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Dixie Book of Days

<h2>September</h2> 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 rain That 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    [Pg 200] <big>September First</big> 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     <big>September Second</big> 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    [Pg 201] <big>September Third</big> 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)    [Pg 202] <big>September Fourth</big> 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    [Pg 203] <big>September Fifth</big> 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)    [Pg 204] <big>September Sixth</big> 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    [Pg 205] <big>September Seventh</big> 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    [Pg 206] <big>September Eighth</big> Ere Time’s horizon-line was set, Somewhere in space our spirits met, Then o’er the starry parapet Came wandering here. And now, that thou art gone again Beyond 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     <big>September Ninth</big> 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    [Pg 207] <big>September Tenth</big> My life is like the autumn leaf That 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    [Pg 208] <big>September Eleventh</big> 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     <big>September Twelfth</big> 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    [Pg 209] <big>September Thirteenth</big> 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    [Pg 210] <big>September Fourteenth</big> 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 wave O’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    [Pg 211] <big>September Fifteenth</big> 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     <big>September Sixteenth</big> 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”)    [Pg 212] <big>September Seventeenth</big> 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    [Pg 213] <big>September Eighteenth</big> He’s in the saddle now. Fall in, Steady the whole brigade! Hill’s at the ford, cut off; we’ll win His 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 York Tribune, Dr. Palmer was a Southerner by birth and residence.—Editor]   Lee awaits McClellan’s attack at Sharpsburg, 1862    [Pg 214] <big>September Nineteenth</big> 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    [Pg 215] <big>September Twentieth</big> 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    [Pg 216] <big>September Twenty-First</big> 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     <big>September Twenty-Second</big> 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    [Pg 217] <big>September Twenty-Third</big> 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     <big>September Twenty-Fourth</big> 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    [Pg 218] <big>September Twenty-Fifth</big> We are gathered here a feeble few Of those who wore the gray— The larger and the better part Have mingled with the clay: Yet not so lost, but now and then Through dimming mist we see The 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     <big>September Twenty-Sixth</big> 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 some Great golden melon—saying, “Fall has come.” Madison Cawein    [Pg 219] <big>September Twenty-Seventh</big> All America will soon treasure alike both Federal and Confederate exploits, in the greatest of wars, as a priceless national heritage. Then Semmes and the Alabama will shine beside John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard, Decatur and the Philadelphia, Lawrence and the Chesapeake, and be ever lauded with the victories of Old 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 the Merrimac under the fire of the forts at Santiago. John C. Reed   Raphael Semmes born, 1809     <big>September Twenty-Eighth</big> The Alabama had been built in perfect good faith by the Lairds. When she was contracted for no question had been raised as to the right of a neutral to build and sell to a belligerent such a ship. The reader has seen that the Federal Secretary of the Navy himself had endeavored not only to build an Alabama, but ironclads in England. Raphael Semmes   John Laurens born, 1754    [Pg 220] <big>September Twenty-Ninth</big> When summer flowers are dying, August past, When Autumn’s breath is sighing On the blast; When the red leaves flutter down To the sod, Then the year kneels for its crown— Goldenrod! Virginia Lucas     <big>September Thirtieth</big> Thistles send their missives white To the sky; Robins southward wing their flight, (Sad goodbye!) But where Summer, yellow-gowned, Last has trod, Thorn-torn fragments strew the ground— Goldenrod! Virginia Lucas     <hr style="width: 50%;" /> [Pg 221] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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