- Joined
- Dec 30, 2014
Remembrances of General John Gordon CSA
Gen. Longstreet’s forces and mine at Appomattox, together, numbered less than 8000 men but every man able to bear arms was still resolute and ready for battle. There were present three times that many enrolled Confederates, but two thirds of them were so enfeebled by hunger, so wasted by sickness, so footsore from constant marching, it was difficult for them to keep up with the Army. They were wholly unfit for duty. At the final meeting between Gen. Lee and Gen. Grant rations were ordered by General Grant for 25,000 Confederates.
Some of the scenes on the field, immediately after the cessation of hostilities from prior to the formal surrender, illustrate a magnanimous spirit. As my command, with worn out shoes and ragged uniforms moved to the designated point to stack their arms and surrender their cherished battle flags, they challenged the admiration of the brave victors. One of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army, Gen. Joshua L Chamberlain of Maine called his troops into line as my men marched in front of them, the veterans of the blue gave a soldierly salute to those vanquished heroes, a token of respect from Americans to Americans.
Gen. Chamberlain (a Union General that he is quoting) describes this incident in the following words..
“At the sound of that machine like snap of arms, Gen. Gordon started, caught in the moment its significance, and he instantly assumed the finest attitude of a soldier. He wheeled his horse, facing me, touching him gently with a spur, so that the animal slightly reared and, as he wheeled, horse and rider made one motion, the horse’s head swung down with a graceful bow, and General Gordon dropped his sword point to his toe the salutation. By word-of-mouth the general sent back orders to the rear of his own troops take the same position on the manual in the March past as did our line. That was done, and to truly imposing sight was a mutual salutation and farewell.
Bayonets were fixed to muskets, arms stacked, and cartridge boxes on this long and hung upon the stacks. Then slowly and with a reluctance that was appealingly pathetic, the torn and tattered battle flags were either leaned upon the stacks were laid upon the ground. The emotion of the Concord soldiers was really sad to witness. Some of the men who had carried and followed those ragged standards for long years of strife rushed, regardless of all discipline from the ranks and to ponder all flags and press them to their lips.
And it can well be imagined to that there was no lack of emotion on our side but the union men were held steady in their lines, without the least show of demonstration by word or by motion. There was, though, a twitching of the muscles of their faces and, be it said, their battle bronzed cheeks were not altogether dry. Our men felt the import of the occasion, and realized healthfully they would’ve been affected it to feet and surrendered had been the lot after such a fearful struggle.”
When the proud insensitive sons of Dixie came to a full realization of the truth that the Confederacy was overthrown and their leaders have been compelled to surrender his once invincible army, they could no longer control their emotions and tears ran like water down the shrunken faces. The flags would say still carried objects of undisguised affection. These southern banners had gone down before overwhelming numbers, and torn by shells, riddled by bullets, and maddened with the powder and smoke of battle, the aroused intense emotion and the men who had so often followed them to victory.
Yielding to overpowering sentiment, these high metals men began to tear the flags from the staffs and hide them in the bosoms, as they went them with burning tears.
The Confederate officers faithfully endeavored to check this exhibition of loyalty and love for the all flags. Great many of them were duly surrendered; but many were secretly carried by devoted veterans to their homes, and will be cherished forever as honored heirlooms.”
End of their recollections.
Okay. I think you have to be very heartless not to feel for these men. That being said, it is a fact they were fighting, in a very dedicated way, for the right to enslave people . They were fighting for the right to beat, whip and otherwise enforce their hateful slave codes. And they made it clear, from the very beginning, that if they could not do this they would destroy the Union. Anyone who reads the true story of their ( not these Generals specifically but the slave power they fought for) murderous acts in Kansas in the late 1850s simply does not know, or refuses to understand, exactly how malicious and hateful these secessionists were.
Sad though it is to see these sorrowful man crying and lamenting, how many tears to the victims of slavery shed for their sons and daughters who were ripped from their families and sold into slavery?,
The Bible says, “As you sew, so shall you reap.” And that is what the supporters of the Slave Power had to deal with.
