The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 11: AntepenultimataBierce, Ambrose
General
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 11: Antepenultimata
Bierce, Ambrose
American essays; American literature
A few hundred yards to the rear of the old Confederate earthworks is a
wooded hill. Years ago it was not wooded. Here, among the trees and
in the undergrowth, are rows of shallow depressions, discoverable by
removing the accumulated forest leaves. From some of them may be taken
(and reverently replaced) small thin slabs of the split stone of the
country, with rude and reticent inscriptions by comrades. I found only
one with a date, only one with full names of man and regiment. The
entire number found was eight.
In these forgotten graves rest the Confederate dead—between eighty and
one hundred, as nearly as can be made out. Some fell in the “battle;”
the majority died of disease. Two, only two, have apparently been
disinterred for reburial at their homes. So neglected and obscure
in this _campo santo_ that only he upon whose farm it is—the aged
postmaster of Travelers’ Repose—appears to know about it. Men living
within a mile have never heard of it. Yet other men must be still
living who assisted to lay these Southern soldiers where they are, and
could identify some of the graves. Is there a man, North or South,
who would begrudge the expense of giving to these fallen brothers the
tribute of green graves? One would rather not think so. True, there
are several hundreds of such places still discoverable in the track of
the great war. All the stronger is the dumb demand—the silent plea of
these fallen brothers to what is “likest God within the soul.”
They were honest and courageous foemen, having little in common with
the political madmen who persuaded them to their doom and the literary
bearers of false witness in the aftertime. They did not live through
the period of honorable strife into the period of vilification—did
not pass from the iron age to the brazen—from the era of the sword to
that of the tongue and pen. Among them is no member of the Southern
Historical Society. Their valor was not the fury of the non-combatant;
they have no voice in the thunder of the civilians and the shouting.
Not by them are impaired the dignity and infinite pathos of the Lost
Cause. Give them, these blameless gentlemen, their rightful part in all
the pomp that fills the circuit of the summer hills.
1903.
Transcriber’s Notes:
- Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
- Blank pages have been removed.
- A few obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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