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 Eighteentb 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 (From letler in Poe Memorial Vol., 1877) Robert Edward Lee born, 1807 Edgar Allan Poe born, 1809 Georgia secedes, 1861 January Twentietb No truth is lost for which the true are weeping, Nor dead for which they died. FRANCIS O. TICKNOR 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, So rude, uncouth, so purely Nature's child, Is "Hickory," and yet methinks I see The stamp of genius on his brow; and he, With his mild glance and keen, but quiet eye, Can draw forth from the secret recess where they lie Those thoughts and feelings of the human heart Most virtuous, good, and free from guilty art. His honors meekly and who wears The laurels of a hero! This is a fact, 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 ("The Old Virginia Gentleman") January Twenty-Third I reckon hit's well we wuz all set free, I s'pose dat's de way folks wuz meant ter be, But I kain't see w'y dey's no manners lef’ Jes' kase dey happens ter own deyse'f. I dunno rightly how ol' I is, Hit mought be eighty, I reckon 'tis, Yit I nuver gone now'ers, I tells you true, But I tucken my manners an' breedin', too. ANNE VIRGINIA CULBERTSON |