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Dixie Book of Days

<h2>January</h2> TO TIME, THE OLD TRAVELER They slander thee, Old Traveler, Who say that thy delight Is to scatter ruin, far and wide, In thy wantonness of might: For not a leaf that falleth Before thy restless wings, But in thy flight, thou changest it To a thousand brighter things. ····· ’Tis true thy progress layeth Full many a loved one low, And for the brave and beautiful Thou hast caused our tears to flow; But always near the couch of death Nor thou, nor we can stay; And the breath of thy departing wings Dries all our tears away! William Henry Timrod    [Pg 14] <big>January First</big> Some thunder on the heights of song, their race Godlike in power, while others at their feet Are breathing measures scarce less strong and sweet Than those that peal from out that loftiest place; Meantime, just midway on the mount, his face Fairer than April heavens, when storms retreat, And on their edges rain and sunshine meet, Pipes the soft lyrist lays of tender grace, But where the slopes of bright Parnassus sweep Near to the common ground, a various throng Chant lowlier measures—yet each tuneful strain (The silvery minor of earth’s perfect song) Blends with that music of the topmost steep, O’er whose vast realm the master minstrels reign! Paul Hamilton Hayne   O’er those who lost and those who won, Death holds no parley which was right— Jehovah judges Arlington. James Ryder Randall   Paul Hamilton Hayne born, 1830 James Ryder Randall, Laureate of the War between the States, born, 1839    [Pg 15] <big>January Second</big> ... In a word, Mars and Minerva both in him concurred For arts, for arms, whose pen and sword alike, As Cato’s did, may admiration strike Into his foes; while they confess withal It was their guilt styled him a criminal.... From Epitaph by “His Man”   In this epitaph we have what is in all probability the single poem in any true sense—the single product of sustained poetic art—that was written in America for a hundred and fifty years after the settlement of Jamestown. William P. Trent   Nathaniel Bacon, “The First American Rebel,” born, 1647     <big>January Third</big> The only calendar That marks my seasons, Is that sweet face of hers, Her moods and reasons, Wherein no record is Of winter seasons. Madison Cawein   Alfred Mordecai born, 1804    [Pg 16] <big>January Fourth</big> The strange and curious race madness of the American Republic will be a study for centuries to come. That madness took a child-race out of a warm cradle, threw it into the ocean of politics—the stormiest and most treacherous we have known—and bade it swim for its own and the life of the nation! Myrta Lockett Avary   The Social Equality Bill passed in Louisiana, 1869     <big>January Fifth</big> What the cloud doeth The Lord knoweth, The cloud knoweth not What the artist doeth, The Lord knoweth; Knoweth the artist not? Sidney Lanier    [Pg 17] <big>January Sixth</big> Few have equaled the old time negro at repartee, and a true Southerner heartily relished a clever rejoinder to his good natured raillery. The rejoinder was frequently overwhelming, always respectful, and generally worth an immediate acknowledgment in cash or old clothes. “Is that you, Peter?” called an old Confederate to his former body-servant on the road. Peter grinned broadly as he doffed his hat. “Yas, suh, dis yer me.” “Well, well!” laughed the other. “I see that all the old fools are not dead yet.” “Dat’s so, Mars’ Tom.” Peter pulled his grizzly forelock appreciatively. “I’s monsus glad to see dat you’s in such good health, suh.”    [Pg 18] <big>January Seventh</big> A WELL-KNOWN TYPE OF SOUTHERN MATRON BEFORE THE WAR Full well she knew the seriousness of life. Over and over the cares and responsibilities of her station as the mother of so many children, the mistress of so many servants and the hostess of so many guests, had utterly overwhelmed her. * * * * * Into how many negro cabins had she not gone, when the night was far spent and the lamp of life flickered low in the breast of the dying slave! How often she ministered to him with her own hands! * * * * Nay, had she not knelt by his lowly bed and poured out her heart to God as his soul winged its flight, and closed his glazed and staring eyes as the day was dawning? Yet the morning meal found her at her accustomed seat, tranquil and helpful, and no one but her husband the wiser for her night’s ministrations. George W. Bagby   Fort Marion, Florida, seized by order of the Governor of Florida, 1861    [Pg 19] <big>January Eighth</big> Jackson’s line, extending about half a mile from the river to the swamp, was defended by a water-filled ditch and by a parapet of varying height and thickness. The idea that it was built of cotton bales is an absurd fiction that brings back the inspiring picture in Peter Parley’s old history of our childhood days.... Pierce Butler   “What stopped you?” General Pakenham asked of a regiment of Scotch Highlanders. To which their colonel replied: “Bullets, mon! bullets! Auld Julius Caesar himself wouldn’t have charged those devils.”   