THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.

     This conflict, in its dimensions, equals any which has ever occurred on the continent of Europe.  The soldiers who took part in it, from both sections of the United States, without respect to the flag under which they fought, deserve to be remembered with respect and admiration, by this and succeeding generations; not only for their gallantry, but for the reason, that they shed their blood for an opinion - for an idea - for (what but for the reason, that they shed their blood for an opinion - for an idea - for (what they respectively considered) their rights; and not like the followers of noble chiefs in

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past ages, who were mere machines in  their hands, for the advancement of their personal ambition.
     Some people think that this bloody war whould be ignored.  Could English historians ignore the wars of the houses of York and Lancaster, which desolated England for nearly a century?  No!  Such are the events which constitute the experience of nations; and from them may be deduced lessons of wisdom for their future conduct.  The most useful one taught by our late civil war, is that of non-interference with the domestic institutions of each State, so far as they are consistent with the Constitution of the United States.  This has been a most costly lesson.  Hundreds of thousands of our young men have been cut down in the bloom of their youth, and a national debt contracted, which may never be paid.  There is a fearful responsibility resting on the public men who were instrumental in bringing it about.  It is too soon for its history to be written (1880).  When, however, the public mind shall have become calm enough to pronounce it, a correct verdict will be given on this matter.  When the future historian, free from any bias, shall consider the question philosophically, he will discard all uncertain sources of information, and build his conclusion on public acts of record, State papers, and the allegations pro and com, of contemporaneous historians.  His attention will be arrested by the last message of President Buchanan (himself a Northern man), which immediately preceded the war.  In this, the President said that "he imputed the threatened destruction of the Union, to the long continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people, with the question of slavery in the Southern States."  He said that "in consequence of this agitation, a sense of security no longer existed around the family altar; it had been displaced by a dread of servile insurrection."  He declared that "many a matron retired at night, in dread of what might befall herself and children before the morning.  Should this apprehension pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion would become inevitable; since 'self-preservation is the first law of Nature.'   That, even then, it was the easiest thing for the people to settle the slavery question forever; and restore peace and harmony to the country.  All that was necessary to accomplish that object, and all for which the slave States had ever contended, was - to be let alone."  This is a simple and true statement of the cause of the war, announced by a temperate, and disinterested statesman, and no sophistry can evade it.  That there were serious mistakes made by our public men will now be admitted; but, in the main, we contend that in this unfortunate business, there is nothing of which the people of the South need be ashamed.
     In despite, however, of all that has occurred, of the immense loss of our property, of the torrents of blood which have flowed, and the desolation of our country, there is no reason why our nation may not regain its former prosperity.  Nations soon forget the past; and it is well it is so.  In a few generations after the Norman conquered England, and the lands of her people were forfeited, and divided amongst his followers, the out rages of the past were forgotten, and she became a united, strong and prosperous kingdom.  So it will be in this nation, if the same excellent constitution which our fathers made is spared to us.  With these preliminary remarks, which self-respect prompts me to make, I will proceed to my subject.
     The list of companies of Ninth Alabama Regiment: Company A, Mobile; Company B, Jackson; Company C, Lawrence; Company D (Howlan's), Lauderdale; Company E, Morgan; Company G, Limestone; Company H, Greene (Hill's); Company I, Lauderdale (O'Neal); Company K, Marshall.

THE INVINCIBLES.

     The first volunteers for the late war, in our county, were about a dozen young men, mostly under 21 years of age, who commenced raising a company to be called "The Invincibles, March, 1861.  Hearing that the "Florence Guards" had completed their organization and were about to march, they abandoned  the idea of completing their company, and in the latter part of the month they bid adieu to their friends and joined the "Florence Guards."

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     Previous to the act of secession, the people of our county were divided in opinion in regard to secession.  One class were in favor of immediate and separate action; a second favored a call for a convention of the Southern States, and a third did not consider the election of Mr. Lincoln a sufficient cause for a dissolution of the Union.  But after the act was passed, the very air became hot with excitement.  People of all shades of opinion became united in a determination to maintain the position assumed by the State.  A subscription was raised for the equipment of these chivalrous young men, and the Garths, the Sykes and the Mastersons, representatives of all these opinions, poured out their money like water.
     The " Florence Guards," into which " The Invincibles " were merged, was a large company, composed of the finest young men in and about Florence, and many of the college students, and their captain was Sterling A. M. Wood.  It became a part of the Seventh Alabama Regiment, which was organized at Pensacola as a twelve months regiment, and Captain Wood was elected its colonel.  In his stead Wm. H. Price was elected captain.  The Seventh Alabama, during most of the year, remained at Pensacola, and spent their time in drilling, making fortifications and carrying sand bags.  While at Pensacola the regiment was in Bushrod Johnson's Brigade, and in Walker's Division.  The regiment, in the autumn of 1861, was ordered to Bowling Green, Ky., to join the army of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston.  After the regiment reached that place, Colonel Wood was appointed Brigadier General, and the regiment continued in his brigade.  Hardee's Division, and was commanded by Colonel Coltart.  They retreated with him to Corinth.  Their term of service having expired, they were discharged about the 1st of April, 1862, just before the battle of Shiloh, but they all joined other commands and nearly all Captain Hodges' company of the Sixteenth Alabama Regiment, and the most of them were in that battle.  As they occupied the post of honor amongst the volunteers of our county, I shall, one by one, give such an account of them as my information will enable me.
     1. Peter White was the first volunteer in the county.  His father, Nelson H. White, came to this county from Virginia in 1819, in company with Alex. Sale and Jack Burruss.  He taught a classical school at or near Courtland in 1820-21. In 1823, in company with Capt. Thomas Ashford, his intimate personal and political friend, he visited Natchez, Miss.  While there he bought the Natchez Hotel, and conducted it very successfully for two years.  In 1825 he bought a farm on Cedar creek, Franklin county, and in 1826 married Mary B., eldest daughter of Major Thomas S. Pope.  The issue of this union was 14 children - 8 boys and 6 girls.  Mrs. White, the mother, still survives, is 75 years old, and remarkably healthy and lively.  Mr. White again came into Lawrence county in 1832, where he finished his useful career, alternately following the occupations of farmer, merchant, teacher and hotel keeper.  For many years he kept hotel in Moulton, and in 1854, as his son, Major D. C. White, was proprietor of the Moulton Democrat, he learned the trade first of a practical printer, and then conducted the paper as its editor until his death.  He was a man of good person, of expressive face, of strong convictions, and of much independence.  He was a clear and nervous writer, held the views of the extreme party in the South, which he sustained with ability.  But he was an editor of integrity, had a great love for the truth, and the columns of his paper were open for articles, from Judge Peters and others, who differed from him in opinion.  The paper of the 17th of April, 1863, contains a notice of his funeral sermon, to be preached by Rev. John S. Davis.  The paper, which two years before was large for a village paper, was reduced to a sheet not larger than one of letter paper.  Small, however, as it was, that number was full of woes.  In addition to the funeral of its editor, there was an obituary of William W., son of Judge Gibson, written by his comrade, Edward Stephenson, and also a list of eighteen young men of Moulton and vicinity, who had already fallen in battle, although the carnage of war had but fairly commenced.  Their names were John T. White, John Dinsmore, Thomas R. Boyd, Wm. W. Gibson, Goring Crittenden, John W. Irwin, James Gailey, Newton Parker, Jimmie Dick Moore, John W. McDonald, John W. Byler, Waddy T. Goodlett, James N.

