AT ARLINGTON
The dead had rest; the Dove of PeaceBrooded o’er both with equal wings;To both had come that great surcease.The last omnipotent releaseFrom all the world’s delirious stings.To bugle deaf and signal-gun,They slept, like heroes of old Greece,Beneath the glebe at Arlington.And in the Spring’s benignant reign,The sweet May woke her harp of pines;Teaching her choir a thrilling strainOf jubilee to land and main.She danced in emerald down the lines;Denying largesse bright to none,She saw no difference in the signsThat told who slept at Arlington.She gave her grasses and her showersTo all alike who dreamed in dust;Her song-birds wove their dainty bowersAmid the jasmine buds and flowers,And piped with an impartial trust—Waifs of the air and liberal sun,Their guileless glees were kind and justTo friend and foe at Arlington.James Ryder Randall
May First
The linnet, the lark, and orielWere chanting the loves they chant so well;It was blue all above, below all green,With the radiant glow of noon between.Joseph Salyards(Idothea; Idyl III)
May Second
A strange fatality attended us! Jackson killed in the zenith of his successful career; Longstreet wounded when in the act of striking a blow that would have rivalled Jackson’s at Chancellorsville in its results; and in each case the fire was from our own men! A blunder! Call it so; the old deacon would say that God willed it thus.
Col. Walter H. Taylor
Stonewall Jackson wounded at Chancellorsville, 1863
Emma Sanson directs Forrest in pursuit of Streight, 1863
May Third
Chancellorsville, where 130,000 men were defeated by 60,000, is up to a certain point as much the tactical masterpiece of the nineteenth century as was Leuthen of the eighteenth.
Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.
General Pender, you must hold your ground, you must hold your ground.
Jackson’sLast Command
May Fourth
The productions of nature soon became my playmates. I felt that an intimacy with them not consisting of friendship merely, but bordering on frenzy, must accompany my steps through life.
John James Audubon
John James Audubon born, 1780
May Fifth
Lord of Hosts, that beholds us in battle, defendingThe homes of our sires ’gainst the hosts of the foe,Send us help on the wings of thy angels descending,And shield from his terrors and baffle his blow.Warm the faith of our sons, till they flame as the iron,Red glowing from the fire-forge, kindled by zeal;Make them forward to grapple the hordes that environ,In the storm-rush of battle, through forests of steel!From the CharlestonMercury
Battle of the Wilderness; Lee, with 60,000 men, attacks Grant with 140,000, 1864
May Sixth
It depends on the State itself, to retain or abolish the principle of representation, because it depends on itself whether it will continue a member of the Union. To deny this right would be inconsistent with the principle on which all our political systems are founded, which is, that the people have, in all cases, a right to determine how they will be governed.
(Rawle’s text-book on the Constitution, taught at West Point before the War between the States)
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, AMERICAN DISRAELI
Who is the man, save this one, of whom it can be said that he held conspicuous leadership at the bar of two countries?
Sir Henry James(England)
Tennessee and Arkansas secede, 1861
Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State, dies, 1884
May Seventh
The slaves who ran away from their masters were set to work at once by General Butler and made to keep at it, much to their annoyance. One of these, having been put to it rather strong, said: “Golly, Massa Butler, dis nigger nebber had to work so hard befo’; dis chile gwine secede once moah.”
OhioStatesman, 1861
May Eighth
Having completed our repairs on May 8th, and while returning to our old anchorage, we heard heavy firing, and, going down the harbor, found theMonitor, with the iron-cladsGalena,Naugatuck, and a number of heavy ships, shelling our batteries at Sewell’s Point. We stood directly for theMonitor, but as we approached they all ceased firing and retreated below the forts.
Col. John Taylor Wood
The “Virginia” again challenges the “Monitor” to battle, 1862
Battle of Palo Alto, 1846
May Ninth
MOTHERS’ DAY
Because I feel that, in the Heavens aboveThe angels, whispering to one another,Can find, among their burning terms of love,None so devotional as that of “Mother.”Edgar Allan Poe
May Tenth
Fearless and strong, self-dependent and ambitious, he had within him the making of a Napoleon, and yet his name is without spot or blemish.
Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.
