Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/206

 106 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Minor operations on this extended theatre had generally redounded to the glory of the Confederate arms, and New Orleans only escaped their reconquering grasp that year, because the navy which held it could not be attacked by land. The world stood amazed and awed at these mighty results.

Even the posterity of the Confederate soldier does not realize his work to this day. It is said ' ' the voice of the stranger is like to that, of posterity, ' ' and from the stranger in strange lands came won- der and admiration. The most powerful organ of public opinion in Europe declared:

" The people of the Confederate States have made themselves famous. If the renown of brilliant courage, stern devotion to a cause, and military achievements almost without parallel, can com- pensate for the toil and privations of the hour, then the countrymen of Lee and Jackson may be consoled amid their sufferings. From all parts of Europe, from enemies as well as friends, comes the tri- bute of admiration. When the history of this war is written, the admiration will doubtless become deeper and stronger; for the veil which covered the South will be drawn away, and disclose a picture of patriotism, of self-sacrifice, of wise and firm administration, which we can now see only indistinctly; and the details of the extraordinary national effort which has led to the repulse, and almost to the des- truction of an invading force of more than half a million of men, will then be known to the world."

The time allotted me will not allow more than a glance at the sub- sequent campaigns. During the awful struggle for the possession of the opposing capitals during the next two years, the Confederates' cup of glory ran full. In one of these years he fought a tremendous battle in the heart of the North for Washington, and did not allow his powerful enemy to come within five days' march of Richmond, and in the other year lit his bivouac fires in sight of Washington, while he defended his capital and another city twenty miles away, in ten months' of bloody and successful battle, until the fateful Sunday when the thin line, worn by attrition and starvation, was broken through at last.

He answered defeat at Vicksburg and Gettysburg with victory at Chickamauga, and pushing back the victor of Gettysburg to Centre- ville, and defying him at Mine Run; and strove with ill-fated and shining valor to regain at Franklin what had been lost at Atlanta. In the long struggle from Dalton to Atlanta, he illustrated the stub- born valor of his race. Ragged, starved, outnumbered, barefooted,