Wednesday, September 4, 2013

More on Patriotic Socks



Daily Ohio statesman, (Columbus, OH) April 05, 1862 - Chronicling Historic American Newspapers LOC

Gifts of Yankee Lasses.
            Our brave western boys have won the hearts of the Yankee girls as well as victories over the rebels, and the St. Louis Democrat thus speaks of the cheering gifts “for the braves;”
            We have in our office, a contribution to the Sanitary Commission’s relief stores, which is a curiosity worth inspecting. It was sent here with other articles by ladies of Massachusetts, though from what precise Yankee town or village of the Bay State, we do not know. First, a pair of soft wool hose, in top of each of which is knit the flag of the Union, with its thirteen stripes, and blue field and the stars, and the flag extending down nearly to the ankle. Attached to the hose is a slip inscribed thus:

            “When hearts are true and fingers warm
            Who can resist our Yankee Boys?
            Not any base and rebel swain,
            That Freedom’s noble work destroys
            When women knit and Yankees fight,
            Who doubts the triumph of the right!”

            The other, a flannel shirt, eagle gray, of fine soft, but substantial fabric, on the body of which is wrought with the needle, the following stanzas:
            Soldier brave, will it brighten the day,
            And shorten the march on the weary way,
            To know that at home, the loving and true,
            Are knitting, and hoping and praying for you?

            Soft are their voices, when speaking your name,
            Proud are their glories when hearing your fame,
            And the gladdest hour in their lives will be
            When they greet you after the victory.
                                                                        C.S.M

            The workmanship is neat, but the address’ “For the bravest,” might be, if such a thing could occasion contention among men who are not only brave but generous, a source of strife for the title of it, like the mythologic apple of  discord.

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