Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-05-12
CONFEDERATION DAY.
Decoration of Confederate Graves on
the Tenth-An Immense OutPOuriH<
Of the PeOpIe-A City of MOurners.

the Ienth-An Immense 0utpOurins
Of the PeOpIe-A City of MOurRers
Sunday the 10th, being the anniversar.
Of the death Of Stonewall Jackson was Sc
apart as a Git day for the decoration of tn
graves of our Confederate dead. Tn
simple announcement of this fact sent
thrill Of mournful pleasure through tn
city. The South Nashville street railroa'
placed every available car on the track
and every omnibus and hack and priyat
carriage were called into requisition to &C
commodate the vast throng who wer
vending their way to this Southern Mecca
to lay their simple floral offerings upon tn
graves Of their dear, but immortal dead
who had died in defense ofright and father
land. Never before have we seen such al
immense outpouring Of the people. Thu
city was almost deserted. Every path ant
avenue of the City Cemetery was thFongeC
and crowded with meurners and visitors
| The crowd was yarionsly estimated at from
eight 10 ten thousand All classes Of so
cieiy were represented. The aged, whose
lengthening shadows pointed 10 the grave
were there; the maid and matron ant
those who had passed through the blood
red blaze of battle, on many victorious
field, mingled their tears and flowers upoI
the little hillocks which marked the silent
resting place Of the dead soldier. Every
grave in that vast Metropolis, however
humble, had a monument Of flowers.
On an humble grave, we saw a beautiful
chaplet of roses and evergreens, to which a
card was attached with this unique and
touching inscription: "To Robert Lee
Britt, from his father and mother"
What an exquisite thought What ma
terial essence could SO appropriately bear
to the spirit-world the sObbings of our
desolate heart over the loved and lost, AZ
flowers?
Some of the graves were decorated with
exquisite taste. Festoons of rarest flower:
hung in rich profnsion and flung their
aroma upon the evening air. The grave Of
Gen. James +. Rains attracted much at
tention. No monumental marble lifts its
white shaft TO tell where he sleeps. An
arch of wire, covered with wreaths of ever.
green with a rich mosaic of spring flowers
hung above his grave. He needs no proudeI
monument. The tears which fell around
his grave are more enduring than brass and
the sighs of wesping city over his sleep
ing dust are a nObler requiem, than the
tongue of orator ever chanted.
The grave OF Zollicofier was all the time
surrounded by his friends. Flowers seemed
to spring from his cOrse, the earth around
blushed with roses, and his memory, sc
dear TO us all, seemed rs fragrant as the
heliotropes and violets which lay upon his
tomb.
Among the Confederate graves decora.
ted last Sabbath in the City Cemetery, wa:
that of Capt. John Thomas Wheat, who
breathed the last moments of a gallant life
on the bloody field of Shiloh. Lying
across the grave is little wooden slab
the same that had designated his resting
place near the battlefield, and on it is
written the simple word, ".SOldier." The
Spartan mother, whose parting Injunction
TO her son as he went forth to battle, will
be famous through all time, might well
have chosen such an epitaph.
In all this vast throng there was none oil
the pomp and pageantry of sorrow. A Sab
bath-like stiffness pervaded the hearts oil
all. Sorrow that hath no language glis-
tened through many moist eye, and that
holy sadness (which doth even dwell on
the brink of tears" seemed to hang like a
soft benediction over the sleeping dead
Whilst strolling among these fOwer-decked
graves, we thought how many bright hopes
how many proud ambitions are buried
here That rude head-board with its
simple epitaph of name and date tells all
we know Of that gallant boy from Texas OF
Arkansas, whose cleaning blade was "a
light, landmark in the clouds of war"
He was the pride of his mothers heart, the
stay of her declining years,yet the wall ofhis
stricken country called him to the field oil
honor, and he now sleeps in the biviouaC
of the dead.
But why sorrow for the dead? They
lave passed over the river" and now
crest under the shade of the trees" and
Fame hangs like bright meteor over their
graves, which will be enwreathed with
flowers so long as a mother remembers her
buried love, or patriotism weeps over its
martyrs. We linger amid the gloom and
desolation of blighted land. They died
with the stars and bars floating above them.
We have seen it furled and trampled in
the dust.
Nay, grieve not for the dead alone
Whose death has told their liles sad story
Weep for the living. who now know
The cross without the crown of glory"
While these sad memories come throb
bling through our brain, and fall like tear
drops from our pen, we fear not they will
offend a magnanimOus government. The
Roman Senate permitted a lone woman to
strew flowers upon the tomb of Nero. The
United States could not be less magnani-
nous. While wandering around these
graves and Witnessing woman's devotion TO
the Confederate dead, a sad thought comes
winging its way from grave on the shores
Of Lake Michigan. There sleeps a
noble brother, far from home and
friends. He was the darling of a widowed
mother, far away in his Texas home.
Young, and ardent, and brave, he stormed
with his Texas comrades the freight
heights of DOneIson, to die at last in a
loathsome prison in an inhospitable cline
How much more glorious to have been
TRANSPORTED in the hour of victory on that
bloody Saturday morning, amid the war
shouts of his charging lines Who will
lay simple daisy on his grave? Alas
none. His only lullaby is the murmur of
the waves his only wreath Ia that which
nature weaves.
We hope the time will come, when the
country ia blessed with a lasting peace, that
every Southern State will bring back her
dead, and bury them amid their kindred
and the scenes they loved 80 WELL
Why cannot every State in the South
adopt the 10th of May, as a Memorial Day
for the decoration of Confederate graves ?
Some States observe the 18th Of April,
while at that time in the border States, it
is impossible to procure flowers. By the
10th of May there would be flowers from
the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and we
think this day shonld be selected by al the
States next year.
THE COLUMBIA FEUD.
oar Correspondent Throws u Little
IiGht Upon she Matter.
Our correspondent at Columbia, "S. NJ
G., /" sends us the following explanation Of
the occasion of the rumors aAoat in Nash
Vile on Saturday, in regard to the threat
ened outbreak in the capital of Maury:
A t,rxsl.lo b.-ll