The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1872-07-31
Our Gettysburg Memorial.

The London Telegraph of the 18th inst, edito-
rally pays graceful tribute to the devotion OF our
people to the memory of our Southern soldiers. =
We can only give few extracts. After allusion
to the celebrations professions, &C., of which
Americans are SO fond, the writer says:
1t will readily be imagined that in the impover-
ished and sorrowful South every incident of the
great war is hallowed by memories wherein anguish
struggles for mastery with affection Ten, nine,
eight years ago, Richmond repeatedly saw the
cherished sons of Virginia, the two Carolinas,
Georgia and Alabama troOpiDg gaily to battle
through her sympathetic streets, and carrying alot
the rent and riven battle flags which had braved
the iron hail of hundred historical fights. AT
present the proud old city is familiar with specta-
Giles of a different order, In the heat of the war,
"home she brought her warrior dead, when the
body of StonewaA Jackson lay in state at the Gap
tol But the grief for one of Virginia's noblest
sons was mingled with pride at the thought he
had died to win the battle of Charlottesville.
On the 10th OF last month; funeral procession
passed along the streets of the Old Dominion S
chief city, of which it is impossible for the coolest
and most thoughtless stranger to read the account
without sympathy and emotion. Nine years have
passed, SINCE for three days in succession, one of
the most terrible battles of modern history ragged
round the horseshoe front which General Meade
and the Federal army obstinately defended at Get
tysburg. The best and most heroic OF the surviv-
ors that many a previous battle and skirmish had
spared, represented the Old Dominion upon that
fatal day.
On the subsequent day, amidst tears, the SINGER
ity of which was attested by the heroic bravery of
those who shed them the bodies Of thousands of
soldiers were committed to the grave on the spot
where they fell. For nine years have they lain in
the earth which gave them temporary shelter; but
never for moment have they been forgotten By
Virginia their mother. At length, with generous
and polite sagacity, permission kes-sesl given to
the sons and daughters of the Old Dominion to
gather up their jewels from the strange land which
has held them so long.
Its difficult for those who have had no expe-
rience Of the deep and affectionate nature of Vir
GINA to imagine the suffocating emotions by which
men and women we're choked as the funeral cor.
tege, which conveyed the bones Of seven hundred
and eighteen Confederate soldiers to their final rest
ing place, passed through the main street of Rich
mond on its road to Hollywood Cemetery. Within
the beautiful precincts OF Richmond's Santa Croce,
and upon those cedar and cypress crowned hills,
nearly twenty thousands bodies of soldiers who
fell in the war had previously been entombed. In
much higher degree than among ourselves, it is
the fashion of our Transatlantic kinsfolk to pay
constant visits to their cemeteries, and to go, like
Mary, to the grave that they may weep there
Ever since the close of the war Hollywood has
been thronged with old men and maidens, with
young men and children, eager to pay their hon.
age of devotion to the memory of the heroic dead,
whose bodies are scattered over its acres of
Grated ground. One of the first places to which
a visitor to Richmond is carried is the spot where
all that remains Of many gallant men, who bled at
Bull Run, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellors.
vile, the Wilderness and Petersburg, is honored
and cherished. But for many past years there has
been loving desire to transport back to Rich
mond the bones of those who followed Pickett
across the valley of death at Gettysburg, in order
that they may rest finally il the soil which gave
them birth, and for which they died. At length
this desire has been gratifed. Along streets fes.
tooned with Grape and draped with black SERGE re-
lieved bys appropriate notices, passed sixteen
army wagons, containing the undistinguishable re-
mains of more than seven hundred dauntless Con-
federate soldiers. Before them marched the band
of the First Virginia Regiment, and, amidst con-
vulsive sobs and tokens of grief, the Dead March
in Saul" spoke to many an aching and bereaved
heart in tones which have wrung tears from gener-
atoms of mourners.
The collins which enclosed those hallowed bones
were lovingly wreathed with flowers, and behind
them followed the General who led his division so
calamity into battle at Gettysburg, and long line
of Confederate soldiers who were once the com
rades of the dead 1t was scene to move the
coolest nature, and which wrung the hearts of af-
fectionate Virginians who witnessed it.almost to
bursting. Yet, at such a moment, the words of
Sir Walter Scott come home with strange force to
all who contemplate this touching spectacle, and
who idly fancy that the lives of these 700 heroes
we're uselessly sacrificed. Never talk to me, y
said the author of "Marmicn, about brave
blood being shed in vain; it sends roaring voice
down through all coming time"