July Sixteenth
I shall yet live to see it an English nation.
Sir Walter Raleigh
Raleigh’s first colony arrives at Roanoke Island, 1584
July Seventeenth
KIN
A visitor in the Old Chapel Graveyard, in Clarke County, Virginia, asked the aged negro sexton if he knew the whereabouts of a certain grave, adding that the deceased was her relative.
“Ole Mis’ Anne? Why ob cose I knows whar my ole mistis is! She your gran’ma! Jus’ to think now, if you hadn’t spoke we never would have knowed we was related!”
July Eighteenth
Uncle Remus was quite a fogy in his idea of negro education. One day a number of negro children, on their way home from school, were impudent to the old man, and he was giving them an untempered piece of his mind, when a gentleman apologized for them by saying: “Oh well, they are school children. You know how they are.”
“Dat’s what make I say what I duz,” said Uncle Remus. “Dey better be at home pickin’ up chips. What a nigger gwineter learn outen books? I kin take a bar’l stave and fling mo’ sense inter a nigger in one minnit dan all de school houses betwixt dis en de New Nited States en Midgigin. Don’t talk, honey! wid one bar’l stave I kin fairly lif de vail er ignunce.”
(Quoted by)Henry Stiles Bradley
July Nineteenth
What was my offense? My husband was absent—an exile. He had never been a politician or in any way engaged in the struggle now going on, his age preventing. The house was built by my father, a Revolutionary soldier, who served the whole seven years for your independence.... Was it for this that you turned me, my young daughter and little son out upon the world without a shelter? Or was it because my husband was the grandson of the Revolutionary patriot and “rebel,” Richard Henry Lee, and the near kinsman of the noblest of Christian warriors, the greatest of generals, Robert E. Lee?...Yourname will stand on history’s page as the Hunter of weak women and innocent children; the Hunter to destroy defenseless villages and refined and beautiful homes—to torture afresh the agonized hearts of widows; the Hunter of Africa’s poor sons and daughters, to lure them on to ruin and death of soul and body; the Hunter with the relentless heart of a wild beast, the face of a fiend and the form of a man.
Henrietta B. Lee
[Extract from letter to General Hunter, often referred to as the best example of excoriating rebuke in American literature. Mrs. Lee’s home was burned July 19, 1864]
July Twentieth
The muffled drum’s sad roll has beatThe soldier’s last tattoo;No more on life’s parade shall meetThe brave and fallen few.On Fame’s eternal camping-groundTheir silent tents are spread,And Glory guards, with solemn round,The bivouac of the dead.Theodore O’Hara
[It is remarkable that the memorial inscriptions of Federal cemeteries are taken from stanzas written by a “rebel” soldier-poet. Grand Army Posts have also made use of “anonymous” lines by Major Wm. M. Pegram, C. S. A., (quoted May 26th), when decorating Confederate graves. Both uses are unconscious but eloquent tributes to the genius of Southern expression.—Editor]
[It is remarkable that the memorial inscriptions of Federal cemeteries are taken from stanzas written by a “rebel” soldier-poet. Grand Army Posts have also made use of “anonymous” lines by Major Wm. M. Pegram, C. S. A., (quoted May 26th), when decorating Confederate graves. Both uses are unconscious but eloquent tributes to the genius of Southern expression.—Editor]
Burial in Frankfort of Kentuckians killed in the Mexican War, 1847
July Twenty-First
We thought they slept!—the sons who keptThe names of noble sires,And slumbered while the darkness creptAround their vigil fires!But, aye, the “Golden Horseshoe” knightsTheir Old Dominion keep,Whose foes have found enchanted ground,But not a knight asleep.Francis O. Ticknor
First Battle of Manassas, 1861
July Twenty-Second
In the darksome depths of the fathomless mineMy tireless arm doth play,Where the rocks never saw the sun’s decline,Or the dawn of the glorious day.·······I blow the bellows, I forge the steel,In all the shops of trade;I hammer the ore and turn the wheelWhere my arms of strength are made;I manage the furnace, the mill, the mint,I carry, I spin, I weave,And all my doings I put in printOn every Saturday eve.George W. Cutter(The Song of Steam)
July Twenty-Third
... The rush, the tumult, and the fearOf this our modern ageHave only widened out the poet’s sphere,Have given him a broader stageOn which to act his part.The spiritual world of godlike aspirations,The kingdom of the sympathetic heart,The fair domain of high imaginations,Lie open to the poet as of old.Wrong still is wrong, and right is right,·······And to declare that poetry must go,Is to do God a wrong.William P. Trent(The Age and the Poet)
July Twenty-Fourth
Ante-bellum Master: “Julius, you rascal, if this happens again we’ll have to part.”