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McDaniel, Lover Moore, Jack Warren, E. Gailey, M. B. Cox and T. M. Heflin.  I know that I am opening many a wound which has long since ceased to bleed, but they will heal again with a healthier action, when it is seen that the patriotic gallantry of our fallen is not forgotten.  It is not my purpose in what I write to invade the province of general history, but to fill the chasm about which history is silent.  Mine is the humble task of gathering from the neglected battle-fields of the South, the ashes of our soldiers, who, uninfluenced by emoluments and the hope of distinction have given them selves disinterestedly to their country, and to deposit these ashes, with reverence, in the Urn of Memory, over which those who loved them may shed tears, softened by the reflection that their devotion to the country is gratefully remembered.
     Maj. D. C. White, now the senior editor of the Moulton Advertiser, is the oldest son of Nelson H. White.  He became a printer first, and then taught his father and four brothers to set type.  He purchased the Moulton paper, then called the Advertiser, from Samuel W. McCord and his son, Luther, in 1851, and changed its name to that of the Moulton Democrat.  He has run the paper from that time, with the exception of one year (1854), when he and Col. W. H. H. Tyson published a paper at Eastport, Miss.  When the war closed the name of the paper was changed back to that of the Moulton Advertiser. When Captain Hodges raised his company he entered it as a private, but was made second sergeant.  In the battle of Shiloh he acted with such steady courage that a few days afterward he was promoted to the post of regimental ordnance sergeant in the Sixteenth Alabama, to which his company belonged.  He was wounded at Shiloh, but not so severely as to prevent him from atteding to his duty.  General Beauregard's army retreated to Tupelo.  In reviewing the state of the conflict the authorities deter mined to organize the Home Guards for an emergency.  Major White was appointed to command them in Lawrence county, with the rank of major.  Nine companies were organized, and when Selma was threatened, they were ordered to that point; but they could not be armed and gotten ready in time, and in a short time afterwards the war closed.
     Another son of Nelson H. White, John Thomas, belonged to the Fifteenth Arkansas regiment.  He was killed at Shiloh, in the van of his regiment, in a charge on Monday.  He was esteemed by his officers and comrades as among the truest and bravest.
     Peter White, of the "Invincibles," was a son of Nelson H. White.  When the Seventh Alabama Regiment was disbanded, he was at home very ill with pneumonia.  As soon as he was able he joined Captain Hodge's company of the Sixteenth Alabama Regiment, where he filled the place vacated by his brother, D. C., most faithfully.  He was in the battle of Perryville, was shot through the right arm at Murfreesboro, was at Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga, and all the fights from Chattanooga to Atlanta.  At the latter place he was so severely wounded that he was afterward unfit for active duty, and was placed in the quartermaster's department at Augusta, Ga., where he remained until the surrender.  He is now editing a paper called the News, in Belgreen, Franklin county, Ala.
     Leonidas, a young son of Nelson H. White, entered the Sixteenth Alabama at the tender age of fifteen years.  Those who knew him say that he was gentle and kind as a woman, but as bold as a lion in battle.  He might have enjoyed ease and idleness at home, but when the South was bleeding at every pore, he was too chivalrous to do so.  On the day his brother Peter was shot down at Atlanta, he was captured by the enemy, taken to Camp Chase, and died with erysipelas, engendered by an attack of the measles.  A lovelier boy or a braver soldier never donned the Confederate gray.
     2. John Collier came from Morgan county.  He studied law with Hon. D. P. Lewis.  He was a nephew of Governor Collier.  When the Seventh Alabama Regiment was disbanded, I presume he joined the Sixteenth Alabama Regiment, but I have no certain information.  He moved to Texas, and is doing well as a lawyer.
     3. S. H. Brown was a son of Jenkins W. Brown, was born near Moulton, and now lives in Texas.

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     4. J. C. Nipper came to Moulton a short time before he became a volunteer.  It is not known what has become of him.

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