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Bat n«'
followed.
let us lower our guns and
of our bouquets directly
fe~. remaining
v thi j all “pass over the river and
. ,h .hade of the trees." Flow-
. or, the casket and grass on the
Vl ., j 0 „k nice to those who pass
but they are cold, cold comfort
the corpse in The coffin. Let*:
a,i these Veterans some flowers
ih they live; real flowers of
irv that will please their tired eyes,
of thought and feeling
■m their dear old hearts
iring their last day., among us.
;tened to learned law
V.II,rinciplcs whicn should
v C protected our progenitor;
•ir richt to eccede. We have been
d about the compact of the colo-
», ami the rights and privileges
rich were conferred upon the
UNION RECORDER, MILLEDGEVILLE. GA., MAY 2. 1929
^sbury Memorial Address
Beautiful Tribute to Veterans
, am president and Ladies
Konert E. Lee Chapter, Daugh
ters of the Confederacy.
thank yuo for the
ith these veterans here
ith the others present
half of these veterans,
permit me to compliment you
the courage of your fath-
yuU r willingness to risk a plain
day business men to talk here
. , many eloquent orators
c ,ne before. I confess some
,tn n when contemplating the
pt an d am nerved to make the
,,y the idea that however plain
-• mon place his talk may be. it
to ««y something different
eloquent addresses to which we
Vi listened here year after year,
that has been said is most eer-
truc and very much in place,
have heard much about Confed-
- leaders, and we endorse it all
r ,. glad that we heard
■tie has been said about these
,!j ft How s who sit before
f it has been aimed at their
< ,,vcr their heads; and it was
lH j m u-ic to their ears, to say
. • pay a tribute to their
th leaden whom they foi.
yea
ell
thos,
iich were retained by the partie;
the compact. We have learned
it the constitutional lawyers and
tesmen, even of .New England,
d the same views as to the rights
the states as did our own eminent
ders until those New Englanders
v -wept off their feet by the tide
the passion against our institu-
: of slavery, which they had sold
our fathers when they found it
profitable in their cold country,
: which proved to be the best
- n* that could have come to th<
>red people. And we thank tho?<
ho have so told us; for we are glad
know that our fathers were legally
d technically, as well as conscienti-
‘ly. right in the stand that they
fte have heard statisticians stand
re and read figures by the hun-
•d. gathered from the most rc-
!|ie governmental and ‘historical
in*', to prove the preponderance
men. money and munitions of
aat mighty horde held back by these
Veterans when they served un-
"ur immortal Lee. And we arc
f-I to those who took the trouble
deeply and dig out th’s data
uch convincing array to prove
our Veterans of the war between
states withstood such fearful
as were never before faced in
■ • Id.
V- have heard eminent orators of
ongnes weave wonderful
to eloquent phrases in praise
the- .skill and stategy of our lead-
' n the battle field; and we know
true. We have learned of the
*i"ni and patriotism of our states-
■•ur halls of congress before
ring this great conflict; and
proud of it all. Indeed, \y.
it would be well nigh im-
•" overpaint such a picture,
what about this remnant be-
"f the private soldiers and
citizen* who did their part,
h'-ut whom our leaders could
•ne nothing? Not only those
but their brothers who
. p arn und this hill hard by, and
“• who have long lain in lonely
!I * the far away fields of Vir-
are learning more and ...— —
• goes by of the reason for their
•-■‘“•hment to their illustrious leader
. know that the world
upon Lee as its greatest mili-
• rat. gist of defense. But wh^t
„ r;' ! °f Lee’s sagacity and far
‘'fdness have accomplished with-
,rave b °y» in wh ° exe -
^ 1 - "rders without a quiver
htn it meant instant death?
* * re better able to understand
5^ . ev °tlnn to Jackson when we
*5, , L J at Foc h copied his taciies to
world war. We all know
how Stonewall Jackson earned his
immortal name. And paying with
these veterans utmost tribute to his
skill and valoi; I wish to ask how , and the “Old Miss,” refused to leave
he would ever have earned that name j them and gave their help towards
but for the fearless phalanx of brave the restoration then and as long as
prisoners on Johnson Island.
So my father and his mother went
back to tht old home to rebuild the
broken fences and restore the wasted
land, gaining such comfort and con-
saolation as tlrey could from each
other’s company and a sense of duty
well dore. Some of their former
slaves were loyal to "Morse Tom’
boys who bared their breats and dar
ed death to enable him to stand like
a stone wall and be so designated by
his brother officer along the line?
