  TO TIME, THE OLD TRAVELER They slander thee, Old Traveler, January First Some thunder on the heights of song, their race O’er those who lost and those who won, Paul Hamilton Hayne born, 1830 James Ryder Randall, Laureate of the War between the States, born, 1839 January Second ... In a word, In this epitaph we have what is in all probability the single poem in any true sense—the single product of sustained poetic art—that was written in America for a hundred and fifty years after the settlement of Jamestown. William P. Trent Nathaniel Bacon, “The First American Rebel,” born, 1647 January Third The only calendar Alfred Mordecai born, 1804 January Fourth The strange and curious race madness of the American Republic will be a study for centuries to come. That madness took a child-race out of a warm cradle, threw it into the ocean of politics—the stormiest and most treacherous we have known—and bade it swim for its own and the life of the nation! Myrta Lockett Avary The Social Equality Bill passed in Louisiana, 1869 January Fifth What the cloud doeth January Sixth Few have equaled the old time negro at repartee, and a true Southerner heartily relished a clever rejoinder to his good natured raillery. The rejoinder was frequently overwhelming, always respectful, and generally worth an immediate acknowledgment in cash or old clothes. “Is that you, Peter?” called an old Confederate to his former body-servant on the road. Peter grinned broadly as he doffed his hat. “Yas, suh, dis yer me.” “Well, well!” laughed the other. “I see that all the old fools are not dead yet.” “Dat’s so, Mars’ Tom.” Peter pulled his grizzly forelock appreciatively. “I’s monsus glad to see dat you’s in such good health, suh.” January Seventh A WELL-KNOWN TYPE OF SOUTHERN MATRON BEFORE THE WAR Full well she knew the seriousness of life. Over and over the cares and responsibilities of her station as the mother of so many children, the mistress of so many servants and the hostess of so many guests, had utterly overwhelmed her. * * * * * Into how many negro cabins had she not gone, when the night was far spent and the lamp of life flickered low in the breast of the dying slave! How often she ministered to him with her own hands! * * * * Nay, had she not knelt by his lowly bed and poured out her heart to God as his soul winged its flight, and closed his glazed and staring eyes as the day was dawning? Yet the morning meal found her at her accustomed seat, tranquil and helpful, and no one but her husband the wiser for her night’s ministrations. George W. Bagby Fort Marion, Florida, seized by order of the Governor of Florida, 1861 January Eighth Jackson’s line, extending about half a mile from the river to the swamp, was defended by a water-filled ditch and by a parapet of varying height and thickness. The idea that it was built of cotton bales is an absurd fiction that brings back the inspiring picture in Peter Parley’s old history of our childhood days.... Pierce Butler “What stopped you?” General Pakenham asked of a regiment of Scotch Highlanders. To which their colonel replied: “Bullets, mon! bullets! Auld Julius Caesar himself wouldn’t have charged those devils.” The “Hunting Shirt Men” of the South versus Wellington’s Peninsular veterans in the Battle of New Orleans, 1815; General Pakenham, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington killed James Longstreet born, 1821 January Ninth Consider the lark! How he rises on wing, [These lines, typifying so much of the poetical expression of the old South, were written by former Surgeon H. M. Clarkson, C. S. A., who, on January 9, 1861, as a corporal of artillery, fired a single shot from Fort Moultrie to challenge the Star of the West in its attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter. On the same occasion two other shots were fired by the State cadets stationed on Morris Island, driving the transport from the harbor. It is not improbable, therefore, that, as the challenger of the hostile steamer, the writer of these verses fired the first shot of the war between the States. Corporal Clarkson was in charge of gun No. 13.—Editor] The United States transport “Star of the West” attempts to reinforce Fort Sumter, 1861 General John B. Gordon dies, 1904 Mississippi secedes, 1861 January Tenth SECESSION: A SOUTHERN VIEW, 1861 A State, finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has judged she is—in which her safety requires that she should provide for the maintenance of her rights out of the Union—surrenders all the benefits (and they are known to be many), deprives herself of the advantages (and they are known to be great), severs all the ties of affection (and they are close and enduring), which have bound her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit—taking upon herself every burden—she claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of the United States within her limits. Jefferson Davis (Farewell Address in United States Senate) SECESSION: FROM THE NORTHERN STANDPOINT, 1814 Whenever it shall appear that these causes are radical and permanent, a separation by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by constraint, among nominal friends, but real enemies, inflamed by mutual hatred and jealousy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and aggression from abroad. —Journal of the Hartford Convention Florida secedes, 1861 The “Bonnie Blue Flag” first sung in public at Jackson Mississippi, 1861 January Eleventh The States of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were engaged in practical movements for the gradual emancipation of their slaves. This movement continued until it was arrested by the aggressions of the Abolitionists. George Lunt And if the secrets of all hearts could have been revealed, our enemies would have been astounded to see how many thousands and tens of thousands in the Southern States felt the crushing burden and the awful responsibility of the institution which we were supposed to be defending with the melodramatic fury of pirate kings. We were born to this social order, we had to do our duty in it according to our lights, and this duty was made indefinitely more difficult by the interference of those who, as we thought, could not understand the conditions of the problem, and who did not have to bear the expense of the experiments they proposed. Basil L. Gildersleeve Thomas Jefferson Randolph’s resolutions on the abolition of slavery