As lightly and as free;
Ten thousand stars were in the sky,
Ten thousand in the sea;
For every wave, with dimpled face,
That leaped into the air,
Had caught a star in its embrace
And held it trembling there.
AMELIA B. WELBY
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_
May
AT ARLINGTON
The dead had rest; the Dove of Peace
Brooded o'er both with equal wings;
To both had come that great surcease.
The last omnipotent release
From all the world's delirious stings.
To bugle deaf and signal-gun,
They slept, like heroes of old Greece,
Beneath the glebe at Arlington.
And in the Spring's benignant reign,
The sweet May woke her harp of pines;
Teaching her choir a thrilling strain
Of jubilee to land and main.
She danced in emerald down the lines;
Denying largesse bright to none,
She saw no difference in the signs
That told who slept at Arlington.
She gave her grasses and her showers
To all alike who dreamed in dust;
Her song-birds wove their dainty bowers
Amid the jasmine buds and flowers,
And piped with an impartial trust--
Waifs of the air and liberal sun,
Their guileless glees were kind and just
To friend and foe at Arlington.
JAMES RYDER RANDALL
May First
The linnet, the lark, and oriel
Were chanting the loves they chant so well;
It was blue all above, below all green,
With the radiant glow of noon between.
JOSEPH SALYARDS
(_Idothea_; Idyl III)
May Second
A strange fatality attended us! Jackson killed in the zenith of his
successful career; Longstreet wounded when in the act of striking a blow
that would have rivalled Jackson's at Chancellorsville in its results; and
in each case the fire was from our own men! A blunder! Call it so; the old
deacon would say that God willed it thus.
COL. WALTER H. TAYLOR
_Stonewall Jackson wounded at Chancellorsville, 1863_
_Emma Sanson directs Forrest in pursuit of Streight, 1863_
May Third
Chancellorsville, where 130,000 men were defeated by 60,000, is up to a
certain point as much the tactical masterpiece of the nineteenth century
as was Leuthen of the eighteenth.
LIEUT.-COL. G. F. R. HENDERSON, C.B.
General Pender, you must hold your ground, you must hold your ground.
JACKSON'S Last Command
May Fourth
The productions of nature soon became my playmates. I felt that an
intimacy with them not consisting of friendship merely, but bordering on
frenzy, must accompany my steps through life.
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
_John James Audubon born, 1780_
May Fifth
Lord of Hosts, that beholds us in battle, defending
The homes of our sires 'gainst the hosts of the foe,
Send us help on the wings of thy angels descending,
And shield from his terrors and baffle his blow.
Warm the faith of our sons, till they flame as the iron,
Red glowing from the fire-forge, kindled by zeal;
Make them forward to grapple the hordes that environ,
In the storm-rush of battle, through forests of steel!
From the Charleston _Mercury_
_Battle of the Wilderness; Lee, with 60,000 men, attacks Grant with
140,000, 1864_
May Sixth
It depends on the State itself, to retain or abolish the principle of
representation, because it depends on itself whether it will continue a
member of the Union. To deny this right would be inconsistent with the
principle on which all our political systems are founded, which is, that
the people have, in all cases, a right to determine how they will be
governed.
(Rawle's text-book on the Constitution, taught at West Point before
the War between the States)
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, AMERICAN DISRAELI
Who is the man, save this one, of whom it can be said that he held
conspicuous leadership at the bar of two countries?
SIR HENRY JAMES
(England)
_Tennessee and Arkansas secede, 1861_
_Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State, dies, 1884_
May Seventh
The slaves who ran away from their masters were set to work at once by
General Butler and made to keep at it, much to their annoyance. One of
these, having been put to it rather strong, said: "Golly, Massa Butler,
dis nigger nebber had to work so hard befo'; dis chile gwine secede once
moah."
Ohio _Statesman_, 1861
May Eighth
Having completed our repairs on May 8th, and while returning to our old
anchorage, we heard heavy firing, and, going down the harbor, found the
_Monitor_, with the iron-clads _Galena_, _Naugatuck_, and a number of
heavy ships, shelling our batteries at Sewell's Point. We stood directly
for the _Monitor_, but as we approached they all ceased firing and
retreated below the forts.
COL. JOHN TAYLOR WOOD
_The "Virginia" again challenges the "Monitor" to battle, 1862_
_Battle of Palo Alto, 1846_
May Ninth
MOTHERS' DAY
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother."
