Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/51

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her 1'cst and !>ra\eM. in the prick- ancl purity of licr manhood and your Mood, to r.illv around lu-r altars, the blue hills and tin- ;^n <-n field> isters, to redeem the cause of the Confederacy from its present perils."

On that day (April 2~\\\ i the brigade commanded by General W. 1'. Hardeman, encamped in Washington county, held a mass-meet- ing and resolved that though Lee had surrendered, they would not abandon the struggle until the right of self-government was estab- lished, and declared their readiness to march to the aid of their brethren in arms in the Cis-Mississippi Department.

STILL HOLDING ON.

Similar mass-meetings were held and like resolutions passed in other commands near the same time. At a public meeting held at Lagrange April 29th, resolutions were adopted to the effect that under no possible circumstances would the people ever submit to reunion or reconstruction. The citizens of Chappell Hill passed reso- lutions to reinforce the army and furnish their negroes as soldiers, and declared: " We would prefer a common grave for ourselves and our children than to submit to the rule of Northern despots." Similar resolutions were adopted in Colorado, Limestone and many other counties.

On April 2gth Governor Henry Watkins Allen, of Louisiana, is- sued a ringing address to the soldiers of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, calling upon them "to unite in a solemn pledge to stand as patriots and freemen firmly to the holy cause, in storm or sunshine, in misfortune or success, through good report and through evil report, and to fight our invaders now and for all time to come, in armies, in regiments, in companies, in squads or singly, until our independence is won and conceded."

On May 5th General J. B. Magruder issued an address to his sol- diers announcing Lee's surrender, and stating that the Federal general (Banks) had proposed a surrender of the troops in this de-