The Cleo Chieftain (Cleo, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, July 21, 1911 Page: 1 of 8
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CLEO OKLAHOMA JULY 21 1911
NO 8
The Glorious Rains Have Put Entirely New Face on the Country
VOL 17
N
V
X
t
WATERLOO!
"Now tell us what ’t was all about"
Youne Peterkln he cries
While little Wilhelmine looks up
With wonder-waiting eyes
"Now tell us all about the war
And what they killed each other for"
"it was the English” Kasper cried
- "Who put the French to rout
But what they killed each other for
I could nof well make out
But every body said" quoth be
"That ’t was a famous victory"
I
"And every body praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win”
"But what good came of it at last?"
‘ Quoth little Peterkin
"Why that I can not tell" eaid he
"But ’i was a famous victory"
Robert Southey’s poem on the
battle of Blenheim in which Consu-
cllo Vanderbilt’s husband’s ancestor
figured so conspicuously would fit
the battle oi Waterloo quite as
well - Why was Waterloo? What
was gained for the cause of human-
ity by making less than four square
miles of this earth’s surface a human
slaughter pen? Absolutely nothing
There wasno great principle at
stake there was novreat issue de-
cided The political fortunes of
one lone individual was the ’casus
belli Napoleon Bonaparte desired
to rule over tbe French as their
Emperor and a vast majority bf tbe
French people desired his rule but
the crowned heads of Europe de-
nounced him - as an interloper a
parvenu a plebeian a member of
the "Third Estate’’ and they out-
lawed him for encroaching on tbe
"divine right of kings’’ They
formed various coaiitiona against
him and squandered billions of
treasure and hundreds of thousands
of lives to bring about his overthrow
but they never would have accom-
plished it had it not been for their
victim’s own vaulting ambition
Of bis fall Lord Byron puts it in
Napoleon’s mouth to say:
"I have warred with a world which vanquithed me
only
When the meteor of conquest allured me too far:
I have coped wtihthc nations which dread me thus
lonely
The last tingle captive to millions in war
The numbers engaged at Water-
loo were about the same as tbe
numbers engaged in our own great
conflict at Gettysburg but tbe issues
decided on July 1st 2nd and 3rd
1863 were of vastly more moment
to tbe human race than those decid-
ed on tbe 18th of June 1815 - As
tbe immortal Lincoln declared on
that battle-field in a speech that
will be remembered "as long as Lib-
erty has an advocate’ it gave tbe
Nation "a new birth of Freedom”
Gettysburg was the SoutL’s Water-
loo Her Napoleon Robert Ed-
ward Lee was in command and her
Marshal Ney James Longstreet
was there and led in the fnry of tbe
assaults' She bad tbe flower of her
armies assembled on that field and
they slightly outnumbered tbe for-
ces on the opposing side and yet
she was beaten Like tbe English
at Waterloo the Union forces had
tbe advantage in position and they
bad something greater to inspire
them — that of a just and righteous
cause Justice like Troth is a
mighty weapon even when wielded
by tho weakest arm When I was
in Washington in 1897 on "a fool’s
errand" a bunt for an office I had
an opportunity of talking with an
ex-Confederate who fought at Get-
tysburg Tbe old veterafi attracted
my attention He was six feet tall
straight as an arrow and bis crown
of white hair was combed straight
back over bis bead He bore a
striking resemblance to Senator
Teller of Colorado Charles' E
King — tbe old-timers of this country
will remember him as one of Alva’s
early real estate dealers — and tbe
writer would say every time we saw
tbs a “There is- Senator- Teller’’
He talked to no one and seemed
"wrapped in tbe solitude of his
own originality” He was ‘‘among
them but not of them in a shroud
of thoughts that were not their
thoughts” I wanted to talk to
him but I was afraid I might get
caught np as I did once at a connty
fair back in Iowa Four neighbor
boys and myself went to a fair at a
place called Prairie City and took
our grub box with us and camped
out ' We were a rollicking bunch
of country boys out for a good time
and we bad it Among the other
attractions on the fair gronnds a
platform dance was raging and we
took a band of course just to give
them an exhibition of bow the
‘‘brush rattlers” practiced the terp-
sichorean art over in tbe vicinity of
Skunk River One of the boys got
a young lady for a partner who
would not talk to him and he reprted
the matter to the rest of ns To
try tbe girl out and see whether there
was any talk in her we each took a
dance with her bat not a sound or
a nod of tbe bead could we get oat
of her We found out afterwards
that the young lady was deaf and
dumb For a time I was afraid to
approach ‘‘our Senator Teller” to
try to engage him in conversation
for fear be might be a mute One
day while loitering about the hotel
where bestopped I saw him approach
the deck and heard him speak for
the first time and I said to tnyself
‘‘‘Now I shall have an opportunity
to learn something of the history of
this man” Accordingly when he
took a seat at a table I edged over
