by John Stevenson
“The Confederate Gift to the Nation” by Wesley Pruden
came to me as a surprise. Pruden is
editor in chief emeritus of the Washington Times. There are other versions which differ in some
of the details, but they don’t contradict the essence of Pruden’s account or,
more importantly, its message.
It came as a surprise because only avid students of the
Civil War and its aftermath would be aware of the circumstances Pruden
describes. It is a story of post-war reconciliation
which has sadly not been exhibited by modern-day revisionists who think they
know better than those who lived through that time. Or, more likely, in their zeal to right
wrongs, they never bothered to consider the views of the long-ago combatants or
their surviving loved ones.
A year after the end of the War, according to Pruden,
some ladies in Columbus, Georgia, “with broken hearts” visited the local
graveyard to place flags and flowers on the graves of their fathers, sons,
husbands, and brothers who had been killed “defending hearth and home from the
depredations of William Tecumseh Sherman.”
Sherman’s swath of destruction was so complete that he is said to have declared
“if a crow flies across Georgia it will have to carry its own provisions.”
Forgiving their former enemies, the Southern ladies also
decorated the graves of the few Union soldiers buried in their cemetery. This incident was noted by Northern
newspapers. For example: “The act was as beautiful as it was
unselfish, and it will be appreciated in the North.” And “Let this incident, touching and
beautiful as it is, impart to our Washington authorities a lesson in
conciliation.”
The scene was replicated annually in other towns
throughout the South. In 1868, General
John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an association of
Union veterans, said “It is not too late for the Union men of the nation to
follow the example of the people of the South.”
And so the observance known as Decoration Day was proclaimed, was celebrated
in both the North and the South and, in time, became our national Memorial Day.
Pruden goes on to say that “The Union adoption of a
Confederate holiday was particularly poignant…so soon after Appomattox. Men who
had fought to the death for four miserable years put aside bitter remembrance
to embrace each other as friends. Grant became friends with Lee, and Joe
Johnston…whose army had fought Sherman’s at Atlanta, stood for an hour in a
cold rain to pay honor…” at Sherman’s funeral cortege. “Such men would not have understood the
current fashion of contempt for old foes…”
Think about the reconciliation Pruden describes. Consider the strength of character displayed
by the gracious ladies of Columbus and by those who were moved to follow their
example. They had suffered the ravages
of the War and were able, in the end, to embrace their similarly scarred fellow
Americans.
That conciliatory mindset and strength of character would
serve us well today.
