The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-12
THE MANASSAS MEMORIAL.

There is something of touching simplicity
and modesty in the appeal for aid by the
ladies residing in the vicinity of the Manassas
and Bull Run battle-felds, who have formed
themselves into the " Manassas Memorial
Association" They have for their object, we
are told, "the refinement Of the Confederate
dead, now scattered in groups and in isolated
graves for many miles, and liable soon to be
obliterated by the plowshare. We solicit aid
fom our sisters and brothers, in the South, and
everywhere. Were it not for poverty we
would not cell upon you. In order to have
them decently inferred and inclosed in our
cemetery, some $4,000 will be needed" Only
five thousand dollars The smallness of the
sum has its own eloquence. Fortune has been
no kinder to the living than to the dead. 1t
is meet that those who are left, by the abitra-
ment Of wer itch in little else than graves
and memories, should be content, while they
continue in this condition, with the cheapest,
simplest and most unpretending enshrine-
ment of these riches. In existing circum-
stances, pretepsion to more than this would
be moekery. No costly mausoleum or gor-
geous cenotaph is wanted to emblazon the
glory Of the dead, or to attest the sorrow,
gratitude and admiration of the living. His
tory is sure to take care of the first, and hu-
man nature itself must decline from all that it
has of nobility before the last shall decay.
For the present, propriety suggests what
the ladies of the Manassas Memorial Associa-
ton propose 10 accomplish, the decent col
lection, interment, and Enclosure of the Con-
federate dead of the two battle-felds. The
site of the proposed cemetery, says private
letter explaining the object of the association,
evil be equidistant between the two battle
fields, on an eminence overlooking the sur
rounding country, and with a correct diagram
one could almost see where each regiment
fought and poured out their life's blood for con-
stitutional liberty" Let not the dull plowshare
insult the forlorn relics of the martial array
which in that behalf moved so grandly and
sublimely into the valley of death. And
let these scattered regiments of the dead be
disposed in decent order, and rest so along
with the cause which is sleeping with them.
Tenderly, solemnly, let the rites of sepulture
be performed, but with no triumphal pomp !;
for even their victories, judged by events as
men have shaped them, were failures, and
the ways of Heaven, which awards final VIC
tory and defeat, are inscrutable.
And it is also meet that to the women of
the South, above all, should be RENTED the
Office of tenderly cherishing and enshrining
such relics-all that is left of the high hope
and the heroic endeavor which glorifed so
many bloody onsets which would otherwise
have been brutal butcheries. None felt so
keenly as they the agonies of the conflict while
it was waging, and none realize so wildly as
they the consequences of its disastrous issue.
And, frankly, faithfully, and bravely, have
they accepted this Office and addressed them
selves to its discharge The Manassas Mem
orial Association is one example among hun
dreds-a branch, SO to speak, of sisterhood
dedicated to tender and sacred memories,
and which embraces every true-hearted wo-
man in the land. The appeal of this associa-
ton is published in another column, where
it will be seen that contributions in response
to it will be received by Woods, Mathers &
Co., 80 Magazine street, by Mrs. Mary
]. Deacon, and at the CRESCENT Office.