“La, Marse Phil, whar you gwine?”
July Twenty-Fifth
The nights are full of love;The stars and moon take up the golden taleOf the sunk sun, and passionate and pale,Mixing their fires above,Grow eloquent thereof.Madison Cawein
July Twenty-Sixth
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAMMY PHYLLIS
“Hush, Mary Van,” commanded Willis; “you can’t crow, you’ve got to cackle.”
“I haven’t neether; I can crow just as good as you. Can’t I, Mammy Phyllis?”
“Well,” solemnly answered Phyllis, “it soun’ mo’ ladylike ter hear er hen cackle dan ter crow, but dem wimmen fokes whut wants ter heah dersefs crow is got de right ter do it,” shaking her head in resignation but disapproval, “but I allus notice dat de roosters keeps mo’ comp’ny wid hens whut cackles dan dem whut crows. G’long now an’ cackle like er nice lit’le hen.”
Sarah Johnson Cocke
July Twenty-Seventh
’Tis night! calm, lovely, silent, cloudless night!Unnumbered stars on Heaven’s blue ocean-stream,Ships of Eternity! shed silver light,Pure as an infant’s or an angel’s dream;And still exhaustless, glorious, ever-bright,Such as Creation’s dawn beheld them beam,In changeless orbits hold their ceaseless raceFor endless ages over boundless space!Richard Henry Wilde
July Twenty-Eighth
When he first set down he ’peared to keer mighty little ’bout playin’, and wished he hadn’t come. He tweedle-leedled a little on the trible, and twoodle-oodle-oodled some on the base—just foolin’ and boxin’ the thing’s jaws for bein’ in his way. And I says to a man settin’ next to me, s’I “what sort of fool play’n is that?... He thinks he’s a doing of it; but he ain’t got no idee, no plan of nuthin’. If he’d play me up a tune of some kind or other, I’d——”
But my neighbor says, “Heish!” very impatient....
George W. Bagby(How Rubenstein Played)
July Twenty-Ninth
... He fetcht up his right wing, he fetcht up his left wing, he fetcht up his centre, he fetcht up his reserves. He fired by file, he fired by platoons, by company, by regiments and by brigades. He opened his cannon, siege guns down thar, Napoleons here, twelve-pounders yonder, big guns, little guns, middle-size guns, round shot, shell, shrapnel, grape, canister, mortars, mines and magazines, every livin’ battery and bomb a’goin’ at the same time. The house trembled, the lights danced, the walls shuk, the floor came up, the ceilin’ come down, the sky spilt, the ground rockt—heavens and earth, creation, sweet potatoes, Moses, nine-pences, glory, ten-penny nails, my Mary Ann, hallelujah, Samson in a ’simmon tree, Jeroosal’m, Tump Tompson in a tumbler-cart, roodle—oodle—oodle—oodle—ruddle—uddle—uddle—uddle—raddle—addle—addle—addle—addle—riddle—iddle—iddle—iddle—reetle—eetle—eetle—eetle—eetle—p-r-r-r-r-r-land! per lang! per lang! p-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-lang! Bang!... When I come to....
George W. Bagby(How Rubenstein Played)
July Thirtieth
Let me also recall the fact that on July 30, 1619, eighteen months before the Pilgrims set foot on American soil, the vine of liberty had so deeply taken root in the colony of Virginia that there was assembled in the church at Jamestown a free representative body (the first on American soil)—the House of Burgesses—to deliberate for the welfare of the people.
Randolph H. McKim
First Legislative Assembly in America meets at Jamestown, 1619
Battle of the Crater, near Petersburg, 1864
July Thirty-First
It was probably the most remarkable evidence on record of the resourcefulness of the Anglo-Saxon race, and its ability and determination to dominate. Driven to desperation by conditions that threatened to destroy their civilization, the citizens of the South, through this organization, turned upon their enemies, overwhelmed them, and became again masters of their own soil ... and its proper use must be commended by all good men everywhere, for by it was preserved the purest Anglo-Saxon civilization of this nation.
Carey A. Folk(The Ku Klux Klan)
SUMMER
A trembling haze hangs over all the fields—The panting cattle in the river standSeeking the coolness which its wave scarce yields.It seems a Sabbath thro’ the drowsy land:So hush’d is all beneath the Summer’s spell,I pause and listen for some faint church bell.The leaves are motionless—the song-bird’s mute—The very air seems somnolent and sick:The spreading branches with o’er-ripened fruitShow in the sunshine all their clusters thick,While now and then a mellow apple fallsWith a dull sound within the orchard’s walls.The sky has but one solitary cloud,Like a dark island in a sea of light;The parching furrows ’twixt the corn-rows plough’dSeem fairly dancing in my dazzled sight,While over yonder road a dusty hazeGrows reddish purple in the sultry blaze.James Barron Hope
August First
The Southampton Insurrection, which occurred in August, 1831, was one of those untoward incidents which so often marked the history of slavery. Under the leadership of one Nat Turner, a negro preacher of some education, who felt that he had been called of God to deliver his race from bondage, the negroes attacked the whites at night, and before the assault could be suppressed, fifty-seven whites, principally women and children, had been killed. This deplorable event assumed an even more portentous aspect when it was realized that the leader was a slave to whom the privilege of education had been accorded, and that one of his lieutenants was a free negro. In addition, there existed a wide-spread belief among the whites that influences and instigations from without the State were responsible for the insurrection.
Beverly B. Munford
August Second
But in addition to the Southampton Massacre, and the failure of the Legislature to enact any effective legislation, the contemporary rise of the Abolitionists in the North came as an even more powerful factor to embarrass the efforts of the Virginia emancipators. Unlike the anti-slavery men of former years, this new school not only attacked the institution of slavery, but the morality of the slaveholders and their sympathizers. In their fierce arraignment, not only were the humane and considerate linked in infamy with the cruel and intolerant, but the whole population of the slave-holding States, their civilization and their morals were the object of unrelenting and incessant assaults.
Beverly B. Munford
August Third
Resolved, “That secession from the United States Government is the duty of every Abolitionist, since no one can take office or deposit his vote under the Constitution without violating his anti-slavery principles, and rendering himself an abettor of the slave-holder in his sin.”
From Resolutions of the American Anti-Slavery Society
From Resolutions of the American Anti-Slavery Society
August Forth
His last campaign alone, even ending as it did in defeat, would have sufficed to fix him forever as a star of the first magnitude in the constellation of great captains. Though he succumbed at last to the “policy of attrition,” pursued by his patient and able antagonist, it was not until Grant had lost in the campaign over 124,000 men, better armed and equipped—two men for every one that Lee had had in his army from the beginning of the campaign.
Thomas Nelson Page
Lee elected President of Washington College, 1865
August Fifth
By the recognized universal public law of all the earth, war dissolves all political compacts. Our forefathers gave as one of their grounds for asserting their independence that the King of Great Britain had “abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war upon us.” The people and the Government of the Northern States of the late Union have acted in the same manner toward Missouri, and have dissolved, by war, the connection heretofore existing between her and them.
Gov. C. F. Jackson
Governor Jackson declares Missouri out of the Union, 1861
August Sixth
Very soon after, the Essex was seen approaching under full steam. Stevens, as humane as he was true and brave, finding that he could not bring a single gun to bear upon the coming foe, sent all his people over the bows ashore, remaining alone to set fire to his vessel; this he did so effectually that he had to jump from the stern into the river and save himself by swimming; and with colors flying, the gallantArkansas, whose decks had never been pressed by the foot of an enemy, was blown into the air.
Captain Isaac N. Brown
The “Arkansas” destroyed, 1862
Judah P. Benjamin born, 1811
August Seventh
Oh, de cabin at de quarter in de old plantation days,Wid de garden patch behin’ it an’ de gode-vine by de do’,An’ de do’-yard sot wid roses, whar de chillun runs and plays,An’ de streak o’ sunshine, yaller lak, er-slantin’ on de flo’!But ole Mars’ wuz killed at Shiloh, an’ young Mars’ at Wilderness;Ole Mis’ is in de graveyard, wid young Mis’ by her side,An’ all er we-all’s fambly is scattered eas’ an’ wes’,An’ de gode-vine by de cabin do’ an’ de roses all has died!Mary Evelyn Moore Davis
August Eighth
Here Carolina comes, her brave cheeks warmAnd wet with tears, to take in charge this dust,And brings her daughters to receive in formVirginia’s sacred trust.James Barron Hope
Monument erected to Anne Carter Lee, Warren County, N. C., said to be the first monument erected by Southern women, 1866
August Ninth
“All quiet along the Potomac,” they say,“Except now and then a stray picketIs shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro,By a rifleman hid in the thicket.’Tis nothing—a private or two, now and then,Will not count in the news of the battle;Not an officer lost—only one of the men,Moaning out, all alone, the death-rattle.”From “All Quiet Along the Potomac To-night”
[This poem has been claimed by a Mississippian. It has also been claimed on behalf of a New York writer; but it now seems probable that the verses were originally written in camp by Thaddeus Oliver, of Georgia, in August, 1861.—Editor]
Francis Scott Key born, 1780
August Tenth
To defend your birthright and mine, which is more precious than domestic ease, or property, or life, I exchange, with proud satisfaction, a term of six years in the Senate of the United States for the musket of a soldier.
