Francis Warrington Dawson

“ There is far more behind; more than can ever be told. Far be it from any of us to indict a whole people, or condemn every Northern soldier. There were, indeed, shining instances of kindness and even gentleness. But the incongruous character of the elements of which the Northern army was composed must be taken into account. It was not, perhaps, reasonable to expect that they would behave in the South as the Confederate army behaved in Pennsylvania. Doubtless the officers of the Northern army, and many of the men as well, are heartily ashamed of the conduct of their comrades. ”

“ There is high satisfaction in the knowledge that the soldiers and statesmen of the South were not unmindful of the services of the Southern women, and freely gave expression to their appreciation of their myriad acts of devotion. In the breast of every Confederate soldier there was a feeling of gratitude which grew more intense from campaign to campaign, and that can never be effaced. ”

“ That they have received statements of wrongs, injuries and outrages committed by the enemy in only four States of the Confederacy—Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina and South Carolina—and that these embrace only a small part of what has been suffered by our citizens in these States. But those statements show that our invaders have been utterly regardless of every principle of lawful warfare, every precept of the Christian religion, and every sentiment of enlightened humanity. They have not spared even the memorials of our dead or suffer their remains to rest undisturbed. ”

“ Large women appeared squeezed into garments of smallest proportions, small women floating about in almost limitless space, while women of tall statue dangled below circumscribed skirts, and others trailed about in fathoms of useless material. To all these eccentricities of costumes the Confederate eye had become inured, as well as to the striking effect of blue bonnets with green plumes, red dresses with purple mantles, &c., until these extraordinary modes failed to offend even the most fastidious. ”

“ In the South there was need of the utmost ingenuity to procure what was strictly requisite. Of all the marvels of Southern life, in those days, none was greater than the success of the women in making much out of little, and apparently something out of nothing. Their love, their devotion, gave them a patient ingenuity and enduring readiness which no phrase can adequately portray or define.
When the soldiers came home, there was a jubilee, for they brought particular tidings of others as well as themselves. ”

“ This virtue, this perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion, was manifested on every side, and on all occasions, by Southern women during the Confederate war. Their constancy and fidelity, their tenderness and courage, their unfailing cheerfulness and patience, have no parallel in the history of human achievement and human suffering.
Think for a moment of the peculiar circumstances. The soldiers on the Northern side fought as the Confederates fought, and were equally exposed to the fatigue of the march and the hazard of battle. But the Northern soldier was well-clad, well-fed, well-armed. ”

“ The want of means became a jest, and nobody mourned over it, while all were laboring to repair their wasted fortunes as they best could. And all this was due to the unconquerable cheerfulness of the Southern women. The men came home moody, worn out, discouraged, and but for the influence of woman’s cheerfulness the Southern States might have fallen into a lethargy from which they could not have recovered for generations. Such prosperity as they have since achieved is largely due to the courage and spirit of their noble women. ”

“ It is a subject on which every “Old Rebel” delights to dwell. It makes your fair city inconceivably dear to the peoples of what were the Confederate States.
Of the gallant soldiers you gave to the Southern Confederacy—who, as their historian tells us, “struck the first blow in Baltimore and the last in Virginia”—it is sufficient to say, in the words of Mr. Davis, that “the world will accord to them peculiar credit, as it has always done to those who leave their hearthstones to fight for principle in the land of others.” ”

“ In conclusion the committee feel warranted in saying that the conduct of the war, on the part of our enemies, has not exhibited the moderation, the forbearance, the chivalrous courtesy, the magnanimity or Christian charity which the spirit of the age demands, and which the practice of civilized nations for several centuries last past has generally illustrated. It has been a war against property, both public and private; against both sexes and against all classes of society; against the political, moral and religious sentiment of our people; against their honor and their public affection ”

“ The horrors practiced by the Lincoln Government upon the people of that beautiful and refined city, Baltimore, have earned for it the name of the Warsaw of America.
“Men alone are not the only victims of the accursed tyranny, but even ladies of rank are similarly situated, their crimes being receiving letters from absent husbands and fathers, or wearing red and white ribbons on dresses, or having given charity to the widow or orphan of some one who died in the Southern army. ”

“ Twelve of the members of his family wore the Confederate gray, and he was the ninth to be slain, and all of them in the same regiment. But why prolong the harrowing record! It establishes what was asserted in the beginning—that, in the nature and extent of their sorrows and sufferings, the Southern women were tried as no other women were ever tried, and that, whoever else grew hopeless and timorous, they were unflinching and unbending, faithful and true. ”

“ We won’t wait another moment on you to deliver up the gold. Tell us where it is, or by G— I’ll shoot you down.’
“In a shorter time than I can relate it, the inhuman wretches dragged my helpless brother beneath a large maple tree, and placing a strong rope around his neck, prepared to execute their threat. Ah! the agony of that moment! We read of the times that tried men’s hearts, but where is the pen that can ever portray the depths of suffering which have been fathomed by the hearts of Southern women during the dark days of Secession! ”

“ Before the close of the conflict I knew women to walk twenty miles for a half bushel of coarse, musty meal with which to feed their starving little ones, and leave the impress of their feet in blood on the stones of the wayside ere they reached home again. ”