The “Hunting Shirt Men” of the South versus Wellington’s Peninsular veterans in the Battle of New Orleans, 1815; General Pakenham, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington killed James Longstreet born, 1821    [Pg 20] <big>January Ninth</big> Consider the lark! How he rises on wing, And mounts to the sky through ethereal air! He sings as he soars; ’tis his nature to sing, To warble his notes though no listener be near. I seek not for fortune, I sigh not for fame, I follow my Muse into forest or street; In sorrow, in gladness, I sing all the same, I sing because singing itself is so sweet. [These lines, typifying so much of the poetical expression of the old South, were written by former Surgeon H. M. Clarkson, C. S. A., who, on January 9, 1861, as a corporal of artillery, fired a single shot from Fort Moultrie to challenge the Star of the West in its attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter. On the same occasion two other shots were fired by the State cadets stationed on Morris Island, driving the transport from the harbor. It is not improbable, therefore, that, as the challenger of the hostile steamer, the writer of these verses fired the first shot of the war between the States. Corporal Clarkson was in charge of gun No. 13.—Editor]   The United States transport “Star of the West” attempts to reinforce Fort Sumter, 1861 General John B. Gordon dies, 1904 Mississippi secedes, 1861    [Pg 21] <big>January Tenth</big> SECESSION: A SOUTHERN VIEW, 1861 A State, finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has judged she is—in which her safety requires that she should provide for the maintenance of her rights out of the Union—surrenders all the benefits (and they are known to be many), deprives herself of the advantages (and they are known to be great), severs all the ties of affection (and they are close and enduring), which have bound her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit—taking upon herself every burden—she claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of the United States within her limits. Jefferson Davis (Farewell Address in United States Senate)   SECESSION: FROM THE NORTHERN STANDPOINT, 1814 Whenever it shall appear that these causes are radical and permanent, a separation by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by constraint, among nominal friends, but real enemies, inflamed by mutual hatred and jealousy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and aggression from abroad. —Journal of the Hartford Convention   Florida secedes, 1861 The “Bonnie Blue Flag” first sung in public at Jackson Mississippi, 1861    [Pg 22] <big>January Eleventh</big> The States of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were engaged in practical movements for the gradual emancipation of their slaves. This movement continued until it was arrested by the aggressions of the Abolitionists. George Lunt (Massachusetts)   And if the secrets of all hearts could have been revealed, our enemies would have been astounded to see how many thousands and tens of thousands in the Southern States felt the crushing burden and the awful responsibility of the institution which we were supposed to be defending with the melodramatic fury of pirate kings. We were born to this social order, we had to do our duty in it according to our lights, and this duty was made indefinitely more difficult by the interference of those who, as we thought, could not understand the conditions of the problem, and who did not have to bear the expense of the experiments they proposed. Basil L. Gildersleeve   Thomas Jefferson Randolph’s resolutions on the abolition of slavery introduced for extended debate in the Virginia Assembly, 1832 Alabama secedes, 1861    [Pg 23] <big>January Twelfth</big> We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil, Fighting for our liberty, with treasure, blood, and toil. And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far: Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star! Harry McCarthy     <big>January Thirteenth</big> FIFTY YEARS AFTER—THE VIEW OF A FEDERAL OFFICER OF ’61-’65 In case of direct and insoluble issue between Sovereign State and Sovereign Nation, every man was not only free to decide, but had to decide the question of ultimate allegiance for himself; and