It was some of these brave boys
and many of their brothers long gone
ts their reward who stood like the
stone wall in the face of fire that
scorched thrir very eye lashes and
enabled their commander to reap
such a rich reward of fame that he
would have gladly have shared with
them if he had lived. And they
should be crowned by us with all the
glory we are accustomed to give
their great leader. We have wait-
id too long, my friends, let us hasten
to render them their just dues while
a few of them remain with us.
And so, good ladies, if you please
I wish to say a few words to these
veterans themselves in this presence;
and aftei that to paint four pictures
of the Confederate, the private sol
dier for the benefit of these young
people gathered around us whose
education ve are neglecting so far
as name, fame and real worth of
their grand-fathers are concerned.
Some of them may be common place,
every day pictures, but all of us
have to live every day aird encounter
common place affairs, as these Veter
ans have done for sixty-four years
since the war. Some of them may
by very plain pictures without much
ornament, but many of us are very
plain people and the only ornaments
which wc can expect are those which
we earn by our acts in every day
life. And all of us can well leum
these lesions from the splendid ex
amples of citizenship furnished by
these veterans during their long
lives.
they lived.
The “Old Miss” was truly monarch
of all she surveyed, but had a kind
and tender heart; and did not object
when u few years later her son
brought as his bride the daughter of
her friends and neighbors of a life
time who lived in the adjacent val
ley. It seems to have been a habit
to find a bride near home in those
days when transportation was more
difficult and travel less far and fre
quent than at the present time. 1 ani
very grateful that times had changed
when I came along to the extent of
allowing me to come back to the Mid
dle Georgia of my grand parents for
the two best human blessings that
have come into my life. I am sure
the place tb which I came would have
pleased my grandparents; and I
think you home folks to the other
members of my family will agree
that they would have warmed the
hearts of my grandparents and they
lived long enough, as I can assure
they did those of my parents. *
The patience and perseverance of
my father and his mother had so far
succeeded in restoring the old home
that in my earliest recollection it was
surrounded with every variety of
j fruits and flowers known to that
time and clime. As a toddler of
tender years it was my privilege to
play on the grass, prowl around the
yard and pluck the flowers that
bloomed in the spring. And a little
later as a larger lad I learned whLlt
fruits ripened earliest in spring and
which lasted longest in the fall. I
can recall the shelves in the smoke
house carrying apples set primly side
Veterans of George Dole Camp:
VVhat need I say to you to whom I
have talked before; you who know
how my heart warms towards you,
the only hobby that I have? If I
were otherwise I would be utterly un
worthy of my heritage, a renegade to
my rearing and a traitor tr, my train
ing.
My ancestors came from old Vir
ginia and settled along the head
waters of ti»e Ogeechee in what af
terwards became Warren and Talia
ferro counties when they were sep
arated from Wilkes. When the lines
were laid my mother’s family was in
one county and my father’s in the
other, only four miles apart. There
they lived as neighbors for several
generations. There my grandparents
grew up, breathed the atmosphere of
the times and absorbed the local
lore to the extent that both my
grandmothers used to promise me
playthings for good behavior when
ever they might “go to Augusta” long
after they had been transplanted be
yond the reach of their old time mar
ket town. But they constantly re
ferred to and occasionally visited
their beloved "Middle Georgia” as
long as they lived.
The trend of the tide to th«* •
caught up both families >:i the late
forties und early fifties and took
them to the newer part of the t
to the northwest known as
“Cherokee Country.” There they
settled in adjacent valleys in adjoin
ing counties, likewise four miles
apart. And there they built for
themselves comfortable and happy
homes on the hills beside beautiful
valleys locking out over fertile fields
to far away mountains which formed
the famous Blue Ridge as it faded
away to the south. And I want to
tell you that in that fair land there
are to this day landscapes as en
chanting as human eyes ever beheld.
There my parents grew to matur
ity; and from there my mother and
her parents fled from the path of
Sherman’s march to the sea and re
fuged to kindly cover in Alabama,
where, like the Indians they said
“Here we rest.” My grandfather
who was an old man and a judge at
the time, took with him a wagon load
of the court and county records, lest
they might have been burned and
earned endless confusion to his coun
trymen, and restored them when he
returned.
From there my father and his three
brothers went to war in sixty one.
Only he and one brother came back
in sixty five. That one brother had
married in the mean time and went
elsewhere to live afterward. Another
brother fell by my father’s side in
the first battle of Manassa, and
father prized it a privilege to tote a
coffin four miles from a neighboring
village so that his brother would not
have to be buried like Sir John
Moore. The third brother went
where the good men go who died as
by side but not touching until long
after Christmas time.
