General Lee's Birthday. 361 a king. He was as gentle as a woman in life; pure and modest as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vestal; submissive to law as Socrates, and grand in battle as Achilles." The profession of the soldier has been honored by his renown, the cause of education by his virtues, religion by his piety. "The greatest gift a hero leaves his race Is to have been a hero." In the ancient East, it is said, the wandering Arabs are searching for treasures buried in the tombs of their monarchs. He whose memory we commemorate, on this, the ninety-first anniversary of his birth, has no treasures buried with him. The treasures of his life were brave, noble, unselfish deeds, which he left behind him to make the sons of men wiser, nobler and better. OUR PRINCIPLES STILL LIVE. I said our cause was lost, but it was lost only in the sense that we did not accomplish that for which we struggled, but the principles for which we contended still live. Clouds may obscure the sun, but it still shines; truth may be crushed to the earth, but it will rise again; principles of justice and right may be trampled under the feet of demagogues and fanatics, but they still survive. All else may change and decay. Passing away is written upon all material things. "The grass of the field withereth; the flower thereof fadeth, the wind passeth over it, and it is gone." The tiny leaf springing from the expanding twig changes its color from summer beauty to autumnal loveliness, and falls in withered worthlessness to the ground, teaching man who treads upon it a lesson of his own destiny. The granite peaks that stand like sentinels keeping watch over the valleys below, that have withstood the frost of centuries, around whose heads the lightnings of Heaven have harmlessly played, and on whose crest the lurid bolt as it leaped from the bosom of the storm-cloud has spent its force in vain, will succumb to the corroding touch of time and pass away. But the principles of right, which spring from the Eternal Throne, will survive "the wreck of matter and crush of worlds," and shine with resplendent lustre when illumined by the pure light of eternity. The struggle was ended, the soldier perished, but the principles for which he fought survive, and I believe that the time will come when the Southern soldier will not only stand acquitted, but justified by the verdict of the world. What means this building with the significant name of "Lee Camp?" What means the hundreds of similar organizations all over the Southland? They speak in no unmeaning language. They tell us that though our cause is lost in the sense that the independence of the Southern Confederacy was not achieved; that though we were wasted and worn and all was lost, we saved our honor and our manhood, and we cannot forget our heroes. Sacred history tells us that one of the disciples proposed that three tabernacles should be raised on the mount of transfiguration, and in all ages of the world heroic deeds of men and nations have been commemorated by their fellow-citizens. Show me a land where there are no churches whose spires point heavenward, commemorative of the great work finished on Calvary, as told in that Book, suspended as it were in the zenith of the moral heaven, bidding all men to look, believe, and live; show me a land where there are no tombs of marble, no statues of bronze, no monuments of granite, erected to commemorate heroic, self-sacrificing deeds, and I will show you a people lost to every lofty emotion, without an ennobling sentiment, fit subjects to be the dupes. of demagogues and the slaves of the ambitious. No, no; we cannot forget the boys who wore the gray and offered their lives for what they believed to be right. "On fame's eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread; While glory guards with solemn round The bivouac of the dead." MEN OF THE NOBLEST TYPE. Raise monuments to their memory, and with each returning season strew their graves with flowers of field and garden, and by these things let your children and children's children be taught that the heroes of the Lost Cause were not rebels and traitors, but men of the noblest type, who were ready to do, to dare, and to die in obedience to the call of duty. Go on with the work, and the brave, the true of every land, will approve such conduct. No one who wore the blue, and who was a soldier, will say aught against it. Only those who were peace-like in war and warlike in peace will condemn. "He jests at scars who never felt a wound." We covet not their praise, nor will we be deterred by their censure. A few more words and I am done. To the rising generation I would deliver a message. Soon 'taps" for "lights out" will sound General Lee's Birthday. 363 for all who wore the gray, and they will go to answer roll-call on the other shore. Will you permit the memory of their deeds of daring, their knightly valor, their devotion to principle, to perish from off the earth, or will you take up the work when other hands shall droop and fail, and see that they shall live in the history of coming years? True, they fought and lost, but is that all? Is that all? Was duty naught? Love and Faith made blind with tears? What the lessons that they taught? From the onward sweeping years? Here are they who marched away, In the lapse of all the years. Garlands still shall wreathe the swords Greet them here through all the years. With them ever shall abide All our love and all our prayers. "What of them?" The battle's tide Hath not scathed them. Lo, they ride Where are they who went away, Sped with smiles that changed to tears? Lee yet leads the lines of gray Stonewall still rides down this way; They are Fame's through all the years. GIVEN VOTE OF THANKS. Captain Parks was frequently applauded during his speech, and at its close he received quite an ovation. Captain Stratton moved that the thanks of the camp should be extended to the distinguished speaker for his eloquent and patriotic oration, and the motion was seconded, though before it could be put Captain Alex. Archer moved to amend it so as to include the thanks of the entire audience. The amendment was accepted, and the motion adopted by a rising vote. The Tony Miller Combination played several selections, and Mr. Eugene Davis, Sr., by special request, sang several dialect songs, which were liberally applauded. JUDGE FARRAR SPEAKS. Judge F. R. Farrar was called upon by Commander Peay, and responded very happily. He prefaced his remarks with a graceful compliment to Captain Parks, and said he had no desire to mar the perfect autonomy, as he wittily termed it, of the occasion, by any words of his. He was induced to proceed, however, and with his well-known versatility, he flitted from grave to joy, and touched many a tender chord in the hearts of his listeners. Leaving the platform, he took one of the violins belonging to the Miller Combination, and played some old fashioned Virginia reels and other music, which fairly delighted his hearers. Refreshments were served in the committee rooms adjoining the camp hall, and the rest of the evening was spent in telling war stories, singing, playing, and impromptu speech making. Imprisoned under Fire. 365 [From the Richmond, Va., Times, August 22, 1897.] IMPRISONED UNDER FIRE. Six Hundred Gallant Confederate Officers on Morris Island, S. C., in Reach of Confederate Guns. They were held in Retaliation, and Two of them Relate the Experiences of Prison Life-Stories of Captain F. C. Barnes and Captain R. E. Frayser. A list of the officers under fire, as above, including those as well from Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, has been given in Vol. XVII, Southern Historical Society Papers, pp. 34-46, but as the list from Virginia herewith is more complete and definitely descriptive, it is meet that it should be printed now. Further and graphic experience of the "hardships, sufferings and hazards" of the "Six Hundred," is given in the "narrative" of Colonel Abram Fulkerson, of the 63d Tennessee infantry, Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXII, pp. 127-146.-EDITOR. During the seige of Charleston the powerful Federal guns located on Morris Island could send their shells into the lower part of the city, where their explosion caused great destruction of houses, and danger to the inhabitants of that part of the town. As a means of protecting the residents, Major-General Sam Jones, commanding the Confederate forces in Charleston, notified Major-General J. G. Foster, of the United States army, that he had placed five generals and forty-five field officers of the United States army, "in a part of the city occupied by non-combatants, the majority of whom are women and children. It is proper that I should inform you that it is a part of the city which has been for many months exposed day and night to the fire of your guns." This letter was sent on the 13th of June, 1864. Forthwith General Foster sent a copy of the letter to General Halleck, at Washington, and thereupon he ordered 600 Confederate officers to be taken from Fort Delaware and placed on Morris Island under the fire of the Confederate guns, in retaliation for the act of General Jones. |