  The birds that sing in the leafy Spring, April First Hidden no longer Battle of Five Forks, Virginia, 1865 April Second At the critical moment A. P. Hill was always strongest. No wonder that both Lee and Jackson, when in the delirium of their last moments on earth, stood again to battle, and saw the fiery form of A. P. Hill leading his columns on. Henry Kyd Douglas A. P. Hill killed in front of Petersburg, 1865 Albert Pike dies, 1891 April Third THE SOUTHERN MAGNOLIA French blood stained with glory the Lilies, April Fourth We are His witnesses; out of the dim April Fifth We are His witnesses. See, where He lay April Sixth His character was lofty and pure, his presence and demeanor dignified and courteous, with the simplicity of a child; and he at once inspired the respect and gained the confidence of cultivated gentlemen and rugged frontiersmen. General Richard Taylor Albert Sidney Johnston killed at Shiloh, 1862 April Seventh History tears down statues and monuments to attributes and deeds, unless those attributes have been devoted to some noble end, and those deeds done in a righteous cause. Col. Charles Marshall April Eighth “GLORY STANDS BESIDE OUR GRIEF” Because they fought in perfect faith, believing Louisiana admitted to the Union, 1812 Telegram from Secretary Seward confirming promise (March 15) as to Sumter, 1861 April Ninth An angel’s heart, an angel’s mouth, [From lines written on the fly-leaf of a translation of the Iliad, presented to General Lee by the Oxford scholar in 1866] Surrender of Lee at Appomattox, 1865 April Tenth Furl that Banner, for ’tis weary; Lee issues farewell address to his army, 1865 Leonidas Polk born, 1806 April Eleventh Man is so constituted—the immutable laws of our being are such—that to stifle the sentiment and extinguish the hallowed memories of a people is to destroy their manhood. General John B. Gordon We had, I was satisfied, sacred principles to maintain and rights to defend for which we were in duty bound to do our best, even if we perished in the endeavor. General Robert E. Lee We must forevermore consecrate in our hearts our old battle flag of the Southern Cross—not now as a political symbol, but as the consecrated emblem of an heroic epoch. The people that forgets its heroic dead is already dying at the heart, and we believe we shall be truer and better citizens of the United States if we are true to our past. Randolph H. McKim April Twelfth From this time a clear-cut issue was formulated and presented to the States and the people. The “firing upon the flag of the nation” was made the immediate pretext for aggressive measures against the Lower South. As so heralded, it served to inflame the hearts of thousands who, it seems, had not noticed or who had forgotten, as it is forgotten to-day, that this was not the first firing upon the Stars and Stripes. The flag had been fired upon from the coast of South Carolina as early as January 9, 1861, for the same reason as that which provoked attack upon it on April 12. [From introduction to “The Battle of Baltimore,” The Sun, April 9, 1911.] Fort Sumter fired on by Beauregard, 1861 North Carolina instructs her delegates to the Continental Congress to declare for independence, 1776 Henry Clay born, 1777 April Thirteenth The history of the world presents no parallel to the manner in which he wrote himself upon his own age, and subsequent ages, with his pen. He was no teacher like Plato; he was not a professional litterateur like Voltaire; he was not a mere maker of books like Carlyle; and yet he put his stamp indelibly upon the minds and hearts of English-speaking people during his own day and for all time to come. Thomas E. Watson Thomas Jefferson born, 1743 April Fourteenth The fact is, the boys around here want watching, or they’ll take something. A few days ago I heard they surrounded two of our best citizens because they were named Fort and Sumter. Most of them are so hot that they fairly siz when you pour water on them, and that’s the way they make up their military companies here now—when a man applies to join the volunteers they sprinkle him, and if he sizzes they take him, and if he don’t they don’t! Major Charles H. Smith April Fifteenth There was but one exception to the general grief too remarkable to be passed over in silence. Among the extreme Radicals in Congress, Mr. Lincoln’s determined clemency and liberality towards the Southern people had made an impression so unfavorable that, though they were shocked at his murder, they did not, among themselves, conceal gratification that he was no longer in their way. Nicholay and Hay FORESHADOWING RECONSTRUCTION The Union League of America was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, during the war by friends of Thaddeus Stevens, the Radical leader of Congress. Its prime object was the confiscation of the property of the South. The chief obstacle to this program was Abraham Lincoln. Hence the first work of the League was to form a conspiracy against Lincoln and prevent his renomination for a second term. E. W. R. Ewing Abraham Lincoln dies, 1865 Federal