whichever way he decided he was right. Charles Francis Adams (Massachusetts)    [Pg 24] <big>January Fourteenth</big> LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE Maury furnished the brains, England gave the money, and I did the work. Cyrus W. Field (At a banquet in New York)   After a little while The cross will glisten and the thistles wave Above my grave; And planets smile. Sweet Lord, then pillowed on thy gentle breast, I fain would rest, After a little while. James Ryder Randall   Matthew Fontaine Maury born, 1806 James Ryder Randall dies, 1908    [Pg 25] <big>January Fifteenth</big> A Northerner, who had purchased an estate in Virginia, noticed that smoke always emanated from the chimney of a cabin near his woods where an old negro lived. One day, on meeting the old colored man, he asked: “Where do you get your wood, Uncle?” The latter eyed him with an expression of great reproach and replied: “My pa was coachman at the Gret House, and he pa, and he pa; ‘whar I git my wood?’ That ain’t no question for one gen’l’man to ax an’er!”   Fort Fisher, North Carolina, captured, 1865    [Pg 26] <big>January Sixteenth</big> When wintry days are dark and drear And all the forest ways grow still, When gray snow-laden clouds appear Along the bleak horizon hill, When cattle all are snugly penned And sheep go huddling close together, When steady streams of smoke ascend From farm-house chimneys—in such weather Give me old Carolina’s own, A great log house, a great hearthstone, A cheering pipe of cob or briar And a red, leaping light’ood fire. John Henry Boner (The Light’ood Fire)   Forcible resistance to British Stamp Act under Colonel Hugh Waddell, of Wilmington, N. C., 1766    [Pg 27] <big>January Seventeenth</big> VALLEY FORGE EXCEEDED Starvation, literal starvation, was doing its deadly work. So depleted and poisoned was the blood of many of Lee’s men from insufficient and unsound food that a slight wound which would probably not have been reported at the beginning of the war would often cause blood-poison, gangrene, and death. Yet the spirits of these brave men seemed to rise as their condition grew more desperate.... It was a harrowing but not uncommon sight to see those hungry men gather the wasted corn from under the feet of half-fed horses, and wash and parch and eat it to satisfy in some measure their craving for food. General John B. Gordon   Tarleton routed at the battle of the Cowpens, S. C., 1781    [Pg 28] <big>January Eighteenth</big> While the Confederate soldiers were in the trenches, the ingenuity of the Southern women was taxed to the utmost to supply their household needs. Medicine had been declared contraband of war by the Federal Government, and salt works were made a special object for attack. Remedies were improvised from herbs of all kinds; the dirt floor of the meat house was boiled for the salt it contained; soap was made from china-berries and lye; candles out of resin or waxed rope wound around a corncob; thorns were used for pins; shoes were fashioned out of canvas, and supplied with wooden soles; buttons were made from persimmon seed; tumblers out of glass bottles; tea out of berry leaves; and coffee was made from sweet potatoes and dandelion seed. [Condensed from accounts of war times—Ed.]    [Pg 29] <big>January Nineteenth</big> ENGLISH TRIBUTES TO AMERICAN GENIUS Lee—One of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all the generals who have spoken the English tongue. Col. G. F. R. Henderson, C.B.   Poe—How can so strange and fine a genius and so sad a life be expressed and compressed in one line? Lord Tennyson (From letter in Poe Memorial Vol., 1877)   Robert Edward Lee born, 1807 Edgar Allan Poe born, 1809 Georgia secedes, 1861     <big>January Twentieth</big> No truth is lost for which the true are weeping, Nor dead for which they died. Francis O. Ticknor    [Pg 30] <big>January Twenty-First</big> The following lines are remarkable in that they represent a boy’s estimate of Stonewall Jackson before the war between the States. They were written by William Fitzhugh Lee when a cadet under Jackson at the Virginia Military Institute:— Like some rough brute that roams the forest wild, So rude, uncouth, so purely Nature’s child, Is “Hickory,” and yet methinks I see The stamp of genius on his brow; and he, With his mild glance and keen, but quiet eye, Can draw forth from the secret recess where they lie Those thoughts and feelings of the human heart Most virtuous, good, and free from guilty art. There’s something in his very mode of life So accurate, steady, void of care and strife, That fills my heart with love for him who bears His honors meekly and who wears The laurels of a hero! This is a fact, So here’s a heart and hand for “Jack!”   