John C. Breckinridge
General Lyon killed and his army defeated by General Ben. McCulloch at Wilson Creek, Mo., 1861
August Eleventh
Against the night, a champion bright,The glow-worm, lifts a spear of light;And, undismayed, the slenderest shadeAgainst the noonday bares a blade.John B. Tabb(Heroes)
August Twelfth
I will say that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor inter-marry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And, inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior; and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
Abraham Lincoln
The Mississippi Constitutional Convention meets in Jackson, 1890, principally for the purpose of restricting suffrage
August Thirteenth
Virginia, mother of States and statesmen, as she used to be called, has contributed many men of worth to the multitude that America can number. All her sons have loved her well, while many have reflected great honor on her. But of them all, none has known how to draw her portrait like that one who years ago, under the mild voice and quiet exterior of State Librarian and occasional contributor to the Periodical Press, hid the soul of a man of letters and an artist.
Thomas Nelson Page
George W. Bagby born, 1828
August Fourteenth
Look, out of line one tall corn-captain standsAdvanced beyond the foremost of his bands,And waves his blades upon the very edgeAnd hottest thicket of the battling hedge.Thou lustrous stalk, that ne’er may walk nor talk,Still shalt thou type the poet-soul sublimeThat leads the vanward of his timid timeAnd sings up cowards with commanding rhyme.Sidney Lanier(Corn)
August Fifteenth
In the hush of the valley of silenceI dream all the songs that I sing;And the music floats down the dim ValleyTill each finds a word for a wing,That to hearts, like the Dove of the Deluge,A message of Peace they may bring.Abram J. Ryan
Abram J. Ryan born, 1839
August Sixteenth
Freighted with fruits, aflush with flowers,—Oblations to offended powers,—What fairy-like flotillas gleamAt night on Brahma’s sacred stream.······Around each consecrated barkThat sailed into the outer darkWhat lambent light those lanterns gave!What opalescent mazes playedReduplicated on the wave,While, to and fro, like censers swayed,They made it luminous to glassTheir fleeting splendors ere they pass!Theophilus Hunter Hill(A Ganges Dream)
Battle of Camden, S. C., 1780
August Seventeenth
My judgments were never appealed from, and if they had been, they would have stuck like wax, as I gave my decisions on the principles of common justice and honesty between man and man, and relied not on law learning; for I have never read a page in a law book in my life.
David Crockett
David Crockett born, 1786
August Eighteenth
Like a mist of the sea at morn it comes,Gliding among the fisher-homes—The vision of a woman fair;And every eye beholds her thereAbove the topmost dune,With fluttering robe and streaming hair,Seaward gazing in dumb despair,Like one who begs of the waves a boon.Benjamin Sledd(The Wraith of Roanoke)
Virginia Dare, the first child born in America of English parentage, 1587
August Nineteenth
... Hast thou perchance repented, Saracen Sun?Wilt warm the world with peace and love-desire?Or wilt thou, ere this very day be done,Blaze Saladin still, with unforgiving fire?Sidney Lanier(A Sunrise Song)
August Twentieth
“Well,” says Uncle Remus, “de ’oman make ’umble ’pology ter de boy, but howsomever he can’t keep from rubbin’ hisse’f in de naberhood er de coat tails, whar she spank ’im. I bin livin’ ’round here a mighty long time, but I ain’t never see no polergy what wuz poultice er plaster nuff to swage er swellin’ or kore a bruise. Now you jes keep dat in min’ en git sorry fo’ you hurt anybody.”
