The last time I visited Petersburg I drove out to her battle-fields. Nature had hidden the scars with beauty. The seeds of the daisy had been scattered wherever the Federal forces had been encamped, and they had whitened the fields and covered the graves by the wayside. Nature had not forgotten these lonely unmarked graves, nor will she ever forget, until time shall be no more.
It is not easy to write about the dreadful war between the North and the South. We press our breasts against a thorn when we recall the anguish of those days of death and disaster. It is often said that it is still too early to write the story of our Civil War. It will soon be too late. Some of us still live who saw those days. We should not shrink from recording what we know to be true. Thus only will a full history of American courage and fidelity be preserved,—for all were Americans. The glory of one is the glory of all—in 1861 when brothers were in conflict, as well as in 1898 when they stood shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart against a foreign foe. Circumstances do not rule the heart, and "where the heart is right, there is true patriotism."
FOOTNOTES
[1] "Life of Oliphant," Vol. I. p. 109.
[2] J. F. Rhodes's "History of the United States," Vol. I. p. 390.
[3] "Life in Washington," by Mary J. Windle.
[4] New York Herald, February 7, 1904.
[5] Rhodes's "History of the United States," Vol. II, p. 417.
[6] "Life," by Johnston and Browne, p. 365.
[7] Rhodes's "History of the United States," Vol. II, p. 453.