... Ask the world—The world has heard his story—If all its annals can unfoldA prouder tale of glory?If ever merely human lifeHath taught diviner moral—If ever round a worthier browWas twined a purer laurel?Margaret J. Preston
Stonewall Jackson dies, 1863
May Eleventh
The Spanish legend tells us of the Cid,That after death he rode erect, sedatelyAlong his lines, even as in life he did,In presence yet more stately.And thus our Stuart at this moment seemsTo ride out of our dark and troubled storyInto the region of romance and dreams,A realm of light and glory.John R. Thompson
J. E. B. Stuart mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, 1864
May Twelfth
General Lee, you shall not lead my men in a charge!
Gordon
General Lee to the rear!—His Soldiers.
I do wish somebody would tell me where my place is on the field of battle! Wherever I go to look after the fight, I am told, “This is no place for you; you must go away.”
Robert E. Lee
Lee, with 50,000 men, repulses Grant with 100,000, at Spottsylvania Court House; Lee “ordered” to the rear, 1864
May Thirteenth
Good is the Saxon speech! clear, short, and strong,Its clean-cut words, fit both for prayer and song;Good is this tongue for all the needs of life;Good for sweet words with friend, or child, or wife.········’Tis good for laws; for vows of youth and maid;Good for the preacher; or shrewd folk in trade;Good for sea-calls when loud the rush of spray;Good for war-cries where men meet hilt to hilt,And man’s best blood like new-trod wine is spilt,—Good for all times, and good for what thou wilt!James Barron Hope
Landing at Jamestown, 1607
Texas troops, C. S. A., defeat Federals in last battle of the War, at Palmito Ranch, 1865, the victors learning from their prisoners that the Confederacy had fallen (Chas. Wm. Ramsdell)
May Fourteenth
[This exploration] was undertaken at the instance of President Jefferson, and together with the voyage which Captain Gray of Boston had made to the Columbia, in 1792, gave the United States a claim to all the territory covered by the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
Philip Alexander Bruce
Lewis and Clark start from St. Louis on northwestern expedition, 1804
May Fifteenth
Throughout the events that led up to the Revolution, it seemed ordained that Massachusetts was to suffer and Virginia to sympathize. Until the outbreak of actual hostilities scarcely anything of moment occurred on the soil of Virginia to incite her sons to champion the cause of freedom. Indeed, from the beginning of the controversy between the colonies and the mother country, the British Ministry seemed to have avoided any special cause of irritation to the people of the Old Dominion. The part, therefore, which Virginia took in the events of those days must be attributed to her devotion to the principles of liberty, to her interest in the common cause of the colonies, and particularly to her sympathy with Massachusetts in the suffering which that province was called upon to endure. If we lose sight of these motives as the springs of Virginia’s conduct in that struggle, we shall be unable to appreciate either the nobility of her spirit or the wisdom and energy which marked her initiative.
S. C. Mitchell
Virginia opposes Boston Port Bill, 1774
May Sixteenth
I refuse to make any acknowledgments for what I have done. My blood will be as seed sown in good ground, which will produce a hundred fold.
James Pugh(Before execution under Gov. Tryon, North Carolina, 1771)
Battle of Alamance Creek, 1771
May Seventeenth
He came into military and political life like some blazing meteor, with exceeding brilliance and splendor speeding across the horizon of history. His activities in politics and war covered only a brief span of seventeen years, 1848 to 1865, and in so short a period but few men ever received more, maintained their parts better, were the recipients of greater honors, or bore themselves with nobler dignity, greater skill or more superb courage either in victory or defeat.
Bennett H. Young
John C. Breckinridge dies, 1875
May Eighteenth
Hushed is the roll of the rebel drum,The sabres are sheathed and the cannon are dumb;And Fate, with pitiless hand, has furledThe flag that once challenged the gaze of the world.John R. Thompson(From “Lee to the Rear”)
May Nineteenth
But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides,And down into history grandly ridesCalm and unmoved as in battle he sat,The gray-bearded man in the black slouch hat.John R. Thompson(From “Lee to the Rear”)
May Twentieth
You can get no troops from North Carolina.
