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THE JUNIOR RESERVES BRIGADE.
By FABIUS H. BUSBEE,
Second Lieutenant, Company E, Seventy Second Regiment,
(thibd junior reserves.)
The mortal blows had been stricken, and the young Confed-eracy
was wounded unto death. Whatever hopeful uncer-tainties
existed at the time, in the clear light of subsequent
events no one can now deny that after Jiily, 1863, the success
of the Southern Cause, humanly speaking, was impossible.
After an heroic but fruitless resistance on 4 July, twenty-seven
thousand men, the flower of the Western army, hemmed
in by unbreakable barriers, were starved into a sullen sur-render
at Vicksburg. The day before, the immortal valor
that consecrated the field of Gettysburg was unavailing to
hold the perilous heights, stormed at such fearful cost, and
the noblest army that ever bore standard into action, fell back,
baffled and crippled. The possibility of final victory was
over. But neither of the contending forces could at the time
realize the far-reaching .consequences of these disasters, and
more than once during the year that followed a wide-spread
despondency was prevalent at the ISTorth, and deceptive hope
allured us to still greater sacrifices in the South
:
"For when our triumph was delayed
A nd many a heart grew sore afraid,
We still hoped while gleamed the blade
Of noble Robert Lee."
In the Spring of 1864, an army confronted Sherman in
the West, whose bravery, leadership and endurance, he had
every reason to hold in the highest respect. With spirit yet
unbroken the Army of Northern Virginia, smarting under
their losses in 1863, were waiting an opportimity to avenge
the disaster of Gettysburg. How well their confidence was
justified, let the three days of terrible conflict in the Wilder-
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