human
Stars and Bars. I can say further that looking backward over the record of the years, that Providence has kindly granted me, no four of them come back to me with a deeper sense of satisfaction than those which marked my service as a Confederate soldier. The convictions formed in those old days of the absolute righteousness of the cause for which we fought have only strengthened with the passing years. While the South failed in its purpose to secure separate national existence I have never felt that in the struggle it had anything to regret but failure. Despite the tremendous odds against which it fought, despite the fact that it entered the contest without an army, without a navy, without military supplies, with the sentiment of its border States hopelessly divided, and with the sympathies of the world against it, but for the loss of its ablest Western leader in his first battle, it would not, as I believe, have had even failure to regret. If Albert Sidney Johnston had not fallen on that fateful April Sabbath when Grant's demoralized and beaten legions were cowering under the river bank at Shiloh, he would, in my belief, have duplicated in the West, Lee's victories in the East and Appomatox and Greensboro would have had no place in Southern history. Even in '64, if President Davis had heeded the appeals of Gov. Brown and Gen. Johnston, of Howell Cobb and Joe Wheeler, Sherman's constant apprehension during the Dalton and Atlanta campaign would have become a reality. Forrest, the greatest cavalry leader of the war, and, in the opinions of Lee, Johnston and Sherman, the most brilliant genius developed by it, would have been turned loose on Sherman's rear; Atlanta would never have fallen, Lincoln would have failed of re-election and the