Union And Confederate Monuments.

Messrs. Editors:

In THE SUN of March 26 I read that former Union soldiers and sailors of Maryland were much excited because the Committee of Ways and Means of the Maryland Legislature had reported unfavorably upon their modest request to have appropriated from the already heavily taxed Treasury of the State $50,000 to build a monument to the valor of Maryland soldiers and sailors who participated in the Civil War. It seems to me that if their patriotism is of such a high type, and that they deem it absolutely necessary to perpetuate the records of their State comrades by building this monument, why, in the name of Heaven, did they not build it and not go before the Legislature of their State to try and coerce these gentlemen into their way of thinking, and virtually in the name of patriotism compel them to erect this pile of stone?

Is it not a matter of fact that every soldier who served in the Federal armies during the struggle for even so short a time as 90 days or a fractional part thereof receives from the United States Treasury a pension of the money of the realm to soothe his aches and pains and also as an inducement to vote for those who uphold the old flag and appropriation? Has not the South, devastated as she was during the war, erected monuments to her immortalized dead heroes? Is not the South studded with these people’s tributes to their soldier dead, whose bones have hallowed the soil where they rest? Who built those magnificent monuments? Was it not done in many cases by the loving hands of the loyal women of the Southland, who stood as a reserve column behind the Confederate soldier in his battles for the cherished institutions of the South, and also when those dark reconstruction days came to the South like a death’s hand, these devoted women were with them, giving them the courage and the manhood to assert their rights, and to stand between the firesides and the homes of their loved ones and the Freedmen Bureau-that infamous blight upon this nation. Look at the State of Maryland and contemplate the monuments that the people of the State (minus pensions) have erected to their dead. Has ever a dollar been appropriated by the State of Maryland for that purpose? Look at that magnificent tribute to the Confederate soldier that stands on Mount Royal avenue as a loving and beautiful offering of the daughters of the Confederacy of the State of Maryland to those who bore arms in the Confederate armies. Most beautifully does the motto, “Gloria victis,” radiate from that monument, like rays from heaven. The Union soldier, if he wants a monument to his dead, should put his hands in his pocket and take from his roll of bills a few of the dollars of the pension money he has received, and then do as the noble women of the South have done-build it. The article in THE SuN that I have quoted from states, among its other inaccuracies, that the State of Maryland furnished to the Union cause 62,950 soldiers and sailors. Admitting these figures to be correct, how many of this number were sons of Maryland in its true sense? How many were to the manor born? Is it not a fact that immigrant ships from across the water, loaded to suffocation, did contribute to this quota of Federal Maryland commands in a great measure? I have seen prisoners of war captured from these so-called Maryland commands, United States Army, who could not speak a word of English and whose sole stock of patriotism consisted in the desire of drawing from Uncle Sam the munificent sum of $13, with bounties thrown in if possible. These are some of the patriots from poor old Maryland that these indignant gentlemen are so anxious to perpetuate in bronze and stone, the State paying the bill. This same article has kindly given to the Confederate States’ cause two regiments of infantry, three battalions of cavalry and two batteries of artillery, making in all about 3,500 men from Maryland in the Confederate armies. These figures are so ridiculous that it seems as if the party who penned the article certainly made but a feeble effort to enlighten himself on the subject, but concluded that the unsuspecting public would swallow his doctored compound without making a wry face. It is well known to those who are informed that not less than 27,000 men from the State of Maryland were in the Confederate service. Instead of two batteries of artillery the State had four, including Breathed’s Battery, 90 per cent. being from the State of Maryland-there were five batteries. In many cases entire companies of Maryland men were in other State organizations officered by Marylanders, and they were not from Pennsylvania and recruiting stations in Europe, either, but came from among the planters and merchants, sons of the old State, representing the chivalry of the best blood of the State of Maryland and true defenders of the glorious name of the old Maryland line of Colonial fame. In concluding this already long article, I beg leave to append the names of the distinguished sons of Maryland who gave their best thought and swords in the defense of the South: Brig.-Gen. James F. Archer, Maj.-Gen. Arnold Elzey, Brig.-Gen. B. T. Johnson, Maj.-Gen. Mansfield Lovell, Brig.-Gen. W. W. Mac-kall, Brig.-Gen. G. H. Stewart, Maj.-Gen. I. R. Trimble, Brig.-Gen. C. S. Winder and Brig.-Gen. J. H. Winder. In the navy we find Admiral Franklin Buchanan, Admiral Raphael Semmes, Capt. George H. Hollins, Capt. Isaac S. Sterrett, Commander C. P. Blair, Commander Frederick Chatard, Commander R. F. Pinckney and Commander Joseph F. Barney.

H. H. Matthews.
Pikesville, Md.