January, 1868. The South was...
Illustration
January, 1868. The South was struggling back from the Civil War, and some in the North still wanted to see the South suffer. Gil Bates believed in America, and made a bet with some other Yankees that he could walk through the South carrying an American flag, following the route that Sherman took to the sea, with no money and no weapons, living only on Southern hospitality, and finish by Independence Day, unharmed. He expected a quiet walk through the countryside. His friends expected him to be dead. The ex-Union sergeant started in Vicksburg, where the major threw a party, and Bates received, among other embarrassing gifts, a new silk flag to replace the regimental flag he carried. He was welcomed everywhere. Trains stopped for him. When it snowed, a man gave him his overcoat. Mobs of well-wishers caught up to him in the middle of the night. Once he was detoured to see a dying rebel captain; and once, when a woodchopper wanted him to pray over his brother's grave. When entering South Carolina, he was met by 25 Confederate veterans gathered to welcome and protect him, because a newspaper's editorial called for violence against him, the only opposition he met. He arrived in D.C. on April 14 to be met by rain, cheers, brass bands, and President Johnson, then being impeached for his conciliatory policies toward the South. Sergeant Gil Bates brought only faith in America, friendship, forgiveness, and a flag. The only harm that came to him were sore arms and hands, because they had been shaken by so many, and so heartily.
-- Mosley
-- Mosley
