day was bright, cheerful and clear, the oratory was stirring, and the huge crowd present were in thorough sympathy with the sentiment of the occasion. *

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In ante-bellum days, the Winchester cemetery began about three squares from Main street, and covered a comparatively small area. So many were the engagements in the valley, and so many were the dead for whom Winchester cared, that beginning at the limits of the old graveyard, a new cemetery was begun and aptly called after Stonewall Jackson, under whose command most of the dead had fought. This is possibly the only distinct Confederate national cemetery. The Federal national cemetery adjoins it on the left.

In the precincts of Stonewall Jackson cemetery the people of Winchester gathered and placed all the known Confederate dead, locating the graves by States. The unknown, numbering nearly seven hundred, were placed together, and now a splendid monument marks the resting place of these unknown heroes. Many of the graves of the known, are still surmounted with the wooden headboards placed there when they died, but Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and Louisiana have removed these crumbling memorials and replaced them with marble stones, which will be everlasting.

These four States have likewise erected monuments to their dead. The Louisiana monument which was unveiled on the 4th of July, is a beautiful granite shaft planted on a slight eminence in one of the prettiest part of the soldiers' cemetery. The specifications called for Georgia granite, with a total height of eighteen feet, the base being four feet three inches square, the second base, the die, the cap and the plinth each being proportionately smaller, until the shaft is one foot three inches square, and eleven feet high. The design was graceful, chaste, and of proper soldierly simplicity. On the first base are the large letters, "C. S. A." The second base bears the word" Louisiana," and the cap above the highly polished die shows the coat of arms of the State.

The inscriptions are as follows:

"To the soldiers of Louisiana who died for the South in the Valley Campaign, this monument has been erected in memory of their noble daring and heroic endurance in their country's cause.' On the right side:

"Sleep in peace with kindred ashes,
Of the noble and the true;
Hands that never failed their country,
Hearts that never baseness knew."

The words on the rear of the base are::

"They died for the principles upon which all true republics are founded."

On the left of the base is:

"Remember their valor,

Keep holy the sod,

For honor to heroes

Is glory to God."

The Monument Committee had the plinth so designed that at some future day four bronze medallions of Louisiana soldiers can be attached to it. These will probably be Colonels Taylor, Hays, Stark, and Stafford, who commanded the Louisiana regiments which were most constantly engaged in the Shenandoah Valley campaigns.

When Colonel William Laughlin attended the reunion in Houston last year, he met Captain T. J. Bantz, of Winchester. The New Orleans veteran told his Virginia comrade about the superb collection of relics in the Confederate Memorial Hall, and interested him so much that he volunteered to secure a number of relics for the hall from the Winchester battlefields. He kept his promise, and when Colonel Laughlin met him again at Winchester, he had collected a fine lot of battle mementoes. These included minie balls, bayonets, two United States army belts, gunstocks, and pieces of shell and canister from Monacacy, the first and second Winchester fights, the battle of Milroy Fork and other skirmishes about Winchester. These precious relics Colonel Laughlin brought back with him to New Orleans, with infinite pains (as they are bulky and heavy) and will present them in a few days to Memorial Hall. They will shortly be supplemented by a collection of shells and other bulky articles which it was impossible to bring by hand, and which will be received by express and placed among the other relics.

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One of the most striking of the many monuments in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery is that which marks the grave of Major Thompson, a gallant Winchester soldier, who received his death wound on almost the last day of the war.

The monument is a massive block of granite surmounted by a wondrously polished granite globe several feet in thickness. It is as smooth as polished crystal, and one seems to see into its depth for several inches. So perfect is the reflection that the globe presents

in compact space a marvelously beautiful view of the cemetery scenery, showing the monuments, the foliage, the soldierly headstones, and the distant historic hills.

Colonel W. R. Lyman, of New Orleans, who fought with the Virginia troops, and knew Major Thompson intimately, started the movement to erect this monument to his heroism. He was in Winchester one day, when he was told that Major Thompson was buried there. "Then his grave should have a monument," he instantly declared, and offered to lead the subscription list for one. It was instantly taken up, and in an hour $600 was subscribed. The result is the memorable stone that now marks the grave.

Major Thompson's death was unusually pathetic-unusually heroic. It was two days before the surrender at Appomattox. Major Thompson's left arm had been rendered useless by a rifle ball. His regiment was ordered to charge, and he rode to its front, his left arm hanging helplessly by his side, the reins in his teeth, his revolver in his right hand.