Joel Chandler Harris
August Twenty-First
The radicals and negroes had, in the summer of 1867, refused to “co-operate” with the representative white citizens in restoring political and social order. The election of delegates to the constitutional convention was held in October, 1867. About 94,000 negroes voted. The radical majority included five foreign born, twenty-five negroes, twenty-eight Northerners, and fourteen Virginians. Never before in the history of the State had negroes sat in a law-making body. The former political leaders were absent. The State had been revolutionized.
John Preston McConnell(Reconstruction in Virginia)
August Twenty-Second
The moon has climbed her starry dome,That taper gleams no more:Delicious visions wait me home,Delicious dreams of yore.Old waves of thought voluptuous swell,And rainbows spread amid the spellArcades of love and light.Oh! what were slumber’s drowsy kiss,To golden visions such as this,Through all the wakeful night?Joseph Salyards(Idothea; Idyll III)
August Twenty-Third
EVOLUTION
Out of the dark a shadow,Then, a spark;Out of the cloud a silence,Then, a lark;Out of the heart a rapture,Then, a pain;Out of the dead, cold ashes,Life again.John B. Tabb
August Twenty-Fourth
I have led the young men of the South in battle; I have seen many of them fall under my standard. I shall devote my life now to training young men to do their duty in life.
Robert E. Lee
General Lee accepts the Presidency of Washington College, 1865
August Twenty-Fifth
BALM
After the sun, the shade,Beatitude of shadow,Dim aisles for memory made,—And Thought;After the sun, the shade.After the heat, the dew,The tender touch of twilight;The unfolding of the fewCalm Stars;After the heat, the dew.Virginia Woodward Cloud
August Twenty-Sixth
I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies—from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary, and beat him when found, whose policy has been attack and not defense. I presume that I have been called here to pursue the same system.... It is my purpose to do so, and that speedily.... Meanwhile, I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases, which I am sorry to find much in vogue amongst you. I hear constantly of taking strong positions and holding them—of lines of retreat and of bases of supplies. Let us discard such ideas.... Let us study the probable line of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of themselves.
Gen. John Pope, U. S. A.(Before Campaign in Virginia)
August Twenty-Seventh
Although a youth of only twenty-six years, he achieved, by his consummate tact and extraordinary abilities, what the powerful influence of Franklin failed to effect.
Elkanah Watson(New York)
I knew him well, and he had not a fault that I could discover, unless it were an intrepidity bordering on rashness.
George Washington
John Laurens dies, 1782
August Twenty-Eighth
STONEWALL JACKSON’S MEN HELP THEMSELVES TO POPE’S SUPPLIES, 1862
Weak and haggard from their diet of green corn and apples, one can well imagine with what surprise their eyes opened upon the contents of the sutler’s stores, containing an amount and variety of property such as they had never conceived. Then came a storming charge of men rushing in a tumultuous mob over each other’s heads, under each other’s feet, anywhere, everywhere to satisfy a craving stronger than a yearning for fame. There were no laggards in that charge.... Men ragged and famished clutched tenaciously at whatever came in their way, and whether of clothing or food, of luxury or necessity. A long yellow-haired, bare-footed son of the South claimed as prizes a tooth-brush, a box of candles, a barrel of coffee. From piles of new clothing the Southerners arrayed themselves in the blue uniforms of the Federals. The naked were clad, the barefooted were shod, and the sick provided with luxuries to which they had long been strangers.
George H. Gordon, U. S. A.
August Twenty-Ninth
Doctor McGuire, fresh from the ghastly spectacle of the silent battle-field said: “General, this day has been won by nothing but stark and stern fighting.”
“No,” replied Jackson very quietly, “it has been won by nothing but the blessing and protection of Providence.”
Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.
August Thirtieth
In the rapidity with which the opportunity was seized, in the combination of the three arms, and in the vigor of the blow, Manassas is in no way inferior to Austerlitz or Salamanca. That the result was less decisive was due to the greater difficulties of the battle-field, to the stubborn resistance of the enemy, to the obstacles in the way of rapid and connected movement, and to the inexperience of the troops.
Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.
Second Battle of Manassas, 1862
August Thirty-First
My deep wound burns, my pale lips quake in death,I feel my fainting heart resign its strife,And reaching now the limit of my life.Lord, to thy will I yield my parting breath,Yet many a dream hath charmed my youthful eye;And must life’s visions all depart?Oh, surely no! for all that fired my heartTo rapture here shall live with me on high;And that fair form that won my earliest vow,That my young spirit prized all else above,And now adored as Freedom, now as Love,Stands in seraphic guise before me now;And as my failing senses fade awayIt beckons me on high, to realms of endless day.