Gov. Ellis(Reply to Washington administration, April 15, 1861)
North Carolina secedes from the Union, 1861
May Twenty-First
The Dixie girls wear homespun cotton,But their winning smiles I’ve not forgotten;Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.They’ve won my heart and naught surpassesMy love for the bright-eyed Dixie lasses;Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.Chorus:I’ll give my life for Dixie;Away, away;In Dixie’s land I’ll take my stand,And live and die for Dixie.Away, away,Away down South in Dixie.Marie Louise Eve
May Twenty-Second
How brilliant is the morning star;The evening star how tender;The light of both is in her eyes,—Their softness and their splendor;But for the lash that shades their sight,They were too dazzling for the light,And when she shuts them all is night,—The daughter of Mendoza.Mirabeau B. Lamar
May Twenty-Third
Great Chieftain of our choice,Albeit that people’s voiceNo comfort speaks in thy lone granite keep;Through those harsh iron barsThere come back from the starsLow echoes of the prayers they nightly weep.William Munford
Jefferson Davis puts in irons at Fort Monroe, 1865
May Twenty-Fourth
Yet to all Americans it must be a regrettable chapter in our history when it is remembered that this man was no common felon, but a prisoner of state, a distinguished Indian fighter, a Mexican veteran, a man who had held a seat in Congress, who had been Secretary of War of the United States, and who for four years had stood at the head of the Confederate States.
Myrta Lockett Avary(Davis in chains)
May Twenty-Fifth
A rich and well-stored mind is the only true philosopher’s stone, extracting pure gold from all the base material around. It can create its own beauty, wealth, power, happiness. It has no dreary solitudes. The past ages are its possession, and the long line of the illustrious dead are all its friends.
George Davis
May Twenty-Sixth
Cease firing! There are here no foes to fight!Grim war is o’er and smiling peace now reigns;Cease useless strife—no matter who was right—True magnanimity from hate abstains.Cease firing!Major William Meade Pegram
The last Confederate army, under General Kirby Smith, surrenders at Baton Rouge, 1865
May Twenty-Seventh
Representing nothing on God’s earth now,And naught in the water below it,As a pledge of a nation that’s dead and gone,Keep it, dear Captain, and show it.Show it to those who will lend an earTo the tale this paper can tellOf liberty born, of the patriot’s dream,Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.Too poor to possess the precious ores,And too much of a stranger to borrow,We issued to-day our promise to pay,And hoped to repay on the morrow.Major S. A. Jonas(From “Lines on the back of a Confederate note”)
May Twenty-Eighth
Old time negroes intuitively knew who “belonged” to them and who did not. The following incident is told of Senator Sumner’s visit to friends at Gallatin, Tennessee, some years before the war; the colloquy is between the Senator and “Old Virginia Jeff:”
“Jeff, I hear you call all the white folks down here ‘Marse’—‘Marse Henry,’ ‘Marse John’ or what not, isn’t that true?”
“Yas, sah.”
“And you always call me ‘Mister Sumner.’ Now, Jeff, here’s a quarter. During the rest of my visit you call me Marse Charles, you hear?”
Major John C. Wrenshall
P. G. T. Beauregard born, 1818
May Twenty-Ninth
If we wish to be free—if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending—if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained—we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry born, 1736
May Thirtieth
Those who oppose slavery in Kansas do not base their opposition upon any philanthropic principles, or any sympathy for the African race. For, in their so-called Constitution, framed at Topeka, they deem that entire race so inferior and degraded as to exclude them all forever from Kansas, whether they be bond or free.
