We Were Right and Have Not Changed Our Minds
From: bernhard1848@att.net
As related below, “history presents no grander page than written by the Confederate soldier.” Though politically identified as “Confederate,” these soldiers were Americans descended from the Founders and patriots of 1776, and fought in 1861 for the very same principles of political liberty and self-determination.
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
www.cfhi.net
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We Were Right and Have Not Changed Our Minds:
“We were outnumbered by over 2-1/4 millions. To put it another way they had 4-2/3 men to our one. Of the millions against us were 494,000 men were foreigners. This number only fell short of our entire number 110,000, and was more than made up by the 186,017 colored soldiers enlisted in the Federal army.
So my comrades, it will be seen that we were outnumbered by foreign and colored soldiers, and had to contend against a surplus of 2,203,215 loyal patriotic soldiers of our own country. New York, Iowa and Connecticut furnished more men than were in our entire army. They had an army, a navy and ordinance to begin with, while we had neither. They had money and credit abroad, but we had none. And yet, in spite of all these things, it took four long years for the North to overpower the brave South.
History presents no grander page than written by the Confederate soldier. We have the right to point our children and the young people of today to the sanguinary conflict which we have passed through, and teach them that their fathers were not traitors, but brave patriotic soldiers.
The Confederate went to battle at the call of his State; he recognized its authority as supreme. We believed we were right and have not changed our minds, you believed you were right, and are of the same opinion still. We cannot agree on this question, but since the close of the war the Confederate soldier has been true to that starry flag, and is ready to follow it with the same patriotic heroism which he followed that one with its stars and bars, which flag was ours. We stained it with our blood, we upheld it as long as we could; we love it yet (and) we love the memories that cluster around it…”
Hon. A.G. Hawkins of Huntington, Tennessee, October, 1895 Confederate Veteran, page 313.
