the pretended government of the Confederacy.... The Rebellion was simply an armed resistence of the rightful authority of the sovereign. Such was its character, its rise, progress and downfall."

The legal aspects of the case as thus expressed have their great value as indicating facts fundamental to organic National existence and they demonstrate the inherent inconsistency of devoting Federal appropriations to the erection of monuments to the honor of opponents of the Union. This can be but a transient purpose which should and, we believe will be, relinquished.

We close this narrative with the words of a departed soldier who was a devoted friend of General Lee and afterwards a trusted counsellor of General Grant, as recorded in the Memoirs of Gen. John B. Gordon, pp. 464, 465:

"American youth in all sections should be taught to hold in perpetual remembrance all that was great and good on both sides; to comprehend the inherited convictions for which saintly women suffered and patriotic men died; to recognize the unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivalled courage; to appreciate the singular absence of personal animosity and the frequent manifestation between those brave antagonists of a good-fellows.h.i.+p such as had never before been witnessed between hostile armies. It will be a glorious day for our country when all the children within its borders shall learn that the four years of fratricidal war between the North and the South was waged by neither with criminal or unworthy intent, but by both to protect what they conceived to be threatened rights and imperiled liberty; that the issues which divided the sections _were born when the Republic was born_, and were forever buried in an ocean of fraternal blood. We shall then see that, under G.o.d's providence, every sheet of flame from the blazing rifles of the contending armies, every whizzing sh.e.l.l that tore through the forests at s.h.i.+loh and Chancellorsville, every cannon-shot that shook Chickamauga's hills or thundered around the heights of Gettysburg, and all the blood and the tears that were shed are yet to become contributions for the upbuilding of American manhood and for the future defense of American freedom. The Christian Church received its baptism of pentecostal power as it emerged from the shadows of Calvary, and went forth to its world-wide work with greater unity and a diviner purpose. So the Republic, rising from its baptism of blood with a national life more robust, a national union more complete, and a national influence ever widening, shall go forever forward in its benign mission to humanity."

From the oldest to the youngest, let us all unite in the patriotic salutation, "I pledge my allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands. One Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

THE FINISH

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Toward the close of the war great bounties were paid for recruits in northern cities. Many desperate characters enlisted for this money, intending to desert at the first opportunity. The vigilence of Genl. Grant forced them into battle. Many were captured and landed in Andersonville.

Here they conspired to rob and murder fellow prisoners. Capt. Wirtz convened a trial court composed of prisoners who observed all the forms of law in the trial of these desperadoes. Six of them were found guilty of murder and were hung.

[2] Market Square was a piece of made ground on the edge of the swamp in the center of the prison. Here men came together to barter trinkets they had made to while away the time, to exchange parts of rations, and to indulge generally, so far as they could, in the Yankee instinct for trade.

[3] On February 20th, 1912, the writer received a call from an old friend, Rev. M. L. Holt, of Neligh, Nebraska. He gives this confirmatory statement to Mr. Maile: "As Sergeant Major of the Third New Hamps.h.i.+re Veteran Volunteer Infantry I can certify to the military surroundings at the place of your release. Two days before your arrival from Goldsboro, General Terry ordered our Third New Hamps.h.i.+re to make a forced march to a point ten miles distant from Wilmington on the Northeast branch of the Cape Fear river and take from the enemy a pontoon bridge at that point.

"We skirmished with the foe nearly the entire distance and came up to them just as they had cut the near end of the bridge from the bank. With our machine guns we drove them off and moored the bridge back to its place. On the second day after we received the old Andersonville prisoners and had the satisfaction of knowing we had prepared their way by having the bridge in readiness for them to cross the river into our lines. I shall never forget the impression made upon us by the condition of these survivors of Confederate prisons. These events occurred in March, 1861."