introduced for extended debate in the Virginia Assembly, 1832 Alabama secedes, 1861 January Twelfth We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil, January Thirteenth FIFTY YEARS AFTER—THE VIEW OF A FEDERAL OFFICER OF ’61-’65 In case of direct and insoluble issue between Sovereign State and Sovereign Nation, every man was not only free to decide, but had to decide the question of ultimate allegiance for himself; and whichever way he decided he was right. Charles Francis Adams January Fourteenth LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE Maury furnished the brains, England gave the money, and I did the work. Cyrus W. Field After a little while Matthew Fontaine Maury born, 1806 James Ryder Randall dies, 1908 January Fifteenth A Northerner, who had purchased an estate in Virginia, noticed that smoke always emanated from the chimney of a cabin near his woods where an old negro lived. One day, on meeting the old colored man, he asked: “Where do you get your wood, Uncle?” The latter eyed him with an expression of great reproach and replied: “My pa was coachman at the Gret House, and he pa, and he pa; ‘whar I git my wood?’ That ain’t no question for one gen’l’man to ax an’er!” Fort Fisher, North Carolina, captured, 1865 January Sixteenth When wintry days are dark and drear Forcible resistance to British Stamp Act under Colonel Hugh Waddell, of Wilmington, N. C., 1766 January Seventeenth VALLEY FORGE EXCEEDED Starvation, literal starvation, was doing its deadly work. So depleted and poisoned was the blood of many of Lee’s men from insufficient and unsound food that a slight wound which would probably not have been reported at the beginning of the war would often cause blood-poison, gangrene, and death. Yet the spirits of these brave men seemed to rise as their condition grew more desperate.... It was a harrowing but not uncommon sight to see those hungry men gather the wasted corn from under the feet of half-fed horses, and wash and parch and eat it to satisfy in some measure their craving for food. General John B. Gordon Tarleton routed at the battle of the Cowpens, S. C., 1781 January Eighteenth While the Confederate soldiers were in the trenches, the ingenuity of the Southern women was taxed to the utmost to supply their household needs. Medicine had been declared contraband of war by the Federal Government, and salt works were made a special object for attack. Remedies were improvised from herbs of all kinds; the dirt floor of the meat house was boiled for the salt it contained; soap was made from china-berries and lye; candles out of resin or waxed rope wound around a corncob; thorns were used for pins; shoes were fashioned out of canvas, and supplied with wooden soles; buttons were made from persimmon seed; tumblers out of glass bottles; tea out of berry leaves; and coffee was made from sweet potatoes and dandelion seed. [Condensed from accounts of war times—Ed.] January Nineteenth ENGLISH TRIBUTES TO AMERICAN GENIUS Lee—One of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all the generals who have spoken the English tongue. Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B. Poe—How can so strange and fine a genius and so sad a life be expressed and compressed in one line? Lord Tennyson Robert Edward Lee born, 1807 Edgar Allan Poe born, 1809 Georgia secedes, 1861 January Twentieth No truth is lost for which the true are weeping, January Twenty-First The following lines are remarkable in that they represent a boy’s estimate of Stonewall Jackson before the war between the States. They were written by William Fitzhugh Lee when a cadet under Jackson at the Virginia Military Institute:— Like some rough brute that roams the forest wild, Stonewall Jackson born, 1824 January Twenty-Second Wherein, then, lay his strength, and what was the secret of his influence over all this land? I answer in one word—character. And what is meant by character? Courage? Yes; courage of his opinions, and physical courage as well; for he had a Briton’s faith in pluck. Pride of race? In a limited sense, yes. Honesty? The question is almost an insult. Love of truth? Yes, undying love of it. George W. Bagby January Twenty-Third I reckon hit’s well we wuz all set free, January Twenty-Fourth Dem sassy young niggers, dey plum’ disgrace January Twenty-Fifth Ah, only from his golden throne, George E. Pickett born, 1825 January Twenty-Sixth THREE VIEWS OF SECESSION CONNECTED WITH LOUISIANA; 1803-1811-1861 Resolved, that the annexation of Louisiana to the Union transcends the Constitutional power of the Government of the United States. It formed a New Confederacy to which the States united by the former compact are not bound to adhere. Massachusetts Legislature Louisiana secedes from the Union, 1861 Virginia readmitted to the Union, 1870 January Twenty-Seventh If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of this Union, that it will free the States from their moral obligations, and as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must. Josiah Quincy Richard Taylor born, 1826 January Twenty-Eighth The rights of Louisiana as a sovereign State are those of Virginia; no more, no less. Let those who deny her right to resume delegated powers successfully refute the claim of Virginia to the same right, in spite of her expressed reservation made and notified to her sister States when she consented to enter the Union.... For two-thirds of a century this right has been known by many of the States to be, at all times, within their power. Judah P. Benjamin January Twenty-Ninth It was Lee who suggested the capture of Stony Point, and it was a band of North Carolinians who formed Wayne’s head of column in the assault upon that fortress. Three hundred Virginians followed Lee in his successful dash against Paulus Hook on the Jersey coast, August, 1779. Henry A. White Henry Lee (“Light Horse Harry”) born, 1756 January Thirtieth UNCLE REMUS AT THE TELEPHONE “Yer ’tis, Miss Sally,” said Uncle Remus after listening a moment. “Dey’s a mighty zooin’ gwine on in dar, en I dunner whe’er Mars John tryin’ ter scramble out, er whe’er he des tryin’ fer ter make hisself comfertuble in dar.” “What did he say, Remus?” “He up en low’d dat one un us wus a vilyun but dey wuz such a buzzin’ gwine on in dar dat I couldn’t ’zactly ketch the rights un it.” Joel Chandler Harris January Thirty-first I wish I was in the land of cotton, |
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