[no day] 1865 September, place unknown: “Where is the flag that once floated so proudly . . .”

[Postwar poem by an anonymous ex-Confederate soldier.]

The Lament

“Where is the flag that once floated so proudly,
Where the bright arms that once sung out so loudly?
Where the brave hearts that so long held at bay
All the hosts of the North? Where the jackets of gray?

Down is the flag that once floated high,
Low lie the hearts that would conquer or die;
Sheathed are the swords that oft-flashed in the van,
Lost is the cause of Truth, Freedom and Man.

Hope has departed, life has lost all its charms;
Our armies disbanded; Oh! comrades in arms,
Taunted and scorned in our jackets of gray,
We may envy the brave souls who fell in the fray.

Lonely and weary the soldier returns,
Tells he’s paroled, and his manly cheek burns.
Can life without liberty happiness yield?
Oh! would I had died on the red battle-field.

Hardships and toil for four long years endured,
Honor and triumphs by true hearts procured,
Now to be lost by cowards and knaves
Deserting their standard in haste to be slaves.
[next page]

Hush, hush, my poor heart! be at ease, be at rest!
One comfort is mine, that the noblest and best:
I stood by our banner, I heard the last gun,
And can now say with pride, I my duty have done.”
September 1865

[Editor: From the autograph album of University of Virginia student James A. Harden (b. 1841) of Richmond, Virginia. He attended during 1860 and studied Latin, chemistry and moral philosophy. Possibly a man of the same name enrolled at Virginia Military Institute in 1861.  A Greenville, Virginia, native of the same name was appointed adjutant of the 23rd Battalion Virginia Infantry in May 1862 and served until his capture at the Battle of Winchester during September 1864 and became a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware until his June 1865 release. This Harden resided postwar in Augusta County, Virginia, and was employed by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad; he lived in Dillwyn during 1901 and was still alive in 1905 at age sixty-four. Autograph albums (as precursors of college yearbooks) were a popular means of expressing friendship among nineteenth-century students, including those at the University. Harden’s unpaginated album, printed and sold by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, contains eight entries by his classmates, two unsigned postwar poems, and July 14-16 diary entries, year unknown.]

RG-30/17/1.111

Friday, 1865 August 4, New Orleans, Louisiana: “Business has changed very much, not only changed hands, but the very mode of carrying it out is so different from what it used to be”

[Impressions of business conditions in postwar New Orleans and Norfolk, Virginia, and the employment of African-American ex-slaves.]

New Orleans, August 4, 1865

James W. Green Esq.
Rappahannock County, Virginia

Dear Sir:
I arrived here on 25 July on Steamship
“Star of the Union” from New York, and went to work next day
in Same office I was in prior to the War. I was enquiring
the other day about Charlie and learned that he was then
expected almost daily in Vicksburg so I presumed I shall soon
see him. New Orleans look very natural & there are many
more familiar faces to be met with on the streets than I
imagined. Business has changed very much, not only
changed hands, but the very mode of carrying it out is so
different from what it used to be. Trade is quite
brisk at this time in almost all its departments; Cotton is
Coming in very freely from the various points, and so long as it
lasts it will keep everything else moving—the growing Crop that
is very small, and the impression is that a Small Crop at
present rates pays as Well as a good large one used to. Planters
generally seem disposed to go to work with a will, and do
the best they can under existing circumstances—the freed labor
system is as yet somewhat problematical, but I think that
once the Negroes being to realize which end they stand upon, and
discover that they must work or starve that they will be very glad
to do at least as little as they possibly can, which might
[reverse page]
amount to something in the long run. I found
in Virginia that many believed it best for each Planter to hire
strange Negroes, for the reason that those previously owned were in
many cases indulged and allowed privileges altogether
incompatible with the new relation between Employer and Employed—
but which nevertheless they would still respect. I think
the idea good as a general rule.
I wrote you from Philadelphia
when I first arrived there, my stay however was very short,
from there I went to Norfolk [Virginia] and remained with a friend
[unintelligible] two miles outside Town, for about 5 Weeks, during all of
which time very much was absent from New Orleans on business
appertaining to the City Banks and did not Know anything
whatever of my whereabouts.
I trust you are all getting on
well at “the Shade” [Locust Shade] & have had a good Corn Season. When
you can make it convenient to write, I would be much
pleased to hear from you.
Please tell W. ?  Green that
when the Express Companies get to Working Well, I will
write & ask him to have that piece of silk I left in
his charge forwarded to this place, as many are very
anxious to see it. I could easily have brought
it on myself had I only known.
With Kindest regards to all at “the
Shade” [Locust Shade]—
I Remain Dear Sir
Yours very sincerely,
Walter F. Irvine [signed]
address Care of
T. H. & J. M. Allen
New Orleans

[Editor: James W. Green (1829?-?) of  Rappahannock County, Virginia; as a 35-year-old farmer in 1864 he received a Confederate exemption “as an Agriculturalist” for the counties of Campbell and Amherst; in January 1865 the Lynchburg provost marshal’s office (Confederate) granted him permission to visit Rappahannock; his father Col. Charles W. Green Sr. (1817?-1879) wrote to him in 1864 from “Locust Shade”—perhaps the family plantation/farm. (There is a Locust Shade Park near the Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Triangle, Prince William County, Virginia.) An April 1865 a New York Times article described the “Star of the Union” as a “magnificent steamer . . . on the route between New-York and New-Orleans . . . owned by E. A. Sorosa & Co. . . . 218 feet long, 34 feet beam, 18 feet 6 inches hold, and 1,202 tons . . . of white oak . . .  a vertical direct engine.” A Walter F. Irvine (1836-1906) is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia; the 1900 U. S. Census identifies him as a native of Ireland and a merchant residing on the city’s Bank Street; two of his daughters (Margaret and Charlotte) were Louisiana natives. T. H. & J. M. Allen Company, a New Orleans cotton firm, ca. 1858-1876.]

MSS 4694-A