EDGAR ALLAN POE
May Tenth
Fearless and strong, self-dependent and ambitious, he had within him the
making of a Napoleon, and yet his name is without spot or blemish.
LIEUT.-COL. G. F. R. HENDERSON, C.B.
... Ask the world--
The world has heard his story--
If all its annals can unfold
A prouder tale of glory?
If ever merely human life
Hath taught diviner moral--
If ever round a worthier brow
Was twined a purer laurel?
MARGARET J. PRESTON
_Stonewall Jackson dies, 1863_
May Eleventh
The Spanish legend tells us of the Cid,
That after death he rode erect, sedately
Along his lines, even as in life he did,
In presence yet more stately.
And thus our Stuart at this moment seems
To ride out of our dark and troubled story
Into the region of romance and dreams,
A realm of light and glory.
JOHN R. THOMPSON
_J. E. B. Stuart mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, 1864_
May Twelfth
General Lee, you shall not lead my men in a charge!
GORDON
General Lee to the rear!--_His Soldiers._
I do wish somebody would tell me where my place is on the field of battle!
Wherever I go to look after the fight, I am told, "This is no place for
you; you must go away."
ROBERT E. LEE
_Lee, with 50,000 men, repulses Grant with 100,000, at Spottsylvania Court
House; Lee "ordered" to the rear, 1864_
May Thirteenth
Good is the Saxon speech! clear, short, and strong,
Its clean-cut words, fit both for prayer and song;
Good is this tongue for all the needs of life;
Good for sweet words with friend, or child, or wife.
* * * * *
'Tis good for laws; for vows of youth and maid;
Good for the preacher; or shrewd folk in trade;
Good for sea-calls when loud the rush of spray;
Good for war-cries where men meet hilt to hilt,
And man's best blood like new-trod wine is spilt,--
Good for all times, and good for what thou wilt!
JAMES BARRON HOPE
_Landing at Jamestown, 1607_
_Texas troops, C. S. A., defeat Federals in last battle of the War, at
Palmito Ranch, 1865, the victors learning from their prisoners that the
Confederacy had fallen (Chas. Wm. Ramsdell)_
May Fourteenth
[This exploration] was undertaken at the instance of President Jefferson,
and together with the voyage which Captain Gray of Boston had made to the
Columbia, in 1792, gave the United States a claim to all the territory
covered by the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE
_Lewis and Clark start from St. Louis on northwestern expedition, 1804_
May Fifteenth
Throughout the events that led up to the Revolution, it seemed ordained
that Massachusetts was to suffer and Virginia to sympathize. Until the
outbreak of actual hostilities scarcely anything of moment occurred on the
soil of Virginia to incite her sons to champion the cause of freedom.
Indeed, from the beginning of the controversy between the colonies and the
mother country, the British Ministry seemed to have avoided any special
cause of irritation to the people of the Old Dominion. The part,
therefore, which Virginia took in the events of those days must be
attributed to her devotion to the principles of liberty, to her interest
in the common cause of the colonies, and particularly to her sympathy with
Massachusetts in the suffering which that province was called upon to
endure. If we lose sight of these motives as the springs of Virginia's
conduct in that struggle, we shall be unable to appreciate either the
nobility of her spirit or the wisdom and energy which marked her
initiative.
S. C. MITCHELL
_Virginia opposes Boston Port Bill, 1774_
May Sixteenth
I refuse to make any acknowledgments for what I have done. My blood will
be as seed sown in good ground, which will produce a hundred fold.
JAMES PUGH
(_Before execution under Gov. Tryon, North Carolina, 1771_)
_Battle of Alamance Creek, 1771_
May Seventeenth
He came into military and political life like some blazing meteor, with
exceeding brilliance and splendor speeding across the horizon of history.
His activities in politics and war covered only a brief span of seventeen
years, 1848 to 1865, and in so short a period but few men ever received
more, maintained their parts better, were the recipients of greater
honors, or bore themselves with nobler dignity, greater skill or more
superb courage either in victory or defeat.
BENNETT H. YOUNG
_John C. Breckinridge dies, 1875_
May Eighteenth
Hushed is the roll of the rebel drum,
The sabres are sheathed and the cannon are dumb;
And Fate, with pitiless hand, has furled
The flag that once challenged the gaze of the world.
JOHN R. THOMPSON
(_From "Lee to the Rear"_)
May Nineteenth
But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides,
And down into history grandly rides
Calm and unmoved as in battle he sat,
The gray-bearded man in the black slouch hat.