"Don't go into this fight," a friend entreated. "It is sure death, with your arm crippled.'

"I don't care, was his brave response. "The Confederacy is dying. I do not wish to survive the Confederacy." He rode into the battle, charged impetuously, and was the first to fall.

H. W. ROBINSON.

WHAT THE ALABAMA DID.

In the war between the Northern and Southern States, which raged in America during 1861-'65, we have the only instance in which steam cruisers have been employed on any scale to carry commerce. The South had no commerce to be attacked, but the North had a large and prosperous merchant marine. From first to last the South sent eleven steam cruisers and eight small sailing cruisers to sea. These captured between them, two steamers, and 261 sailing-ships— not a very heavy bill of loss, one would think. Yet this loss practically drove the United States flag from the seas. To prove this, I will quote from the case of the United States, as presented to the Geneva arbitrators, the following facts:

In 1860, two-thirds of the commerce of New York was carried on in American bottoms: in 1863 three-fourths was carred on in foreign bottoms." And the transfers from the United States to the British flag were enormously large. They were:

The mediocre Alabama, a single small and ill-armed ship, was the cause of most of this loss. There were, no doubt, other contributing factors, but the effect of her career is plainly marked in the sudden increase of transfers during 1863, when she was at sea. After she had been sent to the bottom, Yankee skippers recovered their breath. The trade, however, had departed, and the United States has never regained the position which it held in 1860 as a shipping nation. Here again, the destruction of helpless northern ships in nowise benefitted the South. It wrought individual ruin, and it embittered the relations between England and the United States; it had no strategic result, as the North was self-dependent.-Nineteenth Century.

[From the Richmond Dispatch, April 12, 1896.]

BATTLE OF SAILOR'S CREEK.*

PART TAKEN IN IT BY THE SAVANNAH GUARD.

But Few Survivors Now of the Guard.

To the Editor of the Dispatch:

The Savannah Volunteer Guards Battalion fought its last battle at Sailor's Creek, in which engagement many Savannahians were killed and wounded.

* For further account of this battle, see ante page 83:-Recollections of a participant as to the part taken therein by Hunton's Brigade.

The Guards were known in the Confederate army as the 18th Battalion of Georgia Volunteers, which was commanded by the gallant Major (afterward Colonel) W. S. Basinger, a distingushed lawyer and citizen of this city, but now residing at Athens.

The battle of Sailor's Creek was one of the several battles which took place after General Lee evacuated Petersburg, and just before the surrender of the army at Appomattox. The Confederate army, says the Savannah News, of the 5th, decimated and starving, was bravely trying to make its way through the cordon which General Grant's hosts were forming around it. The 18th Battalion was hemmed in, and attempted to break the enemy's lines, but was annihilated in the attempt, every officer and man being either killed, wounded, or captured.

The Guards went to Virginia when every available armed man that could be spared was needed to reinforce Lee's army. Although in service from the beginning of the war, the operations of the battalion had been confined to the coast, in the neighborhood of Savannah and Charleston, where there was much unpleasant duty, but very little fighting. The battalion had done some good service in Charleston harbor, however, where it distinguished itself in the repulse of the attack on Battery Wagner, on Morris Island, after which it did service for several months on Morris and James Islands, in the defence of Charleston.

In May, 1864, the order came for the battalion to go to Virginia, and was received with rapturous cheers by the men, who were tired of the monotony of garrison life. In the fall the battalion was joined with six other battalions, which were stationed with it at Chaffin's Bluff, on the James river, into a small brigade, commanded by Colonel Crutchfield, which was attached to the division of General G. W. Custis Lee, son of General Robert E. Lee. On this account General Custis Lee has been an honorary member of the corps since its reorganization after the war.

The battalion had the same hard experience with the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia during the winter of 1864-'65. Its only shelter was a few ragged old tents, and these were not sufficient for all. Fuel was scarce, and very difficult to obtain. Their only

rations were a pound of corn-meal and a third of a pound of bacon a day. The duty was also very severe. How would the 250 young fellows who looked so brave in the last annual parade of the Guards enjoy soldiering under such circumstances? But it was the same class of men who composed the battalion in 1864, and their successors would do the same thing now if it were necessary to do so.