It was 1907, and the US Senate was debating what was to be the official name for the Civil War. Former Confederate and Union soldiers were present, and the record shows they were getting along just fine.
Here is part of what Senator Hernando Money of Mississippi said, from the Senate Record:
There was ex-Senator Blair, of New Hampshire, as gallant a soldier as ever went to the field, now on crutches as the result of wounds inflicted by Confederate soldiers. He was shot three or four times.
He called to me. I did not recognize him on account of my bad sight. We shook hands. I said:
“What are you doing on these sticks, Blair?”
He said: “You fellows hit me pretty hard three or four times, and it is beginning to tell on me since I have been getting old.”
He said: “Did we get you?”
I said: “Once; not much.”
He said: “Are you not glad you got it?”
I said: “I do not know. I have not regretted it.”
He said: “I am glad I was hit.”
We shook hands.
He said: “Any man who was worth being hit ought to have been there either on one side or the other. If you had been in New Hampshire you would probably have been in my regiment.”
I agreed that it was a great deal a matter of environment.
Today, let’s not forget these men.
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