January Sirtb 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 Eightb 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 Minth Consider the lark! How he rises on wing, To warble his notes though no listener be near. [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 Tentb 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 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. Florida secedes, 1861 -Journal of the Hartford Convention The "Bonnie Blue Flag" first sung in public at Jackson Mississippi, 1861 |