Robert J. Walker
Kansas given territorial rights by Congress, 1854
May Thirty-First
SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE
... All down the hills of Habersham,All through the valleys of Hall,The rushes criedAbide, abide,The wilful waterweeds held me thrall,The laving laurel turned my tide,The ferns and the fondling grass saidStay.The dewberry dipped for to work delay,And the little reeds sighedAbide, abide,Here in the hills of Habersham,Here in the valleys of Hall.Sidney Lanier
British Government declared suspended in North Carolina (Mecklenburg) 1775
THE SLEEPER
At midnight, in the month of June,I stand beneath the mystic moon.An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,Exhales from out her golden rim,And, softly dripping, drop by drop,Upon the quiet mountain top,Steals drowsily and musicallyInto the universal valley.The rosemary nods upon the grave;The lily lolls upon the wave;Wrapping the fog above its breast,The ruin moulders into rest;Looking like Lethe, see! the lakeA conscious slumber seems to take,And would not, for the world, awake.Edgar Allan Poe
June First
... The year,And all the gentle daughters in her train,March in our ranks, and in our service wieldLong spears of golden grain!A yellow blossom as her fairy shield,June flings her azure banner to the wind,While in the order of their birthHer sisters pass, and many an ample fieldGrows white beneath their steps, till now, behold,Its endless sheets unfoldThe snow of Southern summers!Henry Timrod(Ethnogenesis)
Kentucky admitted to the Union, 1792
Tennessee admitted to the Union, 1796
John H. Morgan born, 1825
June Second
In regard to African Slavery, which has played so important a part in our political history, Randolph was an Emancipationist, as distinguished from an Abolitionist. This distinction was a very broad one; as broad as that between Algernon Sidney and Jack Cade; or between Charlemagne and Peter the Hermit—in fact, it was the difference between Reason and Fanaticism. On this subject Randolph and Clay concurred; both were Emancipationists, and both denounced the Abolitionists; as did also Webster, and all the best, wisest, and purest men of that day.
Judge Daniel Bedinger Lucas
John Randolph born, 1773
June Third
Other leaders have had their triumphs. Conquerors have won crowns, and honors have been piled on the victors of earth’s great battles, but never, sir, came man to more loving people.
Henry W. Grady
Jefferson Davis born in Kentucky, 1808
June Fourth
In the hallowed stillness of your bridal eve, ere the guests have all assembled, lift up to yours the pale face, love’s perfect image, and you shall see that vision to which God our Father vouchsafes no equal this side the jasper throne—you shall see the ineffable eyes of innocence entrusting to you, unworthy, oh! so unworthy, her destiny through time and eternity. Inhale the perfume of her breath and hair, that puts the violets of the wood to shame; press your first kiss (for now she is all your own), your first kiss upon the trembling petals of her lips, and you shall hear, with ears you knew not that you had, the silver chiming of your wedding bells far, far up in heaven.
George W. Bagby
June Fifth
THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH
Instead of superficial adornments and supine action, the intellectual sympathies and interests of these women were large, and they undertook with wise and just guidance, the management of households and farms and servants, leaving the men free for war and civil government. These noble and resolute women were the mothers of the Gracchi, of the men who built up the greatness of the Union and accomplished the unexampled achievements of the Confederacy.
J. L. M. Curry
June Sixth
To the brave all homage render,Weep ye skies of June!With a radiance pure and tender,Shine, oh saddened moon!Dead upon the field of glory,Hero fit for song and story,Lies our bold dragoon.John R. Thompson
Turner Ashby killed in Shenandoah Valley Campaign, 1862
Patrick Henry dies, 1799
June Seventh
Peace to the dead! though peace is notIn the regal dome or the pauper cot;Peace to the dead! there’s peace, we trust,With the pale dreamers in the dust.James Ryder Randall
Monument created, 1910, to the memory of Confederate officers who perished from starvation and exposure at Johnson’s Island
June Eighth
Aurora faints in the fulgent fireOf the Monarch of Morning’s bright embraceAnd the summer day climbs higher and higherUp the cerulean space;The pearl-tints fade from the radiant grain,And the sportive breeze of the ocean dies,And soon in the noontide’s soundless rainThe fields seem graced by a million eyes;Each grain with a glance from its lidded foldAs bright as a gnome’s in his mine of gold,While the slumb’rous glamour of beam and heatGlides over and under the windless wheat.Paul Hamilton Hayne
Stonewall Jackson turns upon Fremont at Cross Keys, 1862
June Ninth
He sleeps—what need to question nowIf he were wrong or right?He knows ere this whose cause was justIn God the Father’s sight.He wields no warlike weapons now,Returns no foeman’s thrust,—Who but a coward would revileAn honest soldier’s dust?Roll, Shenandoah, proudly roll,Adown thy rocky glen,Above thee lies the grave of oneOf Stonewall Jackson’s men.Mary Ashley Townsend
Stonewall Jackson meets Shields at Port Republic, 1862
June Tenth
The indomitable courage, the patient endurance of privations, the supreme devotion of the Southern soldiers, will stand on the pages of history, as engraven on a monument more enduring than brass.
