Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/149

 148 All of our troops and wagon trains were brought safely across the river without any loss and without material annoyance from the enemy; though, before the bridge was burned, some of his skirmishers came up along the river bank and made it a trifle too hot for comfort to those crossing last. Thus the Federal reconnoisance proved a fiasco, but if the detachment had fought properly, and had been ably seconded by supports, the affair might have had a very different result. It is strange that Kilpatrick should have been so remiss, when energetic bold pressure might have been troublesome. Indeed, to say the least, he did not "hanker after" a fight during the remainder of this campaign. Perhaps he remembered too well that dark cloudy morning, a few days before, when, awakened by the reveille of clattering hoofs, he sprang on a bare-back horse in shirt and drawers (quite undress parade), and thus very informally left behind a certain "frail," if not "fair," damsel, deserted his men, and flew for safety to the infantry.

[Not a few of us have been heartily disgusted with the cringing, crawling, dirt-eating spirit shown by Mr. Cable and some of his satellites, and we feel sure that the following review from the trenchant pen of Stonewall Jackson's old Adjutant-General will be keenly enjoyed and heartily endorsed by our Southern people generally:]

Mr. McKay justly reminds Mr. Cable that it is not true all "we of the South" went to war in 1861 without justly knowing what we did it for, for which we thank Mr. McKay. We wish to add, that if Mr. Cable chooses thus to condemn himself, we beg to be excused from sharing his confession. We are very sure that, unlike him, we did know what we were about. In a later number of the Century Magazine he replies to Mr. McKay, and his reply makes matters infinitely worse. He thinks the reserved rights of the States were a "quibble," and even if for argument's sake, we concede that there was a right of protecting them, in the last resort, by secession, the main question, because the moral one, lies behind, for what the pretended right was exercised? Mr. Cable thinks it was really for slavery, which he now thinks, like all the rest of mankind, altogether wicked and abominable; so that, even if we had a right, we were