Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1868-06-18
The Floral Decorations.


The annual decoration of the graves of the
Southern soldiers buried in our towntook place
on Saturday evening last.
The citizens Of the town and many from the
neghborhood assembled at the Lutheran
Church, at o'clock, bearing the beautiful
wreaths of flowers and evergreens that had
been so tastefully wrought by the ladies for
the occasion. After an appropriate prayer
by Rev. L. Keller, Maj. Uriel Wright, of
Winchester, delivere brief but touching and
eloquent address. He said that whatever 9TH.
Ell rights people Nigh be deprived of by the
oppressive acts of tyrants, no human power
| could deprive them of the privilege of mourn
ing for the heroic dead no power could extn-
guish the holy sentiment of alteration and love
for the memory of those who had sacrificed
their Ives in defence of their country's liberty
| their homes, their property, and all that was
dear in their domestic relations He hoped
the day never would come when the mothers
and daughters of the South would cease to pay
their annual visits to the resting places of our
heroic dead and strew upon their humble
| mounds those beautiful and expressive mem
| entoes If we would, we have not the means
to erect costly monuments and imposing maui
| soums to their memory they do not need
the marble slab or the stately shaft to indicate
where repose their venerated ashes such
proud memorials might perish in the lapse of
time; their heroic deeds, their patriotic devotion
n tn dir ntry and III ar
| Of Il cir lives upon their country's altar had
embalmed their memory in the hearts of the
living Annually the earth will continue to
bring forth its beautiful floral fruits. with
their heayen-painted tnts and delicnte odors.
fit symbols of mortality and beautiful emblcms
OF the holy devotion of an oppressed people,
whose past has been one of bitter disappoint,
ment, but whose future is illumined by the
cheering hope OF deliverance from oppression.
Let these eeming offerings Of mother earth
beannually throws upon the graves of our loved
ones, and let their heaven given odors ascend
as holy incense to the Father of Mercies-
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,' but
the crushed affections of the heart shall sur
vitality be extinguished.
At the conclusion of Maj. Wright's address,
OF which we cannot give even an outline, he
presented the ladies two bouquets, which had
been given TO Col. Withers and himself, on
the previous day, as testimonial on the part
of the ladies for the able manner in which
they had defended their most cherished and
sacred rights against the assaults of their en-
emes, with he request that they should be
deposited upou the graves Of some OF those
whose slabs bore the inscrlpton sun
known." 1t might cheer some des0late moth
er's heart, or afford some degree of consolation
TO some sorrowing wife Or sister, to know
that, perchance, these delicate offerings deco
rated the mound beneath which reposed a
son, father, or beloved bro her. 1t was
touchingly sublime spectacle to see the grief
stricken mother, the bereaved wife, the loving
sister, bearing the beautiful embems of crush
ed hopes, kneeing at the graves Of their low
ed ones and depositing their offerings, water
ing them with their tears while the solemn
funeral dirge, mournfuIIy chanted by the
multitude, and the toliing of the bells Aoated
upon the evening breeze. The surcharged
heart sent forth its warmest devotons to the
Great Giver Of all good, invoking His blessing
| on the afflicted and oppressed ones, who sur
vive only 10 feel the iron hand of an unrelent-
ing and implacabie foe.
The procession was one of the largest we
have ever seen on any similar occasion. 1t
| was formed at the Lutheran Church. after the
services just referred to, under the direction
of Capt N. Fountain chief marshal of the
day, and after the decoration of the graves
there, proceeded to the old Episcopal burying
ground, then to the e. NJ. Church, and con-
Church.