161. CLXI.
SERGEANT BATES IN PETTUSVILLE, VIRGINIA.
Washington, D. C., 20, 1868.
[1]
Happenin to be in Washington at the time Sergeant Bates,
that noblest Roman uv all the Northern men who took up arms
agin the Sunny South, wuz to arrive, it okkured to me that it
wood be a payin investment ef I shood go out to Pettusville,
wich is a beautiful village, containin one dry goods store and
13 flooid groseries, and witness the reception that shood be
given him. Wat transpired thrilled me; in fact I never felt
sich a thrill uv joy in my life ez I did when I saw this battlescared
veteran heave in sight. He came, proudly bearin aloft
the Flag, wich, when the South hed her rites, and owned the
niggers body and soul, in fee simple, wuz reely and trooly the
Flag uv the Free, but wich now that, alars! there ain't a slave
under its shadder, and all are permitted to do ez they please, is
the symbol uv the most oppressive and grindin tyranny wich
the world ever witnist.
But, nevertheless, the devoshun to the old flag, wich a site
uv it stirred up in the breasts uv the people uv Pettusville,
reely surprised me. Never shel I forgit the site that met my
eyes. The Sergeant wuz met three miles out uv town, by a
perceshun wich accompanied him in, marchin in the followin
order: —
Band, playin “The Bonny Bloo Flag.”
Detachment of the Pettusville Avengers, made up uv soljers
wich formely served in the 13th Virginia, wich wuz employed
for fourteen months a guardin Andersonville.
Detachment uv the Pettusville Cadets, made up of sons uv
Confedrit soljers who wuz killed in the servis, with black
banners, onto wich wuz inscribed, “We will avenge our slain
sires.”
Quartermaster
in
late C. S. A.
Sergeant Bates
proudly carryin the
Amerikin flag.
Commissary
in
late C. S. A.
Four survivors uv the late onpleasantnis, carryin each a flag
capchered from Wisconsin regiments.
Band playin “Dixie” melojously.
Citizens on foot, and hossback, and in carts.
On strikin the corporation, the Mayor (Captain Badger, uv
Forrest's Cavalry), and the town clerk (late uv the lamentid
John Morgan's command), appeared, and the procession stopped
while the formalities wuz gone through with. The Mayor received
the Sergeant in these words: —
“Sergeant Bates. Sir: Understandin, ez we do, that yoo
chivalrously made a wager (wich is a bet) with a Wisconsin
Ablishnist, that yoo cood walk from Vixburg to Washinton
carryin the Amerikin flag unfurled without being insulted nor
nothin, and hevin receeved testimony from leadin Democrats
uv Wisconsin, wich is entirely satisfactory to us, that yoo are
not in no sense, nor never wuz at any time, in sympathy with
the Ablishen, or ez they falsely style theirselves, the Republikin
party, we extend too yoo the hospitalities uv Pettusville.
And ez there are reporters present, let me remark, sir, that
yoor experience hez showd how falsely we hev bin judged by
the persekooters uv the Northern States. Yoo hev bin met on
evry hand with kindness. Southern hospitality, uv the broadest
kind, hez bin extended to yoo. Yoo hev hed a chaw off uv
evry plug, yoo hev hed yoor suck out uv evry bottle, yoor
nose shows that sence yoo entered the Sunny South you hev
not bin allowed to taste water, wich is our idee uv hospitable
treatment. Wat does this prove? Ef Charles Sumner, for
instance, or Judge Kelley, hed bin so presumpshus, or any
other Republikin, ez to attempt sich a feet, the outraged Southern
hart wood hev biled over, and he wood hev bin tored to
pieces. Wat does it prove? It proves that 'tain't the flag we
object to so much ez it is the men who hev bin in the habit uv
carryin it. In the hands uv a constitooshenel Dimocrat it's the
same old flag it alluz wuz. In sich hands, its russle sounds in
our ears like the crack uv the nigger whip, and the site
thereof is soothin. For when the flag wuz in them hands, we
hunted niggers under its folds in the streets uv Boston.
