Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/11



Now sea-girt Sumter's pealing guns proclaim The angry strife of words to bloody blows Has come! Through vale, o'er hill, their echoes ring. And lo! from drowsy couch of gentle peace Great States leap forth full armed. And the red flag Of cruel war by stalwart arms is borne From the green hills, laved by crystal lakes To Rio Grande's tepid flow.

No people ever marched with a stride more rapid to empire and greatness than have the English colonies of North America. For achievements in science and art, if not superior, they are at least equal, to the older nations of Europe; yet no page in the history of this people will prove more attractive to those who follow us than that which records the scenes of the unhappy war which raged from April, 1861, to April 1865. An active participant in that memorable struggle, and connected with a regiment which was attached to the army under command of General R. E. Lee during its entire history, the author of the following narrative has undertaken, with the aid of notes taken while the events were occurring, to record the part that regiment bore in the contest for Southern independence and Constitutional liberty.