Maj. Jas. F. Huntington, U. S. A.
United Confederate Veterans organized at New Orleans, 1889
Battle of Bethel, Va., the first regular engagement of the War between the States, 1861
June Eleventh
We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win; we believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluble; but we equally believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred convictions that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them, as every man with a heart must respect those who gave all for their belief.
Justice O. W. Holmes(Massachusetts)
June Twelfth
The band preceding the coffin smote on their ears with poignant loud lamenting, then carried its sorrow to die moaning on the night. As the shadowy cortege filed by—men bearing lanterns on either side the hearse—a horse, riderless, with boots empty in the stirrups, following—a few soldiers carrying arms reversed—a single carriage with mourners—the effect was infinitely sad. So common the spectacle during the Battle Summer, it did not occur to them to even wonder which of our martyrs was thus journeying to his last home.
Mrs. Burton Harrison
June Thirteenth
A little bird there was once, with golden wings;In the stars she would build her nest;And so, with a twig in her beak, at eventideWhen Hesperus sank to rest,Away to the starry deep she flew;—for said she,“In the Pleiades shall my nesting be!”Ah, little bird! There are heights far, far too highFor the reach of those tiny wings!Down here by this thicket of haw let us rest, you and I,And list what the brooklet sings!Allen Kerr Bond
June Fourteenth
A flash from the edge of a hostile trench,A puff of smoke, a roarWhose echo shall roll from the Kenesaw HillsTo the farthermost Christian shore,Proclaims to the world that the warrior priestWill battle for right no more.Henry Lynden Flash
Gen. Leonidas Polk, the Warrior Bishop, killed at Kenesaw Mountain, 1864
June Fifteenth
O, Art, high gift of Heaven! how oft defamedWhen seeming praised! To most a craft that fits,By dead, prescriptive Rule, the scattered bitsOf gathered knowledge; even so misnamedBy some who would invoke thee.Washington Allston
June Sixteenth
W’en banjer git ter talkin’You better hol’ yo’ tongue,Hit mek you think youse gre’t an’ gran’An’ rich an’ strong an’ young,An’ ev’rything whar scrumpshusRight at yo’ feet is flung.Oh, my soul gits up an’ humps hisse’fAn’ goes outside an’ walks,W’en a picker gits ter pickin’An’ debanjertalks!Anne Virginia Culbertson
Winchester captured by Confederates, 1863
June Seventeenth
GENEROUS TRIBUTE OF A BRAVE FOE AND DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN SOLDIER AND CITIZEN
Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia never sustained defeat. Finally succumbing to exhaustion, to the end they were not overthrown in fight.
Charles Francis Adams(Massachusetts)
June Eighteenth
Now, Ham, de only nigger whut wuz runnin’ on der packet,Got lonesome in de barber-shop, an’ c’u’dn’t stan’ de racket;An’ so, fur to amuse hese’f, he steamed some wood an’ bent it,An’ soon he had a banjo made—de fust dat wuz invented.De ’possum had as fine a tail as dis dat I’s a-singin’;De ha’r’s so long an’ thick an’ strong,—des fit fur banjo-stringin’;Dat nigger shaved ’em off as short as washday-dinner graces;An’ sorted ob’ em by de size, f’om little E’s to basses.Irwin Russell(Origin of the Banjo on Board the Ark)
June Nineteenth
By Captain Winslow’s account, theKearsargewas struck twenty-eight times; but his ship being armored, my shot and shell fell harmless into the sea. TheAlabamawas not mortally wounded until after theKearsargehad been firing at heran hour and ten minutes. In the meantime, in spite of the armor of theKearsarge, I lodged a rifled percussion shell near her stern post—where there were no chains—which failed to explode because of the defect of the cap. On so slight an incident—the defect of a percussion-cap—did the battle hinge.