[Sonnet composed by John Laurens as he lay dying of wounds and fever incurred in a campaign against the British in South Carolina.—Editor]
AUTUMN SONG
My Life is but a leaf upon the tree—A growth upon the stem that feedeth all.A touch of frost—and suddenly I fall,To follow where my sister-blossoms be.The selfsame sun, the shadow, and the rainThat brought the budding verdure to the bough,Shall strip the fading foliage as now,And leave the limb in nakedness again.My life is but a leaf upon the tree;The winds of birth and death upon it blow;But whence it came and whither it shall go,Is mystery of mysteries to me.John B. Tabb
September First
Around me blight, where all before was bloom!And so much lost! alas! and nothing won;Save this—that I can lean on wreck and tomb,And weep—and weeping pray—Thy will be done.Abram J. Ryan(The Prayer of the South)
General Hood evacuates Atlanta, 1864
September Second
Sixty thousand of us witnessed the destruction of Atlanta, while our post band and that of the Thirty-third Massachusetts played martial airs and operatic selections.
Capt. Daniel Oakey, U. S. A.
Sherman enters Atlanta, 1864
September Third
On this point, however, all parties in the South were agreed, and the vast majority of the people of the North—before the war. The Abolitionist proper was considered not so much a friend of the negro as the enemy of society. As the war went on, and the Abolitionist saw the “glory of the Lord” revealed in a way he had never hoped for, he saw at the same time, or rather ought to have seen, that the order he had lived to destroy could not have been a system of hellish wrong and fiendish cruelty; else the prophetic vision of the liberators would have been fulfilled, and the horrors of San Domingo would have polluted this fair land. For the negro race does not deserve undivided praise for its conduct during the war. Let some small part of the credit be given to the masters, not all to the finer qualities of their “brothers in black.” The school in which the training was given is closed, and who wishes to open it? Its methods were old-fashioned and were sadly behind the times, but the old schoolmasters turned out scholars who, in certain branches of moral philosophy, were not inferior to the graduates of the new university.
Basil L. Gildersleeve(On Slavery)
September Fourth
TOAST OF MORGAN’S MEN
Unclaimed by the land that bore us,Lost in the land we find,The brave have gone before us,Cowards are left behind!Then stand to your glasses, steady,Here’s health to those we prize,Here’s a toast to the dead already,And here’s to the next who dies.
General John H. Morgan killed, 1864
September Fifth
If slavery were an unutterably evil institution, with no alleviating features, how are we to account for the fact that when the Confederate soldiers were at the front fighting, as they thought, for their independence, the negroes on the plantations took care of the women and children and old people, and nothing like an act of violence was ever known among them?... Is it not perfectly evident that there was a great rebellion, but that the rebels were the Northerners and that those who defended the Constitution as it was were the Southerners; but they defended State rights and slavery, which were distinctly intrenched within the Constitution?
Charles E. Stowe(A Northern view in the light of fifty years of history)
September Sixth
In regard to Barbara Frietchie a word may be said: An old woman by that now immortal name did live in Frederick in those days, but she was 84 years of age and bed-ridden. She never saw General Jackson, and he never saw her. I was with him every minute of the time he was in Frederick, and nothing like the scene so graphically described by the poet ever happened.
Henry Kyd Douglas
Jackson enters Frederick, Md., 1862
September Seventh
OF JAMES RUMSEY, INVENTOR OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT
I have seen the model of Mr. Rumsey’s boat, constructed to work against the stream, examined the powers upon which it acts, been the eye witness to an actual experiment in running water of some rapidity, and give it as my opinion (although I had little faith before) that he has discovered the art of working boats by mechanism and small manual assistance against rapid currents; that the discovery is of vast importance; may be of the greatest usefulness in our inland navigation, and if it succeeds (of which I have no doubt) that the value of it is greatly enhanced by the simplicity of the works; which, when seen and explained, may be executed by the most common mechanic.
Given under my hand at the Town of Bath, County of Berkeley, in the State of Virginia, this 7th day of September, 1784.
George Washington
Sidney Lanier dies, 1881
September Eighth
Ere Time’s horizon-line was set,Somewhere in space our spirits met,Then o’er the starry parapetCame wandering here.And now, that thou art gone againBeyond the verge, I haste amain(Lost echo of a loftier strain)To greet thee there.John B. Tabb(Ave: Sidney Lanier)
Battle of Eutaw Springs, S. C., 1781
September Ninth
Their conduct indeed was exemplary. They had been warned that pillage and depredations would be severely dealt with, and all requisitions, even fence-rails, were paid for on the spot.
Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.
Lee and Jackson in occupation of Frederick, Md., 1862
September Tenth
My life is like the autumn leafThat trembles in the moon’s pale ray;Its hold is frail, its date is brief,Restless, and soon to pass away!Yet ere that leaf shall fall and fade,The parent tree will mourn its shade,The winds bewail the leafless tree;But none shall breathe a sigh for me!Richard Henry Wilde
Richard Henry Wilde dies, 1847
Joseph Wheeler born, 1836
September Eleventh
Long and close association with the white race had its civilizing effect upon the negroes, and it was not long before the two races became warmly attached, both alike manifesting a keen interest in the other’s welfare. Thus as economic interests had fixed the system in the laws of the people, the domestication of the race fixed it in their hearts. The abolitionist was right in his position on the ethics of slavery, but more than benighted in his conception of its condition in the South.
Dunbar Rowland
September Twelfth
In conclusion, the Battle of North Point saved Baltimore from a pre-determined fate; it encouraged the rest of the country; it, with Plattsburg, caused the English Ministry to suggest that the Duke of Wellington should take command in America, and it influenced the terms of the treaty of Ghent in favor of the United States.
Frederick M. Colston
Battle of North Point, Md., 1814
September Thirteenth
LEE’S ORDER OF INVASION, 1862
That he did not reap the full fruits of this wonderful generalship was due to one of those strange events which, so insignificant in itself, yet is fateful to decide the issues of nations....
It will be seen that Lee had no doubt whatever of the success of his undertaking. Both he and Jackson knew Harper’s Ferry and the surrounding country, and his plan, so simple and yet so complete, was laid out with a precision as absolute as if formed on the ground instead of on the march in a new country. It was this order showing the dispersion of his army over twenty-odd miles of country, with a river flowing between its widely scattered parts, that by a strange fate fell in McClellan’s hands.
Thomas Nelson Page
September Fourteenth
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;’Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it waveO’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!Francis Scott Key
No more sacred spot in New Orleans, a city famous for its historic memories, can be pointed out than Liberty Place, where these martyrs fell; and no more memorable day can be found in the calendar of Louisiana’s history than Sept. 14, 1874.
Henry Edward Chambers(Referring to the rout of General Longstreet and the Carpet-bagger police by citizens, eleven of whom were killed)
Francis Scott Key writes the “Star Spangled Banner,” 1814
Battle of Boonsboro, 1862
Rule of the Carpet-bagger shaken, New Orleans, 1874
September Fifteenth
General Jackson, after a brief dispatch to General Lee announcing the capitulation, rode up to Bolivar and down into Harper’s Ferry. The curiosity of the Union Army to see him was so great that the soldiers lined the sides of the road. Many of them uncovered as he passed, and he invariably returned the salute. One man had an echo of response all about him when he said aloud: “Boys, he’s not much for looks, but if we’d had him we wouldn’t have been caught in this trap.”
Henry Kyd Douglas
Capture of Harper’s Ferry by Jackson, 1862
September Sixteenth
Mr. Lincoln, sir, have you any late news from Mr. Harper’s Ferry? I heard that Stone W. Jackson kept the parole for a few days, and that about fourteen thousand crossed over in twenty-four hours. He is a smart ferryman, sure. Do your folks know how to make it pay? It is a bad crossing, but I suppose it is a heap safer than Ball’s Bluff or Shepherdstown.
Bill Arp(Charles H. Smith)(Humorous “Letter to Lincoln”)
September Seventeenth
The moon, rising above the mountains, revealed the long lines of men and guns, stretching far across hill and valley, waiting for the dawn to shoot each other down, and between the armies their dead lay in such numbers as civilised war has seldom seen. So fearful had been the carnage, and comprised within such narrow limits, that a Federal patrol, it is related, passing into the corn-field, where the fighting had been fiercest, believed that they had surprised a whole Confederate brigade. There, in the shadow of the woods, lay the skirmishers, their muskets beside them; and there, in regular ranks, lay the line of battle, sleeping, as it seemed, the profound sleep of utter exhaustion. But the first man that was touched was cold and lifeless, and the next, and the next; it was the bivouac of the dead.
Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.
