Part 96 (1/2)
”I announce to you, my fellow countrymen, that it is my purpose to maintain your cause with my whole heart and soul. I will never consent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any of the States of the Confederacy.
”If by stress of numbers, we should be compelled to a temporary withdrawal from the limits of Virginia or any other border State, we will return until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of making slaves of a people resolved to be free.
”Let us, then, not despair, my countrymen, but, relying on G.o.d, meet the foe with fresh defiance, and with unconquered and unconquerable hearts.”
So Was.h.i.+ngton spoke to his starving, freezing little army at Valley Forge in the darkest hour of our struggle for independence against Great Britain. With the help of France Was.h.i.+ngton succeeded at last.
Davis was destined to fail. No friendly foreign power came to his aid.
His courage was none the less sublime for this reason.
Lee's skeleton army surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, and Davis hurried to Greensboro where Johnston and Beauregard were encamped with twenty-eight thousand men. Two hundred school girls marched to the house in Danville and cheered him as he left.
Mrs. Sutherlin in the last hour of his stay asked for a moment of his time.
He ushered her into his room with grave courtesy.
”Dear Madam,” he began smilingly, ”you have risked your home and the safety of your husband to honor me and the South. I thank you for myself and the people. Is there anything I can do to show how much I appreciate it?”
”You have greatly honored us by accepting our hospitality,” was the quick cheerful answer. ”We shall always be rich in its memory. I have but one favor to ask of you--”
”Name it--”
She drew a bag from a basket and handed it to him.
”Accept this little gift we have saved. It will help you on your journey. It's only a thousand dollars in gold--I wish it were more.”
The President's eyes grew dim and he shook his head.
”No--no--dear, dear Mrs. Sutherlin. Your needs will be greater than mine. Besides, I have asked all for the cause--nothing for myself--nothing!”
He left Danville with heart warmed by the smiles and cheers of two hundred beautiful girls and the offer of every dollar a patriotic woman possessed.
He had need of its memory to cheer him at Greensboro. Here he felt for the first time the results of the malignant campaign which Holden's Raleigh _Standard_ had waged against him and his administration. So great was the panic and so bitter the feeling which Holden's sheet had roused that it was impossible for the President and his Cabinet to find accommodations in any hotel or house. He was compelled to camp in a freight car.
It remained for a brave Southern woman to resent this insult to the Chieftain. When Mrs. C. A. L'Hommedieu learned that the President was in town, housed in a freight car and shunned by the citizens, she sent him a note and begged him to make her house his home and to honor her by commanding anything in it and all that she possessed.
The leader was at this moment preparing to leave for Charlotte and had to decline her generous and brave offer. But he was deeply moved. He stopped his work to write her a beautiful letter of thanks.
His interview with Johnston and Beauregard was strained and formal.
Johnston's army in its present position in the hands of a resolute and daring commander could have formed a light column of ten thousand cavalry and cut its way through all opposition to the Mississippi River.
Knowing the character of his General so well he had small hopes.
After receiving the report of the condition of the army the President called his Cabinet to consider what should be done.
Johnston sat at as great a distance from Davis as the room would permit.
The President reviewed briefly the situation and turned calmly to Johnston: