Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/205

Rh every place where honest toil could earn a support. A great deal has been written about "the New South" and its wonderful prosperity; but it is due alike to the truth of history and to these men to say that this prosperity has been brought about, not so much by foreign immigration or foreign capital, as by the pluck, energy, skill and patient industry the brains and brawn of the "men in gray" and the boys they have reared. The men who have managed our railways, mines, furnaces, foundries, factories, and great business enterprises; who have filled our offices, State and Federal, since they have been allowed to do so; who have been our leading lawyers, physicians, professors, engineers, editors, preachers, mechanics, etc., have been the "men who wore the gray."

In the summer of 1865 I was traveling one day along a country road in Virginia, when I saw a young man plowing in the field, guiding the plow with one hand, while an empty sleeve hung at his side. When he drew near, singing merrily at his work, I recognized him as a young man whom I had known in the army. I knew his history. Raised in the lap of luxury, he had resisted its temptations, and when the war broke out he was about to bear off the highest honors of one of our colleges, and seemed destined to shine in his chosen profession, for which his tastes and talents fitted him. He was one of the first to step to the front when the South called on her sons to rally to her defense, and was one of the best of her noble soldiers. To see him thus, then, his hopes blighted, his fortune wrecked, and his body maimed for life, deeply touched my heart, and my words of greeting and sympathy were quite warm. I shall never forget how the noble fellow, straightening himself up, replied with a proud smile: "Oh, Brother Jones, that is all right. I thank God that I have one arm left and an opportunity to use it for the support of those I love." Several months after, I met General Lee in Lexington, when he came to take charge of Washington college, and he asked me, as