Why Southerners love the Southern Cross?
READ WHAT THE NY TIMES SAID IN 1901 of April 9 1865 at Appomattox ....
(New
York Times, May 4, 1901) When the proud and sensitive sons of Dixie came to a
full realization of the truth that the Confederacy was overthrown and their
leader had been compelled to surrender his once invincible army, they could no
longer control their emotions, and tears ran like water down their shrunken
faces.
The
flags which they still carried were objects of
undisguised affection. These Southern banners had gone down before overwhelming
numbers; and torn by shells, riddled by bullets, and laden with the powder and
smoke of battle, they aroused intense emotion in the men who had so often
followed them to victory. Yielding to overpowering sentiment, these
high-mettled men began to tear the flags from the staffs and hide them in their
bosoms, as they wet them with burning tears.
The Confederate officers faithfully endeavored to check this
exhibition of loyalty and love for the old flags. A great majority of them were
duly surrendered; but many were secretly carried by devoted veterans to their
homes, and will be cherished forever as honored heirlooms.
There
was nothing unnatural or censurable in all this. The Confederates who clung to
those pieces of battered bunting knew they would never again wave as martial
ensigns above embattled hosts; but they wanted to keep them, just as they
wanted to keep the old canteen with a bullet -hole through it, or the rusty
gray jacket that had been torn by canister.
They
loved those flags, and will love them forever, as mementoes of the unparalleled
struggle.
They
cherish them because they represent the consecration and courage not only of
Lee's army but of all the Southern armies, because they symbolize the bloodshed
and the glory of nearly a thousand battles.
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