JOHN R. THOMPSON
(_From "Lee to the Rear"_)
May Twentieth
You can get no troops from North Carolina.
GOV. ELLIS
(_Reply to Washington administration, April 15, 1861_)
_North Carolina secedes from the Union, 1861_
May Twenty-First
The Dixie girls wear homespun cotton,
But their winning smiles I've not forgotten;
Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.
They've won my heart and naught surpasses
My love for the bright-eyed Dixie lasses;
Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.
Chorus:
I'll give my life for Dixie;
Away, away;
In Dixie's land I'll take my stand,
And live and die for Dixie.
Away, away,
Away down South in Dixie.
MARIE LOUISE EVE
May Twenty-Second
How brilliant is the morning star;
The evening star how tender;
The light of both is in her eyes,--
Their softness and their splendor;
But for the lash that shades their sight,
They were too dazzling for the light,
And when she shuts them all is night,--
The daughter of Mendoza.
MIRABEAU B. LAMAR
May Twenty-Third
Great Chieftain of our choice,
Albeit that people's voice
No comfort speaks in thy lone granite keep;
Through those harsh iron bars
There come back from the stars
Low echoes of the prayers they nightly weep.
WILLIAM MUNFORD
_Jefferson Davis puts in irons at Fort Monroe, 1865_
May Twenty-Fourth
Yet to all Americans it must be a regrettable chapter in our history when
it is remembered that this man was no common felon, but a prisoner of
state, a distinguished Indian fighter, a Mexican veteran, a man who had
held a seat in Congress, who had been Secretary of War of the United
States, and who for four years had stood at the head of the Confederate
States.
MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY
(_Davis in chains_)
May Twenty-Fifth
A rich and well-stored mind is the only true philosopher's stone,
extracting pure gold from all the base material around. It can create its
own beauty, wealth, power, happiness. It has no dreary solitudes. The past
ages are its possession, and the long line of the illustrious dead are all
its friends.
GEORGE DAVIS
May Twenty-Sixth
Cease firing! There are here no foes to fight!
Grim war is o'er and smiling peace now reigns;
Cease useless strife--no matter who was right--
True magnanimity from hate abstains.
Cease firing!
MAJOR WILLIAM MEADE PEGRAM
_The last Confederate army, under General Kirby Smith, surrenders at Baton
Rouge, 1865_
May Twenty-Seventh
Representing nothing on God's earth now,
And naught in the water below it,
As a pledge of a nation that's dead and gone,
Keep it, dear Captain, and show it.
Show it to those who will lend an ear
To the tale this paper can tell
Of liberty born, of the patriot's dream,
Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.
Too poor to possess the precious ores,
And too much of a stranger to borrow,
We issued to-day our promise to pay,
And hoped to repay on the morrow.
MAJOR S. A. JONAS
(_From "Lines on the back of a
Confederate note"_)
May Twenty-Eighth
Old time negroes intuitively knew who "belonged" to them and who did not.
The following incident is told of Senator Sumner's visit to friends at
Gallatin, Tennessee, some years before the war; the colloquy is between
the Senator and "Old Virginia Jeff:"
"Jeff, I hear you call all the white folks down here 'Marse'--'Marse
Henry,' 'Marse John' or what not, isn't that true?"
"Yas, sah."
"And you always call me 'Mister Sumner.' Now, Jeff, here's a quarter.
During the rest of my visit you call me Marse Charles, you hear?"
MAJOR JOHN C. WRENSHALL
_P. G. T. Beauregard born, 1818_
May Twenty-Ninth
If we wish to be free--if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable
privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not
basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long
engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the
glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat
it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all
that is left us!
PATRICK HENRY
_Patrick Henry born, 1736_
May Thirtieth
Those who oppose slavery in Kansas do not base their opposition upon any
philanthropic principles, or any sympathy for the African race. For, in
their so-called Constitution, framed at Topeka, they deem that entire race
so inferior and degraded as to exclude them all forever from Kansas,
whether they be bond or free.
ROBERT J. WALKER
_Kansas given territorial rights by Congress, 1854_
May Thirty-First
SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE
... All down the hills of Habersham,
All through the valleys of Hall,
The rushes cried _Abide, abide_,
The wilful waterweeds held me thrall,
The laving laurel turned my tide,
The ferns and the fondling grass said _Stay_.
The dewberry dipped for to work delay,
And the little reeds sighed _Abide, abide_,
_Here in the hills of Habersham_,
_Here in the valleys of Hall_.
