The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-05-22
THE LIST SCENE At APPoMATTox.
Speech OF a Federal Officer.

There was q reunion of the Society Of the
Army OF the Potomac held at Cincinnati on
the 7th instant. at this celebration the ora.
lion was delivered by General Stewart L..
Woolford, of New York, and from this oration
we make the following extracts
The morning crept slowly on-frst into
eray dawn, then into rosy blush. Still on !
still on The misIs crept upward, and lGto
line you wheeled, and on your muskets lay
down, each man In place TO get scant rest,
which even in the exhaustion OF those thirty
ak hours Of terrible marching, you neither
sought nor needed. You were squarely across
Lees front, and had closed forever his last
line of retreat.
The enemy reaching your cavalry advance.
saw the strrled lIue OF Union troopers. Cor
dnn gathered and maased his men ior their
last charge. Fattered and hungry, worn by
ceaseless marching and lighting. with no hope
of victory, with liltle possibility OF escape,
they closed their lines with fidelity of dis.
clpiine and eoldlerly resolution to which
words can do little Iuslice-but which each
soldiers heart must recognize and honor.
As the Old Guard closed around their
Em neror at Waterloo, 30. these men closed
round the flags OF their lost cause. My heart
abhors their treason. But 1t warns beyond
restraint to their manhood 80 grandly brave,
even In dlsloyalty. Slowly they advanced to
their last attack. No batLle Yell, no crack OF
the skirmisher's rifle broke The strange still
ness of that Sabbath morn. Steadily. silently
thew came, when Sheridan drew back his
horsemen, as parts some mighty curtain, and
there stood the close formed BAT tallons Of your
Infantry, the cannon cleaning III the open
ings, quietly awaiting The coming oil Gordons
men.
TnstInctIveIy your enemy halted. Meanwhile
Lee had turned back TO meet Grant and surren-
der bis command. Sheridan swung his cavalry
around upon Gordon's left, and was about 10
charge, when Custar reached Longslreet.
Assurance of surrender was gwen, and the
end had come.
That Sabbath day, with tears and in sorrow,
Southern men folded the banners OF the Lost
Cause" and their bravest and best sought
honoraby to bury them from sight forever.
How sad 1t IL that poor ambitions, jealousles
of race, the wretcbed greed OF pelf and place,
and the miserable hates OF social riValrles,
should so ofLen disturb the hearty reconcila-
EtlOn OF that surrender and for time revive
the bitterness which you then sought TO bury
In common grave.
This hour is no time for politics. Mine not
the liDs, trust to Introduce them here. But
when / think OF that heroic past which your
faces and presence so vividly recall, and then
how trading, trickster politicians, iorgetfnl OF
what baptism of blood sealed the new birth
OF the nation, seek 10 array races In needless
hostility, to excite the ignorance of the one
aud the brutal prejudices Of the other, would
like to summon guard, half from the rebel
army OF Northern Virginia and half from The
loyal army Of The Potomac, take such NAL
contents out, give them drum-head court-mar-
tial, Immediate execution and sOldierly burial
under The apple tree at Appomattox.