had just resigned his seat in the United States Congress; so had
L.M. Keitt, who fell at Cold Harbor at the head of our brigade, while
Colonel of the Twentieth Regiment. James L. Orr, one of the original
Secessionists and a member of Congress, raised the first regiment of
rifles. The son of Governor Gist, the last Executive of South Carolina
just previous to Secession, fell while leading his regiment,
the Fifteenth, of our brigade, in the assault at Fort Loudon, at
Knoxville. Scarcely was there a member of the convention that passed
the Ordinance of Secession who had not a son or near kinsman in the
ranks of the army. They showed by their deeds the truth and honesty
of their convictions. They had trusted the North until trusting had
ceased to be a virtue. They wished peace, but feared not war. All this
idle talk, so common since the war, of a "rich man's war and a poor
man's fight" is the merest twaddle and vilely untrue.

The men of the South had risked their all upon the cast, and were
willing to abide by the hazard of the die. All the great men of South
Carolina were for Secession, and they nobly entered the field. The
Hamptons, Butlers, Haskells, Draytons, Bonhams, all readily grasped
the sword or musket. The fire-eaters, like Bob Toombs, of Georgia,
and Wigfall, of Texas, led brigades, and were as fiery upon the
battlefield as they had been upon the floor of the United States
Senate. So with all the leaders of Secession, without exception; they
contributed their lives, their services, and their wealth to the cause
they had advocated and loved so well. I make this departure here to
correct an opinion or belief, originated and propagated by the envious
few who did not rise to distinction in the war, or who were too young
to participate in its glories--those glories that were mutual and will
ever surround the Confederate soldier, regardless of rank.