SIDNEY LANIER
_British Government declared suspended in North Carolina (Mecklenburg)
1775_
June
THE SLEEPER
At midnight, in the month of June,
I stand beneath the mystic moon.
An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,
Exhales from out her golden rim,
And, softly dripping, drop by drop,
Upon the quiet mountain top,
Steals drowsily and musically
Into the universal valley.
The rosemary nods upon the grave;
The lily lolls upon the wave;
Wrapping the fog above its breast,
The ruin moulders into rest;
Looking like Lethe, see! the lake
A conscious slumber seems to take,
And would not, for the world, awake.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
June First
... The year,
And all the gentle daughters in her train,
March in our ranks, and in our service wield
Long spears of golden grain!
A yellow blossom as her fairy shield,
June flings her azure banner to the wind,
While in the order of their birth
Her sisters pass, and many an ample field
Grows white beneath their steps, till now, behold,
Its endless sheets unfold
The snow of Southern summers!
HENRY TIMROD
(_Ethnogenesis_)
_Kentucky admitted to the Union, 1792_
_Tennessee admitted to the Union, 1796_
_John H. Morgan born, 1825_
June Second
In regard to African Slavery, which has played so important a part in our
political history, Randolph was an Emancipationist, as distinguished from
an Abolitionist. This distinction was a very broad one; as broad as that
between Algernon Sidney and Jack Cade; or between Charlemagne and Peter
the Hermit--in fact, it was the difference between Reason and Fanaticism.
On this subject Randolph and Clay concurred; both were Emancipationists,
and both denounced the Abolitionists; as did also Webster, and all the
best, wisest, and purest men of that day.
JUDGE DANIEL BEDINGER LUCAS
_John Randolph born, 1773_
June Third
Other leaders have had their triumphs. Conquerors have won crowns, and
honors have been piled on the victors of earth's great battles, but never,
sir, came man to more loving people.
HENRY W. GRADY
_Jefferson Davis born in Kentucky, 1808_
June Fourth
In the hallowed stillness of your bridal eve, ere the guests have all
assembled, lift up to yours the pale face, love's perfect image, and you
shall see that vision to which God our Father vouchsafes no equal this
side the jasper throne--you shall see the ineffable eyes of innocence
entrusting to you, unworthy, oh! so unworthy, her destiny through time and
eternity. Inhale the perfume of her breath and hair, that puts the violets
of the wood to shame; press your first kiss (for now she is all your own),
your first kiss upon the trembling petals of her lips, and you shall hear,
with ears you knew not that you had, the silver chiming of your wedding
bells far, far up in heaven.
GEORGE W. BAGBY
June Fifth
THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH
Instead of superficial adornments and supine action, the intellectual
sympathies and interests of these women were large, and they undertook
with wise and just guidance, the management of households and farms and
servants, leaving the men free for war and civil government. These noble
and resolute women were the mothers of the Gracchi, of the men who built
up the greatness of the Union and accomplished the unexampled achievements
of the Confederacy.
J. L. M. CURRY
June Sixth
To the brave all homage render,
Weep ye skies of June!
With a radiance pure and tender,
Shine, oh saddened moon!
Dead upon the field of glory,
Hero fit for song and story,
Lies our bold dragoon.
JOHN R. THOMPSON
_Turner Ashby killed in Shenandoah Valley Campaign, 1862_
_Patrick Henry dies, 1799_
June Seventh
Peace to the dead! though peace is not
In the regal dome or the pauper cot;
Peace to the dead! there's peace, we trust,
With the pale dreamers in the dust.
JAMES RYDER RANDALL
_Monument created, 1910, to the memory of Confederate officers who
perished from starvation and exposure at Johnson's Island_
June Eighth
Aurora faints in the fulgent fire
Of the Monarch of Morning's bright embrace
And the summer day climbs higher and higher
Up the cerulean space;
The pearl-tints fade from the radiant grain,
And the sportive breeze of the ocean dies,
And soon in the noontide's soundless rain
The fields seem graced by a million eyes;
Each grain with a glance from its lidded fold
As bright as a gnome's in his mine of gold,
While the slumb'rous glamour of beam and heat
Glides over and under the windless wheat.
PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE
_Stonewall Jackson turns upon Fremont at Cross Keys, 1862_
June Ninth
He sleeps--what need to question now
If he were wrong or right?
He knows ere this whose cause was just
In God the Father's sight.
He wields no warlike weapons now,
Returns no foeman's thrust,--
Who but a coward would revile
An honest soldier's dust?