Under that flag we shot Lovejoy in Alton, and sunk Bailey's
press in the Ohio at Cincinnati. Under the shadow uv that
blessid flag we sold niggers at auction in Washinton, and that
flag, that symbol of Freedom, wood hev floated over the deck
uv every slave ship wich sailed from Africa, but for the unjust
and sooisidle laws wich forced the philanthropists in the biznis
to sale under other penants. In yoor hands, and the hands uv
sich ez you, the flag is to us the old flag it wuz then, and it's
sacred to us, becoz under it we cood do all these things.
That's why we love it, and that's why we tolerate it. Hed it
remained sich we never wood hev raised our hands agin it.
When sich ez Polk and Bookanon hed the control uv it we wuz
satisfied with it, and reverenced every stripe and every star —
for to us that flag meant suthin. It meant freedom for us —
free trade in niggers — it meant Suthern soopremacy — it
meant the rite to buy niggers — sell niggers, import niggers
— export niggers — flog niggers — hunt niggers. So long ez
the flag wuz sich we loved it. But when the North dispooted
our control uv it, and put it in the hands uv A. Linkin, an
Ablishnist, it wuz our flag no more. Then we felt it must
come down — that its mission wuz ended, and that to us it
wuz nothin. I fired onto that flag. I raised my hand agin it,
and proud I am. But borne by a Democrat — a old style
Democrat — a Democrat who stuck to us becoz he wuz afeered
of nigger ekality, it is wunst more the same old flag, and we
reverence it. Why then, when yoo, a carryin this emblem uv
the nashun's grander, kin walk all over the South, where all is
peace, and so much affeckshun is manifested for the flag, why
do they keep a army to overawe us? Why —”
An interruption here occurred. A shot wuz heard, and the
crowd rushed to see wat it wuz. They returned presently.
A funeral procession uv niggers wuz passin thro the next
street, a carryin to the nigger graveyard a nigger solger who hed
jest died uv injoories received doorin the late onpleasantnis;
and ez they marched with a flag at their head, the excited and
insulted populis hed cleaned em out. Two uv em wuz shot,
and the preacher with em wuz left for dead. This over, they
returned, and the Mayor went on. “Sergeant Bates, I welcome
yoo, and with yoo the flag, to Pettusville.”
Sergeant Bates replied briefly. Since he came into the
South he hed bin treated kindly. In the rooral deestriks, once
or twice, where the people, in their deliteful unsofistication,
don't read noosepapers, and consekently didn't jist know the
object uv his carryin the flag, he wuz went for rather ruff; but
a few words convinst em that he wuz sound, and it didn't incommode
him. The niggers in the rooral deestricks also
rather overwhelmed him with attenshun, but he hed no difficulty
in shakin em off. Stickin a coppy uv the Noo York
World in their faces did it. He cood say he wuz delited with
his experience.
The ceremony bein over, the Mayor mounted his hoss, and,
one band playin Dixie and the tother the Bonny Bloo Flag, the
percesshun moved to the town-hall, where the Sergeant wuz
interdoost to the principal citizens, incloodin the officers uv the
Kuk Klux Klan.
I left Pettusville entirely satisfied. Our stump speekers
hev now suthin to go on. The flag hez gone thro the South,
its folds hev kist the breeze in evry Southern State, and its
carryer hezen't bin shot on the spot onct. We kin now appeel
to the people. Hed a Ablishnist carried it he wood hev bin
shot. Can't they see in this the path to peece? Can't they
see how much more it wood harmonize things ef they wood let
sich men carry it all the time? Can't they see that, whereas,
ther will be a continyooal hart-burnin in the South ef sich a
man ez Grant hez charge uv the nashnel emblem, that all will
be lovely and sweet ef it is given into the hands uv Pendleton?
Sich is the lesson I extract from Sergeant Bates.
Petroleum V. Nasby, P. M.
(wich is Postmaster).