Government issues a call for 75,000 volunteers, 1861 April Sixteenth I have only to say that the militia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object—an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the constitution or the act of 1795—will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the administration has exhibited towards the South. Governor Letcher April Seventeenth The scene [in the Virginia State Convention] is described as both solemn and affecting. One delegate, while speaking against the ordinance, broke down in incoherent sobs; another, who voted for it, wept like a child. The sentiment of the people had run ahead of their leaders. S. C. Mitchell It may be safely asserted that but for the adoption by the Federal Government of the policy of coercion towards the Cotton States, Virginia would not have seceded.... She simply in the hour of danger and sacrifice held faithful to the principles which she had ofttimes declared and which have ever found sturdy defenders in every part of the Republic. Beverley B. Munford Virginia secedes, 1861 April Eighteenth Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but 50,000 if necessary for the defense of our rights or those of our Southern brothers. Governor Harris I say emphatically that Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister States. Governor Magoffin April Nineteenth Hark to an exiled son’s appeal, Citizens of Baltimore, objecting to coercion of the seceded States, oppose the passing of the Sixth Massachusetts, their action resulting in the first bloodshed of the War, 1861 April Twentieth The tempting prize offered Lee in the shape of supreme command of the Army of the Union did not swerve him from his integrity for an instant. It was currently reported at the time that Gen. Winfield Scott implored him, “For God’s sake, don’t resign!” Every argument that power, luxury, limitless resources, and the untrammeled control of the situation could devise was brought to bear upon him. Henry E. Shepherd Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army, 1861 April Twenty-First From the date of its settlement, Maryland became the Land of Sanctuary—the only spot in the known world where the persecuted of all lands were at liberty to worship God according to the dictates of their own hearts. Freedom of conscience was offered by Lord Baltimore to the oppressed of the Old World, thus carrying into effect the original motive of Sir George Calvert’s colonization scheme when seeking a charter from King Charles I. Hester Dorsey Richardson Passage of the “Act Concerning Religion” by the Maryland Assembly, 1649, endorsing the principles of religious toleration promulgated by Cecilius Calvert in 1634 Independence of Texas established at San Jacinto, 1836 April Twenty-Second The dusk of the South is tender Capture of Plymouth, N. C., by Gen. R. D. Hoke, 1864 April Twenty-Third In seeds of laurel in the earth Randall writes “My Maryland” at Pointe Coupee, La., 1861 Father Ryan dies, 1886 April Twenty-Fourth Apropos of this last, let me confess, Mr. President—before the praise of New England has died on my lips—that I believe the best product of her present life is the procession of 17,000 Vermont Democrats that for twenty-two years, undiminished by death, unrecruited by birth or conversion, have marched over their rugged hills, cast their Democratic ballots, and gone back home to pray for their unregenerate neighbors, and awoke to read the record of 26,000 Republican majority! May the God of the helpless and heroic help them! Henry W. Grady Henry W. Grady born, 1851 April Twenty-Fifth Her lot may be hard, her skies may darken; April Twenty-Sixth Homes without the means of support were no longer homes. With barns and mills and implements for tilling the soil all gone, with cattle, sheep, and every animal that furnished food to the helpless inmates carried off, they were dismal abodes of hunger, of hopelessness, and of almost measureless woe. General John B. Gordon Joseph E. Johnston surrenders at Greensboro, N. C., 1865 April Twenty-Seventh The twilight hours, like birds, flew by, April Twenty-Eighth Too much roseate nonsense has been indulged about life on the plantation or in the city in the ante-bellum days. Neither the planter nor the factor nor the lawyer led a life of idle ease and pleasure; they were workers, whose energy built up the State; they lived often rather in rude profusion than in luxury. Pierce Butler James Monroe born, 1758 April Twenty-Ninth Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Thomas Jefferson April Thirtieth To Jefferson’s initiative and farsightedness we owe it that we secured without bloodshed, for a trifling sum of money, a territory which doubled our republic, assured its expansion to the Gulf of Mexico and to the Pacific, and thus lifted us, by a stroke of genius, into a world power of the first class. Thomas E. Watson Jefferson acquires the Louisiana territory from France, 1803 Washington inaugurated first President of the United States, 1789 |
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