Roll, Shenandoah, proudly roll,
Adown thy rocky glen,
Above thee lies the grave of one
Of Stonewall Jackson's men.
MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND
_Stonewall Jackson meets Shields at Port Republic, 1862_
June Tenth
The indomitable courage, the patient endurance of privations, the supreme
devotion of the Southern soldiers, will stand on the pages of history, as
engraven on a monument more enduring than brass.
MAJ. JAS. F. HUNTINGTON, U. S. A.
_United Confederate Veterans organized at New Orleans, 1889_
_Battle of Bethel, Va., the first regular engagement of the War between
the States, 1861_
June Eleventh
We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win; we
believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluble; but we equally
believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred convictions
that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them, as every man with a
heart must respect those who gave all for their belief.
JUSTICE O. W. HOLMES
(Massachusetts)
June Twelfth
The band preceding the coffin smote on their ears with poignant loud
lamenting, then carried its sorrow to die moaning on the night. As the
shadowy cortege filed by--men bearing lanterns on either side the
hearse--a horse, riderless, with boots empty in the stirrups, following--a
few soldiers carrying arms reversed--a single carriage with mourners--the
effect was infinitely sad. So common the spectacle during the Battle
Summer, it did not occur to them to even wonder which of our martyrs was
thus journeying to his last home.
MRS. BURTON HARRISON
June Thirteenth
A little bird there was once, with golden wings;
In the stars she would build her nest;
And so, with a twig in her beak, at eventide
When Hesperus sank to rest,
Away to the starry deep she flew;--for said she,
"In the Pleiades shall my nesting be!"
Ah, little bird! There are heights far, far too high
For the reach of those tiny wings!
Down here by this thicket of haw let us rest, you and I,
And list what the brooklet sings!
ALLEN KERR BOND
June Fourteenth
A flash from the edge of a hostile trench,
A puff of smoke, a roar
Whose echo shall roll from the Kenesaw Hills
To the farthermost Christian shore,
Proclaims to the world that the warrior priest
Will battle for right no more.
HENRY LYNDEN FLASH
_Gen. Leonidas Polk, the Warrior Bishop, killed at Kenesaw Mountain, 1864_
June Fifteenth
O, Art, high gift of Heaven! how oft defamed
When seeming praised! To most a craft that fits,
By dead, prescriptive Rule, the scattered bits
Of gathered knowledge; even so misnamed
By some who would invoke thee.
WASHINGTON ALLSTON
June Sixteenth
W'en banjer git ter talkin'
You better hol' yo' tongue,
Hit mek you think youse gre't an' gran'
An' rich an' strong an' young,
An' ev'rything whar scrumpshus
Right at yo' feet is flung.
Oh, my soul gits up an' humps hisse'f
An' goes outside an' walks,
W'en a picker gits ter pickin'
An' de
banjer
talks!
ANNE VIRGINIA CULBERTSON
_Winchester captured by Confederates, 1863_
June Seventeenth
GENEROUS TRIBUTE OF A BRAVE FOE AND DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN SOLDIER AND
CITIZEN
Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia never sustained defeat. Finally
succumbing to exhaustion, to the end they were not overthrown in fight.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
(Massachusetts)
June Eighteenth
Now, Ham, de only nigger whut wuz runnin' on der packet,
Got lonesome in de barber-shop, an' c'u'dn't stan' de racket;
An' so, fur to amuse hese'f, he steamed some wood an' bent it,
An' soon he had a banjo made--de fust dat wuz invented.
De 'possum had as fine a tail as dis dat I's a-singin';
De ha'r's so long an' thick an' strong,--des fit fur banjo-stringin';
Dat nigger shaved 'em off as short as washday-dinner graces;
An' sorted ob' em by de size, f'om little E's to basses.
IRWIN RUSSELL
(_Origin of the Banjo on
Board the Ark_)
June Nineteenth
By Captain Winslow's account, the _Kearsarge_ was struck twenty-eight
times; but his ship being armored, my shot and shell fell harmless into
the sea. The _Alabama_ was not mortally wounded until after the
_Kearsarge_ had been firing at her _an hour and ten minutes_. In the
meantime, in spite of the armor of the _Kearsarge_, I lodged a rifled
percussion shell near her stern post--_where there were no chains_--which
failed to explode because of the defect of the cap. On so slight an
incident--the defect of a percussion-cap--did the battle hinge.
RAPHAEL SEMMES
_The "Alabama" sunk by the "Kearsarge" off Cherbourg, 1864_