Raphael Semmes
The “Alabama” sunk by the “Kearsarge” off Cherbourg, 1864
June Twentieth
Jamestown and St. Mary’s are both within the segment of a circle of comparatively small radius whose centre is at the mouth of the Chesapeake. In this strategic region, the key of America, Raleigh chose the base from which he would colonize the new empire; here the Jamestown experiment succeeded, after Raleigh’s head had fallen on the block; the Revolution was fired by the eloquence of Patrick Henry, and was consummated at Yorktown; the War of 1812 was settled by the victories of North Point and Fort McHenry; the crisis of the Civil War occurred; and seven Presidents of the United States were born.
Allen S. Will
The first Lord Baltimore obtains from the Crown a grant of the territory lying between the Potomac and the 40th parallel, 1632
Secession of West Virginia from Virginia sustained by the Federal Government, 1863
“Virginia, who had given to all the States in common five great commonwealths of the northwest and the county of Kentucky, was now bereft of half of what remained to her”
June Twenty-First
What care I if Cyrus McCormick was born in Rockbridge County? These new-fangled “contraptions” are to the old system what the little, dirty, black steam-tug is to the three-decker, with its cloud of snowy canvas towering to the skies—the grandest and most beautiful sight in the world. I wouldn’t give Uncle Isham’s picked man, “long Billy Carter,” leading the field, with one good drink of whisky in him—I wouldn’t give one swing of his cradle and one “ketch” of his straw for all the mowers and reapers in creation.
George W. Bagby
Cyrus Hall McCormick of Virginia patents his reaping machine, 1831
June Twenty-Second
If I could dwellWhere IsrafelHath dwelt, and he where I,He might not sing so wildly wellA mortal melody,While a bolder note than this might swellFrom my lyre within the sky.Edgar Allan Poe
Arkansas readmitted to the Union, 1868
June Twenty-Third
THE BROOK
It is the mountain to the seaThat makes a messenger of me:And, lest I loiter on the wayAnd lose what I am sent to say,He sets his reverie to songAnd bids me sing it all day long.John B. Tabb
June Twenty-Fourth
AN AMUSING COMMENTARY ON THE MAKING OF SOME HISTORIES
I have here a small volume entitled, “John Randolph, by Henry Adams.” It is one of a series called “American Statesmen,” and emanates from the thin air of Boston. The series is edited by Mr. J. T. Morse, Jr. By what law of selection he has been governed in allotting to particular authors the preparation of respective biographies it is impossible to divine. It is quite clear, however, that he has not followed any rule of qualification or congeniality hitherto recognized by men or angels. For example, a foreigner, Dr. Von Holtz, who, in an emphatically European and un-American treatise on the Federal Constitution, had already denounced Calhoun as a kind of Lucifer, is appointed his biographer; Henry Clay, the father of Protection (as it is called), is assigned to Carl Schurz, who, I understand, is an ardent advocate of Free Trade; while John Randolph is turned over to the tender mercies of a descendant of the first Vice-President, and the grandson of John Quincy Adams!
Had this unique law of selection prevailed hitherto, we might have had a biography of Luther by Leo the Tenth; a life of St. Thomas Aquinas by Thomas Payne; while Pontius Pilate, or more likely the devil himself, would have been selected to chronicle the divine career of Jesus Christ.
Daniel B. Lucas
John Randolph dies, 1833
June Twenty-Fifth
But far away another line is stretching dark and long,Another flag is floating free where armed legions throng;Another war-cry’s on the air, as wakes the martial drum,And onward still, in serried ranks, the Southern soldiers come.George Herbert Sass
Beginning of Seven Days’ Battle around Richmond, 1862
June Twenty-Sixth
A PROPHECY, 1869
The close of the Civil War found the conquering States so nearly equally divided between the Radical and Conservative parties, that if the South should be restored to her relative might in the Union, the balance would be thrown at once in favor of the Conservatives. The problem therefore assumed a mathematical form, and demanded that the South should not reinforce the Conservatives of the North. This could be prevented only in two ways,viz.; either by keeping the South out of the Union entirely or by placing the political power there in the hands of a minority. To adopt one or the other of these expedients was a party necessity. This is the whole key to Reconstruction; and fifty years hence no man living will be found to deny it.
Judge J. Fairfax McLaughlin(In the “Southern Metropolis,” June 26, 1869)
June Twenty-Seventh
The duties exacted of us by civilization and Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of our enemy than in our own.