Battle of Antietam, 1862
September Eighteenth
He’s in the saddle now. Fall in,Steady the whole brigade!Hill’s at the ford, cut off; we’ll winHis way out, ball and blade.What matter if our shoes are worn?What matter if our feet are torn?Quick step! We’re with him before morn—That’s Stonewall Jackson’s way.John Williamson Palmer
[From lines written within the sound of Jackson’s guns at Antietam, 1862. Although then a correspondent of the New YorkTribune, Dr. Palmer was a Southerner by birth and residence.—Editor]
Lee awaits McClellan’s attack at Sharpsburg, 1862
September Nineteenth
As a deputation from New England was one day leaving the White House, a delegate turned round and said: “Mr. President, I should much like to know what you reckon to be the number the rebels have in arms against us?”
Without a moment’s hesitation Mr. Lincoln replied: “Sir, I have the best possible reason for knowing the number to be one million of men, for whenever one of our generals engages a rebel army he reports that he has encountered a force twice his strength. I know we have half a million soldiers, so I am bound to believe that the rebels have twice that number.”
Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.
Lee repulses attempted advance across the Potomac after Antietam, 1862
First day at Chickamauga, 1863
September Twentieth
Judged by percentage in killed and wounded, Chickamauga nearly doubled the sanguinary records of Marengo and Austerlitz; was two and a half times heavier than that sustained by the Duke of Marlborough at Malplaquet; more than double that suffered by the army under Henry of Navarre in the terrific slaughter at Coutras; nearly three times as heavy as the percentage of loss at Solferino and Magenta; five times greater than that of Napoleon at Wagram, and about ten times as heavy as that of Marshall Saxe at Bloody Raucoux.... Or, if we take the average percentage of loss in a number of the world’s great battles—Waterloo, Wagram, Valmy, Magenta, Solferino, Zurich, and Lodi—we shall find by comparison that Chickamauga’s record of blood surpassed them nearly three for one.
General John B. Gordon
Second day at Chickamauga, 1863
September Twenty-First
THE OLD TIME NEGRO
God bless the forlorn and ragged remnants of a race now passing away. God bless the old black hand that rocked our infant cradles, smoothed the pillow of our infant sleep, and fanned the fever from our cheeks. God bless the old tongue that immortalized the nursery rhyme, the old eyes that guided our truant feet, and the old heart that laughed at our childish freaks.
Peter Francisco Smith
September Twenty-Second
If I could preserve the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; if I could preserve the Union by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. What I do about the colored race, I do because I think it helps to save the Union.
Abraham Lincoln
President Lincoln issues an emancipation proclamation to take effect January 1, 1863, unless the Confederate States should return to the Union by that date
September Twenty-Third
THE MOCKING-BIRD
The name thou wearest does thee grievous wrong.No mimic thou! That voice is thine alone!The poets sing but strains of Shakespeare’s song;The birds, but notes of thine imperial own!Henry Jerome Stockard
September Twenty-Fourth
No other man did half so much either to develop the Constitution by expounding it, or to secure for the judiciary its rightful place in the Government as the living voice of the Constitution.... The admiration and respect which he and his colleagues won for the court remain its bulwark: the traditions which were formed under him and them have continued in general to guide the action and elevate the sentiments of their successors.
James Bryce(England)
John Marshall born, 1755
Zachary Taylor born, 1784
September Twenty-Fifth
We are gathered here a feeble fewOf those who wore the gray—The larger and the better partHave mingled with the clay:Yet not so lost, but now and thenThrough dimming mist we seeThe deadly calm of Stonewall’s face,The lion-front of Lee.Henry Lynden Flash
Memoirs of the Blue and Gray read at Los Angeles, 1897
September Twenty-Sixth
Summer is dead, ay me! Sweet summer’s dead!The sunset clouds have built his funeral pyre,Through which, e’en now, runs subterranean fire:While from the East, as from a garden-bed,Mist-vined, the Dusk lifts her broad moon—like someGreat golden melon—saying, “Fall has come.”Madison Cawein
September Twenty-Seventh
All America will soon treasure alike both Federal and Confederate exploits, in the greatest of wars, as a priceless national heritage. Then Semmes and theAlabamawill shine beside John Paul Jones and theBonhomme Richard, Decatur and thePhiladelphia, Lawrence and theChesapeake, and be ever lauded with the victories ofOld Ironsides, the intrepid deed of Farragut sailing over the mines in the channel of Mobile Bay, that of Dewey entering Manila Harbor, and of Hobson bringing theMerrimacunder the fire of the forts at Santiago.