Stonewall Jackson born, 1824    [Pg 31] <big>January Twenty-Second</big> Wherein, then, lay his strength, and what was the secret of his influence over all this land? I answer in one word—character. And what is meant by character? Courage? Yes; courage of his opinions, and physical courage as well; for he had a Briton’s faith in pluck. Pride of race? In a limited sense, yes. Honesty? The question is almost an insult. Love of truth? Yes, undying love of it. George W. Bagby (“The Old Virginia Gentleman”)     <big>January Twenty-Third</big> I reckon hit’s well we wuz all set free, I s’pose dat’s de way folks wuz meant ter be, But I kain’t see w’y dey’s no manners lef’ Jes’ kase dey happens ter own deyse’f. I dunno rightly how ol’ I is, Hit mought be eighty, I reckon ’tis, Yit I nuver gone now’ers, I tells you true, But I tucken my manners an’ breedin’, too. Anne Virginia Culbertson    [Pg 32] <big>January Twenty-Fourth</big> Dem sassy young niggers, dey plum’ disgrace De res’ uv de’ ’spectable cullud race. Dey got dey books, dey kin read an’ write, But dey dunno ’nough fer to be perlite. I kain’t see how dey gwine git erlong, Hit seem lak sump’n have done gone wrong. I gits wo’ out wid’em, dat’s de fac’, But I orter mek ’lowance fer how dey ac’, ’Kase de times an’ de doin’s is changed a lot, An’ dey ain’ had de raisin’ dat I done got. Dar’s nuffin lef’ me but lookin’ on Twel me an’ de ol’-time ways is gone. Anne Virginia Culbertson     <big>January Twenty-Fifth</big> Ah, only from his golden throne, Upon his golden lute, He touched the magic note; then Poe was known, And so was quelled dispute. Open thy portal, Fame! Let soar That sombre bird, whose song is heard forevermore. Daniel Bedinger Lucas (Referring to first publication of Poe’s Raven, 1845)   George E. Pickett born, 1825    [Pg 33] <big>January Twenty-Sixth</big> THREE VIEWS OF SECESSION CONNECTED WITH LOUISIANA; 1803-1811-1861 Resolved, that the annexation of Louisiana to the Union transcends the Constitutional power of the Government of the United States. It formed a New Confederacy to which the States united by the former compact are not bound to adhere. Massachusetts Legislature (Upon Purchase of Louisiana Territory, 1803)   Louisiana secedes from the Union, 1861 Virginia readmitted to the Union, 1870     <big>January Twenty-Seventh</big> If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of this Union, that it will free the States from their moral obligations, and as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must. Josiah Quincy (Representative from Massachusetts in Congress, opposing statehood for Louisiana Territory, 1811)   Richard Taylor born, 1826    [Pg 34] <big>January Twenty-Eighth</big> The rights of Louisiana as a sovereign State are those of Virginia; no more, no less. Let those who deny her right to resume delegated powers successfully refute the claim of Virginia to the same right, in spite of her expressed reservation made and notified to her sister States when she consented to enter the Union.... For two-thirds of a century this right has been known by many of the States to be, at all times, within their power. Judah P. Benjamin (Farewell Address in the United States Senate)     <big>January Twenty-Ninth</big> It was Lee who suggested the capture of Stony Point, and it was a band of North Carolinians who formed Wayne’s head of column in the assault upon that fortress. Three hundred Virginians followed Lee in his successful dash against Paulus Hook on the Jersey coast, August, 1779. Henry A. White   Henry Lee (“Light Horse Harry”) born, 1756    [Pg 35] <big>January Thirtieth</big> UNCLE REMUS AT THE TELEPHONE “Yer ’tis, Miss Sally,” said Uncle Remus after listening a moment. “Dey’s a mighty zooin’ gwine on in dar, en I dunner whe’er Mars John tryin’ ter scramble out, er whe’er he des tryin’ fer ter make hisself comfertuble in dar.” “What did he say, Remus?” “He up en low’d dat one un us wus a vilyun but dey wuz such a buzzin’ gwine on in dar dat I couldn’t ’zactly ketch the rights un it.” Joel Chandler Harris    [Pg 36] <big>January Thirty-first</big> I wish I was in the land of cotton, Cinnamon seed and sandy bottom; Look away, away, away down South in Dixie. Her scenes shall fade from my memory never; For Dixie’s land hurrah forever! Look away, away, away down South in Dixie. Chorus: I wish I was in Dixie; Away, away; In Dixie’s land I’ll take my stand, And live and die in Dixie. Away, away, Away down South in Dixie. Look away, away, away down South in Dixie. Marie Louise Eve (Version of “Dixie”)     <hr style="width: 50%;" /> [Pg 37] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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