Robert E. Lee
Lee issues his famous Chambersburg order, 1863
“Winnie” Davis born, 1864
June Twenty-Eighth
COL. WILLIAM MOULTRIE; SERGEANT JASPER; “PALMETTO DAY”
The battle holds a conspicuous place in the history of the Revolution. It was our first clear victory over the British, and won over one of England’s most distinguished naval officers.
John J. Dargan
Defence of Fort Sullivan, (Moultrie,) 1776
North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana readmitted to the Union, 1868
June Twenty-Ninth
His trumpet-tones re-echoed likeEvangels to the free,Where Chimborazo views the worldMosaic’d in the sea;And his proud form shall stand erectIn that triumphal carWhich bears to the Valhalla gatesHeroic Bolivar!James Ryder Randall
Henry Clay dies, 1852
June Thirtieth
Yes, there’s a charm about the name of MaryWhich haunts me like some old enchanter’s spell,Or rather like the voice of some sweet fairy,Singing low love-songs in a lonely dell.It hath a music that can never weary,A strain that seems of love and grief to tell,The echoes of an anthem from the shrineOf peace, and bliss, and rest, and love divine.William Woodson Hendree
Robert E. Lee marries Mary Page Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, 1831
A SUMMER SHOWER
Meanwhile, unreluctant,Earth like Danae lies;Listen! is it fancy,That beneath us sighs,As that warm lap receives the largesse of the skies?Jove, it is, descendethIn those crystal rills;And this world-wide tremorIs a pulse that thrillsTo a god’s life infused through veins of velvet hills.Wait, thou jealous sunshine,Break not on their bliss;Earth will blush in rosesMany a day for this,And bend a brighter brow beneath thy burning kiss.Henry Timrod
July First
A SOUTHERN SOLDIER’S TRIBUTE
To the Union commander, General George Gordon Meade, history will accord the honor of having handled his army at Gettysburg with unquestioned ability. The record and the results of the battle entitle him to a high place among Union leaders. To him and to his able subordinates and heroic men is due the credit of having successfully met and repelled the Army of Northern Virginia in the meridian of its hope and confidence and power.
General John B. Gordon
First day at Gettysburg, 1863
July Second
General Lee distinctly ordered Longstreet to attack early the morning of the second day, and if he had done so, two of the largest corps of Meade’s army would not have been in the fight; but Longstreet delayed the attack until four o’clock in the afternoon, and thus lost his opportunity of occupying Little Round Top, the key to the position, which he might have done in the morning without firing a shot or losing a man.
General John B. Gordon
Second day at Gettysburg, 1863
July Third
General Lee ordered Longstreet to attack at daybreak on the morning of the third day.... He did not attack until two or three o’clock in the afternoon, the artillery opening at one.... Nothing that occurred at Gettysburg, nor anything that has been written since of that battle, has lessened the conviction that, had Lee’s orders been promptly and cordially executed, Meade’s centre on the third day would have been penetrated and the Union Army overwhelmingly defeated.
General John B. Gordon
Third day at Gettysburg, 1863
Joel Chandler Harris dies, 1908
July Fourth
General Lee, according to the testimony of Colonel Walter H. Taylor, Colonel C. S. Venable, and General A. L. Long, who were present when the order was given, ordered Longstreet to make the attack on the last day, with the three divisions of his corps, and two divisions of A. P. Hill’s corps, and that instead of doing so he sent fourteen thousand men to assail Meade’s army in his strong position, and heavily intrenched.
