Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/153

Rh was bright. His haversack might be empty, but he kept his cartridge box full. His feet might be bare, blistered and bleeding, and he might straggle on the march, but he was up when the battle opened, and did his full share toward snatching victory from immense odds, or meeting defeat with unconquerable patience and endurance.

The histories of all armies of the Confederacy showed equal heroism, steadiness and efficiency. The defense of Fort Fisher, N. C., was characterized by skill and heroic daring which deserve its place in the history of the Confederacy. The story of the defense of Fort Sumter and Charleston, as told by Rev. Dr. John Johnson, of South Carolina, who was engineer officer in the fort, is one of marvelous skill and heroic daring, reflecting the highest credit, not only on General Beauregard, Col. D. B. Harris and other commanders and engineers, but on the men in the ranks as well, who held out against the most powerful combinations that were brought against them, and would have continued to hold their position had not Sherman's march in the rear of Charleston in February, 1865, compelled its evacuation.

The achievements of the army of Tennessee at Shiloh, in the Kentucky campaign, at Murfreesboro, at Chickamauga, in the campaign of 1864 from Dal ton to Atlanta, in the terrific battles before Atlanta, at Franklin, Tenn., and in the ill-fated campaign of Nashville, show beyond question that in all of the qualities which go to make up morale in soldiers, the men of that army were the equals of their brothers of Lee's army.

No less worthy of honor were the men of the Trans-Mississippi department, who, under the lead of Price, Marmaduke, McCulloch, Van Dorn, Hindman, Kirby Smith, Dick Taylor, Joe Shelby, Magruder and other able leaders, performed deeds of arms worthy to be celebrated in song and story as well as to be written on the pages of history. General Magruder's capture of the