The Battle of Cedar Creek. 443
the two Johnstons, Beauregard, and Jackson, who held millions at bay for four years with their fragments of shadowy armies ?
Pile up huge pedestals and surmount them with bronze horses and riders in bronze. All the Union monuments are eloquent of the prowess of the ragged Rebels and their leaders. Suppose the tables had been turned, and that either of the five Southerners named above had been superior to his antagonists in all the appliances and inven- tions of war, and had been given, moreover, an excess of two mil- lions of men over them, how many statues, think ye, my country, men, would there be of bronze warriors and prancing chargers ?
The Congressmen from the Old South have voted liberally for all legitimate pension bills to Union veterans, for they know what a tough job it was for the 2,859,132 Union soldiers, with their magnifi- cent outfit, to overcome the 700,000 Rebels, poorly fed, poorly clothed, and poorly equipped. These pension bills are splendid tributes to the pluck, patience, perseverance, and fortitude of the chivalry of the Old South.
I love to hear the philanthropists praise Mr. Lincoln and call him the second Washington, for I remember that he was born in Ken- tucky, and was from first to last, as the Atlantic Monthly truly said, "a Southern man in all his characteristics." I love to hear them say that George H. Thomas was the stoutest fighter in the Union army, for I remember that he was born in Virginia. When the old lady of the Old South hears the eulogies upon these men, she pushes back her spectacles that she may have a better view of the eulogists, and says: " These were my children." Then the old lady adds: " I have another son born in Kentucky, and he is not a step-son, nor did I raise him to die on a sour apple tree."
The Battle of Cedar Creek.
BY A SURGEON OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMY. [Richmond Dispatch, December 27th, 1888.]
The battle of Cedar Creek, fought on the igth of October, 1864, was a very remarkable one, and differed from any other of equal magnitude fought during the war, in the fact that on that day each army was completely routed and driven from the field by the other, first the army of General Sheridan by that of General Early, and afterwards the army of General Early by that of General Sheridan.
