In 1862, they had sent brave words of encouragement,
and bade their sons, and brothers, and husbands fight to the end. In
1863, they repeated that--sent the laggards back to the ranks--and when
they were not sewing, or nursing the sick, were praying. O women of
Virginia, and the great South to her farthest limits, there is nothing
in all history that surpasses your grand record! You hoped, in the dark
days as in the bright;--when bearded men shrunk, you fronted the storm
unmoved! Always you hoped, and endured, and prayed for the land. Had
the rest done their duty like the women and the army, the red-cross
flag would be floating to-day in triumph!
The army--that was unshaken. Gettysburg had not broken its strength,
nor affected its stout manhood. Lee's old soldiers believed in him
after Gettysburg, in the winter of '63, as they had believed in him
after Fredericksburg, in the winter of '62. They had confidence still
in their great leader, and in their cause. The wide gaps in their ranks
did not dismay them; want of food did not discourage them; hunger,
hardships, nakedness, defeat,--they had borne these in the past, they
were bearing them still, they were ready to bear them in the future.
War did not fright them--though the coming conflict was plainly going
to be more bitter than any before.
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