Gen. Longstreet’s forces and mine at Appomattox, together, numbered less than 8000 men but every man able to bear arms was still resolute and ready for battle. There were present three times that many enrolled Confederates, but two thirds of them were so enfeebled by hunger, so wasted by sickness, so footsore from constant marching, it was difficult for them to keep up with the Army. They were wholly unfit for duty. At the final meeting between Gen. Lee and Gen. Grant rations were ordered by General Grant for 25,000 Confederates.
Some of the scenes on the field, immediately after the cessation of hostilities from prior to the formal surrender, illustrate a magnanimous spirit. As my command, with worn out shoes and ragged uniforms moved to the designated point to stack their arms and surrender their cherished battle flags, they challenged the admiration of the brave victors. One of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army, Gen. Joshua L Chamberlain of Maine called his troops into line as my men marched in front of them, the veterans of the blue gave a soldierly salute to those vanquished heroes, a token of respect from Americans to Americans.
Gen. Chamberlain (a Union General that he is quoting) describes this incident in the following words..
“At the sound of that machine like snap of arms, Gen. Gordon started, caught in the moment its significance, and he instantly assumed the finest attitude of a soldier. He wheeled his horse, facing me, touching him gently with a spur, so that the animal slightly reared and, as he wheeled, horse and rider made one motion, the horse’s head swung down with a graceful bow, and General Gordon dropped his sword point to his toe the salutation. By word-of-mouth the general sent back orders to the rear of his own troops take the same position on the manual in the March past as did our line. That was done, and to truly imposing sight was a mutual salutation and farewell.
Bayonets were fixed to muskets, arms stacked, and cartridge boxes on this long and hung upon the stacks. Then slowly and with a reluctance that was appealingly pathetic, the torn and tattered battle flags were either leaned upon the stacks were laid upon the ground. The emotion of the Concord soldiers was really sad to witness. Some of the men who had carried and followed those ragged standards for long years of strife rushed, regardless of all discipline from the ranks and to ponder all flags and press them to their lips.
And it can well be imagined to that there was no lack of emotion on our side but the union men were held steady in their lines, without the least show of demonstration by word or by motion. There was, though, a twitching of the muscles of their faces and, be it said, their battle bronzed cheeks were not altogether dry. Our men felt the import of the occasion, and realized healthfully they would’ve been affected it to feet and surrendered had been the lot after such a fearful struggle.”
When the proud insensitive sons of Dixie came to a full realization of the truth that the Confederacy was overthrown and their leaders have been compelled to surrender his once invincible army, they could no longer control their emotions and tears ran like water down the shrunken faces. The flags would say still carried objects of undisguised affection. These southern banners had gone down before overwhelming numbers, and torn by shells, riddled by bullets, and maddened with the powder and smoke of battle, the aroused intense emotion and the men who had so often followed them to victory.
Yielding to overpowering sentiment, these high metals men began to tear the flags from the staffs and hide them in the bosoms, as they went them with burning tears.
The Confederate officers faithfully endeavored to check this exhibition of loyalty and love for the all flags. Great many of them were duly surrendered; but many were secretly carried by devoted veterans to their homes, and will be cherished forever as honored heirlooms.”
End of their recollections.
Okay. I think you have to be very heartless not to feel for these men. That being said, it is a fact they were fighting, in a very dedicated way, for the right to enslave people . They were fighting for the right to beat, whip and otherwise enforce their hateful slave codes. And they made it clear, from the very beginning, that if they could not do this they would destroy the Union. Anyone who reads the true story of their ( not these Generals specifically but the slave power they fought for) murderous acts in Kansas in the late 1850s simply does not know, or refuses to understand, exactly how malicious and hateful these secessionists were.
Sad though it is to see these sorrowful man crying and lamenting, how many tears to the victims of slavery shed for their sons and daughters who were ripped from their families and sold into slavery?,
The Bible says, “As you sew, so shall you reap.” And that is what the supporters of the Slave Power had to deal with.
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