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Dixie Book of Days

<h2>June</h2> 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 musically Into 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 lake A conscious slumber seems to take, And would not, for the world, awake. Edgar Allan Poe    [Pg 128] <big>June First</big> ... The year, And all the gentle daughters in her train, March in our ranks, and in our service wield Long 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 birth Her sisters pass, and many an ample field Grows white beneath their steps, till now, behold, Its endless sheets unfold The snow of Southern summers! Henry Timrod (Ethnogenesis)   Kentucky admitted to the Union, 1792 Tennessee admitted to the Union, 1796 John H. Morgan born, 1825    [Pg 129] <big>June Second</big> 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     <big>June Third</big> 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    [Pg 130] <big>June Fourth</big> 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    [Pg 131] <big>June Fifth</big> 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     <big>June Sixth</big> 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    [Pg 132] <big>June Seventh</big> Peace to the dead! though peace is not In 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     <big>June Eighth</big> Aurora faints in the fulgent fire Of the Monarch of Morning’s bright embrace And the summer day climbs higher and higher Up 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 rain The fields seem graced by a million eyes; Each grain with a glance from its lidded fold As bright as a gnome’s in his mine of gold, While the slumb’rous glamour of beam and heat Glides over and under the windless wheat. Paul Hamilton Hayne   Stonewall Jackson turns upon Fremont at Cross Keys, 1862    [Pg 133] <big>June Ninth</big> He sleeps—what need to question now If he were wrong or right? He knows ere this whose cause was just In God the Father’s sight. He wields no warlike weapons now, Returns no foeman’s thrust,— Who but a coward would revile An honest soldier’s dust? Roll, Shenandoah, proudly roll, Adown thy rocky glen, Above thee lies the grave of one Of Stonewall Jackson’s men. Mary Ashley Townsend   Stonewall Jackson meets Shields at Port Republic, 1862    [Pg 134] <big>June Tenth</big> 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     <big>June Eleventh</big> 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)    [Pg 135] <big>June Twelfth</big> 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    [Pg 136] <big>June Thirteenth</big> 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 eventide When 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 high For 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     <big>June Fourteenth</big> A flash from the edge of a hostile trench, A puff of smoke, a roar Whose echo shall roll from the Kenesaw Hills To the farthermost Christian shore, Proclaims to the world that the warrior priest Will battle for right no more. Henry Lynden Flash   Gen. Leonidas Polk, the Warrior Bishop, killed at Kenesaw Mountain, 1864    [Pg 137] <big>June Fifteenth</big> O, Art, high gift of Heaven! how oft defamed When seeming praised! To most a craft that fits, By dead, prescriptive Rule, the scattered bits Of gathered knowledge; even so misnamed By some who would invoke thee. Washington Allston     <big>June Sixteenth</big> 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 scrumpshus Right at yo’ feet is flung. Oh, my soul gits up an’ humps hisse’f An’ goes outside an’ walks, W’en a picker gits ter pickin’ An’ de banjer talks! Anne Virginia Culbertson   Winchester captured by Confederates, 1863    [Pg 138] <big>June Seventeenth</big> 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)    [Pg 139] <big>June Eighteenth</big> 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)    [Pg 140] <big>June Nineteenth</big> By Captain Winslow’s account, the Kearsarge was struck twenty-eight times; but his ship being armored, my shot and shell fell harmless into the sea. The Alabama was not mortally wounded until after the Kearsarge had been firing at her an hour and ten minutes. In the meantime, in spite of the armor of the Kearsarge, 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    [Pg 141] <big>June Twentieth</big> 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”    [Pg 142] <big>June Twenty-First</big> 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    [Pg 143] <big>June Twenty-Second</big> If I could dwell Where Israfel Hath dwelt, and he where I, He might not sing so wildly well A mortal melody, While a bolder note than this might swell From my lyre within the sky. Edgar Allan Poe   Arkansas readmitted to the Union, 1868     <big>June Twenty-Third</big> THE BROOK It is the mountain to the sea That makes a messenger of me: And, lest I loiter on the way And lose what I am sent to say, He sets his reverie to song And bids me sing it all day long. John B. Tabb    [Pg 144] <big>June Twenty-Fourth</big> 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    [Pg 145] <big>June Twenty-Fifth</big> 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    [Pg 146] <big>June Twenty-Sixth</big> 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)    [Pg 147] <big>June Twenty-Seventh</big> 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     <big>June Twenty-Eighth</big> 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    [Pg 148] <big>June Twenty-Ninth</big> His trumpet-tones re-echoed like Evangels to the free, Where Chimborazo views the world Mosaic’d in the sea; And his proud form shall stand erect In that triumphal car Which bears to the Valhalla gates Heroic Bolivar! James Ryder Randall   Henry Clay dies, 1852     <big>June Thirtieth</big> Yes, there’s a charm about the name of Mary Which 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 shrine Of peace, and bliss, and rest, and love divine. William Woodson Hendree   Robert E. Lee marries Mary Page Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, 1831     <hr style="width: 50%;" /> [Pg 149] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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