toward him and soon had him talk-
ing He was a courteous dignified
gentleman and an interesting person-
ality He was a Virginian ‘‘to the
manor born” and he still daimed
the Old Dominion as his home I
remarked to him that a man of bis
years certainly saw a great deal of
the War of the Rebellion He said
he enlisted m the Confederate army
at the begining of hostilities and was
under Lee that be was one of Pick-
ett’s division at Gettysburg and was
desperately wounded in that great
charge I have always regretted
that 1 did no write down and pre-
serve the story of Gettysburg as he
gave it to me and as he saw it He
gave a graphic description of the
last day’s fighting bow early in tbe
afternoon General Lee opened ap
on Meade’s position with 150 guns
and for two mortal hours the roar
of cannon was continuous and deaf-
ening and made the earth tremble
under their feet He said tbe Fed-
eral gunr were quickly disabled or
withdrawn and did not undertake
to reply When Cemetery Ridge
and Round Top were sufficiently
“macadamized by artilery fire”
"Then at the brief command of Lee
Moved out that matchless infantry
With Pickett leadiog grandly down
To rush against the roaring crown
Of those dread heights of destiny
“Far heard above the angry guns
A cry across the tumult runs
The voice that rang through Shi-
loh’s woods
ADd Cbickamauea’s solitudes
The fierce South cheering on her sons
“Ah how that withering tempest blew
Against tbe front of Pettigrew!
A khamsin wind that scorched and
singed
Like that infernal flame that fringed
Tbe British squares at Waterloo!
“ ‘Once more in glory’s van with me!’
Virginia cries to Tennessee
‘We two together come what may
Shall stand upon those works to-day’
(The reddest day in history )
"But who shall break the guards that
wait
Before that awful face of fate?
Tbe tattered standards of the South
Were shriveled at tbe Cannon’s
mouth
And ail her hopes were desolate
"In vain the Tennesseean ‘set
His breast against tbe bayonet
In vain Virginia charged and raged
A tigress in her wrath uncaged
Till all the hill was red and wet!
"Above the bayonets mixed and cross'
ed
Men saw a gray gigantic ghost
Receding through the battle-cloud
And heard across the tempest loud
The death-cry of a nation lost!
"God lives! He forged the iron will
That clutched and held that trembling
hill
God lives and reigns! He built and
lent'
Those heights for Freedom’s battle-
ments Where floats her flag In triumph still
Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns!
Love rules her gentler purpose runs
A mighty mother turns in tears
The pages ot her battle years
Lamenting all her fallen sons"
The strength of Lee’s storming
column hurled against tbe Union
linss on the 3rd day at Gettysburg
has been variously estimated Some
have placed the number as high as
22000 men If I remember correct-
ly the old Virginia veteran put the
number at 15000 which is perhaps
nearer correct Anyhow it was an
assaulting column of ‘‘terrific
strength" and was composed of the
elite of tbe Southern troops It
whs expected to break through
Meade’s center and sweep every
thing before it but it failed at
every point Thousands were kill-
ed and wounded a considerable
number were captured and the rest
were demoralized and put to rout
George E Pickett reporting to his
chief after the charge pointed Jto
the trail of dead that stretched from
Seminary Ridge to the crest of
Round Top said "General my noble
division lies there!” It was the
repulse of the "Imperial Guard” of
the South at her Waterloo "and all
her hopes were desolate” It was
the death knell of the would be
Confederacy that was to disrupt a
glorious Union and have for its
corner stone the infamous instiu-
tion of human slavery The Vir-
ginian said that when they started
to make the charge that be did not
suppose their was a live Yankee on
Cemetery Ridge and Round Top
that he could see none They had
not proceeded tar however when
those heights fairly swarmed with
the enemy and battery after battery
was brought into position and open-
ed upon them a ’terrible fire of grape
and canister which wrought fearful
havoc Men were falling all around
him and when the column arrived
near the culminating point a musket
ball pierced bis Bide and he sank to
tbe ground to stay there until the
Union soldiers gathered him up aft-
er the battle He said the last thing
he distinctly remembers was bis
comrades cheering and charging by
and General Pickett shouting to his
men and waving hU sword as he
rode bis charger at the head of his
column When he had sufficiently
leoovered he was exchanged and
sent hack to his home m Virginia
lie said that he told the people of
his state that it was a useless waste
of lives and money to prolong the
war that Gettysburg sealed their
doom and he was glad for he felt
and knew they were in the wrong
1
! I ’
Iw
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Bishop, John W. The Cleo Chieftain (Cleo, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, July 21, 1911, newspaper, July 21, 1911; Cleo, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1860508/m1/1/?q=j+w+gardner: accessed June 21, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.