General John B. Gordon
Lee awaits the attack of Meade at Gettysburg throughout the fourth day, 1863
Vicksburg surrenders, 1863
Thomas Jefferson dies, 1826
July Fifth
Opinion, let me alone: I am not thine.Prim creed, with categoric point, forbearTo feature me my Lord by rule and line.Thou canst not measure Mistress Nature’s hair,Not one sweet inch: nay, if thy sight is sharp,Wouldst count the strings upon an angel’s harp?Forbear, forbear.Sidney Lanier
July Sixth
A golden pallor of voluptuous lightFilled the warm Southern night;The moon, clear orbed, above the sylvan sceneMoved like a stately queen,So rife with conscious beauty all the while,What could she do but smileAt her perfect loveliness below,Glassed in the tranquil flowOf crystal fountainsAnd unruffled streams?Paul Hamilton Hayne
Paul Hamilton Hayne dies, 1886
John Marshall dies, 1835
July Seventh
Do orioles from verdant Chesapeake,And crested cardinal,With linnets from the Severn, come to seek,Obedient to thy call,If they can give thee one new music-thought,Who ev’ry note from ev’ry land hast caught?E. G. Lee(The Mocking Bird)
July Eighth
Sweet bird! that from yon dancing sprayDost warble forth thy varied lay,From early morn to close of dayMelodious changes singing,Sure thine must be the magic artThat bids my drowsy fancy start,While from the furrows of my heart,Hope’s fairy flowers are springing.Charles William Hubner(The Mocking Bird)
July Ninth
And to defenders and besiegers it is alike unjust to say, even though it has been said by the highest authority, that Port Hudson surrendered only because Vicksburg had fallen. The simple truth is that Port Hudson surrendered because its hour had come. The garrison was literally starving. With less than 3000 famished men in line, powerful mines beneath the salients, and a last assault about to be delivered at 10 places, what else was left to do?
Lieut.-Col. Richard B. Irwin, U. S. V.
Fall of Port Hudson, 1863
Defeat of Lew Wallace by Early at the Monocacy, Maryland, 1864
Alexander Doniphan, “the Xenophon of America,” born 1808
July Tenth
MAMMY’S FIRST EXPERIENCE AT THE ’PHONE
We heard Mammy say “Hello—H’llo!(What meks you rattle de handle so?)Is datyou, Miss?—wants Main twenty-free!(I ain’t gwine to have you foolin’ wid me!)I say, Main twenty——what’s ailin’ you?‘Bizzy!’ I guess I’se bizzy, too!You gim-me dat number twenty-free,I’se bizzier ’n you ever dared ter be!”Mary Johnson Blackburn
July Eleventh
The Old World had its Xantippe; but——the facts have not been fully established in the New!
“Under This Marble Tomb Lies The BodyOf The HON. JOHN CUSTIS, Esq.,Of The City Of Williamsburg,And Parish of Bruton,Formerly Of Hungar’s Parish, On TheEastern ShoreOf Virginia, And County Of Northampton,Age 71 Years, And Yet Lived But Seven,Which Was The Space Of Time He KeptA Bachelor’s Home At Arlington,On The Eastern Shore Of Virginia.”
“This Inscription put on His Tomb was by His Own Positive Orders.”
July Twelfth
Jackson’s genius for war, Lee’s resistless magnetism, were not vouchsafed to Hill; but in those characteristics in which he excelled: invincible tenacity, absolute unconsciousness of fear, a courage never to submit or yield, no one has risen above him, not even in the annals of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was the very “Ironsides” of the South—Cromwell in some of his essential characteristics coming again in the person and genius of D. H. Hill.
Henry E. Shepherd
D. H. Hill born, 1821
July Thirteenth
Though the Grey were outnumbered, he counted no odd,But fought like a demon and struck like a god,Disclaiming defeat on the blood-curdled sod,As he pledged to the South that he loved.Virginia Frazer Boyle
N. B. Forrest born, 1821
July Fourteenth
Pleasant and wonderfully fair,Like one that knows her own domain,Magnolia-flowers in her hair,And orange-blossoms rare,Let her not knock in vain!Lift up your equal heads to her,Of all your courts contain, co-heir,For lo! she claims her own again!Daniel B. Lucas(The South Shall Claim Her Own Again)
July Fifteenth
FACT OR FICTION?
For four years the Northern States fought to keep their Southern sisters in the Federal family; then having soundly thrashed these sisters in order to keep them at home, they suddenly shut the door and kicked them down the steps! The “erring sisters” are now fully restored to the family circle; but they had a longer and more painful struggle in the effort to get back than in the attempt to get away. More briefly, for four years the Federal government, led by Lincoln, maintained that all of the Southern States were in the Union and could not get out; and then for five years, under the rule of the Radicals, it argued that some of these States were out of the Union and could not get in!
Matthew Page Andrews
Reconstruction ended and the Union restored by the readmission of Georgia, 1870