Part 6

[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 beat The soldier's last tattoo; No more on life's parade shall meet The brave and fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their 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]

_Burial in Frankfort of Kentuckians killed in the Mexican War, 1847_

July Twenty-First

We thought they slept!--the sons who kept The names of noble sires, And slumbered while the darkness crept Around their vigil fires! But, aye, the "Golden Horseshoe" knights Their 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 mine My 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 wheel Where 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 print On every Saturday eve. GEORGE W. CUTTER (_The Song of Steam_)

July Twenty-Third

... The rush, the tumult, and the fear Of this our modern age Have only widened out the poet's sphere, Have given him a broader stage On 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 tale Of 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 race For 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_)

August

SUMMER

A trembling haze hangs over all the fields-- The panting cattle in the river stand Seeking 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 fruit Show in the sunshine all their clusters thick, While now and then a mellow apple falls With 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'd Seem fairly dancing in my dazzled sight, While over yonder road a dusty haze Grows 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

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 gallant _Arkansas_, 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 warm And wet with tears, to take in charge this dust, And brings her daughters to receive in form Virginia'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 picket Is 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 shade Against 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 stands Advanced beyond the foremost of his bands, And waves his blades upon the very edge And hottest thicket of the battling hedge. Thou lustrous stalk, that ne'er may walk nor talk, Still shalt thou type the poet-soul sublime That leads the vanward of his timid time And sings up cowards with commanding rhyme. SIDNEY LANIER (_Corn_)

August Fifteenth

In the hush of the valley of silence I dream all the songs that I sing; And the music floats down the dim Valley Till 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 gleam At night on Brahma's sacred stream.

* * * * *

Around each consecrated bark That sailed into the outer dark What lambent light those lanterns gave! What opalescent mazes played Reduplicated on the wave, While, to and fro, like censers swayed, They made it luminous to glass Their 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 there Above 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 spell Arcades 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 few Calm 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 heart To 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 away It 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]

September

AUTUMN SONG