The smoke house set immediately
benind the big house. And the
kitchen, presided over by Aunt
Nancy, sat about froty feet to one
side and was connected with a side
door to *he dining room by a covered
passage way along which Sally, the
house girl, used to bring the meals
hot or cold, rain or shine. A little
farther away one roof covered the
well and the cellar in which the but
ter and milk were kept cool. At the
far corner of the back yard was the
loom house, made of logs, and there
I stood and watched Aunt Mandy
shove the shuttle back and forth and
listened to her tales of "sperrits and
hants” in which she
lieved.
Still farther away htrough a grove
of majestic oaks was the big barn,
and along the drive thereto were
located the carriage house and shop.
That shop was fitted upon one side
with a bellows and anvil for shoeing
the horses, shrinking the tires and
sharpening the plows; and on the
other side with a bench and vise for
wood working At that bench I first
learned the use of a tool so simple
as the drawing knife which I used
to make wooden guns with which to
drill the negro boys on the place.
And back of the shop the negro men
used to unload lengths of logs which
they rived into boards with a froc.
I wonder how many young men of
today are familiar with that kind of
a tool.
It may nut be permissible for an
every day working man to admit
that such reveries during the day;
but since it is all so true, surely you
will not deny an evening dream of
pleasurelly paying to himself;
“How dear to my heart are the scenes
of my childhood
"When fond recollection presents
them to view;
"The orchard, the meadow, the deep
tangled wildwood,
“And all the loved scenes that my
infancy knew.”
Out of such an atmosphere and
from my first tweiv** years spent in
such surroundings I think I can
claim to hav e absorbed as much of
the spirit of hte Old South as any
man who came along as late as the
seventies. And let me ask you, my
beloved VetePane, if from such a
background I could be otherwise than
a warm admirer and staunch rup-
porter of Confederate veterans every
where and any where? It has been
my privilege to talk in a conversa
tional way for and in benalf of Con
federate Veterans literally 'from New
York to San Francisco. And I beg
of your patience now while I present
to these younger people gathered
here as examples for emulation four
firmly be- J pictures of Confederate Veterans
conceived from associating with them
and reading about them all the days
of mjr life.
These pictures may He poorly pre
sented, but the originals in life are
worthy of. being followed as heroes
by our young men growing up today
who do not realize that they have
such examples before them and are
in the habit of looking too far for
models after to which to mold their
characters. They have only to look
at you and listen to me.
The first will portray the Confed
erate Veteran as a soldier of war.
The second as a citizen of peace. The
third as - a knight of gallantry and
chivalry. And the fourth as a sol
dier of the cross. For these will be
pictures of you, my dear Veterans,
you and your brothers who sleep
around this hill, and on other hills
far and near. Of those who have
gone before and await you on the
other shore we can say now, and of
you when you have joined them we
can say. too, most truthfully of you:
“On fame’s eternal camping ground
their silent tents ar<- spread;
"And glory guards with solemn
round the bivouac of the dead.
“No» shall their glory be forgot
while time her record keeps,
“Or honor points the hallowed spot
where valor proudly sleeps.”
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Particular attention to the plan
tation of these pictures is invited
from the young people, and especial
ly from the boys in uniform. Time
was w-hen people looked to fiction
or ancient history for their, heroes;
to eminent statesmen, for models of
citizenship; to .the times of the cru
saders of Sir Walter Scott’s stories
for gallant knights; and to the
Mints of old for ideals of Christian
character.
But why look *o far when you
have before you the remnants cf the
most valiant army that ever went to
war; the best citizens that ever per
severed with patience for the restora
tion of u wasted land and rebuild
ing of a wrecked commonwealth; a
few remaining specimens of man
hood from a former period prior to'
our war between the states when in
veriest reality "Knighthood was in
Flower;” and last but not least some
of the best examples of real every
day Christian character that ever
stood before the altar of the Living
God?
Behold the.-e Veterans befor" you
and remember the graves of those
that sleep in the shade of the trees
hard by. Those before you have
bowed heads and bended backs from
the weight of eighty winters on their
brave shoulders. They won their
way through many a stormy day and
have served their country with fide
lity for sixty odd years' and deserve
all that we c9n say about them and
do for them.
The plaudit] of the people may
not mean much to them as they
gather at the beautiful river that
flows by the throne of God. Their
cars may be growing deaf to human
voices; but they are acutely in tune
to catch the summons fro'm the other
shore; and they will have no trouble
hearing the blessing bestowed upon
(Co,
nued Next Week)
Clean Gasoline