“ When all else failed—when the banner of the South was furled forever—you came forward to alleviate our grief in showing us that you were as true in defeat as in triumph, and that, for you, failure abated not a jot the merit, or the justice of the freedom for which we fought, nor lessened by a particle your interest in us, or your care for us. ”

“ Soon, all too soon, the provision for the care of the sick and wounded was found to be insufficient, and the Southern women then entered into their highest and most exalted labor, blessed and blessing. There was some little trouble in the beginning, perhaps, as young girls wanted to visit the hospitals at inconvenient times, and paid but little heed to a surgeon’s orders, regarding diet, when the sufferer was handsome or otherwise interesting. Every visitor wanted to do something for the soldiers. A joke was current in Richmond in those days which is worth recalling. ”

“ In a single word, the Southern women, old and young, gentle and simple, had but one thought, and that was to aid and encourage, in every conceivable way, the soldiers of the South. Aye! and the valor in the field would have but little worth without the bravery at home. ”

“ Accompanied by every act of cruelty and rapine, the conduct of the enemy has been destitute of that forbearance and magnanimity which civilization and Christianity have introduced to mitigate the asperities of war. ”

“ For us, there is no country but this country. There is no flag but “the old flag.” To that country and to that flag we are true, in the measure of our truth to the cause that was lost and the flag that is furled forever. How could it be otherwise? The harder the soldier fights, and the better soldier he is, the more is he to be trusted when the strife and carnage are over. ”

“ They have robbed many persons of relics of deceased parents, children or other relatives and friends, which were invaluable to them and valueless to the robbers, merely to torture the souls of our citizens and satisfy their own mean and malevolent animosity. They have murdered peaceful and unoffending citizens, and have seized and taken many of them far from their families and homes, and incarcerated them in prisons of the United States. ”

“ Houses are pillaged and burned, churches are defaced, towns are ransacked, clothing of women and infants is stripped from their persons, jewelry and mementoes of the dead are stolen, mills and implements of agriculture are destroyed, private salt works are broken up, the introduction of medicines is forbidden, means of subsistence are wantonly wasted to produce beggary, prisoners are returned with contagious diseases, the last morsel of food has been taken from families who were not allowed to carry on a trade or branch of industry ”

“ We kept them to apply to the feet of those laggard old soldiers who were suspected of preferring the luxury of hospital life to the activity of the field, and such was the effect of the application of these warlike socks that even a threat of it had the effect of sending a man to his regiment who had been lingering for months in inactivity. It came to be a standing joke in the hospital, and was infinitely enjoyed by the men. If a poor wretch was out of his bed over a week he would be threatened with Gen. Lee’s socks, and through this means some most obstinate chronic cases were cured. ”

“ And not only in Virginia. There is a venerable gentle woman in South Carolina, who numbers well-nigh four-score years, who insists to this day that the best coffee she ever tasted was made during 15the war, and from rye at that. Such were our Southern women. This lady last mentioned was born in a Northern State, yet firmly believes that there is no place like the South, and that, as one of the preachers said at Columbia, after the burning of that city, “there will be no villanous Yankees in the New Jerusalem”—unless “they have entirely new hearts.” ”

“ It seemed, indeed, that in our poverty, in the ashes of our homes and confronting a problem which was then insoluble and is not solved yet, we were dearer to you than in the pomp and pride of a struggle, which—if right were might—must have had the consummation we wished. ”

“ Far harder would have been the lot of the Maryland soldiers, far more difficult would it have been for them to enter into the service, if they had not the active assistance of our Southern women. The 28Maryland Line, as you know, was organized in May, 1861, for the special purpose of representing our State in the Confederate army. It had, therefore, no State to look to for arms or clothing. Virginia had not arms enough for her own necessities, and there was danger that the Maryland battalion would be disbanded, because of the impossibility of procuring arms. ”

“ All night long the men kept up their wild orgies, quarrelling and even fighting meantime for a fresh distribution of spoil. The new-comers wanted their share, and at the point of the bayonet urged their demand. To make matters worse the negroes held a revel of their own to celebrate the advent of their ‘Northern bred’rin.’ For hours we could hear them dancing and shouting, and calling down all manner of blessings on ‘Ole Mars’ Lincoln,’ until overcome by excitement and the whiskey they had imbibed they fell exhausted into a drunken sleep. ”

“ Against the men no charges are made, and the only warrant on which they are held is that their names are inscribed by Mr. Lincoln, or Mr. Seward, upon a list in the hands of a convicted murderer and burglar.”
“The prime executioner and minister to the vengeance of Lincoln and Seward is of the most abhorrent stamp, and has inaugurated their reign of terror in Baltimore only as such a wretch could conceive it. ”

“ To others they offered the choice of a prison, or an oath of allegiance to the United States. They have rushed, by regiments, battalions or companies, into our villages and robbed, like banditti, both men and women, in their dwellings and on the streets, of money, watches and other jewelry. Their soldiers have indulged their brutal passions upon women, sometimes in open day and public places, with impunity, if not by license of their officers. They have not spared either age, sex or calling. ”

“ There is nowhere in the obligations of present citizenship any obligation to consign to charitable oblivion the deeds which stain ineffaceably the reputation of those who committed them, and which stain still more darkly the reputation of those, in high authority, by whom the shame and sin were conceived and directed! ”